The Marvel Lucky Bag - July 1975.

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

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I don't know about you but I spend half of my free time singing Hooray for Hollywood.

Granted, I spend the rest of it singing Say Goodbye to Hollywood, Hollywood Nights, random songs by Frankie goes to Hollywood, and being the only person alive who remembers Hollywood Beyond.

You could almost think I was obsessed with Hollywood.

But was that district giving me anything to get excited about, this month in 1975?

That, I cannot say but I can say it was a month which saw the unveiling of such motion picture behemoths as The Apple Dumpling Gang, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, The Drowning Pool, Cleopatra Jones & the Casino of Gold, and Mandingo.

To be honest, I'm struggling to form an opinion of any of them.

In the absence of that, I shall therefore see if I have opinions about a random selection of mags unleashed by everyone's favourite comic company, bearing a cover date incorporating the month in question

Up until now, I'd been totally oblivious to the fact the Marvel/Curtis monochrome mags ever spawned annuals.

Now I am fully aware that they did.

Sadly, it turns out that Tales of the Zombie Annual #1 consists entirely of reprints, mostly from the recently defuncted black-and-white mag of the same name.

But there's none of that reprint nonsense for Marvel's 2nd-most famous werewolf!

Instead, a new chapter begins in his life as he finds himself in space!

Admittedly, he's been in space before, what with him being an astronaut.

However, I suspect that, in his current form, he's not aware of that fact.

Speaking of people who hang around in space, Captain Marvel's at the trial of the Watcher who's finally been nabbed by the rozzers, for obsessively interfering in the affairs of other worlds despite being under orders to never interfere in the affairs of other worlds.

However, by the looks of that cover, the Captain of the marvellous variety is more likely to come out of it in a coffin than the defendant is!

It's the first Killraven story I ever read and, therefore, the one in which I first noticed his remarkable resemblance to Apeslayer.

Did I like the tale?

No. I found it too pretentious for my tastes and vowed never to buy it ever again.

However, upon re-reading it, I decided I did like it and set out to get my hands on as many Killraven comics as I could.

From what I remember, our hero and his band battle a monstrously big mutant beast, along with having to contend with the Sacrificer and the mud-phobic Atalon while, elsewhere, Eve 3031 gives birth.

I do believe the McDonalds arches also play a prominent role in this tale, although, at the time, I didn't know what McDonalds was. Therefore, whatever allegory, subtext and metaphor Dauntless Don intended was lost on me.

You may have guessed that I've selected this one for Bob Larkin's eye-catching cover, although I'm sure the insides are also packed with goodness, as we get more of the company's take on Beneath the Planet of the Apes, plus Kingdom on an Island of the Apes: Part II.

We shall also encounter an article titled Finding the Future on the Fox Ranch!

But what's this? Surely the most dramatic cover to ever grace the front of a 1970s Marvel comic?

As far as I can remember Jack and Buck go on a winter vacation with Bucks's love interest and her daughter, and Buck has to risk his life to save the child from the claws and fangs of his best friend.

The Grim Reaper, Yellowjacket, the Circus of Crime, Ultron, the Vision, the New Masters of Evil and the Valkyrie!

All of them try to kill our heroes in this book.

All of them fail.

And they do it on very large pages packed to the gills with pictures drawn by John Buscema at the height of his powers.

It's a Bob Larkin cover that demands we buy the book it's attached to.

Sadly, the insides are composed of reprints sourced from the recently cancelled regular mag of the same name.

Masters of Terror #1 enters our lives.

And guess what?

It's made up of reprints.

This time, taken from the likes of Supernatural Thrillers, Chamber of Chills, Tower of Shadows, Vampire Tales and Journey into Mystery.

I'm starting to get the suspicion these new Curtis mags sending our spinner racks in a spin are just excuses to use up old material from recently demised comics.

But what of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #4? Will it give us anything new to read?

Too right it will.

It gives us The Enchanted Village, A Conversation With SF Master A.E. van Vogt, A Vision of Venus, Fantastic Worlds, Good News From The Vatican, Encounter at War, Kick the Can, Epilogue and various other bits and bobs created specially for it and specially for us.

Neal Adams delivers a cover of subtlety, mystery and intrigue.

Inside, various hands give us more action from Shang-Chi and the Sons of the Tiger, as well as new info on Bruce Lee.

Intriguingly, there's also an article called The Art and Non-Science of Jeet Kune-Do.

Frankly, I have no idea what Jeet Kune-Do is. To be honest, the only martial art I've ever mastered is No Can-Do, of which I'm a black belt 7th dan.