Dare to read these fantastic five?

 Week Ending 26th October 1974

The first issue of the Mighty World of Marvel was published on the 30th of September 1972, 132 days later Spider-man Comics Weekly joined it. Just over a year from the first issue of the MWOM on the 15th September 1973 a third comic, the Avengers weekly, shared the British Marvel line-up. After over two years British Marvel flexed its literary catalogue once again with not one but two new comics. With US Marvel's growing line of supernatural characters a horror comic was an ideal new mag, perfect for young kids who wanted chilling thrills. US Marvel also started a Planet of the Apes black and white magazine that serialised the popular 1968 movie of the same name, as well as a strip called Terror on the Planet of theApes, set years after the fifth film, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, but prior to the first Planet of the Apes film. Adaptations of the other four films would also be serialised in strip form as well as original POTA adventures with new versions of the Apes world. All those extra strips would be necessary as the US POTA magazine was first published June 1974 on a bi-monthly schedule that would soon like Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist in the Avengers weekly, catch up with the UK "reprint" comic. As would the Dracula, Werewolf by Night and Frankenstein's Monster sagas in Dracula Lives, but all that's a story for another time. 

For new readers of this blog I started a nostalgic look back at the British Marvel comics with a "Week Ending..." weekly post reviewing, remembering and really just waffling on about those classic comics from fifty years ago, starting from the very beginning with The Mighty World of Marvel #1. Each week I title that week's "Week Ending..." with a cryptic, silly or just too clever by half sub-title, inspired by many years of reading the many British Marvel's "made-up titles" needed when an original was split over two weeks. I look for the less well known facts and pieces of trivia. I give my opinion on the writers and artists of those classic strips. I try to pick out the continuity calamities that occur when an American strip is printed out of sequence in these British volumes. But hopefully I inform, educate and entertain like minded fans of these Anglicised editions, without too much waffle. So with that welcome to the five fantastic Marvel mags from the week ending 26th of October 1974.       

The Mighty World of Marvel #108

This Herb Trimpe cover was originally used as the cover of The Incredible Hulk #139. There's not much changed on the UK version except some slight colour changes. I like the concept, but the Hulk looks a little lost in the melee of villains. On the whole though it's quite nice.

The Incredible Hulk “If thine heart offend thee!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Herb Trimpe

Inker: Sam Grainger

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #139

Cover date May 1971

(Published in February 1971)

Long time MWOM readers might recognise some of the artwork used in this opening splash page, the two attacking heroes originally featured on the cover of Tales to Astonish #100, cover dated February 1968, published November 1967, but the background scene was over the city of Miami not the watery depths as shown here. A slightly twisted version of that cover was used for the cover of MWOM #43 from the week ending 28th July 1973. 

The Hulk continues his rampage against the phantoms created by the mind of the Leader with help from the US Military devised "Brainwave Booster". Shown in this second half are the Sub-Mainer, the Missing Link, the Night-Crawler, the Mandarin, Sandman, the Glob, Iron Man, the Absorbing Man and the Abomination. Last seen battling the Hulk in MWOM #72, MWOM #54, MWOM #86, MWOM #57, MWOM #106, MWOM #90, MWOM #94, MWOM #84 and MWOM #104 respectively. The Hulk's path of destruction is heading towards the hospital where a crystal Betty Ross is being guarded, for what ever sub-conscious reason he might have. Jim Wilson is aware of what the Leader is doing so he breaks into the military base where Project Brainwave is held and rewires the device in the hope that he can cause some damage to the machine, but by sheer luck his hatchet job caused some kind of feedback which forced the Leader into a catatonic state to see in his mind multiple Hulks, the foe he most hates. The final Hulk foe, the Abomination disappears now the Leader's mind has broken, leaving the puzzled green giant to leap away as a girl of fragile glass shimmers but doesn't shatter, at least not for today.

  

Bullpen Bulletins

The Bullpen Bulletins pages in MWOM, SMCW and the Avengers all feature Items on the new weeklies, Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes, but the MWOM Bullpen Bulletins page has three unique Items that I'll look at first. Even though there will be talk about the new weeklies we're told that they've been sending copies of the colour and large-size black and white magazines to Britain. Readers are encouraged to snap them up because they've been selling out quick. The next Item involves colourist Glynis Wein, the wife of Associate Editor Len Wein, has won first place as best colourist in FOOM's Irving Forbush Awards! The third exclusive Item to MWOM is about how the gang at Marvel headed down to Washington, DC for the annual World Science Fiction Convention! When they returned, they discovered John Verpoorten, who was left behind, he instantly started raving on  about deadlines. No rest for the wicked. Stan's Soapbox and those promised new weekly comic Items will be looked at in SMCW and the Avengers weekly will be up very soon.

Daredevil “The Tri-Man lives!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Gene Colan

Inker: Frank Giacoia

Originally published in Daredevil #22

Cover date November 1966

(Published in September 1966)

The first panel of page twenty from last week's comic is blown up and used as the opening page for this second half adventure. The panels for the following pages have been repositioned to fit the story into the amount of pages given to the UK comic. The Masked Marauder intends for the android Tri-Man to fight and defeat Daredevil at Madison Square Garden, in the hope that this will promote him to the position of leader of the crime cartel- Maggia.

