July 6th 1974 - 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. 

***

By the end of tonight, the United Kingdom may well have a new boss but, back in the old days, there was only one leader of the pack.

And that was Marvel UK.

Let's find out just what it was electing to give us in this week of exactly fifty years ago.

It can't be good news for everybody's favourite martial artist when, if the cover's to be believed, he must meet the wizard of the whirling doom!

In fact, as far as I'm aware, he must face two of them! And no one wants to meet two whirling dooms!

Regular readers will, no doubt, be shocked to discover this week's adventure involves him going for a stroll - only for a pair of assassins to turn up and try to kill him!

You'd think he'd have learnt by now to stop taking strolls.

I recall little of this week's Avengers tale but I do know it involves the return of Hercules to Marvel UK, and a dastardly plot by the Enchantress.

Dr Strange, meanwhile, is still in search of Clea and is now recruiting the help of someone called Veritas who only tells the truth. In my opinion, this makes him a convenient man to ask.

It's a living nightmare for Bruce Banner, with the Hulk still separated from him, still mindless and still out to flatten him. Can the pair be reintegrated before its curtains for them both?

But no matter how dramatic that tale may be, even it pales before what's going on at the Baxter Building.

That's because we've reached a historic moment - the wedding of Reed and Sue. And, after all they've been through, who could begrudge them their big day?

Well, it seems Dr Doom could and because of that, he makes sure every super-villain who's at a loose end begrudges it too.

It can only mean one thing; a whole heap of wrongdoers descending on the event and being met by an equally whole heap of heroic fists.

Daredevil's absent from this issue - apart from in his capacity as a guest artist in the Fantastic Four's strip - his place taken by the Sub-Mariner in a short adventure which involves him encountering a gang of undersea mutant outcasts and offering them a home in Atlantis.

Only for his own city guards to chase them off.

Can it be that Atlanteans are as bigoted, small-minded and prejudiced as the surface dwellers?

Subby has to come to terms with the fact that it might.

As we can see, the Green Goblin is back and out to claim revenge upon Spider-Man.

I do believe this may be the issue which features the famously tense dinner at Norman Osborn's place, in which he gets more and more menacing as the evening progresses.

Just as Daredevil's strip is absent from this week's Mighty World of Marvel, so Iron Man is notably missing from this book.

However, we do have Thor finally getting to Wundagore, meeting the High Evolutionary's New Men - and then being there for the birth of the murderous Man-Beast!

Fifty years ago today - July 1974.

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

***

For centuries, scientists have claimed that you can't turn back time.

But they're wrong.

I can.

And I will.

Watch with whatever emotion is appropriate as I fling myself back to July 1974 and decide whether I like it there or not.

The Avengers take a break from the Celestial Madonna Saga in order to come up against Thanos.

Despite its promised awesomeness, I remember nothing of this tale and cannot, therefore, pass any judgement upon its merits or otherwise.

I've never read this one, and all I can say is our hero's visiting the lost city of Ababenzzar in which he encounters a giant devil and rescues someone called Alonia.

Rather unusually, this one's drawn by Rich Buckler. I'm assuming that means he'll be mimicking John Buscema's style, rather than Jack Kirby's.

But what's this? There's also a Lee/Ditko backup strip called The Changeling in which an ugly king threatens a sorcerer with death unless he makes him the most handsome male in the world.

And, thanks to that, the sorcerer turns him into a swan.

I genuinely have no idea what happens in this one, beyond it involving the Secret Empire.

And the X-Men.

And Cap.

And Falc.

Now there's trouble - because Black Spectre agent the Silver Samurai's captured Shanna the She-Devil!

There's only one thing for it. Daredevil must invade the Black Spectre airship and beat up the Mandrill!

Looking at that cover, I am slightly baffled, though, as to why the Samurai thinks the sky is his element. Since when is dangling from a ladder, with one hand and both feet occupied, a good place for a swordsman to be?

Still reeling from Sue's decision to stay with the Sub-Mariner, the FF now must face the Frightful Four.

