Thursday 15 January 2015

More Bronze Age Covers

In my previous post on this 'ere blog I shared with you a recent acquisition from Bristol's Excelsior Comics, a copy of Creatures On The Loose #21 with that cool Gullivar Jones cover by Steranko. I also bought a few other £2/ £3 bargain bin classics and now, after literally one request ( I'm talking to you, John Pitt ), I've scanned them too and present them here for your viewing pleasure...
Worlds Unknown #8
This is the second part of Marvel's adaptation of The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad and has some nice artwork by George Tuska and Vinnie Colletta  -  clear, uncluttered comics story-telling, of a kind you rarely see nowadays. I nearly bought this back in the day but funds were tight for the seven-year old me and I had to choose between this issue and X-Men #89 ( "Now Strikes The Sub-Human" )  -  I bought the X-Men but that's now long gone. It's good to finally catch up with Sinbad. Just need to get part one now...
Marvel Two-In-One #1
Well, I like The Thing... but I like the Man-Thing too. Which is better? There's only one way to find out  -  Fight!!! ( Thanks, Harry Hill. ) Steve Gerber starts his short run on MTIO with a faintly ludicrous tale of Ben Grimm travelling to the Everglades for a scrap with Manny because he "ripped off" Benjy's name, only to end up in a three-way tussle with the equally ludicrous Molecule Man.The art team of Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott aren't the best fit for the Man-Thing and his swampy environs but produce some slick, action-packed visuals. And this comic earns bonus points for sneaking the word "porno" past the Comics Code...
Doctor Strange #8
Now you're talking! The Steve Engelhart / Gene Colan Doctor Strange is one of my all-time fave comic strips and it's good to fill a gap in my collection with this issue. This is the, er, climax of the Dormammu / Umar / Mother Earth story which is surreal, philosophical and quite sensual in places and features dialogue like: "But I am more human than you. And I am woman... in the womb of a world of a goddess!" It was the 1970s...
Werewolf By Night #6
The fact that the star of this comic, who turns into a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright and all that jazz... the fact that he is called Jack Russell always cracks me up. Anyway, this is a minor shaggy dog tale of the Werewolf ending up as a sideshow exhibit in an evil carnival, see above. Len Wein's story isn't a patch on the superior supernatural shenanigans he cooked up for Swamp Thing over at DC, but the early Mike Ploog artwork is crude, energetic fun with an Eisner influence shining through.

And that's it for my Bronze Age haul  -  all great bargains at a few quid each. I also picked up the latest issue of Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Overture but you're not interested in that, are you...?

Soundtrack: Come Together, I Think I'm In Love, Cop Shoot Cop and others by Spiritualized

Updates:
Sadly, the screenwriter of Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, the multi-talented Brian Clemens, has recently died. He made a major contribution to film and television fantasy and his passing is a great loss.
On a happier note, full scans of the Thing / Man-Thing brawl above can be seen at the ever-fab Diversions Of The Groovy Kind. Check 'em out, True Believers!

7 comments:

John Pitt said...

Thanks, Simon and well-presented. Don't you feel better now for sharing these beauties with me?
I'm pleased I inundated you with ALL of that request now!

Simon B said...

Yes, John, it's good therapy...
:-)

Kid said...

Is that JP going 'round with the begging bowl again? Time he bought his own ruddy back issues. Of course, I never entertain him and his requests.

Simon B said...

Kid, I get so few comments here nowadays that I'm only too happy to oblige the poor old soul...

Kid said...

You've a charitable nature and no mistake, guv'nor.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

I remember those Sinbad comics so much. The movie showed many times during my childhood at the base theatre so seeing a comic book version of our favorite movie made us lose our minds. We all had issue one but it wasn't until years later when I found them both together. A treasure in my comic book collection.

Simon B said...

I'm pretty sure I saw this film at the cinema back in the day. I know I definitely saw Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger... but the less said about that one, the better...

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