COMICS SUCK! - Amazing Adventure #31 (July 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - July 1975

AMAZING ADVENTURES #31 (Marvel Comics)

Review by Tony Maim

"The Day The Monuments Shattered"

By Don McGregor (w); P. Craig Russel (a); Irv Watanabe (l); Petra Goldberg (c) & Len Wein (e)

After being tested with various tryouts, Marvel finally gave Don McGregor his 1st series to script – Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther. No one really expected anything from this but the “kids” kinda dug it. Hey, we have another series that is floundering – Amazing Adventures featuring Killraven. Let’s throw it to McGregor, he might do something with it.

And he did – he took a character that followed the premise of an Martian invasion in 2018 ,which came in a fanfare of Neal Adams artwork (who only completed 8-9 pages) - Amazing Adventures 18 - and the promise of something new and over 3 issues with 3 different writers and 3 different artwork teams, it kinda drifted along and kinda sucked – he kicked the fuck out of it and gave us a vision of the future with experimental plot lines, depth of character, a strong female cast, political overtones and to my hero-worshiping eyes, a real psychedelic feel that still resonates with me now.

After a couple of Gene Colan fill ins, the final part fell into place – P. Craig Russell came aboard and brought his almost art nouveau style into play with an unearthly vision of an apocalyptic world filled with strange visions, unimaginable hardships and mutated beings side by side with landscapes of beauty and peace.

A young Killraven escaped the gladiator pens set up for the amusement of the Martian invaders and with a band of misfits, set themselves up as “Freemen”, dedicated to overthrowing their hated masters. McGregor used his stories to examine an America undergoing a crisis of identity and disillusion with current political leaders, an America which in 1975 was starting to be a consumerist society and where the word individual was frowned upon.

As it is very late and my deadline for getting this to Lucas is steadily looming, I am not going to deliver a blow by blow issue review leading up to Issue 31, even though you will not know what is going on, just believe me when I say that this saga of a dystopian tomorrow is one my highlights of my comic collection.

Amazing Adventures 31 features the end of the Death Breeders saga. Martian breeding pens are filled with couples whose only duty was to provide their new-born children as delectable titbits. Killraven and his band of misfits blew up the warren of misery and rescued a couple – Adam and Eve – so their child could be born free. A running battle ensued but took second place to McGregor’s commentary on the human fascination with paradise, consumerism, racism, love and the hero as a flawed character whose self belief overcomes his many doubts about what he is doing.

Look, I plainly cannot do this series justice – just track these comics down in the black and white collection and enjoy some thought provoking story telling. - Tony Maim

***

MUSIC SUCKS!

BLACK SABBATH
'Sabotage'
No surprise that we'd feature Sabbath's sixth album here. "Hole in the Sky", "Symptom of the Universe", "Thrill of it All" & "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" can all be found here. What can you even say about any of the first six Sabbath albums? These albums, of which 'Sabotage' was the last are as close to perfection as popular music ever got. "Hole in the Sky" is often imitated, "Symptom of the Universe" laid the foundation for early thrash metal, even the title of the instrumental "Supertzar" has been lifted and used as the name of a very good band out of Finland (their excellent 'Funeral Blues' EP is available for Free Download at this location).

Sabbath recorded this album in a haze of litigation and courtroom battles, to the members of the band the 'Sabotage' era is a blur, the album nothing special. Guitarist Tony Iommi once met a big fan who told him that 'Sabotage' was his favorite album. Iommi's response was, "Really? Why?"

***

MOVIES SUCK!
ROLLERBALL

Directed by Norman Jewison
Cast - James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn & Ralph Richardson

Forget the 2002 re-make with LL Cool J, the original Roller Ball is a gritty, unflinching sci-fi picture with a hardcore anti-authoritarian, anti-corporate slant. The world of Roller Ball depicts a future in which major corporations have won all. Nations and wars are things of the past ... as are prosperity and purpose. In their place is the deadly game of Roller Ball, a nod to the Roman gladiator matches which similarly dominated a conquered, listless world. This is such a great film, I can't recommend it enough. Watch it here.

