Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
What is this madness? It seems like it was mere days ago I was looking at Marvel annuals and, now, here I am, doing it again.
But, as always, there's nothing like a good dose of delayed gratification.
Therefore, I shall stall for time and reveal what we were watching on Christmas Day in the Lord's great big year of 1983.
Then, we were, as always, treated to the Christmas Day Top of the Pops. This time, featuring performances by such greats as Michael Jackson, Shakin' Stevens, Men at Work, Bonnie Tyler, Duran Duran, Bucks Fizz, Lionel Richie and David Bowie.
Later, Terry Wogan hosted a Blankety Blank special which guested Sabina Franklyn, Roy Kinnear, Ruth Madoc, Patrick Moore, Beryl Reid and Freddie Starr. I do believe that, of those, mentioned, Sabina Franklyn is the only one still alive.
Following in its wake were such delights as Treasure Island, The Two Ronnies, All Creatures Great and Small and Only Fools and Horses.
Finally, the channel's day was brought to a close by The Spinners at York. These were, of course, the British Spinners, not the ones of Detroit fame.
BBC Two, meanwhile, struck early with Nobody Minded the Rain...: Impressions of Coronation Day.
It also gave us The Book Game in which Anthony Burgess, Germaine Greer, Susan Hill and Adam Mars-Jones tried to identify extracts before giving vent to their literary likes and dislikes. I have to say that sounds a right barrel of laughs.
Later, we got The Great Palace: the Story of Parliament, Meet Me in St Louis, an operatic version of Cinderella, and The Bob Monkhouse Show.
And the station ended its day with the Marx Brothers In Duck Soup.
But what of ITV? Christmas is, after all, a love-in for commercialisation. So, what was the commercial channel up to?
As the day progressed, it also provided us with The Capture of Grizzly Adams, Superman, Jimmy Tarbuck's Christmas All-Stars and The Revenge of the Pink Panther before shutting down with The Streets of San Francisco.
Well, TV's all very good but what we all want at Christmas is alcohol a singalong. So, that in mind, what was the UK's Number One on that special day?
It was The Flying Pickets' a cappella cover of Yazoo's Only You which was bravely holding off the challenge of Slade's anthemic comeback ballad My Oh My. Interestingly, even though it was a full decade after the band's commercial heyday, that week's Top 100 featured no less than four Slade songs.
Over on the British album chart, sway was being held by Various Artists' Now That's What I Call Music while Paul Young resided at Number Two, thanks to his LP No Parlez.
Marvel's biggest money-spinner returns for another round of hardback action.
And it gives us the company's adaptation of the third film in the trilogy, as brought to us by Archie Goodwin, Al Williamson and Carlos Garzón.
I'm going to be honest, if I was asked to guess which Marvel characters would get a UK annual, this year, Spider-Woman wouldn't have been on the list.
However, I'm clearly some kind of fool because she does get her own annual.
Info about it and its contents is hard to come by but I do know it provides us with plenty of Carmine Infantino action, as Jessica Drew stars in a tale called The Bounty Hunter.
There's also a guest appearance from the Hulk but whether that's in the same tale or a different one, I cannot say.
And it's one which reprints his first encounter with Tyrannus, just as the 1972/1973 Marvel Annual did. But, this time, in colour.
We also get the tale in which the Hulk and Avengers must unite to tackle the Leader who seems to have concocted a plan to turn everyone into replicas of himself, via the city's water supply.
The book also seems to contain some of the material created for Marvel UK in the Sez Dez's Revolution era.
And that's Spider-Man.
And that's because this year's annual reprints the death of Gwen Stacy and the death of Norman Osborn. Blimey, it's a miracle they didn't fling in the death of Captain Stacy while they were at it.
It also contains at least two text stories, and multiple photos from the 1970s Spider-Man TV show the kids are, no doubt, still talking about in 1983.
Steve! What about the Queen’s xmas speech from 1983? Anything note worthy? And what about yesterday’s speech by the King? Any sign of progress over the last several decades? LO! There shall be a Speech to my subjects!
