Names, numbers and cupasoups.

It's been a fantastic week running up to the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. With TV, radio and the written media giving it their all. One high light was Mark Gatiss's love letter to Doctor Who, An adventure in space and time. Which was heart felt and warm. As good as any drama on TV. I can see awards coming for it. But for all the fun and nostalgia, we all where looking forward to the anniversary special- The day of the Doctor. And boy was it worth the wait. 

Yes there was many surprises for fans and casual viewers, but honestly did any fan believe that Steven Moffat would never have all the Doctors in it, even as a glimpsing cameo. He's the biggest fanboy ever! I loved it all! All the nods to the past and even to the future. From the opening titles, the policeman, I.M.Foreman scrap yard sign,  I'll take it the sign was advertising the scrap yards location just down the road and not next to the school.) Coal Hill school with Ian Chesterton on the school committee and Anthony Coburn as Headmaster, UNIT, the Eleventh hanging off the TARDIS over London, Lethbridge-Stewart, the Daleks, Gallifrey, the Time War, the sad War Doctor, the Morment, Bad Wolf, a fez, the Tenth riding a horse through an impossible doorway, Queen Elizabeth I, Zygons, the Tenth Doctor warning a rabbit, a fez, a time vortex, sonic screw drivers, suits and sandshoes, chins, the Black Archive, a gallery of past companions, a time-manipulator, the TARDIS desktop, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and the Twelfth (Steven Moffat wasn't going to forget him, it's all part of his writing palette, showing a little bit of the future.)  Doctors joining in to Save The Day! So everybody lives! I'd love to know what Russell T. Davies thinks about it all. Was the Moment's big red button just a reset button? It doesn't matter, it was a FANTASTIC celebration that summed up 50 years of time travel. 

One last surprise for the fans though -the mysterious Curator. Who is he? He could have been the first Doctor played by David Bradley, or even Ian Chesterton played by William Russell, the oldest living cast member, or the Twelfth Doctor as played by Peter Capaldi. When we hear his voice the hairs on the back of fandoms neck stand as high as the TARDIS. Is he the Fourth Doctor? He looks a little like him. Is he a bit like Claire Bloom's character in "The end of time", the Doctor father? I'd like to think so. His he the Doctor conscience? Or maybe just a daydream, or fan indulgence. Who knows! It was great, to see Tom Baker again. 

The special, like Doctor Who, changes the game but remains the same. John Hurts War Doctor was so completely perfect. He is a colossal actor. His acting technique style is so small, yet so powerfully big like a certain blue box. But what should we call him? Doctor 8.5? The Ninth Doctor, then move every one up? The Hurt Doctor, because of the pain he feels, (I quite like that it's quite clever.) or the War Doctor. I think that's what he will be know as. But if there's now twelve Doctors that make Matt Smiths regeneration the last.  I expect a magical solution in the Christmas special from Steven Moffat, only four weeks away. But the end is near and it's been prepared for.

Matt Smith, David Tennat, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper with Steven Moffat and Nick Hurran where all brilliant! But like Mr. Capaldi said we all make Doctor Who what it is. So to every fan who has ever worked on it or watched it, they were brilliant and so are you! 

"Doctor? Doctor who?"

  

For those special events.

In three weeks time, on the 23rd of November a certain TimeLord reaches his fiftieth year as a television sensation. There will be many special events to celebrate that milestone. I remember the tenth, twentieth and twenty-fifth specials as they were celebrated on TV, there has always been some form of merchandise that came with it, so too this year.

Back in 1983 the Doctor had ran up a brilliant twenty year of action and adventure. So MarvelUK wasn't going to miss a great opportunity to mark the event. In June, five months before the anniversary, a Summer Special went on sale with a wonderful cover artwork by Steve O'Leary, showing the Doctor rushing out of the TARDIS to face Abslom Daak slicing the dome off a Dalek. 