Not Hydra as it was changed to in last week's issue. They either forgot to change it this week or realised that the original version was better and made more sense, even with a branch of Maggia appearing in the Spider-man story this week. 

Matt Murdock hears reports of a super-powered Tri-Man who challenges Daredevil to a fight. Murdock makes a weird excuse to wear Foggy's old Daredevil costume and go with Karen to the Arena, so that he can bluff them that he's the real man without fear, until he can slip away from Karen and then fight the Tri-Man for real. 

The Daredevil strip is one of the oldest strips reprinted in the weeklies, only Iron Man is older, even with the slightly lame plot lines the look of this strip is very easy on the eye. Unlike the Iron Man strip which is more of a challenge to read.   

The "Pen Pal Swap Shop" has changed. It's purely a swap shop feature now, no room for pen pals, instead it's now called Spidey's Swap Shop, at least till they think of a better title.

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag

It's a strange positioning of the Mighty Marvel Mailbag logo this week, or is that just me? Anyway first up in the mailbag is Neil Robinson, Super-FOOMer RFO, QNS and KOF, who's pretty annoyed when so-called "Marvelites" who complain about the Hulk. He suggests that the green skinned monster isn't exactly a peace-loving granny-protecting guy, but that doesn't mean that everyone between New York and Moscow should start writing poison pen-letters about pushing him out of MWOM. He ends his letter with him signing off as the secretary for Save the Hulk League. Jack Jacovides from London thinks it's great that American comics are finally making it to Britain. Jack has a collection of 135 US mags but he's noticed that the American mags are 8 pace each and the UK weeklies are 7 pence each which leads him to wonder why rising prices have to hit Marvel mags. 

Gordon I. Robson from Glasgow has always been in favour of having the original covers from the US original comics and he wasn't taken with Ron Wilson attempts at the covers, however of late he's enjoyed the improving standards on them, saying that if the covers stay up to the standards of the one from MWOM #88, (which was drawn by Larry Lieber,) then there won't be any more complaints from him. He says that the artwork on the Master of Kung Fu strip in the Avengers weekly #33 (by Ron Wilson,) was great too. Julian Pieri from Western Australia gets MWOM in Australia, but is disappointed to be unable to get SMCW and the Avengers weekly. Paul Despine from London has just started reading MWOM, but is a little confused with the letters MWOM,  RFO, KOF, FF and all the rest. Well if you read this blog you should know that MWOM stands for Mighty World of Marvel, while the other stand for the ranks of Marveldom:- RFO - Real Frantic One. KOF - Keeper of the Flame, and FFF - Fearless Front Facer. Guy Forshaw from Doncaster was once misled that MWOM had stopped but he was glad to see that the cancellation of the comic was untrue.

The Fantastic Four “Trapped--on a world he never made!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Joe Sinnott 

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #50

Cover date May 1966

(Published in February 1966)

This opening splash page has had the second panel removed so that a fresh title could be added at the top of the page. It feels like a bit of an anticlimax after the first part of this story's excellent conclusion to the Galactus/Silver Surfer classic. It had become the norm that during this period the Fantastic Four stories would start on a cliffhanger from the previous week, then end half way through the US mag to have another tale start, leading to another cliffhanger ending. Here we seem to meander through a lot of epilogues and potential story prologues. 

One of which is the first appearance of Ricardo Jones who plays a big part in next week's classic Fantastic Four story, "This Man... This Monster!" which is legendary. This precursor to that is a nice warm-up that feeds the mystery for next week, although I really feel that "This Man... This Monster!" works really well as a stand-alone story. Readers of the Alex Ross, Marvel/Abrams Comic Arts 2022 graphic novel "Full Circle" might disagree. 

Also making his first appearance is Wyatt Wingfoot, Johnny Storm's Metro College roommate. Another new character was Whitey Mullins, who didn't really develop into much of an ongoing character. I imagine that he was intended to be a potential foil for Johnny Storm, but it never came to fruition.

The in-house ad for the usual two Marvel super-hero comics features the amazing cover from this week's SMCW as well as the title head of the Avengers weekly with two panels from this week's Avengers story that had already been used in last week's issue to advertise this week's story. It's kind of strange that the two new mags haven't been part of this ad. The only reason why I can imagine that they didn't share this space may be that the release of Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes may not necessary have been scheduled for release with the regular mags shown here.

These weeklies may have been released just prior to the Halloween period but it was regular in the 70's that the "Firework Code" message got out well in advance of Bonfire Night on the 5th of November. Fireworks would be sold up to a month before the 5th if I remember correctly. Let's be honest this advert was as much an advert for Standard fireworks than a health and safety message. A bit like gambling websites that advertise on TV and radio using the message "please gamble responsibly." All that aside this Guy Fawkes image has stuck with me since my childhood, it's a cool iconic design. 

