COMICS SUCK! Marvel Team-Up #150 (February 1985)

30 YEARS AGO - February 1985

Cover artwork by Barry Windsor-Smith.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #150 (Marvel Comics)
"Tis Better to Give!"
By Louise Simonson (w); Greg LaRocque (p); Mike Esposito (i); Janice Chiang (l); Bob Sharen (c) & Danny Fingeroth (e)
This is the tear-soaked final issue of what had been a staple at Marvel Comics for well over a decade. The Spider-Man featured team-up book where every month the editors would trot out another slumping or rising hero in an effort to boost sales company-wide. I never understood their appeal as a child, but I could see why Marvel Team-Up and it's The Thing featured companion, Marvel Two-In-One could inspire some of the nostalgia I see today. It being the final issue it feels like Marvel wanted to let the world know what it was potentially missing out on by teaming Spidey with the X-Men. Either that or it was one last ditch attempt at a re-coup. Were the X-Men popular in 1985? I don't know what it was like where you lived but I couldn't find an X-Men comic on shelves during the 80's and early 90's outside of comics specialty shops, they were sold out everywhere.

The story kicks off with Spidey/Peter Parker in another of his endless awkward situations of flirting with girls while trying to maintain his secret identity. The gaiety is eventually interrupted when Juggernaut drops in to town, from a plane, without a parachute, to retrieve a second gem of the Cyttorak (that thing what gives him his power) to give to his buddy Black Tom Cassidy. Black Tom then gains the same powers as Juggernaut (invulnerability, super-strength) but is unhappy with how the power changes him. The two brawl in the streets causing millions of dollars in property damage which was par for the course in 1980's Marvel Manhattan. Spidey's there to snap pictures and get beat on until he points his eyes toward the heavens and shouts "DEUS EX MACHINA!" and the X-Men show up to save the day. Okay, he doesn't actually shout that, but that's basically what happens. The series ends when Petey discovers he's sent the wrong photos to the Daily Bugle, sending the creep stalker pics he took of his attractive young roof-dwelling sunbathing neighbors. But it ends well with approval from his editor Robbie Robertson. If nothing else, it is kind of funny to see a dejected Spidey sulking away in the upper left hand info box on the cover.

This series had some highlights (the short Chris Claremont / John Byrne creative run for one thing), but was mostly for the dogs. Many of the stories simply fell flat, or seemed inconsequential, not the least of which was a Spider-Man team-up with the cast of Saturday Night Live. Mostly, the title was a showcase for emerging artists but was usually the home of the company's least inspired writing. This issue marked the end of an era, however. Marvel Comics has tried repeatedly to revive the team-up format in the ensuing 30 years with little success.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After reading their translated copy of Marvel Team-Up #150, the cooler kids among the Italian youth of 1985 probably went out to the local record shop and snagged themselves a copy of this unheralded gem:



BLACK HOLE - LAND OF MYSTERY
It's only thanks to the good people at Shadow Kingdom Records that I am able to accurately cast my mind back to 1985 Italy and know what record the youth of that time would have devoured. This totally obscure album was re-issued by SKR on CD in late 2011, the original, 7-song 'Land of Mystery' album re-packaged with the band's fifth independently issued demo from later in 1985. You can purchase and download it at this location.

The album was recorded in May & June of 1985 but since nobody remembers the actual release date I'm using poetic license in this post about February 1985 and anyway, I couldn't find a better album from that month of that year, so here we are.

This highly atmospheric album is a doom metal classic. Near as anyone can figure, Black Hole was the first band to combine horror film soundtrack moods with heavy metal. The result is a stunning record full of synthesizer organ and heavy guitars. Robert Measles's vocals are sung in English but he has a thick Italian accent, reminding me of early Doomraiser albums.

If the title track "Land of Mystery" doesn't automatically transport you mentally to a dew shrouded graveyard, your ears are broken. Not since Black Sabbath's eponymous debut had record buyers fell into such a dark, heavy abyss. I talk a lot about horror music on this page, or at least I try to, this album is one of the transcendent examples of the form.

