February 8th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Pilot lead singer David Paton may have been sick and tired of January hanging on him but that month was showing no signs of going away, thanks to the single of the same name still hogging the Number One spot on the UK singles chart.

There was change, however, atop the UK album listings, thanks to the rise to supremacy of Engelbert Humperdinck and His Greatest Hits.

They don't give singers names like that anymore.

January is indisputably a classic but it wasn't alone in making my approved list, that week, because other tracks I approved of on that Top 50 were:

The Bump - Kenny

Angie Baby - Helen Reddy

Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Stardust - David Essex

Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) - Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

and

Shame, Shame, Shame - Shirley and Company.

If further investigation is required, that week's UK singles chart resides right here.

While its Long Playing counterpart dwells within.

Fresh from saving his girlfriend from an out-of-control truck, Spider-Man sets out to bring the man responsible - the sinister Schemer - to justice.

But just who is the Schemer?

And why does he hold such a grudge against the ever-affable Kingpin?

Elsewhere, no sooner has Iron Man thrilled the Free World by defeating Titanium Man than he has to deal with a new threat.

The Mad Thinker!

It's true. The over-predictive nincompoop has been hired by Countess Stephanie de la Spirosa who's out to discover Iron Man's true identity.

Can Shellhead defeat the bounder?

More to the point, can he defeat the bounder's great big android that has the power to mimic the abilities of his armour?

Finally, in Thor's strip, the Wrecker's blundering around, determined to misuse the power he's been accidentally granted by Karnilla.

It's an all-time classic, as the Hulk gets abducted by the mysterious Psyklop who snatches him in a bid to please his Lovecraftian masters.

However, the Avengers are hot on his tail and in no mood to mess about.

I do remember being very confused by this tale when I first read it, as I couldn't understand why Goliath was talking like the Thing, instead of like Henry Pym.

And then it's the never-to-be-forgotten tale in which Matt Murdock decides the best way to flush Mr Hyde and the Cobra out into the open is to dress up as the nonexistent Mike Murdock dressed up as Daredevil dressed up as Thor.

With strategic thinking on that level, how could anything possibly go wrong?

And, next, the Fantastic Four find themselves having to confront a Dr Doom blessed with the powers of the Silver Surfer. How can they possibly hope to defeat such power?

They can't.

And they don't.

For now.

I do detect the armchair-gripper in which Spidey and Iron Fist must battle a man who's living his life backwards and, therefore, rapidly growing younger with the passage of time.

In all honesty, that sounds like a problem that solves itself.

Regardless, coming mere weeks after Marvel UK published the, "Silvermane de-ages to death," storyline, the web-slinger must be feeling a profound sense of déjà vu.

Elsewhere, the Avengers have been captured by the mysterious Crimson Cowl and the New Masters of Evil.

But what's this?

At the very climax, they discover just who this mysterious Crimson Cowl is?

And that he's Jarvis the Butler?

Could this have been inspired by that Batman saga in which the dynamic duo discover their new arch-enemy the Outsider is none other than their own dear butler?

Dr Strange, meanwhile, is trapped in a strange dimension, by boss Son of Satannish Asmodeus who intends to inflict the giants Surtur and Ymir upon the planet Earth!

I remember redrawing this cover when I was a boy, having decided I could improve on it.

I don't recall if I succeeded.

I do recall being convinced that I had.

Inside a battle breaks out between Jason and Alexander, gorillas and mutants. But can it be the mutants have kidnapped the Lawgiver?

There's only one way for our two adventurers to find out.

And that's to head straight back into danger.

That's followed by a four-page article titled McDowall: The Man Behind the Mask.

Then, it's the big one. A reprint of The Terror of Tim Boo Ba as related by the Watcher.

I don't know about anyone else but nothing shouts the word, "terror," at me louder than the name Tim.

And the last adventure in this issue is a short one, The Day After the Day the Martians Came, in which it becomes apparent that, while the discovery of inhabitants of the red planet may make no difference to many people on our world, there are those who'll find it changes everything...

This is one of the few issues of Dracula Lives I ever owned.

And what a one to own.

Hypnotised children are still attacking our heroes, and Dracula's still using a device to raise an army of the undead.

That's followed by a one-page article about Bela Lugosi.

But, next, as that cover hints, it's the one we all came here for, as Frankenstein's Monster battles the king of vampires!

However, the creature's soon captured by local villagers who blame him for reviving the fiend.

We complete the issue with a man who discovers a race of beings that African natives base their wood carvings on. Needless to say, no one believes his unlikely tale.

Not even an expert on Africa who manages to convince him he's imagining things. 

But is that expert all he claims to be?

And is his face made of rubber?

And is it a mask?

I have noticed there is no Jack Russell in this issue. I am probably inconsolable.