Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Just what was occurring, this week, exactly fifty years ago?
Unemployment was happening - as the UK's jobless total hit the culturally significant one-million mark.
Meanwhile, a conference of Labour Party members voted against continued membership of the European Economic Community.
And Derby County became Football League champions for the second time in four seasons.
From that cover, I'm assuming we're still enmeshed in a tale that sees Doc Ock hijack a plane and demand bags of money and freedom in return for not killing its high-ranking passengers.
I also suspect that Gil Kane takes over on pencilling duties.
Meanwhile, also involved in aerial antics, Iron Man battles Titanium Man in the skies above Washington.
But what's this? The Titanium Man transfixes Shellhead with a paralysis beam?
How's he going to get out of that one?
Elsewhere, while Sif recovers from her operation, Hela shows Thor the realm of eternal glory he'll enter if he only has the sense to surrender to her.
And Loki takes advantage of Odin's latest power nap, by seizing the throne of Asgard!
But that's nothing, because, miles away, something far worse is occurring, thanks to that silly sausage Ulik accidentally freeing Mangog from captivity.
But there's even more to look forward to than that, this issue, because I do believe its back cover features an advert for the greatest book ever written; Origins of Marvel Comics!
It's one of my favourite covers, for one of my favourite stories, as the Avengers must take the fateful decision as to whether to make the Vision a member.
But, before that, there's the stunning truth about the origin of the mysterious ninja who's been plaguing Iron Fist for weeks.
And, in the issue's final tale, it all kicks off when the Juggernaut and Nightmare decide to have a punch-up - until it dawns on them they'd be better off working together to fight Dr Strange.
However, they only succeed in freeing the captive Eternity.
And I do believe it's thanks to all this that Stephen Strange is suddenly renamed Stephen Sanders for reasons that escape me.
All I can say is it's a good job he's a doctor and not a colonel.
But more importantly than even that is a back cover which features an advert for Dinky Toys' Eagle Transporter. Thus alerting the world not only to the existence of Dinky Toys' Eagle Transporter but also to the upcoming existence of Space: 1999!
The Hulk's still going Quatermass about it all when he fights a senator who's become a malevolently murderous mass of marauding mucous!
Also, we find the Trapster invading the Baxter Building by pretending to be Daredevil.
Despite the cover's claims, there's no sign of Dr Doom in this tale.
Yet.
And there's even more trouble for the Fantastic Four in their own strip when Blastaar and the Sandman join forces, even though they don't like each other and barely have a brain cell to rub together between them.
Is that a Neal Adams cover I espy?
It surely is!
Inside, Dracula arrives in Paris - only to be attacked by a woman who seeks revenge in the name of her sculptress ancestor.
Next, we discover a one-page look at The Invisible Man.
Then, Jack Russell's captured by something called the Tatterdemalion on behalf of someone called the Committee.
It's all thrilling stuff, I'm sure, but all this excitement means there's no room left over for Frankenstein's Monster!
This is the third Marvel UK mag of the week to use the word, "Terror," on the cover. But this is the only one to feature an Apeslayer inside it.
Under attack, the saboteur of gibbons takes refuge in a museum where he acquires the attire we all most strongly associate with
And that's not all, because we also encounter Marvel's adaptation of The Invisible Man, as brought to us by HG Wells, Ron Goulart, Val Mayerik and Dan Adkins.
It's just another day at the office for Conan when he opts to rob a tomb and is promptly attacked by giant skellingtons!
Those disposed of, he once again bumps into Jenna in a nearby village and, threatened by soldiers, she and he flee the scene.
Despite the cover's proud proclamation, Ka-Zar's nowhere to be seen within these pages. Instead, we're presented with Kull who enters a temple where he encounters Thulsa Doom for the first time.
And Doom, the sneaky snake, pretends to be a good guy!
Surely one of the greatest comic book covers of all time meets our eyeballs, as the Silver Surfer meets the mighty Thor.
Inside, Loki tries to deceive the former herald into helping him defeat the thunder god. But, showing far better judgement of character than he normally does, the Surfer quickly suspects everything's not as he's been told
Finally, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are still in the process of taking over the South American nation of Santo Marco.
And Professor X is still in the process of losing his super-powers.
Posts
32 comments:
Which illiterate wrote the copy for Doc Ock on that Spider-Man cover? Also, great use of the word “skellington”. I never knowingly say skeleton.
Three unconnected thoughts from me:
- SMCW is the first part of ASM #89. The plane hijack was in second half of ASM #88, so in last week's SMCW. That's two weeks in a row where the cover's been a week out if sync - last week we had Spider vs Ock's arms a week late.