Spider-man Comics Weekly #89

Now this cover is a top, top cover. One of John Romita Sr greatest. Originally used as the cover for the Amazing Spider-man #74. I like the contrast between Spider-man knocking out three Maggia thugs and Silvermane downing the Elixir of Life while holding the ancient tablet like a Hammer Horror style poster for a Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde film. You don't see many blue covers, they tend to be orange, but this one looks special. Not quite special enough to be my Cover of the Week. Close though.

Spider-man “The elixir of eternity!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: John Romita Sr

Inker: Jim Mooney

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #74

Cover date July 1969

(Published in April 1969)

This second-half opening page uses Romita's cover artwork above a panel lifted from page fifteen of last week's comic with a fresh title, catch-up text boxes and credits. I really like this period of the Amazing Spider-man, I think it's one of the all-time great Spider-man sagas, especially since it involves very little super-powered villains. The Lizard being the exception, both the Kingpin and Silvermane don't count as super-powered, just super-interesting. Stan Lee and John Romita Sr have hit their peak of Spider-man tales with the "Petrified Tablet" saga. A peak that the pair will stay at for a number of years. 

This stone tablet has been known in the Marvel universe by various names, like the "Petrified Tablet", "the Elixir Tablet" and in later Spider-man stories the "Lifeline Tablet." Curt Connors works out that the tablet's hieroglyphics stand for bio-chemical symbols not words and that's why many language experts couldn't translate their meaning. Connors formulates that it could be used to create an Elixir of life, like the legendary waters from the fountain of youth. With Silvermane still holding Connors' son and wife hostage, the bio-chemist has no option but to help Silvermane. Connors creates the serum as requested, but warns that it hasn't been tested. In his eagerness to regain his youth, fuelled by years of studying the legend of the ancient tablet, Silvermane downs the serum, only to fall to the floor in agony. His loyal lieutenant, Marko threatens to kill Connors for poisoning his boss, until a younger, stronger Silvermane stands before him! 

Bullpen Bulletins

All three Marvel Super-heroes weeklies Bullpen Bulletins page feature two Items for the new Marvel mags. The first Item is the announcement of the title of the newest comic in British  Marvel's ever-growing line of hits, is revealed to be Dracula Lives! Count Dracula will not be the only horrific feature, backing up the Count will be Frankenstein's Monster and the Werewolf by Night. As well as chilling comic strips there'll be photos and features from the world of horror. Joining Dracula Lives as a fifth title in British Marvel's weekly line-up is Planet of the Apes. The name says it all and fans of the movies or the TV series will know what's in store in that mag. We'll see what both comics are about later in this blog. As for the rest of the Bullpen page I'll talk about Stan' Soapbox and the final Item in the Avengers weekly Bullpen Bulletins page later in this blog. 

Iron Man “The Black Knight!”

Writer: Stan Lee 

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: Chic Stone

Originally published in Tales of Suspense #59

Cover date November 1964

(Published in August 1964)

As the oldest story in these weeklies Iron Man is one of the poorest. Still not without some charm as the evil Black Knight breaks out of prison to seek revenge on Iron Man after the armoured Avenger and his partners defeated him together with the Masters of Evil in Avengers weekly #3. The Knight attacks Stark's factory, leading to a battle between Iron Man and the flying black stallion rider. The armoured hero wins but at a cost. He can't remove his life giving armour as his weakened heart needs all the power his chest plate can provide to keep it beating. So Iron Man must make excuses for Stark's disappearance. Which leads into suspicions from Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan. It's one of the stories that you could easily be tempted to skip if you haven't got the time to read in a five comic week. Still I managed to squeeze it in.  

The Web and the Hammer

Ralph Sandland from Staffordshire points out the minor change, pun intended, in SMCW #23 when 3 cents was replaced with 3 pence. It seems insignificant but if Spidey is in New York on a bus the currency should be in dollars and cents. There was no need to change it to pounds sterling. M. K. Mistry from Leicester has to place a regular order for SMCW at his newsagents as they always sell out of it. They suggest that other readers do the same. David Haynes from London thinks British Marvel comics are great, but wishes he had discovered them earlier. He's got every Spider-man Comics Weekly from  #40 plus issues 30, 36 and 37, as well as the Avengers weekly from #7 plus #3. He's trying to get the earlier issues. So if anyone has any of those issues he'd like to buy of you. If you had a 70's phone you could dial him up on 01-807 7907, but I imagine that number is obsolete now. You could send him a letter, but there's a good chance that 50 years later he's moved or has already got those missing mags. 

The Avengers weekly and Spider-man Comics Weekly both have this in-house advert for next week's "Marvel goes mad" competition, in which the prize-list impressively contains two colour TVs, two pounds a week pocket money, ten "Spine chilling tales of vampirism" LP's by Christopher Lee, ten Marvel calendars signed by Stan Lee and fifty Fantastic Four 100 page colour specials. Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes have their own versions of this competition teaser, but the Mighty World of Marvel mysteriously has no mention of it. What you will have to do to enter the competition is answered with a question, do you "Know how to play Charades?" We'll find out more next week. 

