Fifty years ago today - July 1976.

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

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Hooray!

It's July!

Already!

And we all know what's significant about that month!

It's the first month of the year!

And that means it's the one in which we all rush out and buy ourselves a brand new calendar!

And what better one to buy, here in 1976, than the one that Marvel Comics has issued to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the United States of Statesland declaring independence from the United Britain of Kingdoms!

And what a publication it is, packed solid with images of our favourite heroes - and Toro - as, month by month, it takes us through significant moments in both the history of the War of Independence and the history of Marvel and its creators.

Granted, there are some strangenesses, such as its depiction of Conan and the Black Panther leading the revolutionary charge. I'm not totally sure just when either of them became American.

But the good news for those with fond memories of that calendar is that, once again, it can be yours - and in pristine condition because Marvel has reissued it to celebrate that nation's 250th birthday and the calendar's 50th - and that brand-new version of it is available from all good retailers, including the likes of eBay and Amazon.

So, that in mind, let's see just what that calendar tells us awaits us in this the month of July.

And, now, the regular stuff.

Isn't this the story in which our favourite team are having all kinds of trouble with Orka the human killer whale until Thor turns up and flattens him before revealing he normally doesn't hit his foes as hard as he could, for fear of hurting them?

Given the threat posed to him by most of his opponents, I find this claim very hard to believe.

Regardless, it starts to raise doubts in the thunder god's mind as to whether he's slumming it by hanging around with mere mortals.

As far as I can make out, June 1976 saw the launch of legendary ITV children's drama serial The Feathered Serpent, starring Patrick Troughton and Diane Keen as the world's most Anglo-Saxon Aztecs.

Meanwhile, Conan's comic that's cover-dated a mere month later shocks us all with its reference to the fiends of the Feathered Serpent.

How can this be mere coincidence?

Apparently, it can be.

As for what happens in it, it would appear our hero establishes himself as the Feargal Sharkey of his generation by saving a village from an evil wizard who's dumping toxic waste in its river.

I've not read this one but the internet informs me that someone called Professor Harding breaks his ties with the Elites and decides to help Cap and Falc do something or other.

Meanwhile, someone called Malcolm orders the activation of the Big Daddy Madbomb.

I do believe this is at least the second time Daredevil's been wrongly accused of murdering the Jester.

And I suspect the villain's ploy will be no more successful this time than it was the first.

As that cover makes clear, It's the one in which Galactus is using the Destroyer as a herald.

More urgently, golden gorilla Gorr's taken the gang to Counter-Earth where they have to quickly prepare for the arrival of the planet-eater himself. 

"The most unexpected barbarian of all!" declares the front cover!

I suspect that's because no one's ever heard of him.

But it would appear that this issue's Conan wannabe is someone called Kronak which is almost an anagram of Arkon and I can shed no more light upon him than that.

The Blood Brothers are back and that's all I know of this one - other than that it's brought to us by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska.

Aunt May's weak heart survives yet another incident that'd inflict total cardiac arrest upon the healthiest of people.

But, meanwhile, it would seem the currently spectral Hammerhead manages to trick Dr Octopus into returning him to the world of the solid!

Nope. No idea what occurs in this issue - but it does look like Thor's finally developed the sense to give Odin the slap he's been asking for ever since he first appeared in the strip.