FOOM Day cometh!

 Week Ending 17th February 1973

FOOM Day came on the 10th February 1973. British Marvelites had to choose which comic to spend their pocket money on if they had only 5 pence a week. If you got 10 pence a week you was over the moon, 'cause you could now buy two action packed weekly comics, with a combined total of eighty pages, featuring five sensational stories, starring eight of Marvel's mightiest heroes, for just 10 pence! It may sound like exceptional value today, but 10 pence was a lot to a kid in 1973. Marvel comics weren't cheep compared to other comics on the newsstand. The Dandy and the Beano both cost 2 pence each. You could have bought both and still have change for the penny sweets tray. "Penny sweets tray?" you say, that might be a northern thing, but our corner shop used to sell everything but one of the treats that each and every kid wanted was some sweets of the penny sweet tray. My corner shop had a wicker tray with a selection of sweets, each sweet cost a penny, like Dib daps, Bubbly bubble gum, Black jacks, that kind of thing. Anyway the thing is sweets rot your teeth, reading comics expands your mind. Read comics kids! Parents could have hours of peace and quiet while their sons or daughters read, or alternatively they could have the feral prats running around high on sugar and E numbers! 10 pence on two comics is money well spent!

The Mighty World of Marvel #20

Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott drew and inked this landmark cover featuring Marvel's latest hero acrobatically leaping through a circus style paper disc stretched across a hula hoop to make his grand entrance. Daredevil is wearing his original 1964 red and yellow costume with a single D. I feel that Starlin didn't quite get how this costume should have looked, the D is too low, there isn't a belt buckle, boots and gloves are missing the "line of holes" that run down the flat areas (may be they aren't facing the front or in shadow so we can't see them,) the under arm red vest length is too low and the mask and head doesn't look the right shape. Take a look at the Bill Everett version on the first page of the DD strip for a comparison, it's the classic look. I wonder if the cover was adapted from the 70's traditional red costume before it was approved? Starlin may not be the best artist to draw Daredevil but he does a cracking version of the Hulk and the Thing. 

 

Just on a side note the cover for this issue was a homage to the 1937 cover of Detective Comics issue 38 from DC comics. That issue featured Robin the boy wonder jumping through a similar hula hoop paper disc to make his debut, drawn by Bob Kane with inks  from Jerry Robinson. I don't do DC normally, (OK I do own some of the Distinguished Competitions fair but they're not a patch on Marvel. My collection ranges from many different comic companies, but Marvel is my first love and greatest!) but its worth pointing it out, if only to say the Hulk, the Thing and Daredevil look vastly more dynamic than the less-so dynamic Duo.

The Incredible Hulk "Where strikes the behemoth"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Frank Giacoia

Originally printed in Tales to Astonish #67 

Cover date January 1965 

(Published October 1964)

First things first, if you take a closer look at the copyright panel at the foot of the first page you'll notice that instead of naming the Hulk, (new boy,) Daredevil and the Fantastic Four as registered trademarks of Marvel Comics Group, Spider-man and Thor are listed instead. I checked the copyright panel on Spider-man Comics Weekly to see if they got swapped, but that one was the same as this one. Minor mistake may be but I thought I'll mention it. Pippa M. Melling is still named as editor. Hard working girl she's got two publications to edit a week now! (Granted Tony Isabella was helping with that back in the states.)

This week the Hulk is mainly smashing up Bodavian tanks in a variety of different ways, from ripping off the turret to pulling up the road in front of them. Last weeks Commandant is all but forgotten about as the green behemoth tears the division of Russian...I mean Bodavian tanks to pieces. You can tell they're Bodavian tanks because they sport the lighting bolt emblem, as designed by Tony Isabella who was at the time the US based editor of Marvel Magazine Management London Ltd (the forerunner to Marvel UK.) and as described two weeks ago Tony came up with the idea of a super evil country that would replace Russia and China in these British reprints as "UK partners bemoaned" the use of communist countries as villains. I not sure British kids were that bothered, we were very used to having Germans and the Japanese as the villains in British war comics. The Hulk defeats the Bodavian forces and leaps across the border in to Mongolia, which is a country between Russia and China. The Marvel UK map of the world must look strange indeed if Bodavia surrounds Mongolia, may be there had been a land grab to connect North Bodavia with South Bodavia. 