ReplyDeleteCharlie, I don't have a clue what was in the Queen's Speech of 1983.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must confess I don't know what was in the King's Speech yesterday.
I did not watch the king's speech yesterday either, Steve. Or the Queen's one in 1983.
ReplyDeleteThe Spinners At York weren't the ones from Detroit? At least let us know if The Great Palace: the Story of Parliament was about George Clinton & co.
Btw, thanks for the info about Quatermass and the Pit this afternoon.
-sean
Charlie, no thoughts on the death of Gwen Stacy then...?
ReplyDelete-sean
Charlie -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.royal.uk/christmas-broadcast-1983
F**ked if I know what 'King' Charles said. Most likely more of his ineffectual virtue signalling. That's not a phrase I'm fond of, but given his decades of hypocrisy if there's anyone who deserves to be called that it's him.
Steve -
Was it really Superman on ITV? They'd only just showed that one at the beginning of the year. I guess they were getting their money's worth out of that.
That Return Of The Jedi annual rings a bell but I'm SURE I wouldn't have picked that up. Nah. Maybe I've just seen the cover by Sienkiewicz somewhere.
So what’ve you Brits been up to on boxing day? A bit of hurkle-durkling?
ReplyDeleteBog snorkelling, mostly.
ReplyDeleteAnd gurning.
ReplyDeleteAnd ferret-legging.
Well Charlie took the day off and saw the Man U game. Holey Moley Captain Marvel! Fair play United! (though i suspect most Brits feel about MU like us feel about those dam NY Yankees, lol.)
ReplyDeleteCharlie, the monarch isn't allowed to get involved in politics so the Christmas message (it's not a "speech") is always bland and uncontroversial but on Christmas Day the King talked about the environment and the need to support green policies which will no doubt be regarded as political woke meddling by plenty on the right-wing.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC finally cancelled TOP OF THE POPS in 2005 except for the iconic Christmas Day edition which continued for many years but now even that has been ditched - how are the mighty fallen!
ReplyDeleteThe covers to the Hulk and Spider-man annuals (and possibly Spider-woman) remind me of the early Daredevils covers, and so I assume they're Paul Neary.
ReplyDeleteDW
Yes, those covers do look like Neary was responsible, DW.
ReplyDeleteAnd that he didn't spend a whole lot of time on them. I'm not that keen on his work, but even by his usual standards they seem fairly bland.
-sean
Sean -
DeleteDid you ever see Paul Neary’s 70s ‘Hunter’ strip? I only came across it recently, it’s like a completely different artist, like Brian Lewis or something.
Gurning and ferret-legging, Steve? So you've been having a traditional Yorkshire Winterval then. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteI assume that includes watching Dr Who... Any thoughts?
-sean
Neary seemed to be influenced by Frank Miller, during this period, but with less imagination. Bland is harsh but true.
ReplyDeleteI watched Dr. Who on boxing day morning and enjoyed it more than the Tennant specials and Jodie Whittaker era. I suspect the new series will be dumb but stylish and enjoyable.
DW
Better than Whittaker and the recent Tennant fan-fiction, DW? I think that might be the definition of faint praise...
ReplyDeleteThe latest Dr Who didn't do much for me but then the Christmas specials are always iffy - well, the ones I've seen anyway - and the latest was no exception. Ncuti Gatwa came across well (although I was a bit put off by him saving Davina McCall) while the new companion seemed personality free. Which to be fair is at least an improvement on Catherine Tate (and Bonnie Langford).
So... for me the jury's still out on this version of Dr Who til they finally start doing some proper new episodes.
-sean
If any UK readers are interested, the Wombles are back!! On Radio 4 this time not TV - from Monday-Friday this week and on New Year's Day there's a new Wombles story, read by Richard E Grant, at 6.15pm on Radio 4.
ReplyDeleteI too watched the Dr Who Christmas special which was OK but those goblins were more silly than scary and then it briefly turned into Dr Who The Musical...
