The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1976.

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

***

Cinema!

What a magnificent art form it is!

And just how magnificent was it in August 1976?

It was this magnificent!

The month saw the release of such gems as Obsession, The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West, The Return of a Man Called Horse, The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, The Gumball Rally, Gator and The Shootist.

Come to think of it, I don't recall ever having seen even one of those films.

I shall, therefore, assume the best of them to be The Shootist, simply because it has a serious title and, as we all know, serious films must be better than other films or they wouldn't be allowed to make them.

But what's this?

An adaptation of Anna Sewell's classic novel?

By Marvel Comics?

I'd assumed Black Beauty was one of these things - like Follyfoot - that was only famous in Britain. How little I knew.

I also know little of the plot of the original novel. Regardless, Naunerle Farr and Rudy Nebres give us their take on the timeless tale of equine 'eroics.

Tom Sawyer also receives the Marvel treatment when Irwin Shapiro and E. R. Cruz remind us of the adventures of Mark Twain's famously youthful character.

After all that classic fare, normal Marvel business is resumed with Woodgod making his debut in a tale that some may find a little pretentious but I remember being very much taken with, as a youth.

And it all happens when Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen reveal that a strange being, created by two scientists, so perturbs the local townsfolk that they break into the lab that spawned him and accidentally unleash an experimental nerve gas that wipes out the whole community!

It's back to the adaptations.

But will Herman Melville's legendarily unreadable novel prove to be any more user-friendly in its comic book form?

I'm sure that Irwin Shapiro and Alex Niño will do their best to make it so.

And still the great literature keeps coming. I'm starting to doubt that all these publications really did come out at once and am starting to suspect the Grand Comics Database has misled me on the matter.

Regardless, John Fago and E. R. Cruz perform the honours in this one, as Lemuel Gulliver has trouble knowing just what size he needs to be to fit in with the modern world.

Dauntless Don McGregor and fearless Frank Robbins lend us a tale that I'm struggling to recall in detail but I do, at least, recall reviewing it, right here.

From memory, I think my main complaint was that it doesn't contain enough words on every page to satisfy the true Don McGregor aficionado.

Issue #2 of Jack Kirby's latest project arrives - and things start to kick up a gear when Ikaris opens a resurrection chamber and revives the long-sleeping Ajak.

 But just what are they going to do about the Celestial Arishem who, it's announced, will stand on a plinth for fifty years before deciding whether Earth lives or dies?

But, hold on. Right now, as I write this deathless prose, it's exactly fifty years later!

That means he's about to make his decision, Right now!

My memories of this one are limited but I do recall that we get to meet The Man Who Created the Black Widow.

Black Goliath has his work cut out when the man it always takes Daredevil at least six pages to stop shows up and his Z-Ray causes the disappearance of our hero, Celia Jackson and Keith!

Good God, no. Not Keith!

The Marvel Lucky Bag - July 1976.

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

***

It's July 1976 and there's a record-breaking heatwave going on.

I know; I'll take refuge in a cinema. It's always cold in cinemas. Just like it's always cold in any hotel room I find myself in.

But what shall I see in that cinema?

I may see one of the following, as they're all films released in that very month. Cannonball, Gus, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars & Motor Kings, A*P*E and St. Ives. I'm sorry. Are these actual real films? They all sound like they were created by a random name generator.

Fortunately, there were some films with sensible titles released that month. Films I've heard of. Films that actually turn up on TV. And amongst those were At the Earth's Core, Futureworld and Squirm.

I must confess to never having seen Squirm, as it seems like the sort of film I wouldn't enjoy watching, but I have seen Futureworld and At the Earth's Core and, of course, approve of them both.

Of the pair, I think I shall nominate Futureworld as my Steve Does Comics Film of the Month, simply because I feel it's an unfairly dismissed movie and someone has to speak up for it at some point.

No bear is safe with Red Sonja around!

Not even the ones that are gods.

Not when she spots the chance to pick up a financial reward from the people of a nearby town.

It's great news for all lovers of Erich von Däniken when a brand new book hits our lives and Jack Kirby delivers his take on the Ancient Astronaut theory and reveals that Earth isn't only the domain of humans but is also the playground of Eternals and Deviants, and that giant space gods are coming back to, literally, stand in judgement on us all!

