September 8th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. ***September 8th, 1976, was a night of note for all comedy fans, with BBC One showing both Carry On Up the Khyber and the first-ever episode of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.In the real world, however, the week's events were dominated by flying machines, for good or ill.It was the week in which Viking 2 landed at Utopia Planitia on Mars and snapped its first close-up colour photos of the planet's surface.Soviet Air Force pilot Lt Viktor Belenko landed a MiG-25 fighter jet on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō and requested political asylum in the United States.More darkly, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules belonging to the Venezuelan Air Force crashed in the Azores, killing all 68 occupants.When it came to the UK singles chart, ABBA were still ruling supreme, thanks to their smash hit Dancing Queen, while the Beach Boys retained command of the neighbouring LP chart with their 20…