Ninety-nine written blogs go by!

 Week Ending 24th August 1974

Ninety-nine written blogs go by, how the time flies. Well I've written more than ninety nine Power of the Beesting blogs, but this is the ninety-ninth Week Ending... blog marked with the ninety-ninth issue of the Mighty World of Marvel. It seems like years and years ago when I first started the Week Ending... sub-section of the blog. Well it was under two years, (2rd October 2022 to be exact,) at first it seemed to be an easy task with one weekly a week to review. I had worries that three would be taxing. Last week Mark Lotinga asked in the comments just how long it takes to put these blogs together? Well Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I get home from work and try to read one weekly a day before I have my tea, depending if I haven't got anything else that needs doing, which takes about half an hour each or so. Monday night I create the cover montage, seen above, then I paste a template of the blog, changing the issue numbers and pasting in the individual covers, from my collection database, in each section. That's about half an hour. The next night I copy, paste and crop the opening splash pages, interesting or important panels, letter pages, adverts and Bullpen Bulletins to a picture file to aid me when I put the blog together. I have, on an iPad, the relevant websites I use for research into the stories that appear in that week's mags, from which I add writer, artist, inker and original publication details to the blog. Again about half an hour. I try to get a head on the writing on the Wednesday, Thursday or Friday nights but that doesn't always work, most of the writing is done on the Saturday with some of the research into the stories done while I write it. The amount of time depends on how busy I am. Usually I finish the blog off on the Sunday (normally the Avengers weekly, Avengers story, letter page, Bullpen and Doctor Strange sections). I estimate that I spend around ten to twelve hours researching and writing it over the weekend. Some flow easy, some weeks not so much. Then on Sunday afternoon I proofread it and correct any bits I don't like. That can take an hour to an hour and a half or longer if I've made lots of mistakes. Which is very common. Hopefully it's all ready to go online Sunday teatime. So it's around seventeen hours every week and soon there'll be another two weeklies to look at. Which is time that I could spent reading some of the comics and books in my "to read pile". Or doing the hundred and one jobs around the house I need to do. But...it's the reading of the three weeklies every evening that fills me with childlike joy that keeps me going. As more mags come out each week I'll read more and I might have to write less, but I'll keep going for a while, as the best Marvel mags are yet to come. 

The Mighty World of Marvel #99

Herb Trimpe drew and inked this cover, originally from the US comic The Incredible Hulk #134. There's something wonderful and basic that works on a primeval level that instinctively makes it a likeable cover. The menacing shadow behind the Hulk could be the Golem or it could be his own shadow, especially in the UK version. In the US version you can make out more of the Golem's figure and even an open right hand, which in the UK cover is moved out of view because of the low MWOM logo. The smoke has been moved and increased in size to cover the Golem's arms, may be as a reaction to the fact that apart from a flashback the legendary creature doesn't appear in this story. The UK version also has a brighter orange and yellow background, what's with orange and yellow on British covers? This classic cover wins my Cover of the Week award.

 

The Incredible Hulk “Among us walks...the Golem”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Herb Trimpe

Inker: Sal Buscema

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #134

Cover date December 1970

(Published in September 1970)

I love the opening pages of this tale, it's got a Frankenstein's Monster and the peasant girl vibe about it from the classic Mary Shelley novel, although without the tragic outcome of the creature throwing the girl into the lake to see if she floats like the petals she had previously thrown onto that calm water. The Hulk shows more understanding of human emotions and social norms, that enable him to seek out connections and companionship even if he is rejected by society. 

Roy Thomas laid out a beautiful plot that set the Hulk up as the legendary figure of the Golem, who gets an origin story told by the girl's father in flashback of an animated statue who is gifted superpowers by it's creator Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel to protect the people of Prague in the late 16th-century from antisemitic attacks. It's the little window dressing that makes this story more interesting and readable. Although the actual Golem doesn't appear in this story Len Wein and John Buscema bring the character to life, (Pun intended!) in it's own comics strip over four years later from the original US publication, in Strange Tales featuring the Golem #174, cover dated June 1974, published March 1974. John Buscema's younger brother Sal returns to the Hulk strip as inker after an absence of ten stories. He's a fine inker who in all honesty makes no difference to Trimpe's artwork than when John Severin was the regular inker. Just compare last week's strip to this one. Later on Sal Buscema would become one of my favourite Hulk artists in his own right. 

