Thursday 28 March 2024

March 30th 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
***

Have you ever wanted your own private army?

If you so, you'll have to put some effort into it to get a bigger one than Qin Shi Huang the first emperor of China 

Admittedly, his was made of terracotta and buried with him and, therefore, may not have been much use in an actual fight.

But who cares about that? Not archaeologists. Not this week in 1974 because that's when members of that profession first impressed the world by unearthing it near Xi'an in the province of Shaanxi.

But an almost equally momentous event was taking place at around the same time.

You guessed it. March 30th saw BBC One screen The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a film I still, to this day, always get mixed up with When Worlds Collide.

i suppose the easy way to remember which is which is that the former movie stars the then editor of The Daily Express who quickly demonstrates that he's no actor.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #59

Can it be? Is the webby wonder going to bring George Stacy to justice for stealing things while brainwashed?

He is if he has his way - but, quelle horreur, doing that might prevent him having his way with Gwen. Just which way-having will win out? Only the bitter twists and turns of a superhero's life can decide.

Speaking of which, Iron Man's still trapped in the distant past and assisting Cleopatra in her efforts to defeat malevolent chancer Hatap, AKA the Mad Pharoah.

Strangely enough, the 1980s BBC drama serial about the multitude of Cleopatras never once mentioned this incident. And that's, no doubt, why it failed to win the hearts of the nation.

In the present - and in Asgard - a weakened Thor must defeat an ex-lickspittle of Odin who's got his hands on that ruler's superpowers and is determined to abuse them.

Our hero succeeds but will even that act of heroism make Odin stop acting like a demented tyrant at him?

And the issue signs off with a venerable Syd Shores drawn tale in which a thug demands a sorcerer reveals the six words which will allow him to fling men into limbo.

This can only mean trouble for someone and - inevitably - that someone is himself.

The Avengers #28, Shang-Chi busts through a wall, to the astonishment of the Avengers who thought this was their comic!

Hold on to your nunchucks because a seismic shift has arrived at Marvel UK, as Shang-Chi, master of kung fu, takes over as headline act in the Avengers' book.

And he doesn't do it with much style, managing to commit murder, right off the bat.

Fortunately, he soon recognises the error of his ways and sets out to punch his own dad in the gob.

When it comes to the Avengers; as far as I'm aware, Goliath's still in a hidden city in the Andes and still fighting its inhabitants.

Elsewhere, in the world of Dr Strange, Dormammu challenges our hero to a battle for  mastery of Earth!

And, to do it, their only weapon must be...

...The Pincers Of Power!

The Mighty World of Marvel #78, the Glob

Judging by that cover, the Hulk remains in the Everglades and is out to rescue Betty Ross from the clutches of the Glob.

But how can even the Hulk defeat a foe so squishy that you can't land a good blow on him?

And does he even need to?

Over in New York, the man without fear continues to face the Organization's coterie of animal-themed crooks, as they seek to prevent Foggy Nelson from becoming DA.

Or are they seeking to enable him to become DA? I'm struggling to recall.

In the Baxter Building, the first family of super-doers is in a life-or-death contretemps with the Frightful Four.

Is this the one that climaxes with the evil FF literally nuking the good FF?

If so, I think we can safely say that's a bunch of bad guys who don't believe in doing things by half.

Tuesday 26 March 2024

Speak Your Brain! Part 75.

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

The Steve Does Comics Megaphone
A wise man once remarked that, "Time marches on," while another claimed, "An army marches on its stomach."

Clearly, that man had an army of slugs, as no human army would dream of marching on its stomach.

However, right now, it's neither time nor slugs that are marching on.

Instead, it is March who is marching on, progressing relentlessly towards a brand new April that will, no doubt, be somewhat like previous Aprils but also have an identity all of its very own.

What shall be that identity?

I don't have a clue.

Nor do I have a clue what I'm talking about.

But I soon will.

That's because it's the return of the feature in which mystery quickly becomes enlightenment. The one in which the first person to comment in the space below gets to choose the day's topic for debate.

Therefore, if there's any opinion you're burning for other people to get off their chests, then feel free to make it happen by posting your question or topic in the comments section and let whatever-will-be be.

