This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the Marvel publications from January of 1973, excluding reprints.
DAREDEVIL AND THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #95 (January 1973)
Title: Bullfight on the Bay
Villain: The Man-Bull
Synopsis: Matt Murdock has relocated his law practice to San Francisco in order to move in with his new lady, the wealthy Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow. Matt’s alter ego Daredevil has also made San Francisco his new home, but because this is just a comic book nobody makes the connection that Matt is Daredevil … even though DD has become the Black Widow’s crimefighting partner.
Back in New York, Daredevil’s old foe the Man-Bull has his gang break him out of prison so he can go to San Francisco and kill Daredevil. The unsuspecting Matt Murdock is settling in at Broderick & Sloan, his new law firm.
When the Man-Bull begins rampaging through Frisco in order to flush out our hero, the Black Widow and Daredevil swing into action against him. Eventually the villain renders Daredevil unconscious, leaving the Black Widow alone against him for the cliffhanger ending. Continue reading
FERD THE DANDY (1821-1866) – The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 4th this year, so here is another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. This one covers a ruthless, yet often forgotten, gambler-gunslinger. 
Come 1859 Ferd the Dandy had acquired too big a reputation as a professional gambler to even get in a game anymore, so he gravitated to the Sailors’ Diggings Gold Rush near Waldo, Oregon. The mining town had already known the murderous rampage of the Triskett Gang by the time Patterson arrived to stain Waldo with his own activities. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television returns with this look at four television presentations of works by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
The latest roundup of news, memes and political cartoons from 
TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON (August 12th, 1860-August 15th, 1905) – This future gunslinging lawyer and last child of Sam Houston with his wife Margaret Lea-Houston was born in the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, TX. His storied father, the first president of the short-lived Republic of Texas was then serving as governor for the state of Texas.
It was during this time that Temple met an old friend of his father, who arranged a job for the young man as a Senate Page in Washington, DC. Working in that capacity for 3 years, Temple developed an ambition to study law and enter politics himself someday. 
THE LAND OF THE CHANGING SUN (1894) – By William N. Harben, a former American literary giant who has since been forgotten. 
THOMASINE & BUSHROD (1974) – The Frontierado Holiday is Friday, August 4th this year, so here is another seasonal post – a review of the black western Thomasine & Bushrod. This tale of a pair of outlaw lovers is a nice change of pace since it is set in the fading Wild West of 1911-1915. Automobiles are beginning to show up here and there, making Thomasine & Bushrod a fascinating fusion of “Robin Hood Outlaw” tales bridging both the old west and the later Pretty Boy Floyd era. 
While collecting the money from her most recent success, Thomasine sees a fresh Wanted poster for her old boyfriend J.P. Bushrod, a gunslinging bank robber and rustler portrayed by Max Julien from the previous year’s blaxploitation hit The Mack. 
ADVENTURE COMICS VOL 1 #352 (January 1967) 
The Fatal Five are Tharok, a cyborg whose cybernetic brain makes him more intelligent than Brainiac 5; Validus, a huge purple monstrosity whose insanity drives it to perpetual violence; the Emerald Empress, evil ruler of an entire planet whose populace recently won a war to overthrow her; the Persuader, a killer and plunderer whose armor and Atomic Axe make him unstoppable; and Mano, a mutant whose hand wields energies so powerful that the hand destroyed his entire home planet. 
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