Under the competition teaser is an advert for Pocket Meccano kits. I remember these, pocket money sized mini construction kits for 50 pence. Brilliant fun for creative young minds. 

The Mighty Thor “The steel slayer of Slugger Skyes!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Vince Colletta

Originally published in The Mighty Thor #141

Cover date June 1967

(Published in April 1967)

The first part of an easy read Thor adventure. Racketeer "Slugger" Sykes employees a scientist, only known as Chuda to create some weapon to destroy the Thunder God, who could be a threat to his criminal activities. Chada perfects cybernetic replicas of real people, one of which is a Thor replica, who Slugger Sykes fight at the beginning of the tale. Chuda's greatest android is Replicus, the ultimate in Sluggers criminal plans as it is unstoppable in his crime rampage. On the softer side Don Blake becomes aware of Slugger Sykes when he makes a house call on Granny Gardenia, a seller of flowers who has become too ill to seller flowers to her best customer, Slugger. The Racketeer has sent a pair of heavies to check up on her and buy his daily gardenia for luck. Later Thor takes action against the robotic crime spree, as next week he must face the "Wrath of Replicus!"  

"Presenting the newest mind-wrenching masterpieces from the Mighty World of Marvel" an in-house advert for the first collectors item issues of Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes mags. This ad also appears on the inside back page of the Avengers weekly, but strangely enough not in MWOM. It must be because that comic's production deadline is earlier than SMCW and the Avengers weekly as it is still printed in Finland, while the other two are printed in Dublin, Ireland. Dracula Lives is also printed in Dublin and even though it doesn't say on the copyright panel on Planet of the Apes I imagine that it too is printed there. Matt Softley (Maureen Softley,) edits all four of the weeklies while Peter Allen (Peta Skingley, aka Peter L. Skingley,) continues to edit the Avengers weekly. Speaking of that mighty mag, let's take a look at it next.  

Avengers Weekly #58

Iron Fist stars on this week's Avengers weekly cover, originally from marvel Premiere #18. Drawn by the great cover artist Gil Kane with inks from Jack Abel. I'm not quite sure why the girl is there at all. Gil Kane does love having a point damsel on his cover artwork. I know Joy Meachum (Spoilers!) does appear in next week's issue, but not during the Triple-Iron/Iron Fist fight and although British readers would not be able to tell, in a black and white comic, but Joy is blonde not dark haired. A version of this cover artwork appears on the cover of the Marvel UK monthly, Blockbuster #3, cover dated August 1981. 

 

Iron Fist “Lair of Shattered vengeance!”

Writer: Doug Moench

Artist: Larry Hama

Inker: Dick Giordano

Originally published in Marvel Premiere #18

Cover date October 1974

(Published in July 1974)

This is the fourth story in Iron Fist's run from Marvel Premiere but only the second in a row to have the same writer at the wheel. Doug Moench must have become one of the British Marvel readers favourites with his wonderful work seen in Master of Kung Fu, Iron Fist and this week's Planet of the Apes story. All brilliant stuff. The final trap inside Meachum's deadly skyscraper is sprung as Iron Fist must face the giant of a man Triple-Iron, in his high-tech chamber that charges his electrifying weapon of choice. Triple-Iron says that he has been held in that room for under ten years, a prisoner to one task, the murder of Iron Fist!

With the help of the mysterious Ninja once again, who throws a ninja star towards Iron Fist but in doing so reveals a hidden door way out. On the other side a control centre for all the traps that Iron Fist had crossed paths with over the last two issues. Locating the rooms power source Iron Fist ruptures the cables and shorts them out on Triple-Iron, electrocuting the assassin who would have electrocuted him first. 

 The final doorway swings open with a mocking hiss, much like Iron Fist's own breathing, allowing Daniel Rand to finally come face to face with the man who murdered his father in front of young Danny and his mother over ten years ago. (As seen in Avengers weekly #52.) Danial finds Harold Meachum, the man he came to slay, a wheel chair bound, below the knee bilateral amputee, whose ten long year wait for this moment has taken the toll on his mind too. I'm not sure that modern comics, (movies or TV dramas,) would use a disabled person as the villain. But as we'll see more next week there's no need to be overly politically correct. He was a nasty piece of work before he lost his legs. His disability is no reflection of his character. Disabled people can just as well be the hero or villain of any drama. For every Davros, creator of the Daleks, there can be Professor X, leader of the X-Men. You have to treat everyone the same, whether it's with sympathy or with distain, it should be directed towards their character not towards their appearance. But how Harold Meachum became wheel chair bound is revealed next week.  

