Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Many were the splendours that awaited us if we dared enter a picture house as the year rapidly approached Christmas of 1974.
For instance, we could treat ourselves to such classics as Emmanuelle, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, The Towering Inferno, Young Frankenstein, The Godfather Part II, Island at the Top of the World and The Man With the Golden Gun.
It's difficult to pick a favourite out of that lot but I suspect I'm going to have to go for Young Frankenstein, even though I like The Man With the Golden Gun a lot more than everyone else seems to.
In which case, this month's Weird Wonder Tales must have positively flown off the racks, as it has no less than three of the beasts on the front of it!
Granted, that thing stood at the back doesn't look very much like a gorilla but, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I shall assume it to be one.
Lurking within, we uncover a multitudinous five tales.
In the first, a doctor who transplants ape organs into humans is captured by several miffed monkeys who remove his head and place it on a gorilla's body.
In the second, an old woman adopts a doll brought to life by a freak electrical incident. For some reason, her neighbour tries to kill her but the doll sacrifices itself to save her.
In the third, a dream searches for the correct dreamer before midnight.
In the fourth, a mystic is accosted by an escaped convict.
While, in the fifth, a man asks his gangster brother for money towards creating a shrinking gas of his devising.
Readers may be startled to discover the fourth story features the first appearance of Chondu who would later reappear to pester the Defenders.
I should also add that all of these tales originated in the 1950s and '60s.
I know little of the contents of this one but I do know it holds a million and one stories from the likes of Steve Stiles, Skip Williamson, Tim Boxell, Howard Cruse, Basil Wolverton and others and is clearly an attempt to leap on the Underground Comics bandwagon, even though it's from America's biggest comics publisher and is, therefore, surely, by definition, not an underground comic?
Sadly, this title will hang around for just three issues before vanishing completely underground in the comic book graveyard.
That tale is called Fangs for the Memory! and stars the never-to-be-forgotten Count Fangula.
The artist the world knows as JAD brings us an eye-catching cover when we're treated to such chillers as The Heart Devourer, High Midnight, The Vendetta, The Inheritance and Beware the Legions! The second and final tales star Morbius and Blade respectively.
The second Marvel Treasury Edition contemplates the deeds of the Fantastic Four.
In Dracula's third Giant-Size issue, we discover Slow Death on the Killing Ground! I Was a Vampire, The Wedding Present, The Mark of the Vampire! and The Man Who Changed.
From what I can make out, this issue contains the second part of Marvel's adaptation of Robert E Howard's Conan the Conqueror, thanks to Roy Thomas and Gil Kane.
This title will go on to last for five issues.
And not just any deeds but The Galactus Trilogy itself.
Not only that. We're also privileged to encounter the thriller in which the Sub-Mariner and Dr Doom first team up.
To say nothing of the first appearance of the Impossible Man.
Only the first of those tales is a new one, having been brought to life by Chris Claremont and Don Heck.
But there's more because we also find a reprint of Thomas and Smith's Zukala's Daughter. An adventure which was the first exposure to Conan some of us ever got, thanks to the legendary 1972/73 Fleetway Marvel Annual.
It's bad news for the magical medic because Silver Dagger's turned up!
Can it be true? Has the villain killed Dr Strange?
And if he has, is that really going to stop the Sorcerer Supreme?
And how does a caterpillar on a toadstool fit into it all?
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17 comments:
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN for me. Steve, your opinion on MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is exactly the opposite of mine on GODFATHER II — I like that one MUCH less than most people do (but I love the first one). I’ve never seen EMMANUELLE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE , but it sounds sad.
I think that thing about gorillas on comics covers equating to higher sales only applies to gorillas that aren’t drawn by Larry Leiber and Vince Colletta.
b.t.
Emmanuelle - Ah yes… a French soft “X” film from “Just Jackin.” Such a coincidence, no? (Yes, that is his name.)
