Sometimes I Think About Saturday's Child

Several other denizens of the Bloggerverse have been celebrating the unbelievable fortieth anniversary of the début of Marvel UK with the Mighty World of Marvel. What I find interesting is that, in the autumn of 1972, I wasn't actually reading many Marvel Comics.
During the summer of that year, I had got one issue of Amazing Adventures, with the grey and furry Beast; my first issue of Conan, by Gil Kane; Spider-Man and the Gibbon; Ka-Zar vs. Man-Thing; and a late Bill Everett Sub-Mariner comic with a guest appearance from angry Japanese mutant Sunfire.

I don't know if it was scarcity or preference but I  devoured twice as many DC titles: Kirby's  Forever People, New Gods, Mr. Miracle; the first couple of issues of Wein's Justice League of America; the reprint title Wanted- The World's Most Dangerous Villains; and two of the Neal Adams/ Ra's al Ghul  Batman stories. Much of both companies' product was angsty, sensationalist stuff representing the preoccupations of the college audiences Stan and Roy had grown in the late Sixties.

Of course, I remember these comics, which have stayed with me for decades, more vividly and in far more detail than my primary school days in Miss Stobo's class or the Glam Rock stomping of Top of the Pops.

 

Green-Skinned Monster iron-on transfer: so 70s

The arrival of this garishly-coloured Sixties reprint title not only introduced me to the origin stories of Marvel's super-stars, it also established a reading habit that would stay with me for almost a decade.

As you know, MWOM begat a flurry of weekly titles: Spider-Man Comics Weekly; The Avengers, with its glossy covers and its injection of kung fu with Shang-Chi; Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives, the only title for which I never had a regular order; Savage Sword of Conan and The Super Heroes; The Titans, with its unusual landscape format which was duplicated in Super Spider-Man; Captain Britain; Fury; Rampage and Complete Fantastic Four; Star Wars Weekly ( the title that saved US Marvel ) ; Doctor Who Weekly; Valour; Future Tense; Forces in Combat (one of my favourite comic titles of all time); Marvel Team-Up; Marvel Super Adventure; and of course monthlies  like the thrilling SSOC with its painted covers and the Pocket Books of the early 80s.

Part of the pleasure of this kaleidoscopic reprinting of the Marvel back catalogue was finally catching up with the first or last instalment of a beloved continued story or the appearance of some obscure villain like Jack o'Diamonds;Tagak the Leopard Lord; the Dark Messiah; the Locust or either version of Ramrod.

 Issue 50 features the debut of the X-Men; issue 100 has a cameo by the Phantom Eagle

It's also interesting to watch these publishing cuckoos try to mimic the bland, traditional British comics then flare and fade in a welter of mergers.
 

Conan in a Gardner Fox adaptation and the Kree-Skrull War continues while Moore and Davis present Captain Britain in early-80s MWOM

 
 I collected the coupons and got the Buscema/Sinnott poster; I joined FOOM; Marvel led me to Tolkien; to Robert E, Howard; to Moorcock and Huxley.I doubt I would ever have studied English at University or gone on to teach if I hadn't read comics.

And remarkably, MWOM still exists today. I saw it in WH Smith in Elgin yesterday, reprinting Avengers Academy . With 76 full colour pages for under three pounds, it's better value than its US contemporaries (for which I'd have to travel 45 minutes into Inverness). Let's wish Stan the Man continued health and feel free to take a look at my Materioptikon blog for a review of the Spectacular Spider-Man Treasury Edition of 1974.

Coming soon: Chasing Amy
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