August 4th 1982 - 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. 

***

There's been plenty of fuss, lately, about oil but there can have been fewer more exciting weeks for lovers of that substance than this week in 1982. After all, it saw the UK government create Britoil, the privatised successor to the British National Oil Corporation.

And not once has the nation ever had to look back upon that moment with regret.

Over on the UK singles chart, things were even more exciting, as Dexys Midnight Runners scored their second UK Number One, thanks to Come on Eileen, a track that proved you could love a song without ever having the slightest clue what any of the lyrics are. Then again, their previous Number One Geno had already demonstrated that. 

Over on the British album chart, it was the Kids from Fame who ruled the roost, as their self-titled album was successfully keeping Dexys' Too-Rye-Ay off the top spot.

In the issue's lead story, Jim Jaspers tells Captain Britain how he masterminded the deaths of all superheroes and why he's turning the world upside down.

Cap subsequently finds himself in a graveyard of heroes.

And then The Fury shows up and blasts him to pieces.

Elsewhere, in Pittsburgh, the Avengers must fight the heat-tastic villain the world knows as Inferno.

And, finally, Dr Strange must face This Menace Reborn in which Baron Mordo launches a surprise attack but is thwarted when Strange’s astral form inhabits the body of Morgana Blessing’s white cat.

All mind-boggling stuff indeed but, of course, it pales into insignificance beside the cover question, "Do you know the fruit gum secret?"

Reader, I must confess I have failed you. For, I do not know its secret.

All five Doctors get to share the front cover when the mag dedicated to them looks at a bunch of their old adventures.

Among them is Colony in Space which I believe to be the first story in which the Third Doctor manages to visit another world, in his TARDIS.

Sadly, my memory of that serial is that it's as dull as ditchwater, although it does feature a pre-Coronation Street Helen Worth as its claim to fame.

If the cover's to be believed, Paul Darrow's still writing.

Writing what? I cannot say.

Elsewhere, we get a story called Cranpax Core. I've no idea what that is or who's written it but I do know Steve Dillon's the artist.

And, for the hardware lovers amongst us, we get a pin-up of the gang's second spaceship The Scorpio.

The Boomerang's returned.

Well, he is a boomerang.

Is this the one in which the villain tries to get hired as a replacement for Bullseye and Elektra, by the Kingpin who sends him off to kill Spider-Man in the not-unreasonable assumption that Spidey will flatten him?

Whether it is or not, we get Part Two of our great Fantastic Four poster.

And we can win a flight in an historical plane. Last week, we were told it was a fighter plane. I shall, therefore, assume the craft in question to be a Spitfire.

Marvel Madhouse confounds the cynics by continuing to appear and, this time out, Howard the Duck must face the might of Klout who I shall assume to be a wrestler.

I predict that Howard will survive the encounter.

Marvel UK's most monstrous monthly's back and examining Hammer Films and King Kong's life story.

As well as a look at the latest horror releases, there's coverage of Dracula rip-offs and variations. I will be amazed if Count Yorga doesn't get a mention.

Meanwhile, for lovers of nostalgic images, there's a free copy of the poster for Roger Corman's Fall of the House of Usher.

Now we're in trouble. The Hulk's trapped in the Leader's indestructible rubber prison, and the villain's seized control of Thunderbolt Ross's military base.

In our backup strip, Iron Man and Scott Lang find themselves confronting an armoured gang called the Raiders who I think have been sent by a rival of Stark Industries, as a publicity stunt.

Spidey's mag may have a multi-part FF poster but the Hulk's determined not to be left behind and supplies us with Part Two of a colour poster of his own.

Unless I miss my guess, Adam Warlock's having another of his returns from the dead. Does this officially make him a zombie? Or even the far-more-dreaded zuvembie?

I can only leave that decision to wiser heads than my own.

As for the official stars of the comic, I believe the X-Men are still having trouble with the Hellfire Club - and may even have been captured by them!

That's not the most scintillating cover I've ever seen on a magazine. Nor is it the most revealing when it comes to contents.

Sadly, I've not been able to discover anything about those contents, from online sources. Therefore, the doings of this month's issue seem destined to remain a mystery to me.

Marvel UK's mag dedicated to the most famous scarecrow since the one in The Wizard of Oz still refuses to die.

But that raises a vital question. 

Just what happens if you try to play Dark Side of the Moon while watching an episode of Worzel Gummidge?

I don't know. But I have other matters to fill my time with. Such as the fact that, this issue, we're being given a star profile of Cliff's old friend Una Stubbs.