Looking at Mikes Amazing World Charlie did score that DC First Edition of Batman #1. Man, those treasury size publications really had something special about them!
My thought at the time on ARRGH! 1:
“PLOP! is already up to issue #8 and Marvel is just now getting around to doing their own Humor/Horror comic? DC and Marvel usually jump on each others’ bandwagons sooner than that.”
I also thought the first story wasn’t exactly hilarious but the Sekowsky / Sutton art was pretty good. My favorite thing in the issue was the Bill Everett reprint “Whack’s Museum”.
I enjoyed the latest installment of “Hour of the Dragon” in GS CONAN, though the smeary print quality didn’t do the atmospheric Kane/Sutton art any favors.
Our pal Redartz has mentioned before how Marvel’s Giant Size books often seemed to be printed much more poorly than their regular titles, for whatever reason, and I think he’s right.
The conclusion of the Silver Dagger saga in DR. STRANGE was good, but I have to admit I thought the previous Englehart/Brunner stories in MARVEL PREMIERE were trippier and more audacious (i.e. “better”).
b.t.
Has this venerable group noted that at this time Kirby is now drawing DC's The Loser's? Call Charlie crazy but he sort of feels Kirby's art, by this time, was better suited to non-superhero comics. I really did like his work on The Losers. Anyone else?
Charlie concurs with REDARTZ and BT that the Marvel G.S. Books seemed to be of lower print quality, Oddly, I had not re-thunk this in 50 years until reading BT's comment above. But I certainly recalling thinking it at the time!
I don’t know if I like Kirby’s run on THE LOSERS more than his other stuff from this period, but I do like it a lot.
b.t.
Steve, it seems so much was going on that month! My head must have been spinning from all the pop cultural excess. Young Frankenstein was brilliantly hilarious; and remains one of my top favorite films. We watch it every Halloween...
Like you, Steve, I also rather enjoy "Man With the Golden Gun" as one of Roger Moore's better episodes. And of course, Herve Villachaize had a much less violent future awaiting in a couple of years (coincidentally, also with another boss with a fondness for white suits).
And then there was the "Towering Inferno"- my Dad and I shared a penchant for 'disaster movies', having seen "Airport" and "Poseidon Advenure". We caught "Inferno", which was exciting enough- if not great art.
As for the comics, again another bunch of good stuff. Dr. Strange's tale was a winner, the whole Silver Dagger saga made me a fan of the Good Doctor (having missed the earler series and the Marvel Premiere issues b.t. mentioned).
Also picked up "Aargh!", both the Giant Size books and the FF Treasury. Following on the heels of the recent Spider-Man treasury, this one introduced me to some great Lee/Kirby wonderment in that classic "Galactus Trilogy". It was just another reason why 1974 stood out so for me- being caught up in new comics while also discovering the great works that got us to that point.
And don't get me started raving about the music charts...
Oh, a forgotten comment add on: Steve, the tales included in that issue of "Weird Wonder Tales" included perhaps another origin of a 'Headman". That story of the apes who exchange the head of the doctor sure sounds like the story of the Headmen's leader, Arthur Nagan. Now I want to hunt down a copy of that Weird Wonder Tales...
There is something wrong with me, because having really enjoyed Young Frankenstein when I first saw it in 1986, I put it on last year and it didn’t raise a single laugh from me. Or from my wife. It was odd. It just didn’t click.
I’d have to go with Godfather 2 from those. Or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More. I did go and see The Towering Inferno in 1979 with my Dad but I can barely remember it.