Sunday 24 March 2024

March 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
***

Exactly forty years ago this March, the UK Labour Party was experiencing heady days indeed.

Just five months after becoming party leader, Neil Kinnock saw the party top a MORI poll, with 41% of the vote. Just six months earlier, the Conservatives had had a 16-point lead!

Surely, nothing now could prevent Nifty Neil from becoming our next Prime Minister!

Elsewhere, it was the month in which the UK miners' strike began, pitting the National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher.

On the UK singles chart, March saw just two tracks hit the top spot. The first was Nena's 99 Red Balloons, while the second was Hello by Lionel Richie which managed to achieve its triumph despite almost universal ridiculing of its video.

On the British album chart, the Number One slot was initially held by the Thompson Twins' Into the Gap but that was soon supplanted by Howard Jones' Human's Lib which then had to make way for Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down.

The Mighty World of Marvel #10, Cloak and Dagger

Marvel's most angst-ridden heroes are back, thanks to a tale taken from the pages of Cloak and Dagger #2. I don't remember what happens in it but I guarantee it won't feel good.

And there won't likely be much cheer in the pages of Captain Britain, either.

In it, Saturnyne finally gets Linda to put on her Captain UK costume and agree to fight against Mad Jim Jaspers.

However, that's probably not a great idea, as Captain Britain's trying to do precisely that and is being rewarded by having his mind turned inside out.

Next, we're given Episode One of a new Night-Raven tale with the groundbreaking title of All the World's a Stage.

And we finish off with a thing called Disenchantment which I recall being a Sword and Sorcery yarn from a budding newcomer. I can't bring to mind the exact plot details but I do know it's five pages long and written and drawn by a man named Simon Jacob.

But we can't ignore the most thrilling news of the month. Which is that, attached to the front cover of this issue is a free badge!

It's missing from the comic featured here but my mighty mind does remember it being a John Romita Spider-Man image.

Doctor Who Magazine #86

Our favourite mag about our favourite adventurer in time and space looks forward to serials we can only come to know as Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire.

We're also granted an interview with original companion Carole Ann Ford.

And there's a look back at the Tom Baker blockbuster Destiny of the Daleks which nobody but me likes.

As if that wasn't enough for us, we also encounter Part Two of a comic strip that bears the thrilling title of The Moderator.

The Savage Sword of Conan #77

All I can say about this one is it doesn't bear the greatest cover I've ever seen on an issue of Savage Sword of Conan.

However, it does, at least, tell me this offering features not only the world's barbarian of choice but, also, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane.

Starburst Magazine 67, Diana Rigg

The UK's greatest sci-fi mag takes a look back at old British TV shows, including 
The Avengers and The Prisoner

Thanks to that, we also receive an interview with Patrick Macnee and a profile of Diana Rigg. 

And, because you can never get enough Time Lording in this life, there's also a look forward to the new season of Dr Who.

Thursday 21 March 2024

March 23rd, 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
***

This week in 1974 produced great news for anyone who likes to guzzle that gas, because it was the week in which OPEC's five-month long oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan finally came to an end and we could all get back to the hard work of driving up the world's temperature.

The Avengers #27, Goliath

It's a striking cover and one I remember well. Mostly because, one Sunday evening, as a child, I decided to get my pencil out and copy every fizzog on it, having decided it was time for me to learn how to draw faces.

Inside the comic, I do believe that, still stuck at giant size, Goliath finds himself in the Andes where he blunders across a hidden civilisation with advanced technology and no reluctance to use it.

Yes, this does sound remarkably like the Inhumans. But the Inhumans, they ain't.

And there's more because I do believe Hawkeye's in sensational solo action against Power Man, Swordsman and the Black Widow.

As the world has come to expect - and even demand, my knowledge of what's occurring in Dr Strange's strip is a little vague but I've good reason to suspect our hero's, once more, in combat with Baron Mordo. And that Dormammu's up to his elbows in it all.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #58, the Kingpin.

Who says the Kingpin's no fun?

Mostly, the Kingpin does, as he's always going on about how he's not the jolly fat man everyone thinks he is. Even though literally nobody has ever expressed an assumption that he's jolly.