COMICS SUCK! - Adventure Comics #439 (June 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - April 1975

ADVENTURE COMICS #439 (DC Comics)

"The Voice That Doomed ... The Spectre"

By Michael Fleisher (w); Jim Aparo (a, l) & Joe Orlando (e)

The Spectre was one of the original superstars of the Golden Age of funny book adventurers in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Darker in tone than even Batman, The Spectre was the nearly omnipotent spirit of vengeance, who could manipulate reality to ironically punish and ultimately dispatch criminals. He, alongside such stalwart heroes as The Flash, Green Lantern, The Atom and Hawkman were all-star members of the Justice Society of America team. When DC revived the above-listed characters (in their own solo adventures), The Spectre was something of an afterthought, appearing in the company's tryout title Showcase, but only after the others were successfully re-imagined and sales re-invigored, After the brief run on Showcase, the god-like Spectre was given his own title which boasted the talents of future industry super-stars like Neal Adams, Dennis O'Neil and Bernie Wrightson. It wasn't enough and the book was cancelled after 10 issues.

The character was all but forgotten for five years until editor Joe Orlando was mugged and decided the world was ready for another revival of the vengeful Spectre.

Orlando, DC's horror line editor tapped his assistant Michael Fleisher and artist Jim Aparo (whom we've talked about here previously) for the Spectre series to appear in the pages of long-running anthology Adventure Comics. Though he'd been a writer and DC staffer for a couple years up to that point, Fleisher was something of an unknown quantity at the time. He was paired with Russell Carley who was given the unique role of "Script Continuity", providing art breakdowns for Fleisher's raw plots. Interestingly, once Fleisher did finally earn the trust of industry editors one of his more famous jobs was writing for competitor Marvel's original Ghost Rider series for roughly half of its span (Ghost Rider was Marvel's spirit of vengeance).

The Spectre feature in Adventure Comics started with #431 of that title and ran for 10 issues or a year and a half long. Taken in context, the series was shocking in its depiction of violence and gruesome death. Though those deaths were usually bloodless they were disturbing nonetheless: criminals were dissolved or turned into inanimate objects which were then destroyed, innocents were shot, bludgeoned or otherwise murdered onscreen, things that hadn't often been depicted in Comics Code Authority approved books since Orlando was working as an artist at revenge-obsessed E.C. Comics 20 years earlier.

By #439 the series was nearing its completion, and Fleisher no longer needed the help of Carley. The story opens with an obvious Patty Hearst reference as a terrorist "liberation army" breaks into a bank, kills the manager and leaves with Spectre's girlfriend. The Spectre's alter ego is the hard-boiled Jim Corrigan, the ghost of a police detective who is still gainfully employed by Gotham PD despite not having had a pulse since the 1930's. This issue toys around with the subplots of Spectre's love-life and immortality.

The series wrapped up with the very next issue and The Spectre didn't star in his own series again until volume 2 of his own title appeared in 1987 written by the grim and gritty Doug Moench with art by the wispy and ethereal Gene Colan, and a more fitting creative team for the character couldn't possibly be imagined.

***

MUSIC SUCKS!
HAWKWIND
'Warrior on the Edge of Time'

Hawkwind's fifth studio album found the Space Rock innovators at their demented hippie best, so of course 'Warrior on the Edge of Time' has its tough critics. By this point the permissive hippie ethic that had followed the band like a dozenth member was beginning to catch up to their own artistic aspirations. The music holds up with the rest of the band's earlier discography, but tensions within the touring entourage were beginning to tip the scales.

By this point the band was a hedonistic commune on wheels. With each release Hawkwind music had become more and more far-out, the vocals were effected, the vibe manic and the lyrics were mostly written by beloved fantasy novelist (and songwriter) Michael Moorcock. Hawkwind founder Dave Brock considers this to be the period during which the band peaked. By the end of it, bassist Lemmy Kilmister was kicked out of the band for partying too hard. It's all fun and games to live that permissive hippie lifestyle until it starts to interfere with business, something which is all but certain to happen.

