Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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I've often been accused of having an attitude problem but never an altitude problem.
Which is great because altitude was very much de rigueur, this week in 1973.
For a start, it was the week in which Chicago's Sears Tower topped-out, making it the world's tallest building, at 1,451 feet or 442 m.
Elsewhere, that week, Shambu Tamang became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
That's two kinds of summit but what of the lofty reaches of the UK singles chart?
There was no change, on that score, with Tony Orlando's Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree still hogging the pinnacle.
There was, however, change atop the British album chart, with David Bowie's Aladdin Sane crashing straight onto that listing at Number One.
I do detect Rich Buckler's first cover for Mighty World of Marvel. It is, however, destined to not be his last.
Inside, the Hulk returns from the future and is promptly captured by the military.
And Bruce Banner's replacement at Gamma Base plans to use the power of the world's mightiest mortal to fuel his bid for world domination!
Rather less ambitiously, Daredevil's still battling Mr Fear and his fiendish friends.
And the Fantastic Four are still combatting the Mad Thinker and his awesome android.
Apparently, if the cover's to be believed, there's incredible news for Hulk fans, though, frankly, I don't have a clue what that news is.
Actually, I do have a clue but I think we'll have to wait a couple of issues before it'll become clear.
I can say, though, that this is Daredevil's final appearance for a long time, meaning his strip lasted a whole eleven issues before being dumped.
And I do detect Rich Buckler's first cover for Spider-Man Comics Weekly.
With the entire city thinking him a coward, our hero flees from the Sandman and contemplates the abandonment of super-heroics, in order to pursue a normal life.
Elsewhere, Loki uses his magic to cause Thor's hammer to hit his head, turning him evil, and the duo terrorise us all until the other Asgardians contrive another blow to his head, which reverses the change.
Sounds like a classic.
But what's this? According to the cover, Spidey and Thor have exciting news for me? And I must confess that, this time, I really don't have a clue what it is.
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42 comments:
Spidey's and Thor's news is the same as the Hulk news and it's that MWOM will soon be featuring two (half length 10ish page) Hulk stories every week. I'm assuming this is the point at which the Daredevil strip is dropped. Seems like an odd decision to me. You'd have though that, if anything, they'd have doubled the length of the FF strip to full length stories.
For Hulk covers, Rich Buckler is "Validar" ! (But that came much later!)
Phillip
Bowie became the sexually ambiguous somewhat futuristic and alien Aladdin Sane after 'retiring' the sexually ambiguous somewhat futuristic and alien Ziggy Stardust. Such a drastic reinvention... how ever did he do it?
-sean
If there are two Hulk stories in Mighty World Of Marvel is that the point at which the title changes to MWOM Starring The Incredible Hulk?
I was up at the top of the Sears Tower when I was a kid, Steve, when my family went on a vacation. (No offense, Charlie, but Chicago would not have been my first choice. It still mystifies me. I think my dad wanted to see the Great Lakes.)
Anyway, you can see forever from up there. It's mindboggling. I had no fear of heights as a kid, but I sure got it now. Bad. The very idea gives me the willies. You couldn't get me past the lobby, now.
Hell, I couldn't even watch the end of King Kong, I got vertigo so bad.
What happened? Did the monkey make it out okay?
M.P.
Steve, at al. from the UK,
Rumor has it that King Charles will NOT be anointed with Ambergris (produced in the digestive track of Sperm Whales) NOR Civet Musk (a musk squeezed from this furry little animal’s anal sack). Instead he will be anointed with olive oil from a tree near the grave site of his grandmother. Do you gents feel like this is woke-ism gone too far perhaps?
I wish we could have anointed Donald Trump with whale vomit and anything squeezed from anything’s anal sack… sigh. I would gladly have donated some from my Dachshund.
Charlie (no relation to Charles)
MP - It's interesting you got the "willies" because in the mid 90s Sears tower was renamed "Willis Tower" heh, heh.
I've been up several times and road the train daily with the guy who was the main elevator technician at Sears. Dude was nuts. Had pix standing on a single I-beam out over the city, with no security harness, at 98 stories, topless, when it was being built. His physique would have relegated Rocky Balboa's to a fat farm.
Sears had totally vacated the building by the mid-1990s, moving to a suburb, before finally going bankrupt a few years ago.
Man oh man... did Charlie, his siblings, and every other kid in the country pour over those Sears Catalogues at Xmas. The toys! I must have looked at the Hot Wheels / Match Box page a hundred times a day! Tried to score one like from 68 or 69 on ebay. But wasn't up for paying a few hundred $.
Guys like your technician friend amaze me, Charlie. Just like the people that work on these wind turbines. It's a long way down.
With us it was the J.C. Penney catalogue! Of course, we all learned it was a bad idea to ask for Hot Wheels racetracks for Christmas.
My ma swatted me on the ass with those more than once.
Ah, I had it comin'.
M.P.
Sean
I think you'll find Ziggy was English whereas Aladdin Sane was American, and so, quite different.
DW
Colin
It appears there are another six issues before the Hulk is named on the cover. I think that' when it becomes pwopa.
DW
that's
M.P. — my bloodthirsty brothers and I used to “sword fight” with Hot Wheels track. Jesus, we were so dumb. Those things hurt like hell!
I’ve been to the top floor of the 101 Building in Taipei, which was the tallest building in the world for a few years before the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was completed. Normally I’m fine with heights but the thing about that building is that each floor is wider at the top than at the bottom (imagine a stack of Chinese Food take-out boxes 101 stories tall) — the windows lean away from you, so when you stand right next to them and look down, it feels as if you’re falling forward. I didn’t QUITE get vertigo but it was pretty unsettling.
b.t.
