Werewolf by Night #20. Eye of the Wolf.

A recurring theme on this blog, over the years, has been me posting the covers of Werewolf by Night and declaring I can recall nothing of the contents, leading me to conclude it has to have been the most forgettable comic of my youth.

And yet, it has to have been, along with The Eternals, the US Marvel comic I had the most number of issues of. This tells me it must have been one of my favourite comics.

But now, at last, I can partially cure my amnesia because I have, in my hands, a copy of Werewolf by Night #20. How well I remember this from my childhood, with its cover image of an irate werewolf tearing the bars from its prison cell, as bystanders look on in horror.

Of course, when I say, "remember," what I mean is remember the cover, because the contents themselves are as mysterious as ever.

I do recall, however, that I did read it quite a few times in my younger days. Therefore, I, clearly, derived some pleasure from it.

And now I'm about to discover just why it caused that pleasure.

It's night time and Jack Russell's having a walk in the dark, pondering his problems, including the kidnapping of his sister Lissa, by a man called Baron Thunder, a name only someone in a comic could ever have.

As Jack walks, he's approached by his neighbour Raymond Coker and they have a chat about them both being werewolves.

But, unknown to the pair, they're being watched by another werewolf who's actually a cop called Lt. Hackett. Thanks to a magic ring, Hackett can transmogrify at will and still retain his normal personality, which is a shame, as his normal personality seems to be quite abysmal.

Later, for reasons I'm not totally clear about, Jack's given an identical ring and the address where Baron Thunder lives. Thus informed, he sets off to rescue Lissa.

Needless to say, it doesn't go well and he's about as much use with his normal personality as he always is without it but, thanks to dumb luck, the Baron's house burns down and Jack and Lissa escape, although Jack loses the ring as he leaps out of a window to flee the flames.

It's a terrible admission to make but, given Werewolf by Night's less than stellar reputation, I actually enjoyed this.

Although there's nothing sensational about the plot, I like the fact that every single thing that happens in it relates to a whole group of ongoing storylines. Whether it be the kidnapping of Lissa, Raymond Coker's problems or Lt. Hackett giving Jack a hard time, we're given a set of characters who seem to have a life beyond the confines of the comic.

Of course, there's nothing unique about that. It was the standard way of handling most 1970s created Marvel titles but it works especially well here, probably because the werewolf's adventures in themselves are never going to be that interesting and that extra dimension is, therefore, seriously needed.

The chief disappointments are that, yet again, the werewolf fails to win a fight (was there ever a Marvel protagonist who was more useless in a punch-up than their werewolf was?) and that Jack loses the ring as he escapes the fire. A few more issues of the werewolf having normal intelligence would have been appreciated.

The artwork by Don Perlin and Vince Colletta is simple and does its job with minimum fuss. It's not the sort of art that wins awards, gets people talking or rushing out to buy the next issue but I do have a soft spot for artists like Perlin, Sal Buscema and Bob Brown who just concentrate on telling a story. As long as they have the right inker, they can be effective.

Doug Moench's script, meanwhile, could hardly be described as gleaming but also it does its job.

The one thing that does baffle me, though, is Gil Kane's rather magnificent cover. It relates in no way, shape or form to the comic's contents, creating the impression that it was drawn for a totally different story which never saw light of day.

September 12th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this night in 1979, BBC Two was showing a thing called The Hellstrom Chronicle, described as an Oscar winning science fact-fiction film which posits that all species are in decline except humans and insects. Thus, the fictional Dr Hellstrom suggests the possible outcome of man's competition with those creatures.

That all sounds genuinely odd and I'm not totally sure whether I saw it or not but, of course, its main source of interest to me is its protagonist shares a surname with the Son of Satan. Was this pure coincidence or was the writer a fan of the hell-spawned hero?

If he was, he would no doubt have been excited to find out what was occurring in the pages of Marvel UK's finest publications in the week his show aired.

For about the eight millionth issue running, Luke Skywalker finds himself up against the menace of Baron Tagge.

This time, they're in a lightsabre battle, with Tagge viewing it as a practise bout before taking on Darth Vader himself.

Of the rest of this issue's contents, I know little but I do know the back cover features a chance to win a trip to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

All I can say is it's a good job it was a UK Marvel comic that offered the prize, and not a US one, or there would have been a very disappointed winner a few months later.