Fortunately for them, help's available from none other than Thundra. 

But that's where the good news ends because, now that he's won his beloved over, Subby begins another attack against mankind!

The Hulk's still on Counter-Earth and getting more and more involved in the sequence of events which will lead to the first death of Adam Warlock.

After umpteen years, it finally occurs to someone at Marvel to give Spidey a foe called the Tarantula.

It all happens on a boat - and I do believe it climaxes with the Punisher showing up to double our hero's headaches.

The positive is that Thor and Hercules have stopped the Destroyer.

The negative is that Firelord's showed up and signalled for Galactus to return to Earth and devour it.

That's the output of Marvel all done and dusted but, in another part of New York, things are likewise stirring.

So, let us rush over to that part of New York and discover just what the company's greatest rival is offering.

Or, at least, what a random sampling of what it's offering is offering.

This feature never fails to remind me just how many issues of Kamandi I had. This being among them.

Tragically, I can remember little to nothing of what transpires within but I do know it takes place in Chicago and would appear to involve gangsters that are actually speaking animals.

Seemingly, there are also androids in this tale. I'm going to guess, that, at first, the last boy on Earth thinks they're people before he realises they're not.

In contrast to Kamandi, I've never owned a single issue of Rima.

This may have been because of my boyish bias against girls' comics or it may have been because I never actually saw any copies of it when I was perusing the various shops and markets of this land.

Sadly, I can shed no light upon the contents of this one, other than to say it's the handiwork of Robert Kanigher, Nestor Redondo and Joe Kubert which sounds like a promising team, to me.

There's also a backup yarn called The Delta Brain delivered by the minds and fingers of Robert Kanigher and Alex Niño.

It's an exciting day for us all, as Frank Robbins replaces Mike Kaluta on the strip that knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

I've mentioned before that, while I'm not normally a fan of Frank's, I do feel he was well-suited to this particular comic.

In this issue, we're delivered a tale we know only as Night of Neptune's Death!

Sadly, that's the sum total of my knowledge about it but, from that title, I shall assume it contains a ship-related plot and, no doubt, a watery grave for some criminal or other.

Superman Family is still getting the 100-page treatment and, this month, it's Supergirl who lands the main feature when she must confront the Princess of the Golden Sun!

And it happens when she moves to Florida and joins the faculty at the New Athens Experimental School.

However, not everyone's pleased to see her - because, on her first day there, she's attacked by an Aztec princess who gains the powers of anyone who defeats her.

Following that, we get Jimmy Olsen in Scotland Yard!, Superbaby's First Foster-Parents!, The Man Who Betrayed Superman's Identity!, Lois Lane's Jungle Jeopardy!, Krypto's Three Amazing Transformations! and Clark Kent, Gangster! All of them reprints from the 1960s.

It's a memorable cover from Luis Dominguez but are the insides of this mag as memorable as its outsides?

That, I cannot say, as it's yet another one I've never read. 

I do know, though, that the main story is Sacred Is the Monster Kang! as brought to us by Arnold Drake and Gerry Talaoc.

And there's also a Black Orchid adventure called Island of Fear.

I predict that will feature an island.

And fear.

And the Black Orchid.

And rubber masks.

Amicus! The house that dripped Doug.

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

***

People are often puzzled as to what I do when I'm not writing fatuous summaries of things that occurred in the comics of several decades ago. In fact, I have a hobby which fills my hours and visits gratification upon my heart as it's warmed by the knowledge that, unlike so many in this world, I am doing something worthwhile.

Every Sunday, I like to climb on board a train, take a seat, whip out a pack of Tarot cards and tell a random group of passengers their fortunes. Each of those fortunes contains a horrific and gruesome climax.

And then, when I'm done, I tell them they're all dead and are now arriving in Hell as the train pulls into Doncaster.

You may have guessed from this that I'm a bit of a fan of Amicus movies.