After 'Land of Mystery' was released by Bologna Rock Records, the band would split up. Black Hole also released three demos in 1985, but it's hard to tell which came first, this record or the demos because there are no release dates. Anyway, the band would reconvene and record a second full length record in 1988-89 but that album did not surface until Andromeda Relix Records released it on CD as 'Living Mask' in 2000 (it was also issued for the first time on vinyl just last year by Jolly Roger Records). By that time the band was ten years gone and their place in doom metal history as a shadowy relic was firmly entrenched.

But after thoroughly frightening themselves with the final issue of Marvel Team-Up and being only slightly less disturbed by Black Hole's album, I'm sure the coolest among Italian youth needed a break from all the darkness and so decided to go the local movie house to see the new Terry Gilliam film, Brazil.

It's a weird mash-up of re-imagining George Orwell's 1984 with Mad Max set in an office building imagery. A (hilarious) dream of flying turned bureaucratic nightmare, Brazil is one of the most singular visions in movie history, which cemented Gilliam's place in Hollywood as an a-list creative genius, but a z-list commercial failure. Brazil stars Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. Watch the trailer below:

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Brookfield Demon Murder

[Image source]

Brookfield, CT - On February 16, 1981 the 193-year old town of Brookfield, CT experienced its first murder when 19-year old Arne Johnson stabbed his landlord Alan Bono five times in the chest with a pocket knife. But that wasn’t the only precedent the act would set. In late October, facing a charge of manslaughter Johnson’s defense entered the plea of Not Guilty - by reason of demonic possession.

Roughly a year earlier, Ed and Lorraine Warren came to visit. You might remember them as the subjects of the recent film The Conjuring or nearly any made-for-TV program about ghosts or the paranormal in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s. Johnson’s girlfriend (Debbie Glatzel)’s 11-year old brother David Glatzel was being looked at for demonic possession. The Warrens swore it was a genuine case, though it seems they never met a paranormal case they didn’t love. But, it seemed the exorcism didn’t take. After Catholic priests presided over the boy, the infernal infection apparently remained. Arne, never particularly close to David, took the initiative to call upon the demons to leave the boy’s body and enter his own. Martin Minnella, Johnson’s lawyer argued that they did just that.

That decision turned the case into a national sideshow.

Minnella had “tapes” (audio or video is unrevealed) of the exorcism. Minnella still claims 34 years later that young David Glatzel spoke “the names of 42 demons in Latin, and that the Brookfield Police Chief was going to testify that he saw the child levitate”.

Minnella claimed that ‘demonic possession’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘insanity’, he was out to prove that demons exist. The Warrens also never seem to have met a camera they didn’t love and embraced their potential role as star witnesses. Minnella was prepared to have the Warrens testify to the existence of demons, and to produce the recordings of the exorcism including Johnson’s “challenge” to the demons but the plea was rejected by the court and the more conventional plea of self-defence was entered in its place.

The entire stabbing incident was found to be due to Bono’s having made an obscene remark about Debbie Glatzel’s dress, which Johnson took exception to. The two argued, things escalated, Bono wound up dead. Johnson was found guilty and served five years in prison.

The event gained colossal levels of media attention at the time and became known as “the devil made me do it case”. It even spawned a 1983 made-for-TV movie starring Kevin Bacon called The Demon Murder Case. It isn’t great. It’s no ‘The Exorcist’ that’s for sure, but tune in tomorrow for the real-life story that inspired the novel that the film was based on …

Sources:

Hartford Courant

People Magazine

Take a look at this My Life of Crime article for reams and reams of links

Post-Script: This story has a happy ending, Johnson married Glatzel while still in prison and the two remain together, today they are grandparents to two boys.

And here's The Demon Murder Case movie for your viewing pleasure. It also stars Andy Griffith and was directed by William Hale.

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - February 8-14, 2015

Still getting my music review legs back under me, but I'm not sure how productive I can be. Reviewing albums is the most time-consuming writing I've ever done, not that I mind it. I mean, the hours that go by have a good soundtrack. I just don't know how many I can realistically expect to do in a week. We'll see. This week though, I reviewed a couple of great ones.

