Your favourite giant monster movie.

If there's one thing worse than a monster, it's a big monster. And if there's one thing worse than a big monster, it's a giant monster.

Fortunately, where I live, they don't have giant monsters. Someone must have wiped them all out.

However, in the land of cinema, not only do huge menaces still exist, they positively thrive. And so, in light of a recent comments section demand by Killdumpster, I'm here to ask what is your favourite movie about giant monsters.

This isn't as easy a subject for me to discuss as I would have imagined, as thinking about it has made me realise there aren't that many giant monster movies that grab me. I do have a liking for all the old Japanese Godzilla films but my appreciation for them is purely ironic. Apart from the very first one, I wouldn't, for even one second, claim they're actually good films.

I do have an appreciation for the original King Kong but wouldn't claim to love it, I also have a soft spot for the 1976 remake but have never yet managed to make it all the way through the Peter Jackson version, finding it far too long for my liking.

I have a cheery emotional attachment to the original Mighty Joe Young but I suppose that really doesn't count as a monster movie, anymore than Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World does.

As mentioned a few days ago, the United Kingdom gave the world Gorgo but, other than that, I'm struggling to think of any British giant monster movies - apart from Konga, in which Michael Gough's mad scientist turns a chimpanzee into a huge gorilla and then gets it to kill people. Oddly, both Konga and Gorgo were given comic book adaptations by Steve Ditko, for Charlton.

When it comes to Hollywood, there are such wonders as The Valley of Gwangi, with its cowboys vs dinosaur hijinks. This is, of course, a classic, thanks to its Ray Harryhausen effects - as are The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and It Came From Beneath the Sea. It should also be noted that Harryhausen gave us 20 Million Miles to Earth, featuring a rapidly growing space monster on the loose in Post-War Italy.

And recent years have seen no shortage of American giant monster movies, with the most memorable to me being Cloverfield and Pacific Rim.

Cloverfield entertained me enough on first viewing but an attempt at a second watch left me bored and annoyed by its found-footage format.

I've never been able to work out whether I like Pacific Rim or not. However, I do know that I like the monsters in it.

South Korea famously gave us The Host which I still, to this day, have never got round to seeing. I can, therefore, pass no judgement on it but it looks promising.

So, at the end of all this, what conclusions have I come to about what my favourite giant monster movie is?

In retrospect, I think I'm going to have to go for 20 Million Miles to Earth because I like the idea of an endlessly growing monster, I like the Italian setting, I like the charm of Harryhausen's effects and I like that we get a tragic (for the monster) climax at the Colosseum. The ending may owe an awful lot to that of King Kong but it does it with style.

But those are just my random thoughts on the matter. If you have any monster movies you admire, love or revere, you're free to say so in the comments section below.

If you don't, you're also free to say so in the comments section below. This site has never been one to discourage outspoken apathy, which, along with unstoppable monsters, surely has to be the greatest and most underrated force in human history.

July 26th, 1978 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Wherever you go on the internet, people are getting excited about the impending release of the new Godzilla movie but, on this night in 1978, we had something even more exciting than that to look forward to.

And that was Gorgo!

It's true. That was the night BBC One was showing the terrifying true story of a prehistoric monster wreaking havoc in Ireland and London before the film gave us a shock twist that threatened to destroy our sanity forever.

But what of the Marvel UK mags of that week? Were they too threatening to destroy our sanity?

And, if so, did they succeed?

All I can say with any certainty about this issue is that it features a John Byrne Star-Lord tale and what appears to be Part 2 of the Tales of the Watcher story Run Roco Run.

It does seem amazing that Tales of the Watcher strips (which I remember as being extremely short) were being split into parts. They must have been given barely more than two or three pages per issue.

In other exciting news, the back cover features another informational piece by the Green Cross Code Man.

Needless to say, I have yet again taken his road-safety advice on board.

The Hulk and Doctor Strange are still battling against Paragon, while the Invaders are still fighting Master Man and Warrior Woman. All three of these villains are products of an attempt to create the ultimate human being. Scientists! Will they never learn?

The back cover features a Hulk pinup by John Romita which depicts Bruce Banner in the process of Hulking out.

It strikes me that this is quite a rarity. I'm wondering if this is the only time the jazzy one ever drew Banner in the act of transformation.

Spidey's still faced with the menace of the fake Green Goblin.

Meanwhile, Thor and Hercules are battling a whole bunch of bad guys in a tale I have no memory of, even though I must have read it.

The back cover features an ad for a thing called a Rota-Plane which appears to be a self-assembly toy with revolving wings. Just how airworthy this contraption was, I couldn't say because, tragically, I've been unable to find a single video of it on YouTube.

But, hold on a minute, I thought you could find a video of anything on YouTube. This is a turn of events even more likely to destroy my tentative grasp on sanity than the revelations of Gorgo could.

Children of the Stones.

