Happy 40th birthday to The Titans.

Forty years ago this week, the world of comics may not have been turned upside down but it was at least turned over onto its side and left lying there for over a year, as Marvel UK launched a comic like no other.

That comic was The Titans and it didn't just throw the rule book in the bin, it then jumped up and down on that bin, until that bin was nothing more than a crumpled pile of scrap metal, left wondering just what the hell had hit it.

Why? Because, in a moment of mad genius, Marvel UK had decided it'd be a great idea to print a comic sideways.

Why they decided to do this, I have no idea. Perhaps whoever was in charge was in the habit of tipping their TV over while watching it, or perhaps they'd had a lifelong dream of being buried vertically.

If one put no thought into it at all, the advantages of the policy were clear to see. Obviously, by adopting the format and therefore printing two pages side by side on each sheet, it meant they could publish twice as much material as before, at no greater expense.

But it also meant it was guaranteed to run out of reprint material twice as fast as a normal mag.

Considering the problems they'd had with Planet of the Apes running out of reprint material, and that their Super-Heroes title was already reduced to giving us Ant-Man and the Cat in its search for stories, it does seem amazing that this didn't occur to them.

Of course, none of that mattered at all to an eleven year old reader. To an eleven year old, all that mattered was that we suddenly got twice as much entertainment on a Saturday as we could have hoped for.

Bearing in mind that Saturday was a day notorious for giving us nothing to watch on TV until Mick McManus showed up at teatime to forearm smash people in the face, this was a development that could only be welcomed.

Its voracious nature also meant that we got to read the adventures of Marvel's less commercially viable stars like Nick Fury, the Sub-Mariner and the Inhumans.

Unlike The Super-Heroes, The Avengers, Dracula Lives and Savage Sword of Conan, I managed to read the first issue. Not only that but I was grabbed by it at once.

Maybe there was something wrong with me but I actually preferred the smaller artwork it presented us with. I also appreciated the chance to discover the adventures of characters who wouldn't have been able to find house space in comics that could afford to be more choosy about their material. And because of all this, from the moment I first saw it, I had no doubt at all that truly this was a comic that, like Janus the Nega-Man, was destined for greatness.

Well, as it turned out, it wasn't. It lasted barely more than a year before it merged with Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes, which had by then also adopted the sideways format.

For me, its highlights were it introducing me to Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel and Jim Steranko's Captain America, not to mention giving us the last couple of years of Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and also bringing us the conclusion of the Avengers' Kree/Skrull War, a saga that was born in the Avengers' own mag, spent its middle age in the Mighty World of Marvel and finally claimed its death bed in The Titans. You have to hand it to Marvel UK, they could at times be chaotic but they never gave you the chance to get complacent.

So, in the end, The Titans didn't revolutionise comics or even moderately change them but it was, in its time, possibly my favourite Marvel mag, precisely because of the things that wiser men than me might claim were its failings.

October 18th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It's been an exciting week here in 2015, with the revelation that the Kepler space telescope may have discovered evidence of giant artificial structures orbiting a distant star - meaning there may well be intelligent life out there.

But, back in 1975, we knew there was intelligent life down here.

How? Because only the mightiest of intellects could possibly have been behind the treats that awaited us when we opened the covers of Marvel UK's latest output.

It's the Invaders who'll soon be seeing stars, as they foolishly take on the Avengers.

The caption implies that Dracula is inside the room.

The picture implies he's outside the room.

Which is the deadly truth?

I never got to find out, as I never had the comic.

It's more escaping from the Planet of the Apes. Although escaping from the forearm of the apes appears to be a more demanding challenge.

It's a classic tale for Spidey.

But what I remember most about this issue is me suddenly realising that the colours on its cover consisted of tiny dots - and me therefore subsequently trying to colour in a picture by using tiny, hand-drawn dots.

I soon realised that such an act was more trouble than it was worth, and I never again dared repeat such a dread experiment.

Its the return of Tiger Shark - and the return of that cover from just five issues ago. Let's see how they compare.

My knowledge of the Mimic comes entirely from his early 1970s appearance in the Hulk's comic.

I always liked that tale.

