September 10th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

  Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

It's weird how you can assume people died long before they actually did.

And, so, it was a surprise, when researching this post, to discover that, on this night in 1980, BBC One's Where Are They Now? had David Jacobs going to Hollywood to find out what Fay Wray was up to.

For some reason, it had never occurred to me she was still alive in 1980, even though there was no reason she shouldn't have been.

In that edition, he also set out to learn what had happened to Brian Poole of the Tremeloes, and the young girl from the BBC Test Card.

I think I've lost count of how many TV shows have set out to discover whatever happened to the girl from the BBC Test Card.

But I must confess the Test Card always perturbed me, as I was convinced that both she and her sinister clown doll were in the habit of moving when you weren't looking.

Over on the UK singles chart, The Jam were deposed from their top slot and replaced by Kelly Marie's Feels Like I'm in Love.

Obviously, the greatest thing about that single was that it was written by Mungo Jerry's Ray Dorset, not the most obvious man, you would have thought, to write a Disco smash.

Definitely not setting the discos of Britain alight was Gary Numan, unless they were very sombre discos but that wouldn't have mattered to him because his LP Telekon was now top of the UK album chart.

All I know about this one is J Jonah Jameson's had a breakdown and is seeing tiny Spider-Men everywhere.

Also, it seems we're going to see more Hulk than ever before!

Which is, no doubt, very exciting.

Exactly which strip has been banished to make way for all this extra Hulkiness, I could not say.

And, just to make my life even harder work, Marvel UK launches yet another comic upon the world.

I think this means it's now publishing fourteen books a month. Will this madness never end?

In our first tale, Spider-Man and Daredevil team-up to rescue a girl, from the Unholy Three.

Then we find out what would've happened if Spidey'd stopped the villain who went on to killed his Uncle Ben.

We get a reprint of Ms Marvel's debut adventure which I'm pretty sure Marvel UK had already reprinted in the not-too-distant past.

Morbius gets a solo outing drawn by Paul Gulacy, which, it seems, recaps his origin.

Then we ask, "What would have happened if a spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?"

I'm no expert but I assume it would have died.

Next, we get a reprint of Fantastic Four #1 from way back in 1961.

And we finish off with Jack of Hearts in solo action.

This all sounds like a massive amount of content but some of these strips are just two pages long, which must be a frustrating read.

All I know about his one is the ghost of, "Frank Charlesworth," takes possession of a dead pilot, as his Spitfire's about to crash, in order to sock it to the Luftwaffe.

It's a tale drawn by Herb Trimpe who was put on this Earth to draw war stories.

My knowledge of this one's limited but, obviously, Han Solo's still in Carbonite trouble.

I also know Gullivar Jones is well on track to rescue his girlfriend and on the brink of squaring up to her abductor, thanks to the pencilling skills of Gray Morrow.

I would assume we're also being treated to the latest shockers from Tales of the Watcher and Monsters of the Cosmos.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1980.

 Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

Numerous were the movies released in September 1980 but the only one that matters to the true connoisseur of cinema is Battle Beyond the Stars, the film which transposed The Magnificent Seven into the outer cosmos and taught Star Wars a thing or two about space opera.

Admittedly, it was probably more a case of teaching Starcrash a thing or two about space opera but never mind.

I know nothing of this book, other than that it was created for a Coca-Cola promotion which fell through, as were Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #2 and Fantastic Four #220-221.

I also know it's drawn by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom with a limited contribution from Walt Simonson.

However, I'd venture a guess, from the cover, that Hulkie's up against a bunch of robotic chessmen, which doesn't seem like much of a challenge to him. Can he possibly avoid being zugzwanged?

And what's this? This comic could be worth $2500 to me? How exciting! I must buy 25 copies of it!

It's the penultimate Marvel Treasury Edition and we get a bunch of tales reprinted from Marvel Team-Up.

In the first, the Chameleon tricks the Hulk into breaking his friend out of jail. Clearly, it can only be a matter of time before your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler's on the case.

