The Marvel Lucky Bag - November 1969.

Do you recall what you were doing on this night of fifty years ago?

I do. I was looking at fireworks.

Admittedly, when I say, "Recall," I don't recall it at all but it was Guy Fawkes' Night, so it's a safe bet that's what I was doing.

And now here I am, fifty years later, on another Guy Fawkes' Night, not looking at fireworks but, instead, typing this deathless prose.

That's how important this deathless prose is.

That's why this deathless prose will never die.

What did die, fifty years ago this month, was any hope of dramatic change at the top of the British music charts.

That's because, despite a strong challenge by Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, the Archies' Sugar Sugar spent the whole of November at Number One on the singles listings. Meanwhile, the top of the LP chart in that period was completely hogged by the Beatles' Abbey Road.

But what of the less popular Marvel titles which bore that month as their cover date? Could they provide us with the sense of change the twin Hit Parades so sorely lacked?

Captain Marvel's great change happened last issue, of course, with the introduction of Rick Jones into the strip but there's still evolution this time round because here's where we first meet Mordecai P Boggs, and a legendary music career's born.

Even more thrillingly, the good captain rescues Carol Danvers from Yon-Rogg, by defeating his Mandroid who has no connection to the Mandroids who gave the Avengers so many problems during Neal Adams' brief stint on their strip.

Yon-Rogg may or may not die in this issue. I cannot say for sure, one way or the other.

Change is also in the air for Strange, as, for no reason I can recollect, the supernatural surgeon's now using the name, "Stephen Sanders."

Thus, Dr Sanders (thank God he isn't a colonel) is summoned to the house of an old friend who's being controlled by three servants of the Undying Ones.

Can our hero stop them and can he rescue his friend before it's too late?

Thanks to Hydra, Nick Fury finds himself hunted by Bulls-Eye.

But not that Bullseye.

Which is a bit odd as, given his obvious similarities to that other villain, I see no reason to not retcon him has having been the same character.

Still moaning about how terrible people are, the Silver Surfer decides to blunder around in one of those war-torn Latin American countries the Marvel version of our planet is rife with...

...only to have Shalla-Bal show up, just as he's kissing a local peasant girl!

Argh! Talk about terrible timing.

It's the most important comic ever published because it's the first Marvel mag I ever owned, bought from the Rag and Tag market in Sheffield, a place which, in photos, looks like shoppers were lucky to leave there without having contracted the Black Death.

But who cares about the Black Death? With this one comic, I was introduced to Spider-Man and six of Marvel's greatest villains, not to mention the Fantastic Four, Dr Strange, the X-Men, Giant-Man, the Wasp, Thor, Iron man and God knows who else, as we get a book that's pretty much a straight reprint of the very first Spider-Man annual.

The Sting-Ray makes his senses-tingling debut, as Subby discovers he can no longer fly nor breathe underwater, leading to an epic battle in the sewers and an attempt to prevent the Brooklyn Bridge collapsing.

Well and truly freed from its former limited distribution, Marvel takes full advantage, by unleashing Homer the Happy Ghost upon us, who, I'm sure, bears no resemblance at all to Casper the Friendly Ghost.

I can shed no light upon the contents of this comic, as I'd never even heard of Homer before now but I do know this issue's strips all seem to be drawn by Dan deCarlo and written by Stan Lee.

Not only do we get one new book this month, we get two!

I'm going to make a guess that this one bears a remarkable resemblance to the American Dennis the Menace strip.

All tales in this issue are drawn by Joe Maneely, suggesting that they, like the Homer tales, are Golden Age reprints.

Fifty years ago this month - November 1969.

There are just a handful of great movies set in schools in Barnsley.

In fact, there's only one.

That film is Kes and, in November 1969, it hit the cinema screens of Britain. Who could fail to be gripped by the tale of a schoolboy who finds a sense of purpose through the adoption of a kestrel? And who could forget the scene in which Brian Glover plays a doltish sports teacher fantasising that he's Bobby Charlton, while flinging his weight around?

No one can.

