Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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We all know weekends are the best time to watch horror films. And so it was that, on Saturday, February 22nd, 1975, BBC Two's midnight movie was Hammer's The Reptile. That Cornwall-based tale of a young woman who keeps turning into a cold-blooded killer and slaughtering the locals. Will our protagonists be able to stop her before the movie's sets are needed for filming The Plague of the Zombies?
Too right they will.
And Michael Ripper will have his biggest ever role in a Hammer film!
When it came to music, there was a brand new Number One on the UK singles chart. That Number One was Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel's classic Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), a track that knew the value of the well-timed pause.
Over on the associated album chart, no change was afoot, as Engelbert Humperdinck's Greatest Hits retained the top spot it had seized the week before.
It's a big week for lovers of martial arts action, when we kick off the saga in which Iron Fist, Shang-Chi and the Sons of the Tiger all get entangled in Fu Manchu's latest plan but are each unaware of the others' involvement.
And it's Iron Fist who gets the ball rolling, with his discovery of a Chinese diplomat stricken, mortally wounded, in a doorway.
Elsewhere, thanks to the aid of the Black Knight, the Avengers manage to defeat the New Masters of Evil and Ultron - although that tin-plated plot-hatcher manages to escape.
Elsewhere, thanks to the aid of the Black Knight, the Avengers manage to defeat the New Masters of Evil and Ultron - although that tin-plated plot-hatcher manages to escape.
I can't help feeling that means he may well be back before too very long.
There's no rest, however, for the Black Knight. With the cheeky Asmodeus all set to unleash Ymir and Surtur upon the Earth, Doc Strange has no choice but to travel to England and recruit the help of Victoria Bentley.
And this, somehow, leads to him recruiting the help of Dane Whitman.
It's the best thing that's ever happened to the Hulk, as he finds himself reduced to microscopic size, by Psyklop and, as a result, meets a princess called Jarella and is instantly accepted by her race of green-skinned people.
They even manage to give him Bruce Banner's intellect!
Meanwhile, drama's piled upon drama, with Daredevil blinded by a potion Mr Hyde threw in his face. Just how will he be able to explain to Foggy and Karen just why Mike Murdock is suddenly blind?
Very easily, it turns out, because they're stupid.
The Fantastic Four have been defeated by Dr Doom, thanks to the villain having stolen the powers of the Silver Surfer. Can Reed Richards possibly concoct a comeback?
And will the Inhumans manage to escape the Great Refuge?
Elsewhere, Jack Russell's still up against Joshua Kane who's out to have fun hunting a werewolf.
And, then, we uncover I Was Locked in a... Haunted House! an elderly short tale created by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely.
I do believe this is the week we discover Brutus is working with Gestalt Commander Be-One who grants the gorilla permission to use as many mutant war machines as are needed to hunt down and kill the Lawgiver!
Finally, Vincent Frankenstein tricks his ancestor's creation into travelling to London, with him, where he can trap the thing for purposes of experimentation.
I do believe this is the week we discover Brutus is working with Gestalt Commander Be-One who grants the gorilla permission to use as many mutant war machines as are needed to hunt down and kill the Lawgiver!
And that's not all, because we're also delivered Roy Thomas and Ross Andru's adaptation of Harry Bates' Farewell to the Master which we all know to have been the inspiration for The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Thrills are added to spills, as the Schemer goes missing with Mrs Kingpin. Just what can be his secret?
And what can Spider-Man do about it?
There's trouble brewing for Iron Man. His batteries running low, following his fight with the Black Knight, he has to be dragged to his factory by Pepper Potts.
But, in a hospital, Happy Hogan's treated with Tony Stark's untested Enervator. A device that promptly turns him into The Freak and sends him on a destructive rampage!
Thor, meanwhile, is still at half-strength and getting knocked from pillar to post by the Norn-powered Wrecker.
Can Sif and Balder do anything to help him?
It looks like they'll find out when they travel to the land of the Norns.
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10 comments:
Oh look! It’s that Romita Spidey figure that Jim Craig swiped for the cover of Atlas’ THE SCORPION #3!
Apparently I’m not done bloviating about that company yet …
b.t.
Well spotted on the Jim Craig swipe, Bt.
Although not as blatant, b.t., it also looks very much like the Kingpin was the model for that Golem figure on the cover of the Scorpion #3...
I wonder if we've died, and Hell is commenting here about Atlas comics forever.
-sean
As Colin pointed out a couple of weeks ago, this week’s Planet of the Apes featured the final (I believe) cover redrawn from the US monthly painted cover. In this case POTA monthly #4. I originally wondered whether the UK printing was cheaper and couldn’t reproduce the fully painted art, but this can’t be the case because they did reprint the painted art for weekly # 1 (monthly #2) and were still featuring colour photos from the movies and TV series on the page covers. I now suspect they couldn’t get the original painting quickly enough (POTA monthly #4 has a cover date January 1975) and weekly #18 February 1975m and I believe the weeklies were printed four issues ay a time. Possibly photostats of the painted cover were provided to artists illustrating the the weekly covers. Hence we got a series of redrawn versions.
For those as sad as me, POTA monthly covers appear to have been used as
#1 free popster in weekly #1
#2 used for weekly #1
#3 redrawn as weekly #16
#4 redrawn as weekly #18
#5 not sure. Possibly used later
#6 redrawn as weekly #11
#7 used for weekly #35
I think most of the later monthly covers were used for later weeklies, often out of sync.
DW
DW, that's an interesting theory about why the POTA painted covers were re-drawn for the UK weeklies - I'd assumed the painted covers were considered too magazine-like and jarred with the other UK-exclusive covers (#1 being a special case) but this policy was then dropped later...
Anyway, because I'm even sadder than DW here's a list of UK POTA with painted covers:
#1, 27, 35, 39, 46, 50, 61, 65, 67, 70, 82, 89 and 93.
(All US and UK POTA covers can be seen at the HUNTER'S PLANET OF THE APES website).
DW, the cover of US POTA #5 was never used for any later UK weekly and only UK POTA #27, 65 and 70 had painted covers with no relevance to the story inside.
In 1975/76 Marvel's adaptations of the films POTA and BENEATH were reprinted in the US comic Adventures On The Planet Of The Apes which lasted for 12 issues and required yet another set of covers - neither the original painted covers nor the UK-exclusive ones.
Staying with covers - I didn't start reading Dracula Lives until #25 but this week's DL cover (#18) is fantastic!
Did everyone hear that the comics-writer Tony Isabella has announced he's transitioning to a woman and will be called Jenny Isabella from now on? Obviously he hasn't been deterred by Trump's anti-trans rhetoric of late.
He...? Tsk tsk, Colin.
The correct pronoun would obviously be 'she', or maybe 'they'. Personally I would use the latter in this case, as my understanding is that they will still be presenting as 'Tony Isabella' at upcoming conventions.
-sean
BBC denies Dr Who is being cancelled or Ncuti Gatwa is quitting!
Tony seems a bit long in the tooth for this? He must be a good 70+ years old.
We are sure he is not just “sticking it to Prez Tripe”?
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