Hot on the heels of Adam Warlock, the deceased, once more, stalk the world of Marvel UK, as our favourite sci-fi mag takes a look at movies that have starred the resurrected dead.

This means we can expect plentiful talk of Night of the Living Dead and I Walked With a Zombie. Personally, I prefer the latter of those two films. Other opinions may exist.

Once again, the adventures of Mystery Incorporated must remain just that, as they hit their 24th issue with no sign of cover nor contents to be found online.

Fifty years ago today - August 1972.

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

***

In this very land, the Women's European Football Championship has just finished, with the host nation collecting the trophy for the first time ever. But, exactly fifty years ago, a very different sporting event got underway, with the launch of the Munich Olympics.

The UK won 5 gold medals at that festival but it was away from the stadiums that the world's attention settled upon, as 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, plus a West German police officer, were killed in the Olympic village, by Palestinian Black September members.

Up in the heavens, things of drama were afoot. For a start, one of the largest solar flares ever recorded knocked out cable lines in the United States.

But there was also a brilliant, daytime meteor, visible in western USA and Canada, thanks to an asteroid cheekily bouncing off the Earth's atmosphere.

And, speaking of things that had arrived from Heaven; back on Earth, it was time to make a song and dance about the Messiah, as Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar made its West End debut.

The Fantastic Four are still battling the Creature from the Black Lagoon's outer space lookalike who's now kidnapped Sue, in his desperate attempts to get medical treatment for his wife.

That bounder the Grim Reaper's busy sending temptation the Vision's way, thanks to his ownership of Wonder Man's body.

I'm not totally sure what else happens in this issue. Does the Space Phantom put in an appearance?

Whether he does or does not, I've a feeling the Sentinels are about to reappear from the heart of the sun, with a brand new plan for global domination.

"You can't let him be killed by Hyde!" declares Sharon Carter.

Which poses the obvious question of just who does she want him to be killed by?

I do believe the Scorpion's also in this story. Maybe he can oblige her and be the one to kill Cap.

Barry Smith disappears for a couple of issues, as Gil Kane steps in to give us our monthly dose of sword and sandals.

In it, Conan and Fafnir the Vanir are stranded on the ancient island of Bal-Sagoth, meaning the two enemies must now work together, in order to survive.

It would appear that, in this issue, the Black Widow finally tells DD the mysterious secret of Project Four and of her history with Danny French.

While that might sound like it should be good news, both Daredevil and the Widow start to suffer from intense attacks of panic.

I'll make the brave prediction that this can only mean the return of Mr Fear.

It's one of my favourite Hulk tales, in which our hero finds himself reduced to the size of a doll and having to battle the hordes of Hydra.

And it's all thanks to the Chameleon.

But never fear! It's Ant-Man to the rescue!

Hooray! It's the return of the Super-Adaptoid - and of  that kneeling woman who seems to have appeared on every cover Gil Kane has ever done.

Someone's ego's getting out of hand.

Literally, as a chunk of the living planet turns up to cause nothing but chaos wherever it goes.

It's the Super-Adaptoid again - but he hasn't brought Gil Kane's Kneeling Woman with him.

It would seem the Mimic's also in this story, making me assume the two identically-powered characters are going to confront each other.

All we need now is for the Absorbing Man to show up and we've got a classic.

Kraven makes a monkey out of the Gibbon by taking over his mind and making him fight the far more powerful Spider-Man.

That's Marvel dealt with but, for comparison, what was DC giving us in its mags that bore the same cover date?

A random sampling of them may tell us.

The Justice League hit their 100th issue and do so by cramming in as many heroes as is super-humanly possible.

Thus it is that 33 crime-fighters are squeezed into just 36 pages.

And for good reason. After all, a  new menace looms, as the JLA and JSA conduct their annual celebration of something or other.

But it's no ordinary menace. It did, after all, almost destroy the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

I've never read this story but the Grand Comics Database informs me Batman tracks Ra's Al Ghul to Switzerland, only to find out he's dead, which sounds a bit anti-climactic.

The Dark Mansion keeps on giving us its forbidden tales.

This time, it offers up The Psychic-Blood-Hound, Is There a World Outside of the One We Know??? and Diary of a Dead Woman! The first of those three tales is written and laid-out by Jack Kirby with finished artwork by Mike Royer.

As if that wasn't enough to keep any man happy, we also receive a two-page look at the history of reincarnation.

There's a cover you're not going to ignore when you see it staring at you from a spinner rack.