And that's why I haven't.

But it wasn't the only thing making its debut that month because so did the legendary TV puppet show The Clangers which told the senses-shattering truth about life on other planets and, in its own way, helped make Soup Dragons of us all.

When it came to music, Pink Floyd released their album Ummagumma which I believe I've still never heard.

On the football field, Brazilian legend Pelé scored his 1,000th goal, in a game against Vasco de Gama.

In a rather grumpier mood, John Lennon returned his MBE, in protest at the British government's involvement in the Nigerian Civil War or its involvement in Biafra or its support for the Vietnam War or all three of those things or any combination of them, depending on which Wikipedia page you look at on the subject.

The Avengers take on the Justice League of America - or at least their vile simulacra - as the Grandmaster's game of chess with Kang kicks off.

But, hold on. What strange games do the gods play upon us?

In the same month that Ken Loach and Barry Hines give us that tale of a schoolboy finding purpose through his pet bird of prey, Marvel Comics gives us a man bashing up the Red Skull, with the aid of his pet bird of prey.

Why, now that I think about it, this comic is practically a remake of Kes, with the Red Skull as Brian Glover.

Any road up, Captain America and his brand new sidekick give the Red Skull the kicking he deserves, mostly thanks to Modok deciding to melt the Cosmic Cube, by remote control.

You do have to feel sorry for the Red Skull. Not many people would have the misfortune to have their Cosmic Cube melted.

Rev up your engines because the Stunt-Master makes his wheelie-popping debut.

I've a feeling there's something in this story about Karen Page launching her Hollywood career and leaving Matt Murdock behind, never to return but my recollections of this tale are a little fuzzy, so I could be completely wrong.

But here's a tale I'm definitely not fuzzy about, as the Thing finds himself on a Skrull planet and forced to fight in gladiatorial games - but not before meeting Torgo the robot.

It's one of my Hulk faves, as our anti-hero roams the swamps of Florida and encounters an escaped convict who's turned into another of those muck monsters which have proven so irresistible to comic book writers, over the years.

I really don't recall what happens in this one.

I gather, from Googling it, that this involves Tony Stark having a bad dream. Beyond that, I can say nothing.

It's non-stop peril for Spider-Man, as the wallcrawler finds himself up against the greatest menace of them all - a window cleaner.

Thor returns to Earth, fresh from discovering the origin of Galactus, only to find our planet under threat from the terror of the Thermal Man in a tale noticeably reminiscent of the one where he fought Replicus.

I do believe that Jack Kirby's original plan was for Thor and Galactus to team up to defeat the rampaging robot but Stan, wisely, I feel, vetoed the idea and left it to Thor and The Warriors Three to tackle the fiend, instead.

Sauron finds his way to the Savage Land where he teams up with Magneto and his current bunch of mutant allies.

Can the X-Men and Ka-Zar stop them all?

I suspect they can.

October 31st, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Hooray! It's Halloween, that special time of year when we kick-start our broomsticks; and those of us from the miserable North get our chainsaws out, in an attempt to cut a face into a rock-hard turnip.

What ghoulies will we be grabbed by? What ghosties will tweak our toes as we lie in bed?

Only time can tell.

But first, have you ever wanted to go to Mars?

I know I have.

Actually, I haven't, it looks like a terrible place, but, for the sake of this introduction, I'm going to pretend I do.

That's because, forty years ago tonight, someone was going to the Red Planet.

And that someone was none other than Flash Gordon.

It's true. The saviour of the universe was taking a break from liberating Mongo, thanks to a BBC Two hosted episode of his classic serial Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars. I'm one hundred percent certain I've seen it. I'm also one hundred percent certain I don't remember it.

Anyway, I'm assuming Ming the Merciless turned out to be the villain of the piece, regardless of its setting.

Later that evening, the same channel was showing the latest instalment of the legendary music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, introduced by Anne Nightingale.

The main point of interest in that week's edition, for me, is it featured a performance by Bruce Woolley who, I believe, has the distinction of having released a version of Video Killed the Radio Star before the Buggles did.