In the second, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man recruits Spidey and Iron Man to help him dispose of Kang the Conqueror. Somehow, the Inhumans and Avengers end up being dragged into it all.

And we finish off with what appears to be a brand new 5-page story starring the Angel, which seems an odd thing to feature in a Spider-Man Treasury Edition.

It's great news for all fans of Richard Rory, as the She-Hulk finds herself in the Florida Everglades and having to tangle with the menace of the Man-Thing.

First, however, she must liberate herself from the denizens of La Hacienda, which I remember being some kind of conquistador fort hidden deep within the swamps.

I really don't know anything at all about this one but it's clearly a case of the good, the bad and the ugly, as the Thing and Hulk get involved in whatever machinations the Stranger's cooked up this time.

Pluto and Hades are also involved, though I don't have a clue how.

But it's yet another comic that could be worth $2500 to me. I shall, therefore, buy 25 copies of it, as well.

I admit it, the only reason I've included this is because that's a surprisingly striking cover for a Battlestar Galactica comic, thanks to Walt Simonson.

And it's another book that could be worth $2500 to me!

Fifty years ago this month - September 1970.

  Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

Back in September 1970, major things were happening in the world of music.

For a start, it was the month which saw the first-ever Glastonbury Festival, at Michael Eavis' farm in Somerset. The Kinks were supposed to be the headliners but were replaced, at short notice, by Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Somewhat less happily, the month also saw the death of 27-year-old Jimi Hendrix, due to an overdose of sleeping pills.

It also saw the release of the Jesus Christ Superstar LP, and the world quickly learned to fear the names Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

In America, the TV version of The Odd Couple premiered on ABC, giving us all a chance to learn to perfect our whistling.

Red Wolf makes his senses-shattering debut, although, judging by that cover, two of the Avengers seem to have completely failed to notice, suggesting they're the least observant crime-fighters of all time.

But how can the world's mightiest heroes ever hope to survive an attack by a man armed with a stick and a dog? How?

I'm struggling to remember what actually happens in this tale. Are they up against that ruthless property developer with the Dutch name?

I genuinely have no recollection of this one at all but it would appear the Red Skull's now in the car-jacking business.

On top of that, he plans to start a World War by abducting someone called King Hassab.

I will, therefore, assume the car belongs to the king.

I think Daredevil has to become a boxer, in order to protect a young fighter from suffering the same fate as the one which befell Battling Murdock.

It's Jack Kirby's last issue (unless you count that weird, cobbled-together one featuring Janus), as Magneto tricks the Sub-Mariner into plunging into yet another war with New York City.

Will the aquatic adventurer ever learn to control his temper?

The Hulk's hanging around the tenements of Los Angeles, and that leads to Iron Man being called in to tangle with him.

Unless I miss my guess, this issue sees the first appearance of Jim Wilson, the Hulk sidekick who had no ambitions to be the next Avenger and also never tried to play a mouth organ in a nuclear test area.

Iron Man's busy this month. Not only does he have to fight the Hulk but he's also got to overcome two characters known as Myrmidon and the Overseer.

I have vague memories that one of those characters is a giant computer that rules somewhere in Asia, and the other is its guardian.

Just how either of them came into being, I struggle to recall.

I do, however, recall that Shellhead is triumphant against them both.

Doctor Octopus may be in prison but the authorities have forgotten he has psychic control of his tentacles, meaning he can use them to rescue him from his cell.

Having said that, knowing the prison authorities in Silver Age Marvel comics, it's a miracle they didn't just let him wear them in prison.

Still, not to worry, Spidey's on hand to deal with it all.

Loki's swapped bodies with Thor and is out to cause no end of mischief.

Neal Adams makes his debut on the strip, although Joe Sinnott's inks really don't mesh with his style and it all just looks not quite right.

Apparently, Odin's Vizier makes his first-ever appearance, in this tale, which is exciting news for those who've been waiting, with bated breath, for him to show up.

