First, Master of Kung Fu Annual 1. "The Fortress of S'ahra Sharn" is contemporary with X-Men 100, Avengers 150 and Captain America 200: July 1976. Elton John and Kiki Dee; SAHB's Boston Tea Party; Lizzy's The Boys are Back in Town- ah, you saw all this on TOTP last year
I don't recall any of the annuals from '76-81 being on sale in newsagents in West Central Scotland. A year on from the Savage Fists of Kung Fu Treasury, where our heroes didn't actually meet, Shang-Chi encounters Iron Fist in London. Danny needs help to track down Colleen Wing, a captive of Master Khan in Halwan and he's looking up Marvel's other 19-year-old martial arts star. They are both abducted by a sorceror called Quan-St'ar who takes them on a Ditko-esque journey to the other-dimensional kingdom of evil known as... S'ahra-Sharn!
This is the Bronze Age, of course, so Londoners speak in Marv Wolfman-style music hall dialogue: " Just a bit of tomarty sauce and some tartar for the fish, o'course." While in the picaresque Den of Last Despair, the Cantina Scene features the deathless " Well, look what just crawled in! Strangers! Sissies, too, by the looks of their fancy clothes"
No sissies here!
Iron Fist, too, sounds out of character as written by Doug Moench: "I feel like switching to the offense (sic) now...for a power-punch right to your ugly puss!" Compared to the melancholy, cinematic MOKF monthly, which looked a Kung Fu movie written by Brian Clemens and soundtracked by Roxy Music, this corny fantasy is quite jarring. Keith Pollard's art is Starlin-lite, especially in the dimensional journey. Not a great annual, to put it mildly, but very much of its time.
The Titans Annual 1977 was in the collection of my school friend Graham Sim, so I had seen it before but not since the early 80s. It comprises four stories and two bonus features.
From the Void it Came: A quirky one this! It's the second part of an unofficial Steve Skeates crossover between The Savage Sub-Mariner's last issue in the 70s and Aquaman's "The Creature that Devoured Detroit" In fact, (the uncredited) Aquaman's finger appears on page three of the story! Even more remarkably, three years had elapsed since the Aquaman story had been published! Who'd even recognise that finger?
In this story, Namor fights a slime- thing, having been previously set upon by a man called Bruce at the docks. Bruce's friend admonishes him , saying Namor isn't taking anyone's business. I don't think they're talking about seafishing, There's a bizarre scene at the end where Bruce's nameless friend says "Let's go back to my pad and have a few drinks. I just bought a new professional wrestling magazine". I think he may also have a copy of Warhol's My Hustler. This, however, is beaten in the weirdness stakes by the quote from Adolf Hitler. I can't decide whether it's supposed to praise the violent image or condemn it. It's redolent of the kind of big-boy literary pretensions of early 70s comics but...it's still Hitler!
Captain America Must Die: The beginning of the Nomad storyline, this Englehart/ Buscema story gives a succinct summary of Cap's career. However, it ends on a cliffhanger: we don't know what the" incredible unexpected events to come" are (if we only have this annual) so it's an odd selection.
The Mark of the Monster: One of my favourite X-Men stories by Thomas, Heck and Tuska, simply because it appeared in the 1970 Fantastic annual. The original mutant teens meet Frankenstein's Monster (Not the 70s one, another one). I dug the groovy references to Factor Three who sounded so exciting. I know this is far from the best X-Men material; it's basically Scooby Doo with mutants. But I like it.
Mad-Flight: I like Frank Robbins' idiosyncratic art and it features Dr. Faustus being sucked out of a plane, exactly like Goldfinger. Unfortunately, it's written by Marv Wolfman in his trademark Ikea English and hard-boiled Spillane-isms. Karla Sofen (Moonstone of the Masters of Evil and Thunderbolts) first appears here.
The remaining features are X-Men back-ups. The first by Thomas and Werner Roth, looks at Cyclops' optic beam in detail. Scott was my favourite of the original team and I don't care to see him portrayed now as a control freak or martinet. The other feature is Marvel Girl by Roth and Linda Fite, a rare bit of female scripting in the Silver Age. Jean Grey is a nubile romance heroine but her powers are a bit feeble.
Next: two more Bronze Age UK annuals...
All images are presumed copyright of their respective owners
I've still got that Titans annual. Incidentally, The Mark of the Monster appeared in the 1970 Fantastic annual, not Pow.
ReplyDeleteAmended! BTW, thanks for the offer of the Superman recordings. What format are they in?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can put them on CD - and post them to you at your school. Also the Power Records and Golden Book and Records FF tales, the M.M.M.S. records and some Gerry Anderson Century 21 stuff. Even the Famous Monsters Speak record. Won't cost you a bean.
ReplyDeleteIf it's possible to email music files, I could perhaps do it that way, if you prefer.