Herb Trimpe has a default peasant informer in his pencil case, the one of the left is the European informer from this week's tales who is willing to claim a reward from Draxon for information concerning the activities of the Morvanian resistance fighters. The one on the right is the South American peasant informer from the Hulk vs Maximus and the Evil Inhumans story from MWOM #73. Never trust a man with a moustache and a hat! Anyway the Hulk doesn't agree to help the resistance fighters and Draxon mobilises his troops to crush the Morvanian rebels and their families. Don't worry we'll get to see "Monster Vs. Machine" in next week's hundredth spectacular issue. It's a classic!

Bullpen Bulletins

Another "nutty news and notes from one madman to another" Bulletin opens with a Bombastic Bullpen Biography Dept. item on one of Marvel's creators, this time it's Marie Severin's turn.  The Cartoonist and Illustrators school was her short stint at formal art education, but coming from a family of artists her impatience lead her to pick experience as the best teacher. She followed her brother John into EC comics in 1951, doing colouring and production on Mad magazine. In 1955 she left to go and work for Stan Lee at Atlas Comics, the forerunner of Marvel, until she left, after a slump in comics, to work as a staff artist, for New York Federal Reserve Bank, in their public information department. From there a job at Filmfax Corp. in 1960 until she returned to work for Stan as a free-lancer in 1964 which lead to her becoming a member of staff, where she used her experience at Mad to work on Marvel's own humour magazine Crazy. She also counts a couple of Esquire covers in her portfolio. In July 1973 she was awarded both the Best Colouring Award and the Best Humour Artist Award from the officials at the New York Comic Art Convention. She's one of Marvel's greats. In a Special to the Mighty World of Marvel promises something a little more special for the hundredth issue. The next Items give a brief rundown on the two-day comic convention held in London on the 20th and 21st of July. Stan's Soapbox give's us a history of the Ranks of Marveldom, with Stan giving the credit to Mark Evanier by re-printing his letter from him that seeded the idea. If you want more on how it all came about here's the tales from Mark's own blog. I have discussed those Ranks and Mark Evanier's roll in their creation before in the blog, but I can't remember where and when, so here's a quick run down. RFO (Real Frantic One) - a buyer of at least 3 Marvel Mags a week, (or three US monthlies a month). TTB (Titanic True Believer) - a 'No-Prize' Winner. QNS (Quite 'Nuff Sayer) - a writer of a letter printed. KOF (Keeper of the Flame) - someone who recruits a newcomer to Marvel's ranks. PMM (Permanent Marvelite Maximus) anyone possessing all four of the other titles. FFF (Fearless Front Facer) - an honorary title bestowed for devotion to Marvel above and beyond the call of duty. 

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag

Tony Hall RFO, KOF from Buckingham picks up a miss-spelling in Ross Sampson's letter from MWOM #73 which feels a bit harsh as the minor typographical error could have been due to the printers or editors who lost the "h" from Ghost Rider. Tony isn't happy with people saying they would pay ten pence for a colour mag, as he only gets twenty-five pence a week. Peter Williams RFO, QNS from Suffolk who's not a big fan of the X-Men, suggesting that they spoil the stories in which they make a guest appearance in. He's not into Conan or Kull either. His choice for a new mag would be the Silver Surfer, with Giant-man and the Wasp as back-up strip. Will that happen? Time will tell. Tony gives a list of best awards with the FF best title, Roy Thomas best writer, Neal Adams best artist, (we'll have to wait a while before we get to his Marvel work in the UK,) Tom Palmer best inker, (we'll see his work soon,) plus lots more in his long letter. Read it if you want.

