Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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A brave new month is upon us.
Just as it was fifty years ago.
But just how brave?
And was anyone in the mood for hiding?
Spidey must visit Canada, for reasons that escape me but may have something to do with a will or something.
But, while he's there, the Hulk shows up and the inevitable fight breaks out. This time, at the site of Montreal's Expo '67 in the tale that first introduced me to the word, "Geodesic."
Magneto shows up in a tale I've never found overly involving. Don't the gang arrive at the X-Men's house, and Magneto's there, disguised as the Angel?
I think it all ends with the villain demonstrating his ability to control people's minds, thanks to his powers of magnetism, although I don't see how that could possibly work in practice.
How can the patriotic pair possibly stand up to the awesome power of Solar?
I've no idea. Mostly because I don't recall anything that happens in this one.
But it's time to get glad because Big John Buscema steps in to complete the saga of the Living Tarim.
And, in my head, I'm still getting him mixed up with Angar the Screamer.
The Mandarin shows off his new, bare-chested look which, frankly, is not one that suits him.
Of the story itself, I can claim to have little knowledge.
The Hulk's keeping busy while he's in Canada. Not only does he have to fight Spider-Man but also has to survive the nightmarish menace of the Wendigo, as the mountie-munching monster makes its Marvel debut.
And she's perfectly happy to threaten Alicia, in order to make him fight!
My razor-sharp senses tell me the Juggernaut may be involved.
They also tell me the cover's a visible collision of Gil Kane, John Romita and Werner Roth.
Sadly, they don't tell me what happens inside the book.
While searching for Sif, Thor's attacked by Ulik who separates him from his hammer and it ends up in a flaming pit.
Can The thunder god possibly retrieve it before he transforms into Don Blake?
But what of its biggest rival? What's DC up to in its issues that also bear an April 1973 cover date?
To be truthful, not much of the company's output this month catches my eye but these are the books most likely to draw my attention toward the spinner rack.
In our main tale, the Phantom Stranger travels to Rio De Janeiro, in search of the Dark Circle - where he finds its leader is about to summon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
And, of course, there's also back-up strip action from the Spawn of Frankenstein.
The original Captain Marvel hits his second issue, with a photo cover. I'll let you be the judge of whether it's a gimmick that succeeds or not.
Inside, Mr Mind plans to destroy the United States but is stopped, with the assistance of the Saint Louis Arch.
And I loved it.
An Atlantean scientist transforms Superboy into a water-breathing merman, which also removes his usual super-powers.
However, he does gain telepathy and telekinesis.
According to this issue's Sales Statement, the average number of copies of this title sold during the preceding 12 months has been 265,874.
It's a cover designed to pass into the annals of legend, as Wonder Woman's tied to a nuclear missile and fired at New York.
It's all down to the dotty menace of Dr Domino, a villain who, to my knowledge, has never been seen again since.
Possibly because he has a domino for a head and, thus, looks silly.
But that's not all. After all, in this issue we also get a second story, titled The Mystery of Nubia!
And the average circulation for this book is listed as 133,918.
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28 comments:
As I’ve mentioned many MANY times before, CTB 25 was the very first Conan comic I ever owned. Having missed all the Barry Smith issues (never even having heard the name “Barry Smith”), I found the character and his milieu fascinating and the Buscema Bros art wonderfully immersive. Months later, when I started buying comics on a regular basis, CTB was always an instant purchase, starting with issue #33.
When I read the issues in sequence now, CTB 24 looks really dense, with all of Barry’s heavy shadows and noodly textures. By comparison, 25 looks noticeably more open, less detailed, almost too brightly lit, like a TV movie from the 70s or something. But I still love it, unreservedly.
As for PHANTOM STRANGER 24, it’s 17 pages of Jim Aparo pretty much at his artistic peak, plus 5 and a half pages of Mike Kaluta drawing
Frankenstein. Worth 20 cents? HELL, yes!
Oh, and that Shazam cover is terrible, come on.
b.t.
Yeah, a Kirby photo collage it ain't, b.t.
Not generally a big fan of Our Pal Sal, but he was a pretty good inker of his brother's work. Although tbh I prefer the artist formerly known as Ernie Chua's inks in #26 (my first Conan comic) and, inevitably, Barry Smith doing it all himself in #24 over both following issues.
Still, it's perfectly reasonable to prefer any of them, and Conan was Marvel's best looking comic around this point. Actually, come to think of it, weren't there also a few pages drawn by the mighty John Severin in that issue?
Steve, is there a dome in that Spidey story? I don't recall where I first came across the word 'geodesic' but its always been in connection with domes. It seems as inextricably linked with them as, er... 'inextricably' is with 'linked'.