In Mongolia the Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner, who is captured by Mongolian bandits, whose leader- Kanga Khan plans to obtain a ransom for the American scientist. The US government sends Major Talbot in to rescue Banner. Talbot does his best Indiana Jones impression and librates Bruce from the bandits just before they are cornered, in a dramatic cliff hanger, the ledge gives way and they fall into an abyss, to be continued next week. This weeks inker - Frank Giacoia does give Ditko's pencil work a more romantic 50's silver screen look, right out of an Indiana Jones movie. Ditko artwork is best inked by himself, last weeks inks from Vince Colletta feels crude, but I have to say I do like Giacoia's inks. 

Daredevil "The origin of Daredevil!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Bill Everett 

Inker: Bill Everett, Steve Ditko and Sol Brodsky

Originally printed in Daredevil #1 

Cover date April 1964

(Published February 1964)

 

The opening splash page of the UK reprint replaces the cover of The Amazing Spider-man #1 with the cover of The Might World of Marvel #1. The title- "The origin of Daredevil may not be the most inspiring but it does what it says.

As Spider-man's replacement I feel you couldn't go wrong with Daredevil especially with his opening story. Some of his early stories may feel a little dull but this one is a cracker! Confession time again I first read and fell in love with this tale in between the hard backed covers of the 1974 Marvel Annual, that will be published in the autumn of 1973. So this is a first for British Marvel readers, well apart from those lucky enough to have bought the imported US edition, or those who saw it in Power comics Smash from around 1967, but remember Marvel Comics didn't exist in the UK before MWOM#1 (apart from the times when they did!). 

This is a really well written story by Stan Lee, but I think that Bill Everett's input to the structure and style can't be over looked. It's pure "pulp fiction" at its best! The story starts with a visit to Fogwells Gym, where a group of shady types have their game of poker interrupted by Daredevil, a fully formed superhero, who is looking for their leader, the Fixer! After DD quickly dispatches the goons with a display of his fighting skills we're lead to a flash back to the origin of the man who would become Daredevil. 

Quick origin recap, single parent "Battling Murdock" tells his son Matt that he must study hard to become a lawyer or doctor as part of a promise made to his wife before she died. Which he does but to the misfortune of being bullied by the local kids for his attention to his studies, which earn him, through sarcastic teasing by local kids, the name Daredevil. Matt feels angry about the ridicule and takes it out on his fathers punch bag. Realising he has a talent for it he trains on his fathers equipment daily. To help pay for Matthews time at college where he's now studying law, his Dad takes up a boxing contract with the Fixer, a notoriously dodgy promoter. On the same day Matt sees a blind man crosses the street in front of a out of control truck, he leaps to the mans rescue but in the accident the vehicle clips Murdock and a dislodged canister falls from the truck and spills radioactive material on to his face blinding the lad. Matthew recovers and finds his remaining senses are now super sharp. 

In the original American version his super sense of taste is explained by the amazing ability to know exactly how many grains of salt there are on a pretzel by tasting it. In the British version the word pretzel is replaced with a chip. How very British! 

Matt doesn't let his disability get in the way of his law studies or body building training, if anything they improve his efforts. 

Things start looking up for Matt's dad's boxing career too, after winning a number of headline fights, only all isn't as perfect as it seems. The Fixer arranged for his opponents to lose those fights thus making him the favourite to the next big fight, but in that fight the Fixer wants Murdock to take a dive in the first round. With Matt and Foggy present for the bout Battling Murdock wants to make his son proud as so wins the fight with a knock out! Angry at the double cross the Fixer arranges a hit on Murdock which is carried out by his right hand hitman- Slade. 

