The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1975.

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

***

September 1975 didn't exactly bombard us with movies of renown - or even of non-renown - but perhaps the two most memorable to surface were Dog Day Afternoon and Three Days of the Condor. I've never seen either film but I do remember Barry Norman reviewing Dog Day Afternoon, making me wonder if it's the first film I can recall watching him review.

But what of Marvel?

And its random marvels?

It's my favourite Killraven tale, as he and the gang enter an abandoned leisure complex, only to discover that Only the Computer Shows Me Any Respect.

In it, we learn that Hawk's dad liked to play-act as a Sherlock Holmes type figure and that Old Skull wants to hang around with cartoon animals.

All good things come to an end - and so it is that Panther's Rage reaches its nation-deciding climax when the Panther and Killmonger have an epic duel which will see one of them dead and the other saved by a child!

And the Black Panther's not the only one having trouble with dinosaurs, because Doug McClure can barely move for them when Marvel gives us its Darwin-bothering adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land that Time Forgot.

Granted, it had already sort of given us that in the pages of Ka-Zar but, now, we can see a whole new take on the concept, thanks to Marv Wolfman and Sonny Trinidad.

Perhaps worthy of even more note is that this cover was created by Nick Cardy and it's the only example of his work I can remember ever seeing on the front of a Marvel publication. It's just a shame it's not one of his better covers.

Also in this issue, Lin Carter writes about stories which feature lost races, illustrated with stills from such movies as Spartacus and Gulliver's Travels.

But there's more because we also receive five pages of stills from the The Land that Time Forgot!

It's a mammoth-sized mountain of manic martial arts mayhem and misadventure, as the noble art of fisticuffs gets its own treasury-sized edition.

Needless to say, it's made up of reprints, mostly The Master Plan of Fu Manchu, that multi-part epic in which Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and the Sons of the Tiger must independently interfere in the villain's plan to destroy the United Nations. Each without any knowledge that the others are involved.

Captain Marvel gets his first ever giant-size book and it kicks off with a reprint of the thriller in which Rick Jones first becomes his sidekick!

And there's more.

We also encounter a reprint of the tale in which Cap and Rick set off in search of Bruce Banner, in the mistaken belief he may be able to separate them for good.

And, of course, that leads to a clash with Bruce's less reasonable alter-ego who turns out not to be half the scientist he is.

And another captain gets his first ever giant-size issue.

In this one, while Steve hangs around in the Avengers Mansion, costumed thugs break in, looking to steal any secrets or weapons it may contain!

In the next tale, Baron Zemo sends an army of assassins after Cap. Fortunately, for our hero, Rick Jones is around to help him.

Then, Cap must face The Strength of the Sumo!

Then, he must break up a prison riot.

And, then, we get a retelling of his origin.

Needless to say, all these masterpieces are brought to us by Lee and Kirby.

Ron Goulart, H. G. Wells and Dan Adkins bring us a warning of just what can go wrong when a man turns himself invisible.

That's followed by such classics as The Man Who Cried Werewolf!, Dig Me No Grave!, The Music of Erich Zann, Pickman's Model and The Roaches. All reprinted from a variety of now-defunct publications.

But no one cares about that.

Not when we've got The Legion of Monsters to keep us company.

In our first death-defying tale, Frankenstein's Monster attends a costume party but becomes inconveniently framed for murder!

Next, Manphibian finds itself in a drama labelled In Vengeance Crude!

That's followed by something called The Flies!

Which is followed by a partial adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula .

Tragically, as far as I can make out, despite the title of this magazine, there is no actual monster legioning going on.