Stephen Serase (hopefully QNS,) FFF, RFO,TTB, KOF, PMM makes his sixth attempt at getting a letter printed, and uses it to find out when issues with the Yellow Jacket, the Vision and the Black Panther will appear. He'll have to wait and see. When he went to pick up MWOM, SMCW and the Avengers his newsagent told him that there was only two comics as there wouldn't be any more MWOM. As proof that he was wrong Stephen's letter gets printed in the ninety-ninth issue of the Mighty World of Marvel. 

Airfix models share the mailbag page with an advert for record breaking planes and ships with a Supermarine airplane, Concorde, the Cutty Sark, HMS Manxman and the F-84F Thundersteak kits. All part of the world's biggest range of construction kits.

Daredevil “The blades of battle!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: John Romita Sr

Inker: Frank Giacoia

Originally published in Daredevil #18

Cover date July 1966

(Published in May 1966)

This week's opening splash page reuses the ending page from last week's strip. My copy was coloured in by its previous owner in what was an accurate colour version of the Gladiators costume. I don't know who they were, but they kept will in the lines. Oh those amateur colourists, comics are for reading, colouring books are for colouring!!! Thankfully it doesn't spoil my enjoyment of this strip.

Foggy goes a head with his plan to impress Karen by masquerading as Daredevil in a fight against the Gladiator who's supposed to be in on it, but who plans to test his abilities by defeating the foolish Foggy. Daredevil follows Foggy and Karen into the fog fill night. Which gives the real Daredevil the cover needed to take the place of Foggy and battle the mad costumier. Daredevil manages to overcome his opponent but in doing so unwillingly gives Foggy more credit in his delusion that he can fool Karen into believing he really is Daredevil.  You'll have to wait two weeks to see how Foggy manages to keep up the charade when the Daredevil strip returns in issue 101 with an action packed adventure featuring the Gladiator and the return of the Masked Marauder. 

The Fantastic Four “Face to face with...the Seeker!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Joe Sinnott 

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #46

Cover date January 1966

(Published in October 1965)

The final panel of page 35 from last week's issue is blown up to make the opening splash page with a fresh title, with a story up-date text box and a credit box. Some panels showing the Seeker and the captured Inhuman Triton in a large goldfish bowl looking tank have been removed and some panels with the Seeker and the FF too. It was probably for space, but in truth it does feel a shame to do so. 

What is saved is the origin of the Inhumans as told by the Seeker which is worth keeping. Stan and Jack will expand on their origin later in other tales, but later Roy Thomas connects all the dots when the Inhumans get involved in Kree/Skrull War in the Avengers. The writing and artist of this period of the Fantastic Four are great, it's quite maddening that they had to be edited down for length. Pick up the originals, trades, epics or omnibus editions to find the full glorious adventure. I saw it first in the Fantastic Four Pocket Book #2 from May 1980, which is a little tiny, a Marvel Pocket Book- Fantastic Four Volume 1 from 2005, which is still tiny but in colour, an Essential volume, (Fantastic Four Vol 2,) comic book size but in black and white and the Ultimate Graphic Novel Classic IV, the right size and in colour. But there's still something about the MWOM issues that make them feel special, even with their faults. Can't you tell that I like this run? Like the Daredevil strip we'll have to wait two weeks for the next chapter as the one hundredth issue of MWOM is going to feature three incredible Hulk strips.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #80

The Grand Comics Database lists John Romita Sr as the artist for this cover with Mike Esposito applying the inks but Nick Caputo suspects he only provided corrections to the artwork. It is based on the first panel of the second page of this SMCW issue although in that panel Spider-man was topless, his legs and arms are in a different position, the Kingpin is drawn bigger with his fists moved to different positions. Who drew the pencil layouts is anyone's guess. I would go for Ron Wilson, but I honestly don't know.

Spider-man “The sounds of battle!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: John Romita Sr and Jim Mooney

Inker: Jim Mooney

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #69

Cover date February 1969

(Published in November 1968)

The opening splash page is a blown up fine panel from last week's Spider-man strip with the word-balloons from last week added with new text. Spider-man has made a big mistake going in half cocked as the Kingpin has entrapped him in his own webbing. Spidey only has himself to blame.