Alan McKenzie, the editor of MarvelUK's monthly lineup at that time, which included Doctor Who Monthly, produced the most perfect piece of summer, sea-side  entertainment you could buy for 60 pence. Forget your bucket and spades, this brightened up the wettest of weekends in your summer holidays, feeding the excitement of the on coming anniversary. Born in Glasgow, McKenzie came to MarvelUK with Dez Skinn, helping him though the Marvel Revolution. His strength was always the monthly range, so when Skinn left the young Scott was tailor made for the job. He was also a great writer, who would sometimes write under the pseudonym Maxwell Stockbridge, a name also used by Paul Neary and Alan Moore, which lead to the town of Stockbridge and the character Maxwell Edison as readers of the Doctors Strip may possibly know. In this summer special McKenzie used his real name in the credits of the opening story,"Catalogue of Events". The Doctor finds himself in side a futuristic library where cosmic events are catalogued by a mysterious gentlemen known as "The Librarian". This text story would link the two strip tales also included in this special. Steve Dillon and Steve O'Leary drew artwork to enhance to story, showing the Doctor in his fifth generation.  

The first full strip tale, neatly placed into the text story, was "Junk-Yard Demon". Written by Steve Parkhouse and drawn by Mike McMahon with inks by Adolfob Buylla, this Fourth Doctor adventure was originally seen in Doctor Who Monthly #58-59, about half way though McKenzies run as editor of that magazine. Two space junk collectors stumble across the TARDIS and claim it as junk. These cosmic rag and bone men have also found a damaged Cyber-man. McMahon's makes beautiful work of this strip, with his version of a "Tenth plant" Cyber-man and a wide eyed Tom Baker, drawn with love and knowledge of this material. 

The text story then leads off again into the second strip, "Abslom Daak...Dalek-killer", for some reason introduced by the fourth Doctor, but neither fourth nor fifth Doctor appears with in this adventure taken from Doctor Who Weekly #17-20, a tale of mass murder Abslom Daak who's sentenced to death by Daa-Kay! Exile to a plant within the Dalek Empire, with the only hope you have is to kill as many Daleks as you can before they kill you. Steve Moore crafts a gripping story that allows Steve Dillon to draw some of this best artwork, especially when you think that Dillon had only been drawing professionally for about one year, when this strip was first published. His first strip  

was a Hulk story for Hulk comic at the age of 16. It's really beautiful work and worth buying this special for in itself. 

SPOILERS!!! 

McKenzie wraps up the text bookend tale after the Doctor leaves the Event Library with a guest appearance from Rassilon himself. Giving the impression that the Council of Gallifrey have been manipulating events in time and space for sometime. 

The special also contains mini posters of past female companions, Lalla Ward and Mary Tamm as Romana on the inside front and rear covers sadly in black and white, while Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa have pride of place on the gloss coloured centrefold.

Finally one other strip can be found within this special, stuck in the middle of the text tale, on page 5, "Dr Who, The next 20 years". A humours preview of what lies ahead for the Doctor running up to his fortieth anniversary, by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett. Future events include the first female Doctor in 1988, the Doctor looking like a clown in 1990, (could this be the idea for the sixth Doctor costume?) a third Dr. Who movie in 1998 (3 years after Paul McGann took on the roll) and the strength of merchandise in 2000 and 2003. It's a brilliant special when read though a thirteen year old's eyes or today with thirty years of hindsight. Looking back the fiftieth must have seemed an impossibly distant anniversary dream, that may never have been celebrated. So glad we can. 

Three weeks to go!

"Doctor? Doctor who?"

United we stand, divided we fall!

The art of merging comics is nothing new, in the UK it's been going on for ages. When a comic shows signs of flagging sales, the decision to merged it with a similar comic with flagging sales in the hope they will boost sales, or merge it with a strong seller so that the better strips survive. Typical examples; TV Action joins TV Comic; TV Century joins TV21 which was also merged with Solo, then Valiant which later has Battle merged into it; Zip joins Swift; Rover and Adventure joins Wizard which joins Victor; Sparky joins Topper; Swift joins Eagle which is later joined by Boys World; Smash is joined by Pow which later incorporates Fantastic; Revolver joins Crisis; 2000AD is joined by Starlord, andTornado. It never really happens that much in the US, probably the most well known is when Green Lantern was joined by the Green Arrow in an attempt to bust sales, it didn't quite blow away those sales figures but artistically it was a huge success.
The master of mergers has to be MarvelUK. This month I read, has I continue my re-reading all my MarvelUK comics in order with a thirty year time slip, The mighty Thor and the X-Men, from 31st August 1983. This isn't a inspiring merger by no means. As solo comics they where bizarre choices, which for Thor lasts for 19 issues while the X-Men lasts 17. Together they manage another 19 issues until they join Spider-man. You would say it was a failure from the start, but at least they tried.

