Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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There are world wars, there are cold wars and there are cod wars and, this week in 1973, the Second Cod War heated up, big-time, as Joseph Godber (British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) announced that Royal Navy frigates would protect British trawlers operating in the disputed 50-mile limit around Iceland. Bjork had yet to announce her response.
No doubt aiming to escape such Earthly conflict was the United States' first space station Skylab, which launched that week.
Elsewhere, the British House of Commons voted to abolish capital punishment in Northern Ireland.
And, on the UK singles chart, there was a brand new Number One, thanks to Roy Wood's Wizzard with their overpoweringly Spectoresque See My Baby Jive.
However, when it came to the British album chart, there was no change at the top, with David Bowie's Aladdin Sane continuing to hold off the challenge of the Beatles' Red and Blue albums.
Galloping gamma rays! As announced a couple of weeks ago; from this issue on, we get twice as much Hulk as we used to!
Whether this reflects the popularity of the character or the lack of popularity of Daredevil or whether it's down to some other factor altogether, I could not say.
But Hulky Baby does it in style, with the return of Tyrannus who's been separated from his fountain of youth and become a feeble old man. This leads to our hero having to fight the Mole Man's worryingly named Octo-Sapien before falling into the Fountain of Youth and reverting to Bruce Banner.
Then, he has to deal with the nightmarish threat of the Boomerang who's out to steal the plans for the object known to humanity as the Orion Missile.
Meanwhile, in their strip, the Fantastic Four are still tiny and still in the process of having to be rescued by Ant-Man...
It's an absolute classic, as Spider-Man has his first encounter with the Scorpion when J Jonah Jameson and Farley Stillwell transform a no-mark lackey into the wall-crawler's deadliest foe yet.
Elsewhere, Thor must confront the madness of Merlin who's awoken from a deep sleep and is now determined to use Washington DC landmarks against the thunder god.
But the big news is - as mentioned by Dangermash, the other day - from now on, we have not one but two pages of letters!
And not just any letters. If that front cover blurb is to be believed, we get two pages of my letters.
Truly the human race is blessed as never before.
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56 comments:
The banner at the top of MWOM says "Now Starring The Incredible Hulk" as if he'd just arrived rather than being in every issue since No.1 but we are clearly approaching the day when the comic's title changes to the more familiar Mighty World Of Marvel Starring The Incredible Hulk.
When I discovered Marvel in November '74 there was only one Hulk story in MWOM so how long did the policy of two Hulk stories last?
Seems Bjork was seven years old in May '73, Steve, so that may possibly explain why she didn't respond to British naval operations against plucky little Iceland.
Well, not that plucky really - they were members of NATO, so the Americans told the Brits to cave-in to them fairly quickly. The conflict would probably have gone on longer if they were militarily neutral - just look at a certain other island in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Britain.
Still, at least the British House of Commons abolished capital punishment in 'Northern Ireland'... although that would have been more impressive if they'd also abolished executions before trial too. Ba-dum tsshhh.
-sean
Colin
It looks as though Hulk joined the masthead with #38 and Daredevil returns in #69. The classic masthead for me is from #101 when the Hulk title becomes larger than Marvel. I'm pretty sure we used to refer to it as 'this week's Hulk' in the playground at the time.
DW
Thanks for that info, DW. The masthead you refer to is the classic one for me too because it was the MWOM masthead when I discovered Marvel UK in November 1974.
I didn't need to look up Bjork's age because I already knew she was born in 1966 same as me.
D'OH!! According to Wikipedia Bjork was born in November 1965 so she's three months older than me.
Why are the Brits always at odds with others like Iceland and France about fishing? Is it because you eat a lot of fish and chips?
The UK is /was famous for wrapping up a fish and chip to go in newspaper. Just curious to know if any of you ever had it wrapped in an MWOM???
It’d be kind of fun dipping my chips/fries in tartar sauce or ketchup whilst looking at the Hulk or Moleman i think.
Charles
The Hulk logo really became noticably prominent by issue 54 . The MWOM title became a bit of a mess once it started merging with the other "failed" weekly titles from Avenger, Dracula Lives, Planet of the Apes, Fury and finally Fantastic Four
The Brits hassle Irish fishing trawlers too, Charlie.
www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2021/0105/1187865-rockall-fishing/
Btw, tartar sauce - or mayonnaise or anything like that - on your chips generally isn't done here. Hey, I'm open minded, but just saying.
