The Marvel Lucky Bag - November 1973.

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

***

Some may disagree with me but, for my money, November 1973 wasn't the greatest month in cinema history.

In fact, the most interesting films released that month would appear to have been Carry On Girls, Disney's Robin Hood cartoon and something called Flesh for Frankenstein which is not a film I could claim to be familiar with.

I have, however, seen the other two movies and feel I should declare Robin Hood to be the better of the pair.

In retrospect, it does seem odd there was never a Carry On Robin. The adventures of the arrow-happy outlaw and his merry men would surely be a fertile hunting ground for the Carry On gang.

It's the big one. The Evil Eye saga approaches its climax, as Thor and the Hulk battle it out on the streets, with neither able to gain the upper hand.

And there's still the small matter of Dormammu to be dealt with.

At last, we get the swamp-shattering origin of the Man-Thing!

Admittedly, we'd already got it in 1971's Savage Tales #1, as it's reprinted from there.

After that, there's a tale called The Cyclops, then one called Frankenstein A.K*, followed by The Death-Dealing Mannikin. Not to mention Swamp Girl and Preview: The Son of Satan.

That's all followed by The Cold of the Uncaring Moon and Birthright!

After umpteen dozen years of wearing nothing but swimming trunks, the ruler of Atlantis finally gets a new wardrobe, as Reed Richards whips him up the threads that'll allow him to survive out of water, following a collision with a sunken ship filled with nerve gas.

Despite appearances, we would seem not to be getting an adaptation of Sleepy Hollow.

Instead, we're granted a tale in which someone called Duke Durbano discovers who killed someone called Matt Carter and tracks down someone called Bones Bullinger.

That's all well and good but just who's posing as the Headless Horseman?

And would he have gotten away with it if not for those pesky kids?

A brand new book hits our shelves. And, before I've even opened it, I'm going to assume it's made up entirely of reprints.

But will I be proven right?

No, I won't. After all, the issue's first yarn is an all-new tale in which the Rawhide Kid meets the Dakota Kid, and the gun-toting duo must unite in order to thwart some evil ranchers.

The issue's second tale is, however, a reprint from 1959.

At last, we get Marvel's long-awaited adaptation of BBC Two's flagship arts show!

Wait? What's that? That's not what this issue's Arena is?

Instead, it's an adaptation of Fredric Brown's tale in which a human and an alien must combat each other, even as their space fleets wage war on each other.

And that's not all we get. We're also supplied a four-page reprint in which a machine sends an inventor back in time - but not in quite the way he'd intended.

I admit, I've only picked this one because of the untrammelled melodrama of Rich Buckler's cover.

In our first thriller, a man hires a mechanic to create a robot to murder his business partner.

In our second, a man's killed at a railway crossing and promptly places a curse on motorists.

In our third, a man meets a woman who tells him of a subterranean war between the Clabs and the Paladorns. But will he survive the revelation?

And, in our fourth, we meet a man who wears black gloves to hide the fanged mouths embedded in his palms.

All of these stories are reprinted from a 1952 comic called Mystic.

Jim Starlin gives us a classic cover - although John Romita seems not to agree, as he's decided to completely redraw our hero's face.

But what of the insides?

It's the one in which Eon enables Mar-Vell to gain Cosmic Awareness to boost his fight against the villainous Thanos.

For some reason, this also causes his hair to change colour.

I do believe the trail of sparkles he now leaves behind him is a tribute to the trail of sparkles that used to follow Steve Ditko's Captain Atom around.

Fifty years ago today - November 1973.

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

***

Remember, remember the 5th of November?

Not me. I'm too busy trying to recall what happened in a bunch of comics from fifty years ago.

It's the return the whole world was crying out for, as the Kangaroo boomerangs back into action.

And he's been given new, improved powers by that sinister scientist the world doesn't know as Jonas Harrow.

Sadly, those upgrades don't prevent the aggro-packed antipodean from being clobbered by everyone's favourite webhead.

The Evil Eye saga rumbles on, as two Second World War legends have a punch-up in Japan. One that keeps being interrupted by the ever-annoying nationalism of Sunfire.

Meanwhile, the Valkyrie must overcome the awesome power of the Swordsman in a castle somewhere in South America.

And it's a castle owned by a Nazi!

Apparently, our heroes are up against the Yellow Claw!

But, other than that, I can shed no light upon the contents of this book.

