THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

Details about the strips from this wonderful publication.

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jim244
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THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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All strips were untitled so for ease of reference I have titled them.
All strips writer Angus P. Allan; artist Martin Asbury.

STORY 1
"WARHEAD"
ISSUES 26 (1975) - 33

A train carrying the latest and most potentially dangerous nuclear warhead that science has ever produced is on its way to a secret location in California.
Steve Austin is racing to save the troops guarding the bomb from an explosion that he knows is to be detonated in The Benson Dam by "The Admiral",Starro Stein,a super criminal.
He arrives too late.The bomb goes off and the train,the troops and the cargo are drowned under 300 feet of water.
Stein has a bathyscaphe underneath the lake and aims to pick up the warhead from the wreckage.A helicopter with a huge grapnel appears and Steve goes for the chopper.
The pilot of the helicopter forces Steve into the water,almost drowning him.
Varga,Steins' gorilla strong lieutenant manages to secure the nuclear warhead.
Stein escapes with both the warhead and a half drowned Steve Austin.
Stein plans to build himself an army of supermen by copying Steves' bionics.
Oscar Goldman sends all available operational military units to search for the helicopter but when a tank squadron locates it,the helicopter explodes.
Stein sends his demands to the US Government,he wants all of the gold in Fort Knox for Steves' return but in reality it is a bluff.
Using "the Mole" (an underground travelling tunneling machine craft) he plans to tunnel to China to release the bomb and begin a World War that will wipe out the major powers leaving him to take over.
Steve manages to escape from the Mole and gets to a secret airbase and plans to contact Oscar but is shot at by guards at the base.
Steve takes a jet fighter and contacts Oscar and Oscar links up a network of seismographic detectors to locate the Mole.
Steve shoots a missile from the fighter that causes the roofing of the tunnels to collapse upon the Mole.
Danger averted,Steve tells Oscar he needs a holiday.

jim244
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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 2
"SECRET ARMY"
ISSUES 34-41

Colonel Steve Austin ejects from a crashing plane on to Toussaint Island and sends a mayday.
It is all part of a plan.Steve must gain access to foreign territory in order to investigate Hugo Mazelli.
It is believed through intelligence reports that Mazelli, a known Communist strong arm man,is forming a secret army which might be a threat to US security.
A combat group locates Steve on the island and Steve is shocked to hear that they are working for his own agency,the O.S.O.
In reality,while the troops totally believe that they are working for the U.S.A. they have been tricked into believing such by Mazelli and only his second in command,Captain Kulik,knows the truth.
Kulik,under orders to kill Steve but under the appearance of driving him to the local village to get home,crashes his jeep after Steve stops him from shooting him and dies.
Steve returns to the base camp and becomes a member of the unit.
He learns that they are planning to attack a radio base in Tortonda Atoli,that they have been told has been infiltrated by Communists but in reality is American and works closely with Cape Canaveral.
Mazelli plans to take control of the base so that he can redirect rockets towards USA targets.
The base is raided,the soldiers are killed and a missile is targeted towards Washington DC.
Due to Steve,the men eventually realise that they have been duped into killing fellow US soldiers.
Steve manages to destroy the missile using guidance from the control console.

jim244
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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 3
"HYPNOSIS"
ISSUES 42-49

On a diplomatic peace program,President Suvarov of the Soviet Union narrowly survives an assassination attempt by Colonel Steve Austin.
Steve has been hypnotised by "The Great Sandor",who wants a war between Russia and the USA.

(Apologies for shorter story scenarios but in retrospect I believe it might be a better idea moving forward).

jim244
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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

Post by jim244 »

STORY 4
ISSUES 50 (1975) - 4 (1976)
"THE CLINIC"

Steve is assigned to investigate the bizzare " Guzman clinic " and in particular to protect one of it's patients,the Vice President of America.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 5
ISSUES 5-10 (1976)
"MAGISTER"

A strange and sinister masked man who calls himself "Magister" has developed a chemical that can destroy metal with ease.
He causes many disasters and attempts to hold the world to ransom.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 6
ISSUES 11-22 (1976)
"THE TOYMAKER"

Professor Laszlo Cernatz,alias "The Toymaker" is sending anonymous deadly toys with mind control power to random families all over the United States.
He plans to create absolute chaos,controlling the children and even making them kill.
A 12 issue story,longest so far of this series.
I must state two opinions at this point during this chronology:
1)The cliff hangers that end each issue from the first story in 1975 onwards have always been excellent and this story even ups the ante.
2) Allan and Astbury are such an incredible team and the "Six Million Dollar Man" strip really excels and is among their greatest work,if not perhaps even their greatest work.The scripts and artwork are sublime.

jim244
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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 7
ISSUES 23-32 (1976)
"Escape From The East"

Having secretly penetrated the frontier of an Eastern Bloc Country,Steve Austin poses as a political refugee.
His plan to get himself arrested by the secret police works perfectly.
He gets himself imprisoned in the notorious Camp K-150.His mission is to reach another captive,Professor Malkof and resue him to return him to the West.

