Speak Your Brain! Part XIII. Good comics with duff scenes or episodes.

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

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Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

The Phantom Stranger recently passed our way and many are the things he knows.

But the one thing he doesn't know is what we're going to be talking about today.

That's because it's time for the return of the internet's most unprepared feature.

The one in which the first person to comment sets the starting point for the day's discussion.

But of what is that discussion to be?

Might it be sport, art, films, music, books, fairy tales, myth, magic, mystery, sofas, sausages, eggs, whisky, broth, flip-flops, flim-flam, see-saws, flowers, flour, bread bins, bin bags, cola, pancakes, sci-fi, horror, sewage, saunas or sandcastles?

It might be.

The Phantom Stranger #28. The Counterfeit Madman?

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

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There is no labyrinth so twisted, no world as uncharted, no puzzle so obscure as the workings of any normal mind! And if the mind be abnormal, then those who try to trace the tangled thread risk even their own sanity!

Wise words indeed.

And wise they should be.

For they come from no lesser gob than that of the Phantom Stranger, a man with a bucketful of words for any occasion.

In this case, that occasion is issue #28 of his book, the purchase of which was the first time I ever encountered the hat-happy man of mystery.

Needless to say, it was Nick Cardy's dramatic cover that drew me in, although, even at the time, I spotted, at once, that it contains a noticeable error.

But is it an error?

Or is it a deliberate hint as to the true nature of the tale's events?

And, Reader, can you spot what that, "error," is?

Inside the book, the deal is this. Willie Lemmick's a nice kid, helpful to all he meets...

...until those occasions when he becomes possessed by his alter ego Joseph Ganz.

For, you see, Ganz is a homicidal maniac with a love of armed robbery and a tendency to think everyone and everything he meets is a monster.

After his attempt to hijack a plane is foiled by the Phantom Stranger, Willie's put on trial but the jury's struggling to decide whether his lifetime of committing pointless but demented crimes means he's genuinely mad or just putting it on to get himself off the hook.

Happily, the Phantom Stranger's in the habit of hanging around in jury deliberation rooms and has a solution.

He'll use his powers to probe Willie's mind and get to the truth, finally doing so by confronting him with a physical incarnation of Ganz.

At this point, a horrified Willie declares that Ganz can't be real because he made him up.

Armed with this confession, surely the jury is guaranteed to convict.

Except it's not that simple.

After all, as one of the jurors points out, surely only a true madman would go to such lengths as to commit a string of totally pointless but demented crimes, over a period of years, purely in an attempt to prove himself insane.

And, so, we leave our story, as the Phantom Stranger departs the courtroom and we, he, the judge and jury ponder upon the true nature of insanity.

It's a surprisingly short tale and relates much of its info by flashback but it is one that sticks in the mind and may be the first psychologically-based comic I ever read.

I've always had a liking for Gerry Talaoc's artwork, and Arnold Drake does a solid job, even though, with its quick jumps in time, and flashbacks, it does feel, at times, as though something's been cut out.

It does strike me, however, that the Phantom Stranger's behaviour would get the case thrown out in a real court.

Would he really be allowed to hang around in the jury deliberation room, eavesdropping on its discussions?

Would he really be allowed to visit Willie in his cell, with no lawyer present?

And would any confession thus obtained be at all admissible as evidence?

I suspect not.

We can only conclude that it only goes to show the level of respect the criminal justice system has for him.

Even though it's hard to see how it could even know he exists.

So, there you go. If you're ever stricken by a legal conundrum, call in a corny man in a hat and a cape.

Just don't expect him to ever solve the conundrum.

October 21st 1981 - 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. 

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As we all know, the one good thing about being a hundred is you get a telegram from the Queen.

The UK's centenarians must, therefore, have been flung into total panic, this week in 1981, when British Telecom announced it'd be discontinuing its telegram service in 1982, after 139 years of use.

Now how was the Queen going to congratulate people?

Come to think of it, I don't have a clue. Does she send a text, these days?

What's this?

It's a brand new comic dedicated to everyone's favourite wall-crawling hero.

And it's designed to cash in on the popularity of his TV show.

Despite it not being popular and it having been made years earlier and, probably, no one in Britain ever having seen it, anyway.

I don't know how this all makes sense but, for Marvel UK, it does, even though that cover would be enough to put anyone sane off buying the thing.

But what might change people's minds is that, in a move harking back to the very first days of Marvel UK, the book has eight pages of colour amidst its otherwise monochrome contents.

And those pages are used for a retelling of Spider-Man's origin.

We also get a free cardboard boomerang, this week because there's nothing says, "Spider-Man," to people quite like a boomerang does.

Hold on to your shields! It's that one in which Cap flies to Los Angeles to get involved in a movie that's being made about him!

But, when he gets there, a brand new hero shows up who's adopted Cap's old Nomad guise and is determined to steal Winghead's glory wherever he goes.

