Thursday 4 October 2012

1985: STAR WARS MARVEL US HOUSE AD


Here's a late-entry attempt by Marvel US to bolster its well-past-its-sales-peak STAR WARS title: a house ad which appeared in some of its other comics in early 1985 (this scan comes from a May cover-dated issue).

The Cynthia Martin art showcases the new characters Marvel were - increasingly - moving centre-stage to overcome the increasingly oppressive restrictions Lucasfilm were placing on the post-Jedi movie characters.

This era splits SW comics fans: some loath the sidelining of the series regulars whilst others welcomed the new direction.

In the final months, Marvel cut the frequency to bi-monthly (forcing the UK weekly to insert out-of-continuity reprints into the gaps between US issues) and - finally - pulled the plug with issue 107 in the summer of 1986 (cover-dated September 1986).  The final adventure, unseen in the UK, was appropriately - titled "All Together Now". 

The UK edition also shuttered in the summer of '86, ending with the issue cover-dated 6 June 1986 (issue 155).  The strip (a reprint of the third US annual, already seen in the UK in the final hardback annual) continued for a few more weeks in SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS.

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