Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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What amazing movies were unleashed, released, escaped, paroled or let out for good behaviour, this month in 1975?
And I have a feeling I've never seen any of them.
I do recall The Giant Spider Invasion being on the telly, the other night. However, I didn't watch it, having assumed it to be the one that stars William Shatner, which I've already seen.
But, apparently, it's not the one that stars William Shatner.
I am shocked to discover there's a film called Mahogany, having never before realised that Diana Ross's Theme From Mahogany was from an actual film, rather than it just being a song with a weird title.
And the GCD tells me it's directly narrated, in person, by Steve Gerber who appears throughout the issue.
That's followed by The Gods Of The Hyborian Age, Part III: The Elder Gods then Death Song of Conan the Cimmerian and then Sorcerer's Summit.
But we complete the issue with The Hyborian Age, Chapter 2: The Rise of the Hyborians and, finally, Corsairs Against Stygia!
Needless to say, Adam's still trying to thwart the Magus and his church and I do believe this issue sees the first appearance of the In-Betweener.
Not to mention the return of Thanos.
And astute readers will have guessed, from that cover, that it centres around a reprint of 1968's Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1.
That's the tale in which our superstar encounters the Evil Inhumans who try to recruit him in their latest plot to overthrow Black Bolt.
This month, he must tackle none other than Ullux'yl Kwan T'ae 'Sny. It's hard to understand why he's not become one of Marvel's most popular villains.
Needless to say, we also encounter Bloodstone's origin and discover just how someone from the Hyborian Age happens to be around in the 20th Century.
Not us. Thanks to Marvel Chillers #1, we have Modred the Mystic to save us whenever supernatural peril abounds.
And it seems we get his origin. And it seems he's been asleep since the days of King Arthur and is awakened by something or other to do with that pesky Darkhold they're always fighting for in Werewolf by Night.
But hold on. Isn't Modred supposed to be a bad guy?
And how can a comic that features such fan favourites as Hercules, the Black Widow, Ghost-Rider, Angel and Iceman fail?
Come to think of it, I don't have a clue what happens in this issue or just how this disparate group manage to come together.
I do note that various anti-social Greek gods show up, this month. I shall, therefore, assume that it's activity by them which forces the heroes to assemble.
For those of us who never got to read the Doug Moench and George Tuska adaptation of the movie of the talking apes, we get another chance to read it, thanks to a brand new comic.
But what can be the shocking secret of the Planet of the Apes?
What?
Posts
34 comments:
Chalrie had, still has, INVADERS 3. Reread it last week. What struck him was the wordiness of the story. Three aliens land on earth due to a mechanical and somehow fall under the control of a brain with eyeballs. Lost of lettering which detracted from R@bbins art.
Charlie eaned a no-prize by noting Bucky on the cover though inside we learn “we left Bucky at home” and he does not feature in the story.
The BULLPEN announcement is all about JACK KIRBY’s return to Marvel.
Alas by this time the magic of his art was waning like Michael Angelo’s in his latter years, becoming a parody of its strengths.
Steve, I've never seen the film Mahogany but I'm baffled you didn't realise that a song called Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme From Mahogany) was...er, the theme from a film called Mahogany - the words "Theme From" were a bit of a clue.
The shocking secret of Planet Of The Apes is that (gasp!) the apes can speak and they wear clothes and rule the world too - I hope that's not a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen the film! The apes all speak English but dumbass Taylor still thinks he's on an alien planet light-years from Earth!
Conduct Unbecoming - Also the title of a Likely Lads episode in which Terry's philosophy, when faced with a fight, is: "Do unto others as they would do unto you - but do it first!"
Phillip
Prowler will say this about that, the draw of The Champions was they were a West Coast team. Marvel's attempt to break out of their East Coast/NYC playpen. We already had Matt and Natasha in San Francisco for awhile so that set The Black Widow to be there. Not sure how the others made it. Anyhoo... There was the West Coast Avengers, Wonder Man as a Hollywood stunt man and wasn't Force Works based on the West Coast somewhere? More recently, Tony Stark's mansion was in Malibu.. That's all Prowler has on that. Now push "publish"!