Evil Spirit
Misty Grey
Doom Chart 02/14/15

COMICS SUCK!
Posts about comics new and old.

Comics Suck! rolled along through the groovy 60's and 70's this past week, both from Marvel Comics, back when the  publisher was truly Mighty. Next week we'll be tripping through the gnarly 80's and 90's.

Remember we're not just talking about comics in these posts, we're talking about music and movies too and hopefully, slowly and subtly are helping to put these funny books into a wider cultural context.

Tales of Suspense #62 (Feb 65)
Strange Tales #178 (Feb 65)

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Strange but true stories.

It's been a good run of Everyday Strange stories so far this month, we kicked things off with a special two-part Elisa Lam article (which continues to attract readers!), then to Dyatlov Pass, both of which were serious in tone. Then things veered off into some relatively silly places with the Cacti's Revenge story, although a man really did die at the hands branches of a cactus, so how "fun" can you really get?

This week saw more wild mood swings as we moved from the classic Devil's Footprints story to alligators in sewers. The thing I love about doing these articles is the learning aspect. I pick a subject I don't know much about because I think it sounds cool or weird or interesting and then I brush past the surface to discover how legends start. Half-heard and unconfirmed quotes, unsourced articles and opinions or the good old fashioned debunking job, there is very little you can count on remaining true from the beginning of the research phase to the finished article.

We topped off the week with the story of Tiffany Sutton, which ended up being far more popular than I'd imagined. Check it out at the link below:

The Devil's Footprints
Alligators in Sewers
Tiffany Sutton, real-life Vampire story

HORRIBLE NIGHTS
Horror films and music. Renamed from Horrible Mondays in loving tribute of Moss's album of the same name.

Started to get into the swing of these Horrible Nights a bit more this week. It's weird how things go in the blogging business. You think one post will be popular and it falls flat, and you think no one will notice another post and it blows up.

I Tweeted my 'Lost Themes' review directly to John Carpenter, needless to say we didn't tweet back, haha!

music - John Carpenter's 'Lost Themes'
movie - Demons (1985)

UPCOMING

This week is going to flow much like last week. I don't have any music reviews planned, but I've got 23 potential albums to review, although some of those will end up as Horrible Nights. Speaking of which I've got a music review coming up this Monday for an album I've been listening too pretty much non-stop since I discovered it this past Christmas. Also got a movie review coming this Friday for a film that shows you how to blow minds on an $8000 budget.

Aside from the two Comics Suck! posts coming up there are a number of Everyday Strange posts in the works. I was disappointed I didn't have time to post the story about that time they found 1200 bones beneath Ben Franklin's old house, I guess I'll have to get to it next year. This week I hope I can get to both demonic possession cases that are in the queue, each one inspired a movie, although the two films are not equals. Until then ...

Thanks for reading!

COMING SOON:            

DOOM CHART - Top 25 Albums for 02/14/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

1. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
2. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
3. Alucarda - Raw Howls
4. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
5. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah††
6. Strange Broue - Various EP's
7. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
8. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo†††
9. Occultation - Earthbound EP
10. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
11. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
12. Phantomass - Self-Titled
13. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
14. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
15. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
16. Spectral Haze - I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains*
17. Galleon - Self-Titled
18. Lord of Doubts - Into the Occult†
19. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
20. Orb - Womb**
21. Doomraiser - Reverse
22. Ooze [ИЛ] - Black Swamp [Чёрная Топь]**
23. Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
24. Obrero - The Infinite Corridors of Time
25. Maze of Roots - Two Chapters**

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order only
† Available on cassette only
†† Available on vinyl and cassette only
††† Available on vinyl only

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

STRANGE BROUE – ‘Kult-Aid’

If you've never listened to the Jonestown death tape, it's arguably the most disturbing recording ever made. It explicitly describes Rev. Jim Jones instructing his followers to kill themselves. The instructions are complete with quick and ready-made hows and whys when some stray followers begin questioning whether they can go through with it. And then he starts talking about the children. All the while the congregation laments, wails and moans in the background, the volume and urgency rising and falling but sounding unmistakably damned. If you're easily disturbed, you don't want to listen to this thing.

