2000 AD - July 1978.

July 1978 was about as sci-fi a month as you could get, as the world's first test tube baby was born in Manchester. Truly we knew at that moment that we were getting closer to the year 2000 with every moment that passed.

And we didn't even have to wait to discover just what that landmark year would be like - as, each week, we had a publication that told us with chilling accuracy.

Writing this post is an exciting event for me because, for once, an issue of 2000 AD contains a story I actually remember. That's because Prog 71 brings us the start of Ant Wars in which titanic titular termite-like terrors go on the rampage.

Why they're so gigantic, I don't recall but I have no doubt that DDT or radiation or some such other unpleasantness turns out to be to blame.

Meanwhile, even as that's happening, Progs 71 and 72 are cheerfully getting IPC into legal trouble thanks to the unauthorised misuse of the McDonalds, Burger King and Jolly Green Giant trademarks. It's a dispute that'll see reprints of the story banned until a 2014 EU law declares that trademarked characters can be used for purposes of satire, enabling the issues to finally appear in TPB form in July 2016.

Prog 73, meanwhile sees the first appearance of the dinosaur Satanus in Judge Dredd's strip. How, exactly, did a bunch of dinosaurs end up being in the Cursed Earth? Were they normal animals that had somehow mutated into dinosaurs? Had they been created by scientists? Were they robots? Were they a figment of Judge Dredd's imagination? Had they somehow time travelled to the future?

Elsewhere, The Suit is apparently a M.A.C.H. Zero story, which is odd as I don't remember M.A.C.H. Zero ever having his own series. I just remember him turning up in M.A.C.H. One's strip. I recall him as having basically no brain and no conversational skills. So, just how he managed to carry his own strip, I have no idea.

Prog 75, meanwhile, gave us the Cursed Earth board game which I vaguely recall.

But only vaguely.

August 11th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this day in 1976, the BBC's Sky at Night show was broadcasting and analysing photos sent from Mars by NASA's Viking 1.

Sadly, Viking 1 was a big letdown, as it turned out its pillaging function wasn't working and it just sat there taking holiday snaps.

On top of that, it had no eye for a decent photo. The pictures it sent back contained no Martians and it made the Red Planet look like one of those Sussex quarries that Dr Who was always trying to pass off as alien worlds. Who would have guessed that that show would prove to be so scientifically accurate?

Fortunately, if Mars was letting us down, we at least had the output of Marvel UK to keep us thrilled.

Hooray! It's that one where the Fantastic Four come up against robot duplicates of all their greatest foes - and of the Mole Man.

To be honest, it's not a great tale, as the robots can't fight their way out of a carrier bag and the Mad Thinker and the Red Ghost - who're behind the scheme - manage to blow themselves up.

What a pair of idiots.

I assume the Sub-Mariner tale is the one where he and the Thing tussle over the Serpent Crown, and Betty Dean shows up and bemoans the fact that she's now the horrifically old age of, erm, fortyish.

The Sub-Mariner in this era had some of my favourite John Buscema art ever.

I really don't have a clue what's going on now. I assume that's the Last Gasp Magick Man who's being abducted?

The Tarantula makes his stabby debut.

I always had a soft spot for the Tarantula. He might not have been very good at being a super-villain but he had an appealing costume and you had to admire his optimism in thinking he could take on a super-powered foe, when he himself had no powers at all.

Has there ever been a good super-villain whose talent is jumping around? The Kangaroo was rubbish. Batroc was rubbish. Leapfrog was rubbish. The Toad was rubbish. I am starting to spot a pattern here.

It's a nightmare come true. It's the week when The Mighty World of Marvel finally increases in price to 9p. No wonder the government had to go to the IMF for more money in 1976. They clearly wanted to be able to carry on buying all four of Marvel UK's mags.

Meanwhile, it's the fight we all wanted to see, the Vision vs the Super-Skrull.

Well, admittedly, they never quite get round to having a fight, as the Vision acts like a big sad quitter and departs the scene but it's all beautifully drawn and it's always fun to see the Super-Skrull up to no good.

Forty years ago today - August 1976.

Even as I type these breathless words, I'm watching Roger Moore in The Man Who Haunted Himself, a film I've not seen in decades.

Well, Roger Moore might be being haunted by himself but, right now, I'm being haunted by just one question; "What were my favourite Marvel heroes up to in this month of 1976?"

