Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Remember, remember the 5th of November?
Not me. I'm too busy trying to recall what happened in a bunch of comics from fifty years ago.
It's the return the whole world was crying out for, as the Kangaroo boomerangs back into action.
Sadly, those upgrades don't prevent the aggro-packed antipodean from being clobbered by everyone's favourite webhead.
The Evil Eye saga rumbles on, as two Second World War legends have a punch-up in Japan. One that keeps being interrupted by the ever-annoying nationalism of Sunfire.
Apparently, our heroes are up against the Yellow Claw!
But, other than that, I can shed no light upon the contents of this book.
Nor can I shed any upon the interiors of this mag.
All I do know is that Conan conducts a bit of spying on behalf of the Turanian army.
Kraven throws Daredevil from a cliff and our hero finds himself in the underwater domain of Moondragon who promptly accuses him of being an agent of Thanos.
I always wanted to read this story, when I was a kid - mostly because there was a panel from it reproduced in The Horrific World of Monsters. A tome I ramble on about, right here.
Sadly, not only did I never get my hands on a copy of the original comic but I've still never even read it in reprint form. Truly, life can be tragic.
Hooray! The Bi-Beast makes his two-faced debut!
It all happens because the Harpy and Hulk are whisked away by a tornado and land in a floating city that once belonged to the Bird People who created the two-faced fiend.
I've no idea what happens in this one but it's good to see Happy displaying his faith in his boss, on that cover.
I do believe Thor and his gang return to Asgard - only to find it's now ruled by their own doppelgängers!
It's the return the whole world was crying out for, as the Kangaroo boomerangs back into action.
And he's been given new, improved powers by that sinister scientist the world doesn't know as Jonas Harrow.
Sadly, those upgrades don't prevent the aggro-packed antipodean from being clobbered by everyone's favourite webhead.
The Evil Eye saga rumbles on, as two Second World War legends have a punch-up in Japan. One that keeps being interrupted by the ever-annoying nationalism of Sunfire.
Meanwhile, the Valkyrie must overcome the awesome power of the Swordsman in a castle somewhere in South America.
And it's a castle owned by a Nazi!
Apparently, our heroes are up against the Yellow Claw!
But, other than that, I can shed no light upon the contents of this book.
Nor can I shed any upon the interiors of this mag.
All I do know is that Conan conducts a bit of spying on behalf of the Turanian army.
Kraven throws Daredevil from a cliff and our hero finds himself in the underwater domain of Moondragon who promptly accuses him of being an agent of Thanos.
Once that misunderstanding's all cleared up, the issue climaxes with Kerwin J Broderick - Matt Murdock's own law partner - unleashing Terrex upon the world.
I'm assuming Terrex is no relation to Terrax.
But isn't this the story where Daredevil has to press a yellow button to save us all but can't because he doesn't know which of the buttons is yellow?
I always wanted to read this story, when I was a kid - mostly because there was a panel from it reproduced in The Horrific World of Monsters. A tome I ramble on about, right here.
Sadly, not only did I never get my hands on a copy of the original comic but I've still never even read it in reprint form. Truly, life can be tragic.
Hooray! The Bi-Beast makes his two-faced debut!
It all happens because the Harpy and Hulk are whisked away by a tornado and land in a floating city that once belonged to the Bird People who created the two-faced fiend.
Sadly for everyone involved, MODOK then turns up and decides to take the place over.
Curiously, a panel from this issue also turns up in The Horrific World of Monsters.
I've no idea what happens in this one but it's good to see Happy displaying his faith in his boss, on that cover.
I do believe Thor and his gang return to Asgard - only to find it's now ruled by their own doppelgängers!
It seems the treacherous Igron's used them to seize control of the kingdom!
That's Marvel's big-hitters taken care of but, for the sake of contrast and comparison, I feel duty-bound to inspect what a random sampling of DC's heroes were up to in books which bore that very month upon their covers.
And what's this? Batman having to face a half-forgotten icon of the Golden Age?
It does seem appropriate, as people have often pointed out that the very first Batman story borrowed heavily, in both story and artwork, from the ancient Shadow novella The Partners of Peril.