Bullpen Bulletins

Stan's Soapbox from all three version's of this week's Bullpen page, takes the time to look behind the how the Marvel-Meccano Bonanza competition was judged. Four special judges poured over the 5,000 or so entries, they included Frank Dickens, the comic-artist who draws the Bristow strip that appears daily in the London Evening Standard, lan Emes, a winner of UK Marvel's previous art contest, (He designed the Twinkler as seen in the weeklies from Week Ending 27th April 1974.) Chris Jelley, from Meccano Limited and finally Alf Wallace. the editor responsible for the British Marvel reprints, "Fantastic" and "Terrific" under the Power comics brand from the late 60's. The last Item, titled "Time-lag..." deals with the interval between the writer of a letter to these Marvel mags and the time it takes to that said letter seeing print. As you might well imagine it takes them a week to read and sort out the mail. Selected letters are typed out, together with replies, which are then sent to the typesetter, returned after a few days having been set up in type, column width, on art paper. These are then cut and stuck onto art-board the same size as the pages for the mag. These would then be sent to the printers, since the mags have a "long" press schedule the press-date is well in advance of publishing date. Then the reader gets to read their printed letter, but only if they are one of the chosen ones. Those QNS winners should wear the rank with pride.

The Avengers “The Whirlwind's revenge!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: Vince Colletta

Originally published in The Avengers #46

Cover date November 1967

(Published in September 1967)

Hooray! John Buscema returns to draw the Avengers after Don Heck's artwork over the last two weeks. I don't wish to sound negative in a nasty way, but it's like chalk and cheese. The original story title "The Agony and the Anthill!" is saved for next week's conclusion and its chance of featuring on that week's front cover. The Avengers are spending a little downtime in the opening of this week's tale. Natalia Romanova has been released from hospital with a clean bill of health, opting to give up her Black Widow identity for the time being. Captain America chooses to read a chapter of a book by Tolkien before he and Quicksilver go out and catch a baseball game. He's a fan of the "far-out fantasy" novels. I imagine that comes from Roy Thomas's love of that kind of literature. 

The Wasp turns up with her new chauffeur, Charles. Goliath scolds her for bringing an unauthorised person into the mansion. Goliath's reasons for his mistrust of Charles turn out to be well grounded as Charles is revealed to the readers to be a super-powered villain who fought Goliath when he was known as Giant Man, under the name of the Human Top, as first seen in Tales to Astonish #50, cover dated December 1963, published September 1963. British Marvel readers will have to wait till that adventure is published in The Super-heroes #33, week ending 18th October 1975. With a costume change and a new name the corny Human Top becomes the more cooler, the Whirlwind. Most of the Avengers leave the mansion to take some time off leaving the Wasp with Goliath as he works on some new experiment involving the harder to control red ants. Both the Wasp and he have to remove their cybernetic devices so that they can be incorporated into his latest device. Of course that's the time that the Whirlwind decides to break into the mansion to seek revenge on the pair. During the melee the Whirlwind locates a shrink ray that miniaturises both heroes. The Whirlwind's weird sense of irony is fulfilled as he drops them into the red ant nest, leaving the pair of Avengers to fight against the menace of insects. Roy Thomas recalled in Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Vol 5 (reprinted in my copy of The Avengers Omnibus Vol 2,) that the inspiration for this tale was a Captain Marvel (the DC version more commonly known as Shazam,) tale he had read one day while waiting for a haircut in a barbershop as a 5 or 6 year old. The hero of that story had also been trapped inside an anthill.   

Avengers Assemble!

Richard Moore from Cheshire critiques Avengers weekly #45, starting with the Doctor Strange story by calling "The end of the Ancient One!" a great example of Stan Lee at his yarn-spinning best, adding to it "something not always true." He points out that  "Lee was not flippant or over-verbose, but kept his tale in control to such a degree that he built up the tension in an almost agonising manner." As for Master of Kung Fu he rates Shang-Chi as "good, but no better than I expect of the Marvel of the seventies." The Avengers get a dig in the ribs as he sees them as a "good fill-up" while suggesting that the comic should just be called Master of Kung Fu! What cheek! Scott Plaice from Hampshire makes his own Marvel awards for 1974, among the winners is Spider-man for "Best Scrapper" and "Best joker". "Best editor" is Stan Lee and "Worst editor" is J.J. Jameson. The Avengers win "Best team". Finally for this week's letter pages, Nicholas Sellars from Liverpool simply writes "I'm glad about the monthly colour mags coming to Britain even though I haven't seen any yet."   

Doctor Strange “Steven Strange...no more!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Dan Adkins

Inker: Dan Adkins

Originally published in Strange Tales #169

Cover date June 1968

(Published in February 1968)

Roy Thomas and Dan Adkins retelling of Doctor Strange's origin continues as the Steven Strange completes his journey to find the legendary Ancient One in the hope of finding a cure for his nerve damage hands. The Ancient One says he cannot help as Strange isn't worthy of the power of magic. Strange calls him a fraud and tries to leave but is stopped by a heavy snow fall. The reluctant guest is introduced to the Ancient One's disciple, Baron Mordo. who he has instant distrust for, later over hearing the Baron plotting the Ancient One's down fall. Regular Doctor Strange readers will already know what happens next. This smart version of the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko story skips along at a pleasant pace with the conclusion in next week's issue. 

