Fifty years ago today - September 1972.

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

***

I never lived through the Korean War but feel like I did, thanks to the existence of the TV version of M*A*S*H.

And that existence began in September 1972 when the sitcom first aired on CBS. I do believe the show would go on to run for three times as long as the war itself.

But that wasn't the only big TV event of the month. For, that September, BBC One launched its quiz programme Mastermind, bearing the most ominous theme tune of any TV quiz and making a household name of its host Magnus Magnusson. That show's still going, fifty years later. Although, sadly, without the now-late Magnus.

Mastermind always seemed cerebral but there was even more brainpower on display in Reykjavík, as Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first American world chess champion.

Over in Britain, the school-leaving age in England and Wales was raised to sixteen, consigning the nations' children to an extra year of homework.

And hypermarkets made their debut in the UK when the French retail giant Carrefour opened one in Caerphilly, South Wales.

Does anyone remember what happens in this issue? Is it the one in which our hero foils a prison escape and then appears on a chat show? As you may have noticed, my recollections of it are vague and imprecise.

The Sentinels are back and hiding out in a big anthill in Australia.

I think they've also kidnapped the Scarlet Witch!

That's the bad news. The good news is this storyline leads to Quicksilver and Crystal meeting each other, leading to romance and marriage.

We know something's up when the Falcon finds Cap assaulting people in the street, based purely on their skin color.

And, if that's not strange enough, that's when Bucky shows up!

I struggle to recall anything about this tale but it seems to feature a monster, a temple, and a damsel in distress. So, all in a day's work for our brawling barbarian.

This one is, however, drawn by Gil Kane, with no sign of Barry.

The Black Widow hunts down Danny French, convinced he's the cause of her recent panic attacks. However, to the surprise of not a single reader, it turns out Mr Fear's the culprit.

And he's out for revenge!

Strap yourself in because I do believe this is the one that retells the FF's origin!

I also recall its cover appearing as a pin-up in one of Marvel UK's Titans annuals; with Agatha Harkness added to it, for no noticeable reason.

The Shaper of Worlds makes his first appearance, as the Hulk touches down in yet another sub-atomic realm and must confront a wannabe Nazi superman.

What's this? Our idol struggling to survive an encounter with a refugee from the Circus of Crime? Never has the Invincible Iron Man seemed more vincible.

Is this the one where Ego Prime creates a new race of gods from a trio of humans, as part of some baffling Odin master plan?

Knowing the usual quality of Odin's master plans, it's a miracle the entire universe doesn't end up destroyed.

That's Marvel taken care of.

But what of the Distinguished Competition? For context, let's observe a random sampling of what that company is offering that bears a September 1972 cover date.

Neal Adams delivers a classic cover, as Batman must fight Ra's Al Ghul in a duel to the death.

A brand new comic smashes its way into our lives, as Jack Kirby's Demon enters reality.

Sadly, I can't say anything about the storyline, as I've never read this one.

There's even more Jack Kirby drama, as Deadman meets the Forever People who build him a body so he can interact with the physical world and spend even more time trying to find the man who killed him.

The JLA and JSA continue their efforts to reunite the Seven Soldiers of Victory and save us all.

Hooray! Tarzan gets yet another new comic, to add to the seemingly five hundred he already has with DC!

This time, it's a digest comic with a massive 164 pages - and it would appear to reprint old newspaper strips!

And there's even more Edgar Rice Burroughs magic for us when yet another new comic makes its debut.

We get an adaptation of At the Earth's Core and action from John Carter of Mars.

Despite his appearance on the cover, Tarzan plays no great part in the contents of this book.

September 1st 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. 

***

Everyone knows the greatest film ever made is The Eye of the Tiger.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.

So great was it that it was released on a double bill, in 1977, with the Spider-Man TV movie that wowed the world.

But there was another movie called The Eye of the Tiger. And, scandalously, it didn't feature rubber monsters, Patrick Troughton or even Jane Seymour!