September 3rd, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

   Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

As far as I'm aware, the late Beatle George Harrison only ever wrote one UK Number One single.

And that was My Sweet Lord.

However, this week in 1980, you could have been forgiven for thinking otherwise, as a song which sounded suspiciously like Harrison's Taxman hit the very top of the British hit parade.

That song was called Start and it was by The Jam.

Despite its blatant plagiarism, it is quite difficult to dislike.

Then again, that could be appropriate as, despite My Sweet Lord's blatant plagiarism, that is also a difficult song to dislike.

Over on the UK album chart, Roxy Music were still Number One with their LP Flesh and Blood.

Bruce Banner seems to be having some kind of nervous breakdown and thinks he's the Hulk being chased by a deadly female.

The X-Men find themselves in trouble with a neighbouring government when Weapon Alpha shows up to try and reclaim Wolverine for the Canadian taxpayer.

I've no idea what Luke Cage is up to and still have no recollection of him ever having even appeared in this book.

It's a watershed moment in the life of the titular Time Lord, as his book switches from a weekly to a monthly schedule. Surely, nothing can stop him now. Nothing!

Amongst all the other features, such as a re-tread of The Dominators and The Invasion of Time, we get an article profiling the show's first producer Verity Lambert.

Ultron's trying to get Jocasta to marry him but she's having none of it.

And so are the Avengers.

Some people have no sense of romance.

The original X-Men are still battling the Living Monolith - but the Sentinels are waiting in the wings.

And the Champions have to defeat the Griffin before they can hope to rescue the Black Widow from Titanium Man.

Spidey's failed in his attempt to prevent the Black Cat from robbing the local museum.

The Hulk's still converting the Living Colossus into the Dead Colossus.

Spider-Woman's in a scrap with Brother Grimm.

Most intriguingly, we get a reprint of the elderly tale Heaven is a Very Small Place in which the Hulk stumbles across an idyllic town where no one's hostile towards him, only for it to turn out to be a mirage.

And the She-Hulk's own father's trying to kill her with a laser cannon - one that's about to explode at any moment!

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the Micronauts are facing the pulse-pounding menace of Psycho-Man.

Just what the denizens of the Battlestar Galactica are up to, I couldn't say.

I doubt it'll be as exciting as battling Psycho-Man, though.

It looks to me like Dracula's still lost his magic powers and is still in Transylvania, trying to get them back, while his former servants turn against him.

Bearing in mind that's a tale from right at the end of Tomb of Dracula's original run, it would seem the long-term future of this book is in some jeopardy.

Not only do we get the origin of the Black Panther and a battle with Klaw, we also get the Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot against Prester John and his Evil Eye that can't help causing trouble wherever it goes.

Buck Rogers and Tweaky may get this issue's big picture but, surely, the most exciting news of the month is there's going to be a Popeye movie starring Robin Williams.

OK, so maybe that wasn't as exciting a revelation as the makers had, no doubt, hoped it'd be.

I do believe this issue reprints chunks of the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2, including our hero's mission to rescue John Jameson's space capsule as it plummets towards Earth, and Spidey's team-up with Dr Strange to thwart Xandu's attempts to steal the Wand of Watoomb.

Conan's up against the horror of the Red Tower, which can't be good news for him.

Then again, given Conan's track record, I suspect it's even worse news for the Red Tower.

On a small Pacific island, Nick Fury and his howling commandos find themselves outnumbered by the Japanese. What hope can there be for them?

And just who is that mysterious onlooker with the comedy English accent?

And can he possibly rescue them?

Han Solo gets himself frozen in carbonite.

Am I right in thinking that, in reply to Leia's declaration of love, he's much more vocal in this adaptation than he is in the movie version?

Monsters of the Cosmos gives us the tale of Magneto - but not the X-Men villain.

This one's a Lee/Lieber/Kirby tale of a man picked for an experimental space flight when he can't get work elsewhere because of his huge size.

