The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1975.

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Moving pictures. What a marvellous diversion from the stresses, strains, indignities and vicissitudes of life they can be.

But just what was offering to divert us, should we deign to enter our local movie theatre in this month during 1975?

There were more than three movies in the world but these are the three I've actually heard of: Terror of Mechagodzilla, Tommy and Escape to Witch Mountain.

I must confess that, after much consideration, I would plump for Escape to Witch Mountain from that list, if I had to re-watch one of them, even though I recall seeing the trailer for Tommy in Mansfield Road's now demolished Rex Cinema, as a child. It was the cinema in which I ate my first Curly Wurly.

But, as we all know, not all pictures have to move in order for them to move us.

Some of them can be static.

And printed upon paper.

In the format that mankind knows as comics.

Drama heeds no limits when the Headmen unleash a wave of madness across the city, in order to distract our idols, as the cranially committed crooks commit a crushing crescendo of diabolical jewel thefts.

It's a classic Mike Kaluta cover for a memorable issue when Marvel gives us War Toy in which the US military builds a robot to fight its wars for it but he turns out to be far more sentient than they might want such a thing to be.

I do always wonder if the makers of Short Circuit read this strip before creating that film.

Next, we find an interview with Alfred Bester.

Then, we get tales bearing such titles as Adam... and No Eve, The Hunter and the Hunted, Specimen and, of course, The Day of the Triffids Chapters 4 &5.

I do believe that nearly all the tales featured in this issue will later be reprinted in Marvel UK's Planet of the Apes weekly.

Tales of the Zombie hits its last-ever issue. And does so with an Earl Norem cover we'll never forget.

It also does so with a 21-page thriller in which Brother Voodoo travels all the way to Haiti to stop Dramabu and his zombie army.

Next, there's a story in which someone called Dr Harris discovers an agency that supplies zombies for all your needs.

Then we find a chiller in which a voodoo priestess inflicts vengeance upon a judge who likes to kill his prisoners.

And we finish with one in which the dead take revenge upon the robbers of their graves.

It's double trouble for all mankind, as Dr Doom and the Sub-Mariner seemingly team up, although it has to be said the cover doesn't exactly scream at me that they're on the same side.

Then again, perhaps they're not. As far as I can make out, this epic sees Diablo abduct Valeria in a bid to force Doom to partner with him. I predict this is not a move that shall end happily for the alchemist.

And how Subby fits into all that, I cannot say.

The Hulk gets his very own Treasury Edition and, in it, has to fight Hercules who's on his way to forge a career for himself in Hollywood.

He must also battle the Thing when the Leader and Kurrgo have a bet as to which of the two bruisers would win a scrap.

There is, too, his first encounter with Doc Samson - and a Marie Severin drawn clash with the Sub-Mariner that involves the Puppet Master.

But, of course, the biggest struggle for Jade Jaws is he has to fight almost every foe he's ever encountered, when the Leader creates mental projections of them and unleashes them upon our hero.

Needless to say, it all backfires disastrously for the big-bonced bonkers bounder.

A dramatic Perez/Romita cover invites us to read a pulse-raiser in which, as far as I can remember, John Jameson and his shaggy alter-ego encounter some kind of illegal smuggling operation run by a one-legged man and must risk everything to stop it for reasons I don't recall.

I'm fairly certain that, despite what the cover suggests, Fearless Frank only comes up against one pig-man-monster in this issue. But I'm sure it's quite enough.

Having said that, it turns out not to be quite enough, as the patchwork protagonist defeats it with ease.

Probably of more immediate concern to him is someone called Cardinal who seems to work for a criminal organisation called ICON and has his very own warehouse. Never underestimate a man who has his own warehouse.

I remember little of this issue's main tale, other than that Dr Petrie puts in an appearance and seems to be alive and well, despite having been previously murdered by Shang-Chi.

We also encounter a Yellow Claw adventure reprinted from 1956's Yellow Claw #2. It seems to feature a group of mutants, which is a very modern thing for a comic book story from the mid-1950s to feature.

I think we can all guess this is the one in which the Panther enters a mysterious valley and discovers his rivals for control of Wakanda are rounding up dinosaurs to use in an attack on his kingdom.

It's the only issue of Tomb of Darkness I've ever possessed and it's one that features a story in which a mobster seeks to join a lodge. This leads to the reluctant lodge members subjecting him to their toughest initiation test of them all.

It also features a tale in which an actor who despises his fans gets his wish to be left alone, when he loses the ability to see other human beings.

Next, a reporter's driven to murder his editor, in order to create a great news story.

And, finally, a scientist looking for volunteers to spend the rest of their lives buried in a time capsule settles upon a husband and his overly-talkative wife.

Given that this is a 1970s colour Marvel horror anthology, you may have guessed that all of these morality tales are reprints from the early 1950s.