It's interesting that this, the most trippiest of hippie albums of them all, came out right in the dead middle of the 1970's (May 9, '75). It wasn't long before the hippie flame was reduced to off-campus embers and a new ethos had taken shape: punk rock, individuality, the "me" generation's hippies turned to yippies. The dream of a better world died while the dream of a better "self" seemed attainable. As for Lemmy? He did alright for himself after his ouster from the hippie band.

***

MOVIES SUCK!

POOR PRETTY EDDIE 

Directed by Richard Robinson
Cast - Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters & Michael Christian

COMICS SUCK! - The Brave & The Bold #118 (April 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - April 1975

THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #118 (DC Comics)

"May the Best Man Win Die!"

By Bob Haney (w); Jim Aparo (a, l) & Murray Boltinoff (e)

Like Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up (which was discussed at this location), Batman became the featured character in DC's team-up book The Brave & the Bold with issue #67 in summer 1966. The title became a team-up book with issue #50 which featured a one-off teaming of Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter, two of the lesser lights of the Justice League of America. Before that, the title was a "showcase" book for potential new series, starting with issue #25 (September 1959) starring The Suicide Squad. The Justice League itself was first introduced in the pages of The Brave & the Bold (#28) as was Cave Carson (#31), a newly re-introduced Hawkman with a new origin (#34) and a bizarre concept later picked up on by Warren Publishing's Creepy and Eerie magazines called Strange Sports Stories (#45). The series started as an entirely different thing, however. It was first published in (cover dated) August 1955 featuring stories of gallant knights in gleaming armor, from ancient Rome to medieval England, in the same vein as EC Comics's title Valor, introducing three characters with basically self-explanatory names: The Golden Gladiator, The Viking Prince and The Silent Knight. I plan to feature both Valor and Brave & the Bold #1 in future editions of Comics Suck! later in the year (Fingers crossed!).

Jim Aparo's Batman is gritty and is close to being the
definitive take on the character.

So after all it's iterations, by the time issue #118 rolled around, Brave & the Bold was a Batman book, and writer Bob Haney (a mainstay on the book since issue #50) has established certain traditions within its pages. One of those was the regular team-ups with Golden Age star, Wildcat. This was the fifth such teaming, the previous one had only taken place in issue #110 from January 1974. It seemed readers couldn't get enough of the scrappy, avuncular old fighting man ... err, cat. The very next issue (#111, March '74) saw the first ever Batman / Joker pairing as the caped crusader's iconic nemesis was becoming an increasingly big draw in his own right. Issue #118 was billed as a two-way team-up but isn't even close to playing out as advertised. Batman and Wildcat team-up and Joker is the villain of the piece. It's all very black and white. Putting Joker's name on the cover, however was a way to build just a little more "brand recognition" for the character as he would star in his very own title the next month. Barring Eclipso (who never actually starred in his own title, but was the featured character in House of Secrets for a couple years), Joker was to become the first ever comics villain to receive his own title (I also hope to feature an issue of that title as well, but that won't be for awhile).

Much as the cover depicts, Batman and Wildcat are forced to slug it out in a no-holds-barred boxing match while wearing the Roman spiked cestus gloves. All while a cute little poochie has a gun to its head. The common practice at DC in those days was for a cover artist, be it Jim Aparo, Carmine Infantino or Bernie Wrightson on the horror mags to do up an interesting cover, then give it to the writer to craft a story around it. It's kind of an ass-backwards approach to storytelling but it was DC's editorial policy at the time. Luckily, Brave & the Bold had one of the finest creative teams in the business.

Haney was a cagey veteran storyteller who could adapt his style to suit his artist, his Batman stories were mostly fun, establishing the light, humorous tone for the future animated series Batman: Brave and the Bold, but he could also do gritty like nobody else. Classic Batman artist Neal Adams cut his bat-teeth on the title before moving on to do spot work with classic Batman scribe Dennis O'Neil on various issues of Batman and Detective Comics. While each of those issues is now considered legendary and are highly sought-after, Adams's run on B&B is largely overlooked but needn't be, Haney was a fine writer, equally undervalued if not totally forgotten by today's comics audience. But if you ever pondered the strange and hilarious tone on the B&B cartoon, it came from Haney, who could throw equal parts camp, humor and suspense at the reader in a single issue.

