Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Do I have a cunning plan?
And is it more cunning than Kenny Cunningham the cunning king of Cunningland?
Too right I do.
And that's because this month is the fortieth anniversary of the launch of classic sitcom Blackadder, the show that blew the lid off history and revealed, at last, the true story of Britain.
Over on the UK singles chart, just two songs ruled the roost in June 1983. The first was the Police's Every Breath You Take which was then supplanted by Rod Stewart's Baby Jane.
Likewise, two LPs ruled the roost on the British album chart. The first was Michael Jackson's Thriller which was then succeeded by the Police's Synchronicity.
Hold on to your horses because the nation's favourite sci-fi mag offers us an interview with Jessica Harper.
The power of The Force tells me this issue features everyone's favourite bounty hunter Boba Fett.
I have far more knowledge of this one, though.
Hold the front page because a brand new magazine hits the UK spinner racks!
Over on the UK singles chart, just two songs ruled the roost in June 1983. The first was the Police's Every Breath You Take which was then supplanted by Rod Stewart's Baby Jane.
Likewise, two LPs ruled the roost on the British album chart. The first was Michael Jackson's Thriller which was then succeeded by the Police's Synchronicity.
Admittedly, at first, I got her mixed up with Rhoda star Valerie Harper and felt she was an odd choice as an interviewee in a sci-fi mag but it seems Jessica Harper is the star of such films as Suspiria, Phantom of the Paradise and Shock Treatment. She, therefore, does make sense as an interviewee.
And there's a look back at Rollerball, a look forward to Return of the Jedi and a look sideways at Things That Go Bump in The Night.
Why he's everyone's favourite bounty hunter, I have no idea. Does he even have any lines in any of the films? And does he ever do anything apart from falling into that big mouth in the sand?
The only other thing I know about this issue is it has an advert for an ET watch on the back cover.
Conan enters a small kingdom whose princess is about to marry some ruler or other.
Thus is our hero hired as her bodyguard.
But it turns out an evil wizard's out to marry her and take over the kingdom.
I've no doubt Conan puts a stop to that and probably gets his leg over with the princess while he's at it.
By the looks of that cover, he probably kills a Yeti too.
All in a day's work when you're a barbarian.
The magazine dedicated to everyone's favourite space malcontents refuses to die.
For now.
To be honest, the fact that it's still being published and is about Blake's 7 is just about all I can reveal about this issue.
Oh, yes, and it contains a picture strip, plus a text story.
And it costs 60 pence.
For instance, I'm aware that, in this issue's picture strip, the Doctor finds himself trapped in The Lunar Lagoon.
Elsewhere, there's a review of the recently broadcast serials Mawdryn Undead and Terminus.
The mag also tries to come up with a workable chronology of the Daleks. Good luck to it with that one.
And we should acknowledge that it presents an overview of the demise of the British police box.
And it's one with a very familiar name, as the latest incarnation of The Mighty World of Marvel is launched upon the world!
In our main tale, Rachel Summers sends Kitty Pryde back in time to warn the X-Men that the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is set to launch a chain of events that will spell doom for mutant-kind.
We're also treated to An Abbreviated History of the American Comic by Frank Plowright.
Then we finish off with a Scarlet Witch and Vision adventure called Trick Or Treat!
And, of course, we shouldn't overlook that we're given a free sticker that the cover describes as, "Fantastic!"
But what's this? Marvel Super-Heroes is no more and has been swallowed up by The Daredevils? What kind of shenanigannery is this?
Whatever it is; inside, Captain Britain's up against something called Judgement Day.
Alan Moore's still casting his beady eye over sexism in comics.
There's also a look at Chinese comics.
And, in our other big story of the issue, Daredevil tangles with Dr Octopus and is lucky to come out of the encounter with his life still intact.
Finally, the indefatigable Alan Moore returns to give us a picture strip he calls The 4-D War.
But, frankly, I've no idea what that's about.
Did Frazetta ever take a crack at Conan?
ReplyDeleteThis is inspired by the Frazetta comic out now. Frazetta covers, whoever inards that are 2nd place to the covers…
Curious Charlie.
Charlie, I am not aware of Frazetta ever having drawn a Conan comic. As far as I'm aware, he'd left the word of comics far behind by the time Conan got his own comic.