The Hulk's still on that alien spaceship and still trashing it, to such a degree they decide to dump him back on Earth to get rid of him.

Ant-Man and the Wasp are still battling with an evil jazz trumpeter.

After what feels like decades of faffing about, the Eternals have finally got round to merging themselves to create the Uni-Mind.

Merlin and the Black Knight are still battling to retrieve Captain Britain from the land of the dead.

In the second of the book's two Hulk tales, the green grappler and Captain America find themselves up against the Corporation and the genuinely baffling threat of Animus.

And, as always, I don't have a clue what Nick Fury's up to.

I can confidently announce Spidey's up against the White Dragon in this issue.

Beyond that, I can say nothing.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1979.

If there's one thing this site knows how to do, it's time travel. Why, barely two days go by without it flinging itself into some horrific cranny of the past and getting stuck there.

But it seems I'm not the only one who's temporally unstable and, therefore, this month of 1979 saw the release of the movie Time After Time, the celebrated tale of how H.G. Wells sets off in pursuit of Jack the Ripper, following him, via technology, to present-day America.

A fact I didn't previously know is it was this film which inspired the title of the Cyndi Lauper hit of the same name.

I shall now forever associate that song with Jack the Ripper.

It's kind of ruined it for me now.

The Thing and Black Goliath team up to tackle Nuklo.

Except they don't because, at the Thing's suggestion, Black Goliath decides to change his name to Giant-Man.

I'm not sure I'd listen to naming suggestions from a man who thinks, "The Thing," is a good super-hero name.

Graviton's back - and he's turning into a walking black hole.

Are they sure that's how a human black hole would look?

Tarzan has just one more issue of his comic left before cancellation but at least he decides to make a splash along the way, running amok in New York and scaling the Empire State Building in order to be reunited with Jane and Korak.

Apparently, all I need is a pencil.

I have one!

Now all I need is the magazine to go with it.

The Defenders make such a Horlicks of tackling the Foolkiller that Nighthawk decides to disband the team, despite it not being a team and him having no authority to do so.

Admittedly, in his absence, they have managed to get his house burnt to the ground, so you can understand he may not be feeling overly reasonable right now.

I don't even know what this is but it's such an oddity, whatever it is, that I feel I have to include it.

Forty years ago today - September 1979.

Earlier this week, a bunch of scientists claimed to have evidence the Loch Ness Monster's really a giant eel.

That's one mystery tackled but what horrors and wonders dwell within the depths of an even deeper lake - the murky pool they know as merely, "The Past?"

Conan's inherited the leadership of a tribe, by killing its incumbent chief.

Then he manages to convince them the vampires that have been attacking their livestock aren't real vampires and are just ordinary men pretending to be.

He then leads them into an attack on the fake vampires' village.

Only for it to turn out they are real vampires.

Or, at least, their leader is.

And he promptly captures the whole lot of them, including Conan.

I'm not sure I'd want Conan as my leader.

The FF try to get Galactus to save the Earth from the Sphinx. He agrees, in return for being allowed to destroy the Earth.

Is Reed Richards sure this is a good plan?

Aunt May's dead.

Or is she?

After an awful lot of soul-searching, our hero finally works out where he's seen the manager of her nursing home before.

You know, the one who's one of his most long-standing enemies and who isn't even wearing a disguise?

Spidey and the Lizard team up against the Iguana.

And then the Lizard and Iguana team up against Spidey.

Needless to say, it's all resolved with a good old dose of science.

I'm pretty sure that, in one of this month's two main Spider-Man comics, the web-spinner has a broken arm and, in the other, he doesn't.

There's something stirring on Muir Island and there's someone stalking Jean Grey.

Meanwhile, the other X-Men finally discover they're all still alive, after months of thinking half of them are dead.

The Hulk's captured by the Goldbug and taken to the Andes where he's about to encounter a bunch of people not seen since the early days of the Avengers' comic.

Cap decides to get a new apartment and become an artist.

Other than that, I can say little of this tale. Judging by the cover, I suspect it contains the usual flashbacks to World War Two.

Thor's in Olympia and he and its inhabitants are up against a rogue Eternal who's been given boosted powers by the Celestials.