However, here he is, giving Spider-Man a good time by swinging him round and round above his head.

But it's not such good news for Webhead once we enter the comic.

You see, our hero's just discovered Wilson Fisk is really the Brainwasher and that he's programmed George Stacy to commit a robbery most heinous.

How's Spidey ever going to be able to inflict the necessary levels of violence upon Stacy without upsetting his daughter Gwen?

Elsewhere, no sooner has Tony Stark finished his encounter with Kala Queen of the Underworld than he's travelling back in time to meet Cleopatra Queen of the Nile, thanks to the Machiavellian machinations of a miserly magician who's menacingly made up his mind to murder his monarch.

Methinks Stan the Man's decided Don Heck's strength is drawing glamorous women and is making sure the stories include them.

Needless to say, Cleo falls in love with Iron Man, despite him being encased from head to foot in armour.

Fresh from his defeat at the hands of Hercules, Thor returns to Asgard - only to discover he'll have to rescue the place from the treacherous Seidring who's used his newly-gained Odin Power to take the place over!

And we finish with a surprise, as, in addition to the book's usual strips, we're treated to Lee/Ditko thriller The Secret of the Universe in which a man sets out to discover just what lies beyond the cosmos and, of course, lives to regret it.

The Mighty World of Marvel #77, the Glob vs the Hulk

J
ust look at that cover!

Seriously, if that doesn't make you want to part with six pence of your own money, I don't know what will. frankly, I'd happily part with eight pints of my own blood to get my hands on this book.

And, inside, things are just as awesome, as the Glob makes his first appearance when an escaped convict sinks into a bog and finds himself transformed into a mindless swamp monster with only one thing on his mindless mind.

Smooching with Betty Ross! 

Meanwhile, on the streets of New York, the Organizer and his team of animal-themed henchmen are making decent people's lives a misery.

But how does this tie in with the fact that Foggy Nelson's decided he wants to run for the post of District Attorney?

Finally, this issue, the Frightful Four make their dastardly debut, as the Wingless Wizard, Sandman and Paste-Pot Pete team up with the enigmatic Madame Medusa in a bid to defeat the first family of comics.

Thus it is that, no sooner have Reed Richards and Sue Storm announced their engagement, than the villains invade the Baxter Building and start capturing their foes, one by one.

Tuesday 19 March 2024

Speak Your Brain! Part 74. The first 10 American comics you ever read.

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

The Steve Does Comics Megaphone
Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay
I
t's time for me to, once again, concoct an introduction to a post.

But some things need no introduction.

They simply arrive without warning and leave nothing but carnage and chaos in their wake.

Thus it is that we are again confronted with the feature in which the first person to comment in the space below gets to choose the day's topic for debate.

Therefore, feel free to post that topic and we shall see to which hinterlands of truth, enchantment and wonder the winding paths of Fate lead us...

Sunday 17 March 2024

2000 AD - February 1986.

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

I possess zero doubt that February 1986 saw those of a superstitious persuasion anticipating nothing but disaster.

The 9th of that month was, after all, the moment when Halley's Comet reached its perihelion. Also known as its closest point to the sun. Previous sightings of that body had coincided with such disasters as William the Conqueror smashing up a small town near Hastings. Serious stuff, indeed.

As far as I'm aware, this time, global catastrophe never appeared - although Su Pollard did almost reach Number One on the UK singles chart, with Starting Together.

She was, however, kept off the top spot by Billy Ocean's When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going which spent the entire month in a position of chart supremacy.

The British album chart was similarly becalmed, with the pinnacle being held for all of February by Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms.

When it came to film news, it was a highly significant month; as it was there and then that a combination of John Lasseter and Steve Jobs founded Pixar.

Meanwhile, movies released in that period included 9½ Weeks, The Hitcher, House, Pretty in Pink and Hannah and Her Sisters. Of those, I suspect that House will be my pick.

But what of the galaxy's greatest comic?

Being a space alien, Tharg was, presumably, busy keeping a close eye on the comet but, inside the comic he edited, we were being treated to our usual supply of Halo Jones, Strontium Dog, SlĂ¡ine, Ace Trucking Co and, of course, Judge Dredd whose current storyline was a thing called The Secret Diary of Adrian Cockroach.

