Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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I'll tell you who was happy, this week in 1975.
The Stylistics.
Can Marvel UK even hope to rival that level of awesomeness?
Here's where we found out.
Can it be? Is the Green Goblin going to suffer death by strangulation at the hands of Spider-Man, as that cover implies?
More importantly, can Harry Osborn survive the bucketful off tablets he's crammed inside himself in a bid to deal with MJ's treatment of him?
I do believe history may be being made in the pages of Iron Man, as this may be the week in which SHIELD's greatest-ever agent Jasper Sitwell makes his knee-trembling first appearance in the strip.
In other news, that tale also sees the return of the Grey Gargoyle who's out to cause chaos at Tony Stark's factory.
And, to wrap it all up, Thor's about to get himself a dose of Galactus' origin!
And I do believe he celebrates the feat by having a fight with a giant killer toad-monster near a pair of black monoliths.
In more modern times, the Avengers are in their mansion and having a one-sided scrap with Ultron who the conflicted Vision has rebuilt from indestructible metal!
And I do suspect Shang-Chi's having to tackle a gang of hungry panthers while armed with nothing deadlier than a stone ear he's grabbed off a statue.
It can only mean it's time for guest appearances by various members of Marvel's creative staff, including Roy and Jeannie Thomas!
And things are looking bad for Daredevil. Not only is he accused of killing the Jester's real-life alter-ego but the villain himself then helps the police arrest him for the murder!
And it all goes wrong for the Fantastic Four when Reed Richards decides to recruit a world-renowned scientist to help him cure the Thing.
But that scientist isn't so renowned that Reed is capable of spotting that he's actually the Mad Thinker in disguise!
I do wonder if wooden bullets would survive being fired from a gun.
It's like all those murder mysteries where someone's been shot and the cops can't find the bullet and then it turns out it's because the bullet was made of ice and melted in the wound. Could a bullet made of ice actually survive being blasted from a gun?
Only Steve Does Comics asks these questions because only Steve Does Comics doesn't have a clue.
More to the point, Drac has serious problems to deal with, thanks to him having been captured by the brain in a jar that is Dr Sun!
Jack Russell, meanwhile, must survive the attentions of a moving statue that's been sent to capture him.
And the Living Mummy is doing something or other.
I do have to say I'm more impressed by the mutants in this comic than I am by the ones in the movie. The ones in the movie look barely mutated, while these ones really do look like people who've just pulled their faces off.
And it's bad news for Captain Marvel because not only is Yon-Rogg still trying to steal his girlfriend, the sinister Sentry's sprung back to life on the military base where the Kree warrior's landed himself a job by pretending to be dead rocket scientist Walt Lawson!
The cover creates the impression that the Silver Surfer's, "Deadliest battle ever!" involves him tangling with both Doc Savage and the X-Men.
I can officially confirm he's battling with neither of them when you open the comic.
On the other hand, I suspect the hapless Shalla-Bal manages to get herself shot and has to be sent back to Zenn-La, by the Surfer, giving him, no doubt, much excuse to stand on the front of his surfboard and float around bemoaning his lot in life.
Doc Savage, meanwhile, is still encountering The Doom on Thunder Isle!
And the X-Men are still in the Savage Land and having their first encounter with a man called Ka-Zar.
Apparently, this issue tells us how to actually pronounce his name.
But what's this?
It took me the first 40 years of my life to learn to call him Kay-Zah instead of Kuh-ZAH.
Now it turns out I have to pronounce it, Kay-Sar!
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8 comments:
Why would one not pronounce Ka-zar as “Kay Zar?”
Otherwise spell it Ka-Sar.
Granted “z” is a very cool letter; one of my favorites.
But why select “z” and pronounce it “s?” Seems like the coolness of “z” is strictly aesthetic?
Are we done with Atlas postings Steve? Wasn’t August 1975 their last month of comics?
CH
Also 3 cheers to “The Bull in Chardbury Oxfordshire” rejecting jd vance’s dinner reservation!!!
CH
Charlie, from what I recall, we've still got another couple of Atlas months to go yet.
‘Kay-Sar’? Seriously? I can think of lots of words where the ‘s’ is pronounced like a ‘z’ (lousy, boys, browse, lens, etc) but can’t think of any words where the opposite is true. Are we also supposed to say ‘Tarsan’?
Anyhow! I’m just gonna keep pronouncing it ‘Kay-Zar’.
b.t.
Okay, I thought of one — Werner Herzog. But even that’s more of a “ts” sound. Still going with “Kay-Zar”.
The Hot 100 from 50 years ago is much the same as the previous week. “Jive Talkin’ “ was still #1. “At Seventeen” was still slo-o-owly climbing upwards. Interestingly, “Can’t Give You Anything” was at #51 and would go no higher on the U.S. charts.
b.t.
I pronounce Ka-Zar as CAR-ZAR.
In Ancient Egypt a person's soul was called a KA pronounced CAR not KAY!
b.t., I think I mentioned here not so long ago that the Stylistics were huge in the mid-70s on this side of the Atlantic - their Greatest Hits vol 2 was also a number one album, in '76 - yet curiously they don't seem much remembered.
Steve, I have always pronounced Ka-Zar as Kuh-ZAH too.
We all seem to agree on the 'z' but it's interesting that both Charlie and b.t. take it for granted that the first syllable should be 'Kay'. Perhaps that is natural to speakers of American English, and what we have here is a cultural difference?
Because I reckon 'Kuh' seems obvious to speakers of both the British and Irish forms of English. I'm not entirely sure why that should be the case, but I do think we must be pronouncing it correctly, since
a. Kevin Ka-Zar is a Brit himself, and
b. its a well known fact that the Irish are the finest users of the English language.
-sean
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