Here's that first panel, mentioned as the inspiration for the cover, from the second page and already the Kingpin's gigantic frame looks more than a match for our web-slinger. In the end his spider-strength, spider-agility and the good old Spider-man's big mouth riles the gangster making him loose his temper and his cool, giving Spidey an advantage. 

The Kingpin is captured by the Police while Spider-man recovers the valuable stone tablet but is unable to return it as the Kingpin has fooled them into believing that Spidey is his partner. This creates a cliffhanger were our hero becomes the fall guy with the world against him, beautifully illustrated with this final panel showing and angry Spider-man against a sky filled negative image. Facing the point of no return with him declaring if it has to be Spidey against the world then so be it. He threatens to be a menace if they call him and treat him like a like one.  

Bullpen Bulletins

Fabulous facts and frivolous fables for frantic faithful fans and fiendish foes! The Bullpen Bulletin in SMCW and the Avengers weekly are different to the one in MWOM this week. The Bombastic Bullpen Biography Dept. features all you need to know about John Varporten. The six foot seven inch tall artist first attended the High School of Industrial arts when he was a lot smaller, learning his trade he graduated and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts, where he meet Herb Trimpe and less well known Stu Schwartz-burg. One of his teachers was a comic book artist called Tom Gill who tutored him in the art of lettering, then inking backgrounds and then embellishing complete stories from 1962 until 1966. With the success of Marvel comics during that period John was offered a job as Assistant Production Manager by Sol Brodsky. By 1970 he became the head of the production department which sees him in charge of doling out the assignments to the artists, inkers, and letterers, then he has to chase them them up to keep them on deadline until the jobs are completed for the 70 US comics and some 15 magazines, plus a few special projects. In a Special to Spider-man Comics Weekly the reason for the new design of Iron Man's mask is given. It's a case of experimenting with ideas, but the fundamental reason is simply "Why not?" Stan talks about comic-book script writing in his Soapbox column but more on that in the Avengers Bullpen Bulletin later.

Iron Man “Power vs Power!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: Don Heck

Originally published in Tales of Suspense #54

Cover date June 1964

(Published in March 1964)

I sometimes think that reading the Iron Man strip is a chore but if you don't take it too seriously it's a pleasant enough strip if a little forgettable.  Iron Man battles the Mandarin who's always got a device that makes him superior to Iron Man, for example one of his rings engulfs Iron Man in "black light," rendering him blind. The villain then uses a set of unbreakable steel bands to trap Iron Man, then slowly lowers a group of dynamos to finish him off. With no power to break free, Iron Man accepts his fate, wishing he hadn't been so cold to Pepper and Happy, the last time he saw them. His ending thoughts are a pledge to not give up or beg for mercy, showing the Mandarin that nothing can shatter the faith of an American. All very patriotic but us British readers need to see a bit more backbone with actions rather than bravado.

The Web and the Hammer

Judith Routledge from Birkenhead in Cheshire praises the great pin-ups in SMCW, adding she wants more. She's a lot less approving of the page count for the Spider-man strip, eleven pages isn't enough, why not cut the Iron Man strip she asks. Philip Rode RFO, KOF and hopefully a TTB, QNS, PMM from St. Albans Hertfordshire who thinks that original covers from Iron Man and Thor US comics could rotate with Spider-man's covers. He thinks a black and white poster could be printed that could be coloured in by the readers, now don't give them ideas. He suggests that an art competition could be to draw what a No-Prize might look like. He also wants giant colour centre page pin-ups and features about heroes and their origins. He claims that MWOM covers are thicker than SMCW covers! I'm not sure about that. A. Harwell from Surrey thanks them for printing and answering his letter in SMCW and the way they explained their way out of giving him a No-Prize was magnificent, written with a touch of sarcasm. Their pet hate is the way stories are edited to remove some of the original panels, especially the obvious tell-tale signs of editing seen in MWOM 56-66 and SMCW 36-47. They can't understand why anyone would want to edit the beautiful stories. They ask why couldn't they have featured them over two weeks like they do currently?