Charlie - Another Charlie is a conkers man:
https://www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk/daily-star-front-page-2025-10-13/
France & Italy aren't the only nations with big conkers - our big ones are just late!
Prowler - Filthy rich Warren Worthington & his girl Candy Southern once had a desert-based storyline (shadow people?), which could have been Arizona or Nevada (?) So, maybe he was westwards...Yet the X-Men were based in upstate New York (?), weren't they? Puzzling...
Phillip
Out of those films, I’ve only seen Shivers (wow, 50 years of Cronenberg. Though oddly it seems longer). And bit of Royal Flash.
I’ve tried to watch Royal Flash a few times, because I liked the book and I sometimes like Richard Lester. But it’s always felt… a bit crap?
Hey - I actually own one of these comics! The Warlock one! Though I picked it up in the late 80s.
RIP Diane Keaton, by the way.
Matthew, I’m right there with you re: ROYAL FLASH — I liked the book a lot, and think the movie is definitely a bit crap.
I also saw and liked Walter Hill’s directorial debut, HARD TIMES, a solid action story set during the Great Depression. One of Charles Bronson’s better performances, too.
b.t.
About these comics…
With the debuts of Bloodstone, Modred and The Champions, I distinctly remember thinking that the wheels had started to come off Marvel’s wagon (or that they were actively jumping the shark, whichever cliche’ you prefer). Modred especially had “WTF?” written all over it.
b.t.
Yeah, I'm not keen on 'Royal Flash' either, but it definitely wasn't the worst film of the month.
I haven't seen all of the ones Steve mentioned, but I find it hard to believe any of the others could be worse than 'Lisztomania'. Which was - somewhat improbably - the second film released in 1975 to be directed by Ken Russell and to star Roger Daltrey. And it actually makes 'Tommy' seem interesting and tasteful in comparison.
The basic conceit is that composer Franz Lizst was the first rock star, in itself not implausible (I believe his contemporary, the post Heinrich Heine actually coined the term 'Lisztomania' in the first half of the 19th century). But Roger Daltrey in the part - not to mention Paul Nicholas as Wagner - are both really annoying.
Ringo Starr is in it too, as Pope Gregory XVI (!) and if that and Russell's overblown 'surrealism' aren't reason enough to avoid the film, the soundtrack was by Rick @#*&ing Wakeman. Who also turns up on screen as... Thor. I am not kidding - check him out in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOKrSPFEK4g
Why Marvel didn't sue is anyone's guess.
Btw, re: 'Theme from Mahogany'. Maybe it was just originally a song with a weird title, as it was first recorded in 1973 by Thelma Houston.
Although I guess it's also quite possible the idea for the film had been around for a while before production began.
-sean
Quite a few Gil Kane covers again, following on from Tuesday's post.
Steve, apparently that cover for Marvel Chillers #1 was inked by Tom Palmer.
Which was not actually one of the ones I had in mind when I mentioned the other day that he worked on three Gil covers (other than Conan #55) that month. For the record, they were Dr Strange #10, Son of Satan #24, and Tomb of Dracula #37.
So there you go: that's four Kane/Palmer covers that didn't feature Dracula just in the one month.
Er, I promise to get out more in future.
-sean
*the poet Heinrich Heine
@#*&ing spellcheck.
-sean
Prowler checked Marvel Fandom who put Warren and Candy in Colorado.
Defenders 1972, Champions 1975… Charlie bought both for his retirement! LOL. He felt that being on the west coast was a negative though, as was being a bunch of B-listers. Well Hercules always seemed like one, anyhow.
From what The Prowler can find on the internet, "Do You Know Where You Are Going To?" was written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin and recorded by Thelma Houston. Diana Ross picked it to be the theme for her movie "Mahogany" and recorded her version. Meanwhile, in 1977, Michael Masser and Linda Creed wrote "The Greatest Love Of All" as the theme for the Muhammad Ali biopic "The Greatest". George Benson recorded the movie version. In 1985, Whitney Houston, daughter of Thelma Houston, recorded her version, now called "Greatest Love Of All" and the rest is, as Prowler always says... HISTORY!!! Now push "PUBLISH".
