HE'S NUTHIN' BUT A TWO-FACED HULK... (GUESS WHAT? UPDATED, YESSIREE!)

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's a wet, rainy Saturday and - STOP!  Hold on a minute.  It could hardly be a dry, rainy Saturday (or any other day of the week) could it?  So when you think about it, qualifying a rainy day as 'wet' is a bit redundant.  However, sentences need rhythm, and 'It's a rainy Saturday' lacks a beat to my ears (and eyes).  So as you were then.

It's a wet, rainy Saturday and I'm in the comfy confines of my back room (once used as my 'studio'), desperately trying to think of something worth writing about.  Or at least something that you Crivs think might be worth reading, which may or may not be the same thing.  What should it be - comics, toys, TV shows, personal nostalgia - or something else entirely?  My repertoire is somewhat limited by my own interests, and on the few occasions when I've touched on subjects that lie beyond those parameters, then I'm usually out of my comfort zone.

So what'll it be?  48 years ago, October the 3rd was a Tuesday.  I couldn't say with any certainty whether it likewise rained back then, but my general impression of that whole week was that it was mild and sunny.  Well, it had been the previous Saturday (September 30th), and was again the following Friday (6th) and Saturday (7th), and if it ever rained in between, I have no memory of it.  But that doesn't solve the problem of what I should write about, does it?

Tell you what then.  I'll cop out by showing you a pretty picture, which sits at the top of this post.  However, as I type these very words, I haven't yet inserted the image into the designated space.  That's the thing about blog posts; the reader gets to see each post after it's composed and published, but the writer (that'll be me then) doesn't necessarily always construct it in the same order or sequence that the reader finally sees it.  But enough waffle!

Recently, someone gave me a comic I'd been thinking of acquiring.  (Once thought I still had it, turns out I didn't.)  Back when this image was first seen, it was in a comics ad for The Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1.  In the half-page ad, Jim Steranko's Hulk face remained unchanged, though when the Special was published, a Marie Severin-drawn Hulk face had replaced it.

We Brits were lucky, because when the image turned up on the cover of MWOM #129 in 1975, Steranko's original Hulk fizzog was intact.  However, it had previously been used as a pin-up in MWOM #31 in 1973 (above), but was in b&w with grey 'Zipatone', not colour .

Anyway, feast your awestruck orbs, you Merry Marvel Maniacs!  And just in case you were wondering, below is how it appeared on the actual published Hulk Special.  Why'd they change it?  Your guess is as good as mine.  (And it's not often I say that.)  Perhaps Stan just wanted the Hulk's face to look the same on the cover as in the interior story, which Marie illustrated.

Y'know, someone once said that they could see I wasn't two-faced.  When I asked how they knew, they pointed at my kipper and answered "Because you wouldn't be wearing that one if you were!"  I just can't win, eh?

And below, as mentioned by CJ in the comments section, is the ad for the patch of the cover to MWOM #129, from the back page of The Super-Heroes #17, 1975 - a mere 3 months later.  It also appeared on the back cover of MWOM #150 and probably other Marvel weeklies.  Look at that badly redrawn right arm and hand on the larger Hulk figure holding the patch.  Ugh!  I hope Herb Trimpe never saw it - he wouldn't have been happy.

Ah, but hold on - there's more!  The cover was used again as a pin-up in The Mighty World Of Marvel Annual for 1977, as shown below.  As far as I know, this post includes all appearances of this illustration in Marvel UK mags and books of the '70s, but if you're aware of any other ones, be sure to let me know in our ever-lovin' comments section, effendis.