 C. Reed from Birmingham loves the three strips and the pull out pin-up from SMCW #64, but questions why the increase in price to seven pence. They also wonder why MWOM has't been distributed in the Birmingham area. It's funny but there was a couple of letters from readers a of weeks ago that complained about the lack of distribution in parts of London. C. says he buys 60 mags a month and has recruited 30 members to the ranks of Marvel and asks does he qualify for any title. 60 mags a month and 30 friends? Is there a Pinocchio title? Someone might be telling porky pies there, even if you count three weeklies for four weeks in the month that leaves you needing forty-eight more mags a month. C. from Birmingham talk to me, tell me which issues you would regularly buy in 1974. S.S. Bullock from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire (What's with all these initials? I can't get personal with just initials!) writes some kind words about the three weeklies, adding that the king of all the strips is Master of Kung Fu and that the "the greatest piece of artistry ever performed by artist Paul Gulacy!" features in that very strip. 

The Mighty Thor “Who dares defy...the Destroyer!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Vince Colletta

Originally published in The Mighty Thor Annual #2

Cover date September 1966

(Published in June 1966)

Like so many opening splash pages for this week's second halves the ending splash page is used to good effect. Loki has re-animated the magical armour named the Destroyer to cause trouble with Asgard's Tournament of Titans. Like the Olympics but with more fighting. A battle royal to see who is the bravest warrior of them all, with Thor, the Warriors Three, Tyr, Brok, Galp and Drom all participating in the event. The eight warriors pair up to see which one is the better fighter than the other.

The pairs are matched in Jack Kirby style but as this contest goes on, the Destroyer arrives on the Bifrost Bridge, with Heimdall unable to proved enough resistance in stopping it from crossing into Asgard. Entering the arena where at that time the Warriors Three, Thor and their opponents are fighting each other the Destroyer soon breaks up the fight. Dispelling all the contenders, it continues to head towards Odin himself. Thor attacks the enchanted armour, but just like his previous encounters with the Destroyer, he finds that he doesn't have sufficient power needed to stop it. Will Loki succeed in killing Odin and rein supreme in Asgard? Find out in the conclusion to this wonderful Lee/Kirby classic next week.

Avengers Weekly #49

Another generic Master of Kung Fu cover for the Avengers weekly by Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito. It really would have been nice to see the John Buscema cover from the Avengers #41 (US edition,) this week for a change. Spoilers! May be soon we'll see someone other than Shang-Chi on the covers.  

Master of Kung Fu “Pinnacle of doom!”

Writer: Len Wein 

Artist: Ross Andru

Inker: Al Milgrom

Originally published in Giant-size Spider-man #2

Cover date October 1974

(Published in July 1974)

The third chapter page of the original story is used with the chapter title used as the main title with Shang-Chi's speech bubble moved to make way for a credit text box. Shang-Chi and Spider-Man save an agent of Sir Denis from an assassination attempt by one of Fu Manchu's men. To find out that Fu Manchu's plot is to use the Empire State Building, they rush off to stop him. Meanwhile, Fu Manchu has his minions connecting a mind control device to the transmitter found atop of the Empire State Building. Fu Manchu uses very modern plots to control the population of America, here Television controlling the minds of the nation and in Avengers weekly #35 were he planned to dominate the car loving population of America minds with gasoline fumes. Steve Englehart and Len Wein are singing from the same anti-establishment hymn sheet. 