Everyone knows Stonehenge is for wimps and that Avebury's where it's at, a stone circle so big there's an entire village inside it.

And we all know it's where it's at because of one thing; Children of the Stones, the 1976 originated children's TV show that put it on the map for an entire generation and taught us never to trust anything vertical that's made of rock.

In the spirit of nostalgia and because the current heatwave has got everyone talking about the legendary one of 1976, I've just been rewatching the first episode, in order to regain that summer of '76 vibe - and what an episode it is, quickly introducing us to a village populated by strange people who stand in front of speeding cars for no good reason, stare in through your windows, watch you with telescopes and invite you to accompany them on bike rides when you've never met them before.

Not only that but it has a school filled with children who're far too cheerful and far too good at complex equations, everyone greets you by saying, "Happy day," and your new landlord's in the habit of appearing from thin air, in the middle of your living room.

Admittedly, I suspect that last thing is down to clumsy editing rather than him actually having the power to teleport but, still, it all adds to the sense that something isn't right.

What's going on is that astrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew arrive in a village that's clearly Avebury (although it's never admitted that it is) and things immediately start to get weird, thanks to strange locals and a sinister painting of the stone circle. As Adam sets out to research the standing stones, Matthew finds himself in the local school and being one of only three children there who could be called normal. The episode ends with Adam touching one of the stones and instantly discovering why that's not a good idea.

It's hard to write a drama about stone circles that isn't good and this episode is as irresistible now as it was back then. It's a little heavy-handed when it comes to its sense of weirdness and mystery; it's not hinted from the start that something's wrong in the village, every single exchange between every single character in every single scene tells us there is.

But who cares? If God had wanted us to do subtlety, he wouldn't have given us stone circles in the first place. The story's compelling, the mystery's engineered to suck you in, the music's unforgettable and, most of all, the standing stones are suitably enigmatic. You have to credit our primitive ancestors. They might not have known much about television but they knew how to design a backdrop for it.

Many much-loved children's TV shows from our past don't stand up to later scrutiny. This one does and I can, thus, give it the highly-coveted Steve Does Comics seal of approval which all shows with any sense crave.

July 19th, 1978 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This week of 1978 doesn't appear to have been the most thrilling of weeks in which to have been alive - and this day wasn't the most thrilling of days.

In fact, the nearest thing I can find to an event of interest from it is that, on this evening of that day, BBC One's Wednesday Film was Tarzan the Apeman starring Denny Miller.

I must confess to being totally unfamiliar with the life and work of Denny Miller but he appears to have turned up in a whole slew of genre TV faves over the years, including The Six Million Dollar Man, V, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers.

Clearly, in the face of that level of mightiness, that week's Marvel UK mags were going to have to work hard to compete.

Bart Hamilton's fake Green Goblin makes his pumpkin-smashing debut.

From what I can make out, the Avengers tale in this issue is the one in which the Beast joins the team and the Stranger does all kinds of things with exploding balls in a baseball park before turning out to be the Toad in disguise.

The Captain America tale seems to be the one in which he and that scientist with the gorilla's body find themselves in the subterranean lair of the Mole Man.

I have mentioned, ad nauseum, over the years, that this was the first Captain America story I ever read, way back in the scorching hot summer of 1972.

The Hulk and Doctor Strange are having all kinds of problems with Paragon and the Beehive scientists. Every time I type that phrase, I have an unstoppable urge to declare, "No. Beehive!" in the voice of Kenneth Williams. You can't accuse this site of not being sophisticated.

As for the rest of the contents, all I can say is that the Invaders tale features the nightmarish menace of Warrior Woman, awesome product of the Axis attempt to create a super-soldier.

As if that wasn't enough, they're also up against Master Man, the other awesome product of the Axis attempt to create a super-soldier.

Needless to say, the presence of these baddies somewhat gets in the way of our heroes' latest attempt to abduct Adolf Hitler.

I really can't say anything about this week's contents. I know that Star-Lord is one of the back-up strips and that the Tale of the Watcher is a story entitled Run, Roco, Run. What that's about and how much resemblance it bears to Run, Lola, Run, I have no idea.

But who cares about that?

Not me!

Surely the real thrillingness of this issue is reserved for the back cover, upon which we get a full-page feature dedicated to the Green Cross Code Man telling us how to cross the road safely.

Clearly, that message stood me in good stead, as, to this day, I have still managed to not get run over.

Upon reflection, I suppose it is appropriate that we should get a Green Cross Code Man feature in this book, bearing in mind that both he and Darth Vader were, famously, played by the same man.

2000 AD - June 1980.

This week of 1980 was a crucial one for all readers of this blog, as, without it, Steve Does Comics wouldn't even exist.

That's because, on June the 23rd of that year, Tim Berners-Lee began work on ENQUIRE, the system that would eventually lead to the creation of the World Wide Web almost exactly ten years later.

