Fifty years ago this month - March 1969.

If you were in Yorkshire in March 1969, I hope you were good at running because it was the month in which Britain's tallest structure, the 1,263 ft tall Emley Moor TV transmitter fell over, thanks to wind, ice and, "oscillation." Happily, no one was hurt and it was soon rebuilt, although a church did get clobbered in the incident.

In Toulouse, France, another major product of 20th Century engineering was having far more luck at the time. It was there, in that month, that the first Concorde test flight was conducted.

Also hoping to fly high that March, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at London's Marylebone register office and, not to be outdone, mere days later, John Lennon married Yoko Ono, in Gibraltar.

Just over the border from John and Yoko, in Spain, Lulu also had something to celebrate, thanks to Boom Bang-a-Bang sharing first place in the Eurovision Song Contest, in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the host country.

Elsewhere, the first B&Q DIY superstore was launched, in Southampton, while NASA did a spot of DIY themselves and launched Apollo 9, in order to test the lunar module.

I often complain of months in which nothing happens that interests me but I can't make that complaint about March 1969. It was clearly jam-packed with incident.

And, you know what?

I have a feeling I'm going to be able to say the same about the Marvel comics whose corner boxes bore that month's name.

The mendacious Man-Ape makes his debut and gives the Avengers (and the Black Knight) far more trouble than he really should do.

But it could, I suppose, be seen as a precursor to T'Challa's later problems in Don McGregor's Panther's Rage.

Clearly, there's a warning for him in this tale, about the dangers of ignoring his kingdom. A warning he fatally fails to learn from.

Hooray! Cap and Ricky team up to take on the assembled hordes of Hydra, thanks to the pencils of Jim Steranko.

How well does working with Rick go for Cap?

I'm not saying. I shall merely point out that, at the end of this tale, the star-spangled Avenger opts to commit suicide by diving into a hail of bullets

Barry Smith makes his Daredevil debut, as our hero finds himself attacked by a deadly robot.

Smith's debt to Jack Kirby is obvious in these pages but, even at this early stage, his stylish layouts betray a greater level of ambition than might first meet the eye.

It's the first FF tale I read after their strip moved to The Titans from Mighty World of Marvel. The fabulous foursome find themselves as guests of Dr Doom in a tale based on The Prisoner.

Can they escape his malevolent machinations?

And will the absence of Sue prove to be significant?

The Hulk returns to Earth and promptly bumps into the Sandman who convinces him he's his only friend and recruits him to attack Thunderbolt Ross's base, so he can steal some secret device or other.

You would have thought that, by now, the Hulk would have learnt how to distinguish between friends and foes. Generally speaking, if someone calls you a, "Brainless dolt," upon first encountering you, then tries to murder you, he's probably not your friend.

The Mandarin's out to reveal to the world that Tony Stark is Iron Man but the industrious industrialist foils him by wearing a rubber mask and getting an LMD to take his place.

The only problem is that, when the LMD stops moving and lies on the floor, with no heartbeat, everyone assumes Tony Stark has died. How's he going to get out of this one?

Spidey finds himself lumbered with that ancient tablet which contains the secret to immortality.

More significantly, this issue sees the first (off-camera) appearance of the Kingpin's wife and also gives J Jonah Jameson a heart attack when Spidey snaps and threatens him. Has it happened? Has the webbed wonder finally become the killer Jameson has always claimed him to be?

Unless I miss my guess, we get the first part of the origin of Galactus, which isn't a very good origin. Basically, he's just some bloke who got super-powers, thanks to radiation. So he's basically Peter Parker on a big scale.

The Living Pharaoh's on the loose again but no one cares about that bum. What really matters is it's the issue in which Scott's brother Alex learns the truth about Scott and his membership of the X-Men.

It's also the issue whose back-up strip features the origin of the Angel.

My adventures in DIY - and Giant-Size Marvel canvas prints.

 To be honest, despite being an internationally reputed blogger, I don't get much excitement in my life. I always wanted to be an explorer but quickly realised that everywhere on Earth had already been discovered - and that anywhere that hadn't, probably didn't have a nice hotel.

But sometimes, excitement enters even my life.

And today was one such day.

For, today, I went to well-known DIY superstore B&Q to look at fence posts, buy a fancy new LED light bulb and one of those little screw-caps you put on the bottom of your boiler to make sure it shall never drip all over your kitchen floor.

I thought this would be the limit of my excitement on such a visit.

But I was wrong.

Why?

Because, barely had I walked in though the door than I noticed something. For £19.98, they're selling walloping big canvases that reproduce classic Marvel covers.

Amongst others, they had Jim Steranko's cover for Giant-Size Hulk #1, Dave Cockrum and Gil Kane's cover for Giant-Size X-Men #1, a Captain America cover and a montage featuring a zillion and one other covers. Truly they were the most magnificent things I have ever seen in my life.

Suddenly I was torn. Should I buy five fence posts or should I spend the money instead on three of those canvases?

In the end, I bought neither. Nor did I buy a light bulb. Nor did I buy a little screw-cap for my boiler. Instead, I popped across the road and bought a packet of Clubs.

When I say, "Clubs," I of course mean the well-known brand of biscuits, not the things you use for beating seals to death. I must confess there are few seals choose to live round my way and, even if they did, I doubt I'd beat them to death, as they have happy smiley little faces, like babies.

Anyway, there you are. If you desire to have giant canvas reproductions of classic Marvel covers on your walls, you know where to go.

Here's a photo of the montage canvas, which I've purloined from B&Q's Pinterest page. As I'm giving them a plug - and possibly boosting their trade - I assume they won't mind me borrowing it.