The other side of the coin came in 1975, on the 12 of July. MarvelUK had filled news stands with strong super-heroes titles, The Mighty World Of Marvel, Spider-man Comic Weekly, The Avengers and The Super-Heroes, horror/film/pulp fiction titles Dracula Lives, Planet of the Apes and The Savage Sword of Conan. All great comics but perhaps it was spreading the quality too thinly. MarvelUK one of the lesser selling hero comics, The Avengers with Conan. A fairly new sword and sorcery title that had only lasted 19 issues, but with a strong following. The Avengers had done 94 issues with brilliant Avengers stories, wonderful Dr. Strange tales and Shang Chi, Marvels own Kung Fu star. The merger was one of MarvelUK's greatest. Issue 95 boasted a fine line up of sword and sorcery, super-hero adventure and Kung fu finest. In coming weeks Shang Chi, Dr. Strange and Iron Fist would swap for the third strip slot, while the titles lead characters where permanent fixtures. The writing and artwork was always of a strong level. Roy Thomas was some times writing all three strips, while John Buscema drew two of the lead strips. Other great creators also produced fantastic work in this weekly, Barry Windor Smith, Sal Buscema, John Byrne to name but a few. Sadly this comic had to end by merging with MWOM after issue 147 to be called Mighty world of Marvel starring the Incredible Hulk and the Avengers. With the Avengers and Conan joining the Hulk and DareDevil with MWOM #199.

Their next merger chronologically came with the success of the Titans landscape format, The Super-Heroes after 50 issues merged with Spider-man Comics Weekly to become Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes in issue 158 on the 21st of February 1976. In 1976 on the 23rd of June Apes joined a blood sucker to make the title Planet of the Apes with Dracula Lives. Two good titles made stronger, lasting another 35 issues before it also joining MWOM on the 2rd March 1977 with issue 231, with Planet of the Apes joining the Hulk in the title. Dracula would join the comic and title in issue 247 (22rd June 1977). Titans ended after 58 issues to join Super Spider-man and the Titans #199 on the 1st December 1976. On the 13th of July 1977 Captain Britain merged with Super Spider-man and on the 7th September of that year Fury joined MWOM with issue 258. The next year the Complete Fantastic Four joined MWOM after 53 issues on the 14th June with issue 298. 

The Marvel revolution came in  the late 70s the idea of changing format was used instead of merging titles, Rampage weekly became Rampage monthly and MWOM now called Marvel comic became Marvel Super-Heroes, a new monthly that continued MWOM numbering from #353 after a short merger with the Spider-man comic. 

As the 80s started so to came MarvelUK's tried and tested method with The Incredible Hulk comic joining Spider-man Weekly. Marvel Team Up sadly only lasted 25 issues to join them both in the titled Spider-man and Hulk comic incorporating Team Up. Forces in Combat joins Future tense on the 28th January 1981 with Future Tense issue 13, 7 issues later Valour joins them. Marvel Action and Captain America became Marvel Action starring Captain America on the 15th of July 1981 and later in October Marvel Super Adventure joined under the simple name of Captain America. 

On the monthly formats  Savage Action joins Marvel Super-Heroes in February of 1982 and a month later Blockbuster joins Rampage magazine after 9 issues. As 1983 started one of the strongest merger took place as Rampage was incorporated in to Marvel Super-Heroes with a strong line up of the Avengers, X-Men and Night Raven. Sadly this monthly was rebranded as a new title under name of Mighty World of  Marvel. DareDevils lasted 11 issues before joining that second volume. Strangely enough itself joined Savage Sword of Conan monthly after 17 issues. 

Back in the weeklies Spider-man became the dumping ground for every failed comic, from the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the X-Men, The Thing is Big Ben, and Indiana Jones. Star Wars would also join Spider-man and the Zoids, itself not a merged title but a Spider-man second volume. 

