Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Now let's see what hardback goodness we were getting a full decade later.
But first...
...television!
BBC One, that Christmas Day, was sharing a whole multitude of treats with us. Amongst which were included such gems as Raiders of the Lost Muppet, Roland's Yuletide Binge, The Noel Edmonds Live Live Christmas Breakfast Show, Top of the Pops, The Queen, The Children's Royal Variety Performance, All Creatures Great and Small, Hi-de-Hi!, Only Fools and Horses, The Two Ronnies and Wogan.
Wogan would appear to have involved a special report from the sets of Dallas. Or possibly Dynasty.
I have no list of which musical artistes appeared on that day's Top of the Pops but am aware it was presented by Gary Davies, Janice Long, Dixie Peach, John Peel and Steve Wright, although I must confess to having no recollection at all of just who Dixie Peach was.
When it came to BBC Two, the corporation's less mainstream channel offered up such gems as Pages From Ceefax, The Man in the Santa Claus Suit, Welles Directs Citizen Kane, Film Buff of the Year, Diva and Kiri Te Kanawa at Christmas, among others.
I have no list of which musical artistes appeared on that day's Top of the Pops but am aware it was presented by Gary Davies, Janice Long, Dixie Peach, John Peel and Steve Wright, although I must confess to having no recollection at all of just who Dixie Peach was.
When it came to BBC Two, the corporation's less mainstream channel offered up such gems as Pages From Ceefax, The Man in the Santa Claus Suit, Welles Directs Citizen Kane, Film Buff of the Year, Diva and Kiri Te Kanawa at Christmas, among others.
Included in its goodies, ITV bombarded us with Good Morning Britain, Christmas Fraggle Rock, Dangermouse, The Black Hole, Jim Davidson's Top Pop Videos of '85, Moonraker, Minder on the Orient Express, Des O'Connor Tonight and Gregory's Girl.
Channel 4, meanwhile, managed to muster Mister Skeeter, The Marx Brothers at the Circus, Nothing But Pleasure, The Thief of Baghdad, The Mind of David Berglas, Fonteyn and Nureyev: The Perfect Partnership and Mel Brooks Hails Sid Caesar, among others.
Of all those shows, I remember watching Moonraker, Only Fools and Horses, and The Noel Edmonds Live Live Christmas Breakfast Show which was beamed at us from the GPO/Post Office/BT/Telecom Tower or whatever it was called at the time. I seem to remember Feargal Sharkey singing one of his hits on it. Possibly You Little Thief or a Good Heart.
Just how large a chunk, I can't say but, as the original ran for 12 issues of normal-sized comics, I'm assuming we're probably not going to get more than half of it.
Anyway, as I'm sure you know, an all-powerful being called The Beyonder has abducted many of Earth's finest heroes and villains, in order to pit them against each other on an alien world. But it soon becomes clear that Dr Doom and Galactus have their sights set on bigger goals...
Where would we be without a Spider-Man annual?
Then again, this would appear to be the first time in years that we don't get anything from Marvel UK that resembles a Hulk annual.
As for Spidey, we kick off with a reprint of his first encounter with Dr Octopus, followed by a six-page text story called Hot Times.
However, this is far too many text stories in one book. If I wanted to read words, I wouldn't buy comics.
And we finish the tome with a reprint of Marvel Team-Up #106 in which our hero and Captain America must battle the Scorpion.
But that's not quite all we encounter, because also in this annual are Spider-Man's Deadly Checkerboard Game! and Spider-Man's Simplistics.
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28 comments:
Sounds like that Secret Wars annual only included Secret Wars #1 and a Marvel TeamUp Annual, either #6 or #7. No idea why.
The 1985 Christmas Day Only Fools and Horses was ‘To Hull and back’ which was the first of the movie length specials. I suspect the BBC would have loved to have something similar this year.
DW
Steve - The queen’s annual speech is never mentioned here? It was televised, no? Or was it strictly radio?
I never liked these annuals. I never got any for Christmas (strictly a 2000AD / Dredd household) but my friend had a few.
Even when I was mad - MAD! - about UK comics creators in 1983 and 1984 I’d look through these things and see a piffling three-page story by John Higgins here, or a four page David Lloyd strip there amongst the reams of dross, and it still didn’t feel worth it.
