Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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This week in 1974 saw conflict once again descend upon Europe, with Turkey invading Cyprus for a second time, leading to it occupying 37% of the island's territory.
In response to this, Greece withdrew its forces from NATO's military command structure.
But there was, at least, a reward for harmony on the UK singles chart, with the Three Degrees hitting the summit, thanks to their evergreen charmer When Will I See You Again?
As we all know, the Three Degrees were long rumoured to have been the then Prince Charles' favourite band.
And Car 67 by Driver 67 was long reported to have been the Queen Mother's favourite song.
However, I can shed no light upon what the then Queen's favourite music of choice was. One would hope, under the circumstances, that it was a certain band fronted by Freddie Mercury but who can know?
There was no matching sense of movement upon the accompanying LP chart, with Paul McCartney and Wings' Band on the Run retaining the Number One spot it had held for several weeks.
The Three Degrees may have been asking, "When will i see you again?" but a woman who'd had no doubt that, "We'll meet again," was back in the spotlight on August 17th, thanks to BBC One broadcasting The Vera Lynn Show. This was a mere five years before Pink Floyd sang, "Does anyone in here remember Vera Lynn?" I can only conclude Roger Waters must have either missed the show or he'd assumed that everyone had a very short memory.
Or does he?
As far as our hero's concerned, he just wants to get away from it all and hang out in the mountains where it's peaceful.
But can the Hulk refuse to come to the assistance of a crying child?
And just how do golems come into it all?
In the pages of Daredevil, a brand new super-villain's born when Foggy Nelson decides to fool Karen Page into thinking he's Daredevil, by hiring a costume and staging a fight between himself and the costumier, little realising the costumier's about to call himself the Gladiator and use the spinning blades he's now sporting on his wrists to do serious harm to our out-of-shape lawyer.
Meanwhile, the FF are fighting the Inhumans - and Black Bolt - while the Seeker invades the Baxter Building, believing the captive Dragon Man to be an escaped Inhuman who must be returned, at once, to the Great Refuge.
But can our hero gatecrash the voluminous villain's lair without getting himself shot to pieces?
Or without getting tangled up in his own webbing?
In other news, Tony Stark's missiles keep failing.
There can be only one explanation.
The Mandarin
And that can mean only one course of action.
Attacking the Mandarin's castle.
In retrospect, every Mandarin story of my childhood seemed to involve someone attacking the Mandarin's castle.
But, once he's inside it, how's Iron Man going to survive the Eastern egomaniac's combination of bling and karate?
And crisis hits Asgard when Loki decides to wreck the land's equivalent of the Olympics by unleashing the Destroyer upon it.
Can even the combined warriors of that golden realm thwart such a being?
Odin clearly could. Therefore, I'm going to assume he's having one of his legendary power naps while all this is going on.
Each thinking the other to be a murderer and gangster, Shang-Chi and Spider-Man are coming to blows but it's not long before they realise they need to unite against the real villain of the piece. And that's Fu Manchu.
My memories of this week's Avengers tale are vague but I know it involves the Black Widow getting trapped in a machine which makes people hallucinate, with a subplot in which Hank Pym decides to try and revive the inert Dragon Man.
Somehow I can't help feeling that's a bad idea.
But, let's be honest, most of Hank Pym's ideas are bad ideas.
Especially the ones that involve him imbuing the spark of life into things.
To conclude our issue, Dr Strange and Baron Mordo are in conflict, when they should be helping each other halt the Living Tribunal's plan to eradicate all of humanity.
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28 comments:
Cigarette-holders, in Marvel. A final panel, with a silhouetted figure, smoking a cigarette-holder mounted fag. Does the silhouette represent Dr.Faustus, the King-pin, or the Red Skull? What suspense! ( Well, not the Red Skull, as he isn't calorifically challenged.) But, without cigarette-holders, such alternatives would not present themselves!
Phillip
And can anyone explain why Romita (i assume) drew such beautiful, simplistic covers like with Kingpin or Mephisto or Shocker and migrated to such busy Schaumberg-esque covers within a few years like we’d come to see on Captain America? Like he regressed back to the 50s. It baffles Charlie.
This week in 1960 ELVIS’s “NOW OR NEVER” hit number one in the USA and stayed there for five consecutive weeks. It was his biggest hit in the United States.