The Champs were all B-listers, Charlie. Otherwise they'd have been in the Avengers!
But you're right, in the sense that Herc was a B-lister's B-lister. Although in fairness to him, the two old X-Men were C-list.
Really, Marvel got the Champions line up wrong. If they were going to use spare secondary characters, Ghost Rider and the Black Widow were cool. No problem there. But the other three...? Eh.
As I've mentioned here before, for the super strong character that every team needs, Thundra would have been better than Hercules. And instead of the two X-Geeks they should have used Brother Voodoo and Iron Fist.
Now that would have been a decent mid-70s Marvel B-list team!
-sean
Ah right, Prowler, so the Mahogany title came later? Thanks for the info.
Good extrapolation too, so apologies, as the pedant in me feels obliged to point out that Cissy Houston was Whitney's mother (and Dionne Warwick's aunt).
-sean
Other ‘October ‘75’ comics I bought that month:
DETECTIVE COMICS 452 (nice Hawkman back up by Garcia-Lopez)
DOC SAVAGE 2 (55-page epic by Moench and DeZuniga)
EERIE 69 (complète Hunter saga with stylish art by Paul Neary)
HOUSE OF MYSTERY 236 (superb Wrightson cover)
MARVEL PREMIERE 25 (John Byrne’s Marvel Superhero début)
MASTER OF KUNG FU 33 (part one of the Mordillo trilogy by Moench & Gulacy; intro of Leiko Wu)
MONSTER HUNTERS 2 (cover, story & art by Tom Sutton)
PHEONIX 4 (was this the final Atlas comic?)
PLANET OF THE APES 13 (Ploog art!)
RICHARD DRAGON, KUNG FU FIGHTER 4 (nice art by Estrada & Wood)
TOMB OF DRACULA 37
b.t.
Is Conan's death-song as tuneful as the Song of Red Sonja, I wonder?
Matthew - I've got that Warlock, too!
I read that Champions in Marvel Superheroes Monthly's 6th issue ( or issue # 358, if you prefer! ) With 3 superhero teams in one comic, Marvel Superheroes Monthly's position as the best comic on the market was further consolidated ( later, Savage Action rivaled it! ) MSM started the Champions in the month immediately after a Jim Shooter Avengers story also featuring the Champions ( a nice introduction, for newcomers! ) with a great Iron Man vs Hercules fight, in it. So, maybe the Editor had a 'method in his madness' !
The Champions was enjoyable, as you felt almost anything could happen. I liked the Black Widow ( being a Daredevil fan ), plus Ghost Rider was good, too ( his later incarnation being preferable to Blaze pretending to be a spook, though! )
2 X-Men perhaps seems excessive, in the team. Swapping the Angel for Nighthawk might have worked, them being almost the same character.
Sean's swap of Herc for Thundra's heading for a reunion of the femme fatale team, taking down the Avengers in the name of feminism! Thundra's certainly a terrific character. But without Herc, neither Iceman nor Angel are strong, male characters. Someone else might be a necessary addition, to the group, to balance Thundra & Natasha out a bit!
The Theme from Mahogany's first few bars ( "Do you know where you're going to, do you like the things that life is showing you?" ) was repeated over & over again, on a UK tv advert for a K-Tel or similar album advert, in the late 70s or early 80s!
Phillip
Strike one 'advert' ! Typo-city, Colorado (rather than Arizona! )
Phillip
Phillip, good luck to anyone trying to balance Thundra out!
Part of the point of my Champions line up is that the white boys are out numbered. Its political correctness gone mad...
-sean
Sean - Maybe Luke Cage could be a team member. He could wind up Thundra & Natasha, by calling them 'mama' ( or any other stereotypical reference white writers would have imagined he'd use ), with plenty of fireworks resulting!
Phillip
Sean, Falco (of Rock Me Amadeus fame) considered Mozart to be the first rock star and Mozart lived before Lizst.