-sean
Wonder Woman #205 is obviously cover of the month here. Fantastic.
-sean
I've just checked and it's actually in next month's ASM where we get the word geodesic.
Sean's right though: it's a geodesic dome, whatever one of those is.
A geodesic is actually an optimum route. For example:
- quickest or shortest route on Google maps
- light going in straight lines because it's the quickest route from A to B
- plane flight from Tokyo to New York going across the Arctic because that's the shortest route when you look at it on a globe
- when you're going from A to B and they're at opposite ends of the street but on opposite sides. You don't want to cross the road at 90 degrees because you're in a hurry. On the other hand, you don't want to walk from A to B in a straight line because you'll be in the road all the way. So you walk some pavement, cross at an angle and walk some more pavement. It's as if on the pavement has a certain "pain per metre" and walking in the road has a higher "pain per metre" and this route, minimises the total pain.
First time I herd the word geodesic was probably in lectures on general relativity. How gravitating masses bend spacetime so that the shortest distance between two points in spacetime is no longer a straight line and you get light moving in curved lines, deflected by gravity.
Charlie is charmed by the Captain Marvel cover. Really harkens back to the 1940s. Ok… perhaps juvenile for the sophisticated reader of 1973 but only 30 years post 1943 so perhaps some 40 year olds had a pleasant bit of nostalgia?
Charlie broke DD 98 out and read it this fine Sunday morning. Colan’s art takes a beating with Chua’s inks and presumably the cover is not all that either (Heck? Tuska?)
The story itself concludes rather abruptly in 4 panels with DD telling the Disciple he is “the boy from the theatre who was hurt.” The boy/Disciple denies it over the next 4 panels and then suddenly explodes with a big panel full of the word “FA-KOOM.” God knows whybhe blew up.
Oddly the Disciple vibes Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, lol.
Charles - soon to be inaugurated.
The DD letters page was intersting! Kale from Honolulu is righteously pissed that Gerry Conway killed off Danny French in issue #94.
Conway’s alleged reply was “He mumbled ‘Yea… it was necessary.’”
Little did Kale from Honolulu know! Killer Conway (or was it Romita?) was just getting warmed up killing folks!
Though things were indeed changing af Marvel there is still a modicum of a Checklist. Only 6(!) comics get a mention including CAPTAIN MARVEL # 25 which is supposed to be “world shattering” and will be “one of the most talked about titles in comic book history!”
Hell if Charles knows what’s all the commotion but surely if it had been a big deal SDC would have shown it to us above!!! N’est pas???
In America, isn't a geodesic dome also called a "Bucky ball" (relating to the name of the guy who made it?) Wasn't it at the US World's Fair, or something? If you look at one, you can understand the relevance of Dangermash's definition, because all the "straps"/arcs - or whatever - round the globe thingy, are all a "shortest" route, it being a sphere.
Phillip
Charlie:
By Thanos’ Armored Jockstrap! CAPTAIN MARVEL 25 was Judo Jim Starlin’s first issue as Plotter/ Penciller, Charlie. That’s what the commotion is all about. At the time, the hype was just typical Bullpen Ballyhoo, but in retrospect…
As for the Disgruntled Competition’s Captain Marvel — I don’t mind the kitschy concept of that cover, but the execution of it is poor, IMO. Combining halftone photographs with flat color overlays rarely looks good and this is one of the worst examples I can think of. Also, I guess I too would be startled if a teeny tiny cartoon superhero popped out of my comic book, so the kids’ expressions may be appropriate, but it’s not exactly awe-inspiring.
Sean:
Yes, John Severin inked two pages of Big John’s pencils in CTB 25, illustrating the backstory of the Mirrors of Tuzun Thune in “Prince Valiant” style (all dialogue rendered in captions instead of word balloons). Pretty clever of Roy to have Severin ink those pages, as he was inking Marvel’s Kull comic at the time. And yes, the pencil / ink combo looks fab — makes me wish the two had teamed up for a full issue sometime. Alas!
b.t.
Buckminster Fuller, Phillip.
Apparently he was signed up to create a giant geodesic dome for a theme park based on the designs Jack Kirby produced for a proposed film based on Roger Zelany's 'Lord of Light' that fell through, but provided the cover story for a CIA scheme to get the American hostages out of Iran (fictionalized in Ben Affleck's 'Argo').
"Everyone believed Kirby's art would convince the Iranians of the project's legitimacy..."
https://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/2013/09/09/the-deceptions-of-argo/
Funny old world, isn't it?
-sean
Charles, Steve Does Comics DID show us Captain Marvel #25, last month (in the Lucky Bag 50 years ago).
Tsk tsk, you're not paying attention.
-sean
Sean - Amazing - you'd think it's an April Fools joke, if not for the fact that it's true!