People may be aware I'm not the greatest Invaders fan - especially with it being blessed by the quirky art of Frank Robbins - but how can I ignore this issue when it features what I assume to be the first appearance of none other than Baron Blood himself?

And I've never been a huge fan of Deathlok either but I must confess that's an eye-catching cover by Rich Buckler who's clearly decided to demonstrate he can be Jim Steranko as well as Jack Kirby.

As for the story, it would appear that our hero fights and defeats the first Luther Manning clone!

Following that, he runs into someone called Godwulf. An event that causes people to think our protagonist is dead!

Deathlok may not be dead but this comic is, as I have to announce this would appear to be the last issue of the current run of Astonishing Tales.

The Thing battles the Basilisk in the Savage Land before they get teleported to New York where Spider-Man shows up and joins the fight against the villain who's getting ready to destroy the city.

Spider-Man appearing in the Thing's team-up book does, of course, open up the way for a neat idea. Which is for the Thing to appear, simultaneously, in Spider-Man's team-up book!

And that means yet more battling with the baffling Basilisk!

I was never into the Black Panther/Ku Klux Klan story line but even I must admit that's a dramatic cover by Rowdy Rich Buckler.

From what I can gather, inside this epic, Monica Lynne's mother tells her about a Klan attack during the Reconstruction era and, for some reason, the singer re-imagines it with the Panther involved.

Satana gets to hog this month's Marvel Preview - and does so thanks to a tale in which four sorcerers trap her in an hallucination that causes her to think she's a fully-human woman called Judith Camber.

For some reason, every time I proofread this post, I misread that as, "Judith Chalmers," which, for British readers, would give the story a whole other vibe.

Elsewhere, the mag also gives us The Sword in the Star!: Stave 2: Witchworld!

I have no idea what happens in that one.

And Daredevil celebrates his fourth-ever annual by getting into a scrap with the Black Panther and Sub-Mariner during a drama I remember being reprinted in one of the Marvel UK annuals.

Sadly, I recall little of the tale itself, other than extortion being involved and it being called The Name of the Game is... Death!

The Marvel Lucky Bag - June 1976.

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

***

June 1976 saw no shortage of movie releases for us to treasure - and even to watch.

Amongst the most high-profile of them were: Breaking Point, Ode to Billy Joe, The Cars That Ate Paris, Silent Movie, The Food of the Gods, The Big Bus, Logan's Run, Murder by Death, Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, The Omen and The Outlaw Josey Wales.

It was also a month that saw the re-release of A Clockwork Orange, meaning that, now, at last, a whole new audience could discover just what all the fuss was about. 

Of the above-mentioned films, I shall nominate The Big Bus as the Steve Does Comics Movie of the Month, despite not having seen it in at least forty years.

The cover declares this book be a big blazing battle ish and I believe it, even though I don't have a clue what happens in it. 

Well, that's not quite true. I do know Red Wolf shows up. But I only know that because it says so on the big blazing battle cover.

I also know that someone called Madame Menace appears.

I am going to assume she's a bad guy and that she's not related to Madame MacEvil.

But what's this?

"Don't dare peek at our shocking final page!"?

What on Earth could it possibly contain?

And, if I did peek at it, would I ever recover my senses again?

It's that one we all love and cherish, as the Guardians find themselves on an alien world that's evolved to be just like Earth - or, at least, New York City.

And then turns out to be a lunatic asylum.

Oh the bitter satire.

As far as I'm aware, all that unpleasantness with the Magus and Thanos is over, leaving our hero free to blunder into a whole load of other unpleasantness.

One that features the villain we can only know as the Star-Thief!

I must confess I'd totally forgotten Weird Wonder Tales existed but here it is, back again and, seemingly, riding on the Jaws bandwagon when a woman offers a diver $10,000 to kill a shark but he, instead, uncovers a smuggling ring!

Following that, a mysterious package is delivered to the office of the heroine we know as Venus, and she and the delivery man are nearly driven mad by the evil force contained within it!

Finally, an artist finds an alien pencil that makes real whatever he draws. But his selfish use of it soon leads to his loss of it.

All of these tales are, as you may have guessed, reprints and sourced from the 1950s and 1960s.

History is made.

And so is the future.

Jack Kirby brings us his mammoth-sized adaptation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001, via the medium of an 84-page Treasury Edition.

And, not only do we get that, we're also treated to David Anthony Kraft's retrospective upon the film itself.