Sadly, not for for Bruce the honour of having had a Number One single and the first track ever played on MTV, as, despite not being radically different to the Buggles' take, his version failed to chart or get noticed by anyone. It lacks the bit that goes, "Ooh-a, ooh-a," and the keyboard skills of Geoff Downes, and it seems that that, in this life, is the difference between triumph and catastrophe

I have it on good authority that Darth Vader is still causing chaos for our heroes.

Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Galaxy are up against the Reavers of Arcturus who I have a feeling may be old enemies of Star-Lord and that woman he keeps turning into.

Elsewhere, the Watcher's warning us of The Menace From the Purple Planet and there's some sort of story featuring the Destroyer vs Thanos, of which I have no recall. I would assume, though, that the Destroyer's likely to be acting like Mr Grumpy Pants all the way through it.

The Hulk and Machine Man are still on collision course, thanks to the evil Corporation but still haven't actually reached each other yet.

Ant-Man's still stuck at insect size and still being chased around the countryside by Egghead, thanks to having allied himself with the villain's niece.

That niece is also in the Hulk story. Coincidence is a strange thing.

Meanwhile, we're still being treated to a very prolonged re-telling of Captain Britain's entire history.

Nick Fury's still being pursued by SHIELD who think he's a traitor.

And the Eternals are still battling the Cosmic Hulkbot.

Thanks to the evils of the Iron Legion, the Doctor finds himself in a Roman-style arena, having to fight a big blobby monster while armed with nothing more than a dead man's trident.

Someone call for Flash Gordon because, while he's on Mars, its inhabitants are causing nothing but trouble on Earth in Marvel's continuing adaptation of The War of the Worlds.

How great would it be if someone wrote a Flash Gordon/War of the Worlds mash-up?

Elsewhere, we get an adaptation of The Dead Planet, which my Steve-Senses tell me was the opening episode of the show's first-ever Dalek story.

Peter Parker's trying to get back with MJ but has bigger problems on his hands than that because both J Jonah Jameson and Professor Smythe are out to get him.

The FF are up against evil caricatures of themselves, created by a child. It's a tale I've read elsewhere but have no recollection of ever having encountered in a Marvel UK book. This means I've either never read this issue or I have and have simply forgotten about it.

Meanwhile, Godzilla's captured by alien invaders! I suspect it won't be long before  they learn to regret it.

Also included: Iron Man's up against Firebrand, Thor's battling the gods of Ancient Egypt, and Daredevil's up against the Man-Bull.

2000 AD - September 1981.

If I were to say to you, "Sometimes I feel I've got to... ...run away," I've no doubt at all you'd know exactly what I was referring to.

I'd be referring to the music charts of September 1981 because that month began with those very words at the toppermost of the poppermost, as Soft Cell ruled the UK singles chart with their heavily remodelled version of the Northern Soul classic Tainted Love.

But they didn't have it all to themselves because, halfway through that month, they were dethroned by a prince.

That prince was one of the charming variety, one who knew that ridicule was nothing to be scared of. Yes, it was Adam Ant and his band of a similar name.

Well, those young things may have been bossing the singles market but, over on the album chart, the oldies were in charge, as September began with ELO on top, thanks to their LP Time, before they were deposed by Genesis's latest offering Abacab.

I don't have a clue what tracks peace protesters were listening to back then but I do know it was the month the legendary Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was set up. Clearly, it must have worked, as, thirty eight years later, nuclear Holocaust has yet to break out.

If it was a bad month for those planning Armageddon, it was a great one for comedy actor David Jason who had two massively successful TV shows launch within days of each other.

The first was the long-running and occasionally interminable sitcom Only Fools and Horses, while the second was the much-loved cartoon Danger Mouse.

And Danger Mouse wasn't the only animated legend making his mark that month because we also experienced the very first broadcast of Postman Pat.

Across the pond, Simon & Garfunkel were doing their Concert in Central Park, a free show performed before a crowd of half a million.

I wonder how that figure compares to the number of people who were reading 2000 AD at the time?