I'm not sure huge size is a positive in an astronaut, given the need to get the rocket off the ground.

Gullivar Jones is still, no doubt, out to rescue his girlfriend from the local bully.

And, in this week's tale of the Watcher, a man steals a time machine, in order to discover and profit from the secrets of the future...

...only to be arrested, when he gets there, for stealing a time machine.

Frantic's still going.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1970.

  Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

September 1970 saw the release of two famous movies.

The first was Five Easy Pieces and the second was Tora! Tora! Tora! 

I've seen them both.

I can remember little about either but am willing to acknowledge them as classics, despite that.

What I do remember is Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson.

And that's a good thing because it started that month at Number One on the UK singles chart.

Soon, however, it was deposed by Freda Payne's Band of Gold which spent the rest of September at the summit.

Over on the UK album chart, the month kicked off with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Cosmo's Factory on top before being usurped by the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. That, in turn, lost pole position to Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, an LP which had already experienced several spells at Number One.

Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, the Inhumans are still convinced the Fantastic Four have fired a deadly missile at their home - and decide to take the battle to the Baxter Building.

I'm sure everyone quickly realises their mistake and they all end up friends again.

And that the Inhumans finally realise Maximus is behind it all, what with him always being behind everything.

I don't know what happens in the Black Widow tale but I do know Hawkeye and the original Red Guardian appear, so I'm assuming it's an issue replete with flashbacks.

But, hold on, what's this? At exactly the same time the Inhumans are in New York, fighting the Fantastic Four, they're also in the Great Refuge, fighting the Silver Surfer?

It's the sort of paradox to drive a man mad.

And a surfer.

And it does drive him mad, because, by the end of the tale, he's vowing to destroy humanity.

It's all part of the great new direction Jack Kirby wants to take the strip in.

Except, Jolly Jack will soon be gone and, by the Surfer's next appearance, Norrin's forgotten all about it and is back to being a good guy again.

It's the fight that had to happen. The crown prince of Atlantis must battle the self-declared prince of power.

It's all down to our protagonist being hypnotised by a servant of Zeus.

Happily, Subby soon breaks free of the spell and the heroes unite to fight a bunch of giant monsters that are now terrorising a Greek village.

Apparently, this tale follows-on from events in Ka-Zar #1, which doesn't seem like the most obvious crossover in the world.

Thanks to Lee, Lieber and Kirby, the world must fend off the challenge of Titano the monster that time forgot!

We also get an Allyn Brodsky/Barry Smith/Herb Trimpe 7-page epic called The Scream of Things.

And, as if that wasn't enough, we get the Wally Wood tale Of Swords and Sorcery.

All in all, it sounds like a varied issue.

It's starting to look now like Marvel's returning to its roots as a giant monster company.

We kick off with I Spent Midnight with the Monster on Bald Mountain in which a sculptor creates two statues, one good and one evil. Unfortunately, lightning hits the evil statue and it comes to life.

I'm guessing the sculptor fixes it all by getting lightning to hit the good statue, so it can come to life and fight the evil one.

After that, we get I Dared Defy the Floating Head. I can't help feeling this issue doesn't feature stories with the greatest titles ever.

It would appear a giant floating head turns up in New York, claiming to be part of an alien invasion but it all turns out to be a hoax staged as part of an attempt to loot the city.

Next, we get I Am the Man Without a Face in which a bigot discovers the hood he dons when he sets out to harass gypsies cannot be removed - ever!

And we finish off with He Waits For Us in the Glacier whose sleeping alien wakes and looks forward to humanity wiping itself out with nuclear weapons, so he and his race can take over the Earth.

I think there's a lesson there for us all.

Taboo's back!

And, this time, he's stopped by members of his own race who view him as a deranged criminal rather than their advance scout for interplanetary invasion.

Next, we get The Strange Magic of Master Khan in which pirates who steal a sorcerer's ship find themselves shrunk and trapped in bottles.