When Spider-Man and Shang-Chi arrive on the scene they are confronted by Fu Manchu's sumo warrior Tak. Shang-Chi leaves Spider-Man deal with the sumo while he  pushes ahead to stop his father's scheme. On the roof, Shang-Chi is forced to fight the overwhelming odds as his father's army of warriors press their advantage with their larger numbers. Shang-Chi crouch in preparation for a hammer blow to his back when Spider-man's timely arrival removes the attacker. When Shang_Chi asks about Tak Spider-man simply answer that he left him hanging about down stairs. Blackjack Tarr and Nayland Smith arrive with a team of soldiers in two helicopters as the area filled with gas grenades, making it easier for Fu Manchu to flee the scene. Spider-Man and Shang-Chi give chase, finding Tak's top-knot cut, hanging from a web line where Spidey left him, but the pair fail to stop Fu Manchu from reaching the lift, with Spider-man ripping the doors apart the super fast lift is too quick so the heroes make an incredible leap (For Spider-man it's fine, but Shang-Chi, even with the aid of Spider-man's webbing it's a little too far-fetched.) down the side of the building to catch their foe in the ground floor lobby. How ever they find that Fu Manchu managed to give them the slip once again. 

Blackjack and Smith, soon join them, revealing the identity of the evil schemer to be Fu Manchu, who Spider-Man believed was a fictional character. This was a running theme in the Giant-size Spider-man series with Count Dracula, Lord of the Vampires appearing in issue one, Fu Manchu in this tale and Doc Savage with his  Fabulous Five companions in issue three of that series. All from classic literature, just wait till Spidey meets Frankenstein's monster and the Werewolf by Night, he will think he's really going crazy. But with their Fu Manchu escaped, but his plot foiled, Spider-Man departs. As he swings away, the wall-crawler tries to wrap his head around the idea of Fu Manchu being a real person. Got to admit that this adventure really worked for me, even with the impossible leap of faith from the Empire State Building.

Bullpen Bulletins

As this Bullpen page is the same as the one from SMCW, with the exception of the Special to the Avengers we'll start with that. Which appears to be an editorial about John Buscema's classic period of artistic endeavour on the Earth's Mightiest Heroes! The editor suggests that it should have been printed in last week's bulletin, but the Spider-man/Shang-Chi item got in the way. They also mention that the Avengers story featured the Red Guardian, which is incorrect. The Red Guardian would make his debut in Avengers #53, in three weeks time. The rest of the article does correctly call John Buscema a giant of the industry due to his superb pencilling of these artistic masterpieces. Now that I can totally agree with. The next Item, which does appear in the SMCW Bullpen page, but I left mentioning it till now, is about Associate Editor Tony Isabella and how he manages to find the time to edit nine magazines, write about half a dozen comics regularly, and supervising these weeklies, the answer is they found a sleeping bag under his desk. It appears that Tony catches forty winks in the office rather than going home. Stan Soapbox gives a breakdown into the Marvel method for script writing a comic. The artist actually collaborates with the writer on the structure of the story. Working from the script-writer's synopsis, the artist themselves develops the story pictorially. Only then is the artwork returned to the writer where they add additional dialogue and captions as required. Stan calls Marvel's artists "masters of dramatic portrayal - of visual characterisation-of anatomy, composition, and continued action layout." In an item what was supposed to be about writers, instead praises the artists, but comics are a truly wonderful visual media and his points are valid, well worth a read. 

The Avengers “Let sleeping Dragons lie!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: George Roussos

Originally published in The Avengers #41

Cover date June 1967

(Published in April 1967)

Once again the final panel from last week's first half is blown up as the opening splash page for this week's second half story, with the relevant catch up and credits text boxes added. Diablo reactivates the Dragon Man however before he has time to gloat Goliath returns having not been totally tricked by the alchemist's wild goose chase from last week. Diablo sets his creation onto the giant Avenger in pages and pages worth of stunning Buscema art. 

The Wasp joins in the attack, relieving Diablo of his Auric-ray gun, however the fiend has more weapons at his disposal, he uses his Dyna-disk to render the diminutive heroine unconscious. Goliath uses every bit of his strength to floor the Dragon Man, but the android doesn't tire as it delivers a blow from behind to the giant Avenger. The Avengers arrive to battle Diablo and Dragon-Man but even the efforts of Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch amount to nothing as Diablo brings the roof down on the three heroes allowing him to escape on the back of the winged dragon with an unconscious Goliath and the Wasp as his prisoners. More great art and Avengers action next week with "The plan..and the power!"

