Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
A member of the public would have noted that revolt was in the air, this week, fifty years ago. Not only did Argentina's military depose president Isabel PerĂ³n, a general strike broke out in the People's Republic of the Congo.
But also, it was a month in which Britain's General Bernard Montgomery died, aged 88, at his home in Hampshire.
And what of the music charts?
The Brotherhood of Man demonstrated the wisdom of mimicking Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree, when their noticeably similar Save Your Kisses For Me elevated itself to the top spot on the UK singles chart.
But the status quo was not disturbed on the accompanying album rankings, as the week saw Blur For You by the undisturbed Status Quo retain the Number One position it had seized the week before.
Arkon may be back but, far more importantly, this is the week in which we get to find out if we're Mastermind finalists!
As I've never entered Mastermind, I'm assuming I'm not.
But I do know what my specialist subject would be.
It'd be this issue of The Avengers, even though I've never read it.
And that's why I can tell you that Conan finds himself caught up in an adventure the world can only know as The Warrior and the Were-Woman.
Elsewhere, when the Black Knight's captured by the forces of Arkon, while trying to dispose of his cursed sword, the Avengers know they must visit Arkon's dimension and punch the perpetrator in the gob.
But can even they prevail against the man-manipulating prowess of the Enchantress?
Across the Atlantic from all that, Iron Fist lands at Heathrow Airport - only for it to be destroyed by a man who calls himself the Ravager.
Not only that, this is the week in which we discover Misty Knight has a bionic arm!
She certainly kept that one up her sleeve.
But there's more than even that because, as a bonus feature, the Phantom Eagle's in sensational World War One action, thanks to Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe.
Jason and Alexander are back and having a trip up a river, in the company of an ape called Gunpowder Julius.
Following his recent adventures abroad, Ka-Zar's back in the Savage Land.
But he's already attracted the attention of the red Wizard and his servant Maa-Gor the man-ape.
And, looking to foil Killmonger's latest plans, the Black Panther must fight a T-Rex!
But I do believe the lord of vampires is elsewhere engaged, after agreeing to kill a bunch of men, on behalf of a fashion designer who says she can help him find Dr Sun.
Elsewhere, a legend is born when a man called Moon Knight turns up at Jack Russell's home, looking to abduct him on behalf of someone called the Committee.
The Man-Thing finds himself in a narrative that seems strangely familiar when a space vessel lands in the swamp, containing a youth called Wundarr who's been sent to Earth because his scientist parents realised their world was about to be destroyed by a huge natural disaster.
And now he's dressed like an American footballer!
And it all starts when Bruce Banner stows away on a ship - only to discover it's on a deliberate collision course with a nuclear bomb test!
And it's all drama at Karen Page's family home too. No sooner has she got there than a brand-new villain called Death's Head shows up - threatens her and announces he's kidnapped her father!
Meanwhile, Crystal's still looking to become a member of the Fantastic Four, and gets her chance to prove herself when the Wizard attacks their HQ.
And, this time, it's serious! This time, he's got an improved pair of Wonder Gloves!
It's a terrible confession but I long ago discovered that, whenever I try to type, "Super-Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes," I always manage to manage to mistype it as, "Super Spider-Man with the Super-Herpes."
It's a terrible mistake but I remain convinced it's not as terrible as the one Spider-Man's making by swinging straight towards someone who's got a machine gun.
Regardless, what this cover tells us is that Hammerhead's made his UK debut - and has done so by getting himself into a war with Doc Ock!
Elsewhere, Dr Strange confronts Death and takes refuge inside the form of Eternity!
While, on a rather less grand plane of existence, the Mandarin hatches a plot to expose Tony Stark as Iron Man!
And things get tense for Thor when he finds himself on the Stranger's home planet and having to face the menace of the Abomination!
But, somewhere else entirely, the Thing, Captain America and Sharon Carter have travelled to the year 3018 and are now set upon helping the Guardians of the Galaxy free the Earth from the clutches of the Badoon.
When the Banshee's captured by factor Three's Spider-Bot, the X-Men wrongly think Spider-Man's to blame and, inevitably, a fight breaks out.
There's no rest for Captain America either. No sooner has he been attacked by the Adaptoid in the Avengers' Mansion than a villain called the Tumbler shows up and a three-way tussle breaks out.
Needless to say, Cap's more than a match for both his opponents.
Just as Subby's sure to be more than a match for whatever undersea menace he's offing this week.
I do believe Nick Fury and SHIELD enter a swamp, in a bid to find the HQ of Them.
And Captain Marvel and Rick Jones must survive an encounter with Dr Mynde and Madame Synn who have ambitions to take over the world.






In that Avengers story, the Black Knight's speech is one of Marvel's most blatant Moorcock rip-offs. His sword's cursed; it's black; it's struggling to take possession of him (I forget the exact wording). Why didn't Roy Thomas just call the Black Knight's sword "Stormbringer", and have done with it?
ReplyDeleteCould Hammerhead be an Edward G. Robinson pastiche?
Phillip
I've just checked - the Black Knight's trying to destroy his sword, in the Well of Time, but can't. Is he the master, or his sword - whose will rules?
ReplyDeleteWell, Elric's tried to cast away Stormbringer, but it came back. And it's black - and it's cursed.
That's my theory - and I'm sticking to it!
Phillip
I can honestly say I never noticed any similarity between Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree and Save Your Kisses For Me! Poor Brotherhood Of Man were constantly accused of being an ABBA rip-off (even though BOM existed before ABBA) and now they are accused of being a Dawn rip-off!