Some mergers worked better than others, while some didn't stop the dreaded cancellation call, they did at least create some wonderful and interesting formats with hours and hours of reading fun.

Make Mine Marvel.

Days of past futures.

This is the first issue of The Mighty World of Marvel, volume two, a MarvelUK monthly from June 1983. Its first volume had started of as a weekly comic in Britain, reprinting the adventures of the Hulk, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four on the 7th of October 1972. The line up of strips had changed many times, but always under the bold title "The Mighty World of Marvel" with different heroes sharing the lead with the Hulk, until the 24th of January 1979 ,under the editorial control of Dez Skinn, issue 330 became simply Marvel Comic. 22 weeks later it became a monthly magazine now called Marvel SuperHeroes, issue 353 cover dated September 1979. Sales held together quite well for many years with the Avengers reprints being the strong lead strip. Captain Britain returned to MarvelUK in this magazine and towards its end its line up was the strongest ever with The Avengers, X-Men black & white reprints and Night Raven text stories written by Alan Moore. But in May 1983 issue 397 was to be the last.

The title was rebranded "The Mighty World of Marvel" number 1, second series, with cardboard covers and full colour strips. These suffered at the time from printing problems, as did the weekly comics from MarvelUK, where the colour layers didn't match up to the artwork. Making what looked like a poorly rendered 3D effect. This was later rectified. Bernie Jaye, the then editor of MarvelUK monthly range, had a brilliant idrea. She took the very popular X-Men from the cancelled Marvel SuperHeroes, as a lead story. With the second story she would print a hard to find, in Britain at least, limited series from America. Starting first with "Vision and Scarlet Witch". The "Wolverine" limited series would follow, then "Cloak & Dagger", "X-Men/Micronauts" and "Magik" limited series. In her eyes the best of both worlds, ideal for the casual reader and hard collector who didn't live near a specialist comic shop. Captain Britain by Alan Moore/Alan Davis replaced the X-Men when "The DareDevils" merged with MWOM in issue 8. It must have been thought that readers of the X-Men would already be buying the American original version. 

The classic X-Men tale "Days of Future Past" headlined the first issue. The story set in 1980 & 2010 in the original American series is a beautifully crafted comic strip by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, from their final year working together. Their ideas and visions would send shocks outwards to many future stories and become the latest X-Men film storyline. The dates would be changed to 1983 and 2013 in the British magazine, to update the story to the cover date. Although there where many instances where the original date was not changed causing a little confusion. This brings me to why I'm reviewing this story now, I have since October 2002 been rereading all my MarvelUK collection in order, with early MWOM weekly issues up to this monthly from 1983 and all titles in-between. Creating a comic time slip of thirty years. It's been great to see the differance in styles between then and now. This story kind of celebrates this task. A fitting story that highlights my childhood and adulthood. 

The set up was this, in the future, Sentinals run America. Splitting the population into three groups; H, humans allowed to bred; A, anamolous humans; M, mutants, hunted down, killed or interned in prison camps. The adult Kate Pride rendezvous with Wolverine, who now works for the Canadian Resistance Army, after a run in with thugs called Rogues. Logan is part of a plan to stop the Sentinal from extending their power base to beyond Americas borders. Kate returns to a concentration camp with medical supplies and a hidden "jammer". Most superheroes are dead, with only a few X-Men surviving ,(Kate Pride, Storm, Colossus, Franklin Richards & a mysterious young girl called Rachel) lead by their old enemy Magneto. As well as stopping the Sentinals in the future, part of the plan was to send Kate's psyche to 1980 to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by Mystiques newly formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which they believe to have ignited the mutant paranoia that lead to a Mutant Control Act in 1984 and a Sentinal program. 

X-Men in past fought the Brotherhood, while the future X-Men take on the Sentinals as they attempt to destroy the ruthless robots primary base, the Baxter Building. Franklin is murdered by an attacking Sentinal. The X-Men fall and die  one by one in the old headquarters of the Fantastic Four, failing to end the robotic giants schemes, leaving an unconscious Kate in the arms of Rachel, with a very bleak future. In the past the X-Men have better luck, defeating the Brotherhood as Kate Pride, in the young teenage body of Katie Pride creates a temporal anomaly, stopping the procog Destiny from killing the Senitor.