Sadly, no proper football seems to be involved but it contains the ever-popular pastimes of baseball, motor racing and, erm, hurdling, all brought to us by the redoubtable team of Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti whose presence in a book can always be relied upon to deliver quirky strangeness.
Tragically, this mag is destined to exist for just three issues before cancellation.
Hooray! The Flash gets the 100-page treatment, and does so with such tales as Secret of the Three Super-Weapons!, The Slowpoke Crimes!, Campaign against the Flash!, Riddle of the Sleepytime Taxi! and The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero! Not all of which star the Flash. One of them stars the Elongated Man. While another stars the rather less famous Johnny Quick.
And this time in his own comic!
Sadly, I've never read this tale and, so, all I can reveal about it is the scarf-happy man of mystery finds himself up against a thing called The Doom Puzzle!
Unlike the more familiar DC horror books of the time, it presents us with a bunch of 1950s reprints by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and, thus feels more like an early 1970s Marvel anthology than a DC one.
In our first story, Tom Mason wants nothing more than to protect his disabled brother but I'm assuming something comes between him and that desire.
In our second tale, when Francie Bleeker falls in love with Hugan Fesker, she decides it's time to discover the secret of his family.
And, in our third, Johnny lives in Sanctuary where deformed people live free from the prying eyes of the public. However, he then falls in love with someone called Elena...
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16 comments:
Cover of the month - Black Magic #1 (if only for that terrible 'head of the family' pun).
The cover for Shadow #1 is good too of course. Obviously the actual drawing is better... but I felt the image really needed a bit more of a tilt. What do you think, Steve?
-sean
Why’s Marvel’s Modok on the cover of DC’s Black Magic?
Interesting pick, Steve. My first ever U.S. Thor comic, albeit bought in 78, not 73. It's the fact fake Thor's armed with a sword, not a hammer that "proves the lie". Interesting to me as a kid, was Thor using a "monkey-climb" on fake Thor, like Daredevil or the Black Panther would - skill - rather than just brute strength.
I thought Matt's partner was morally dubious Jason Sloan (who gained redemption by taking a brave, but foolhardy, stand against Kerwin J. Broderick & Terrex.)
I've read some of Cap vs Subby in Marvel UK.
It seems Conan has anticipated James Bond, in fighting Octopussy!
Iron Man looks interesting.
Phillip
The rights to Conan are now owned by Titan Books and, as well as launching a new Conan comic, they've also launched a new series of e-books called "Heroic Legends" which are short-stories featuring Robert E Howard's most famous characters, written by modern fantasy authors. As a life-long Conan fan I decided to buy the first two e-books in the series, both featuring Conan. I read the first one this morning, "Black Starlight" by John C. Hocking, and I can report that it was very good and being only 30 pages long it took only a couple of hours to read which is perfect for me as I can't face any more novels at my age! The next e-book in the series is published on November 28th and features Solomon Kane vs. a werewolf!
Steve, that issue of Fantastic Four was re-printed in Marvel UK's The Complete Fantastic Four #8 week ending November 16th 1977 which is where I first read it.
Tell me again why Modok is on the cover of DC’s Black Magic, Uncle Steve?
Not sure why there was a surge in nostalgia 50 years ago. I can say the Chicago had two radio stations playing old time radio on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Shadow being one of the most popular OTR shows.
Same in UK?
And I would suggest, reenforcing Steve’s observation of two golden agers duking it out, that the more interesting aspect of Subby punching Cap is the nostalgic effect?
O/wise the two best covers, with superior art as well, belong to the Batman and Shadow!
Rumor had it DC became aware of Alf Tucker’s and Roy of the Rover’s success and thought a sports comic might work in the usa.
Charlie
In “Real World November 1973” I was firmly in the grip of Comics Newbie Obsession, and had been buying comics regularly for almost two months. But in “Cover Date November 1973” most of the comics posted here hadn’t actually been published yet and so I didn’t buy any of em at l that time. I HAVE managed to acquire most of them in the ensuing decades (except for that DC sports thing) but sadly, the experience of reading them as an enthusiastic 12 year old isn’t burned into my psyche.