- I've said it plenty of times here before but that Surfer vs Thor story is one of the four greatest ever Marvel comics artwork-wise IMHO.
- and the greatest ever use of the word skellington is in Mother's Lament by Cream, a sort of Pam Ayers poem recited in a Chas and Dave manner with piano embellishments. Can’t remember which album it's on.
Here's a link to the "song" https://youtu.be/XmLb0BN9UL0?feature=shared
Doc Ock in a suit? Is this so he could fool security?
At some point in the 90s, Ock starts wearing a white suit. Looks cool.
His worst look (or worst that immediately springs to mind) is four pages in ASM #53 when he sports a green cape.
The second and FINAL painted cover for Dracula Lives but plenty more to come for POTA.
DANGER MASH - so for that Silver Surfer issue the innards are on par with the cover? Ole Charlie has has had ongoing PTSD since the early to mid-1970s because the two covers that blew his young mind had disappointing innards (Avengers King Size / Annual # 2 (Old vs New Avengers) and the famius Steranko cover to Hulk King Size #1.
If so, i am off to the library!!!
Doc Ock’s speech balloons are amusingly inept, for sure. One correctly spelled “too” followed by one incorrectly spelled “to”, plus one “and” too many. Maybe Marvel’s proof-reader called in sick that day. Also, there’s just way TOO MANY words — it’s as if Ock is trying to convince Spidey he’s losing their battle.
And how exactly is Ock managing to stay on top of an airplane that’s zooming along at hundred miles per hour?
I confess it never occurred to me that the Yuck Monster in that Hulk story was (clearly) inspired by the one in THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT. The title alone should have been a big hint (Roy Thomas was never shy about his homages). I think “The Crawling Unknown” is actually a better, more evocative title than “The Creeping Unknown”.
Also : “Malevolently murderous mass of marauding mucous” :)
b.t.
That of course should be “Hundreds of miles per hour”
Last time I make cracks about anyone else’s poor proof-reading!
b.t.
Charlie, I’m not sure what DM thinks about the interiors of that Silver Surfer vs Thor story, but I’m gonna take a wild guess that he likes it (and probably quite a lot) as it’s drawn by the self-same Buscema Bros. that drew the cover.
One amusing but also kinda sad story about the art for that story: John B. worked his ass off drawing it and at the time thought that it was one of the absolute best things he ever did up until that time. So he turns it over to Stan at the Marvel offices, and as Stan flips through the pages, he has a growing sense of dismay. Stan’s frowning, he starts making unhappy little grunting noises, flipping through the pages faster and faster and when he gets to the last page, he slaps the whole pile down on his desk and lets John know that he’s VERY disappointed! He goes on and on about how badly Buscema handled the story, for like 30 minutes — the action scenes are weak, the acting is dull, there’s no drama, no grandeur, etc etc. Big John is so stunned he can’t even speak!
Decades later, the two of them are giving a joint interview to one of the fan mags and the subject of their Silver Surfer run comes up. Without any prompting, Stan cheerfully says, “Y’know, I thought the one where The Surfer fought Thor was just fabulous, John! Probably your best artwork ever!” Buscema’s jaw literally drops! Stan says, “John, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Buscema says, “I’m just surprised to hear you say that, Stan. When I delivered it, you told me it was terrible!” Shocked, Stan says, “I didn’t!” Buscema says, “Yes, you did, Stan — you told me in great detail how I’d dropped the ball!” Stan stammers, “I… I don’t remember that…” Buscema says “Well, I’ll never forget it! I was so upset by your reaction, I almost quit. My wife had to talk me out of it…”
b.t.
Can't speak for the black and white UK version but the inside of Surfer Vol 1 #4 is just as good as the cover.
Meanwhile!
Over on the Billboard Hot 100 for this date in 1975, “Love Will Keep Us Together” is only at #86 in its second week on the chart. Thought it would at least be in the Top Five by now…
b.t.
Great story BT! I believe Stan doesn’t remember. Why not? He was looking at hundreds of comics every year. Hell… i read new comics still and can’t remember them a few months later.
And I believe Buscema’s account of what Stan said.
CH.
Silver Surfer #4 - like the other early 25¢ issues of the title - looks great inside, but it's not the most exciting read ever. Perhaps thats what Stan was reacting too at the time.
For some strange reason when he wrote comics the results weren't that interesting when he worked with someone other than Kirby or Ditko...
-sean
I always wondered if John Buscema got confused about which issue it was? Issue #4 looks like his normal style to me. Issue #6, on the other hand, looks extremely flat, weak and almost totally devoid of his usual dynamism.