After the tragic loss Matthew graduates law school with flying colours and agrees to partner his college friend Foggy Nelson in setting up a law practice together. They set up an office in Hells Kitchen with a young Karen Page as their secretary. Knowing that he could never concentrate on his law firm work with his mind fixed on bringing his fathers murders to justice, but with the police no closer to finding the culprits. Matt designs a costume, very similar to a wrestling outfit, with a mask to cover up his identity, he becomes a vigilante, whose aims are to reap justice on those who slip through the hands of the law. Remembering the bullies who branded him Daredevil he finishes off his mask with horns and his vest with a giant D. 

Matt adapts his walking cane into a weapon, which in this version is basically a big hinge to fold the weapon into a holster.This costume is a classic, although the colour scheme is unusual, some may joke that you can tell it was made by a blind man. Which leads many of you, myself included, wondering how even with super senses does he pick the right colours. Stan adds a little dialogue to answer this with the line "For each coloured fabric has a different feel!" Never knew that you could feel colour! 

And with that we must wait till next week to find how the man without fear gets on with bring his fathers killers to justice.

I must point out that this weeks centre spread are the only pages in full colour apart from the front and back covers, with 28 pages now in black and white with shades of green and the remaining eight pages just black and white. This will become the standard format for both MWOM and its newsstand brother for the foreseeable future. That newsstand brother is Spider-man Comics Weekly as advertised in this weeks centre spread. MWOM readers would have their precious colour pages inform them of what they're missing if they haven't purchased the new comic already. Would news of Spider-man latest villain- Electro and the star of Spidey's co-star- the might Thor enough to make you want to buy a copy? Damn right it would! Plus just to tease you even more you can only find out FOOM's secret in SMCW pages. Just in case you wondered the clipped artwork of Spider-man v Electro is from the from cover of the Amazing Spider-man #10 while Thor v the Stone Men of Saturn artwork is taken from Journey into Mystery #83. More Stone Men are present behind Thor in this image than do appear in that cover.  

In this weeks Mail Bag we hear from Hazel Byrne, from Worcs, who wonders what to do about collecting coupons for her mystery gift but doesn't want to cut up her comic. More problems from Andrew Brewer from Frodingbridge, who's Mum will only buy him MWOM occasionally, Shame on you Mrs Brewer. The Human Torch is Gary Hosty from Birmingham favourite hero, he asks who would win in a fight between the Hulk v the Thing. The editor replies that battle may happen very soon! Vincent Bowler from Leicester, has been reading imported American comics for years, he loves stories about superheroes and their fantastic powers over the British comics and their "silly distorted people with great big noses and nobbly knees!" so he was excited to discover MWOM (good thing they haven't printed any of Fred Hembeck's work!). He does have some criticism of the way Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk and also the lack of colour in these British weeklies. 

The Fantastic Four "The return of Doctor Doom!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally printed in The Fantastic Four #10

Cover date January 1963

(Published in October 1962)

The return (again) of Doctor Doom! I must confess I'm not buzzing about this story, it starts off in a fun way with Reed, Sue and Johnny in the Baxter Building trying to discover the secrets of Sue's power when a "Four" signal flare alerts them that the Thing needs them. The door is jammed so they go about the most silliest of ways to get out and rush to Ben Grimm's side, including the Invisible Girl causing a car to crash! It feels like Stan and Jack just filling pages with pointless slapstick until any action can happen. Ben is at Alicia Masters' flat, he wants to show his teammates her latest work!

 Alicia has created miniature statues of the Mole-man, the Miracle Man, the Skulls, Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner with incredible detail. Her skills are amazing, but they're a par with Ben Grimm's descriptive abilities. She can't have felt these villains with her hands so Ben must have gone into great detail of how they look. Ben's talent of description must be an art form in itself, may be he should try writing. Another way to look at it is Alicia's sculptures are always about the Fantastic Four and their adventures, does Ben talk about nothing but himself and his life? The Alicia/Ben relationship is a special one, probably the most charming and beautiful relationship in Marvel comics. 