Right that's it for this week's Power of the Beesting blog's triple triumphs of Marvel mightiness, see you in...oh wait a bit there's more. Loads more. Follow me if you dare, to Marvel comics darker side.

Dracula Lives #1

This cover is an original piece of artwork made especially for this UK comic, drawn and inked by Pablo Marcos. Pablo was born in Laran, a small town in Peru. He moved to America and settled in New Jersey in the 1970's, to work for Warren Publishing on mags like Creepy and Eerie. Soon he started creating comic strips for Skywald Publications, whose co-founder, Sol Brodsky, who had been Marvel Comics' production manager, returned to the Marvel Bullpen and brought Pablo with him. Pablo was given loads of British weekly covers to do, we're going to be regularly seeing some crackers. He also drew a good number artwork for Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazines like the US version of Dracula Lives!, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie, Vampire Tales and others. Marcos would ink a lot of Ron Wilson's pencil work, but his inking of John Buscema's Conan work is incredible. This is another contender for the Cover of the Week. Any other week it would.

The drama of Dracula!

Stan Lee opens the newest British Marvel mag with a personal message. "Dracula! The very sound of his name sends shivers up your spine! Dracula! The inhuman scourge of Transylvania — the vampire who stalks by night! What manner of man or monster is he? After all these centuries why do the legends refuse to die? Is he truly a deadly demon in human form—or a soul in torment, doomed to a destiny he can never escape? Now, at long last, mighty Marvel dares to seek the sinister secret of the Count who dwells in darkness! We, who have brought you the wondrous adventures of the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four and the amazing Spider-man, now bring you the most menacing, the most mysterious, the most supernatural saga of all—a modern masterpiece of the macabre the strange and startling story of Dracula! But have no fear, I pray you. We know there is no living dead. We know that Dracula is but a myth. We know it well—or, do we?" I have no idea if Stan wrote all that, but it was a cool way to start a new horror comic.  

This free poster was adapted from the cover of the US Marvel/Curtis magazine Dracula Lives volume 2 issue 1, cover dated March 1974, published December 1973, by artist Luis Dominguez. I still have a second-hand copy of the poster, that I bought separate from my second-hand Dracula Lives issue one which was missing the gift. You can see what the original cover would have looked like on the left, which shows the frightened victim as she would have been seen before she was airbrushed out for the poster.

Dracula “Dracula”

Writer: Gerry Conway

Artist: Gene Colan

Inker: Gene Colan

Originally published in Tomb of Dracula #1

Cover date April 1972

(Published in November 1971)

Gerry Conway, who at the time of writing Tomb of Dracula was just nineteen, is starting to be a name that British Marvel readers are coming to recognise as a great writer, with his brief time on Iron Fist, now we get to see what he can do with this legendary character. And I can safely say he does a great job, albeit from a plot written, but uncredited by Roy Thomas. I think the success of this strip comes from Gene Colan's art. It's almost like he was born to draw Dracula. When he heard that Marvel was going to do a Dracula comic he begged to be the artist on it. Stan had  promised it to him, but changed his mind and offered it to Bill Everett. Not taking rejection for an answer Colan worked up a page of Dracula, before Everett had even started. Once he'd inked it he sent it in. Immediately he got a call from Stan saying, "The strip is yours!" Colan drew all 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula, to me his version is the ultimate version. If any modern artist draws the Lord of the Vampires they are just copying Colan.   

The British comics black and white tone lends itself to the character of Dracula, although there are times when I wish the toning wasn't as heavy. Readers of the colour version may well disagree, but this strip was made for black and white mags. Just look at the opening splash page, it's a classic black and white horror movie opening shot. For most of the first half we don't get to see Dracula, which perfectly builds the suspense. Instead we are introduced to a cast of characters that tell the tale beautifully. Most importantly the Counts last living descendant an American named Frank Drake. Who has journeyed to Transylvania to visit his inherited ancestral castle. Accompanied by his fiancee Jeanie and long-time friend Clifton Graves. Drake is a (now) poor rich kid, who intends to sell the castle to make money. Their journey isn't without incident as their hired jeep crashes into a ditch, and no one from the local village will take them to Castle Dracula out of superstitious fear, apart from Otto, a carriage driver, who does it for the money but even he won't take them all the way.

Lots of this week's story explores Frank Drakes life in a series of flashbacks to the events that lead them to Transylvania. Drakes ancestor was the legendary Count Dracula. While doing some research into his family tree Drake reads some old family diaries that peak his interest in the castle and its history. It's evident that he also reads the Bran Stoker novel about his ancestor. There is another part of his flashback where he's reading about Van Helsing's final cornering of the Count as he rests in his coffin and drives a stake through the vampires heart, although a possible type error refers to him as Van Helfing. As the three characters are fleshed out you kind of feel sorry for Graves, but only slightly, as Drake is constantly telling him to "Shut up," while Jeanie seems like a player who left Graves for his rich best friend. Roy Thomas has used this "love-triangle" plot in the first Iron Fist story, although this Dracula story was created first. 

