1988: POWER COMICS ISSUE 1 BY BOLLAND AND GIBBONS

From March 1988: POWER COMICS issue 1, another title (see also: the recent JAMES BOND post) that emerged from the tie-up between Britain's Acme Press and Eclipse over in the States.

This one was a genuine oddity: reprints of early work by Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland originally created in the 1970s for export... to Nigeria!  The principle character was - originally - Powerman but the lawyers spotted a potential snag with that so he was renamed Powerbolt for these reprints.

The strips, written by Don Avenall and Norman Worker, first appeared in the bi-weekly POWERMAN comic published by Pikin (or was it Pican?) Publications.

I have no idea about how Bolland and Gibbons felt about their early work resurfacing after they had broken through to the mainstream.

I wonder how well they managed to capture Nigerian life and sensibilities... I can't help suspecting that this is the Nigerian comics equivilant of our very own Gen 1 CAPTAIN BRITAIN... an overseas creation pitched at a foreign market put together by creators with little or no first-hand audience about the place or the audience.

They got the gig because, traditionally, Nigerian comics had been imported from overseas and the publisher saw an opportunity to create something more atuned to the local market and - importantly - featuring local characters.  But - and this is where the Brits come in - there wasn't a big pool of local talent to work on such a title.  The thinking was that - over time - a new generation of African creators would see an opportunity.

This four-part series has itself been out-of-print for nigh on thirty years.

It's not related to the 1960s Odhams Power Comics line which - mostly - repackaged early Marvel strips for the British market.

1988: THE SECOND OINK! BOOK (1989)

From 1988: THE OINK! BOOK 1989.

Yup, it's a spin-off OINK! ANNUAL from Fleetway, unusually for the time (although it would become standard for 2000AD and JUDGE DREDD in the following decade) published as an oversized stiff-covered softie rather than the  more traditional hardback.

This would have been on sale just as the comic, launched in 1986, was winding down.  The last issue - number 68 - was published in October prior to a 'great news pals' merger with BUSTER.

The first OINK! BOOK had appeared the previous year but seemed to suffer from patchy distribution, not least because WH SMITH (who, back in the day, would devote large tables or extensive shelf space to annuals) apparently tried as hard as possible not to stock it.

A further SUMMER SPECIAL, reprinting material from the comic, went on sale the following summer.

Someone even made an OINK! computer game!  Pigging brilliant!

1988: LAST ISSUE ALERT THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY ISSUE 6

From October 1988: Last Issue Alert: the sixth issue of THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY, reprinting the Bloodfang strip from the weekly.

The 'Not for the nervous' cover flash has been nicked from SCREAM.

Management didn't seem to have much luck with their branded EAGLE spin-offs... the creaky PICTURE LIBRARY run didn't amount to very much either... although at least BEST OF... had strips that regular readers of the weekly might recognise and remember.  And the pick-ups from SPEED, TIGER and SCREAM might even have been new to them.

The EAGLE annuals and holiday specials, much more traditional brand extensions, did a lot better... for longer.

1988: STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION FIRST YEAR SOURCEBOOK

From 1988: The STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION FIRST YEAR SOURCEBOOK, a FASA-published supplement for their STAR TREK ROLE PLAYING GAME.

Even through I had no interest in the RPG, this was an essential purchase way-back-when because it was the most comprehensive guide to the universe of TNG available at the time.  Especially as the TV show itself was still 2-3 years from hitting the BBC here in the UK.  I just ignored all the numbers, stats and stuff associated with the game itself.

Like the other RPG supplements I have covered in the past, this was mostly sold through games stores and only had limited pick-up by traditional comics stores and bookshops.  Which probably means the bulk of Trek fans didn't even know it existed.

The truth is... the universe of TNG's first season wasn't really that interesting... but, at the time, any bit of information on the show was to be snapped-up.  Thirty years later I'm still certain that I have not watched the bulk of the epsodes covered in this book.  Time to crack open that HD boxset me thinks...

1988: THE FIRST EAGLE AND BATTLE MERGED ISSUE

From January 1988: the first combined issue of EAGLE AND BATTLE.

As with the previous week's house ad for the merger, the combo is pretty low key.  I almost missed that this was the first combined issue when I was flicking through a stack of random back issues in one of my boxes...  There's none of the hoopla that surrounded the TIGER merger of previous years and there's a real sense of 'that'll do'.

The transferred strips were Stormforce (which appears to have already been doing double-duty in both BATTLE and EAGLE anyway), Charley's War and Johnny Red.