Meanwhile, (that's a good word, they should use it in comics to segue one scene to another,) we get for the first time in comics the on page appearance of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as they brainstorm the latest issue of the Fantastic Four! Everyone thinks that She-Hulk and Deadpool were the first to go meta in comics, no Stan and Jack were doing it back in 1962! It's kind of like they've got a severe case of writer's block this issue, so much so Doctor Doom enters the Marvel offices to get them to set up a trap for Mr. Fantastic. Apparently they get all their plot lines straight from the Fantastic Four, even ringing up the team to find out the inside story of their adventures. Kirby never drew his or Stan's face in full view during any of their appearances in the Marvel universe, it was always the back of their heads or in full shadow or even with objects blocking the faces. For comedy strips that parody the Marvel bullpen you might get a full face image. 

  

Reed goes of to see the two creators, changing into civilian clothes. Stan and Jack lay on the comedy thick this issue with Johnny and Ben teasing Reed about his stretchy hat and clothes. Why he needs a stretchy hat is beyond me.

Now here comes the great British continuity error, in issue 13 Doctor Doom was lost in space after the Sub-mariner defeated him and helped the FF return home, in issue 14 of MWOM Doom tells Spider-man he escaped that cliffhanger with the aid of a jetpack (which is how he escaped from the Fantastic Four at the end of the Fantastic Four #17, US cover dated August 1963.) In this FF story he informs Reed Richards that he encountered a friendly race of aliens called the Ovoids who saved his life and returned him to earth. There's no escaping it British readers, Doom escaped the same cliffhanger twice! Not even the mighty Marvel editors can get out of that one! Note how the clipped artwork of the Ovoid rescuing Doom in space is used in that Spider-man story from issue 14 . 

Doom obtained a "Mental Teleporter" from the aliens and also learned the incredible ability of mind transfer with another person. This is proper B-movie sci-fi, I sometimes feel it pushes the boundaries of disbelieve to the extreme, especially when its used haphazardly in comics, although sometime I'm fine with it, I'm weird like that! Doom uses it to transfer his mind or is it his body as the artwork suggests, with Doctor Richards. I guess it was easier to draw one person changing into another rather than the mind of one person changing into another with artwork on the printed page. Stan and Jack have informed the FF that Doom had kidnapped Reed so in they rush to mistake Reed for Doom and visa versa. And there it ends till next week.

As I mentioned before earlier there is now only four colour pages from now on, the front cover, the centre pages and the back page. It's used well as a fantastic Pin-up Page featuring the Human Torch. Its gorgeous! Drawn by Jack Kirby this lovely pin-up first appeared in the Fantastic Four Annual #2 cover dated September 1964, (published July 1964.) and with that....

See you in sev.... Oh wait, there's more?

Spider-man Comics Weekly #1

There is more! Much more, as Spider-man and the Mighty Thor come busting through the cover of Marvel UK latest masterpiece Spider-man Comics Weekly! Why it's called Comics Weekly plural as opposed to Comic Weekly singular I don't know, I think the editors don't know either. Tony Isabella told me in a tweet that he was told to just go with it, he believed that the American side of the editing team felt keen on "Weekly" as it was something different to their experience. It's an amazing cover too, a collage of artwork from Steve Ditko (from the cover of Amazing Spider-man #19) and Jack Kirby (from the Mighty Thor #169), it's an absolute classic! I'm so glad I own a copy!

  

The first issue came with a free Spider-man mask! I don't own one and have never seen one in real life, but I'm lead to believe that it was just a paper bag coloured like Spider-Man mask with two holes for eyes. There are tales of them ripping during their first use as it was too small for the average child's head, so I guess many were thrown away after one use.