As you can tell, I don't have a lot to say about any of that stuff but it all sounds solid enough and, somehow, gave us a cover with singing chickens on it.

2000 AD  Prog 455

2000 AD  Prog 456

2000 AD  Prog 457, Ace Garp

2000 AD  Prog 458, Judge Dredd

Thursday 14 March 2024

March 16th, 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
***

As I stand haughtily atop the tallest buildings South Yorkshire can offer, and observe the witless follies of personkind, people often ask me, "Stevie-Pops, what was the first single you ever bought?"

And I can sensationally reveal the answer is one that could cause even the gods themselves to crumble.

Because that record was no less than Billy Don't Be a Hero by Nottingham's finest Paper Lace.

Such was that record's impact upon me that, even to this day, I refuse to be a hero.

And I like to feel my act of buying that record is what helped propel it to Number One on the UK singles chart exactly fifty years ago this week.

One band, however who've never known the joy of me buying one of their singles is the Carpenters.

Not that they needed care, seeing as how their greatest hits package was still reigning supreme on the UK album chart.

The Mighty World of Marvel #76, Hulk vs Maximus

The world can only tremble, as the Hulk joins forces with Maximus the Mad in order to swat Thunderbolt Ross's planes like flies.

Still, fear ye not, Humanity. I'm sure it won't be long before the jade Juggernaut recognises his mistake and turns against his new allies.

Elsewhere, the man without fear's trying to stop the Sub-Mariner's wrecking spree in the streets of New York.

You might think our hero must stand no chance against such power-packed opposition but you've not reckoned with his face. His face that has developed the tactic of repeatedly smashing itself into Subby's fists until the Atlantean's forced to get bored and go home.

It's a novel strategy but it might just work 

And, finally this issue, the Fantastic Four conclude their latest clash with Diablo by watching him and Dragon Man crash through ice and disappear beneath the waters of a lake we can only assume to be bottomless.

I do believe this tale concludes with Reed and Sue taking a trip up ESU's Lover's Lane, where they finally decide to tie the knot.

Let's face it, it's probably easy for Sue to tie a knot with Reed, what with him being made of elastic.

The Avengers #26, the Swordsman

Those who often despair at my inability to recall what Dr Strange is up to in this comic need not despair about that, this week.

Instead, they need despair at the fact I can't recall what the Avengers are up to.

I do know the Swordsman, Power Man and Black Widow are involved. And I have a nagging feeling a scientist with a new invention may also feature.

Judging by that cover, it seems the villains have decided to give themselves the moniker of, "The  Terrible Trio," and I'm sure their next clash with the Avengers will reveal just how terrible they truly are.

"But what of Dr Strange?" I hear you ask.

Indeed. That's what I ask too.

Sadly, when I ask myself, I get no answer.

I am going to assume, though, that Eternity, Baron Mordo and Dormammu are involved.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #57, Mary Jane dances

It's a sight that does my soul good, as Mary Jane Watson gets to dance on the front cover.

Sadly, things aren't working out so happily for her inside the book, as it turns out her brand new job, taking customers' photos at a club, is really a front for one of those brainwashing organisations that are becoming such a nuisance these days.

Apparently, Spider-Man also does stuff, this issue but I only read his comic to see what Mary Jane's up to.

After that, we're supplied with a one-page feature called A Day at the Daily Bugle created and presented by the dynamite team of Lee, Lieber and Romita.

Deep below the Earth's surface, Tony Stark's been kidnapped by Kala queen of a buried kingdom.

Sadly, her plans to conquer our realm collapse when it turns out she can't visit the surface world without ageing dramatically.

Far too busy scrapping to worry about any of that are Thor and Hercules who're still tussling over the heart of Jane Foster.

However, it's not good news for the thunder god, as useless plonker Odin decides it's a great time to halve his son's superpowers, causing that son to right royally lose to his opponent.

And, to compound it all, Odin decides to give his own superpowers to the not-at-all trustworthy Seidring.

We conclude with a two-page feature which reveals just what Spider-Man would look like if drawn by artists belonging to other publishers.