ReplyDeleteSteve, you are correct. Frazetta’s last comic story was published in CREEPY #1, six years before Roy and Barry unleashed CTB. The closest thing to a Conan-like comic that he ever drew was THUN’DA #1 (1952) which was actually more of an Edgar Rice Burroughs kinda thing. But it had a half-naked barbarian hero in a Lost World-type setting with prehistoric monsters and sexy Jungle Queens etc. Not Quite Conan, but still pretty damn fun.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, which current Frazetta-covered comic are you speaking of?
b.t.
The closest we got to seeing him work on Conan comics was when his Conan book covers were used for a Dark Horse series "Conan the Frank Frazetta cover series" . They looked great on the comic with nice Cary Nord art inside.
ReplyDeleteI was recently watching some episodes of Blackadder The Third on BBC iplayer and they are still hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI have a cunning plan Mr Blackadder, sir.
As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University?
Yet another Charlie question… ok, so you gents could buy the current US Marvel and DC comics depending where you lived.
ReplyDeleteAnd you could buy your UK reprints of US Marvel, as shown above.
But were Marvel reprint comics like Marvel Tales (spider man) , Marvel’s Greatest (FF) or Marvel Triple Action ((Avengers) sold in the UK.
As far as that goes could you have purchased Marvel Super Heroes which was both new (eg, Phantom Eagle) and reprint material?
Just wondering, with all the editing going on in your above reprints to avoid characters not yet introduced in Marvel UK reprints, if Marvel did not want the Marvel US comics interfering with Marvel UK reprints since they could be showing roughly the same stories from the 1960s or so.
Bt! I picked ip the Frazetta comic as a freebie on free comic book day 8 weeks ago. I just assumed it was part of a new /ongoing comic series from an independent publisher. I tried to read it but the main attraction was the cover.
ReplyDeleteAnother terrific Conan cover this month. I stopped buying the UK Conan mag around late 1980/early '81 but I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteBy contrast the cover of the relaunched MWOM is dreadful.
Charlie, yes the US reprint comics like Marvel Tales and Marvel Triple Action were sold in the UK.
ReplyDeleteNot to knock anyone else's taste - each to their own - but thats a terrible SSOC cover painting.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I hope you're right about Conan getting his leg over with the princess and killing the yeti, and he didn't do it the other way round.
I can at least agree with Colin about the dreadful MWOM cover. If you're reprinting X-Men #141 why not use the whole image from the original cover? Seems a bit peculiar to just take the figures from it out of context, and add a lot of fairly dead space. Mind you, if I was making the decisions at the British House of Ideas I probably wouldn't be launching a new mag with the word Marvel in the title, cover featuring the X-Men, a month after I'd just cancelled a mag with Marvel in the title, cover featuring the X-Men...
Daredevils #6 has a similar approach to the cover - a single (and unremarkable) figure of DD with absolutely nothing else going on. Except those designy diagonals, and the lettering along the lower and right hand edges. A bit boring imo.
Which is a shame, as the contents are great, especially Captain Brexit. After picking up in the previous issue, CB is now firing on all cylinders, and with a page count in double figures this issue. Moore's writing in particular is really assured, and just carries you through the new characters and situations effortlessly.
-sean
PS, just to add that the piece on Chinese comics in Daredevils - by a for some reason uncredited Steve Moore - was pretty impressive. I mean, who knew about that stuff in mid-83, back when the Cultural Revolution had only really only ended about two and a half years earlier with the fall of the Gang of Four?
ReplyDeleteSadly they don't make comics about heroic anti-imperialist proletarians and their tractors raising production quotas any more. Thats revisionism for you.
Btw, Steve - how can you not have any idea what 'The 4-D War' was about? I explained that it introduced the Wardog of the Special Executive in the comments under this very feature only last month, and before that - when you covered the Dr Who issue it first appeared in - that the story was part of Alan Moore's Time War trilogy.
Just so you know for next time, when you cover Daredevils #7 - 'Black Sun Rising' is the third part, featuring more of the Executive, and a Sontaran.
-sean
*Actually, on reflection I don't think I did specify Wardog last month, Steve... oops. But I did explain the rest!
ReplyDeleteDDs #6…
ReplyDeleteI’ve had this mag for 40 years and never noticed (or just forgot about) the Marvel Superheroes merge and the logo on the front. Complete memory blind spot. Was anything carried over from MSH?
This is the chapter of CB which, when Alan Moore finally relented and allowed Marvel US to legitimately reprint it as a trade paperback about twenty years ago, had a page missing. They also missed off his copyright ownership credit as well, and he was not pleased.