Sadly, I cannot say what occurs in the strips belonging to Thor, the Dazzler and Iron Man but, according to the cover, Shellhead's facing what might very well be his end.

And it's not looking good for Daredevil either.

Nor should it.

After all, a movie mogul's decided he needs to take violent action against those he deems un-American.

And DD puts himself right in the line of fire!

Elsewhere, it seems the Panther must contend with, "The men who stalk through rock."

I assume that means rock, the substance. Not rock, the music genre.

Anyway, it all culminates with the Panther about to have a confrontation with the villainous Kiber in what is Jack Kirby's final story on the strip.

Speak Your Brain! Part XII. Changing musical tastes and how you now read 1970s comics.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Autumn progresses and the nights draw in.

Time, perhaps, to huddle around a fire and discuss the matters of burning import which keep us awake at night, as the most unprepared feature on the internet returns.

As always, the rules are that the first person to comment below can set the starting point for the day's discussion.

Granted, the way it works in practice is that anyone who comments, somehow, manages to do it.

But what is that discussion of?

Could it be sport, art, films, music, books, fairy tales, myth, magic, mystery, sofas, sausages, eggs, whisky, broth, flip-flops, flim-flam, see-saws, bin bags, cola, pancakes, sci-fi, horror, sewage or sandcastles?

Only you can decide.

If you're brave enough...

2000 AD - September 1983.

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

***

They say you should live every day as though it's your last.

And, in September 1983, it very nearly was 

It was the month in which nuclear annihilation was avoided by a hair's breadth, thanks to Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov who prevented a worldwide catastrophe by realising a detected American missile attack was a false alarm.

I think we can safely say he deserved a pay rise.

And there was also good news for those who hate being stopped in the streets and asked for directions, when President Ronald Reagan announced the new-fangled Global Positioning System (GPS) would be made available for civilian use.

Elsewhere in the USA, Vanessa L. Williams became the first African American to be crowned Miss America.

I'm sure she remembered to put her makeup on for that one but a group of people who decided to go without such decoration were American rock band Kiss who startled the world by appearing in public without makeup, for the first time ever, on MTV.

A slightly lesser shock, at least to the people of  Saint Kitts and Nevis, was that it was the month in which their land was granted independence by the UK.

However, it was a relatively low-key month for the world's cinema, with a noticeable dearth of blockbusters. We did, though, get to see the release of two notable films, in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Educating Rita, neither of which I've ever seen.

But there's more to life than just seeing. What about hearing?

The UK singles chart was a tale of two songs, with September's first half finding the listing dominated by UB40's Red Red Wine before that was deposed, for its second half, by Culture Club's Karma Chameleon.

I've heard it claimed Karma Chameleon was the last British Number One that had universal appeal, in the sense that everyone in the family, from the grandparents to the grandchildren, could know it, like it, recognise it and sing along with it. Whether this is true or not, I shall leave to the judgement of others.

Over on the British album chart, the month kicked off with The Very Best of The Beach Boys at the summit, before that succumbed to Paul Young's No Parlez which, in turn, succumbed to UB40's Labour of Love before a late rally saw No Parlez reclaim the peak just in time for the month's death.

That was all, clearly, a frenzy of excitement and I've no doubt the galaxy's greatest comic could easily match it.

After all, the month gave us such strips as Judge Dredd, Sláine, Nemesis the Warlock, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Robo-Hunter and Tharg's Time Twisters. Imperishable classics, all.

And, as if that wasn't enough, Prog 333 gave us the chance to win a BMX bike, while Prog 335 offered us the prospect of securing our own Atari home computer.

October 14th 1981 - 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. 

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Halloween is fast approaching. That magical night on which Americans excitedly await the arrival of trick or treaters, with whole boxes full of candy, and Britons excitedly hide behind their settees, with the lights out, and pretend to not be in.

How appropriate, then, that, this evening in 1981, BBC One was showing Carry On Screaming, the Carry On series' tongue-in-cheek homage to that other great British cinema institution Hammer Horror.

How we thrilled as Oddbod generated a twin from his severed finger, and Harry H Corbett turned into a werewolf detective.

Over on the UK singles chart, the nation had a brand new Number One when Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin's It's My Party hit the top spot.

The Dave Stewart in question did, of course, have no connection to the one who was in the Eurythmics shortly after.

The Police, meanwhile, retained their dominance of the British album chart, thanks to Ghost in The Machine.

But Ghost? In the run-up to Halloween?

How eerily appropriate.

Wait!

What's this?

A summer special?

About werewolves?

For just 45 pence?

Who could say no to such a thing?

It all depends on what your tolerance for Werewolf by Night is, as this book gives us 48 pages of that character and his misadventures.

We get a reprint of Marvel Spotlight #4 in which Jack Russell travels to an island, in search of the Darkhold, and Werewolf by Night #1 in which he escapes that island, with the Darkhold.