I don’t think I’d have watched anything from that TV selection, though I have very fond memories of watching John Carpenter’s The Fog for the first between Xmas and New Year, 1985. Still one of my favourite Carpenter movies.
The only British annuals I really liked were a couple of the original Dredds, Matthew - like the first, for 1981, which had a Bolland cover and new, full colour Wagner/McMahon strips! And those early 80s Marvel UK 'Collector Editions' with Steranko's Captain America, and the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams' X-Men stories.
Oh, and a couple of mid-70s Dalek annuals that reprinted the old colour TV21 strips - they weren't bad (much better than the awful Dr Who ones of that era).
dangermash, Marvel UK were publishing a Secret Wars weekly at this point, which apparently started off with Alpha Flight as a back up. So I guess that would explain the Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 reprint?
Presumably the US Secret Wars #1 was reprinted in the first issue of the weekly - it has the same Mick Zeck cover artwork (also used for the annual here) - so it's a bit weird they'd run it again so soon. But I think that kind of duplication wasn't unheard of with Marvel UK annuals...?
Btw, if anyone's interested, the Secret Wars weekly back-up in the issues for December '85 - #s 23-26 - was the British originated Zoids, a toy tie-in by Grant Morrison MBE and Steve Yeowell. Who knew, eh?
Anyway, it seems to have been popular, and appeared as a regular feature in a new Spider-Man & Zoids comic launched a few months into 1986.
-sean
Anon (Charlie?), I must confess I've never watched a Queen's/King's Christmas speech and can offer no opinions about their content. They are, however, always televised.
So farewell then Brigitte Bardot, 60s screen icon, and 21st century ageing fascist...
-sean
BRIGITTE BARDOT. Seems doubtful anyone here can really identify a song or movie she made… You’d have to be pushing at least 75- 80 years old?
And the past decades she has only been in the public’s eye over her desire to protect animals, her tragic relationship to her son, and her anti-gay / anti-immigrant opinions for which she has been fined several (6?) times.
Perhaps her public and personal life is best summed up by the final scene in her first movie “AND GOD CREATED WOMAN.”
At least that’s Charlie’s anysis.
I did wonder if the '86 Spider-Man annual was the final one considering the long-running Spidey weekly had come to an end just before Christmas '85 but Sean says a new Spidey comic was launched a few months later.
Charlie recommends everyone see AND GOD CREATED WOMAN” at least once. It is a period piece. I’m not sure americans in general can relate to it culturally, but I think you Europeans can especially if you grew up in smaller towns.
I’ve been a bit surprised by the outpouring of love for Bardot the last couple of days. I kind of knew she existed, but as someone who sort of regards themselves as a mid-weight cineaste - don’t take that too seriously - I’m hard-pressed to think of anything particularly memorable of hers.
Also don’t know she was a bigot in later years. Oh well.
Sean -
Yeah, those first two Dredd annuals were great. I got them a year later each as remainders. The McMahon colour art in 1982 was astounding. Shame Ezquerra took over from 1983.
Don’t know if you saw it, but a few years back Panini reprinted a big chunk of the TV21 Dalek strips. It’s OOP now but worth a look just for the great Ron Turner art…
https://ebay.us/m/cRERIP
‘Didn’t know’, not ‘don’t know’.
I'm proud to announce that I have seen a Brigitte Bardot movie.
Admittedly, that movie was Doctor at Sea but it still counts.
There aren't many films that co-star Brigitte Bardot and Joan Sims but that's the magic of cinema.
And speaking of bigots, I had a disheartening experience reading John Higgs’ book on Dr Who a few weeks back and finding out one of my favourite character actors, William Hartnell, was an outspoken racist. FFS.
Matthew, I think Bardot never registered with us because she was big when Europe first loosened up after the post-war years, as the 50s turned into the 60s. As Charlie put it, she kind of 'belongs' to the over 75s.
By the time I first saw any of her films in the early '80s it was hard to see what the fuss was about. Plus, as you say, they generally weren't that good anyway. The only film she was in that made any kind of impression on me was Viva Maria, and even that's largely because of the novelty value in her playing a sexy Irish Republican (;
Btw, if we're suggesting books to check out, Action: Before the Ban vol 1 is due out from Rebellion soon. Although I'm guessing you probably know that anyway.