In We Met in the Swamp, a hermit helps a bunch of aliens, in return for a chestful of treasure but ends up with just a chestful of air, as that's what the aliens view as precious.

And, finally, I Lived a Ghost Story sees a prospective buyer's attempts to spend a night in a haunted house thwarted, to the relief of the estate agent who is, himself, one of the building's resident ghosts.

E-Man #7 - TV Man.

  Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

Being a lover of Horror and of plucky underdogs, I always had a fondness for Charlton Comics, one which went beyond anything common sense said I should have.

But, occasionally, I got a reminder that Charlton wasn't only about Horror.

Unlikely as it always seemed to me, it occasionally did super-hero stories too.

And E-Man #7 was one of them.

In the book's first tale, our alien hero has a problem. He keeps turning into fictional monsters and trying to kill his girlfriend Nova Kane.

It turns out this is all the handiwork of Michael, one of the Entropy Twins our hero previously encountered and defused by altering their body chemistry so they can no longer touch each other.

Apparently, this was to prevent their combined power of order and disorder from destroying the planet Earth.

Not happy about not being able to touch his other half, Mike's now out for revenge but, this being a Charlton Comic, none of it plays out like a Marvel or DC tale and it all ends with a cheery handshake and everyone being friends again.

It's all a pleasant read and Joe Staton's artwork is charming enough but it's far too light a tale to be gripping.

The highlight of the story, for me, is definitely the scene in which Nova has a brief conversation with Midnight Tales' Arachne who's studying at the same university as her. Somehow, knowing the Charlton universe is intertwined gives me great pleasure.

But of far more interest to me is the issue's back-up strip which features a John Byrne drawn tale about the robot Rog-2000 who, having run out of petrol, decides to ask for some at a convenient hotel, only to discover a deadly mass of blobbiness is in the habit of eating its guests.

Like E-Man, it's all tongue-in-cheek but the Ben Grimm style persona of the protagonist and the tale's Lovecraftian elements make it more memorable and it's interesting to see some early Bryne before the big-time summoned him.

Both tales are written by Nicola Cuti because all Charlton tales seemed to be written by Nicola Cuti. He must have been the busiest man in comics and it seems odd that such a ubiquitous figure at the company did relatively little work for either of the main two publishers.

August 27th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

   Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

***

This week in 1980 was startingly dull, with even the top of the British singles and album charts remaining unchanged from the week before. 

Therefore, I shall launch straight into my look at what Marvel UK's weeklies were up to in that seven-day period.

This is it! The Hulk's much-anticipated punch-up with It! The Living Colossus is well underway!

Not that it lasts very long.

But I do love the cover blurb; "The Hulk battles the owner of this giant foot!"

Elsewhere, Spider-Man's hanging around his local museum, hoping the Black Cat'll show up and try to steal something.

Meanwhile, Spider-Woman's still on the trail of the man who killed her father, unaware that a SHIELD agent's on the trail of her.

The Hangman's also somehow mixed up in all this.

Just what the She-Hulk's up to is anyone's guess but I'm sure it'll involve her dealings with a world that doesn't understand her.

I genuinely have no idea what happens in this week's issue.

I do know that cover's from 1974's War is Hell #9, a series whose existence I've previously been unaware of.

It seems to involve Allied soldier John Kowalski who gets killed but doesn't let that put him off fighting the forces of fascism.

He seems to have a hint of DC's Deadman about him, as he operates by possessing the bodies of the living, in order to achieve his aims.

Whether the cover means he turns up in this week's issue, or whether Marvel UK just chose to use the picture as a generic war image, I could not say.

We're still in Lando Calrissian's floating house and C-3PO's literally going to pieces.

Gullivar Jones is still on Mars and his beloved is still endangered by the big red lobster man whose name I've completely forgotten.

We get yet more from The Destiny of the Dinosaurs.

And this week's tale of the Watcher is The Worst Man on Earth in which a criminal cunningly manages to break free from his prison cell...

...only to discover, upon flinging the door open, that that cell is floating in Space!