Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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1974 may have been a bright new year for some but no sooner had the holiday period ended in Britain than the bad news arrived, with the UK entering its first post-war recession, thanks to government figures revealing the economy had contracted during the third and fourth quarters of 1973.
On the positive side, it was also the first year in which New Year's Day was celebrated as a public holiday. At least, in England. I don't know if it was already celebrated as such in Scotland where people had always made a bigger deal about the event than people in England had.
On the UK singles chart, the top spot still belonged to Slade and their festive smash Merry Xmas Everybody.
But there was change afoot on the British album chart, with Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans climbing nine places to seize the Number One slot and make it clear to everyone that the Age of Prog was well and truly upon us.
Needless to say, he turns out to be wrong.
And not only that but I do suspect this is the tale in which Sandy falls into a hot vat of something or other and emerges from it having been transformed into Glassman. Surely, one of the great endings in comic book history.
Elsewhere, we get the conclusion of the story in which the superior intellect of Reed Richards brainwashes Dr Doom into thinking he's finally destroyed the stretchy scientist.
But this is where the flaw in the plan is exposed, when the Swordsman decides he too would like to join the gang, mostly in order to get his hands on an Avengers pass and use it to commit even more crimes.
Obviously, our heroes aren't fooled by such bare-faced cheek and it's within the blink of an eye that they're battling him and he's trying to kill them.
As for Dr Strange, all I can reveal about his adventure, this issue, is that he encounters, "The Demon's Disciple," and I only know that because it says so on the front cover.
Can it be true?
Yes, it can!
Doc Ock is back!
And he wants to steal a machine that can cause any piece of technology to fail in its duty!
Not only that but I do believe this is the saga in which he becomes Aunt May's lodger and is well on his way to becoming Peter Parker's step-uncle! Can Spider-Man's problems get any worse?
I'm betting that they can.
Thor, meanwhile, is still battling the Absorbing Man on the streets of New York. And he's got a problem too. Which is that he's unconscious.
Unconsciousness. The great leveller.
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31 comments:
Steve- don’t you usually do grab back - 2nd banana books after the big guns?
Stand back Luke Cage! Luke Littler is in town!
16 is the new 35 lol! “I start my day with a ham and cheese omelette and then a pizza.”
Stand back Lucas boy! Because Lo! There shall be an ending!
Charlie, the Marvel UK weeklies are always on a Thursday.
Not only did 1974 start with the first post-war recession, Steve, with double digit inflation, but also the Three Day Week began on Ist January. And, as you point out, 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' was number one. Well done Ted Heath, eh?
Some might say its not fair to blame the Tory government of the day for Yes, but I can't help but notice that a decade later when Thatcher was in power, along with inflation being up in double figures again, Yes were back on top with a number one single. Maybe that's just a coincidence, but I think it's best not to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Although for some reason the English keep regularly voting them in. Will they ever learn?
-sean
I've never much cared for the glam version of Sandman, and colouring his costume purple and exposing his legs is definitely NOT an improvement.
What was wrong with a stripey jersey anyway?
-sean
Sean, according to Wikipedia OWNER OF A LONELY HEART by Yes reached #1 in the USA in 1984 but only #28 in the UK.
Ted Heath lost the election on February 28th 1974 but the '74-'79 Labour government ended up getting the blame for the Tories' mess. A lesson for Keir Starmer!
Wasn't Ted's greatest invention 'stagflation' when inflation and unemployment forget they were supposed to peak inversely? Being fair this was mostly kicked-off by the 1973 oil crisis which resulted from that year's Arab Israel conflict. Good job this couldn't happen now. Oh...
DW
Actually DW, the UK didn't experience an oil embargo in '73 as - somewhat uncharacteristically - the British government didn't allow the Americans to use airbases here to supply Israel during the Yom Kippur war, and Heath took the position that they should withdraw to their pre-67 borders.
Obviously there would still have been a bit of an economic shock from increased prices, but my understanding is that it was industrial action by the miners - and rail workers - that was the primary factor in the Three Day Week.
Which I guess could be seen as part of the fall out of the 'Barber boom', after the government tried an early 70s version of Liz Truss' fiscal event.
-sean
Colin, you have to be impressed at how the Tory party have managed to make Labour a by-word for economic incompetence since the 7Os, despite their own shocking record.
Thanks for the correction on 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'. So it was only #1 in the US? I guess we have to blame Reagan as well as Thatcher then.
-sean
Yeah I appreciate the three-day week was mainly due to the miners (and other) strikes. With hindsight, it seems shocking that the miners voted to strike after rejecting a 16% increase. In recent times (certainly post GFC) I reckon most people would now bite your hand off for 16%. Certainly in Oz.
And it goes downhill from here.
DW
Well DW, you have to bear in mind that in '72 a government inquiry into miners pay - which had fallen well behind other workers over the course of the 60s - recommended a 27% increase, so it doesn't seem that unreasonable.
Its like at the moment government cronies in the media are going on about the (so-called) junior doctors' demand for a 35% increase being out of order... but thats to fix a long period of pay stagnation.
If withdrawing their labour means they can get it, good luck to them. I don't understand whats wrong with that. It is a bit baffling how people in this country go on about 'the bloody unions'... while also complaining that they don't get decent pay rises anymore!
-sean
Today might be Twelfth Night or it might not, depending on whether the 12 days of Christmas begin on Dec 25th or 26th. According to Wikipedia the Church of England counts today (Jan 5th) as Twelfth Night/Epiphany Eve.
David Soul has died.
Phillip
I’ll say it again… lol. Buckler’s art was a safe haven for me as Marvel transitioned in the early 1970s. With the loss of Kirby (and Steranko and even Ditko) his approximation of Kirby’s style helped create some stability and something familiar for this 11-12 year old.