Strange Broue's latest two-song offering makes use of it. Matter of fact a clip from it is the first thing you hear on second track "Kult-Aid". When the music does get going, it may be the best song Strange Broue has offered up yet. Then again, it may just be a psychological reaction to the relief you feel when the Jonestown clip ends. I wouldn't put it past the Broue. After all, Jim Jones was notorious for the psychological manipulation of his followers, all cults do this. Strange Broue tortures the ears momentarily with a disturbing clip, then relieves that stress with a nice big heavy riff. It's like a reverse Clockwork Orange technique to get the listener to join the Strange Broue kult. And it's impossible to resist.

Something tells me Strange Broue has been planning this for some time. The very name of the band brings to mind the cyanide-laced purple kool-aid Jones served his followers, now that you mention it. This EP is a recruitment tool, there can no longer be any doubt. Strange Broue remains for the moment a one-man band. I know the band leader's name is Max, but if it turns out that 'Max' is an abbreviated form of the name 'Marshall Applewhite' then I'm out, I mean I'm running and not looking back.

But until such time as that information is revealed I'll continue to monitor the progress of the Strange Broue kult. There are now 10 songs up on bandcamp on six different one and two song releases and they're all excellent. I threw a brief overview of the music in January which you can find at this location. You'll probably want to grab these while you can because there will be a time, it might a year from now, it might be five or 10 years from now, but these early demos will become cherished rarities the way Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats 'Vol. 1' is now.

EVERYDAY STRANGE - Meth Vampire for Valentine's Day

“You Robert McDaniel swear no wrong will come to me Tiffany Lachelle Sutton due to tonight’s events … You also pass to me all your earthly powers wealth included.”

TEMPE, ARIZONA - 46-year old Robert McDaniel called his friend from a phone booth, confused and about to pass out from blood loss and exhaustion. Earlier, he had been restrained, sliced, punctured, stabbed and bled. After slipping his bonds he escaped the shack behind the abandoned house and ran across a field, drained and weak, his date chasing him with a pickaxe. When his friend arrived to pick him up, he still didn’t want to call the cops or go to hospital because of all the meth that had been involved. He was covered in blood and 23-year old Tiffany Sutton stood watching the scene, covered only in a blanket. Some people just have more fun on Valentine’s Day.

McDaniel barely knew Sutton, but on February 14, 2007 the two of them were drinking booze and smoking meth in a shack behind an abandoned house when McDaniel agreed to be tied up for what he must have thought was going to be a wild bout of kinky sex. Allegedly Sutton made him sign a waiver form beforehand in case the sex got “crazy”. The waiver form also included a stipulation that Mr. McDaniel’s worldly belongings become her property. Once he was tightly secured, Sutton pulled out the knives and pickaxe she just happened to have handy. McDaniel wasn’t sure what she was doing but began to wonder if he might die. Sutton claimed that she liked to drink blood and that she was going to drink his.

[Image source]

She sliced him across the leg and put her mouth on the wound. He told her he didn’t like what was going on, but she proceeded to stab him, then stab and slice him again, and again.

In all, McDaniel suffered seven stab wounds and was sliced multiple times. Sutton was arrested for aggravated assault. During the trial it was revealed that Sutton suffered from borderline personality disorder. Her mother insisted that Tiffany was “totally different” while on medication. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in a Maricopa county prison.

Sutton had been staying with McDaniel in the shack for a time before the incident though they barely knew each other. When the police had been by the evict the couple, Sutton drew blood when she dug her finger nails into the hand of one of the officers, for which she received a one year sentence which she served concurrently with her 10 year sentence. Though she’s appealed several times the conviction was never overturned.