Nor can I shed any upon the interiors of this mag.

All I do know is that Conan conducts a bit of spying on behalf of the Turanian army.

Kraven throws Daredevil from a cliff and our hero finds himself in the underwater domain of Moondragon who promptly accuses him of being an agent of Thanos. 

Once that misunderstanding's all cleared up, the issue climaxes with Kerwin J Broderick - Matt Murdock's own law partner - unleashing Terrex upon the world.

I'm assuming Terrex is no relation to Terrax.

But isn't this the story where Daredevil has to press a yellow button to save us all but can't because he doesn't know which of the buttons is yellow?

I always wanted to read this story, when I was a kid - mostly because there was a panel from it reproduced in The Horrific World of Monsters. A tome I ramble on about, right here.

Sadly, not only did I never get my hands on a copy of the original comic but I've still never even read it in reprint form. Truly, life can be tragic.

Hooray! The Bi-Beast makes his two-faced debut!

It all happens because the Harpy and Hulk are whisked away by a tornado and land in a floating city that once belonged to the Bird People who created the two-faced fiend.

Sadly for everyone involved, MODOK then turns up and decides to take the place over.

Curiously, a panel from this issue also turns up in The Horrific World of Monsters.

I've no idea what happens in this one but it's good to see Happy displaying his faith in his boss, on that cover.

I do believe Thor and his gang return to Asgard - only to find it's now ruled by their own doppelgängers!

It seems the treacherous Igron's used them to seize control of the kingdom!

That's Marvel's big-hitters taken care of but, for the sake of contrast and comparison, I feel duty-bound to inspect what a random sampling of DC's heroes were up to in books which bore that very month upon their covers.

And what's this? Batman having to face a half-forgotten icon of the Golden Age?

It does seem appropriate, as people have often pointed out that the very first Batman story borrowed heavily, in both story and artwork, from the ancient Shadow novella The Partners of Peril.

A brand new comic makes its debut - and it involves sport.

Sadly, no proper football seems to be involved but it contains the ever-popular pastimes of baseball, motor racing and, erm, hurdling, all brought to us by the redoubtable team of Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti whose presence in a book can always be relied upon to deliver quirky strangeness.

Tragically, this mag is destined to exist for just three issues before cancellation.

Hooray! The Flash gets the 100-page treatment, and does so with such tales as Secret of the Three Super-Weapons!, The Slowpoke Crimes!, Campaign against the Flash!, Riddle of the Sleepytime Taxi! and The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero! Not all of which star the Flash. One of them stars the Elongated Man. While another stars the rather less famous Johnny Quick.

But hold the presses! Barely have we said goodbye to the Shadow in Batman's mag before he's back!

And this time in his own comic!

Sadly, I've never read this tale and, so, all I can reveal about it is the scarf-happy man of mystery finds himself up against a thing called The Doom Puzzle!

And yet another new mag puts in its first appearance, as Black Magic arrives to terrify us all.

Unlike the more familiar DC horror books of the time, it presents us with a bunch of 1950s reprints by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and, thus feels more like an early 1970s Marvel anthology than a DC one.

In our first story, Tom Mason wants nothing more than to protect his disabled brother but I'm assuming something comes between him and that desire.

In our second tale, when Francie Bleeker falls in love with Hugan Fesker, she decides it's time to discover the secret of his family.

And, in our third, Johnny lives in Sanctuary where deformed people live free from the prying eyes of the public. However, he then falls in love with someone called Elena...

November 3rd, 1973 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

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

***

If you're British, a strange switch flicks in your brain if you hear the words, "Four candles," or, "Don't tell him, Pike!"

Well, I've no news to impart about the first of those two quotes but I can shed light upon the second, as this week in 1973 was when those words were first uttered.

It's true. We saw the sixth series of the World War II sitcom Dad's Army launch, with the episode The Deadly Attachment in which the platoon must guard a gang of captured U-Boat sailors, a ladder is climbed, a song is sung and that classic line is born.

Meanwhile, East and West were colliding, as Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge was completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia, via the Bosphorus Strait, for the first time in history.

Speaking of firsts, it was also when NASA launched Mariner 10 toward Mercury, with the aim of it becoming the first space probe to reach that planet.

On that week's UK singles chart, David Cassidy was still bossing things, with his double A-side Daydreamer/Puppy Song, just as he had been the week before.