Really, an 11 year old is not sooo critical of art though Heck’s art, and DC’s in general, was a bit boring though serviceable.
I’d still like to know what happened to J Romita. That clean, simple, powerful art in ASM as compared to that busy 1950’s style we see in Cap America just a few years later. It’s like he was vibing Alex Schaumburg.
Of course David Soul will be mainly remembered for Starsky & Hutch but he was a pretty good singer too - BBC Four recently showed the Christmas Day edition of Top Of The Pops from 1977 which featured David Soul singing DON'T GIVE UP ON US but I preferred his second #1 hit SILVER LADY. He also starred in the very scary TV adaptation of SALEM'S LOT and he was in JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA (which I watched on BBC2 only because of all the controversy around it).
I've just remembered that David Soul was in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
And he was recently in a radio adaptation of I HAVE NO MOUTH BUT I MUST SCREAM by Harlan Ellison (David Soul played the voice of the insane, vengeful computer).
David Soul starred in Henry James' "The Aspern Papers" (alongside Hannah Gordon), at the Grand Theatre, in Leeds.
Phillip
HELP?
OK... Charlie wants to inquire about "MP" and his absence. I found his address, that I copied/pasted from SDC and emailed to myself for reference, on 2/17/2021. (I sent him a box of comics.)
The weird thing is I do NOT have his name.
I reviewed SDC's blog immediately preceding that date and see where I am asking him for his address. It's the Feb 14, 2021, "40 years ago today" one. He did respond, in SDC, IIRC. However, I can't find his reply! (Am I blind? Was it possibly deleted?)
Now if one of you remember his actual name, I can google, send a letter, etc. Anyone have a name? Hate to see MP just disappear into the ether...
Charlie - M.P. shares his first name with Daredevil.
As to his surname...
He identified cousins of his as having a Dutch name, starting with 'P':
https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2022/02/february-24th-1982-marvel-uk-40-years.html
I'm not good on geneology, etc, but if those cousins were offspring of his father's brothers, that surname would be his, too. However, were they offspring of his father's sisters, or of his mother's siblings...well, the 'P' would just be a coincidence!
Still, it being 'P', there's a definite possibility, there...
Phillip
The best I can do is that his name's Matt, Charlie. Obviously that won't help with google, but if you can't come up with anything more at least it gives you a first name to put on a letter.
-sean
Thanks Gents - I am sending a letter to him since google is not linking a name to his address.
Just absurd I do not have his actual name. I copy/pasted "ML Post" in lieu of an actual name, whatever "ML Post" means.
Well, he lives in Sioux Falls South Dakota, not a big city, so hopefully the postal workers are more diligent than typical if I put "Matt / ML Post" as the name.
CH-47
Yes, Sean - I suppose if it were M.P.'s own surname, as well as his cousins', he would most likely have said so, in no uncertain terms.
Phillip
No Matt Prinz in Sioux Falls.
Searching on MP though is kind of fun b/c they have a Military Police National Guard / Reserve unit there, lol.
No doubt this unit is getting ready for the next incarnation of Sitting Bull and a Sioux uprising and Ghost Dancing and god knows whatever else scares the shit out of white people in america these days.
(Sorry... ole Charlie is a little pissed. They've dropped off 7 bus loads of hispanics, from Texas, here at our bus station in Elmhurst, IL. Almost all get on the train for Chicago. Some are swept away in SUVs... the speculation is human trafficking. But the authorities are really not doing a thing. And of course it took the Catholic churches around here a long time to continue doing nothing to help their brown catholic brethren from down south. These brown folks will languish, perhaps for years, before / if they can ever legally work. In the meantime, the Ukranians showed up in force starting two years ago, and they get visas, passports, workers rights immediately. And who is in greater need? A relatively wealthy Ukranian who can relocate to western Ukraine or a piss-poor immigrant who literally walked with a child on his back from Venezuela. The white dudes... of course. Chicago has a ton of immigrants. Used to be the 2nd largest polish city after Warsaw.)
Charlie - Years ago, I read 'The Jungle' - about Lithuanian immigrants, with some working in Chicago's stockyards!
Phillip
IMO, David Soul’s best performance was in aTV movie called IN THE LINE OF DUTY: THE FBI MURDERS. He played a scuzzy ruthless bank robber. It ends with a super-intense shoot-out between Soul and his partner (played by Michael Gross) vs about fifteen FYI agents in a suburban neighborhood. Pretty violent and gory for the time. Soul is downright scary in it.
He was also one of the renegade chopper cops in MAGNUM FORCE. R.I.P., Mr Soul
b.t.
Sean
I wasn't commenting on the fairness of the percentage but rather the basket case that was the early (in fact whole) 70's economy.
Shame to hear about David Soul. A fixture of 70's Saturday night tv.
DW
Fair enough, DW - its a good job Thatcher came along, and made the UK dependent on the City, isn't it? (Only kidding)
Seriously though, the economy of the 70s was - as in much of 'the west' - in recession, although I don't know that I'd call it a basketcase. Sure some change was called for, but I think there's a difference between modernisation, and the kind of drastic rebalancing of the economy in the interests of capital over labour that actually took place. Frankly, the UK looks more like a basketcase now...
Was it Thatcher who said not to let a good crisis go to waste?
Or maybe it was Stalin, someone like that anyway.
-sean
Sean, I think it was Rahm Emmanuel.
b.t.
I had to look up to see who that was, b.t.
While he did say it, I'm pretty sure its older than that, and there seems to be no shortage of earlier attributions online. Like Winston Churchill (did he ever shut up? - pretty much every quote seems to be attributed to him at some point. Or Mark Twain).
Apparently it comes from Machiavelli originally. Which sounds plausible to me.
And it makes sense a White House chief of staff would be familiar with his work (;
-sean
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