Avengers Readers Assemble

David Edge from Manchester thinks that Don Heck is a fantastic artist and he writes in wondering if there are any tips he can give him to become as good. My advice to David is study John Buscema's work. Pallab Cyhash from Hertfordshire is an Avengers weekly fan, but writes about a holiday trip which started at London airport, where he bought three US mags. They were Captain America and the Falcon, the Avengers and the Defenders. He really raves about these comics which must make British Marvel readers jealous. Luckily if they missed those American imports some of those stories will appear in future British Marvel mags.

Peter Williams from Suffolk likes Thor, but if it was a choice between him and the Silver Surfer the Surfer would win. He's also not too keen about Doctor Strange, adding that Steve Ditko is better at drewing the Doctor Strange strip than the Spider-man one, but again he would prefer seeing the Silver Surfer. S. Bajana from London congratulates Marvel on the Avengers weekly but they too aren't a fan of the sorcerer strip, mainly because as he says he "just doesn't understand it." Stelio Stylli from London thinks the three weeklies are "SUPER, FANTASTIC, GREAT" but in his opinion the Master of Kung Ku strip has spoilt the Avengers. He wants him replaced with Captain Marvel and Shang-Chi to get his own mag. Robert Wilby from Surrey must be Spidey's number one fan as he has "every Spidey comic published so far." He even has a Spider-man fan club that he's offering the chance for other fans to join. Finally for this weeks letters, Micheal Slavin from Somerset is glad to see Giant-man back and is happy to see his name changed to Goliath. 

Doctor Strange “And a scourge shall come upon you!”

Writer: Raymond Marais

Artist: Dan Adkins

Inker: Dan Adkins

Originally published in Strange Tales #161

Cover date October 1967

(Published in June 1967)

The writer Raymond Marais has his name misspelled in the credit box as "Ramond Marais". I have to be honest I know next to nothing about the writer and with the new artist I feel that back in the 60's there wasn't much importance put on the Doctor Strange strip since Steve Ditko left. Even though some great stories and creative teams have worked on it. Dan Adkins takes over as artist and to be honest I think he produces some really great artwork.

Doctor Strange is easily overpowered by Baron Mordo with his new found power. Banishing the Doctor to another realm, which merges some of the unearthly scenes from Steve Ditko's best Doctor Strange strips and a twisted version of a Lewis Carroll novel on acid world. Mordo begins restoring some of his minions powers. Meanwhile Victoria Bentley, a character who first made an appearance way back in the Avengers weekly #4, which shows great knowledge of Doctor Strange's history by Raymond Marais. She was on of the sorcerers re-gifted their mystical powers by the death of Zom who gathered as part of Baron Mordo's Circle Sinister. She finds herself transported to the same realm as Strange possibly by the Baron who recognises her distrust of him and her kinship with Strange. Victoria cries for help so Strange must defend her from the many dangers present in that realm. 

After battling off a giant ant, Doctor Strange and Victoria are confronted by Nebulos, Lord of the Planets Perilous, who claims to have summoned them to his realm. There ends a fascinating tale, that breeds more questions than answers, which is a good thing as I look forward to next week's continuation. On next week's tale I noted this week on Twitter that pop culture fan Colin Smith (@Colin_TBTAMC on Twitter,) wrote in a tweet about the cover of Strange Tales #162 by Dan Adkins, which next week's strip is taken from. He says "In retrospect it’s not surprising some 1960’s readers were certain Strange’s tales were informed by, er, pharmaceutical indulgence." I can't say for fact if that's true but Adkins artwork is wonderfully "trippy".

The only in-house ad for this week's British Marvel mags grace the inside page of the Avengers weekly.  It's a typical design that promotes the back-up strips in both mags but gives the lion's share of the promotion to the Hulk and Spider-man in their respective mags, with the covers from the current issues of the Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-man Comics Weekly shown proudly. 

So there goes ninety-nine blogs showcasing the wonderful world of British Marvel mags from 1972 to the summer of 1974. Time to start planning the one hundredth "Week Ending..." now, because how quickly time goes by.  

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.