Tony Stark finds himself on Peter Cushing's giant, floating island and having to take on the veritable army of super-villains who are on Cushing's payroll.

High on the slopes of Wundagore, the Scarlet Witch has been possessed by some evil spirit or other and everything depends on the Avengers' ability to will that spirit out of her and into a doll.

Bullseye's kidnapped the Black Widow, and DD has to rescue her.

I'm assuming he succeeds, although I'm struggling to recall how this tale actually resolves.

September 5th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

There wasn't much of interest happening in this week of forty years ago, At least, not in the real world, where it matters.

There was, however, big news from the world of Marvel UK.

What was it and is it going to be revealed in the paragraphs below?

Stay tuned to find out.

I do note that Britain's Number One LP that week was In Through the Out Door by Led Zeppelin which was their last studio album. Interesting that, despite their huge album successes, the Zep didn't have a single make the UK charts until 1997 when Whole Lotta Love reached the dizzying heights of Number 21, making them, possibly, the most celebrated one-hit wonders of all time.

The Hulk gets relegated to a supporting role on his own cover, as Merlin seeks to bring Captain Britain back from the dead. He's been seeking to do this for weeks. I'd give up on it if I were him.

The Hulk, meanwhile, is on the vessel of those Ditkoesque aliens I mentioned last week, and causing nothing but chaos there.

Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves having to deal with the worst kind of menace known to mankind - a jazz trumpeter.

The Eternals are going on and on and on about the Uni-Mind.

In the second Hulk strip of the issue, Bruce Banner and the Falcon have been kidnapped by the Corporation and it's up to Captain America to rescue them both.

And this is the big news I mentioned earlier because it's the launch of a brand new monthly, as Marvel Superheroes hits the stands!

Admittedly, It's not that new, because it continues the numbering of the recently departed Marvel Comic which was once known as Mighty World of Marvel.

I can't recall if I had this particular issue and can't remember what tales are in it but I do remember reading the Neal Adams X-Men stories in this mag, at some point.

It is possible the Avengers are fighting Graviton in this issue. If so, I did have it.

Can a comic get any more exciting?

Not only do we get the Rocket Racer in this issue but we get the Big Wheel as well! All Marvel needs do is fling Paste-Pot Pete into the mix and it'll have  a masterpiece on its hands!

Other than that, I don't have a clue what goes on inside this book.

I'm doing very badly this week, because this is yet another comic whose contents I barely have a clue about.

However, it looks like Red Sonja's guest-starring in Conan's strip, which is always an exciting thing.

But, "Conan's Ladies," Portfolio, what a rare and exotic treat that sounds like being.

I'm guessing that Red Sonja, Valeria and Bêlit are featured in it.

But will there be anybody else? Will we get Tascela? Will we get... ...erm... ...er? I must confess I've now run out of Conan related females whose names I can recall.

Hooray! Buck Rogers is on its way! Who can forget the adventures of the disco dancing adventurer from the present, trapped in the future, with just a woman called Wilma and a robot for company?

Don't ask me what's happening in the main strip because I don't have a clue.

From its title, I'm assuming the X-Men tale's the one in which Havok and Polaris attack an airport - because it's written by Chris Claremont - and the X-Men have to stop them.

But how has Eric the Red returned? And what can he be up to?

Dr Strange's battle with Xander seems to have been going on for even longer than Merlin's been trying to resurrect Captain Britain.

It's yet another comic whose contents I know nothing of.

However, I assume the Guardians of the Galaxy are still having trouble with the Topographic Man.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1969.

Are you a werewolf?

If so, you'd have felt you were well within your element in September 1969.

It might not have seemed that way at the start of the month, with In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans ruling the roost on the UK singles chart but that piece of catchy apocalyptica  was quickly dislodged by the equally catchy apocalyptica of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising.

Admittedly, I don't think the song's actually about werewolves but, somehow, it always feels like it should be.

Over on the LP chart, Jethro Tull's Stand Up began the month on top but was promptly replaced by Blind Faith's Blind Faith. Sadly, for the Faithsters, their triumph was to be short-lived, as they were soon dethroned by the brand new Beatles album Abbey Road which was destined to spend 17 of the next 18 weeks in the top spot.

It's a disaster for Charlie, as Captain Marvel gets his red and blue uniform in a tale that can only be called a confused mess which often doesn't even have the right speech balloons coming from the right characters' mouths.