Charlie just learned , and had to share, That Elvis had heard “O SOLE MIO” on radio while serving in the army in Germany. He talked to his “people “and ask that they come up with a song like that.
And that’s that…
To be clear - for the benefit of American readers - 'fag' is English slang for a cigarette. Just in case anyone was confused over exactly what Phillip was going on about there.
-sean
Hard to believe that exactly 10 years earlier PAUL MCCARTNEY and BEATLES had 5 songs at least in the Top 100. HARD DAYS NIGHT is kicking bitt and taking names!
BAND ON THE RUN aint too shabby either lol!
JD Vance did not have sex with a couch… he says.
Charlie - In the UK, that Elvis song's tune (if not words) is famously associated with an advert for an ice-cream named 'Cornetto' ! "Just one Cornetto - give it to me! Delicious ice-cream, from Italy," etc.
Phillip
Thanks Sean! The idea that it was actually a US fag, and not a UK fag, that Kingpin was smoking falls under the category of things that “once you imagine it, you can’t unimagine it.” Then again, maybe that’s what Harry Osborne was imagining when he was doing the heroin and that’s what pushed him over the edge?
On this side of the pond, “The Night Chicago Died” by Paper Lace knocked Roberta Flack’s velvety “Feel Like Making Love” out of the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100, and Paul Anka’s super-cringey “You’re Having My Baby” peaked at #3.
Saw a fun news item about Liz Truss yesterday. She was onstage somewhere, being interviewed about her support for Donald Trump while a large banner slowly unfurled behind her bearing an image of a head of lettuce with eyes and the words “I CRASHED THE ECONOMY”.
Astonishingly, she did not find the prank amusing. The pranksters however had to be pinching themselves at their good fortune, as Ms. Truss showed up for the occasion wearing a light green frock.
b.t.
Every time I hear that song “the night Chicago died“I think of my dearly departed, bootlegging relatives, lol.
I have a really great photo of my great uncle standing in front of a wooden truck that has ice written on the side of it. His foot is standing on a man’s chest who is laying on the road and a gun is pointed at the man lol.
Classic Chicago.
Charles
Phillip, I too thought of the Cornetto ads when reading Charlie's comment.
bt, Liz Truss lost her seat in the recent UK general election so now she's in the political wilderness with no way back. She's a truly despicable right-wing lunatic who blames her downfall on the "left-wing deep state" which only exists in her own tiny mind. The pranksters were a group called Led By Donkeys which is dedicated to exposing right-wing lies and hypocrisy.
super nice to see THE 5th BEATLE - BILLY PRESTON - climbing the Billboard charts with NOTHING FROM NOTHING! IIRC he is the only person to get credit on a Beatles album besides the Fab 4 themselves?
b.t. & Colin - I bet the Daily Star never realized its Liz or a Lettuce gag would develop a life of its own! Also funny, last week, was Liz no longer being recognized in public (despite being PM for 49 days!)
Phillip
Phillip:
Best part of the video is that Ms Truss seems to be specifically talking about how Trump is needed to “fix” the U.S.economy when the lettuce banner starts to lower into the scene behind her. The timing couldn’t have been better, it’s as if the Donkeys are rebutting her in real time — “DON’T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOLLOW THIS WOMAN’S ADVICE ON ECONOMIC MATTERS!”
b.t.
b.t. - Yes, I noticed that, too. Maybe the Donkeys had an 'inside man', who knew Liz Truss's speech, and timed it to the word, releasing the banner for maximum effect. Then again, Liz was rambling, so was she ad-libbing? If so, like you say, their luck in timing it was incredible! According to pundits, Liz was just as lazy as Bojo, but not as good at telling lies. That laziness was clearly evident there, as she couldn't even be bothered checking who originated the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid", instead just saying, "One of Bill Clinton's advisers." Anyway, nothing earmarks something as funny better than declaring: "That's not funny!"
Phillip
Dudes!!! Oor Wullie meets his actual American cousins this week!!! Only took 85 years!!!
Funny - DC Thomson never have had to age any of their characters unlike Comic Books.
