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Ah, the memories the above cover evokes, 50 years after buying my original copy in 1974. This one is a replacement, but I've owned it for a considerable time now, probably at least a couple of decades, if not longer. Although cover-dated March 30th, it would've gone on sale on the 23rd, so I'm only a day late in celebrating its initial appearance half a century ago. Got any reminiscences connected to this ish, Crivs, with which you can regale the rest of us in the comments section? Then get typing, 'cos we're all dying to read something interesting around here.
13 comments:
I still have my original copy. I hadn't seen any US colour Master of Kung Fu comics at this point so I looked forward to this strip being reprinted in the UK. MOKF was an great series,the only slight downside for me, from memory was that this strip took over the Avengers covers for some time. 50 years ago yikes!!!
Yeah, it made the comic look a bit strange for a while, McS. After all, some guy leaping around everywhere in his bright red pyjamas isn't exactly what UK kids were used to seeing on the covers of their weekly Marvel superhero comics.
This is the first time I ever saw this cover, and my first thought was, "Blasphemy!"
But in the same year (and from the same creator) The Avengers started hanging around with a female kung fu kicker, so I've rationalized, "six of one, half dozen of the other."
I hope I haven't inadvertently misled you with the title, GP, as the cover was merely symbolic. Shang-Chi wasn't actually an Avenger, it was just that his own strip had been added to the comic's contents.
As you know, Kid, I didn't discover Marvel until POTA #5 in late 1974 but I'm very familiar with that Avengers cover and when I started reading POTA there were ads for other Marvel weeklies including The Avengers featuring MOKF and Dr Strange.
Yes, I remember those ads well, CJ. Marvel UK were following the tradition started by Marvel US in pictorially advertising various other mags from time-to-time.
I was so impressed by the cover when it came out that I traced the image of Shang-Chi and used as the cover of issue #1 of our SuperStuff fanzine. It is interesting that Marvel/Curtis distributed the US B&W "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu" magazine in the UK, in parallel with Shang-Chi appearing in the UK weekly. I much preferred the US B&W magazine.
The UK weekly strips were, as you know, originally in colour, whereas the Deadly Hands strips were drawn for b&w publication, which, along with the fact that they were possibly a mite more violent, might explain your preference for them, B, as colour strips don't always look as good when reprinted in b&w. If you still have a copy of your fanzine, it would be good to see the cover on your blog.
Hi Kid - the cover of SuperStuff #1 (with the Shang-Chi swipe) can be found on the blog entry that my pal Nigel Brown did back in 2022. You can either search for Shang-Chi in the search box, or jump straight here ==> https://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/05/three-boys-and-three-typewriters-secret.html
Early 1974 was a great time to be a comic fan.
I'm straight off over there right now to take a look, B, before jumping back into bed. Can't neglect Salma for too long. (Aye, right!)
And guess what? When I got there, I was surprised to see that I'd left a few comments. The ol' memory isn't what it was, I can tell you.
For me, what's interesting about this cover is that someone in the Marvel production department added shoes to the Shang-Chi figure. Much as I loved MOKF, Englehart and Starlin didn't know squat about Chinese martial arts, and designed Shang Chi with bare feet, something no Chinese martial artists would ever sport. In fact, Shang Chi's whole look is Japanese - the angry pyjamas and bare feet. Back in the 1970s, westerners literally couldn't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese (or Thai, Vietnamese or Filipinos), ironic, given the plot of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (a big inspiration for all those kung fu comics) was actually about the conflict between Chinese and Japanese martial arts.
I always thought Kung Fu sounded like a Chinese dish, Al (APP), so I didn't know any more than Englehart and Starlin. The Strip was probably added to The Avengers weekly due to the popularity of the TV show which was on around that time. The only Kung Fu movie I ever saw was Enter The Dragon, which I dogged school (yes, that word has an entirely different meaning nowadays) to go and see in my local cinema whenever the movie first came out. Thanks for the interesting and informative (as usual) comment - if I'd known any of that, I could've included it in the post.
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