Lion and Thunder 28th August 1971 - the thrill of a squirrel

Thinking it time to fill in a bit more of my Black Max knowledge, I've just picked up this issue.
The cover boasts "Sinister Air War Thrills" with Max:



And the strapline up top also promises a "Grand New First War Spine-Chiller", but its odd in that two of the three pages of the strip are given over to a conventional war strip of Wilson being wounded in battle and sent back to London to recover:



Its only when the page is turned that we get our supernatural fix, with this fantastic sequence of the Giant White Bat breaking in to kidnap the scientist:



But, wouldn't you know it, plans are thwarted when that whacking great monster is scared off by the brainboxes pet dog:



And the strip ends on this superb panel of an incredibly moody London skyline and Max realising somethings wrong. Bet that's a spooky castle affair he's living in:



In the rest of the issue, not much to report, all kind of dull. Even, oddly, Adam Eterno.
The only other highlight for me is Fury's Family, a strip I've never cared for but always take a look at because of the incredible art it always sports.
This time I saw something so outlandish I had to go and read the strip, and i'm glad I did as it has a feature so bizarre and odd and a true example of why I love the 60/70's British comics.
Join me as I fill you in.
Fury needs to stop the bad guys car as it heads off down a road that has no turning for ten miles.
Off he runs to the nearby telephone pole, with a starling sat on the wire.
"Theep Theeka! Skreek Skree Throoka! OUICKLY, speckled black one!" He calls out. Doesn't much sound like bird speak to me, but off the bird goes, pecking at the wire, sending a signal down them.
A few miles away the message is heard by a bunch of starlings, who respond with "Skree! Theep Thep Thikka!"
And then, "From starlings to squirrels and from squirrels to the far-ranging stags..." the message is passed on, with the stags causing a rock slide to block the road and stop the bad guys.
Genius, genius stuff and, if you ever wanted to see a squirrel talking to some stags, here you go:



"AIEEEE!" WATCH: None.

Scary Fairy Tales

Never was a fan of Whizzer and Chips. Too much not very funny comedy, with unappealing characters depicted in art that really didn't float my boat.
Can remember reading "Superdad" as I had a - sort of - superhero fix in there, Ghost Town was okay, but only as a vague nod to the brilliance of the eerie tales that i'd been enthralled by in other titles:



And "The Pirates" gave me a Bash St Kids-esque fix:



But "Scarey Fairy Tales"? Now you're talking - sheer and utter genius from Mr Baxendale, plain and simple. To illustrate the point, here's a couple of examples from the 1976 annual. The truly great suffering, that Leo could dish out so well:



Along with my absolute favourite from this time, The Good Fairy. That she has Popeye forearms is fantastic as it is, but where she's got her name emblazoned? What childrens would dare do that now?
LOVE. IT.

Rogue's Gallery

Before I move on, thought i'd show you what the gallery of superhero's from the "Super Security Bureau" consists of.
If you thought the names were bad, take a look at what they look like:

POW! annual 1971 - #5 - Electro

Coming back with another look at the characters from my favourite annual of my childhood, made different from any other look back of mine as i've got a direct link to what i was thinking when i was nine, in that i'd numbered them in order of preference on the brilliant frontispiece.
So, we're at Number 5 and Electro. Guessing on par with Magento for "Rubbish Name For Someone Who Has Electrical Powers", he's just about the most derivitive of all the hero's in this book.




His origin is pretty close to DC's the Flash but, minus the chemicals addition in Barry Allan's case, he's just some poor bod who gets hit by lightning. While standing on a power plant. Its not explained why he wasn't just fried, not even his clothes are singed, especially as he's just taken "a billion volt blast of electricity" but live he does and "he's charged with enough electricity to light the whole city!" Just some lame-o comment of "maybe the generator he was working on set up some kind of counter current." Hmmmm....