I think the pranksters got lucky with the precise timing, Phillip, although it would probably have worked out well at any point Liz of the 49 Days was talking, given the gibberish she invariably comes out with.
They same lot did it to Nigel Farage during the election campaign -
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2024/jun/30/vladimir-putin-i-nigel-banner-lowered-by-protesters-during-farage-campaign-event-video
As you can see in the video there, it didn't quite fit with exactly what he was saying but it still worked well.
There seems to have been less publicity for that one though (Farage seems to have well placed friends in the media).
-sean
Sean - Liz Truss doesn't have the fake "common touch" of pint-quaffing, 'man of the people' (despite him going to public school, and having more money than God) Nigel, who gets £97,000/month from GBNews. What - a banner mentioning good old boy Nigel, in the same breath as Putin? Our nation's integrity-laden media can't allow that! Unfortunately, Liz just comes across as arrogant - not necessarily a crime in itself - and delusional. If she started making jokes at her own expense, on tv, she could rehabilitate her public image. Or make train travel shows - that certainly worked for Michael Portillo! Incidentally, on Radio 4's Reflections, last week, Portillo said he no longer believes in all the Tory crap he enthusiastically espoused in the 1990s. Now you tell us, Michael!
Phillip
Charlie, a few years ago I saw an Oor Wullie annual on sale in Tesco which surprised me as Oor Wullie isn't really known outside Scotland so I didn't expect to find him in my local Tesco.
Phillip, you should read the delusional comments about Farage on right-wing YouTube channels. They all think Farage is the new messiah and he'll definitely become PM by 2029 apparently. By contrast Keir Starmer is the "most hated PM in history" and one YouTube channel (That Preston Journalist) claimed that 91% of British voters would prefer Vladimir Putin in charge rather than Starmer. I've now taken to trolling these channels but by "trolling" I really mean I'm trying to counter the bonkers comments with some sane comments of my own!
On Radio 4 tomorrow morning (Sunday) there's a new series of The Reunion and the first episode is discussing the first 100 days of Tony Blair's administration in 1997. Ah, those were the halcyon days of New Labour when we all loved Blair (OK, Sean probably didn't) before it all went to pot. Things can only get better, a new dawn has broken has it not etc.
Colin - Yes, there's a morbid fascination in turning over to GBNews, now and then, to see their interpretation of things!
Regarding Tony Blair, Michael Sheen summed it up best. Preparing for playing Tony Blair, Sheen said he eventually realized that Blair is a better actor than he is! (Similarly, stateside, someone said nobody does funerals better than Clinton.)
No "normal" person enters politics. According to Diane Abbott, all politicians are egomaniacs. All of them.
Sorry for posting such boring political guff, instead of comics stuff!
Phillip
Hi Colin! Soaking up the Spanish rays???
I guess we “Brock” descendants were groomed to enjoy Oor Wullie since the annuals were Xmad gifts vis-a-vis our Descendants from Dundee.
Hep me Boab!
Charlie, the only famous song I heard in Tesco this past week was 'Suspicious Minds' but not the original Elvis version - it was sung by a woman I didn't recognise.
Phillip, I've never watched the GB News channel on TV but their news stories are available to watch on YouTube with comments underneath. During the election GB News carried out opinion polls exclusively of their own viewers and those polls gave big leads for Labour just like all the other polls so it seems GB News viewers aren't even right-wing which makes me wonder what's the point of GB News?
I would agree with Phil that pretty much all politicians have a big ego. You kinda have to, I think.
My aunt used to know Tim Walz! She liked the guy fairly well and approves of his policies, but she told me Walz is exhausting.
She told me, "the guy just wouldn't shut the #$@% up"!
Sucked all the air right out of the room. She really said that. F-bomb and everything.
M.P.
Apparently JD Vance uses eyeliner and mascara but then again Trump paints his face with Ronseal and his supporters don't care.
JD Vance has a restraining order against him. He’s not allowed within 500 meters of a furniture store!
Walz is gonna make mincemeat out of him in the debate.
M.P.
Oh, they are - it’s just that the Tories managed to alienate every single living being in the universe over the last 14 years. Even the staid, complacent ‘common sense’ conservatives who watch GB News.
Fingers crossed. That Vance is a smug little ****. I can see why Trump chose him, he’s like one of his sons.
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