Hey Red — lookit what’s on Billboard’s Hot 100 the week of Dec 7:
1: Carl Douglas — Kung Fu Fighting
2: Billy Swan — I Can Help
3: The Three Degrees — When Will I See You Again
4 : B.T. Express — Do It (Til You’re Satisfied)
5: Harry Chaplin — Cat’s In The Cradle
6: Helen Reddy — Angie Baby
7: Bobby Vinton — My Melody of Love
8: BTO : You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
9: Al Green — Sha-La-La
10: Barry White — You’re the First, My Last, My Everything
11:Chicago— Wishing You Were Here
12: Wings — Junior’s Farm
13: Neil Diamond — Longfellow Serenade
18: Kiki Dee — I’ve Got the Music in Me
20: Neil Sedaka — Laughter in the Rain
25: Ringo Starr — Only You
32: Jethro Tull — Bungle in the Jungle
34: Gloria Gaynor — Never Can Say Goodbye
36: Elton John — Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
b.t.
Ah, b.t.- you provide another great list of great tunes (from a great musical year). "Angie Baby" was pretty strange, especially for Helen Reddy; nonetheless I bought the 45.
Harry Chapin's single "Cat's in the Cradle" affected me so much, even at 14, that I vowed never to let that happen as a father. My sons might say I hung around with them too much, but such is parenthood...
Elton's "Lucy in the Sky" was incredible, and remains the only Beatles cover that surpasses the original (imho).
My mother saw The Towering Inferno in an empty cinema. Literally nobody else had turned up!
Steve, sorry to nitpick but there's no such Robert E Howard novel as "Conan The Conqueror". REH wrote a novel called "Hour Of The Dragon" which was intended for the British market but the UK publisher went bust so HOTD was printed in several parts in Weird Tales magazine instead where all the other Conan stories had first appeared. In the 1950s "Hour Of The Dragon" was re-issued under the title "Conan The Conqueror" but the novel reverted to its' proper original title.
A few other notable comics that month:
BRAVE AND BOLD 116: Jim Aparo draws a Batman/Spectre team-up. Since Bob Haney wrote it, not Michael Fleisher, The Spectre doesn’t kill a bunch of criminals in bizarre and imaginative ways. However, Batman DOES gun down Talia in DETECTIVE 444, part one of the multi-part ‘Bat-Murderer’ storyline by Len Wein and Jim Aparo.
There’s Frank Robbins art in FEAR 25, HOUSE OF MYSTERY 228 and THE SHADOW 8 (‘Night of the Mummy!’)
TARZAN 234 has another installment of Joe Kubert’s adaptation of ERB’s ‘Tarzan and the Lion Man’ and a nifty Korak back-up by Alex Nino.
Dracula gets his hands on the Chimera and DOESN’T end up ruling the world in TOMB OF DRACULA 27.
b.t.
I thought that too, Red, and a quick google reveals us to be correct.
What's more, there were (I believe) three members of the Headmen, the third being someone called Shrunken Bones. And it turns out that his first appearance is also reprinted in this issue in the fifth story.
I don't know when we get to this Defenders story where the three of them appear together but it must be soon: reprinting all three origin stories together is too much of a coincidence.
BT - I don't know that THE LOSERS was KIRBY's best work at that time. But... there was something about it. He had this incredible knack for setting a mood. THE LOSERS stuff, more so on the interior not the covers, reminds of his holy cover to BOY COMMANDOES #9.
CH
THE POLISH PRINCE! BOBBY VINTON's MELODY OF LOVE swept through northwest INDIANA like a contagion. I mean, I was 20 years old before I actually attended a wedding that was not Polish catholic, everybody danced to Polkas non-stops for hours, and hard liquor / brandy was quaffed like gatorade after a hard workout, lol. (And the poor groom took a shot with each male who came by doing the Bunny Hop dance while singing "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN."
That song immediately entered the lexicon of wedding reception songs and BOBBY became, and probably still is, a legend around these parts!
ALL HAIL THE POLISH PRINCE.
And for those of you culturally curious...
RED lives in southern Indiana. It was predominantly settled by UK Presbytarians who started migrating out of Appalachia, down the Ohio river, into southern Indiana225 or so years ago. It is basically agriculture. CHARLIE lives in northern Indiana was settled by eastern Europeans off the boats in the late 1800s who worked in the steel mills / heavy industry. Hence we hail THE POLISH PRINCE!
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