April 12th, 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. 

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As we move through April, the winter recedes behind us and the days grow warmer.

But they were really getting warmer in BBC Two's Midnight Movie of April 12th, 1975.

That's because it was Night of the Big Heat. The film in which Peter Cushing and Christoper Lee are stuck on an a island that keeps getting hotter and hotter and it's all the fault of aliens!

But what of the UK's singles chart? Was that too hotting up?

I shall leave that judgement to the minds of others but what I can say is its Number One slot was still being held by the Bay City Rollers' Bye Bye Baby.

Meanwhile, the pinnacle of the accompanying LP chart was retained by Tom Jones with his 20 Greatest Hits.

Those not familiar with the UK music scene often ask me if it's rare for Tom to top the charts and I, of course, assure them that it's not unusual.

Bye Bye Baby possessed, I'm sure, its charms but songs I approved of more on that week's Hit Parade were:

Fox on The Run - the Sweet

Love Me Love My Dog - Peter Shelley

I Can Do It - Rubettes

Honey - Bobby Goldsboro

Only You Can - Fox

Hurt So Good - Susan Cadogan

Dreamer - Supertramp

and

Lovin' You - Minnie Riperton.

Interesting to see two foxes and a dog on that list. Clearly, it was a time of high canine activity.

Should you wish to scrutinise, in more detail, the issues raised by this post, that week's UK singles chart can be found right here.

While its adjoining album chart dwells within.

Do New York skyscrapers still have those water towers on top of them? They should stick one on top of the Shard. It'd add a certain something to it.

That aside, I think we can assume this issue sees the return of Dr Octopus and I do believe it's the one in which the tentacular terror decides to hijack a plane containing a bunch of Chinese diplomats.

Nowhere near an airport, Subby and Iron Man are still battling each other but Namor abandons the scrap when he realises that punching Warlord Krang should be more of a priority in his life.

And it's serious trouble for Thor - because Loki's stolen his hammer.

And we all knows what that means.

It means we're going to have to read the adventures of Don Blake, from now on!

And his first adventure is that Sif is injured and only his surgical skills can save her!

I do detect we're about to be treated to the climax of the Hulk's encounter with Havok and Polaris!

Daredevil's still battling the Beetle at the Montreal Expo.

And Reed Richards continues to be trapped in the Negative Zone, in danger of having an encounter with Blastaar, while Triton endeavours to get the pliable physicist back to Earth.

An historic moment hits us in the face, as the Vision makes his Marvel UK debut, meaning the company will no longer have to redraw him as Thor on their front covers.

I don't know much about this week's Iron Fist but I do know he's up against the Daughters of the Death-Goddess.

I suspect that involves worshippers of Kali.

And I do believe the ever-mysterious Ninja's present and starting to lose his rag with our hero. It can surely only be a matter of time before blows are struck.

Lastly, Dr Strange has entered the Dream Dimension, in a bid to rescue Eternity from Nightmare but the crafty villain only goes and turns the Eye of Agamotto against the Sorcerer Supreme.

Earl Norem supplies a cover that somewhat clashes with the book's masthead and our main tale concerns an actor who's played Dracula in so many films that he starts to think he is Dracula.

Unfortunately for him, that's when the real lord of the vampires turns up.

Elsewhere, Jack Russell decides its a good idea to hide out in a cave - but then discovers he's not the first to have had that idea, upon discovering the skeleton of a warlock who summoned a demon to that place many years ago.

I have a feeling that means that demon is going to show up at any moment.

Frankenstein's Monster, meanwhile, is about to find himself confronted by a multi-faceted clone created in a lab accident.

Apeslayer's still slapping those monkeys around and, against all odds, he's done such a good job of surviving an encounter with a group of mutant sirens that he and Mala have decided it's time to hijack a boat.

That's followed by a Ron Goulart/Win Mortimer adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Conan turns up in Shadizar and promptly meets a woman called Jenna who's then abducted by religious fanatics and taken to be sacrificed to a giant bat!

But here's an oddity. The front cover insists this week's backup strip involves Kull vs Thulsa Doom but the Grand Comics Database insists it involves Ka-Zar and Zabu and tells their origin story.

That's a rather unhappy-looking monster the Surfer's tangling with there.

Then again, I'd be unhappy if I had to live in Mephisto's Hellish realm.

Needless to say, that diabolical fiend's still trying to get the Surfer to submit to his will.

And the X-Men are still trying to get the Blob to submit to their will by getting him to join their merry band.