There was change, however, on the accompanying album chart.

That's because David Bowie's brand new LP Pin Ups smashed onto the listings at Number One, thwarting a stern challenge from Elton's Goodbye Yellowbrick Road which had to settle for entering at Number Two.

Things race towards a climax, as a Mandarin-controlled Hulk's sent to attack the Red Chinese. Or, at least, some of them.

But it's only a matter of time before the Jade giant breaks the villain's conditioning and sets off to trash his base of operations. Something that becomes much easier with the help of a simultaneous attack by Nick Fury and friends.

Then it's the clash of the super-teams, as the Puppet Master seizes control of Professor X and makes him set the X-Men on the Fantastic Four. What a bounder!

And to make matters worse, the villain's aided and abetted by the Mad Thinker!

Yet more entanglements hit the Marvel timelines, as the third (or, possibly, fourth) incarnation of Kang shows up.

This time, it's Immortus who's causing trouble. The high-hatted troublemaker wants to unite with the Masters of Evil and use his control of the realm of Limbo to summon powerful figures from the past, to help out.

Elsewhere, thanks to his mystical powers, Dr Strange senses evil in Bavaria. There, he finds the townsfolk possessed and, being Dr Strange, concludes there must be supernatural forces at work.

However, he soon discovers it's really the work of aliens from another dimension!

It's a great day for all lovers of the lizard, as the herpetological horror finally makes his return, dozens of issues after his previous appearance.

This time, he's in New York and, I think, out to use his mastery of reptiles to take over town. Can our hero stop the villain? Especially with his arm in a sling?

Elsewhere, thanks to cheating, Loki defeats Thor in the Trial of the Gods. Can the thunder god prove to Odin that his half-brother won by using hidden Norn Stones?

And just how does it involve the Vietnam War?

Speak Your Brain! Part 66. The best Dracula and your favourite monster movies.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Listen! Can you hear them? The children of the night?

You probably can because it is, even as I type these words, using my own blood as ink, that most terrifying night of the year.

But is that what's on your mind?

I've no idea.

But I soon will have because it's also the last Tuesday of the month.

And that means it's the return of the feature that's been known to drive a stake of terror into the heart of even the strongest man.

It's the one in which you and you alone get to decide just what's going to be the day's subject for debate.

That subject could involve tonight's events but, given that we've only recently discussed Halloween, it doesn't have to be. It could be any subject at all that tickles your fancy.

For instance, I've noticed there's a new Beatles single out shortly. There are also three Doctor Who 60th Anniversary specials due to be unleashed in the next month. Guy Fawkes Night is mere days away - and Christmas is just around the corner. Then again, it may be something else altogether that's floating your boat right now.

And that's the point. It is your boat and, in the comments section below, you may launch it as you see fit.

Halloween!!!

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

***

Holy haddocks, as we say in England. It's just struck me that this venerable site has never done a post dedicated to that fear-filled festival of frightful frivolity that is Halloween.

Admittedly, that's not strictly speaking true. A click on this link here will whisk you to numerous ancient musings that have skirted upon the topic,

However, what is true is that I've never launched a post directly dedicated to the festival itself. Therefore, here is that post.

My earliest memory of Halloween is of blundering around our back garden, in the late 1960s, carrying a turnip that had a scary face carved into it and a blazing candle inside. There were none of those fancy pumpkins, back then. We had to make do with turnips, just as our primitive ancestors had. I would assume this was in either October 1968 or 1967 because I know I was elsewhere on October 31st, 1969 and I would, surely, have been too young to remember it if the year was 1966 or earlier.

Other childhood memories are of bobbing for apples, scrying with a mirror, and even breaking out the Ouija Board to see if contact could be made with the spirits of the dead. Reader, I can reveal that no contact with the dead was ever established.

That was at home. In primary school, we were encouraged to cut out cats, bats, and witches on broomsticks, from black paper, and hang them from the ceiling.

And, of course, we were taught how to make witches' hats from black paper, then encouraged to wear them on the way home from school.

When it comes to culture, the things I most associate with the event are, inevitably, John Carpenter's Halloween movies but, of that multitude, the only one that's ever grabbed me is Halloween III which bears no resemblance to the others and may or may not have been written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale.