Once inside the castle they get separated, with Graves revealing his own plans, hinting Jeanie, his ex-girlfriend, will get what's coming to her and he's got a macabre fate planned for Drake too. After falling through a weaken floor Graves stumbles upon a dungeon and a hidden tomb, with a name plate that reads "Count Dracula." Inside that, a coffin with a staked skeleton, I'm guessing that's Dracula. Now there's one thing I wouldn't do and that is pull out that stake. What does Graves do? Find out next week if Dracula lives again!

Werewolf by Night “Werewolf by night”

Writer: Roy Thomas, Jean Thomas and Gerry Conway

Artist: Mike Ploog

Inker: Mike Ploog

Originally published in Marvel Spotlight #2

Cover date February 1972

(Published unknown)

If Gene Colan was born to draw Count Dracula Mike Ploog was born to draw Werewolf by Night. He might at first look like he cannot draw anything like a Marvel artist should, but boy can he draw classic horror tales, even ones set in the modern world, all be it a 1970's modern world. The tension and horror from this opening page says it all. The bottom half panel is one of the best in this week's chilling comic, as the Werewolf is attacked by a mugger who gets the fright of his life, lit by the light of a full moon. Gerry Conway once again showcases his horror writing talents, all be it from a plot line devised by husband and wife team of Roy and Jean Thomas. 

Ploog's artwork has a raw feel to it but don't let that fool you, every line is crafted for maximum impact, he pulls no punches in the details. You're no longer reading a kids super-hero comics, this is horror at its best. Jack Russell's curse is felt by the reader in every panel. Once Jack had turned eighteen the family curse takes hold, but Jack awakes to what he feels was a dream. Jack's family is a mixed bag, his younger sister Lissa, his mother and her husband, the kids stepfather, Philip Russell, who also happens to be their uncle on their father's side. Talk about keeping it in the family. We also see Maxwell Grant the family chauffeur, who is as shady as they come. There's lots of shady chauffeurs this week. Jack leaves to go to a friend's house in Malibu but as night falls and the full moon comes up his monstrous transformation occurs once more. Continued next week.

Marvel isn't going to let the casual comic reader who picked up this horror mag forget about the mighty Marvel weeklies triple action from Spider-man Comics Weekly, the Mighty World of Marvel and the Avengers weekly. With super action thrills every week from Spider-man, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Iron Fist, the Avengers and Doctor Strange. This in-house advert also appears in this week's Planet of the Apes.

Frankenstein’s Monster “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!”

Writer: Gary Friedrich

Artist: Mike Ploog

Inker: Mike Ploog 

Originally published in The Monster of Frankenstein #1

Cover date January 1973

(Published in October 1972)

This horror tale is much a faithful retelling in the vein of the classic Mary Shelley novel, as it can be for a comic strip adaption, the choice to start at the end feels like a movie plot device. Much of this retelling owes a lot to the many film versions, especially the Hammer Horror classic. But if you really was looking for a more faithful version look no further than the story that is provided in Marvel Classic Comics series issue 20, featuring Frankenstein. British readers might have been lucky enough to catch it in the Marvel UK's Marvel Classic Comics Pocket Book #2 from October 1981, written by John Warner and drawn by Dino Castrillo. 

But apart from the original novel and that adaption, this one is pretty cool. Mike Ploog continues to show why he's a fabulous horror artist, portraying the monster tale with the horror and humanity that this story requires. He's guided by Gary Friedrich, making, as far as I can tell, his first British Marvel appearance as a writer. Explorer Robert Walton IV leads his crew in the discovery of a frozen body that turns out to be Frankenstein's Monster. Walton entertains a young ship hand by telling him the story of Frankenstein, that nicely leads the reader to find out the monster's origin. It's 1788 and we find a young Victor Frankenstein leaving Geneva, to study natural science at the University of Ingolstadt. He becomes obsessed with the idea of recreating life from dead tissue. Robbing graveyards in order to acquire body parts and stitching them together, then subjecting the patchwork creation to chemical and electrolysis treatments in the hope to ignite the spark of life. First meet with failure, eventually Frankenstein succeeds in bringing his creation to life. "Oh my Lord! The monster LIVES!" 

A full page "Next Week" teaser on the inside back page of the first issue is a smart way of keeping up interest in the new comic and keeping the readers coming back regularly. Its placement just after the first half of Frankenstein's Monster had ended was clever with the promise that "Our monster mind-blasting saga continues!" In truth how could you afford to miss the dynamic follow-up? If that wasn't enough to hook you, how about a chance to win a colour TV or the many other stunning prizes in Marvel's new competition. It work's for me, but to be honest you had me at "It's--alive! Heaven help me--IT'S ALIVE!"  

"Another Mighty Marvel first issue, out now!" If you liked the look and contents of Dracula Lives there's a good chance that you'll like Marvel's other new weekly, Planet of the Apes. So this full colour in-house advert gets pride of place on the back page, showing the stunning Bob Larkin cover from issue one. With an offer of a free colour Apes poster too, why wouldn't you not want to rush out to your local newsagents and pick up a copy? Let's take a good look at what it was like. 