Claremonts intricate plot leave many questions to be answered. His characters with their individual moral stands are crafted beautifully, giving depth to the young and older selfs. Magneto could have lead the 1980 Brotherhood, but it works so much better that he doesn't. Allowing the reader to see how important the changes are in the  future. In future X-Men tales this possible timeline would be drawn again with changes. Magneto would, for a time, join the X-Men, Rachel would re-appear, turning out to be the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean  Grey. Yes try and work that one out! John Byrne draws a grim future and a brighter, atleast on the surface, past. He marked the images of the young and older X-Men wonderfully. This classic tale is a perfect master class of a comic book.

The very last page just tops it all off. An epilogue of epic proportions. Senitor Kelly meets the President of the United States to discuse the mutant problem with Sabastian Shaw, even though he himself is secretly a mutant, who's Shaw Industries will design and build new Sentinal robots to stop the mutant menace,  The President introduces the man to head this covert opperation, under the code-name of "Project Wideawake" as  Henry Peter Gyrich. With five shadow lit panels Claremont and Byrne shape the future of the Marvel universe. Simply perfect. 

Make Mine Marvel. 

Substance versus saturation.

 

It all started in 1984. Well that's not really true, it's been going on decades before that.  Even during 1946 the idea of superheroes teaming up was first used in All Star Winners. In the 60's Stan Lee made mini event of hero cross overs. The Hulk would appear in the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch made guest appearances in Spider-man, Dare Devil and Thor would guest star in the F.F, the X-Men would pop up in the Avengers and F.F. and every Marvel hero and villain would turn up to the wedding of Reed and Sue Richards. The list goes on and on. But then it was always special. You didn't need to buy every single comic to follow the story line. A simple flash back would get you up to date in no time. But I think that 84 was a point where I see the raise of the cross over.

In the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s the multi title cross-over has become an annual event. And I hate it! For me it started in 1984 with Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars. Although some would say that Contest of the Champions in 1982 was the first cross over event. Don't get me wrong it wasn't all bad. I'm guilty of enjoying the series like many comic fans. On a school trip to London I dragged my school friends in to a comic shop, Comics ShowCase I think, and bought issues 2 and 8 to 12 of the first Secret Wars limited series, 'cause I couldn't find them my home town. I even entered a competition to win the Secret Wars action figures in the MarvelUK comic of the same name. But to me this series changed the game. Within one month, the Hulk had broken his leg, the Thing had left the F.F. to be replaced by the She-Hulk, Magneto had become closer to the X-Men and Spider-man had got a new black costume. The reader easily became hooked. 

The mid 80's was a period when I really increased the number to American Marvel comics I bought. I read everything I could afford. All the group books and big star heroes. The cross-overs The Mutant Massarce, Armour wars, Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, Operation Galactic Storm, the list goes on and on. Some where great, some less so.

In the years that came I took the train to Odyssey 7 in Manchester every two weeks to buy my fill of superhero shenanigans. I loved it! But looking back not all those books where of a good quality. I got bored with the same old cross-overs just in a different order. You had to buy comic who's characters, artists or writers you didn't like just to complete the story. There was still some great tales, cool artists and creative writers. But I felt editors where always pushing for the big name guest star or multi-title event that would sell a couple of hundred more issues instead of a gripping tale of drama, action and adventure. Spider-man, Wolverine, Punisher or Deadpool made guest appearances in every book that needed a sales boost. 

I drifted towards Dark Horse and DCs Vertigo lines to feed my hunger for graphic desires. Image comics also became regular purchases, though that may be seen as part of the problem, not the cure. 

Maybe I'm just a boring old comic lover, who analysed every panel instead of just enjoying it for what it is, escapism. 

Maybe I can have both. Thought provoking escapist drama. Yes that would be good. 

Make Mine Marvel. 

Would a rose by any other name smell less sweetie?