But it did feature Sylvester Stallone.

Then again, it wasn't called The Eye of the Tiger. It was called Rocky III.

Regardless, that film was responsible for what happened on the UK singles chart, this week in 1982.

And that is that the movie's theme tune, as sung by Survivor, hit the Number One slot, right then and there.

Over on the British album chart, things were holding steady, because the Kids From Fame were still at Number One, with their self-titled album.

I do believe we get a look at the 4th Doctor story the Masque of Mandragora, while, in this week's thrilling Dalek strip, the Skaro supremacists are at war with the not-at-all-similar Mechanoids.

There's also an interview with the show's producer John Nathan-Turner but you can pretty much always take it for granted that there will be.

I do believe that, this month, we enounter the Avengers' day off.

I struggle to recall exactly what that entails but I do remember us discovering that, in his spare time, Wonder Man works as a custard pie recipient on a children's TV show.

We also get a story called Bleeding Stones reprinted from Monsters Unleashed #7 and a tale called Blind Man's Bluff reprinted from the same comic.

There's also A Short History of Britain which seems to be a short history of Captain Britain.

And Night Raven has a four-page adventure that will, no doubt, linger long in the minds of all who read it.

That's a lively cover by Steve Dillon.

But what of the insides?

It would appear our hero teams up with the X-Men in a battle with the Lords of Light and Darkness.

I don't know much about the tale - or who the Lords of Light and Darkness are - but I do know it appears to take place in Russia and gives Sal Buscema a chance to draw the mighty mutants.

Meanwhile, if the cover's to be believed, this issue demands to know, "Are you one in 10 trillion?"

As there are only a few billion people on Earth, I would suspect not.

Apparently, it's decision time for Soolin. She must decide whether to sacrifice herself or condemn Vila and Avon to death.

Personally, in her shoes, I'd choose to condemn Vila and Avon to death.

Especially Avon.

And, for some reason, Marvel UK books are still going on about the Fruitgum Secret.

All I know of this issue is it features Kull the Conqueror in a tale called A King Comes Riding. And I only know that because it says so on the cover.

I do know, though, that that woman looks a bit too 1970s for my liking.

It's one of my Hulking favourites, as the green grappler takes on Mogol and then befriends that stooge of Tyrannus before discovering he's a robot and murdering him.

Given such harsh treatment, I can't help feeling Mogol deserves to make a comeback.

Elsewhere in this issue, it would appear we get yet more adventuring from the Ghost Rider.

And, if the cover's to be believed, my drawing might be inside.

Which is good news, as I was wondering where it had got to.

Howard the Duck must confront the Cellar Sinister. While we must confront the adventures of Teen-Hulk.

The UK's best magazine dedicated to monsters hits us with an issue that covers the myths of Frankenstein and the activities of famous robots.

It would appear we also get a look at Amicus' Tales From the Crypt, that famed compendium based upon the works of EC Comics. It is, of course, most memorable for treating us to the sight of  Joan Collins being menaced by Santa Claus.

I can shed no light upon the contents of this issue but I do see that it too is determined to learn whether I know the Fruit Gum Secret.

I dread to think what Darth Vader will do to me if I give the wrong answer.

It looks like it's trouble for the Hellfire Club, as Wolverine invades their domain.

But will he be in time to thwart the White Queen and her evil schemes?

Confusion reigns supreme because this may the very last issue of Worzel Gummidge's monthly magazine.

Then again, there may be another three issues to go. It depends which website you believe.

However, whatever the case, I do know the scarecrow will be back in March 1983 when Marvel UK hands him his own weekly comic. One that will clock up 23 issues before merging with the company's Rupert Bear weekly.

Hooray! The nation's favourite sci-fi mag takes a look at the return of Mr Spock, thanks to the arrival of Star Trek II!

Why that's more worthy of celebration than the return of any of the film's other characters, I cannot even speculate.

For those who like their thrills a little more Earthbound, the issue also casts its gaze upon the 19th James Bond convention.