If that was thrilling news for those with one foot in the future, there was bad news for those with one foot stuck in the past - especially those who could only count in multiples of six - because, on June 30th, the pre-decimal sixpence coin was withdrawn from circulation, never to return. Wasn't the sixpence virtually indistinguishable from the 5p piece? What monetary madness was this?

It's a good thing we had these things to keep our minds occupied because we certainly weren't getting all the 2000 AD we needed to fill our time. The dread reality was that June 1980 was the second consecutive month in which only two issues of the galaxy's greatest comic were published.

However, judging by the covers of the two issues that were unleashed that month, it's clear to see The Empire Strikes Back was starting to make its impact upon the world. It is interesting to see the cover of Prog 165 talking about, "Star Wars 2." Does this mean there was a time when describing the film as The Empire Strikes Back would lead to people not knowing what you were referring to? What a strange and unfamiliar land the past truly was.

July 12th, 1978 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It's a tragedy that could destroy the mind of the strongest of men, because England have crashed out of the World Cup, having made the fatal mistake of scoring early, thus giving themselves the maximum possible amount of time in which to mess up.

Of course, the moment we scored, I knew we were doomed. It's a golden rule in life. Never score first. It only gives the opposition  a reason to try and beat you.

Happily, thanks to my iron mental fortitude, I haven't responded by giving up on this life and have, instead, flung myself into the task of seeing what was going on in the world of forty years ago.

In terms of news and broadcasting, not a lot was going on.

Plenty was going on on the UK singles chart but it was the same plenty that had been going on the week before.

But what of our favourite comics? Could they inject a little more intrigue than that into our lives?

I really don't have a clue what's going on in this one but, sadly, I suspect that Doom World is not a theme park dedicated to the life and works of Doctor Doom.

Why no one has ever built such a thing, I have no idea.

This is a weird one. Given that the cover features people watching a missile, I'd assumed the man with the moustache to be Tony Stark.

Further research, however, informs me that he is, in fact, Doctor Strange, a man not normally known for his interest in ballistics.

I do wonder, though, just why someone would put a pilot inside a missile. Wouldn't riding in a missile guarantee instant death upon reaching one's destination?

As for the tale, I do know it was drawn by Herb Trimpe and involves Strange mind-probing a mysterious cocoon.

From this, I conclude it must be the Hulk tale which introduces Paragon, the second attempt by the Beehive scientists to create the perfect human being, after their earlier creation of Him went so disastrously wrong.

You have to hand it to them; for a bunch of geniuses, they have a remarkable ability to not learn from their mistakes.

Is this the one in which Aunt May and the Rocket Racer's elderly female relative - who might be his aunt, his mother or his grandmother - are in the same hospital as each other while the Rocket Racer and Spider-Man separately bemoan their lot in life?

It would be nice to claim this glimpse into the Rocket Racer's personal life made him a more intriguing and relatable character. The only problem with that being that, no matter what the writers did, he was a man in yellow sunglasses, riding a rocket-powered skateboard. It didn't matter how they tried, there was no way they were ever going to manage to make that not annoying.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - July 1978.

Once more a second Tuesday of a month has come around. And that can only mean it's time for me to find out what mischief the less high-profile Marvel mags that bore the cover date of exactly forty years ago were getting up to.

To be honest, they weren't getting up to much. Even the ones I've selected for this post aren't exactly screaming, "Buy me," in my direction.

I genuinely have no idea what happens in this one, other than that Thor shows up.

Is it all caused by a misunderstanding? Has one of them turned evil? How does the captain fare against a thunder god?

Sadly, I can furnish no answers.

I think we all love a good treasury edition - and this looks to be a great treasury edition, featuring, as it does, the Hulk's first encounter with the Glob, his battle with Draxon the dictator, his first meeting with Havok and Lorna Dane and his first trip to Counter-Earth.

If anyone wouldn't want all that in one comic, I can only despair at the insanity that must be gripping their soul.

This story would appear to feature a robot version of Sherlock Holmes; a character I vaguely remember from when I used to read the strip.

But I am intrigued that Nova would appear to have just found the dead body of his father but his only thought is keeping his identity secret from his own brother, rather than being at all bothered by the more pressing matter of his father's demise.

Those super-heroes, they know how to have their priorities straight.

I do believe that's a Howard Chaykin cover, which is not a thing you see every day on the front of a Conan mag.

I possess no memory of Brother Grimm but I do think I recall the Hangman originally being a villain in the pages of Werewolf by Night.

Needless to say, I'm highly impressed that I actually remember something which happened in Werewolf by Night, a comic whose sheer forgettableness I've often celebrated in the past.

This all looks a lot more exciting than the TV show which spawned it, although it's hard not to suspect we're about to see a tale that owes more than a little to The Land that Time Forgot.

Yogi and Boo Boo discover a jam mine.

But, hold on. Wasn't that the plot of a Goodies episode? What fruit flavoured lunacy is this?