ANOTHER BABE Of The DAY - TYRA BANKS...

I was just about to do another post when

TYRA BANKS emailed this pic from a holiday

resort in sun-kissed Hawaii.  "Come and join me!"

she said, and her private jet will be picking me up

shortly to whisk me to her side.  See you when I

get back.  (And folk say I've no imagination.)

PLANET Of The APES COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Characters copyright relevant owners

Continuing our run of PLANET Of The APES covers, in which KILLRAVEN has his name changed to 'APESLAYER', and all his Martian adversaries are redrawn as apes.  It strikes me that MARVEL went needlessly overboard with this one, as Killraven would probably have been perfectly acceptable to British readers the way he was.

I wonder if there's anyone who read the comic back in the day who's unaware that Apeslayer was nothing more than an expedient way of giving the character a tenuous connection with the main strip in the mag?  Would they be shocked to find out?  I can yet remember my astonishment when I learned that a villain known to me as The APEMASTER (in WHAM!) was originally called The RED GHOST (in FF #13 and read by me in MCIC #7).

Anyway, that's enough of my ruminating reflections - time for you to hopefully enjoy the covers on display.  Happy memories.

   

BABE Of The DAY - JUDITH RALSTON...

Here, mainly for McS's benefit,

is weather girl JUDITH RALSTON.

I also go for the strict schoolmarm look,

so she can detain me after class for 'six

 of the best' anytime she wants.

GIVE US A CLUE...

From the 1971 LION & THUNDER Holiday Special comes this New Year gift to you - designed to stimulate your mind and help clear the alcohol-induced fog resulting from last night's drunken carousings.  Of course, being a lifelong teetotaler, I don't have that problem - my only after-effect is a case of burping and farting from all the cola I drank.

Yeah, I know - too much information.  Now see if you can spot the clue with Highway Patrolman ZIP NOLAN.

FAMOUS FIRSTS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

January 1st - Happy New Year, Crivvies.  Here are 19 other famous firsts to start the year rolling.  How many of them do you have in your collection?

First appearance of HENRY PYM

First appearance of ANT MAN in costume

First MARVEL AGE appearance of The SUB-MARINER

First appearance of SPIDER-MAN

First appearance of THOR The MIGHTY

First appearance of IRON MAN

First appearance of Dr. STRANGE

Origin of Dr. STRANGE

First MARVEL AGE appearance of the real CAPTAIN AMERICA

Origin of CAPTAIN AMERICA

First appearance of S.H.I.E.L.D.

BABE Of The DAY - CAROLINE MUNRO...

Sweet CAROLINE - what more

need be said but "Have her washed

and brought to my room"?  (In fact,

don't even bother 'bout washing her

 - she'll do fine just as she is.)

PART TWO Of PLANET Of The APES COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright relevant owners

Ten more PLANET Of The APES covers from Mighty MARVEL's mid-'70s British weekly to enthrall you this time around, folks.  Not many of these images strike a chord with me, so I'm uncertain whether I was still buying the comic at this time, though I suspect I must've been.  Do any of these covers ring a bell in the belfry of your mind?  Then let's read your reminiscences in the comments section, Ape fans.

MARVEL'S The SUPER-HEROES COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART SEVEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Only 15 issues to go until we reach the finish line of this particular race, faithful ones, so that equates as three more instalments in The SUPER-HEROES cover & image gallery.  The mag was probably past its best by this point, as The CAT was a bit of a second-rater and GIANT-MAN was hardly in The SILVER SURFER's league, but I stuck with it right to the end.  From my perspective, with The X-MEN and ol' High Pockets, the comic was a comforting amalgam of FANTASTIC and TERRIFIC, two of my favourite weeklies from the '60s, and that was more than good enough for me.

At one point, MARVEL U.K. actually considered reprinting Fantastic's The MISSING LINK/JOHNNY FUTURE strip, seemingly thinking that they owned the copyright to it.  That would've been brilliant to see again, and made the periodical even more like an ODHAMS 'POWER COMIC', but, sadly, it just didn't happen.  Nearly 50 years later, nostalgic readers are still waiting for a deluxe re-presentation of the late LUIS BERMEJO's awesomely illustrated artistic tour-de-force.  Maybe one day.  (Update: It happened in 2020.)

Anyway, enjoy this brief look back into yesteryear - and don't dare miss the remaining issues in upcoming posts.  Excelsior.

This page and the next were produced specially for British readers to bring them up to
speed on the history of GIANT MAN & The WASP and became pages 3 & 4 of the tale

Look at that first ad - surely the worst drawn & lettered one in existence