It's all the dinosaur action we could ever need when the Thing visits the Savage Land, seeking out the source of volcanic eruptions that threaten to destroy the whole world!

This can only lead he and Ka-Zar to the villain called Volcanus!

It's the one we've all been waiting for, when, at last, we're told the origin of Old Skull and of how he first got to meet Killraven!

The cover informs me that I demanded to see Moon Knight in non-stop solo action for the first time.

I must confess I don't remember demanding it but I'm sure Marvel wouldn't lie to me.

Therefore, I shall look forward to it appearing in my local newsagents - and then I can read of how he tries to prevent the Conquer-Lord from assassinating the mayor!

Last month, he got to meet Killraven.

And, this month, thanks to his random time-travelling, Spider-Man gets to meet Deathlok.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - May 1976.

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

***

Guess how many of the following films I've ever seen.

Grizzly, The Missouri Breaks, Embryo, Drive-In, Mother, Jugs & Speed, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, Leadbelly and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.

That's right. I've not seen a single one of them. Although I have, at least, heard the Sad Cafe Song inspired by The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.

Such filmic ignorance makes me wonder just what I was doing in May 1976, seeing as that was the month in which they were all released.

And not just those.

For it was also a period that unleashed a film called Hawmps! upon us. All I know of it is it starred James Hampton, Christopher Connelly, Slim Pickens and Denver Pyle, and the internet informs me it's an American Western comedy inspired by the United States Camel Corps. I can, therefore, only view it as the American equivalent of Carry On Follow that Camel.

But wait a minute.

I do know what I was doing, that month.

I was reading Marvel comics!

Melodrama hits heights never before dreamt of in human history, as the latest Marvel Treasury Edition reprints the whole of the original Mangog Saga!

Can human hearts withstand such a strain?

More to the point, can the mighty Thor withstand Mangog's knuckles?

We all love Gene Colan and Tom Palmer drawing Dr Strange.

We all love Gene Colan and Tom Palmer drawing Dracula.

Why not have them draw both in one comic?

That's exactly what we get when the lord of the undead comes up against the master of the mystic arts.

And, somehow, wins!

There's never a dull moment for Killraven - and, this month the defender of our world discovers a Martian nursery.

However, judging by that cover, it seems Carmilla Frost doesn't approve of his plan to kill all of its Martian babies.

The fight against bigotry continues, as the Panther decides to interrupt a Ku Klux Klan rally.

That memorable cover's credited to Frank Thorne although it's clear John Romita's done a sizeable amount of work on it.

As for the insides, the flaming-follicled foiler of fiends, foes, folderols, flibbertigibbets and reckless prestidigitators enters a town that's being pestered by a Gorgon!

It's the team-up that had to happen!

Said no one ever.

However, it's happened, nonetheless, as everyone's favourite web-slinger finds himself in the future, only to discover it's been invaded by Martians and, now, he must join forces with the man we all know as Killraven.

Malcolm McNeill produces a memorable cover before we enter the mag and encounter Society of the Psychedrome and SFX on the Planet of the Apes.

Not to mention Army of Slaves! which only happens to be Part 5 of Marvel's adaptation of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes!

The Marvel Lucky Bag - April 1976.

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

***

How many films have I seen that came out in April 1976?

None.

Am I going to let that prevent me from mentioning them?

Why would I let it do that? After all, among those movies were such imperishables as The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, The Bad News Bears, All the President's Men, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Eat My Dust! and Hollywood Boulevard.

Based on my zero experience of them, I'm going to assume the best of that bunch was All the President's Men.

But what of comics?

Laughing Bob Larkin gives us a cover we'll never forget, as Planet of the Apes hits its 19th issue.

And it does so by presenting us with the twin adventures Demons of the Psychedrome and The Savage is King! I believe that at least one of those tales involves Jason and Alexander.

But this is a magazine. And that means it also gives us articles. And that means this issue presents us with The Written Worlds of the Apes in which Jim Whitmore reviews several paperbacks linked to the franchise.

And what's this?

A devil-hound? Loose on the moors?

It can only be a job for Sherlock Holmes, as unleashed upon us by Dashing Doug Moench and Vivacious Val Mayerik.

You may have thought The Invaders was all the Golden Age heroic action you needed from Marvel but it turns out you were wrong because the Liberty Legion turn up to do something or other, fashioned by the fingers of Roy Thomas and Don Heck.