If that's not enough for us, there's also a tale from 1953's Journey into Unknown Worlds #22, which goes by the name of Two Frightened People! That, of course, doesn't feature the character. 

I assume it does, though, feature a werewolf but, being unfamiliar with the tale, I cannot guarantee it.

I do have to say, however, that October seems a strange time to release a summer special.

Especially bearing in mind that the winter annuals must already be appearing in a shop near you.

Marvel UK clearly has a lot of confidence in its Classics Comics pocket book because, unlike its other mags in the digest format, this one comes out twice a month. 

And so it is that, mere days after the title's War of the Worlds adaptation hit Britain's spinner racks, Frankenstein is placed before our hungry gazes.

Information about the contents of this one is thin on the ground but I suspect the Hulk's still under the spell of the Corruptor, and the Western-themed gang of heroes called the Rangers are out to do something about it, while Spider-Man's tussle with the Beetle and the Gibbon is, doubtless, also ongoing.

More importantly, this is the book's last-ever issue, and the numbering that began with (I think) Spider-Man Comics Weekly, way back in 1973, finally comes to a halt.

Goodbye, issue #449. How we'll miss you.

A comic that's a mere youth in comparison is showing no signs of meeting its maker, as Iron Man tackles the icy menace of the Endotherm who doesn't seem to be the same villain as Jack Frost, even though he appears to have exactly the same powers and is also an Iron Man villain.

Sadly, the activities of Captain America, Thor and the Dazzler are unknown to me.

Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, this is the one in which Daredevil and the Black Panther must unite in response to the threat to a boy's life that's been caused by the dreaded Thunderbolts.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - October 1981.

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

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October 1981 was no time to be faint-hearted.

For, horror undreamt of was about to enter your life, thanks to the release of Sam Raimi's low-budget classic The Evil Dead. How we gasped as a man with a chainsaw took on the nightmare threat of a stroppy tree and more.

But it wasn't the only important release of limited budget, that month. The world's less discriminating cinemas also saw the release of Galaxy of Terror which may not be as celebrated as The Evil Dead but it did employ a man called James Cameron as its production designer and second-unit director. And there are those who claim his later film Aliens owed more than a little to the contents of that movie.

But, also, appropriately, with it being October, the month saw the release of Halloween II,  which was nice news for people who like that kind of thing.

The Fantastic Four get their 16th annual - and it's a surprise for some of us to see it comes courtesy of the pencils of Steve Ditko who not only draws the cover but also the solitary tale contained within.

The Ed Hannigan written epic features someone called Dragon Lord.

And if that's not dragony enough for you, it also contains Dragon Man and the Dragon Riders.

Sadly, it doesn't contain any Fin Fang Foom.

And I don't actually know who Dragon Lord is.

I'm assuming he can control dragons.

But not Fin Fang Foom.

Gasp as this year's Marvel Team-Up annual gives us the return of the Purple Man!

I don't have a clue what occurs in this one but it would appear it takes the combined might of Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, Power Man and Daredevil to stop him.

And it's yet another annual. This time, for Marvel Two-in-One, as the Thing and newcomer American Eagle must prevent Klaw from stealing Vibranium from the Savage Land.

And, apparently, Ka-Zar and Wyatt Wingfoot get dragged into it all, as well!

It's bad news for Dragon Lord because Dragonslayer launches its first issue, which sets out to adapt the movie of the same name.

I don't know if I've ever seen Dragonslayer. Looking at its summary on Wikipedia, nothing about it sounds familiar.

We've had plenty of annuals, so far, this post but we've now got an ever-loving 100th issue to celebrate.

And that's from The Defenders.

Over the course of 38 pages, our team who aren't a team must battle multiple incarnations of Satan, in order to prevent him from unleashing Hell on Earth.

And, not to be left behind, Conan also has an annual that's freebooting its way around Hyboria.

It's another 38-page epic but I don't have an inkling of what happens in it.

I do know, though, that the villain of the piece is called Barlonius.

Hold the front page because we've got the launch of Marvel's adaptation of For Your Eyes Only, one of the few Bond films I can't remember ever having seen.

Therefore, the plot of the movie escapes me.

I'm assuming it involves a fancy car, a megalomaniac who wants to rule the world, an unlikely gadget, a bad girl who turns good, an extravagant base and a deadly but unlikely henchperson.

Whatever it's about, it's brought to us by the licensed-to-thrill team of Larry Hama and Howard Chaykin.

Not to be outdone by all those whippersnappers, Captain America, too, has an annual.

It would appear to feature a battle to the death with the Constrictor and is also 38 pages long but that's literally all I can say about it.

Other than it's the handiwork of David Michelinie and Gene Colan.

And it includes an ad for Hostess fruit pies which is called The Hulk vs. The Phoomie Goonies.

The Phoomie Goonies. Marvellous.