STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: 1977: THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR

Monday, 17 September 2012

1977: THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR - PART ONE

It's been a while since I've done a Marvel UK cover gallery so - to make amends - here's the first part of a multi-part rundown of THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, from 1977-78.

Marvel's first family had been part of the all-star inaugural line-up of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (along with SPIDER-MAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK) back in 1972, but they didn't graduate to their own solo title until September 1977 (Spidey, by way of comparison, only had to wait until 1973. The Jolly Green Giant was left holding-the-fort until his own weekly in '79).

TCFF, as the name suggests, ran the equivalent of one relatively recent US issue per week (reprinted from c1973), backed-up by MORE FF dating back to 1961 and US issue 1.

The weekly followed M-UK's standard late-seventies formula: a black-and-white interior (on newsprint) wrapped inside a glossy cover.

A fantabulosa field day for FF fans, but no-one in the US Bullpen (who were, presumably, making these decisions based on the advise of the UK branch) seems to have spotted that devouring one US monthly ever week was going to - eventually - cause problems. Maybe no-one thought this would survive long enough for it to matter. Or, maybe, they never planned TCFF to have - ahem - a long shelf life.

True to M-UK form, TCFF managed to survive only a year, returning Reed and family to THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (from issue 298) after only 37 issues.

The FF flew solo again (talking of flying... I'm not impressed by the utterly unrelated free gifts with the launch issues) in 1980 with the launch of their POCKET BOOK. That ended, along with the last vestiges of the range, in 1982... just in time for a second (shorter-lived) solo weekly (which also reprinted early seventies fare).