But perhaps even more intriguingly, there's a report on the making of a brand new Ridley Scott film called Bladerunner.

It's the news all educationalists have been crying out for because Scooby-Doo goes back to school!

And I've no doubt it'll prove to be haunted.

Speak Your Brain! Part XXXVI. Of trios, troikas and triumvirates.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

As summer threatens to give way to autumn, another month approaches its close but this blog rumbles ever onwards.

And it does so by resurrecting the feature the whole internet's been talking about.

It's the one in which the first person to comment gets to pick the topic of the day!

But what could that topic be?

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, Brookside Close, Ramsay Street, Coronation Street, Albert Square, 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, blockheads, blackheads, dunderheads, deadheads, webheads, flowerpots, Bill and Ben, flour pots, bread bins, bin bags, body bags, body horror, shoddy horror, doggy bags, bean bags, coal sacks, cola, cocoa, dodos, Dido, Soho, Solo, silos, wondows, pancakes, pizzas, pastas, pastors, baking soda, sci-fi, Wi-Fi, Hi-Fi, sewage, saunas, suet, Tomorrow People, Forever People, Party People, Sheila Steafel, steeples, Silurians, Sontarans, Sea Devils, sins, suns, sans, sense, sludge, slumps, sumps, sunshine, slime, soup, sandwiches, servants, Sultanas, Santana, Sultans, grapes, grappling or sandcastles.

Or something else altogether.

Only you can decide.

Awesome indeed is the responsibility that hangs upon the head of the reader.

Incredible Hulk #1.

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

***

Holy smoke! What is this? I could have sworn I'd reviewed the first appearance of every great Silver Age Marvel Hero - and Ant-Man - but I've suddenly realised I've never cast a critical eye over the arrival of the Hulk.

Does my having forgotten to tackle it say something about the quality of the comic?

Or does it just say something about the quality of me?

Here's where we find out!

It's a great day for US atomic scientist Bruce Banner who's due to detonate his Gamma Bomb, a weapon that could destroy a continent and whose other possible effects he's not really too sure about. But, whatever, they are, he's about to find out.

Fortunately, his assistant - a communist saboteur cunningly hiding behind the name "Igor" - is there to try and talk him out of it, on the grounds that he could kill everybody.

Bruce, however, is having none of it. He's got a bomb to detonate and, by George, he's going to do it. He even points out to the Russian saboteur he's hired as his assistant that he doesn't make mistakes.

Fortunately, Bruce isn't the only one in an explodey mood because that's when his boss General Thunderbolt Ross barges in and demands he sets the thing off immediately because he's bored with waiting! 

It's a strange thing when a Red Menace story forces you to start siding with the communist.

But, sadly, for Bruce, there's something even worse than socialism on the loose.

And that's a teenager!

It's true. Rick Jones has decided it'll be top lulz to park his car in the middle of the test site and start playing his mouth organ.

Clearly no lover of music, Banner rushes to the scene to get Rick out of there but, just as he's doing so, Igor decides it's the perfect moment to set off the bomb and kill his superior.

And that's the end for Bruce Banner.

Except it isn't - because, somehow, he survives and, that night, as he chats in his hospital cell, with Rick, he turns into a creature called the Hulk and starts to knock down walls before turning back into Bruce, the moment the sun returns.

But such a rampage cannot go unnoticed.

And so it is that, in an unnamed communist country, news of the Hulk has reached the ears of a huge-headed radiation-mutated genius called the Gargoyle who decides to fly to America to kidnap the brute.

By some unknown means, he lands his plane where the Hulk just happens to be and abducts both the monster and Rick Jones, taking them back to his homeland.

But, there, he starts crying and declares that he wishes he could be a normal man again.

Bruce responds by promising to use his knowledge of radiation to cure him and, having done so, flees the country, in a stolen rocket, while the man who'd been the Gargoyle blows up the facility where he works, to gain revenge upon his employers.