Here's where I find out.

It's a, "Spectacular 150th anniversary special!"

It's amazing to think that that means that, with this issue, the Avengers had been around for a hundred and fifty years. At the time, it must have seemed like barely more than ten.

It's just a shame the cover tells us nothing of what happens inside such a landmark issue.

To be honest, that's not the most compelling Conan cover I've ever seen. Plus his head is too large, which makes him look like a mere hot-headed youth rushing into a scrap he's sure to lose, rather than a battle-hardened warrior who no one can stop..

Captain America celebrates his two hundredth issue by celebrating America's two hundredth birthday.

Amazing to think that this means that his home country was just fifty years old when The Avengers comic was launched. It means there were very probably people who fought in the American War of Independence who read that very first Avengers issue. First Benedict Arnold and then Loki; their minds must have reeled that such treachery could exist in our world.

Things are not looking good for everyone's favourite horn-headed crime fighter.

It's all building up to the fight we've all been waiting for - Galactus vs the High Evolutionary. I loved this storyline when I was a youth, even though I thought the High Evolutionary didn't get enough screen-time when it came to the big fight.

It was in this tale that I first discovered that the population of the Earth was three billion people. They can't say comics aren't educational.

Jarella's back.

I have a feeling this isn't going to end happily.

I don't think I've ever read this one, and I therefore have no idea as to what the Blood Brothers' plan is.

Spidey's still having trouble with Doc Ock and Hammerhead.

Hooray! This issue was my first ever exposure to the New X-Men!

I first read it on a beach. I didn't have a clue who they were or what was going on in it but I knew at once that I loved them in a way that I'd never loved the Original X-Men.

Yet another Marvel hero celebrates a landmark issue this month.

I think this is the third time Mangog's been on the loose now and the third time he's tried to draw the Odin Sword. You'd think he'd have come up with another plan by now. Possibly getting his hands on the Cosmic Cube or the Infinity Gauntlet or both or something.

August 4th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Doctor, grab that syringe - because I may be in urgent need of tranquilisers.

Why? Because I'm about to watch a very old edition of Robot Wars Extreme.

But, way back in 1976, we wouldn't have dreamt of watching robots bashing each other up. We were far too busy watching the stars of our favourite comic company bashing each other up instead.

That's the difference between the past and the present. And that's the brave new world of sci-fi Space Ageness we currently inhabit.

You couldn't accuse this of not being a landmark issue. Hammer and Anvil make their fearsome first appearance, Crackajack Jackson makes both his debut and his exit and the Hulk learns how to read and write.

More importantly than all that, I'm pretty sure this is the issue where the Hulk first discovers he likes baked beans.

I do believe this is a tale where the Torch goes on the rampage in the Great Refuge, in an attempt to find Crystal.

I think he might encounter a talking yeti along the way.

Other than that, I can recall little of the tale, other than that the Torch is very annoying in it.

What a striking and memorable cover. You can click here to find out if it made the legendary list of my favourite Planet of the Apes covers way back when I blogged on that very subject.

But, hold on. I detect a 9p price tag, meaning The Mighty World of Marvel is now the only Marvel UK publication that's still available for 8p.

According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, 9p in 1976 equates to 58p in current prices, while 8p equals 52p.

At the time, 9p equalled 16 cents  and 8p equalled 14 cents.

Spidey's still having trouble with the Molten Man.

Even more excitingly, Dr Strange is having trouble with Dracula in a tale drawn with sorcerous style by Gene Colan.

I seem to recollect that tale not having a happy outcome for the good doctor.

Fifty years ago this month - August 1966.

They can't accuse this blog of not being ahead of its time. It's still only July but I'm already looking at comics with an August cover date on them.

Admittedly, it's an August 1966 cover date but what's a mere fifty years to a man of my quality?

If my memory betrays me not, the Avengers are still in a scientifically advanced hidden land in the Andes which doesn't appear to have any connection with the Inhumans' recently introduced scientifically advanced hidden land in the Andes.

My memories of this one are vague, to put it mildly. Is this the issue where we first get hints of the Masked Marauder's true identity?

In a sensational development, we get the origin of both the Black Panther and Klaw, in one titanic tale.

It's a classic story but I'm not sure what that entity is on the cover. It seems to bear no resemblance to anything that's actually inside the comic.