Inside, we get The Skyscraper That Came to Life!, Ray-Gun in the Sky! and The Case of the Counterfeit Humans! All somewhat elderly reprints. The middle of which being an Adam Strange adventure.

A brand new mag hits the shelves, as Wanted makes its crime-packed debut. 

Granted, it's not that new, being made up entirely of reprints. 

In the first tale, the Signalman comes to Gotham City, with the sole aim of gaining a reputation by outwitting Batman.

In the second, the Clock King traps the Green Arrow and Speedy, and it's all going great for him until the archers escape his trap...

In the third, the Puppet-Master invents a Hypno-Ray and commits crimes by using others as puppets. And that's all going great too until he attempts to capture the Green Lantern.

The moral of these tales is, clearly, that to gain criminal success, one should avoid capturing super-heroes.

That last tale is from 1960. I just hope Marvel has good lawyers.

It's a memorable cover from Joe Kubert.

But there's no sign of him inside, as we're fed such masterpieces as Robots, Pawns, Goliath of the Western Front! and Robot Fightin' Men, thanks to the pencils of Alex Toth, Ross Andru and Frank Thorne.

It's the fight we've all been waiting for, as the depowered Wonder Woman has to tangle with Catwoman. And who could resist buying any book that bore that Dick Giordano cover?

I do recall this adventure takes place in the Himalayas and involves some sort of emerald jewel inset in a giant statue of Buddha. For some reason, both Diana and Selina have to get their hands on it - even if it means the death of one of them.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - official trailer. Warning: potential spoilers!

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

***

Just the other day, I stunned mankind by posting the trailer for the Thor movie that's currently thrilling the cinemas of the world.

However, in the wake of all that, it was pointed out to me that there's another Marvel trailer on the loose.

And that's for Wakanda Forever, the Black Panther movie that, for obvious reasons, is going to have to get by without its titular character.

Can it pull that off?

Judging by the trailer, it looks like it can, with Angela Bassett, in particular, happy to give it some welly.

I must confess I've still not seen the first Black Panther movie yet and, so, can pass no judgment upon either its style or its quality but this one looks like it's going to be highly dramatic and its trailer's noticeably devoid of the flippancy that defined the Thor one.

I'm assuming, from it, that Wakanda and Atlantis are going to find themselves at war with each other. I also assume that'll be down to the Machiavellian machinations of some villain or other.

Either way, it's good to see the Sub-Mariner finally turning up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, complete with green swimming trunks. And for him to have his trident with him - even if it seems to only have one prong.

Does that make it a unident?

Frankly, I have no idea.

July 28th 1982 - 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. 

***

Fame! I'm going to live forever!

Or at least until the end of this post.

I hope.

But 40 years ago this week, it seemed the whole country had gone Fame crazy.

On the UK album chart, not only was the movie's Original Soundtrack at Number One but, sat supreme at Number Two, were The Kids from Fame with their album The Kids from Fame.

And that wasn't the limit of it, as Irene Cara was simultaneously dwelling resplendent at Number One on the singles chart, with her track Fame. 

After all that celebrity hitting me in the face, it looks like I'm going to have to take refuge in the relative obscurity of whatever it was Marvel UK was giving us that week.

I'm not totally sure what's happening in this one.

From that cover, it looks like Professor X is having one of his legendary mind battles with some villain or other, while Spidey battles a petty crook.

From this, I can only assume it's a tale taken from the pages of Marvel Team-Up. Tragically, the identity of the issue eludes me.

But wait! What's this? Thanks to this book, you can win a trip in a fighter plane?

Hold on. Was that how Boris Johnson swung it?

Elsewhere, we get the first installment of what's described as a fantastic, four-part poster.

I remember The Mighty World of Marvel offering a similar set-up, right at the start of its run. How nostalgic for us all.

And, just to treat us, we get a half-page of readers' drawings of their favourite Marvel heroes.

Judging by that cover, we're about to experience the yarn in which the Leader returns from the dead and convinces Thunderbolt Ross to let him tackle the Hulk.

It's a plan that involves trapping the monster in an indestructible rubber cage while the formidably foreheaded fiend seizes control of the United States' nuclear arsenal.

You do have to wonder how Ross managed to keep his job after that mess-up.

Yet again Onboarder, AKA Mark, has supplied me with a cover to an issue of Scooby-Doo and his TV Friends.

In this one, we get more news from Scooby-Doo's Ghostly Club House and, in a new adventure, the gang must deal with a spectre that's haunting a bank.

I'm assuming he's also stealing its money but I can't officially confirm that.

Speak Your Brain! Part XXXIII. Which comics do you associate with childhood holidays?