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, was Save Your Kisses For Me the best UK Eurovision winner?
The other four UK winners being...
ReplyDeletePuppet On A String - Sandie Shaw (1967)
Boom Bang-A-Bang - Lulu (1969)
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz (1981)
Love Shine A Light - Katrina & The Waves (1997)
Colin, of those I would say that Boom Bang-A-Bang is the best track.
ReplyDeletePhillip, the antagonist in that Avengers story is a blatant Conan rip-off. Therefore, I'm sure you're correct in thinking rascally Roy was not above ripping-off Moorcock while he was at it.
Colin, I liked them all but I think my fav was "Making your mind up" . 1981 was around the last time I watched the show I personally find the music mostly bland then again I'm an old man it's not aimed at me.
ReplyDeleteCharlie just learned that his favorite mis- utilized character – Sunfire – had his legs cut off a few years ago. Was Conway the editor of that too?
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say on the British Eurovision entries is 'Royaume Uni - nul points!'
ReplyDeleteSteve, my understanding is that the general strike in the Peoples Republic of the Congo is that it happened because the president was out of action after a helicopter crash, and it was part of an on going squabble that got out of control between two different factions of the ruling Labour Party - the pro-Soviet mainstream, and the Maoist lefties.
It all ended when the president was assassinated the next year, and it seems that actually whole thing might have been part of a plot by their former colonial rulers - the French - to seize the oil rich province of Carbinda, a non-contiguous part of Angola that was on the border between the Peoples Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire).
Oil wars, eh? Wouldn't it be a lot easier just to pay market prices?
-sean
On the subject of imperialists, Steve, believe it or not I actually have a book about General Montgomery. Admittedly I got it for the pictures, seeing as it reprints a comic strip biography drawn by Frank Bellamy. Which is amazing.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, take a look at some of the artwork here -
https://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/2017/02/centenary-article-frank-bellamy-and.html
And thats from 1962! Bellamy has to be the greatest comic artist ever.
-sean
Man Sean - that Bellamy art is superlative!!! Was the writing good too? Is his work gathered in a reprint of some sort. No way Charlie’s gonna find all those Eagles on ebay!
ReplyDeleteHere, on my website, are the two reprints of Montgomery to date: https://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/p/reprints.html#Eagle13-10
ReplyDeleteAnd actually a lot of Bellamy's Eagles sold at auction recently, and you are only looking for 18 issues of Eagle! It's my favourite of all his work. ~Norman
Charlie, the book with the Montgomery strip is called High Command, and also includes the Eagle's Bellamy drawn biography of Churchill. It's covered on Norman's site here -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/2014/04/frank-bellamy-and-high-command.html
The writing... well, it's very much an of the era British boys comic approach to history, back when WW2 was very much a living memory for most people, and the empire was still - just about - a thing (even though decolonisation was well underway).
You won't find out about the Black and Tans, or Bengal famine in the Churchill strip... But it looks great!
It was a mass market book at the time, so used copies are probably aren't too hard to find. And won't cost as much as the limited edition Heros the Spartan book of about ten years ago (a bit pricey even when knew).
Its worth searching Norman's site to see a bit of Heros the Spartan btw, surely Bellamy's greatest work. Its a bit ridiculous given how many old comics are available as reprints these days, and yet one of the best looking ever has only been collected and reprinted ONCE - in a small run! - since its original appearance in the early 60s... Ok, rant over (;
-sean
*Even when new
Delete#@£%ing spellcheck. Although a couple of other typos are mine. Duh.
-sean
As an aside, Charlie cannot recall Marvel or DC or Charlton or Gold Key or Dell or… publishing biographies of military heroes?
ReplyDeleteCharlie does know that the Catholic comic book company which published TREASURE CHEST Certainly had Comic books in the 50s and 60s that focused on famous military battles and presumably the generals or individual soldiers of WW2.
It seems perhaps ironic that a religious comic would feature factual war stories… Or not?
As a second aside, the very great REED CRANDALL did the art work for various issues of TREASURE CHEST war-story comics. He was a QUALITY COMICS artist who mainly drew BLACKHAWKS in MODERN, MILITARY, and BLACKHAWK comics in the 40s and 50s until DC acquired the rights.
This week marks 40 years since Living Doll by Cliff Richard & The Young Ones reached #1 in the UK...
ReplyDeleteAnd it's 80 years since the first ever broadcast of "Letter From America" by Alistair Cooke. His weekly broadcasts lasted for 58 years until February 2004 and BBC Radio 4-Extra has featured some of them all this week including the very final one in which Cooke ponders whether George W Bush will get re-elected in November 2004 but that wasn't supposed to be the final edition - Cooke had planned a final edition in which he would announce his retirement but some idiot from the BBC leaked it and Cooke was so annoyed that he refused to record the planned farewell edition which is a pity because he died only a month later, aged 95, without ever recording a proper final "Letter From America".
Thanks, Norman. :)
ReplyDeleteColin - I've got plenty of Alistair Cooke discs/tapes myself. Also, a book collection of his!
ReplyDeletePhillip
British Summer Time begins at 2am today (March 29th) so clocks go forward one hour!
ReplyDeleteIf UK readers are interested, Saturday night's ARCHIVE ON 4 on Radio 4 was all about the history of the BBC Maida Vale studios which recorded everything from John Peel sessions and the Beatles to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Dr Who sound effects!
ReplyDeleteColin, thanks for the heads-up about the clocks. I'd totally forgotten about it.
ReplyDeleteColin! Thanks! CH
ReplyDelete