-sean
Charlie, as a kid I remember having a small childs fish supper ( fish and chips) wrapped up in an old British comic, the Beezer ( the Beezer was printed on large pages). Incidentally the fish etc was always wrapped in grease proof paper first, now you get them in a box or nice thick paper. Also there regional and National difference in UK fish and chips ( I think Fish supper is a Scottish term)and in the fish options, in parts of England they have Rock Salmon which is a tiny shark/ catfish etc
As a wee lad Charlie remembers something about the UK advising not wrapping the fish and chips in news print because of lead ink?
Actually fish and chips has become a staple at most restaurants here in the US too (besides McDonalds that is). Typically it is Cod. It’s served with Tartar sauce and a lemon slice. Difficult to find malt vinegar though, which Charlie prefers.
Also frequently on the menu are fish tacos, fried or broiled, and typically the fish is Mahi Mahi.l or Tilapia. Served with some raw cabbage and some type of sauce they are quite tasty!
Anyhow glad you guys didn’t beat up plucky Iceland over fishing rights.
MCSCOTTY! that’s fun! Having your dinner served in the Beezer! I keep forgetting you had weekly “news print” comics of beezer, dandy, beanie, etc. because my only experience was the annuals, lol!
Btw… regarding Scotland’s DC Thomson, they often portrayed Wullie or Korky the Cat or Dennis the Menace poaching apples or fish or whatever… Is/was that a thing in Scotland? I doubt you and your pals made a side hustle of poaching, lol. But I am curious as to the recurring references to poaching in the 60s and 70s.
I used to pick apples etc as a kid. In Scotland (at least)if Apple's , pears , plums etc grew over a fence, then you could pick them legally. Of course sometimes we may have wandered into a garden or of course if they grew wild, and take them. Most adults handed out fruit like plums to kids as they grew by the bucket load . Yeah poaching fish ( fishing without a license if that was needed in some rivers) wasn't unusual but I never did that.
Actually my better half has just told !e that I'm wrong in saying that fruits hanging over a fence can be taken legally in Scotland. I'm a rotten thief :(
On I don't know about that, Paul - you obviously got away with thieving apples as a kid, so you couldn't have been too bad it.
-sean
Charlie, I think wrapping fish & chips in newspaper is illegal nowadays in the UK because it's unhygienic.
Lots of British fisherman voted for Brexit because they thought European trawlers would be banned from British waters but I don't think anything much has changed on that front and now that we're outside the EU it's more difficult exporting our fish to the EU Single Market.
Charlie, I've got a bottle of malt vinegar in my kitchen cupboard but I don't use it on fish & chips. I sprinkle vinegar on cucumber when I have brioche rolls with cheese & cucumber filling.
Is it weird that I remember the Octo-Sapian?
Perhaps. But who could forget it? It was a horrible thing! Tales to Astonish #80, (I have the reprint) with layouts by Kirby and finishes by Everett. But the art looked like there was a whole lot more Wild Bill in there than Jack. He was good at drawing monsters.
A robot octopus that shot rays out of its arms and a robot head with a frowny face on top.
Yikes. The stuff of nightmares.
The Hulk beats it of course. He throws it into water and it short-circuits, which is kind of lame. But Octo-Sapian gave ol' Purple Pants something to think about. For a few minutes, anyway.
M.P.
Charlie and Colin- I too have a fondness for malt vinegar. Love dousing a fish fillet with it, and indulging the accompanying chips with ketchup. Do you UK folks hit the ketchup bottle on your chips? Granted, the flavor is overpowering, sometimes I enjoy them ketchupless (is that a word?).
Man, all this talk of fish and chips is getting me hungry...
Red, tomato ketchup is very popular here but I never buy it.
Paul, the MWOM masthead did become very cluttered when the mergers with cancelled comics began. For example: The Mighty World Of Marvel Starring The Incredible Hulk And Planet Of The Apes - Where Man Once Stood Supreme Now Rule The Apes (which must be the longest title for any comic in history!)
Is brown sauce popular in the US (HP cause etc)? Of course in fish and chip shops you can buy lots of other fast foods like pizza, pakora,burger, pies , sausages,haggis etc but in Scotland we have the "pizza crunch" which I personally think is one of the worst things I have tasted it's a pizza deep fried , some folk love it as well.I
I loved the MWOM at this time most of the strips were really starting to find their feet especially the FFwjen Kirbus art style was staring to change into what I consider his classic style.