Several Sutton fan websites popped up around the time of her arrest set up by the same person and she has become something of a kinky folk hero with one apparently lonely and desperate man (“Angelic Scars”) wishing to willingly have their blood drank by her every night. It goes to show that if there’s a variation on the theme of sex, no matter how dangerous or irresponsible, some kind of subculture will spring up around it.

If there’s a lesson to be learned here it’s to be sure you know who you’re smoking meth with this Valentine’s Day.

Sources:

East Valley Tribune

AZ Central

Crime Library

HORRIBLE NIGHTS - Demons (1985)

"They will make cemeteries their cathedrals 

and the cities will be your tombs"

While many other sites will be talking about the Friday the 13th film franchise today, I'm going to give you an alternative. I'm going to show you a movie that is one part mondo schlock and one part metafiction in overdrive. This is a horror film about people watching a horror film. As the film-within-a-film unfolds, the audience's reality intertwines with the story's plot. Like many Italian horror films, there's an ambiguity of intention due to narrative dissonance. While American filmmakers torture themselves over details of a tightly constructed plot, Italians have often gravitated toward pure expression. For audiences trained in Hollywood storytelling, these films appear to be a confused jumble of ideas. Things just sort of happen on screen and it's on the viewer to shuffle them into order. The film might be saying that horror films make demons of their audience, or it might be saying nothing at all.

The nihilistic tendencies of the story negate any sense of meaning at all. What begins as a story about people infecting and destroying each other in a self-contained environment, ie: the Metropol movie theater, ends in an apocalyptic outbreak. There is no hope here, no moral victory and that just may be the muted point, that the violence and destruction horror fans witness desensitizes them and destroys the moral fabric of society. The horror film itself is the demon infecting those in theaters who are then unleashed upon the world. Or it might be saying nothing at all.

Demons (Dèmoni) was directed by Lamberto Bava, the son of legendary Italian director Mario Bava and produced by Dario Argento. Argento's association with the film has taken precedence and many believe that the movie was directed by him. With such a pedigree the film may be a slight disappointment aesthetically. This is sleazy camp, the story is a mess and the English overdubs are atrocious. But no matter, those are reasons to love this film.

When a second set of characters are introduced we stay with them for a while and get to know them. They do interesting if hideous things like drive while sniffing coke out of a straw sticking out from a coca-cola can, then spill the can on their ladyfriend's chest before using a razor blade to scrape up the mess. They bicker, we understand their group dynamics and the air in their car is electric with sexually charged danger and tension. Ultimately, they're there to free the demons from the barricaded theater, a simple job that might have been handled by less developed characters. Their punk rock sleaze may be symbolic of a destructive force in society. In this film, it's those racy, drug-addled punks who literally set the demons free. Then again, the film might be saying nothing at all.

Those trapped in the theater and suffering at the hands of the demons are no better. The daughter of a blind man (what's he doing at the movie theater?) who relies on her to give him 'descriptive audio' sneaks off to bump uglies with a man, as far as we know a complete stranger, without exchanging a single word with him. These are people who talk during the movie or, in other words, assholes. Then there's the even bigger asshole who incessantly shushes them. There's the pimp and his two whores. The horndogs and their all too willing prey. And when the shit hits the fan, they're just people. Leaders emerge and are dragged or thrown of balconies, replaced by new leaders. Demons could be saying that this is what people are, scratch the surface (literally, with a metal mask) and underneath you'll find the most horrific, lustfully murderous perversions.

Under the surface of this film is a kind of frame story. The same actor who appears in the film being screened at the Metropol, whose character is the first to don the fateful chrome mask, hands our heroine the complimentary pass for the theater. He doesn't say a word, he just hands her the ticket.

The storytelling in Demons seems ham-fisted, the acting is distracting and much of the plot makes little sense at first brush. But the sleaze is on point, many of the kills are highly memorable and there are some good moments on the soundtrack. Behind it all is a subtle social message, a warning gilded with fun. As if to prove the underlying point of Demons, I'd love to have seen the highly atmospheric film-within-a-film that the spectators are watching. There have been endless sequels that are only tangentially related to this film, one that ends with very little possibility for a sequel.

WATCH DEMONS HERE:

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!