Spider-man "The man called Electro!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Steve Ditko

First published in The Amazing Spider-man #9

Cover dated February 1964

(Published November 1963)

A full length spectacular for the first issue, one of my Lee/Ditko favourites. I've mention in this blog and another blog from two weeks ago, of my love for the 1974 Marvel Annual in which "The origin of Daredevil" and "The terrible threat of the Living Brain" appear, this story also appears in between those lovely hardback pages. Stan and Steve weave a tale of Spider-man and Peter Parker's life. This comic is 40 pages with the front cover, two page inside and the back cover sporting full colour. Twenty eight pages are printed in black and white with shades of red, more suiting Spider-man than the shades of green seen in MWOM, leaving eight pages of black and white print.

  

I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time that Aunt May's poor health is mentioned as part of the plot. She may look frail but it's also amazing that she lives so long, with the number of heart attacks she's had. In this issue she has to have an expensive operation.

We learn the story of Max Dillon, a lineman (cable fitter or electrician to you and me,) who after a freak accident gains the power to store and conduct electricity without risk to his life, who then uses his new found abilities to become a masked criminal. So he starts a crime spree which brings him to the attention of the Daily Bugle and through Peter Parker, Spider-man. Stan Lee wasn't one for let scientific facts get in the way of a good story. When Electro hurls a bolt of electricity it would have to be at a considerable high voltage and high current to pass through the air towards its intended victim, more than enough to kill let alone give then a minor shock. In a typical bolt of lightning there is around 300 million volts of electricity at 30,000 amps of current, compare that to the electricity you have in a domestic UK house, were you have 120 volts at 15amps, still enough to endanger or kill. Lightning travels at 270,000 miles per hour, Spider-man has to move incredibly fast to dodge that! Basically Spider-man wouldn't stand a chance. The whole thing is impossible. But I never let "impossible" get in the way of my enjoyment of reading Marvel comics.  

It's an electrifying adventure (pun intended,) Electro is one of Spider-man's deadliest foes. Ditko makes Max Dillon a very unlikeable character, with a pointy chin and big nose to emphasise the villains thug like persona. It's a good thing that this comic isn't in colour, Electro's costume is bizarre even by 60's standards. Lightning gloves and boots, lightning braces hold up lightning embossed legging, capped off with a lightning five pointed mask all in a green and yellow colour palette, quite frankly its shocking! (Ouch I couldn't resist!) I do also find it strange why Electro recovers a dropped gun to use in this tale, especially has he possesses such electrifying powers. Spider-man does indeed short circuit (ouch,) the villain, with water from a hose,  making this story an electrifying (right I'll stop now!) read!

Peter desperately needs money for Aunt Mays operation, Jonah Jameson would pay top dollar for normal prints but does Peter let the stress get to him and give Jameson exactly what he wants, which is shots that prove that Spider-man and Electro are one and the same. There can be no logical reason for Peter to superimpose shots of Spider-man over shots of Electro. When J.J.J finds out they are fakes he wants to kill Parker, until Peter shows him real action shots of Spider-man battling the villain. Jameson accepts the photos. All is good until Betty Brant falls out with Peter for not paying attention to her and always making excuses to leave and take dangerous photos for the Daily Bugle, we learn a little of the reason why she's upset, someone in her past enjoyed danger which cause her anxiety, that's a plot line that will come to fruition in the future, I wonder if Stan had that plot line in his head already or did he make it up as he went along? The lovers tiff is quickly patched up to make a romantic ending, just in time for Valentine's Day.

As I pointed out before the only two colour pages can be found inside the comic. For some reason they're not in the centre of the comic but appear on pages 10 and 11. This double splash page hosts another Stan Lee Sounds OFF, news of next weeks free gift and explains the secret of FOOM. 