A change from comics this blog to one of my other passions, Doctor Who. This week sees the final episode of series 7 part 2's run, "The name of the Doctor." I've enjoyed this years episodes enormously, even the heavily criticised "The rings of Akhaten." with its Flash Gordon feel, to wonderful gothic modern classics of "Hide" and "The Crimson Death,"onto fantastic future forays like "Journey to the centre of the TARDIS" and "Nightmare in silver."

 It's been a great season, in the future we may compare it to classic  seasons like seasons 1,2, 5,8,12 or 13. In "Hide" the Doctor and Clara easily compare able to the Fourth Doctor and Sarah-Jane, in "Cold War" with the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria. It's no wonder that the Ice Warriors, CyberMen and the Great Intelligence all appear in this series, a great nod towards the classic season 5. 

I've also enjoyed the guest actors, David Warner, Diana Rigg, Warwick Davis, Dougray Scott and Richard E Grant to name but five. All perfectly casted. Madame Vestra, Jenny and Strax shouldn't be forgotten about either, with their funny dry banter and kickass Victorian action. More please from Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart and Dan Starkey.

But the finial episode got me thinking, it's called "The name of the Doctor" and we were all expecting a big reveal, which didn't really come. Yes we learned about Trenzalore and Clara, the girl who was born to save the Doctor. Plus seeing all them other Doctor made many a fan boy punch the air with ecstatic joy. But still no name! Shakespeare wrote "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." It's not important what the Doctor real name is. As long as he live up to his status as a hero. We're told the secret has been hiding in plain sight any way. So may be we already know but don't care. "Doctor? Doctor who?"

Any way this series as just been the teaser for the grand 50th anniversary episode and I can't wait! 

"Doctor? Doctor Who?"

The exquisite draughtsman!

Jack Kirby was an amazing artist, a creative writer and a ground breaking editor. But to me he was an  exquisite draughtsman. His style changed with time as every artist would, but his skill as a story teller was always constant. For me the height of his mountain of work was during is Fantastic Four period, from the wedding of Read and Sue in Fantastic Four Annual #3 October 1965, with Vince Colletta inking his work, to his last full work on that comic book in Fantastic Four #102 September 1970, with inks supplied by Joe Sinnott. His last work for the FF was parts of an unfinished strip, finished of by John Buscema and John Romita SR published in Fantastic Four #108 March 1971.

To prove my point just take a look at the above picture of the Fantastic Car from December 1968, in a story called "Enter..the exquisite elemental!" issue number 81. Although my picture is taken from the black and white Fantastic Four pocket book #18 from MarvelUK in 1981, to fully show the clearness of the great man's work. This story was, as always written by the legend Stan Lee, with Joe Sinnott inking Kirby's work. During this period the king would love big splash pages, action scenes, futuristic gadgets and stylish heroes. This page has it all. The Fantastic Car fills the page as it plummets downward to join the action from a great height. By far the best design of the fab four's flying bathtub. He uses sharp lines to give the impression of speed. Again these sharp lines are used to make the metal fuselage look shiny and sleek. The background is a cityscape full of boxes and square lines, a very modern city. But this isn't draw square on to the Fantastic Car, but at a slight angle again to give urgency to the vehicles flight. The very muscular Read Richards with hair blowing in the wind pilots the craft, Crystal sits at the rear with perfect hair looking beautiful and Ben Grimm on one side pointing to where the action is. Speech bubbles bounce around the panel.with snappy dialogue from Stan Lee filling in the story with banter and techno jargon aplenty. If you could tell a story in one panel this is how it would be done. Not a millimetre of space wasted.

 I always tried to draw like Jack Kirby. I used his shapes, his layouts, his male and female body forms. I'm  a poor artist, not because the technic was wrong, but because there aren't many artists in the same class as the Kirby. Some come very close, like John Byrne, John Buscema, John Romtia, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Barry Smith, George Perez, Alan Davis and maybe some more, but there is only one King!

Make Mine Marvel.

Carmine Infantino- Never forgotten.