Not having read it, I can make no comment about this one.

2000 AD - September 1977.

In September 1977, the real world went well and truly sci-fi as, from Copenhagen to Vladivostok, people witnessed the Petrozavodsk Phenomenon, a UFO event so big and baffling that it's beyond my comprehension and seemingly that of anyone else.

Given such perturbing occurrences, was there anywhere we could find refuge from our extra-terrestrial torment?

Why, yes there was. We could find it by burying ourselves in the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic.

It would seem that this is the issue in which Dave Gibbons took over from Massimo Bellardinelli on the Dan Dare strip.

But who was best? Gibbons or Bellardinelli?

That I cannot answer, as I love them both.

In the meantime, you can read my review of a Bellardinelli Dan Dare story, by clicking on this link.

It's another of those issues whose covers I recognise but whose contents somehow elude my memory.

My hawk-like senses do however detect that Trafalgar Square may be involved.

My extensive research tells me this is the issue in which, Rico - Judge Dredd's clone brother - first appears.

All of which instantly reminds me of Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd movie. It would seem that I'm the only person in the world who likes it. From this, I can only concludes that this makes me a special person with special tastes.

This is one of the 2000 AD covers I remember most strongly.

As always, that means I recall nothing at all of the issue's actual contents or of the story that this cover represents. You have to hand it to this blog, it's nothing if not unenlightening.

October 11th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On October 11th, 1975, Model World made its first appearance on BBC television. In it, Robert Alexander Baron Schutzmann von Schutzmansdorff showed us all how to make a model railway from bits of paper and cardboard.

Believe it or not, this was the most interesting thing that happened in the world on that day.

There was only one thing for it! We were going to have to take refuge in the thrills and spills of Marvel UK, as never before!

The Avengers take on what would become known as the Invaders, in what my razor-sharp senses tell me can only be Blackpool.

Dracula, getting quite trad on that cover.

We're still escaping from the Planet of the Apes.

We're given no clues at all as to what the back-up strips are.

Spidey's up against Morbius, and Iron Man's still up against AIM. This must be the nineteenth consecutive week that shellhead's been up against them.

If we don't count that cover from the other week, Tiger Shark makes what I believe is his Marvel UK debut.

I've always liked Tiger Shark. I admire anyone who wears a fin on his head.

It might be good news for Tiger Shark admirers but it's terrible news for Ant-Man fans. No sooner has he made his debut than he turns into Giant-Man.

I'm not sure why the Cat's been coloured green on two consecutive covers, when her costume was yellow in the US originals. Whatever the reason, you can read my review of that origin of the Cat, right here.

It does strike me that all the heroes on this cover ended up being replaced in their roles by someone else. The Original X-Men were replaced by the New X-Men, Greer Nelson was replaced as the Cat by Patsy Walker's Hellcat, and Hank Pym was replaced as Ant-Man by Scott Lang. It seems that birds of a feather really do flock together.

Forty years ago today - October 1975.

Holy High Density PolyEthylene, Batman, it's been an exciting week here in England, with the introduction of the five pence charge for plastic carrier bags.

Sadly, thanks to having a great mountain of carrier bags at home, stored inside another mountain of carrier bags, I fear it'll be a good twenty years before I get round to actually buying one.

But what of October of forty years ago? Could our favourite heroes manage to match such heights of excitement?

There's only one way to find out.

In a shocking twist capable of wrenching a man's sanity from his very brain, the Vision carries out a manoeuvre that's known in the trade as The Reverse Neal Adams.

I seem to recall that this issue features a giant scorpion and a killer shadow.

Admittedly, the cover makes that fairly obvious but I'm still impressed by my feat of memory.

Is it my imagination or did Cap come up against that robot, way back in Jack Kirby's time on the strip, when Nick Fury was offering him a job with SHIELD?

If he's called The Torpedo, does that mean he has to keep being fired from a submarine?

Having to be fired from a submarine every time you want to go anywhere must start to get quite tiresome for a man after a while.

It's the moment we've all been waiting for, as Gaard shows up.

Next issue, the FF find themselves up against the deadly threat of Wikketkeeper - and, the issue after, they're facing the terrifying menace of Centralholdingmidfielda.