However many of them there were, they were being given Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Nemesis the Warlock, Tharg's Future Shocks and The Mean Arena.

Among those epics, we got the conclusion to the tale of Judge Death's return, in which Dredd and Anderson travel to Judge Death's homeworld, which I suspect is not a happy place.

But the big news was we got the first appearance of Rogue Trouper, the blue skinned soldier of the future, genetically modified to be able to survive in a vacuum, which is a talent I'm sure will serve him in good stead.

It would seem Prog 229 has a feature about space travel in the 1980s. It'd be interesting to know just what Tharg reckoned we had in store for us.

October 24th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Winter can be a terrible time; a period of cold, damp and misery, the days growing shorter and the toes growing tinglier.

But it can also be a time of magic.

And the ebb tide of 1979 gave us just that because, following the success of the summer specials, October saw Marvel UK giving us a walloping four specials of the winter variety.

What were they?

And how special were they?

Keep reading to find out.

But first, there's the serious matter of international sport to be dealt with and this night in 1979 saw BBC Two broadcast The State Express World Challenge Cup, as Canada took on Australia at snooker.

To possibly no one's surprise, Canada were led by Cliff "The Grinder" Thorburn. However, Australia were represented by Gary Owen, Paddy Morgan and Ian Anderson, three people I've never heard of. How can this be right? If it's snooker and Australia, surely it has to be  Steady Eddie Charlton? His absence means my whole faith in the sport is shaken to the core.

It would be nice to think the Ian Anderson in question was the lead singer of Jethro Tull, having grabbed a cue and decided to give it a try but I suspect it wasn't.

Speaking of faith, this week in that year saw Lena Martell ascend to the top of the UK singles chart, with her Jesus-pestering gospel anthem One Day at a Time.

Over on the album chart, there was no change at the top, with Regatta de Blanc retaining its crown and doing so by seeing off the challenge of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk which crashed in at Number Two.

I can give no reliable information about the contents of this comic but I would assume the Surfer's still battling the Badoon.

The Watcher and Star-Lord's whereabouts are a complete blank to me.

I'm going to make a guess that Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in this issue.

I'm also confident no revelations of a familial nature will be made.

The Corporation are out for revenge on both the Hulk and Machine Man and, thus, trick Hulkie into thinking Machiney's kidnapped Trish Star, so the green grappler will want to kill him.

Captain Britain's origin's still being retold.

And, speaking of Trish Starr, Ant-Man also gets to meet her, this time when she has a public row with her uncle the villainous Egghead, prompting our hero to get involved.

Nick Fury's suspected of being a traitor, in an early Barry Smith tale.

The Eternals are still getting nowhere in their battle with the Hulkbot. Can't they just levitate him into space? That would seem, to me, to be the easiest solution.

In our second issue from TV's greatest hero, we get coverage of Brighton's 1979 Seacon convention, more from Chris Claremont's adaptation of War of the Worlds, an adaptation of An Unearthly Child, Cybermen, Daleks, and more from The Iron Legion.

All this in just 28 pages? How is such a thing even possible?

This comic must be bigger on the inside than on the outside!

Man-Wolf's kidnapped J Jonah Jameson, thanks to the malevolent machinations of the dying Professor Smythe - and only Spider-Man can stop him!

Actually, probably most Marvel heroes could stop him but it wouldn't have sounded so dramatic if I'd said that.

For a change, I have no idea what else happens in this issue.

This is it. The first of our winter specials arrives, as we get a good dose of both Battlestar Galactica and the Micronauts. No disrespect to either of those franchises but I'm not sure I'd want to spend 40 pence on either of them.

However, our second winter special's a full 15 pence cheaper, as we get all kinds of Marvel-related fun and games.

And, if you don't get your fill of Battlestar Galactica from the Star Heroes special, you can get even more of it from our third winter offering.

Amongst, no-doubt, riotous mirth from Howard the Duck, the Waltons and Silver Surfer, this magazine includes material from that well-known master of hilarity Alan Moore.

