On this day, 21 April 1973: Lion and Thunder
On this day, 21 April 1973 … I love this cover, featuring super-villain turned crime-buster The Spider in the grip of what appears to be a giant Klegg – in fact the enormo-croc is ‘The Crook from Outer Space’, a new adversary for The Spider in an adventure beginning in this week’s Lion and Thunder. The cover is a bit misleading for nostalgia-tourists (such as me) reading single issues rather than the whole serial, as the scene represented doesn’t actually appear in this week’s issue. Instead, the story kicks off with The Spider battling The Infernal Gadgeteer, an old-timer whose secret potion gives him lightning-fast speed enabling him to steal a collection of vintage coins which he will sell to enable him ‘to finance bigger and better gadgets with which to flout the law’. We are treated to only two panels of cosmic gator guy as he observes the two humans in combat with scheming eyes: ‘Most interesting … There should be much to amuse me on this planet!’
Elsewhere in this issue, Spellbinder makes an emergency landing on a strange alien planet, Robot Archie explores an exotic lost world beneath the Arctic, Cotton and Varl of Stitch in Time regrettent pretty much everything in the French Foreign Legion, Adam Eterno does battle with a medieval vampire and Zip Nolan sends the bad guys off the rails.
Spellbinder: Geoff Campion (artist)
Spellbinder: Geoff Campion (artist)
Robot Archie: George Cowan (writer), Ted Kearon (artist)
The Shadow of the Snake: Angus Allan (writer), John Catchpole (artist)
The Last of the Harkers: Tom Tully? (writer), John Stokes? (artist)
Stitch in Time: Jose Munoz (artist)
The Flying Fortress: Gorgio Trevisan (artist)
Adam Eterno: Solano Lopez (artist)
Steel Commando: Frank S. Pepper (writer), Alex Henderson (artist)
Carson’s Cubs: Fred T. Holmes (artist)
Zip Nolan: Roberto Diso? (artist)
The Spider: Jerry Siegel (writer), Reg Bunn (artist)
Mowser: Reg Parlett (artist)