Iron Man finds himself battling a pair of foes I have never heard of before.

To be honest, I'd stay away from any mountain called Murder Mountain. I might suspect it's not very safe.

At last we get a conclusion to the Jackal saga - and the truth about the return of Gwen Stacy.

Not to mention the launchpad of the Clone Saga that everyone loved so much.

Isn't this the story where, for some reason, Odin decides to do to himself what he did to Thor when he banished him to Earth and made him be Don Blake?

No doubt that, by doing so, he needlessly puts the whole universe in massive amounts of danger and then, after Thor's sorted it all out for him, decides to punish him for it.

You can always rely on Odin to be a complete and total imbecile at all times.

Only the other day, I was saying I've always wanted to be an Ani-Man, and now here they are, back again.

You do have to fear though that if they couldn't beat Daredevil, they must have little chance against the all-new X-Men.

The Hulk comes up against the Loch Ness Monster.

Tragically, much as TV dramas and sitcoms filmed in Sheffield never admit they're set in Sheffield, so the tale never admits it's the Loch Ness Monster.

Still, the tale does at least compensate us for that by giving us the most painstakingly researched portrayal of Scottish people since James Doohan prowled the corridors of the Enterprise and kept calling everyone, "Wee Laddie."

Fifty years ago today - October 1965.

October 1965 was a great month if you were a tall thing. Not only did London's Post Office Tower open but St Louis' Gateway Arch topped-out and Wales' tallest structure the Moel-y-Parc transmitter was first activated.

But what of our favourite Marvel heroes of this month of fifty years ago?

Were they too standing tall?

Or were they brought low by life's vicissitudes?

Power Man makes his senses-shattering debut - and looks like he's doing a fair bit of Avengers shattering while he's at it.

I was going to say that Daredevil's all-red costume makes its debut this issue but it turns out he's been wearing it for several months now and I'd totally failed to notice.

In other news, I've always wanted to be one of the Ani-Men. I've never been sure which one. To be honest, any of them will do. Even the one who dresses up as a frog.

I do feel I should start more sentences with the word, "Lo!"

Hooray! the Absorbing Man's still causing trouble.

I do wish I had absorbing powers. If I had absorbing powers and was an Ani-Man, I do feel that nothing could stop me in life.

The Scorpion's back.

No disrespect to SHIELD and its agents but I can't help feeling I'd be more inclined to buy this comic if Dr Strange was on the cover.

Captain America's still doing his World War Two thing.

I think this may have featured George Tuska's first Silver Age Marvel work but don't quote me on that, as I'm saying it from memory and don't really have a clue what I'm talking about.

Unless I miss my guess, Warlord Krang is up to no good.

You do wonder why Namor ever made him a warlord. All he ever seemed to do was try to start wars.

October 4th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

In this week in 1975, there were two versions of Fattie Bum Bum and two versions of Una Paloma Blanca on the UK singles chart at the same time. How on Earth did we ever survive the 1970s with sanity intact?

We survived because we had the world's greatest comic company to restore our equilibriums at the end of each and every week.

Speaking of which, Spider-Man's definitely in need of some equilibrium restoration as he hits full-on hallucinatory mode this issue.

And Iron Man's up against AIM. Frankly, he's making a meal of it. He seems to have been up against them for months now.

"The master of kung-fu begins his wildest adventure yet!" it tells us. But I don't know what it is, as I never had this issue.

I do though spot that the Squadron Sinister storyline isn't over yet.

Dracula Lives confounds many a doomsayer by hitting the big 50.

Planet of the Apes makes the big 50 as well - and does so by launching into its adaptation of Escape From the Planet of the Apes, which I seem to recall was drawn by the mighty Rico Rival but I could be wrong.

I don't have a clue what any of the stories are in this issue - unless one of them is that one where the Hulk grows to be five hundred foot tall and holds the Fantastic Four and Daredevil in his hands. I think we all remember that one.

The Original X-Men, Ant-Man and the Cat?

All in one comic?

It's like Marvel UK asked, "What's the lineup most likely to get a comic cancelled in the shortest possible amount of time?" and then published it.