-sean
Colin, yes, the last issue of Marvel UK's weekly Spider-Man came out this month, cover dated 14th Dec - Spidey Comic #666! \m/
Happy Christmas Marvelites, Spider-Man is over.
That meant that apart from Secret Wars, all of the Marvel weeklies at the start of '86 were licenced outside IPs - Care Bears, the Get Along Gang (whatever they were), Transformers, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - and it's notable that although Spidey wasn't gone for long, he had to share the cover billing of his new comic when Spider-Man and Zoids #1 came out in March. And Zoids was in bigger letters.
-sean
I expect dangermash will be suitably outraged.
-sean
BB had a several films, but the ones we just might know (God Created Woman, Contempt) are only critically acclaimed, not necessarily good. Truly, one would have to be 80+ y.o. to have seen them contemporaneously.
And because they are only critically acclaimed, and not what we would call “good entertainment”, only a film afficianado or a goofball like Charlie would have spent time watching them.
She did have some comedy films that were genuine hits in france though.
The same is with her songs. Charlie truly enjoys “La Madrague” and “Bonnie and Clyde” (with Gainsbourg). But whether she had any Top-40 hits, idk.
Like most things french, they tend to be popular mostly just in france. Well, except those Jane Birkin bags by Hermes!
In the end I suspect in the anglo-speaking world she is simply a synonym for “a very sexy, free-spirited female” with 9 out of 10 being unable to identify her picture.
Time marches on.
Yeah, I saw that Action book was coming out. Great that it is for archival reasons but I’m going to wait for Rebellion’s sale to kick in around early Dec 2026 to pick it up.
The only Action strip I really read as a little kid was Hook Jaw, and I already have a collection of that stuff. The rest of it looks interesting - but not necessarily worth full-price in these cash-strapped days.
I'm putting down that hotel kettle. Sean's found something better to boil my piss.
Charlie - Phrases like Continental Quilt (for duvet), and going on/to 'the Continent', for holidays, used to 'other' Europe, over here!
I can't recall watching any Bardot films.
Actors' "opinions" should never be taken seriously. Being controversial is just attention-seeking, for thesps. Do they do it when their careers are on a high? - No. Them not getting any press, is when they start doing it, then they can't stop. For actors, attention's their currency, right from early childhood - it's like oxygen for them - and everything they say or do is geared towards attention!
Isn't Britt Ekland ( Wicker Man/Man With the GG) a Poundshop Bardot, of sorts - her face, at least?
I suppose nobody under 70 really knows Anita Ekberg, either!
M.P. got a discussion going about Excalibur, a while back. On the Arthurian movies theme, I watched 'King Arthur', last night, and it was a lot better than I expected. I normally think Clive Owen & Keira Knightly are totally crap, as actors, but the film held together quite well, and I managed to watch it right until the end. Why the Anglo-Saxons were invading from north of Hadian's wall totally eluded me, however!
Phillip
Charlie - As regards internationally popular French things - the Citroen 2CV's iconic, for car fans. Various food items - croissant, baguettes, brie, etc. French bread pizzas - an 80s uk fad! Mirage fighters - international sales success. Literature/pop culture - Dumas - The 3 Musketeers - one of the most famous books ever! French singer Sasha Distel (spelled wrong, I imagine) - briefly very UK popular, when I was a kid! Charles Aznavour?
Phillip
Ah yes, we all said "continental quilt" back in the '70s.
Phillip, you forgot brioche - I bought two packs of brioche rolls from Tesco only yesterday.
Is 'King Arthur' the film in which Arthur is a Roman soldier or am I thinking of something else?
Some jokes from my Penguin selection box...
Why do penguins make good racing car drivers?
They are always in pole position.
Why don't penguins play football?
There's snowball.
Who is a penguin's favourite relative?
Aunt Arctica (they could also have said Auntie Freeze).
Colin - Yes - Arthur & his knights are Roman soldiers, but recruited from conquered nation 'Salmatia' (?) - an important distinction, in the film!
Phillip
Phillip, I haven't actually seen 'King Arthur' but I remember reading the back of the DVD box in a shop (possibly the Virgin Megastore) many years ago.
Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You has now spent a combined total of 21 weeks at #1 on America's Billboard Hot 100 - more than any other song in the Hot 100's history.
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