MWOM - never seen this issue! I only started picking this up when it reprinted Wolverine.
I really hated the cheapskate partial colour reproduction where some pages were colour but some just blue.
Marvel UK had a designer go to town to make their mags look more contemporary around this time. That meant lots of cut up photos and diagonals and Neville Brody-type ostentatious graphics. Starburst drew some ire in 1982 when it did this (though by this point they’ve toned it down).
Ah, Starburst… the feast years of 1977-1982 are well and truly over by now. You’re having to do lengthy coverage on minor horror films and ‘look forward’ to the next Star Wars.
I like The Keep though. I most recently saw it about 8 years ago at a cinema screening. Kim Newman was there and as everyone was filing out I overheard him describing it to someone as feeing like it’s too short but also overlong, which nails it perfectly.
On release 'The Keep' was drastically cut down from Michael Mann's original version, so I guess it makes sense that it feels awkward. My understanding is that its come out in a few different cuts, but not the original full one yet. You'd have thought Mann has the kind of reputation as a director that there'd be enough interest to justify it.
ReplyDeleteEven the Tangerine Dream soundtrack finally got an official release fairly recently, on vinyl.
Its ok, but they aren't Goblin and its no 'Suspiria'.
-sean
I think it was just Night-Raven that carried across from MSH. Yes, odd decision to cancel a title and replace it with the same title, and lead reprint. Perhaps they wanted a brand new number 1 to highlight their (unintentional) 3D printing (that colouring was truly shocking).
ReplyDeleteCaptain Britain was excellent and still reasonably light (other than the Saturnine bondage imagery) given what's to come. I suspect Marvel US failed to reprint the two-page spreads because so many copyrighted characters were visible. From memory; Popeye, ET, Danger Mouse, Miracle-man, Batman and many more. Plus Terry Wogan (not that an Irishman would hold a grudge ;-)
These days Boba Felt is everyone's second favourite bounty hunter, but we do now, at least, know what happened after the mouth in the sand incident.
DW
Boba Fett even
ReplyDeleteDW -
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't any of the 'face in the crowd' bits they missed, it was the big splash page reveal of the spaceport when CB arrives on the alternative Earth. Just a random printing error that bizarrely slipped through proofreading.
Do future Logan, and mature Kitty(Kate), have jaundice?
ReplyDeletePhillip
Sean, I remember the Chinese Gang of Four story on the news at the time (not to be confused with our own dear Gang of Four of course, who left Labour to form the SDP). One of them was Chairman Mao's widow and her name was Ching Chang or something - I thought it was a wonderful name, almost musical.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the Conan cover is thrilling and eye-catching - how can you not like it???
Matthew, I remember watching 'The Keep' on TV many moons ago and I loved it at the time but I can't recall anything about it now except that it takes place during World War II.
That Conan cover with a Yeti in a bra!!! is from the US Savage Sword of Conan issue 64 and is by Joe Jusko, not one of his best . The strip itself is nicely illustrated by John Buscenma and Ernie Chan though and that issue has a nice Alex Toth poster /pin up selection . Not sure ifcthe UK mag had those
ReplyDeleteIt must be a lady yeti, Paul, and it would be unseemly for a lady yeti to go topless in public!
ReplyDeleteColin & Paul - The full moon above Conan's head hints that the yeti may be a werewolf!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Phil, perhaps the werewolf is actually the princess?
ReplyDeleteThanks to Wikipedia I've been reading the plot of 'The Keep'.
ReplyDeleteColin - Yes, that's Conan-consistent - some supposedly "low-born" wench Conan rescues often turns out to be a princess in disguise - so, a werewolf being a princess would be the ultimate twist ending!
ReplyDeletePhillip
I find that SSOC cover stiff and lifeless, Colin.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side though, the yeti is wearing a bra.
Hmm. Maybe that is how Conan got his leg over in that issue. I don't expect after a hard days reaving and slaying barbarians from before the dawn of recorded history were too fussy.
-sean
Sean, we've established it's a werewolf princess not a yeti in a bra.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWell there you go, Colin, that shows how bad the cover is. I mean, does that really look like a werewolf?
-sean
I had a look at my copy of SSOC 64 and it's more just a monster rather than werewolf. Of more concern is the fact Conan comes across the girl that is the monster as a child. She ages quickly in a matter of days chamges from what looks like a 9 year old girl into a 20 year old woman and Conan, well were you know !!?
ReplyDelete