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

A wise man once wrote, "Come, muse. Let us sing of rats."

It was Scottish poet James Grainger in his legendary 1762 poem The Sugar Kane. 

But what of us? Will we be singing of rats, today? Or of something else altogether?

Only you can decide because that feature's back. The one in which the first person to comment gets to decide the topic of the day.

It could be art, films, flans, plans, books, bagels, cooks, nooks, crooks, ducks, drakes, pixies, rocks, music, mucous, fairy tales, fairy lights, Fairy Liquid, fairy cakes, Eccles cakes, myth, moths, maths, magic, tragedy, comedy, dromedaries, murder, larders, Ladas, mystery, mayhem, molluscs, Moorcock, May Day, mangoes, bongoes, drongoes, bingo, Ringo, Pingu, Ringu, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Doris Day, Marvin Gaye, Doris Day, Brookside Close, Ramsay Street, Scarlet Street, Dead End Street, the Equinox, parallelograms, rhomboids, androids, asteroids, pomegranates, granite, marble, marbles, maples, staples, fables, stables, sofas, eggs, pegs, legs, dregs, sodas, sausages, eggs, whisky, broth, Bath, baths, Garth Marenghi, Garth Brooks, Garth Crooks, Bruno Brookes, Bruno Mars, Mars Bars, wine bars, flip-flops, flim-flam, flapjacks, backpacks, see-saws, jigsaws, dominoes, draft excluders, dunderheads, deadheads, webheads, flowerpots, flour pots, bread bins, bin bags, body bags, body horror, shoddy horror, doggy bags, bean bags, coal sacks, cola, cocoa, pancakes, pizzas, baking soda, sci-fi, Wi-Fi, Hi-Fi, sewage, saunas, suet, Silurians, Sontarans, Sea Devils, sins, suns, sans, sense, sludge, slumps, sumps, sunshine, slime, soup, sandwiches, Sultanas, Sultans, grapes, grappling or sandcastles.

It may be that and so much more.

Let us retire to our gazebos and see what intrigue unfolds...

Thor: Love and Thunder! With added Lou Ferrigno!

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

***

 

By Heimdall's bushy beard! It's come to my attention that Marvel Entertainment's just released the trailer for its latest masterpiece Thor: Love and Thunder!

Can it live up to the standards of previous Norse adventures?

Who knows? I thought the first Thor movie was OK, I can remember nothing of the second - other than that Christopher Eccleston was in it - and I've still not got round to seeing the third one.

Admittedly, when I say, "just released," it seems the trailer actually came out a full month ago and the film's knocking 'em dead in cinemas, even as I type. But what's this? It seems it's not going down too well with audiences or critics?

Looking at the trailer, it does feel like it's gone a bit overboard on humour, and those fonts do look a bit He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. But who can judge a film by its trailer?

Regardless of any of that, we have solace because, even if the critics prove to be right, we have our memories of a real Thor movie. The one that co-starred the Hulk.

After all, who can forget the first time those two titans met on screen - way back in 1988 - when films were so awesome they didn't need the magic of competent special effects to entrance the public?

Screen Junkies hasn't forgotten it. In fact, right below, is where the channel reminds us how that masterpiece went.

Strangely, in retrospect, the feel of that movie doesn't seem that different from the direction modern Marvel movies are going in. Clearly, it was a work that was ahead of its time.

 

July 21st 1982 - 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. 

***

Nothing that catches the eye of this blog occurred in the worlds of current affairs and entertainment, this week in 1982. I shall, therefore, plunge straight into my look at what Marvel UK was flinging at us in those seven days.

It's back to the thrilling photo covers that all Spidey fans just love to see.

But, inside, I know our hero's conducting his legendary battle with the Juggernaut, after the unstoppable villain's abduction of Madame Web.

That's bad news for him. But the good news for us is we can win a clock-radio-cassette recorder!

It would appear the Watcher's still demanding to know what would have happened had the Hulk retained Bruce Banner's intellect.

And, now, the Fantastic Four have been dragged into it!

That's because Bruce teams up with Reed Richards and Professor X to battle Galactus. In that struggle, the trio lose their powers but the Thing's strength is so enhanced that he becomes as big a threat as the original Hulk was.

It would also appear Iron Man's in space. How he got there, I'm not sure. I suspect he's still having his first encounter with Roxxon's Sunturion and his space station of doom.

As so often in the past, the cover and contents of an issue of Hanna Barbera's Scooby-Doo and His T.V. Friends has eluded me. This time, it's issue #22 that has dared defy my will.