New penciller Jazzy John Romita arrives with a bang as we get a classic cover and then the reveal of the true identity of Spidey's greatest foe.

This tale clearly has something to do with A.I.M.

Don't ask me what.

I don't have a clue.

In which, even when armed with the Cosmic Cube, the Red Skull still can't get within a million miles of beating Captain America. What a complete and total wally.

Subby and Iron Man are still slugging it out.

I could be wrong but I suspect this tale is drawn by Jack Kirby instead of the two characters' usual artist Gene Colan.

I think this is the build-up to Thor meeting Ego for the first time.

With that, and Tana Nile's huge big wide head thrown in, how could anyone not love the strip during this era?

Not quite on the same level as the aforementioned Thor epic, the X-Men tangle with a bunch of foes whose presence on a cover has never convinced anyone to part company with their money.

July 28th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Forty years ago this week, the world was watching from on the edge of its collective seat as the Montreal Olympics was being played out before its televisual gaze.

How we gasped at the running and the jumping and whatever other stuff it was that they got up to.

But, however epic it might have been, none of the sporting heroism on display could compare to the Olympian feats being performed by the stars of Marvel UK at that very moment.

It's excitement all round as Marvel UK's flagship title hits the two hundredth issue mark and does it with a cover that tells me little of its contents.

I do believe the Conan story is the one where he fights a monster made of pebbles and defeats it by using his brain for once. I have no doubt the Hulk story features Wolverine causing yet more trouble and that the Avengers story is yet more of the Kree/Skrull War.

This means I have no idea at all as to what Daredevil is getting up to inside.

I've a suspicion that this issue's main story is The Magick-Man's Last Gasp Purple Light Show.

To be honest, all I really recall of that tale is that Mike Ploog drew, it had a horse-drawn wagon in it and that it had a title that could never be forgotten.

The Ka-Zar story, on the other hand, I remember nothing of, not even its existence.

This is that tale where Spider-Man keeps doing his best to prevent the Molten Man finding a cure for his condition, even though it'd clearly be in everyone's best interests for the Molten Man to find a cure for it.

When the Molten Man showed up in this tale, I must confess I had no knowledge of who he was, his first two appearances in the strip having somehow faded completely from my memory.

Fortunately, he was much more memorable this time around.

The FF do their best to make sure Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men on the moon, seemingly having forgotten that they themselves have already been to the moon and back on several occasions and have Kurrgo's captured flying saucer on their roof, which would allow mankind to go to the moon whenever it wants to.

More new movie trailers! Justice League and Suicide Squad!

It's certainly a busy time for trailer fans lately. Just two days ago, I was looking at the new promo videos for Dr Strange and Wonder Woman, and now, lucky me, I get to do it all over again.

This time, the trailers are for Justice League and Suicide Squad. So, don't read beyond this point if you don't want to be spoilerised.




Having taken a look at them, I have to say they both look somewhat less promising than the Dr Strange and Wonder Woman movies.

The Justice League one seems to be the better of the two but still feels somewhat lazy and dull with no hint at all as to just what menace it is they're going to be facing. Call me overly-conventional but I do feel that super-hero trailers should make some sort of effort to create the impression that there's actually some sort of peril to our heroes or to others. The trailer's total lack of such menace creates the impression that they're just going to spend the whole movie stood around saying hello to each other. I suspect that may not be the case and that there must be some degree of threat involved at some point in the proceedings.

The portrayal of the Flash looks like it's going to get annoying quite quickly. On the other hand, it's good to see Conan playing Aquaman.

I know I'm going to invite the wrath of all sane humans but, overall, viewing it felt eerily like watching that Justice League TV movie of about twenty years ago; only, shot with more style.

Having said that, I actually enjoyed the Justice League TV movie of about twenty years ago, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

As for Suicide Squad, other than the presence of Will Smith, there's nothing in the trailer that gives me any reason to want to see the movie. It all has a sense of random pointlessness about it that suggests intellectual waywardness on behalf of those who bankrolled it.

Its only other point of interest to me is that Margot Robbie's in it and she used to be in Neighbours and I always find it strangely exciting to see people from Neighbours turn up in American TV shows and movies. The power of Jim Robinson to turn up in seemingly everything over the years has always been a source of wonder to me.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. If you have thoughts on the two movies, feel free to express them in the comments box below.