Jim Aparo was another of those artists who could bring out the grittiness in Haney's scripts. Aparo would remain the regular artist on the title all the way up until its ultimate demise with issue #200 in 1983 when it gave way to a new Batman-centric title, Batman & the Outsiders which was basically a team-up book with a regular cast rather than a different character or team for Batman to battle alongside each issue. Aparo would draw the bulk of those issues as well. He remained a regular Batman artist until the early 1990's when he was finally crowbarred off the title by newer, younger rising stars like Mike Manley and Tom Lyle (who are, sadly both largely forgotten today also, but are both still working illustrators). But Aparo's final issue of Batman was cover dated February 1999 (#562). He died in 2005 at the age of 73. While not as dark or striking as Adams's Batman art, Aparo's linework was never-the-less on par with his more celebrated contemporary and because he was the main Batman artist for a period spanning three full decades, his Batman comes very close to being the "definitive" take on the character.

If this title says nothing else to us, it shows that Marvel Comics wasn't the only "house of ideas", DC took a ridiculous amount of chances in the 1960's and 70's, pumping out bizarre comics like Prez, Deadman, The Haunted Tank, Eclipso and Creeper while also creating concepts like the super-hero team-up book and the villain-lead title at a time when their rivals were mostly hamstrung by a bad distribution deal brokered by DC. Many of these ideas failed and most of them were more interesting in concept than in execution, but at least they tried them. Over the years, DC has garnered a reputation for continuing to publish good titles whose sales figures aren't great, as a company, they certainly aren't perfect, but at least they ain't Marvel.

And now, here to discuss ...
WHAT ELSE THE KIDS WERE UP TO BACK THEN
is my good friend Tony Maim! Take it to the stage, Tony ...



FUNKADELIC - 'CHOCOLATE CITY'

James Brown was riding high after “The Payback” and “Hell”, two double albums that showed his now legendary use of fixing a groove and playing the fuck out of it, using just bass, guitar and some horns along with hard hitting lyrics about drugs addiction, poverty and racism. On the other side of the block, Funkadelic were chasing funk, groove and party times with the gleeful abandon of kids let loose in a toy store. This album has the feel of joyful playing for the sake of just putting down vibes that wanna make you dance. Band leader George Clinton mixed funk, disco. soul, heavy rock with no regard for traditional arrangements. Electric organs carrying riffs, squelching synch lines, female backing vocals, raps, singing, chanting and the wild fuzz attack of Eddie Hazel spraying Jimi Hendrix type solos all over the place made this an infectious riot of modern music. Combined with the stage look of alien-playing funk invaders this was an un-earthly slice of grooviness – all together now …..

“Shit, Goddamn, Get Off Your Ass and Jam.”

So after braving the gritty impact of the cestus fight between Batman & Wildcat in the pages of Brave & the Bold, then subsequently getting off their asses and jamming, it was time for the young people of the middle-70's to catch a movie and The Night Train Murders would have fit the bill nicely.

Essentially, this is the movie Last House on the Left could have been. It was actually re-titled New House on the Left, Last House Part II and Second House on the Left in different territories. It deals with the same themes and plays out in similar fashion (basically, it's a rip-off, pure and simple), albeit in a slightly more tasteful fashion. But when dealing with a subject as disgusting as rape, tastefulness isn't really on the menu. The Night Train Murders fall into some of the pitfalls as Wes Craven's early piece de resistance including several explicit depictions of rape. It's hard to say what director Aldo Lado's and writers Roberto Infascelli, Renato Izzo and Ettore Sanzo's intentions were in showing it on screen. It's true horror that's for sure, and maybe one of the better things horror stories can do is lock us in a room with our tormentors and force us to face them for better or worse. What the intention, it landed the film the infamous "video nasty" label in the UK.

This Italian production featured the acting talents of Flavio Bucci, Marina Berti, Irene Miracle, Gianfranco De Grassi, Laura D'Angelo and Macha Meril as the unforgettable yet unnamed villain, "converted" from passive train passenger to active participant in the destruction of two young women's lives and the subsequent cover-up. She is one of the most evil and hateful characters I've ever encountered anywhere.