At the time of this strip,Six Million Dollar Man popularity was reaching fever pitch.Some of these issues feature adverts for Denys Fischer toys such as the 13" high action figure of the Six Million Dollar Man.Also advertised are a Bionic and Outer Space transporter and Repair Kit;games and action kits and a back pack radio and helmet.

At the end of Season 2 of the Tv "Six Million Dollar Man",a new character is introduced,Jamie Sommers as the Bionic Woman.The series hit the TV schedules and after features and posters,her picture strip adventures began in issue 33 (1976) of Look-In.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 8
Issues 33-39 (1976)
"COMBINED OPS"

In total secret,Russia and America join forces to assualt the Island of Guadano,base of an organization called "Muerte",dedicated to the over throw of all existing governments.
The son of a Nazi Bio-physcist,Heinrich Von Scurrier sees his South American base destroyed by the combined operation but escapes with Steve Austin as his captive.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 9
ISSUES 40-44 (1976)
"Prison Break"

Imprisoned under the alias of Chuck Carlson,a bank robbing killer,Steve Austin is assigned to locate a jailbird who is in fact a spy and help him to escape so that vital hidden microfilm can be recovered.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 10
ISSUES 45-51 (1976)
"Death of a Friend"

Hogan,Steve's cell mate in the previous story,has been paroled by Oscar Goldman at Steves' request.The two have become friends and share unwavering respect and allegiance to each other.
The pair are teamed up and sent on a mission to infiltrate a forgery ring run by Ciccio Moroni.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 11
ISSUES 52 (1976) - 7 (1977)
"THE DEFECTOR"

Following on from the previous story,due to the mission resulting in the death of Steves' friend,he attempts to resign from the service.
A spy plane has gone down in neutral waters and Oscar Goldman needs the equipment back.Steve refuses the mission so Oscar blackmails him by saying that if Steve doesn't do it,he will send Jamie Sommers.
Steve knows how dangerous this mission will be as the other side will be after the equipment so accepts the mission but threatens Oscar that when he returns he will see him "carpeted" for his methods.
Steve phones Jamie and she tries to calm him down but does say "You've always known how ruthless Oscar is".
The hostiles have got to the wreckage of the spy plane first and taken the equipment whilst booby trapping the wreck with a bomb.
The plane explodes,Steve is threatened by sharks and "saved" by being picked up by a Chinese destroyer.
The Chinese know that Steve is the secret agent known as "bionic man" and also that he was dissatisfied after his last mission and wished to leave his organisation.
They wonder if they can persuade him to defect and Steve does defect.
Oscar sends a US sub to destroy the Chinese destroyer,along with Steve.
An absolutely brilliant story with incredible art,this strip seems to continually reach new heights the longer it continues.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 12
ISSUES 8-14 (1977)
"Death Dream"

A recurring nightmare where he's buried alive drives Steve Austin close to a breakdown.
Oscar Goldman insists that he sees the OSO psychiatrist,Doctor Linmann.
An evil genius,Marotti,poses as Linmann and captures Steve,aided by Sondor,an incredibly powerful robot that he intends to give Steves' brain to.
Issue 8 is very much a bionic special issue with 11 pages devoted to such,including another competition to win a Six Million Dollar Man Denys Fischer model.

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STORY 13
"VIRUS"
ISSUES 15-20 (1977)

Posing as Professor Martin Stowell,whom he has kidnapped,arch criminal Olsen Shand plants a flask of a deadly virus somewhere in New York city.
Unless he is paid ten million dollars he swears to let it detonate.It will certainly wipe out the citys' population.
The authorities have to agree to the fantastic ransom but Oscar Goldman sends Steve Austin to make the pay off.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 14
"TARGET"
ISSUES 21-29 (1977)

Assigned as extra bodyguard to a visiting Japanese minister,Steve Austin is on the watch for assassins.
He has no idea that he himself is the real target,marked down as a victim of the deadly killer named Nakamma,who has been hired by a syndicate of top United States crime bosses.

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Re: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN:THE LOOK-IN STRIPS:CHRONOLOGY

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STORY 15
ISSUES 30-37 (1977)
"FALSE DAWN"

Steve goes behind the Iron Curtain to kidnap Professor Jurgen Waldheim.
A political fanatic,Waldheim is to be taken to the USA and installed in a specially constructed central European township so that he will believe that the kidnap attempt went wrong.
However,the mission fails and Steve barely escapes with his life.

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