I have only one word to say to you about me ever being at the top of the 101 Building, b.t.:
Nope.
M.P.
...and that thing in Dubai, do they have earthquakes there?
Hot Wheel tracks… Yep. Had a scar for years across my chest LOL. The old man came down the basement stairs around 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning none to happy about sorting yet another fight about the Hot Wheels between me and me brother. He picked up one of those orange tracks and, quoting David Bowie, “Wham Bam Thank you ma’m” Ouch!!!
By the way… fighting with Hot Wheel Tracks comes in second to the terror unleashed when fighting with JARTS / LAWN DARTS!!! i think they’ve been illegal for like 5O years now???
Charlie, I heard that King Charles will be anointed with sacred oil from the Mount Of Olives in Jerusalem and the Pope recently gave him two pieces of the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified (allegedly). It's all rather daft in a country like Britain which is one of the least religious countries in the world but the coronation itself is rather daft in this day and age - apparently none of the remaining European monarchies bother with a coronation anymore and even the Vatican has ditched the coronation for a new Pope. But Charles's coronation is the biggest public event in Britain in our lifetimes so I intend to listen on the radio tomorrow out of curiosity.
Sears Tower may be tall at 1,500 ft but Mount Everest is 29,000 ft - now THAT'S tall.
DW, thanks for the info about MWOM - every week I wonder if THIS will be the week when the Hulk's name is added to the comic's title and he becomes the undisputed star of MWOM.
No offence Colin, but it always makes me laugh when people say Britain isn't a religious country. I mean, there are bishops in the House of Lords! I think the only other countries these days where clerics have an official role in government are the Vatican and Iran...
-sean
MP and bt, I think the highest floor of any building I've ever been on was the 18th floor of Sheffield's Hallamshire Hospital. That was quite high up enough for my liking. Then again, I've been on the 17th floor of a building that was on a great big hill. I don't have a clue what the combined height of the building and the hill was but it must have been substantial.
Dangermash, thanks for clarifying what Spidey and Thor's news was. :)
Sean, I'm not sure the House of Lords can be viewed as representative of the British people.
Phillip, Charlie, DW and Colin, thanks for your comments too.
Not saying the Lords - or the monarchy (let's not forget the king is head of both church and state) - are particularly representative of anyone, Steve... but when a country is in a group of three with the Vatican and Iran it does rather call into question any claim that its particularly non-religious.
-sean
Fair point Steveve it I would like point out the British King is not the head of the Scottish church ( Church of Scotland,) as you know we're tolerant of all religions especially in the West of Scotland....I'll Get my coat?
Sorry I meant fair point Sean.
Sean, a few bishops in the House of Lords doesn't make Britain a religious country and anyway Keir Starmer is going to abolish the HoL if he becomes PM so the bishops' days could be numbered.
Sir Keir - a knight of the realm - is going to abolished the House of Lords of Labour win the next election, is he? Yeah, right. I'll believe that when I see it, Colin.
-sean
*IF Labour win the next election
Apologies for the typo
-sean
Steve-
There's an 18-story hospital in Sheffield? I've never heard of such a thing.
What are they doing on the top floors?!
When there's a thunderstorm, are they reanimating Frankenstein monsters up there?
How many sick or busted-up people are there in that town that they need an 18-story hospital, anyway?
M.P.
UK Gents! Loved the coronation! You folks do royal funerals and coronations second to none!!! Really impressed with Princess Anne riding a horse all those miles in the rain at 72 years old! Like all the others, waiting to see who appears on the balcony!!!
Also interesting the official meal is a quiche vegetarian! Last time it was curried chicken! Nice call Charles: leave the animals alone! Love the bunting and flags!
Charlie (no relation to Charles)
Who’s going to be on the balcony???!!! Oh the suspense!!!
As a former military helicopter pilot, you must appreciate those pilots flying over in that shit weather. Well done!
What a UK 12 hours its been for Charlie! Last night, Chicago time, he was watching an episode of father Brown on Masterpiece Theatre. Coincidentally it dealt with the murder of the church’s chief bellringer, given all the bells that were ringing today at the coronation! Then, of course we had the coronation! And now we have English Premier league, soccer! I guess it’s a British kind of day because the weather sucks here too, lol!
God save the King!
By the way, after the Tottenham game Free Comic Book Day starts!
What a great day to be alive im America!
Charles!
I think the cover of the latest issue of Private Eye says it all.
https://private-eye.co.uk/current-issue
It's not just a chair, Paul - he sat on the Stane o Scuin!
-sean
Btw, Charlie, you may be interested to know that Liverpool supporters did express their opinion about the coronation today...
www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/06/liverpool-fans-boo-during-national-anthem-before-match-at-anfield
-sean
Charlie, Father Brown is played by Mark Williams who became famous on THE FAST SHOW in the 1990s - one of his catchphrases was "I'll get me coat" which is now so beloved by the SDC UK contingent :D
Charlie, we Brits may do royal events "second to none" but everything else here is falling to bits.
I thoroughly enjoyed the coronation yesterday, in the same way that I enjoyed Diana’s funeral in the 1990s: the streets in North London were nice and empty, so I could get to and fro quickly and easily, and I could ignore the pageantry by going to the cinema (GOTG3, long but entertaining and surprisingly touching in places).
What about the Queen's and Queen Mother's funerals, Matthew? According to The Guardian 20 million Brits watched the coronation compared to 29 million for the Queen's funeral.
The Guardian keeps saying we need a "conversation" about the monarchy's future but on its' opinion site all the articles about the monarchy are closed to comments. So much for the conversation!
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