You can watch the full movie at this location. Trailer below:

COMICS SUCK! - Werewolf By Night #27 (March 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - March 1975

Cover artwork by Gil Kane.

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #27 (Marvel Comics)

"The Amazing Doctor Glitternight"

By Doug Moench (w); Don Perlin (a); Karen Pocock (l); Phil Rachelson (c) & Len Wein (e)

This is what I'm talking about. You don't see him on the cover, but Doctor Glitternight has got to be the eeriest Marvel villain of all-time. He reminds me of the Tall Man from Phantasm, only Glitternight came first. He's evil incarnate, a stone-faced, pupil-less hypnotic sorcerer who steals souls and turns the once beautiful Topaz into the horrible creature you do see on the cover, He floats like a manta ray overhead and projects black light onto his victims, stealing their very life-force. Unfortunately he's pretty much forgotten today, but I think he's the best unused Marvel villain there is.

Oddly, there is a 1938 crime film called The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse (which has an amazing resemblance to the word clitoris, but nevermind), it's probable that Glitternight was at least partly inspired by it.

Glitternight was created by Doug Moench who took over the series at issue #20 and stayed on til the series ended with #43. I first came to deeply respect him after reading his run on Batman from the early '90's. For my money, he remains one of thee great Batman writers. For what it's worth he co-authored the famous Knightfall storyline that Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises is partially based on. By that time he was a master craftsman who easily balanced words with pictures and allowed the characters to dictate the story. At this early stage in his career, he was out of his mind, and I mean that in the best way possible. 

He came up in comics through the skinflint Warren Publishing company where he penned numerous tales of the bizarre and the macabre in the pages of Eerie and Creepy magazines before finding a home at Marvel and subsequently pigeonholed there as "the horror guy". One supposes he felt the pressure or the need to keep upping the stakes in his increasingly weird tales. After the invention of Doctor Glitternight, those stakes would never get higher, not on Werewolf By Night anyway. The series wasn't long for this world after this point though.

It was 1975, the horror fad at Marvel was dying down to a quiet murmur and I imagine Moench was looking for a way out of his typecast anyway. He had just been given the keys to the new Inhumans series with new artist George Perez and it seems he was focusing more on that. By the time Inhumans hit the shelves this storyline was already in the bag and though the Glitternight story is arguably the pinnacle of this series, the fall that came after was precipitous indeed. Unfortunately, both the Inhumans and Werewolf By Night series would peter out within the course of the next two years.

But it turned out, he had already given himself a way out of the horror zone and found a way in to more mainstream superhero comics to increase the longevity of his career. Five issues after this one, Moench introduced a superhero into the pages of Werewolf, his name was Moon Knight and he was a corporate sponsored vigilante. By the time he was given his own series just a few years later, he was a Lamont Cranston / The Shadow inspired multiple personality with ties to ancient Egypt and enhanced with werewolf infected blood. He remains one of the more intriguing heroes in Marvel's pantheon, but few, if any, writers have gotten him right since Moench left for DC to join the Bat-team.

When the Comics Code Authority eased its restrictions against depicting horror tropes such as vampires, werewolves, zombies and monsters, Marvel Comics jumped in with four feet. Though the trend didn't last long, the company managed to produce some great stories, especially on this series and in the pages of Frankenstein's Monster. This issue in particular is a true highlight of their efforts.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After getting the creeps from reading Werewolf By Night it was time for a breather. It was time for something uplifting. Savvy audiences might then have turned to this album:



RUSH - FLY BY NIGHT
Rush's second album is a bit of a transition. They were about half a year away from releasing the 'Caress of Steel' album which featured a bit of more of what would come to be recognized as the Rush sound with moodier numbers and the ubiquitous side-long prog suites. 'Fly By Night' is a straight up hard rock album with mostly short, fast-moving numbers and is arguably more focused in its aims. The inclusion of the 8-minute mini-suite "By Tor and the Snowdog" announced that this was a transitional record in many ways.