I also associate the date with Ghostwatch, BBC One's 1992 broadcast that purported to be a livecast from a haunted house. It all ended with Sarah Greene missing, presumed dead, and Michael Parkinson alone in a possessed TV studio. It was all fake but that didn't stop large numbers of people believing it to be true and phoning in to complain, making it the most complained about TV show in British history.

I associate no songs with Halloween. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't even think of any songs that have the word in the title.

I associate no paintings with Halloween.

Of course, I associate, a million and one comics with the festival, what with 1970s DC having churned out the likes of The Witching Hour, The Unexpected, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Ghosts and a gazillion others. 

As for what I'll be doing this October 31st, unless I can summon up the willpower to go out for the evening, I shall be doing what I always do and hide behind the settee, with the lights out, in case any trick-or-treaters come to the door. That way, I can save all my sweets for myself and not have to share them with anyone. After all, if Halloween has taught me anything in life, it's that the evil in my soul must be allowed free rein to express itself.

Those are my heart-warming thoughts upon the matter and I'm sure you have heart-warming thoughts of your own. Therefore, feel free to post your Halloween experiences, feelings, conclusions, remembrances, expectations, associations and anything else that might occur to you, in the space below.

October 27th, 1973 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

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

***

In 1973, you were either a Donny Osmond fan or a David Cassidy fan.

Unless you were a fan of someone else altogether.

Thus it was that that age-old rivalry was stoked up again, as Cassidy of the David variety smashed his way to Number One on the UK singles chart, with his classic double-A side Daydreamer/The Puppy Song.

Admittedly, when I say, "Classic," I possess no memory of either track and have no idea how either of them went.

Interesting to see that, although he was ruling the charts in Britain; in the US, by the start of 1973, his chart career was already over, with a string of singles failing to crack the Top 200 until Gettin' It in the Street reached Number 105 in 1976. The divergent tastes of the UK and US publics are ofttimes a mystery.

On the accompanying British LP chart, pole position was now hogged by relentless party blues-boogie three-chord-wonder rock band Status Quo with their album Hello.

I must confess I've never heard that record but think I can make a pretty good guess as to what every track on it sounded like.

Stranded in China, the Hulk must match the might of the deadly Smashor, thanks to the machiavellian machinations of the mendacious Mandarin.

I would assume this is all part of the villain's attempt to get the Hulk to assist him in his plans for world domination. Setting a giant robot on someone seems a strange way to win friends and influence people but what can you do?

Next, we get an oddity, as the mag presents us with a 1961 Lee/Ditko tale called The Stone Man in which a pensioner asks the statue of a local hero to help the local poor. His prayers are answered but his neighbours cheat him out of his share of the statue’s gift. Can it be long before that statue avenges the old man?

No, it can't.

And, in our final strip of the issue, Dr Strange helps the Fantastic Four rescue Sue Storm from the clutches of the lovesick Sub-Mariner.

Gasp, humanity, as Wonder Man makes his senses-shattering debut!

But is he hero or villain?

Or is he both?

It's true. The man known to the world as Mr Zemo launches his latest plan to destroy the Earth's mightiest heroes, by getting his new recruit to join the gang and then betray them.

Will his foul scheme triumph?

Not if Wonder Man has his way!

Meanwhile, in Dr Strange's deathless strip, Baron Mordo places a spell over our hero's house which transports it to another world.

With Strange out of the way, the villain visits the Ancient One, claiming he's changed his ways. Will the elderly eldritch educator see through his pesky plan?

Too right he will.

The Rhino's busted out of prison - and he's out for revenge against Spider-Man, after their last meeting!

The cloddish wrongdoer might seem unstoppable but our hero has a secret weapon up his sleeve.

Literally.

Meanwhile, in Thor's current adventure, our hero's still battling Loki in the Trial of the Gods, while Balder attempts to stop the Enchantress and Executioner tormenting Jane Foster.

Speak Your Brain! Part 65. Things that have lasted and lasted and lasted.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Welcome, dear wanderer in the Webbosphere, to my homely chateau.

Or should that be chat-o?

That's right; an introduction of that quality can only mean one thing. It's the return of the feature the whole world and his next-door-neighbour-but-one is talking about.

And that's the one where you get to decide just what's going to be the day's subject for debate.

It could be topical. It could be tropical. It could be typical, pitiful or whip-poor-will.

It could even be something that isn't one of those things.

None of that matters.

All that matters is that it's posted below.