And, with that, the first adventure of the Hulk is over!

Except it's not really, because the Hulk doesn't actually have an adventure. He's barely in the story and it's Bruce Banner who saves the day.

The thing that most leaps out at me is that this origin doesn't have the moral element of many of Marvel's Silver Age debuts. Bruce has been the architect of his own downfall - and completely irresponsible in creating a possibly continent-destroying bomb - but, at the tale's end, he doesn't show any indication of having learnt anything from it. There are no signs of him being a reformed character, of him grasping that his fate is his own fault, or even of him having decided he must use his powers for good.

When it comes to the bad guy, the Gargoyle's a fairly undeveloped villain who also barely appears and is quickly disposed of. Clearly, though, Stan and Jack liked his basic concept enough to return to it with the far more motivated Leader.

However, despite the Gargoyle's throwaway nature, the basic theme of two men transformed by nuclear tests - one through his own foolishness, and the other through that of his government - where one gains release and the other's doomed to be trapped forever in his nightmare, displays a pleasing symmetry. Or at least it would if the Gargoyle featured more prominently in the tale.

But, of course, we can't ignore the elephant in the room. And that's skin colour. Famously, the jade giant isn't green in this story. He's grey.

Except on the splash page, where he's purple.

And page eight where he's flesh-coloured.

And page nine where he's red.

And page ten where he's yellow.

And page eighteen where he's green.

In fairness, he's not the only character who keeps changing colour. So does the Gargoyle which, I suppose, does serve to further highlight the parallels between the two characters.

It's easy to talk about 1960s Marvel as a creative whirlwind, flinging innovation at us from all directions but the truth is Lee and Kirby were beating deadlines by mostly recycling well-worn tropes and, here, the roots of the strip are clear, drawing heavily on such familiar characters as the Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll. The Hulk also has a clear debt to Marvel's own Thing whose early appearances in the Fantastic Four had him displaying similar anti-social tendencies. 

Did we all see what Stan and Jack did there?

Banner is doomed to become the very thing he detests most.   

But the strongest influence is, surely, 1950s radiation movies. With its atom bombs, reckless scientists, lovestruck heroines, hip teenagers, Cold War politics, spies and blustering military types, it genuinely does feel like an adaptation of a 1950s movie that was never made. It really only deviates from that mode in its very final act where it suddenly moves off in its own direction entirely.

So, the exciting core concept of a scientist who turns into a destructive brute is set up.

But, then again, just how exciting is it?

As mentioned earlier, the Hulk barely appears in the tale, the human drama of Bruce Banner's torment and his conflicts and interactions with those around him clearly being of more interest to Lee and Kirby than the limited spectacle of a muscleman walking around bending things.

And, when it comes to resolutions, Banner solving things with his intellect is always going to be more compelling than the Hulk just smashing things.

At least, that's how it seems at this stage. Later stories would demonstrate just how much fun the Hulk solving problems by smashing them could be. But that would come later. Exactly how to handle the Hulk's strip is a thing the title's various writers and artists would struggle with for years to come.

Rather more promisingly, the concept of a teenage boy, a tortured scientist and a monster bound together by fate is a potentially compelling one, even if it rarely proved compelling in practice.

August 25th 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. 

***

It's exciting news for all fans of super-heroic magic! On this very evening in 1982, BBC One was showing the film Mandrake the Magician, starring Anthony Herrera as the man in question.

I must confess I was previously unaware of the existence of this movie and know little of Mandrake in general. Regardless, it sounds like the sort of thing I clearly need to be watching.

But can it possibly rival the awesome majesty of the Dr Strange TV movie of four years earlier?

And, speaking of the sorcerer supreme, I do believe he shows up in this comic. 

That's because the Hulk's been sent into the realm of the Nameless One where he has to defeat the monstrous Nightcrawler in order to rescue the trapped occultist.

But what role does Barbara Norriss play in all this?

Elsewhere, we get the chance to win a Spidey Sky Skimmer.