[Image source]

Rush released their first album the previous summer with original drummer John Rutsey. It sunk with little trace. Part Budgie, part UFO the band appeared destined to fail commercially. Though the rockin' "In The Mood" and somewhat doom-y closing track "Working Man" are among the band's best numbers and with an incentive laced Canadian Content (MAPL) system in place, Canadian radio stations found it easy to ignore their native sons. It took a DJ from Cleveland named Donna Halper to discover the band and help them re-write the history of Canadian rock music. 'Fly By Night' was drummer / lyricist Neil Peart's first outing with the band giving Rush their signature pausiness. It was also Peart's love of fantasy and sci-fi that lent the band their trademark lyrical mysticism.

Rush wouldn't come to international prominence until a year and two albums later with '2112'.

But after absorbing the latest album from this emerging Canadian prog trio, it was time to watch a little TV. Flipping through the channels, the savvy viewer would have landed on ABC's Movie of the Week. Tuesday March 4, 1975 the movie was Trilogy of Terror, a three-part anthology of Richard Matheson stories, all starring Karen Black and directed by Dan Curtis.

Richard Matheson is most remembered as a writer for the original Twilight Zone television show and as the writer of such novels as I Am Legend (a personal favorite and partial inspiration for Night of the Living Dead), Hell House and The Shrinking Man. He was also an elite short story writer, his Shock series alone (4 volumes) is a must-read for genre fans. While his novels were often dark and poignant, his stories were crisp, sharp and sardonic, sometimes even silly. The stories featured in Trilogy of Terror were of the latter variety, though you wouldn't notice at first glance through director Curtis's dark interpretation.

This made-for-TV movie is best known for the third and final segment, "Amelia", which was an adaptation of Matheson's "Prey" (found in the Shockwaves or Shock IV collection). The story is about a woman who buys a Zuni fetish doll as a gift. When the doll comes to life and attacks her with spear, razor-sharp teeth and crazed, but fixed expression it is truly frightening. Jon Niccum of the Lawrence Journal-World wrote that this segment was "arguably the scariest piece ever crafted under the made-for-TV label." Trilogy of Terror deserves a special place among made-for-TV horror lore, along with the original Don't Be Afraid of the Dark for having memorable, possibly even traumatizing scenes of a totally supernatural origin.

The first two segments aren't nearly as memorable as "Amelia", though they're quite good. However, they are opening acts at best, the headliner is well worth the wait. You can watch the whole film below:

COMICS SUCK! - Strange Tales #178 (February 1975)

40 YEARS AGO - February 1975

Cover artwork by Jim Starlin.

STRANGE TALES #178 (Marvel Comics)
"Who is Adam Warlock?"
By Jim Starlin (w,a,c); Annette Kawecki (l) & Len Wein (e)
This is the issue that began one of the great creative runs in comics history. The ideas introduced in this short-lived series continue to reverberate to this day, into the Marvel film universe.

Jim Starlin is one of the greatest comics creators and this is him at the peak of his abilities, one quick thumbing through this issue will show you. The abilities of this master storyteller go beyond the linework and are woven deep into the story.

The story kicks off with a four page recap of Adam Warlock's history. I love these history lessons, Marvel used to do these all the time. In a time before comic shops and relative availability of back issues, this was the only way to find out who was who and what was what when picking up a new title for the first time. For a storyteller with limited space to work with, they are a nightmare and I can see why the concept fell largely into dis-use.

But to borrow a page from old Marvel's playbook ... Adam Warlock was originally known as Him when he was introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1967. He's a synthetic man with the powers of a God, a man created by man in the image of God. Even today this is high-concept stuff, for a 1967 comic book it's miraculously rich. He spent most of his life in a cocoon pondering his own existence but would bust out for the odd guest battle with Thor or Hulk. In the early 70's he was taken out of his protective cocoon for good and given his own series, first in the newborn Marvel Premiere showcase series and then, after two issues there, in his own series, The Power of Warlock. In Marvel Premiere he was re-christened Adam Warlock and became the messiah of the newly created Counter-Earth.