Steve, SILVER SURFER 6 is my favorite! Seriously! :D
My theory on why Stan may have been disappointed by Buscema’s handling of the Surfer/Thor story : At that time, Stan was used to working with Jack Kirby on Thor (and was, in fact, still doing the monthly comic with him) — he could give Kirby just the bare essentials of a plot and Kirby would deliver a super-exciting, imaginative Epic month after month, bringing all kinds of cool stuff to the table that Stan never even dreamed of. Maybe when he gave Buscema the plot for SURFER #4, in his head he was expecting to get back something more like a typical Kirby extravaganza. And of course, that’s not what he got. Kinda like what sean said, above : SURFER #4 was beautiful to look at, but not anything special, story-wise. In fact, I think ALL of the stories in the Lee/Buscema Silver Surfer run are kinda basic. The Buscema Bros art is pretty much the whole show, for me.
b.t.
b.t., I read that back when Wally Wood worked on Daredevil, he had a meeting with Stan Lee about an upcoming issue. Stan made a bit of small talk, but didn't get much of a response and there was an awkward silence; then he finally asked about what was going to be happening in the story, to which it seems the artist replied: "I don't know - you're the ****ing writer, you tell me".
And that apparently was how Wood's run on Daredevil came to an end...
-sean
On the subject of skellingtons - don't forget Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Shifting the conversation away from bone spur tripe, (I pray to God daily do not forget to take him “home” as soon as possible) Charlie saw a wonderful live show last night called “the kinks sunny afternoon “which is based on the kinks going from a local band to reaching stardom in the United States.
On the way home, of course, we had to Google the kinks and the Google tells us that Ray Davies, the older brother of the two and lead singer and guitar guitarist is worth $2 billion??? That makes Paul McCartney look tiny in comparison, lol. In terms of worth Sir Paul is only worth 1 billion?
I should’ve found another job growing up…
By the way, did you in the UK hear this rumor as well that the song “middle of the road “by the pretenders is a reference to Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde doing it in the middle of a road? They do have a daughter in common. They never married though Because the justice of the peace in the United Kingdom wouldn’t marry them for some obscure reason… Like it was a Saturday or something or another.
Pretty well every panel in SS #4 radiates energy. SS #6, while also looking great, is pretty tame in comparison, especially given how powerful the Overlord is made out to be.
Before you ask, #5 is somewhere in between. But there's a human element as well as all the fantasy, so it can be forgiven for not looking as powerful as #4.
Charlie - I didn't know about Ray Davies & Chrissie Hynde. Regarding the Kinks, Waterloo Sunset's reference to "Terry & Julia" - is it a reference to Terence Stamp & Julie Christie, in 'Far From the Madding Crowd' (also released in 1967), as a tv host speculated, some years ago?
Phillip
Having a hard time wrapping my head around Ray Davies being worth $2 billion. That just does not compute! Gonna have to look into that.
Fun fact! Not only did Chrissie Hynde almost marry Ray, she also almost married Johnny Rotten. Her visa was about to expire, so she asked Johnny to marry her — they were just pals, not at all a “couple”, it was clear to both of them it was a classic “sham marriage”, so he reluctantly agreed. But for whatever reason, he stood her up at the Justice of the peace’s office and she got deported.
b.t.
Are we not getting mixed up with Ray Davis the businessman ( owner of a US football team)
MCSCOTTY- Thanks!!! It IS Ray Davis, not Davies! Ole Charlie screwed the pooch on that one!!! Apologies all!!!
:D !!!
I was wondering how many copies of “Lola” and “You Really Hot Me” you’d have to sell to make ONE billion, let alone two…
b.t.
Oh, and sean, if you’re out there—
Your Stan Lee / Wally Wood story rang a bell — I vaguely remembered something about Stan “jokingly” slagging Woody in print, in an actual published issue of DAREDEVIL. Which seems kind of odd and out of character for Stan, come to think of it — did I dream it?
But no, I found it, and it’s kinda harsh. As you alluded, Woody told Stan flat-out that since he was being asked to practically plot the book himself, he should get a credit for co-writing the book, plus more money. Stan hemmed and hawed and “gee Woody, I dunno about that” and “We’ll look into it” etc and ultimately agreed to let Woody script DD 10. When it was published, Stan went out of his way to passive-aggressively throw Woody under the bus several times, starting with a caption on the splash page:
“Wally Wood has always wanted to try his hand at WRITING a story as well as drawing it and big-hearted Stan (who wanted a rest anyway) said okay! So what follows next is anybody’s guess! You may like it or not, but you can be sure of this - - it’s gonna be different!”