And, finally, among our winter specials, we discover Spider-Man's, in which the Watcher asks, "What if someone else had become Spider-Man?" a look at how the wall-crawler's British comic's changed over the last six years, and that 1960s tale which revealed how Lee and Ditko concoct a story.

It's the one with Sturdy Steve drawing Spidey on a rocket flying past the Statue of Liberty. I've always had a soft spot for that one.

Wonder Woman #205 - the deadliest domino.

It has occurred to me that, although I've reviewed Wonder Woman in the past, I've only done so for her Emma Peel phase and not her more typical, super-powered, eras.

Well, this is where that changes because right here's where I revisit one of the strangest comics I've ever read. It's a tale I've not encountered since the 1970s, so how will it stand up to modern day scrutiny?

Having regained her powers, last issue, Diana Prince has landed herself a job as some sort of tour guide at the United Nations where her ability to speak every language and dialect on Earth will serve her, and her employers, in good stead.

Sadly, despite her new job, she's not a happy woman. That's because heartthrob diplomat Morgan Tracy's too busy judging the Miss United Nations contest and admiring the charms of its contestants to notice a Plain Jane like Diana hanging around.

Happily, for her, that's when terrorists barge in and kidnap the object of her lustings, fleeing, with him, to a ship harboured outside American waters.

Not deterred by large bodies of water, our heroine swims out to the ship and starts to climb its anchor chain, only to be knocked out by a load of electricity.

It turns out the ship belongs to a villain called Dr Domino who wants Tracy to give him the Bacteria Cloudburst Formula the diplomat bought from its now-dead creator. When Tracy refuses to comply, Domino reacts as anyone would in such a circumstance and ties the unconscious Wonder Woman to a nuclear missile and fires it at New York.

Fortunately, the amazing amazon regains consciousness in time to divert the missile back towards Domino's ship, summons her own magic plane, grabs Tracy, and the pair fly away from the scene, as Domino and his henchmen are nuked into oblivion.

Hooray! The day is saved!

Sadly, it doesn't do Diana Prince any good. Tracy still thinks she's deficient in the looks department and still has eyes only for more attractive women, leaving Diana to sob helplessly to herself.

But that's not all the Amazon goodness we get this time out because we also receive a back-up strip which provides more of the mysterious Nubia than we got last issue.

After a brief meeting with Queen Hippolyta, Nubia returns to her home on The Floating Island, beats up some bloke who fancies his chances with her and then goes off to have a good old sob about not knowing who her parents are.

She fits all this in between handing out lectures about how war must be eliminated from the Earth, even though she and her tribe seem to worship Mars, the god of war.

I'd love to say this book's a masterpiece but it's one of the weirdest things I've ever read - and I've read Supergirl comics. Wonder Woman, who I'm sure is supposed to be a feminist and a battle-hardened warrior, spends all her time blubbing about men not finding her attractive. This doesn't make sense. She's Wonder Woman. She has the beauty of Aphrodite. Also, she's Wonder Woman. Why is she so desperate to please men?

On top of this, does the United Nations really hold its own beauty contests?

And what's going on with Morgan Tracy? He's clearly meant to be a good guy but has bought a menace called the Bacteria Cloudburst Formula off a scientist. It could be argued he did it to prevent the formula falling into the wrong hands except the comic doesn't argue it. It gives us no explanation at all as to why he did it, leaving us to just hope the object of Diana's affections isn't completely psycho.

Then there's the villain. He's a man dressed as a stage magician, with a giant domino where his head should be. I would assume he's merely wearing it over his real head but it's clear, when he turns sideways, that there's no room in there for a head. Therefore, he must literally have a giant domino for a head. Just how does a circumstance like that come about?

I've always assumed he was a revived Golden Age villain and that's why he's so ridiculous but, as far as I can make out, this is his first-ever appearance.

Research tells me it's also his last.

That actually quite saddens me. I do feel quite sorry for him now and hope that, one day, Dr Domino makes his return when we all least expect it.

So, Robert Kanigher's script is complete nonsense but what of the art?

