Week Ending

It is 1973, Christmas is just a week away, Marvel UK is putting out some cracking weeklies, what a time to be alive. Kids these days with their Tic Toks and inpenetratable slang think they have reached the pinnacle of human existence, well they never experienced the joy of picking up their favourite comic and blowing the change on as many 'eight chews for a penny' as you could afford. Suckers. Mighty World of Marvel #64 Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito supply an alternative to the original US cover, getting the job done with little fanfare or fuss.  The Incredible Hulk: The Brute Battles On! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #112 The Hulk was facing the threat of the Galaxy Master last week, an impressive disembodied mouth with the suggestion of classic vampire fangs. It is a shame the when this wonderful design is dropped almost immediately for a generic mallet-fisted gaint with one eye. The Hulk slugs it out as political maneuvers play out amongst the leaders

Mid December 1973, I don't know if you had anything going on about then, but Marvel UK was firing on all cylinders, so if you were lucky enough to be picking up their weeklies at this point, life was pretty great. Mighty World of Marvel #63 This Herb Trimpe/Dan Adkins cover should give you some warning about the level of willing suspension of disbelief you are going to require for the contents of this week's issue. Nice cover though, even with the bizarrely distorted Hulk. The Incredible Hulk: Shanghaied in Space! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #111 Last week's story ended with Bruce Banner in the Savage Land appearing to be slightly dead. So this week's episode obviously starts on the bridge of a starship with an alien commander dressed in Nick Fury's favourite spacesuit. Buckle up true believer, it only gets weirder from here. It transpires that the starship and alien commander are emissaries of the ancient alien power responsible for the p

As 2021 continues to be unceasingly weird, what lessons can we learn from the past? Specifically the bits of the 1973 that involved Marvel UK? Mighty World of Marvel #62 This issue of MWOM is particularly fascinating to me, not for the Herb Trimpe and John Severn cover, as lovely as it is. What I find interesting is that there seems to be so many of this issue out in the wild. When building my Marvel UK collection, the easiest way to fill the gaps was to bulk buy collections, and this issue turned up more than any other. Seriously, I have probably had at least twenty copies of MWOM #62 and I have no idea why. I know UK publishers would increase print runs during the school holidays, but did they do the same in the run up to Christmas? The Incredible Hulk: Umbu The Unliving! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #110 Last week we left Hulk in the Savage Land where he had just discovered a doomsday device and unintentionally knocked Ka-Zar unconscious. As if that wasn