Amicus was, of course, a studio set up in 1962 to ride on the coat tails of Hammer's success. Its founders were Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg and rumour has it the company was launched after Subotsky was turned down for a job by Hammer, even though he was the one who'd suggested it make an updated version of either Dracula or Frankenstein. Clearly, Subotsky took the view that if you can't join them, beat them and, thus, was a legend born.

Fair play to them, Amicus didn't just make films that aped those of Hammer. They did, after all, launch their filmography with the distinctly unthreatening musical vehicle It's Trad, Dad! 

But they soon developed a niche of their own.

And that niche was portmanteau movies, usually involving a clutch of strangers being informed of their fate by a mysterious stranger. Fortunes which were always guest-star packed and always involved them suffering a fate worse than death, except when the fate was death.

Thus it was we gleefully received such treats as Dr Terror's House of Horrors, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, Tales from the Crypt, Asylum, The Vault of Horror and From Beyond the Grave. Who could forget Tom Baker killing people through the power of Voodoo paintings? Alan Fluff Freeman being menaced by a giant weed? Or Barbara Ewing being murdered by a piano? And only a lunatic would forget the sight of Joan Collins being massacred by Santa Claus.

But Amicus were not stuck in a rut. Just like Hammer, they ventured into other fields. In the 1960s, they gave us the two Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies and then, in the 1970s, they found their other great niche.

Doug McClure.

You may remember Doug McClure from such films as The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot and At the Earth's Core. If so, it was because of Amicus, the powerhouse behind those classics. Astonishingly, despite starring Doug and a plethora of unconvincing monsters, Warlords of Atlantis wasn't an Amicus movie. That one was made by EMI, after Amicus' demise.

And there was even more. Having said it didn't just copy Hammer, it did give us such full-length horror as The Skull, Madhouse, And Now the Screaming Starts, The Beast Must Die and I Monster. 

It also dipped its toes into the waters of science fiction, unleashing They Came from Beyond Space and the never-to-be-forgotten Terrornauts. The former being an unlikely adaptation of the Joseph Millard novel The Gods Hate Kansas, and the latter being, surely, the only sci-fi film ever to star Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Hayes.

Nature became the enemy in The Deadly Bees and weird composite people became the enemy in Scream and Scream Again.

Sadly - despite the thrills, spills and kills the company bestowed upon us - like Hammer, the brand didn't survive into the 1980s, finally shutting up shop in 1977.

However, it wasn't the end for Subotsky who, after the company's termination, went on to produce such fare as The Uncanny, The Martian Chronicles TV mini-series, The Monster Club and The Lawnmower Man.

As for Amicus, it appears it isn't only the house that dripped blood. It's also the house that will not die, because, in 2023, it was announced the company is to return to life with a film called In the Grip of Terror. One's mind can only curdle at the thought of what dread nightmares that creation might contain.

This is, of course, the moment in which I have to declare what my favourite Amicus movie is.

And I'm going to admit it's not a portmanteau movie, mostly because they all blur into one for me.

For my Amicus favourite, I must go for 1966's Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD, with the completely bonkers Scream and Scream Again as a close runner-up.

If you have any thoughts upon the subject, you are, of course, free to express them in the comments section below.

To help in that quest, a list of the films which bear the Amicus stamp may be found by clicking on this very link.

June 29th 1974 - 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. 

***

Don't cry for me, Argentina?

It seems that, this week in 1974, they weren't, because it was the week in which Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female president of that country, replacing her ailing husband Juan Perón who opted to die just two days later.

On the UK singles chart, even as that was happening, another woman was making an impact

That woman was the one the world knew only as She.

However, she was not the She of the, "Must be obeyed," variety. She was She of the, "Being sung about by Charles Aznavour," variety. And, at that very moment, she was the She of, "Being at Number One on the UK singles chart," variety.

There was, however, no change atop the accompanying LP chart, with David Bowie's Diamond Dogs retaining the top slot it had grabbed several weeks earlier.

It's another timeless classic, as Bruce Banner reunites with an old classmate and the pair create a machine designed to rid Bruce - and the world - of the menace of the Hulk forever.

At least that's what they think but all it succeeds in doing is splitting Bruce and Hulkie-Baby into two totally separate characters.