Today is the 100th anniversary of Maggie Thatcher's birth but it's been completely ignored on both Radio 4 and Radio 4-Extra - in the last few weeks both stations have celebrated anniversaries for Julie Andrews, Orson Welles, Luciano Pavarotti and Aleister Crowley plus the 80th anniversary of the UN, the 75th anniversary of the first Peanuts strip and the 200th anniversary of the first passenger journey by train but NOTHING for dear old Maggie so is this proof of left-wing bias by the dastardly BBC or are they waiting for next month's 35th anniversary of Thatcher's downfall?
You know.. Charlie can’t put his finger on it, but there has to be some kind of common thread for a superhero team to work like the avengers when I juxtapose that on the champions. I mean, with the champions there’s just no logical or intangible reason that as a group, they somehow click in the sense that the sum of the parts is greater than each individual part added up.
I mean, I feel like Marvel turned its piggy bank upside down and started shaking it. And then they tried to make a dollar out of the 59 cents laying there on the counter.
Charlie - The Avengers' 'core' is Cap, Thor, and Iron Man. All 3 have their own comics, with long & established back stories. The Avengers differs from other teams in that way.
Phillip
Maybe further refinement is necessary. The 'core' characters of the Defenders are 'established', too, after all. Maybe Thor, Iron Man & Cap's importance is in being central Marvel characters, almost from its birth ( plus having their own comics with long & established back stories.)
Phillip
None of the super-hero teams made up of previously existing characters make that much sense if you think about it. I mean, why do the Avengers need, say, Hawkeye? Does it really make much sense to put Dr Strange together with the Hulk, even if you explain away the Defenders as a 'non-team'?
The thing about the Champions is that they came into existence in late '75, when most of us were already reading. Whereas the Avengers were not only a long established group, but even the more ridiculous aspects of their history - like when Hawkeye became Goliath for a bit - were already part of the continuity. So you just accepted them.
Plus in the mid-70s the Avengers and Defenders generally had decent writers, like Englehart and Gerber. Whereas the Champs were stuck with Tony Isabella/Jenny Blake, and Bill Mantlo.
-sean
Normally, teams have a hot-head. That's Hawkeye's role, in the Avengers.
Teams also have a cerebral one - that's Dr.Strange.
That being said, with the exception of Strange, almost every Defender was a hot-head!
Phillip
Btw Steve, going back to the films, 'Diamonds' was also released this month. It was a forgettable heist flick starring Robert Shaw and Richard Roundtree - the kind of thing that was regularly on late night by 1980 - but it's worth noting because the soundtrack was by the great Roy Budd, of 'Get Carter' fame.
Not that the score is as memorable as that one, but the theme (and end titles) especially still have that distinctive, very 70s low budget blend of late night jazz, strings, and melancholia that's quite enjoyable. At least for anyone who likes that kind of thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwAdpGUERDE
-sean
Phillip, I suppose the Champions' hot head was Ghost Rider...
-sean
Sean - Yes, indeed! Yet the Champions didn't have a cerebral character, the Black Widow being the leader/brains (?) of the outfit.
Richard Roundtree looks wrong without a tash.
In 75, Barbara Hershey must have just finished Kung Fu's inferior 3rd season.
"Some people can hear the music, and some can't!" as Trevor Chaplin said. ( My 2nd James Bolam character quote! )
Phillip
*regularly on late night TV by 1980
Duh.
I was going to add that about the Black Widow, Phillip.
That left Hercules as the Strong One, Angel the money - the Rich One - and Iceman... er, the Token Gay One?
And bit later Black Goliath was the Token Black One. And Dark Star the Commie (like the Red Guardian in the Defenders - cool).
So you can sort of see the logic of the team. But the problem was really the terrible writing. Even the Angel and Iceman weren't too bad later on in the Defenders, who sort of morphed into a version of the Champions by the mid 80s.
-sean
Actually, a better way to put that is maybe the Champions were always basically a second-rate Defenders.
-sean
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