Planet of the Apes #1

This wonderful painted cover first appeared on the second issue of the US Marvel/Curtis magazine bi-monthly Planet of the Apes, cover dated August 1974, published June 1974. Bob Larkin was a cover artist who is best remembered for his beautiful colour painted artwork that graced many of the Marvel/Curtis magazines of the time like Planet of the Apes, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Crazy Magazine, Marvel Comics Super Special, Savage Sword of Conan, the Hulk! magazine among others. The first issue of the magazine doesn't quite have the pizzazz as this cover, so I can see why British Marvel chose this cover to start the new weekly. It's certainly better of the two, as you can see with issue one on the left. Bob Larkin's artwork is great, that's why I've picked this week's POTA cover as my Cover of the Week.  

They Walk like men!

Just like the first issue of Dracula Lives Stan Lee opens with a personal message why the Planet of the Apes was chosen as the latest Marvel weekly. Here's what he had to say. "We call them beasts but the world is theirs! For they are the Apes, and Earth will never be the same! From one of the most popular motion pictures of all time-from the television series which is electrifying all of Britain—the world-famous Marvel Comics Group now brings you the Planet of the Apes, possibly the most dramatic comics weekly ever published! In this sensational series you will journey beyond the farthest reaches of your imagination, from the wonders of the world of today to the mysteries of a dark and hidden future! You'll see the human race facing the deadliest threat of all! You'll see man against beast— but, which is truly the beast? Once again Marvel Comics has done the impossible! Once again we bring you the greatest adventures in all the world! We give you the Planet of the Apes-and this we do pledge the excitement shall never end!" Stan the master showman. It works for me, I've got to read this magazine now!

My copy of Planet of the Apes issue one no longer has the free colour poster in it, but thank's to an internet search here's what it would have looked like. It uses the original artwork from the US Marvel/Curtis magazine Planet of the Apes #1, by Bob Larkin.   

Planet of the Apes “Planet of the Apes”

Writer: Doug Moench

Artist: George Tuska

Inker: Mike Esposito

Originally published in Planet of the Apes #1

Cover date August 1974

(Published in June 1974)

A month ago I criticised George Tuska's artwork on the Doctor Strange strip in Avengers weekly #54, here I'm going to swing about on that opinion and say that Tuska's artwork on this strip is excellent! This strip was originally created for a black and white magazine and Tuska's work suits that media. It suits the sci-fi stories in particular. His opening splash page is beautiful and the following pages tell the story of the doomed space flight without the need for text, well apart from the "danger" messages on a computer screen, but you'll get what I mean.

 

George Tuska also does a great job of capturing the likeness of the characters from the film too. Where the horror adaptions in Dracula Lives do take liberties with the source material here Doug Moench and Tuska stick to the script, hitting every note with perfection. Strangely enough this comic wasn't the one I was looking forward to reading, but after the first page I was hooked and it's become  my favourite of this week's handful of mags. I must have seen the film over a dozen times and I've possibly read this strip at least half a dozen, but it still awakens the wonderment I had when I first saw it. Taylor can seem like a jerk in this presentation, more so than the film version, but I wonder has my impression of him from film been watered down slightly because of my fondness for Charlton Heston? Maybe. I'm definitely going to look forward to next week's chapter.  

The face of the Apes

Writer: Ed Lawrence

Ed Lawrence writes an interesting piece about the creation of the Apes make-up used in the film version of Planet of the Apes. This special photo feature must have been taken from on of the US Marvel/Curtis magazine versions of Planet of the Apes, as I don't own any of them I can't place which one it was taken from. Luckily all the great articles like this are going to be printed in the UK version of POTA.  

Planet of the Apes follows the format of Dracula Lives with a "Next Week" teaser, it even uses the same tagline "Our monster mind-blasting saga continues! You can't afford to miss the dynamic follow up!" Couldn't the editor think of a better tagline that would have suited the Planet of the Ape storyline? OK it still kind of fits and its aim was the same. In truth you had me with an ape saying "I still can't shake the notion that I actually heard the human speak."

"Another Mighty Marvel first issue, out now!" With a nice bit of cross promotion the Planet of the Apes back cover features an advert for Dracula Lives, again making big with the offer of a free Dracula poster inside! The Pablo Marcos' Dracula cover still looks great. I'm sure that any POTA fans who love the movies or the TV series and picked up this issue on a whim would have been similarly tempted to pop back to the newsagents and pick up this little mag of horrors, if they hadn't already. 

With five fantastic cool comics out every week Marvel had set up their stall in Britain. They're not a flash in a pan, they're here for the long term, with some of the best action adventure, sci-fi sagas and horror tales around. As Stan would put it Excelsior!

As for me, well I made it through this mammoth Marvel milestone, still in one piece. Time for a quick brew and it's back to reading, then writing about more of these classic comics from fifty years ago. Oh the joy, oh the deadline anxiety, oh the nostalgia, oh go on them.

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.