And one of those is a mindless beast who wants nothing but the total destruction of the other!

I do believe this issue concludes the Daredevil/Ka-Zar storyline. And, if I remember correctly, that means the jungle hero gets put on trial in merry olde Englande, for some crime or other, while DD must stop the larcenous lordship that is the Plunderer.

But how easy can that be when the man's toting his plastic, melty, bendy gun?

I also believe this'll be the last time we see the man without fear for some while, as he appears to disappear from the book from next week onwards.

Still very much present - though not totally correct - are the Fantastic Four. But not to despair, as this is the issue in which they finally manage to get the Thing to stop wanting to kill them and get him to concentrate on the job at hand, which is beating up the Frightful Four.

I suspect it may be another case of Shang-Chi going for a stroll and promptly being attacked by an assassin.

This time, the assassin's a samurai called Korain, hired by a minor hood who's out to collect the bounty on our hero's head. 

But what's this, the wannabe killer has to keep drinking a potion to prevent himself from ageing to death?

I can't see this ending well for the man.

Elsewhere, the Avengers finally manage to overcome the deadly interstellar menace of the Ultroids, even after those villains have set their giant robot on the gang.

But perhaps the greatest drama of the tale is that the abducted local burgomeister only goes and turns out to have been the leader of the Ultroids all along!

I think Doccy Strange is still battling Umar but I can relate few details of just what occurs in the scrap.

John Romita's classic cover heralds the arrival of a never-to-be-forgotten epic, as Norman Osborn regains his memories of being the Green Goblin and sets out to avenge himself upon his hated rival. All true believers will know this is reprinted from the pages of 1968's mammoth publication Spectacular Spider-Man #2.

But what new and endless madness assails me? As far as I can determine, there's no sign of Iron Man to be found in this entire issue!

Thor, meanwhile, returns to Earth following his encounter with Ego and the Colonizers, only to discover Jane Foster's still missing.

Thus, he sets out to find her, little suspecting the nurse has landed a job teaching the High Evolutionary's New Men in the mysterious and hidden kingdom of Wundagore.

Speak Your Brain! Part 81. The final five comics you got as a child.

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 woman from Liverpool once sang, "Surprise surprise. The unexpected hits you between the eyes."

However, she was wrong. It's this feature that hits you between the eyes.

And there's nothing unexpected about it.

Or, at least, there's nothing unexpected about its arrival. This is, after all, the 81st occasion upon which it's done so.

However, what's less predictable is its subject matter because even I, with my omniscient omnipotence, cannot know what that is. Only the first person to comment below can do that.

Therefore, make sure to post the topic you wish us to debate, and pray to God that, in the process, none of us gets smacked between the eyes.

June 1984 - Marvel UK monthlies, 40 years ago this month.

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

***

Even as I type this deathless prose, the European Football Championships are going on, with England and Scotland crushing all before them, like vast rolling pins of awesomeness. However, history is doomed to repeat itself and, exactly forty years ago, the continent was witnessing Euro 84. That tournament was won by France when they bested Spain 2-0 in the final.

Not doing quite so well as the French and Spanish national football teams was the British economy. In fact, it was doing so badly that UK unemployment hit a record high of 3.26 million people.

However, even at the worst of times, some people have reason to celebrate and, amongst them, that June, were Wham! whose Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go began the month by sitting pretty atop the British singles chart.

Even more however, it then found itself confronted by an absolute behemoth of a record, as Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes swept it aside to claim the top spot and grant the Merseysiders their second British Number One - and their first to enter the charts in the top spot.

Over on the accompanying album listings, only one LP ruled the roost, that June. And that LP was Legend by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Brand new Doctor Colin Baker makes the cover, with his convincingly American companion Peri but, inside, we're treated to Part Two of the comic strip the whole wide world knows as The Shape Shifter.

When it comes to articles, there's a retrospective upon the 1970s villain Morbius - a foe who definitely would not be caught declaring, "It's Morbin' Time!" - and an interview with Lis Sladen, plus critiques of Frontios, The Awakening and Resurrection of the Daleks.