That’s not so bad, I guess, but it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? It gets worse. After the story’s last page, this is how he starts the letter column:
“Well, if you’ve ever seen a more complicated, mixed-up, madcap mystery yarn than this one, you’ve got US beat by a mile! And now here’s the payoff — Wonderful Wally decided he doesn’t have time to write the conclusion next ish and he’s forgotten all the answers we’ll be needing! So Sorrowful Stan has inherited the job of tying the whole yarn together and finding a way to make it all come out in the wash! And you think YOU’VE got troubles!”
Later, a fan complains about all the gadgets built into DD’s costume and gear and Stan responds:
“Want us to let you in on an inside squabble? Sturdy Stan agrees with you — he also is opposed to so much gadgetry. But Winsome Wally really digs those hoked-up appurtenances, and since he’s the one who has to draw them, Stan went along with him. But we’ll see how the future mail goes. If most of you want less gadgets, we’ll find some way to make sure that D.D.’s stick is a stick is a stick…!”
He closes the column with this:
“Remember now, next month will either be one of our Marvel moments of triumph, or another floppy fall on our foolish faces! It’s all up to Stan! Can he figure out a way to end this yarn? Can he tie all the clues together? Will he ever talk to Wary Wally again?”
That’s all pretty strange, right? Kinda “Joking/Not Joking”?
FWIW, according to an interview with Wood in THE COMICS JOURNAL, Wood said that Stan hated the script when he turned it in and basically told him “Don’t quit your day job, kid”. Wood inked the next issue over Bob Powell’s pencils and then quit.
I’m curious to re-read DD 10 now, to see if Stan had a point. But even if he did…
b.t.
Wow. Google tells me that the kinks “volume of work “is estimated to be worth about $12 million. That almost seems like a steal. Given the way, Van Halen took “girl you really got me “to the top of the charts 40 years ago one would think an enterprising sort could make real money on this?
Im assuming It could be licensed relatively cheaply.
b.t., Yeah, you definitely get a sense of animosity spilling over into Stan's comments about Wood in the actual Daredevil comics.
Iirc DD #10 was the first appearance of the Ani-Men, and frankly its a fair point that it is all a bit stupid. But then you could say the same thing about, say, #8 - the first Stiltman - and Stan wrote that one! According to the credits anyway...
-sean
sean:
I just finished reading DD 10 and 11. Wood’s script for 10 seemed perfectly fine to me, an entirely adequate pastiche of Stan’s early Silver Age Marvel Style. I’ve read way worse Marvel scripts from that period. I didn’t find the “mystery” elements that Stan groused about all that complicated or confusing. If anything, Woody’s script might have been a little too straightforward (I guessed the identity of the masked villain correctly, for one thing). Stan’s script for 11 is much more twisty and at times even a little hard to follow, filled with assorted mis-directs and red herrings.
In that TCJ interview, Wood claimed that Stan told him the script was unusable and that he himself would have to heavily edit / re-write it. When the comic was published, Wood said he counted five sentences that Stan had changed; everything else was just as Wood had written it.
If we believe Wood’s side of the story, Stan’s snarky attitude is a bit hard to fathom. Unless maybe he was pissed off that Wood had proved that he COULD write the book himself, thereby cutting into Stan’s own revenue stream? And that it could set a potentially troubling precedent with other Bullpen artists who might want to be credited and paid fairly for their efforts? Maybe that’s why he needed to shut Wood down publicly, so the other artists wouldn’t be getting any funny ideas…
b.t.
b.t., Hey, I like those DD stories - #8 as well as #10 - but they are a bit stupid (;
The striking thing about Marvel credits back when Stan was EiC is how inconsistently the artists were treated. I mean, if any single one of them was responsible for coming up with stuff that really shaped the Marvel universe in the 60s it was Jack Kirby. He obviously wanted at least some acknowledgement for contributing as writer, but wasn't given a space to do anything on his own for quite some time, with the Inhumans feature in Amazing Adventures (when it was kind of known he was on the verge of leaving the company).
Yet before that newbie Jim Steranko got a regular writer/artist credit on a series within just a few months of turning up at the company! Young Barry Smith even managed to get an actual plot credit working with Stan, on that Dr Strange story in Marvel Premiere #3.
So your theory that Stan was making an example of Wood is quite plausible... but on the other hand it could have been an entirely personal conflict.
Perhaps it was both. Its not hard to see why Stan might have had a different attitude to new artists young enough to see him as 'Stan the Man' - the guy behind the House of Ideas - than experienced old pros with a reputation in the biz that preceded his, like Wood and Kirby (and of those two it seems by all accounts Wood was the ah, pricklier character).
-sean
Post a Comment