Stan Lee sounds off that because we demanded it he was left with no choice but to release Spider-man Comics Weekly on to the British public, with its "sensational, movie length Spider-man epic" each week and the "hammer swinging son of Odin" the mighty Thor. He waxes lyrical about Spider-mans replacement in the pages of MWOM, the "dazzling Daredevil the man without fear!" Spider-man shows us the free gift we can find next week, a "Spider tracer plane", hope fully that will last longer than the Spider mask. The secret of FOOM is that it stands for Friends Of Ol' Marvel, the new fan club run by Stan Lee, Jim Sterenko and Roy Thomas to replace MMS and Marvelmania. For just 50 pence you get a 22x28 colour poster, a gold finished membership card, a "fist full" of stickers and issue one of FOOM magazine produced by the Bullpen and filled with pictures, articles and news about Marvel Comics. Not  only that but they boast about the special envelope it comes in too. You know that's great value for 50 pence! I was way too young to beg my parents to send off for it, I've never seen one in the flesh but I'll love to get my hands on one now but the price would cost more than a monthly bills of a large house hold!

The mighty Thor "Thor the mighty and the Stone Men from Saturn!"

    

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: JackIt Kirby

Inker: Joe Sinnott

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #83

Cover date August 1962

(Published June 1962)

Marvel UK's latest comic strip features the mighty Thor, God of Thunder! It starts with a lame Doctor Donald Blake on holiday in Norway. Why he would choose to go on holiday in Norway is anyones guess. Maybe Odin moves people in mysterious ways and that is a good thing as Norway is the site of an invasion of Stone Men from Saturn!

In later Marvel tales we are informed that the Stone Men, or Kroans as they should be know are from the planet Ria and that they do have a base on one of Saturns moons, hence the nickname. The leader is named as Gorr. Korg (yes the same Korg who's Thor's gaming partner in the MCU films,) and Margus are also present in the invasion, although the are not named until the Planet Hulk story line from the Incredible Hulk volume 2 #93 (cover dated May 2006, published March 2006.) 

Spying on the alien invasion force Blake flees from the scene as best as his lame legs would carry him, but loses his walking stick while tripping, so he decides to hide in a cave where after exploring he gets lost, until a hidden door mysteriously opens to reveal a secret chamber and within a gnarled wooden stick like a ancient cane. Strange forces at play methinks! In an attempt to move a bolder from the exit he bangs the cane on the bolder which transforms him into Thor, the ancient Norse God of thunder! The cane becomes an ancient mallet with the inscription "Whosever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of...Thor."

"The power of Thor!" that sounds like a good name for a title, I might use that or adapt it for my own use, no-one will know. If you're going to steal, steal from the best. 

Blake has gained godlike powers, incredible strength and the ability to fly by hurling his magical hammer into the air, and holding on to the mallets leather strap. This version of Thor keeps the mind of Donald Blake with all his memories. That won't last in future stories but I think it was Stan and Jacks intension that the character would continue to act like that, until the introduction of Asgard  and other Asgardians which made it more integral to the story to have Thor as an immortal so that he could better interact with other godlike beings. 

Thor takes on the invading Stone Men destroying their "captive cage", smashing their weapons, and defeating their "Mechano-monster", a robot with ease. The Stone Men flee the planet just as Nato troops arrive to combat the aliens but only find "a lame passerby with a gnarled old cane!" The editor leaves a note written on a hammer that informs the reader that Thor will return next week in the pages of Spider-man Comics Weekly!

Finally we get to the back cover, (thank goodness for that you say,) which is a full page colour advert for Spidey's slightly older brother comic The Mighty World of Marvel issue 20! It features that issues adapted cover with the Hulk, the Thing and a leaping Daredevil below the headline of "Here comes...Daredevil the man without fear! Its good cross advertising, in my opinion many readers would choose SMCW over MWOM as the young teenage lead would connect to young readers more. My choice would be both, but with a loaded gun to my head Spider-man wins every time....just! 

So that's it, Marvel UK merry mass of marvellous magazines marches on! Two comics a week, more research to carry out, more interesting facts to find, more images to crop, more grammar to correct, more zany titles to make up, more puns to shoehorn in, more opinions to tell,  more mistakes to make, more nostalgia to remember and love. But most of all more comics to read! Happy days both then and now.

See you in seven!

Make Mine Marvel!