I assume the new companion's mystery mother will be revealed at some point? But who will she be???
That was the strip he did in Eerie, right Matthew? From what I remember it was drawn in a style closer to the look of Spanish artists like Esteban Maroto, but not as good. Neary seems a bit like that, adapting - or someone less charitable than me might suggest swiping - his work to suit different publishers (or maybe, as DW implied, changing fashions).
ReplyDelete-sean
Yeah, that was the one. It was collected a while ago and is nice to look at. But it’s the only Neary work I’ve found appealing, to be honest.
DeleteHe does seem a lot like a Robin Smith - a good behind-the-scenes guy who was less than stellar when actually drawing.
I've been watching WOMBLING MERRY CHRISTMAS on YouTube and it's a catchy song but almost completely forgotten now.
ReplyDeleteAll day long
We'll go wombling in the snow
We wish you a wombling Merry Christmas...
Sean, I felt the Doctor Who Christmas special was quite boring. It seemed to take forever for anything to happen and, when it did, it wasn't that interesting. Overall, it felt like a 45-minute episode that had had a fair bit of padding added to get it up to 60 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI did like the singing bit though.
Did anyone know that Shirlie from Pepsi & Shirlie/Wham! fame is married to Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet??
ReplyDeleteMe neither!
Today (Dec 28th) on Radio 4 at 8pm THE BRIEFING ROOM will be discussing UFOs and the possibility of intelligent alien civilisations! Normally this programme only deals with important political and economic issues so I can only assume they are having some fun because it's Christmas!
ReplyDeleteColin - UFO podcastdom's been a bit stale, over the past few weeks. Perhaps Radio 4 can inject some new energy into the UFO scene's anaemic veins!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, a very interesting book, relating to anti-gravitic propulsion, entitled, "Dynamic Nuclear Orientation", by C.D.Jeffries, was discussed, last night. The book's from 1963, but references papers from the 50s (so, the topic was known, even then!) The book's online, for free:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003427351&seq=7
However, it's all high-level physics, and - out of all of us - dangermash is the only one with the capability to understand it!
Phillip
Colin, I was aware of the Shirley/Martin Kemp coupling. More importantly, Arsenal host West Ham tomorrow morning (for me). Decisive game amongst the SDC regulars. Charlie’s already on edge…
ReplyDeleteDW
What about this Storm Gerrit, good grief! (What kind of name is Gerrit anyway?)
ReplyDeletePhillip, according to the information about tonight's Radio 4 programme, some US military bigwig told a congressional hearing last summer that the US government has for decades been in possession of crashed UFOs and "non-human biologics". Apparently this caused a sensation in America but I was completely unaware of it until yesterday - was it reported here?
Colin - Yes, it's had a lot of bandwidth. He's an intelligence officer, named David Grusch. Grusch - supposedly - told members of the Congressional sub-committee (off camera, in a secure room) what organisation possesses the crashed UFOs. The really significant thing being no government body has contradicted him! An Australian journalist, named Ross Coulthart, is leading the charge. At one stage, it looked like a lot of juicy stuff would be revealed, but the usual obfuscation followed, with some kind of "after 25 years" (I can't remember the exact time limit) clause being shoe-horned into the legislation. Nevertheless, some progress has been made, in terms of getting more UFO stuff out into the open.
ReplyDeletePhillip
Hi DW! We get the Hammers game at 14:30 Chicago time which are perfect viewing hours! Ill be watching! Good luck! And Charlie is still jazzed from the thrill-a-minute Man U game a few days ago. Fortunately I don’t really have a dog in the hunt and can enjoy a good game regardless of teams!
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting, Phil - I've been reading up on David Grusch and he doesn't seem like a crazy fantasist. Anyway THE BRIEFING ROOM is on Radio 4 tonight at 8pm so we'll see what they make of it all!
ReplyDeleteYes - thanks for the tip, Colin - I'll be tuning in at 8pm.
ReplyDeletePhillip