Checking Mike’s Amazing Etc, there are several other comics of note Cover-dated “November 73”. Howard Chaykin’s baroque space swashbuckler Iron Wolf debuts in WEIRD WORLDS, leaving Walt Simonson, Al Milgrom and Jim Starlin to pick up his slack on the last ish of SWORD OF SORCERY. Mike Ploog takes over the art chores on the newly de-throned and re-christened KULL THE DESTROYER, leaving Big John Buscema to grace FRANKENSTEIN with his pencils. And Namor gets some spiffy new Romita-designed threads in the newly re-christened THE SAVAGE SUB-MARINER.
Steve, I know I’ve read FF 140 (probably more than once) but dang if I can remember much about it. I think you might be better off not reading it at this point, as it’s likely to be a bit anti-climactic after all these years. I do recommend checking out Kaluta’s first Shadow adventure — scans of the entire issue are at The Internet Archive.
Charlie, I agree — the two Kaluta Shadow covers are easily the best of this batch.
CONAN 32 is the first part of a 3-issue adventure “freely adapted” from Norvell Page’s 1939 novel “Flame Winds”. The Conan version takes place in Hyborian Era China — Roy does a good job of making it all feel relatively Howardian and the Buscema/Chan art is solid.
b.t.
No, wait, I’m totally wrong — all of these comics HAD been published already, but they’d appeared on newsstands and spinner-racks months before I started avidly buying comics.
b.t.
Thanks for your comments, everyone. For some reason, Google was marking some of them out as spam and blocking them from view. I've now given Google the slap around the head it needed and the comments are now visible.
Sean, the more tilted, the better.
Charlie(?), it's a little known fact that Black Magic #1 was the first-ever Marvel/DC crossover.
I don't recall there being a surge in nostalgia for the 1930s in early 1970s Britain. It was mostly the 1950s that people seemed to be harking back to, even though everyone agreed that the 1950s were rubbish in the UK.
Phillip, was it the first time Thor had fought a fake Thor since the series' early days?
Colin and Bt, thanks for the Conan info.
Bt, I had five of this month's DC comics and three of Charlton's but none of Marvel's. It is interesting to me the number of months in which my Charlton buying was exceeding my Marvel buying.
Steve - I'm unsure, my Thor knowledge before that particular issue being so patchy. Red Norvell is the only other 'kind of' fake Thor who immediately springs to mind.
As regards that Daredevil cover, I only recall Madame McEvil being Moondragon's name, during a flashback, in that story. In the Daredevil story itself, she was 'Moondragon', as far as my memory goes. I remember the flashback briefly recapped an Iron Man vs Submariner battle. As a little kid, that seemed like a really significant battle I'd disappointingly missed (a bit like a flashback, in Spidey, to White Tiger vs Jack of Hearts!) In those early days, comic shops/marts, selling back issues, were unknown to me!
The wording's poor, in Moondragon's speech bubble. The dash makes it look like the Ramrod is the Screamer. I'd have replaced 'The Screamer' with 'Angar'. I'm feeling pedantic, this morning!
Phillip
Speaking of Charlton — looks like they beat Marvel to the punch by getting their own Kung Fu Craze Cash-in YANG on the spinner racks a month ahead of the first appearance of Shang-Chi.
Steve, do you recall which Charlton comics you got that month? Only things that jumped out at me on Mike’s “Cover-dated Nov 73” page was a pair of tasty Tom Sutton covers on GHOSTLY TALES and HAUNTED. I know you’re sweet on MIDNIGHT TALES so I’m guessing that’s one of em…
b.t.
Oh, and though most of the ‘Nov. 73’ cover-dated comics were gone by the time I started buying comics in September, there were a few that hadn’t yet been returned to the distributor that I did grab off that magical spinner rack at Smith’s Food King:
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT 11 — nifty art by Gil Kane and Tom Sutton.
THE DEFENDERS 10 — Hulk Vs Thor! Penultimate chapter of the Avengers / Defenders War!
WESTERN TEAM-UP 1 — I imagine that the ‘First Issue’ thing must have been an enticement, because otherwise I have no idea what it was about this comic that made me want to part with two dimes to purchase it.
b.t.
Bt, I had Ghostly Haunts #36, Midnight Tales #6 and Yang #1.
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