Well it's by Don Heck and it's from the 1970s, so it should look terrible but it's actually perfectly acceptable. I don't know if it's the influence of Bob Oksner's inks but you can see hints of the more elegant artist Heck had been in the 1950s and early 1960s and - for once, in the 1970s - his figures don't look like they're falling apart.

It's not a comic I can recommend on the grounds of its merits but it is one that's worth reading just to experience the ludicrousness of it and for a view of how girls' comics used to be done, back in the old days, when breaking down in floods of tears was a super-heroine's main duty to the world.

October 17th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This is it! After weeks of anticipation, the most momentous moment in the history of human history has happened. We've finally reached the week, forty years ago, when, thanks to Marvel UK, it happened.

But what is it? And will it kill us?

Read on to find out.

But first, let's see what was happening on the pop charts at the time.

The big news on the singles front was that the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star hit the Number One spot in Britain by dethroning the Police's Message in a Bottle.

If that was bad news for the reggae-tinged trio, things were going far better for them on the album chart, where their brand new album Regatta De Blanc smashed straight in at Number One and knocked Blondie flying from that perch, in the process.

Over on TV, this afternoon of that week, Birmingham's greatest cultural gift to mankind - Pebble Mill at One - gave us the spectacle of Are You Being Served's Mollie Sugden preparing her favourite dish, in the foyer. There's something about that combination of words which sounds plain bizarre.

Meanwhile, that evening, BBC One was showing the Star Trek episode The Apple which I'm fairly certain is the one in which David Soul and his people are living in happiness, contentment and harmony until Captain Kirk comes along and blows up their god, leaving them with no food, water, social structure, means of governance or even basic survival skills, and then flies off, abandoning them to sort out the total mess he's made of their world, while congratulating himself on another job well done.

I don't have a clue what's happening in the main strip or why everyone's looking so startled but I do know, "Sister Domina," sounds a bit saucy. Has kinkiness finally entered the world of George Lucas?

In The Guardians of the Galaxy strip, the Silver Surfer finds himself tackling the Badoon as they try to conquer modern day New York.

You guessed, it's the story which, confronted by the Dreaded Deadline Doom, recycles an old Surfer tale, with a few panels of the Guardians tacked on at the beginning and end of it.

I have no news of either Star-Lord or the Watcher.

Ant-Man's still trapped at ant size.

But it's not all disaster because, while he's running around with his dog, achieving very little, Spider-Man's sorting out the bad guys, elsewhere and then provides Hank with a cure for his current rabies problem.

However, that doesn't solve his problem of being ant-sized.

The Eternals are still fighting the Hulkbot.

We get more of Captain Britain's origin.

The real Hulk is being reunited with Egghead's niece Trish Starr.

And we get the epic Nick Fury moment where the Hate-Monger accidentally steps out of an airlock and into space.

Well, they do say hate is blind.

Hold on to your TARDIS, time and space lovers because we've finally reached it - this week's big announcement, as Doctor Who Weekly hits the racks for the first time and a whole planet celebrates!

I say that but I don't remember ever seeing a single issue of it for sale anywhere. But it's still going strong, as Doctor Who Magazine, forty years later, so someone must have been able to buy it.

As for the contents, we get all the stuff you'd expect from such a comic, including Doctor Who strips, photos and features but we also get a Chris Claremont written adaptation of War of the Worlds.

War of the Worlds? If this had been the mid 1970s, Marvel UK would have redrawn the Martians as Daleks, the human villains as Sea-Devils, the tripods as Drashigs and renamed the protagonist, "Monstermurderer."

Personally, I would have paid good money to read the adventures of Derek Monstermurderer.

Among the Doctor Who stuff is a Dave Gibbons drawn tale of what seem to be robots from space, in Roman armour, invading modern day Britain.

I do believe that's the resuscitated John Jameson who's kidnapping Jonah, thanks to the machinations of some evil scientist or other.

And when John Jameson's around, we all know that can only lead to trouble of the furry kind.

What else happens in this book?

I have no idea.