I must confess to knowing nothing of this month's contents.

I do believe, though, that that striking and memorable cover is by none other than Joe Jusko.

As the Alan Moore era winds down - following the death of Mad Jim Jaspers - Brian, Linda and Opal are brought to Otherworld to stand around, attending the funeral of Merlyn.

Following that, we're gifted a four-page Showcase tale called Right Foot Backwards: Looking For Osker as created by Mike Collins and Chris Buckle.

Next, Night-Raven finds himself confronting The Bells of Hell.

And, then, there's a three-page Showcase called Dragon, brought to us by Kevin Hopgood.

But what's this? The X-Men replace Cloak and Dagger in the book, when they encounter the Micronauts and must thwart the menace of Baron Karza and an evil Professor X?

It's good news for all lovers of Canadian horror because the nation's favourite sci-fi mag interviews David Cronenburg about his brand new film The Dead Zone.

Meanwhile, Joe Dante's interviewed about various of his movies, there's a preview of the film Sword of the Valiant which I've never heard of, and a look at Doctor Who.

As if that wasn't enough for us, there's an overview of dinosaur movies - and a chat with John Sayles, the man who wrote the cinematic masterpiece that is Battle Beyond the Stars.

June 22nd 1974 - 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. 

***

The power of Glam once more conquered the UK singles chart, this week in 1974, as Gary Glitter seized the summit, with his track Always Yours, making it his third and final UK Number One. I must declare I have no memory of it. Nor do I recall ever having heard it on the radio - not even before certain things came to light about its singer.

There was, however, no change at the pinnacle of the UK album chart, with David Bowie's Diamond Dogs retaining the top spot it already held.

My recollections of this one are intensely vague. However, I am aware Shang-Chi's cheerfully visiting a beach when a bunch of assassins show up and try to kill him. It does seem like every story in this era is simply our hero going somewhere random and promptly being attacked by assassins.

Elsewhere, the Avengers are still making a meal of defeating the alien Ultroids. And now things are serious because the extraterrestrial nogoodniks have kidnapped a burgomeister!

Dr Strange, meanwhile, is in a Dimension of Death and having to survive various traps created by Umar the Unstoppable.

The Leader's latest scheme kicks up a gear, as the Hulk and Glob clash once more. This time, in the streets of a city.

But how can even the Hulk hope to defeat a lump of sludge?

Thinking about it, I can't remember how he does it but I do recall it all ends with the muck monster reduced to a load of slugs that, in the final panel, begin to make their way back towards each other.

Thinking about it even more, doesn't the Glob fall into an electrical substation and get blown to pieces? Possibly, from the very crane that is pictured on the front cover?

When it comes to Daredevil, I think this is the one in which the Plunderer gets his hands on the other half of the medallion that was given to him and Ka-Zar when they were boys, and that enables him to create a gun which makes things melt or disintegrate or just go bendy in people's hands.

And, finally, the Fantastic Three are still trying to stop the Frightful Four and their deadly new ally the Thing.

Spider-Man remains convinced he's been reduced to the size of an insect and trapped in a model amusement park.

However, it's not long before he realises he's actually normal sized and in a real amusement park.

But that can only be bad news for Mysterio and the control tower he occupies at its centre.

The Black Widow and Boris are still in America and still trying to kill the Crimson Dynamo.

But they won't succeed if Iron Man has his way.

Nor if the Crimson Dynamo has his.

Sadly, I suspect that neither of those two will have his way.

Next, we get a single-page retelling of Spider-Man's origin, brought to us by Stan Lee and John Romita and reprinted from 1968's Spectacular Spider-Man #2 .

Thor, meanwhile, is successfully defeating Ego the living planet and gaining the cooperation of the Rigel Colonizers while, on Earth, Jane Foster's offered a new job - as a school teacher for the High Evolutionary's New Men.

And, finally, we get a two-page look at Peter Parker's pad, as drawn by Larry Lieber.