I must disgracefully admit I've never seen the movie version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

In fact, the only time I've ever encountered Captain Nemo on celluloid is in Mysterious island.

Fortunately Otto Binder, Romy Gamboa and Ernie Patricio are here to let us know just what happens in the book, thanks to their thrilling adaptation of it.

Come to think of it, I've never seen any movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame either.

But, yet again, Marvel has come to my rescue, as Naunerle Farr and June Lofamia give us their version of events.

I have, however, seen the Time Machine.

In fact, I've seen both film versions of it and can declare I prefer the first.

But here's another stab at the beast. This time, delivered by Otto Binder and Alex Niño, in which a Victorian scientist travels to the far future and has an adventure upon which the fate of what's left of humanity must rest.

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was, indisputably, not a patch on Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde but it did its best.

And you know who else are doing their best? Kin Platt and Nestor Redondo, as they bring us their vision of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of potions gone wrong.

Not content with that, Marvel brings us its adaption of Tarzan.

I mean, The Land that Time Forgot.

I mean, its tale of Ka-Zar having a fight with a pterodactyl over the streets of London, thanks to Klaw and his new business partner from another dimension being up to no good. 

It's all drama drama drama for our hero.

After Radion blows up the Post Office Tower, I Ron Fist has to find a way to stop the nuclear nincompoop before he does even more damage to London's skyline.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1976.

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

***

Contrary to popular rumour, caves are not available to us all.

But there are things that resemble caves.

They call them cinemas.

And what shall we find if we enter the cinemas of March 1976?

We'll find such attractions as The First Nudie Musical, Black Shampoo, Creature From Black Lake, Robin and Marian, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Slipper and the Rose and, of course, W.C. Fields and Me. For, it was in that month they were all first released.

Of them, I've seen only The Man Who Fell to Earth - but not for about 45 years and can, therefore, offer few cogent thoughts upon it.

But you know upon what I can be cogent?

Comics!

A hero like no other makes his debut, as Omega the Unknown smashes his way into our lives.

Gasp as Omega does whatever it is that Omega does. And shriek as he doesn't do whatever it is he doesn't do.

I think I've only ever read one issue of his book and, thus, my knowledge and memories of him are fuzzy but I do believe he's from outer space and has ended up on Earth, whereupon he has immediately set about fighting crime, in a distinctly enigmatic manner.

Also, a young boy's involved but I struggle to remember just what he has to do with it all and why.

I've chosen this one because I remember its Jack Kirby pencilled cover appearing in an issue of FOOM, and liking it there.

But it's not whether you're beautiful on the outside that matters. It's whether you're beautiful on the inside. So, just how pleasing are the innards of this one?

Thinking about it, I don't know - and the internet's refusing to tell me - but I think it's a safe bet the Red Skull's involved.

And it seems the Fin, the Patriot and Miss America also put in an appearance.

Readers may be intrigued to hear that Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers provide the artwork.

It's a tale we'll never forget.

And that's good news because it means I haven't forgotten it.

The gang are eagerly pursuing their long-term strategy of aimlessly wandering around, when they encounter a man who's only going to live for 24 hours and must find a mate in that time, or watch his species go extinct.

As Carmilla Frost is the only woman around, that means she finds herself getting volunteered for the role.

Needless to say KR and his mates are not going to put up with that kind of thing.

But can they stop the 24-hour Man's mother, who happens to be a giant, mutant-dragon thing?

Skull the Slayer's still doing stuff that Ka-Zar could be doing.

This time, he's up against some sort of Egyptian type people and someone called Slitherogue who I suspect will be a victim of nominative determinism and will both slither and be a rogue.

But what's this? The Black Knight's also in action? I'm going to assume it's a reprint of a venerable and ancient tale.

The world's greatest non-team continue their idiosyncratic lives, as they battle the Headmen, in a bid to rescue Kyle Richmond's all-important brain.

Only to see it fall into the hands of Nebulon!

I've never read this one. So, all I can announce is it's by Steve Gerber and Frank Brunner and guest stars the unstoppable horror that is the Space Turnip!

And it's another one I've never read.

But I do believe that, in Bruce Jones' and Frank Thorne's mini-epic, Red Sonja must stop a mechanical man called Balek.