Anyway, he's soon well, and seems to now have the powers of Marvel's Magneto. Which is noticed straight away by the Super Security Bureau, a sort of Man From Uncle for superhero's whose recruits so far include (shout their names with pride) "Mini Man", "Mr Whizz", "Flame Man" and, my favourite, "Iron Dog."
Eddie's recruited and, to not make him stand out, is given the equally rubbish name of "Electro - The Power Man".
And as soon as that happens, he then comes to the attention of "The Great Dynamo", Surf City's number one villain, with just as rubbish a name and a look totally swiped from Janus Stark:




Like many of these tales, the set-up is the most memorable and the rest of the story is a bit of a plod. With this one, the sequence that i remember the most is this three panel affair, introducing the Dynamo's "robot creatures shaped of solidified electric current" (double hmmm...) and his nifty wheel vehicle:




Other than that, we've just got Electro's brillaint penthouse pad which, for some unexplained reason, is made all of glass:




And that's it, the rest is just dull. I'm guessing i put him at Five because of the art, which is lovely, and the quirky designs but i don't think i'dve been a fan of the character if he'd have continued, which he didn't, although it sure ends like the Dynamo would have been Electro's nemesis a la Lex Luthor or the Joker:

New "Someone Old, Somone New" piece

Been a LONG time since there's been an update, due to artists commitments, but very happy to say there's a new one there right now. Either follow the link in the bar ofn the right, or go to http://someoneoldsomeonenew.blogspot.co.uk/

Savage Sword Of Conan

I'm sure i've brought this subject up before here - are Marvel UK titles considered British comics? As far as i'm concerned they are: (A) They're reformatted to UK comic size, (B) they have UK letters pages, (C) they're have UK adverts (D) most crucially - they're in B&W over the original colours. To this day why i can't read any Marvel superhero comic, along with their Star Wars strips, in colour. They just look wrong to me. In the case of "Conan", along with "Dracula" and "Planet Of The Apes", having them in black and white helped immensly with the tone of the strips, giving added gravatas and mood to a strip that might've not been there to begin with. Personally, this was my first taste of Robert E Howards hero and Barry Smith's art, at the time, was pretty darn neat. It wasn't till the later monthly titles with art by John Buscema and, at the same time actually reading the novels that spawned the tales, that i realised how reedy Smiths version was. And then Alfredo Acala came on board - and the definitive version was born, one i imagine whenever i re-read the books today. But this is a page for UK titles, so lets stay on track - a typical early Smith tale from 1975, showing a rather crude, slim Conan, but great dynanism all the same. But best thing though are the ads - did we really want to "support our super-heros"? by not missing out on this "tantalising treat" of a badge/patch combo for a mere 70p?

Return of the (Black) Max

Its occured to me lately that i've not featured any Black Max for quite a while. Think that its because, subconsciously, i was blocking him out. When i started this here Blog, it became quite a love letter to my favourite ever Britsih comic character and a while back, deep down, i chose to veer away away from him. But, think enough's time passed now, so went ahead and bought me an issue lacking from my collection - Lion & Thunder 8th Jan 1972:

Although my choice of issue was a random one, it turned out to be rather fortuitous, at least with "Black Max". Turning to the tale, we start with the aircraft of both sides being batted (ha!) out of the sky by "a shrieking, whirling wheel of air":

Max gets one of his Giant Bats to check out something coming out of the ground, something i've seen before in later episodes:

Its the craft of Doktor Gratz, "The Mad Dwarf":

So here we have the first meeting of Max and his future ally, and eventual replacer for him in the comic. Elsewhere, we have "Adam Eterno" and a setting that's just crying out for the magnificent art being produced on the strip, the Great Fire Of London:

But, its odd. Most tales of the Big Guy follow a trusted formula: (A) Escape gold-themed death trap, (B) Plot advance, (C) Gold-themed deattrap. Here we have neither. It starts with Adam being hung up to be consumed by the fire, and ends with him in more non-golden peril, but seeing a vision of a chair of gold. Most odd. "AIEEEE" WATCH: None.