STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: DOC SAVAGE

Thursday, 11 December 2014

1975: PLANET OF THE APES LIVE-ACTION STUNT SHOW (Marvel UK)

From the Summer of 1975: a not-to-be-missed chance to see the touring PLANET OF THE APES stunt show as it romped its way around various outdoor shows and summer events.

Did anyone see it? I have a mental image of a few pissed-off guys being made to ride around in hot-and-sweaty gorilla masks for the entertainment of undemanding under tens...

I wonder if more people saw the live POTA show or the underrated DOC SAVAGE movie....?

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

1975: DOC SAVAGE MOVIE ADVERT

Here's a half-page promotion for the UK release of George Pal's adaptation of DOC SAVAGE. Note the ridiculously spaced release pattern: the Man of Bronze's fan in Darlington would have to wait until late October to see the film, months after the likes of Manchester and Liverpool.

Marvel attempted to cash-in on the film by running their altogether-better strip version of the pulp hero in THE SUPER-HEROES weekly.

The other half of the page is more winning entries in the Marvel/ Butlins joke competition. Hold your sides...

6 August 1975

1975: THE SUPER-HEROES - PART ONE

Today, it's back to 1975, and Marvel UK's weekly anthology THE SUPER-HEROES.

Unlike M-UK's other weeklies to date, this feels like a particularly lacklustre effort pooling The X-Men and Fantastic Four supporting player Silver Surfer in solo action.

It should have been a does-what-it-says-on-the-cover action anthology but it really feels like Marvel New York had nothing much left in reserve for this one, making it largely forgotten today.

- THE SUPER-HEROES is not to be confused with the later monthly DC THE SUPERHEROES (from London Editions), MARVEL SUPERHEROES (the 1979-launched monthly successor to MARVEL COMIC) or even HEROES (the short-lived 1991 DC reprint weekly).
- The initial line-up was the Silver Surfer and The Uncanny X-Men. Reprints of Doc Savage were (briefly) added, from issue 23, to coincide with the campy George Pal flopbuster movie). Savage was replaced by long-forgotten Marvel heroine The Cat and Giant Man. Continuing the trend of distinctly also-rans, The Scarecrow joined from issue 41, followed by Bloodstone from 45. Marvel Two-in-One (The Thing's low key version of Marvel Team-Up) started the same issue, just in time for cancellation with issue 50.
- THE SUPER-HEROES merged with Spider-man to form the long-winded SUPER SPIDER-MAN AND THE SUPER-HEROES from issue 158 (21 February 1976). To accommodate the merger, Spider-man switched to the controversial landscape 'Titans Format'.