I'm going to guess, right now, that that's either a cardboard plane or a plastic, circular boomerang of the kind that was given away with a million and one comics back in the old days.

And, if that's not enough for us, there's the return of the Ghost Rider!

Although I'm not sure in what capacity.

That's an "interesting" cover. And what a brave new direction in style from Bill Sienkiewicz.

When it comes to the insides, as far as I can make out, Spider-Man and the Thing are up against knights in glowing armour.

Or, at least, Spider-Man is. Benjy's more interested in looking for Alicia than he is in actually fighting.

As with the Hulk comic, we can win a Spidey Sky Skimmer. 

But we also get to find out just how strong Spider-Man is.

And, because this is Spider-Man's book, the inside front cover features a reprint of the front cover to Incredible Hulk #119. The one on which Hulkie's being strangled, from behind, by Maximus the Mad.

Once more, mystery engulfs the cover and contents of an issue of Hanna Barbera's Scooby-Doo and His T.V. Friends. This time, it's #27 that's fallen victim.

I'm sure, however, that plenty of supernaturally-based hoaxes are being foiled within.

Speak Your Brain! Part XXXV. Who's the best Dracula?

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Free speech erupts once more, as we see the return of the feature that will not die.  

A stake through the heart, a silver bullet, the rising of the sun and even straight-out exorcism will not work. None of those things are enough to silence the feature in which the first person to comment gets to pick the topic of the day!

That topic 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, blockheads, blackheads, dunderheads, deadheads, webheads, flowerpots, Bill and Ben, flour pots, bread bins, bin bags, body bags, body horror, shoddy horror, doggy bags, bean bags, coal sacks, cola, cocoa, dodos, Dido, Soho, Solo, silos, wondows, pancakes, pizzas, pastas, pastors, 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, servants, Sultanas, Santana, Sultans, grapes, grappling or sandcastles.

Then again, it might not be.

It may be a topic no human being could possibly predict.

That depends entirely upon the whim of the reader.

2000 AD - July 1984.

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

***

What was happening in July 1984?

After centuries of barely existing, women were suddenly everywhere!

Not only did Liechtenstein become the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote but cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk, thanks to a mission in Salyut 7.

But men were making waves too, as FC Barcelona sold Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona to Italy's SSC Napoli for a then-world record fee of £6.9 million.

£6.9 million for a footballer? Truly the world had gone mad and it seemed certain we'd never see such an Earth-shattering sum be spent on a footballer ever again.

Speaking of sport, that month saw the Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles, California.

But those not interested in physical activities could always take refuge in their local cinemas, with July witnessing the release of a whole slew of famous films, including The Last Starfighter, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Electric Dreams, The NeverEnding Story and Purple Rain.

I think The Last Starfighter and NeverEnding Story are the only ones of that bunch that I've ever seen but I must protest that NeverEnding Story did indeed end and that the cinema refused to give me my money back.

But I would be curious to see Electric Dreams, as, despite the fame of its theme tune, I don't have a clue what the movie itself is about.

Over on the UK singles chart, there was only one song that mattered.

That was Frankie's Two Tribes which spent the whole month at Number One. Such was its grip on the charts that even a sustained challenge from Neil the Hippy's Hole in My Shoe failed to dislodge it.

The British album chart was likewise dominated by just one record. And that was Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend which spent that entire period atop the pile.

But something strange was afoot in the world of 2000 AD because, for some reason, July saw the publication of just one issue.

And that issue was Prog 376.

It contained the usual mix of Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future-Shocks, Rogue Trooper and D.R. & Quinch. However, we did, it would appear, get a free comics offer which seems to have been produced in association with KP Skips.

But the real news was we saw the arrival of a brand new series, thanks to The Ballad of Halo Jones, Part 1, that tale of a 50th Century teenager just trying to get through a shopping trip.

As this was 1984 and it was a British comic, it was inevitable that it be written by Alan Moore. The pencils, however, were supplied by the redoubtable Ian Gibson