SAUCES -
McScotty - what is the brown sauce? Gravy (fat) from meat?
Me missus makes a mayo-chipotle combo for our fries when we occasionally make the at home. No Ketchup on our fries, just mayo or mayo-chipotle (RED - I recommend you give it a try at home... just mix the two together like 50-50? Gives the fries a little "oomph"!)
FAST FOOD -
I suspect the only fast food in the USA you don't have in the UK is Italian Beefs? You can have it wet or dry, with or without peppers (hot or sweet), on french / italian bread.
Actually, the Italian Beef may be a Chicago thing, mostly (perhaps b/c we had the stock yards. (re: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair)
We also have Italian Sausages for fast food. And most places offer the Italian Beef-Italian Sausage Combo.
And FRIED CHICKEN is very prominent.
Why is Iceland always referred to as Plucky???
I mean, they eat mostly fish and whales, right? You don't pluck them.
Charlie
POACHING FRUIT
Oh my... This is really extra fun coming to SDC now that I know I am in the presence of a bonafide fruit poacher aka MCSCOTTY :)
FWIW - My former wife's village in France has fruit trees everywhere: plums and figs. Soooo darn good!!! But as "money" has started moving into her tiny village they have started putting up barriers along roads, cutting them down... etc. Gentrification of the french variety I guess.
Can't have your 2CV or Mercedes or Peugeot running over Plum pits now, can we???
Charlie is in deep contemplation… In his youth, would he have preferred reading a compilation like the mighty world of marvel or something like marvel, tales, or marvel’s greatest comics which originally featured stories from several different characters.
Charlie, brown sauce has a sort of spicy flavour and nothing to do with gravy from meat. The most famous brand of brown sauce is HP (which stands for Houses of Parliament and there's a picture of Parliament on the label). Another well-known brand of brown sauce is called Daddies.
Brown Sauce! I’ve wondered about it for years, after first seeing a mention of it in an episode of AS TIME GOES BY (Lionel used “Going to the store to buy some Brown Sauce” as an excuse to get out of the apartment for some forgotten reason). I kinda guessed it was something like Worcestershire Sauce or maybe A-1 Steak Sauce….
b.t.
Paul, its amazing how Kirby's style kept developing. He was in his mid 40s by the time he started finding his classic style, and in his 50 as he bit his peak (at DC imo).
What other artist - other than maybe Barry Windsor-Smith - did anything like that?
Losing to Forest... ffs ):
-sean
I don’t know if it’s popular in the US but it exists there. I know this because when I went to see The Godfather III in 1990, in the helicopter attack scene there was a bottle of HP sauce prominently and distractingly visible on the dinner table in several shots. Perhaps it’s popular with mafioso…?
Charlie -
HP (most popular brand) or plain ‘brown’ sauce is a piquant tangy sauce. It has a slightly vinegary taste, but a sweetness to it as well.
It works well in cheese sandwiches and I like it with a roast dinner because I don’t like gravy (I find gravy swamps the individual tastes of the food on the plate).
In the UK it’s considered very much a working class thing, though that’s a bit of a weird one as it has quite a sophisticated taste to it.
Also!
My better half & I also have a 50/50 sauce mix with fries. We use mayo and Encona hot pepper sauce in combination.
BROWN SAUCE - like b.t. wrote, it sounds quite similar to Worcestershire or A1 steak sauce. I am going to guess sales of those two have been on a steady decline for a few decades? I cant think when was the last time i bought them or had them offered at a friend’s or restaurant? But idk…
Sean, It was sad to see Kirby's art deteriorate so quickly after\during his stint at DC bit his imagination was still there. BWS' art transformation was stunning from talented to superstar in a few momjts .