It all involves a plot by Ronan or the Intelligence Supreme or some other bloke or all of them or none of them to do something or other. Exactly what, I don't recall. Not that it made sense back in the days when I could recall it.

Needless to say, Marvy finds himself up against a giant robot in this issue because he always seemed to find himself up against a giant robot in his early tales.

Dr Strange battles Nightmare in an attempt to rescue Eternity from him - and recruits the help of Juggernaut, along the way.

Juggernaut vs Nightmare doesn't seem like an obvious conflict. Did Nightmare even have a physical presence?

Apparently, everyone at SHIELD's decided Nick Fury's a traitor. Can he prove his innocence?

I'm betting he can.

Still determined to capture the Surfer's gleaming soul, Mephisto turns the Flying Dutchman into a cyborg and sets him loose on the streets of New York.

This was the point at which the comic switched from being a double length bi-monthly to a normal length monthly title, as evidenced by this issue's instalment halting, randomly, halfway through the action, due to a 40 page story being converted into two 20 page stories.

Aliens try to kidnap Namor, for reasons I'm not familiar with, while, back in Atlantis, a treacherous plotter seeks to get his hands on the throne.

It's the launch of a brand new book, as Marvel's equivalent of all those DC horror anthologies hits the spinner racks.

Famously, the first tale of this issue's drawn by Jim Steranko. Notoriously, the second is credited to Johnny Craig but is clearly 95% drawn by John Romita.

It's more Romita action, as Marvel gives us a whole new romance comic.

Queue various weepy tales of girls who all look like either Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy, and a whole pile of valuable life lessons about the preeminent value of soppiness above all other human activity.

Fifty years ago this month - September 1969.

Have you ever suffered from a major mistrust of janitors?

If so, September of 1969 was where your phobia began because it was in that month that Scooby-Doo first aired, bringing a sense of numbing dread and terror into our childhood lives. At least, it did once Scrappy-Doo showed up.

Also that month, the United States' first ATM was installed in Rockville Centre, New York. Famously, the first customer of such a machine in Britain was the vaguely sinister On The Buses star Reg Varney, in June 1967. Whether the American machine had an inaugural customer of equal acclaim isn't known.

It may have been the start of a new era in banking but, in music, it was the beginning of the end of an era. At a meeting between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Beatles manager Allen Klein, John Lennon announced his intention to quit the group.

However, it was also the month in which the band released their Abbey Road album which went on to be seen as a classic despite receiving mixed reviews at the time.

Cap finds himself trapped in the body of the Red Skull and stranded on an island populated by a bunch of ageing war criminals who want to kill the Red Skull.

And only turning an unemployed bird-fancier into a human fighting-machine, in the space of about ten minutes, can save him.

Even though I remember Death's Head very well, I can never remember anything much about the story. Was Karen Page kidnapped in it? Did the villain turn out to be her uncle or her father or something?

The Mole Man's plot to defeat humanity with his house may have been thwarted but now the FF have a bigger problem on their hands, as the Skrulls kidnap Benjy in their quest for the perfect gladiator.

Bruce Banner's talent for blundering into trouble continues to impress as no sooner has he found himself in a South American country than he has to take on Maximus, the evil Inhumans and their giant, mind-control robot.

I think this is the one in which a Life Model Decoy takes Tony Stark's place and our hero has to sneak back into his own factory by pretending to be a Tony Stark lookalike who's been hired by Midas to commit some act of espionage or other.

Along the way, he finds time to fall in love with Madame Masque.

Hooray! The Lizard's back and about to bite off more than he can chew when the Human Torch shows up to join in with the fun.

I'm assuming this is the one in which Thor catches up with Galactus, and the Big G tells him his somewhat underwhelming origin as a man who got exposed to radiation and promptly developed super-powers.

How on Earth did Jack and Stan think of such a ground-breaking concept?

Having said that, this is one of those tales where the story Jack's telling with his pictures is clearly not the one Stan's telling with his words. Jack's pictures seem to be showing the Watcher accidentally creating Galactus, whereas Stan's words claim he's merely observing the villain's creation.

I'm struggling to remember what happens in this one, other than that Sauron's in it.

Ultron's made himself indestructible and even the Avengers' assault on his secret base can't stop him.