Phillip
Having thought Friday was the 1st when I read in the paper that the UK has actually joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership I think April Fool jokes are definitely obsolete in the modern world, Phillip.
-sean
Thanks for the info dangermash. I just looked up the wiki entry for 'geodesics in general relativity', and tbh I couldn't make much sense out of it (actually, 'any sense' would be more accurate). But it didn't mention domes, so thats a first for me.
Geodesic domes - which can also be spheres - are based on triangular tiles which are apparently a very efficient way to distribute stress across the structure.
Although admittedly the sleeve to my copy of the 1972 triple album 'Glastonbury Fayre' - with Hawkwind, the Pink Fairies, and a pre-Ziggy Bowie - may not be the most authoritative guide. It's not Einstein. Although it does include a pop-up pyramid and geodesic dome. I bet you don't get anything like that with the General Theory of Relativity.
-sean
Paris France has a 12 story stainless steel Geode made of 6,500 triangles. It contains a movie theatre. Ive only seen it once… didnt observe any bending of light, space-time, etc. only thing that bent was me wallet when i dug into for some francs. But it is impressive. Do others exist? I dont know.
When I began regularly buying and collecting comics in the Fall of ‘73, I was somewhat disappointed to see that Sal Buscema had been replaced by Ernie “Chua” Chan as Big John’s inker on CTB. In the months between, I had re-read CTB 25 many times and decided that John and Sal were just about the most perfect penciller / inker combo imaginable. But Ernie wasn’t a deal-breaker — I still loved the comic (even bought a few pages of John / Ernie CTB originals sometime in the late 80s).
I was also bemused to find Aparo replaced by Gerry Talaoc on PHANTOM STRANGER. That particular blow was softened by Aparo drawing the re-booted Spectre strip in ADVENTURE. Oh, and I did eventually come to appreciate Talaoc’s style.
b.t.
Sixteen scientists were killed by Danny French (unwittingly), using poisoned gas. So, he had to die. Jean Grey (as Dark Phoenix) killed the inhabitants of the planets orbiting the star, D'Bari. She had to die. It's the code of the Narrows (Marvel, I mean!) "But who did Gwen kill?" I hear Charlie ask...
Phillip
Cap's first side-kick - James "Buckminster" Barnes. Doesn't trip off the tongue, does it?
Phillip
I'm a couple of days late but a belated happy birthday, Steve. I believe you're 59? Prince Edward recently turned 59 and he got the title of Duke Of Edinburgh for his birthday but I'll assume you didn't receive anything quite as grand!
The story in Fantastic Four featuring Thundra ("Thundra At Dawn") was re-printed in Marvel UK's Complete Fantastic Four #1 in September 1977. Complete FF #1 also included the Lee/Kirby origin of the FF which I'd never read before.
Yeah, the Complete Fantastic Four is where I first read FF #1 too, Colin.
Btw, Steve is a bit older than that. She was actually born in 1944.
https://wikibioall.com/stephen-walker-author-wiki-networth-age/
I know! It surprised me too (she does come across a fair bit younger the way she writes).
-sean
Thanks, Colin. I think Sean alluded to it a few days ago, as well. So, thank you too, Sean.
As for that Wikibioall page, it's astonishing. How they found all that stuff out about me is simply terrifying.
As for FF #1, I first read it in Origins of Marvel Comics.
Anon (Charlie?), Montreal has a geodesic dome, built for Expo '67. As Sean guessed, it turns up in that Spidey vs Hulk story but it's not, as Dangermash pointed out, until the next issue of it.
Dangermash, thanks for the info about all things geodesic.
A belated Happy birthday, Steve. With ages ending in '9', it's like you've got another year's reprieve!
I know the FF's origin, but I can't remember from where. Maybe it was the 1960s cartoon, or perhaps a pocket book. I got some Complete Fantastic Fours, although not # 1.
So, it wasn't a 'World's Fair' but an 'Expo'!
Phillip
I think I first saw the FFs origin in my brothers copy of the UK comic Wham! around 1966 but as I wasn't interested in that type of strip at that time, I didn't actually read it. My first reading of the FF origin would have been 6 years later in issue 1 of the Mighty World of Marvel.
I had that Avengers and F.F. I love a good Thundra story, they should've used her more often.
BTW that FF was the only work Ramona Fradon did for Marvel in her long illustrious career.
She did a pretty good job too, of course Sinnot has something to do with that also.
K.R. — Ms Fradon also draw an issue of THE CAT but the book was cancelled before it was published. A number of the pages are online, and they look pretty nice.
b.t.
Who doesn't love a good Thundra story, Kill? Especially when she was in that wrestling team! It's baffling why the Grapplers didn't get their own series.
-sean
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