Arsenal only have themse!ers to blame really the league was theirs to throw away, and sadly for their fans that's what they did. My team got relegated today (Hamilton) to Sots league 1 (3rd tier)throwing it all away in the last minute - 2 successive relegations in 2 years.I
I think brown sauce still sells well in the UK but certainly not like it used to. I'll need to try it with cheese Matthew as not tried that, Brown sauce with a Scottish Lorne sausage (a flat sausage) is bliss
Imho, Kirby’s denouement was the last dozen or so issues of Captain America. The raw energy, creativity, etc. in Cap was far superior to his second best creation, the FF. Some of thst continued onto DC, notably Kamandi. I do agree with Sean the Kamandi was Kirby’s best work at DC. But then, like Cap, thst character was invented and evolved by Kirby and thus he set his own benchmark/foundation. But drawing Superman which had been drawn by others for the previous 35 years, or even returning to Cap just a few years after leaving Marvel had allowed others to leave their imprint on Cap. I mean looking at Kirby’s highly stylized art on Cap after Steranko, Colan, Romita (and yes even Sal B) left their mark…. Well, Mr. Kirby’s ship had sailed…. Kind of like looking at Michael Angelo’s final Piete as compared to the first.
Paul, even when Arsenal were well ahead in the league it was always likely they were going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's the kind of thing they do.
Fortunately, there was the election results from the six counties to cheer me up (;
I like Kirby's second coming at Marvel. It's a step down from what he's been doing at DC - back at the House of Ideas (mostly his old ones) and still just on a page rate you can understand why he maybe wasn't full of enthusiasm - but his work was still pretty good.
Anyone down on his return to Captain America should really take a look at the run of issues before #193, and after he left the title. And under Kirby it was the only A-list Marvel comic of the era that didn't rely on returning villlains, and actually had some new stuff in it.
-sean
*he'd been doing
Duh. Apologies for the typos.
-sean
Brown sauce is also good for cleaning old pennies.
I'm reminded of an episode of RISING DAMP when Rigsby and Miss Jones are having a candlelit dinner together. The food is foreign and Rigsby goes on and on about the wonderful spices and aromas - then smothers everything in ketchup :D
Congratulations to Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland - the days of Unionist dominance are over.
The author Martin Amis has died.
I liked Kirbys Eternals and Black Panther comics a lot. His return to Cap was a lot better than he got credit for as well.
Yeah the NI election results continue a run of anti DUP (if not Unionist) dominance , let's hope it's the start of a better future for all in NI . Who would have thought that Ireland might unite before Scotland left the Union lol.?!!?
I recently finished rereading the Kirby Cap run. Though his words needed refining the creativity was there. The art had flashes of those dynamic Silver Age books, but there was no doubt about one thing, he was still doing the best grotesque's of the time. Fun read!
Arsenal bottled it.
Did they? Yawn.
Paul, I really like Kirby's 2001 too (the treasury, and series). And Devil Dinosaur.
Btw, on the election, this time it is the end of Unionist rather than just DUP dominance, as more votes went to Nationalist parties in total. That trend is only going to go one way...
-sean
I think Kirby’s ‘Jack’s Back!!!’ era at Marvel is pretty terrific, overall. His BLACK PANTHER may be the least of the lot and even it’s packed with wild concepts and exciting visuals (the biggest weakness is T’Challa himself, he’s kinda bland and easily upstaged by the eccentric villains and supporting characters). ETERNALS, 2001, DEVIL DINOSAUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, they all have much to recommend them.
b.t.
I forgot about 2001 Sean, I only picked up the first issue so can't comment. I really disliked Devil Dinosaur though but even that character now seems to be one of Marvels most popular albeit revamped. Looks like I stand alone on the greatness and madness of Kirby's Black Panther run!
Luckily there’s still one London team with something to win. đŸ˜¬
DW
Relegation, DW?
I hear at this point the odds on West Ham going down are pretty small, but good luck.
-sean
There's a documentary on Radio 4 tomorrow at 4pm called 'Does The Republic Of Ireland Want Reunification?'
I've wondered that myself - do they really want to be lumbered with all those angry, bitter Unionists?
Considering every major political party in the republic has a position in favour of reunification - and the largest is also the majority one in the north now - thats going to be a very short programme, Colin.
-sean
Yerp innit.
DW -
Being 5000 miles away, ole Charlie doesn't have a dog in the EPL hunt. That said, b/c you hang out here at SDC, and seem an upright fellow, Charlie has found himself following the Hammers of late hoping for the best for DW.
Go HAMMERS!
Charlie would be curious if those who more deeply enjoy the KIRBY work at Marvel in the mid-70s are younger?
Perhaps it's us older guys, more steeped in the late 60s / early 70s Kirby, his denouement, who have a harder time with his reincarnation at Marvel?
It's not like I dislike his mid-70s Marvel stuff, indeed there is a lot I like, but I always find myself comparing it to 5 - 10 years earlier... and then wishing it was that... ah well...
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