Themes of evolution and religion and questions about the inherent good or evil of humanity abound in the first 10 issues of Premiere and Warlock, but the series couldn't truly live up to its own ambitions and was cancelled after Warlock #8. After lying dormant for nearly a year and a half, the character was revived with this issue.

After the recap, the story opens with Warlock stumbling upon a young woman being pursued by hunters on a barren rock in the middle of outer space. Although confused, his good nature kicks in and he proceeds to protect her from her pursuers. But too late. She is ultimately shot by a ray gun and killed and the murderers flee. But not even death can stop Adam Warlock. He re-animates her body with the use of the soul-gem embedded in his forehead and her corpse tells him that her attackers represent the Universal Church of Truth which is run by a being called Magus. Warlock - Magus, see the connection? I don't want to spoil what today isn't much of a surprise but when Adam undertakes his quest to bring down the Universal Church of Truth he discovers that his greatest enemy is himself.

Necromancy, soul-vampirism, party-loving trolls, Thanos and the first appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy star Gamora, this series has it all. The series is essentially about an innocent soul who slowly loses himself in a ruthless universe and hurts those around him due to that innocence. In short, it's a psychedelic nightmare. A deep exploration of inner space set within the far reaches of outer space.

Jim Starlin pushed the vampirism angle thoroughly, first redesigning Warlock's costume to give him a slightly more Draculean look and even inking his teeth on front covers to create the illusion of fangs. After four issues in Strange Tales the series was moved to a newly revived Warlock #9 (cover date: October 1975). Sadly, the series would only survive until issue #15 and has never been revived.

The character would endure a meaningful and relatively long-lasting death by comics standards in the pages of an Avengers annual (#7). He would return as a manifestation of his own soul gem to destroy Thanos in the second part of the story which appeared in a Marvel Two-In-One annual (#2, both from late 1977). The entire Warlock run from Strange Tales, Warlock magazine and the two Marvel annuals was written and drawn by Jim Starlin with help from various artists not the least of whom was Steve Leialoha.

The character would eventually be re-born a second time, again by Starlin in the pages of his 6-issue epic Infinity Gauntlet. He became the leader of a group of cosmic adventurers The Infinity Watch whose own title ran for over 40 issues in the 1990's. He was one of the original members of the new version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the one the film of the same name is based on, but did not appear in the film.

If you have even a passing interest in older comics and you haven't read Jim Starlin's Warlock epic then I'd put this onto your MUST READ list without delay. When I first heard Adam Warlock wasn't going to be in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I was annoyed, but now I'm glad he wasn't used because the filmmakers likely would have fumbled this character badly. He is a synthetic man with the power of a god, one of the most underrated characters in the Marvel universe, and until vampirism came to the forefront he had that wicked-sexy Gil Kane designed costume, to boot (see cover). Really, he deserves his own movie and Jim Starlin should get first crack at screenplay.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After smoking a joint, reading this issue and having a good snicker, the disaffected youth of America no doubt hit the record shop at the local mall and spun this little record:

LED ZEPPELIN - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI

Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti', it's still my favorite Zeppelin album. My parents had two Zeppelin tapes in the car when I was a kid, 'Zeppelin II' and 'Physical Graffiti'. If memory serves the originally double-LP 'Physical Graffiti' tape contained both albums on a single cassette. Zeppelin 'II' had a lot of good rocking songs but it was just too bluesy for my adolescent tastes. I couldn't stand the blues back then, I thought it all sounded the same. Times change, tastes change, but not my love for this album.

While red-eyed, cotton-mouthed, mind-blown and ear-numbed after a deadly combination of joint smokin', Warlock readin' and Zeppelin listenin' the long-haired, denim clad youth of America's next hot spot was the movie theater where, back in February 1975, they were almost certain to have watched The Stepford Wives. The all-too current issues science fiction thriller directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman and Tina Louise.

The film was based on the Ira Levin novel of the same name and was heavy with relevant feminist themes. At times it was horrific, but maintained the sensibilities of a black comedy. You can watch it in full, right here, right now. Enjoy and thanks for reading!