Thursday 29 December 2016

December 29th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

If the internet's to be believed, nothing at all interesting happened anywhere in the world on this day in 1976.

Nor was there anything interesting on the TV.

Therefore, I shall plunge into my latest adventure in blogging, with the air of carefree abandon that can only manifest itself in the eternally perplexing limbo between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Marvel UK, Captain Britain #12 Dr Synne

Captain Britain showing the fighting spirit that's made him a legend.

After all these years, I still don't have the slightest clue who Dr Synne is. I assume he's not related to the character played so ably by Peter Cushing in the Hammer movie Night Creatures. That character used to ride around on a horse disguised as a skeleton. I doubt if any of Captain Britain's early foes ever had the style to ride around on a horse disguised as a skeleton.

Mighty World of Marvel #222, Daredevil

It's a rare John Buscema cover for Daredevil.

Come to think of it, it's a rare Daredevil cover for The Mighty World of Marvel. It was always a pleasant change to see someone other than the Hulk being allowed on the front of the book.

Then again, it was always a pleasant change to see a decent cover of any kind on The Mighty World of Marvel. No doubt, next week we'll see a return to covers that look like they've been drawn by people holding their pencils with their feet.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #115, Beneath

I still have no recollection at all of Conan ever having appeared in the pages of Planet of the Apes. I suppose it made sense for him to be there though, what with the equally loin-cloth loving Ka-Zar already being present.

In retrospect, the fact that our favourite monkey mag was having to recycle Planet of the Apes movie adaptations it had already reprinted should have been a warning that Marvel UK was running out of new Apes material to put in the comic and that its days were therefore numbered but, somehow, I don't think that occurred to me at the time.

Super Spider-Man with the Titans #203

I remember the Liberty Legion as being a less interesting copy of the Invaders.

Needless to say, this made me very uninterested in them indeed.

I do wonder why, instead of standing there, narrating his life story to rats, Spider-Man doesn't just escape up that ladder to his left. Clearly, he's been taking defeatism lessons from Brian Braddock.

9 comments:

TC said...

If there wasn't anything good on TV that night, then there were probably a lot of young married couples getting drunk. And, nine months later, a lot of babies being born.

Night Creatures was obviously based on one of the Dr. Syn novels, although, IIRC, Peter Cushing's character had a different name. Maybe there was a trademark dispute or something. About a year later, Disney did a TV series with Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Syn.

Anonymous said...

That Spidey cover comes from Amazing Spider-man #151, drawn, I believe, by Jazzy John Romita. On the original, Spider-man is saying "Flooding this sewer won't help you, mister! Only one of us is getting out of here alive!"
The gentleman in question that Spidey is threatening to murder by drowning is the Shocker, who was basically just a burglar with super shock gauntlets and who only mostly robbed safes. He didn't deserve this rough treatment.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Nothing good on TV...er, part 11 of Flash Gordon. Dr. Synne got his powers of illusion thanks to an evil computer built by Brian Braddock's father...or something. The main apes story in POTA was the adaptation of "Battle" so I don't why "Beneath" was being reprinted as well. But by this time the U.S. POTA magazine had been cancelled I think (or was about to be) so the sun was setting on the UK POTA weekly (but the weekly continued till February and the POTA strips lasted till June in the pages of Mighty World Of Marvel). All this week's issues went on sale on December 22nd 1976 (dated week ending December 29th) and they all had a festive picture on the back cover featuring Captain Britain flanked by Spider-Man and the Hulk with various other Marvel characters in the background. I pinned that picture on my wardrobe door every Christmas for the next few years :)

Steve W. said...

Colin, I don't think I remember that back cover image. I remember another one that featured the likes of the Hulk and Spider-Man hanging baubles on a Christmas tree. I don't recall in which year that was used though.

Steve W. said...

M.P, I too recall that original version of the Spidey cover. I remember that it gave the impression that he was threatening a rat with murder, which suggested Spidey might have completely lost his marbles.

Anonymous said...

Steve, the festive back-cover picture from 1976 was created exclusively for the UK weeklies. Captain Britain was at the centre of the scene but by the following Christmas he'd completely vanished from UK Marvel. How are the mighty fallen...

John Pitt said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Steve and thanks for yet another year's entertainment!
:-)

John Pitt said...

If I don't see you elsewhere, TC, may I wish you a Happy New Year on here?

Steve W. said...

Happy New Year to you too, John and thanks for reading the site.