In this week a 87 year old ex-Prime Minister died, last week an inspiring American artist aged 87 also passed away. That's were the comparison ends. Although he will always be remembered for his DC work on the likes of Bat-man and Flash, I'll always remember Carmine Infantino for his work on Spider-Woman, Nova, the Avengers and of course Star Wars strips that found their way to the UK in the late 70's and early 80's, in Marvel UK magazines like Spider-man and the Hulk weekly, Spider-man, Rampage weekly, Rampage monthly, Marvel Super-Heroes and Star Wars weekly, at the same time as the Iron Lady first came to power. His stories, more often than not with Marv Wolfman as writer, filled this young reader with a fix of escapism.
Carmine Infantino born in Brooklyn New York on the 24th of May 1925, died on 4th of April 2013.

May he rest in peace.

Make mine Marvel.

"The tower of the elephant!" -a moral view.

"The Tower of the Elephant!" is a tale that questions my own moral thinking, comes from Conan the Barbarian #4 April 1971, adapted by the legendary Roy Thomas, from the story of the same name by Robert E Howard, drawn by Barry Smith, (later named Barry Windsor-Smith) and Sal Buscema. It was reprinted in 1975 in Savage Sword of Conan #4, a weekly black & white comic from Marvel UK. It was also again reprint in the UK in Conan the Barbarian pocket book in October 1980. But I'll take my reference from the 75 weekly. 

Our tale starts in a thief redden bar, full of ugly men and beautiful women, in the Arenjun city of Zamora. Where Kothian, a fat slave trader, loudly holds court. Conan asks him about the Elephant tower that he has heard so much about. He tells him of Yara a high priest and a mysterious jewel, the Heart of the elephant. Conan questions Kothian's courage, which starts a fight and ends in his death. But more on that later. Intrigued Conan spy's upon Yara who enters the tower gate, unseen by all he walks on air. Covertly the young barbarian climbs over the wall and crosses the gardens to find a dead guard, whose killer reveals himself to be Taurus of Nemedia, a prince of thieves. Together they decide to share what ever booty they can liberate from the tower. They face lions that attack in silence, Conan kills one with his sword. The glass sided tower poses the next obstacle, that they manage to scale with the aid of a rope to the very top where Taurus cunningly enter a door to find death, which Conan soon find out was cause by venom from a giant spider, again Conan slays the beast. In a lower chamber the young Cimmerian finds what he at first believes to be a green idol with the body of a man and the head of  an elephant. The chained creature awakes from his sleep.

Now this is where the story calls to my moral thinking, Yag-Kosha the alien creature, the last of his race, who had come to earth before the dawn of man, even though his body injured and eyes that no longer see he senses that Conan has blood on his hands. Conan answers from "A spider in the chamber above.. ..and a lion in the garden." To which Yag-Kosha replies "You have slain a man too, this night." Now at first I didn't understand  who he was talking about. Yes Conan had killed, but only as a solder in wars, or in self defence, or to save a pretty maiden, but never in cold blood. My comic heroes aren't murders. But then as I thought back to the bar fight Conan had slain Kothian, under the extinguished light of a candle. Beautifully drawn by Smith. This shows perfectly the blood soaked age this tale is set in, but for a young readership in 1971 and 1975 Britain. Now Thomas perfect paced plot pay off. Yag-Kosha requests that Conan ends his immortal life and Yara enslavement, as he is tired of his lonely torment at the priests hands. Conan follows Yag-Kosha wishes with a heavy sword, throw the heart.

Conan finds Yara but doesn't attack with his sword but instead takes the globe like, Heart of the elephant,  gives it to the wizard priest and quotes Yag-Kosha's last enchantment, where upon touching the scarlet gem the old priest begins to shrink into the globe. Conan watches as a no longer maimed or blind elephant man acts out his vengeance. Conan turns and flees the crumbling tower. With more questions than answers, the young Cimmerian looks back maybe with some sense of justice. 

I think Conan was a little puzzled to about being accused of being a murder. But I do believe he does own a code of honour, even in this Hyborian age, he hold a greater moral standard than other characters around him. This makes him a hero fit to stand with Marvel other heroes like, Spider-Man, Captain America and Thor. That's why I love these tales, so refreshingly crafted by Roy Thomas, Barry Smith, Sal Buscema and Sam Rosen, under Stan Lee's editorial eyes. I can read these tales again and again. I love the adventure and drama, but I love that it gets me thinking about life and myself. Like all stories should. Truly amazing and revolutionary!

Make mine Marvel!