BATTLE did continue to appear as the occasional annual and special... I certainly have a copy of a special that was published (in the old tradition) several years after the main comic had been killed off.

1988: MERGER ALERT: EAGLE ANNOUNCES THE MERGER OF BATTLE

From 1988: MERGER ALERT!  Here's how the EAGLE announced the impending arrival of the refugees from the fall of BATTLE.

Despite the traditional hype ('Big News Issue!') it's obvious from the two-page house ad that this is now EAGLE AND TIGER style combination of equals (at least until the dust settled).  The BATTLE logo is conspicuously smaller than the Eagle's.  Funny that.

I think, by this point, two-thirds of the BATTLE strips were reprints anyway with only the fairly new Stormforce (introduced - after a treading-water hiatus - to plug the large gap left by the withdrawal of ACTION FORCE).  Maybe that helped to stunt in-house enthusiasm for the merger.  

1988: LAST ISSUE ALERT! THE FINAL ISSUE OF BATTLE

From 1988: Last Issue Alert!  Years after the first predictions of its impending demise, BATTLE was finally overwhelmed by enemy forces (the enemy being changing tastes and a changing market) and plucked from the battlefield by - yup, you guessed it, EAGLE.

Given the deadlines and the on-sale date, it's easy to imagine that this issue, number 673, was put together just before the staff broke for the Christmas holidays and the end-of-year break.

By this time, despite the better printing that IPC/ Fleetway had switched to the previous year, BATTLE was a mere shadow of its former self.  The loss of the ACTION FORCE franchise had done some serious damage (although Marvel's glossy successor was faring little better in a tough market) and Stormforce, their in-house successors were more gimmick than traditional military might.  Charley's War and (as seen here) Johnny Red were really holding the fort... although one or both may have slipped into reprints by this point.  Overall, BATTLE followed the same slow decline as the other IPC weeklies... more and more reprints as budgets got tighter and tighter.

IPC had launched BATTLE back in March 1975 to counter the early success of WARLORD, launched by DCT the previous September.  Marvel UK also had a crack at their own me-too weekly, FURY, but that didn't work out so well.  Battle eventually outlived Warlord, which closed in September 1986.  The genre champion was, without doubt, Warlord's older sibbling VICTOR.  Launched in January 1961, it didn't retire from active service until November 1992.

Battle folded into EAGLE, management's go-to title for failing comics.  It's almost surprising that SUPERNATURALS and RING RAIDERS didn't go the same way but Fleetway opted to burn-off the remaining inventory from both early cancellations in end-of-run one-shots.  Stormforce had already been appearing in Eagle for a month-or-so, presumably part of a plan to prepare for the merger.  Or an indicator that the Eagle was also short of material pre-merger.  Charley's War and Johnny Red remained Eagle mainstays for the rest of its run.

1988: THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY ISSUE 4

From August 1988: THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY issue 4.

This is another hefty batch of cheap-and-cheerful IPC reprints which is gard to find today.  This issue compiled a run of Death Wish (nope, not Paul Kersey) strips.

Blake Edmonds was an F1 driver who had it all... until a crash left him badly burned.  Thereafter he took on any stunt or challenge - no matter how dangerous - because he had - yup - a death wish.

The strip started in 1980 in SPEED (from where, I suspect, these strips hail... making the mag even more collectable).  When that weekly went belly-up after a mere 31 issues the strip transferred to TIGER.  Thereafter it remained a mainstay until it transferred (along with the likes of Billy's Boots and Golden Boy) to EAGLE.  It continued to appear, albeit with a supernatural twist, long after TIGER was quietly dumped from the masthead.  He didn't have much luck for someone determined to die.

1988: THE LOST ARCHIE COMICS ADVENTURE LINE IN COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE

From September 1988: An issue of COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE with details of a universe untravelled: Plans by ARCHIE COMICS to reboot their superhero characters for the 1980s.

They eventually settled on the name Spectrum Comics as the vehicle to retool and relaunch their heroes for the evolving Direct Sales market.  Ultimately, they decided they didn't want to take the company - or their characters - in that direction and abandoned the whole shebang, making it a fascintaing road untravelled.  The characters next appeared, now licensed to DC Comics, in the Impact line early the next decade.  Copies of most of those books can still be found in 50p boxes across the land.

1988: THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY ISSUE 3

From July 1988: THE BEST OF EAGLE issue 3, starring Manix.

BoE was one of a bunch of BEST OF... monthlies published by IPC around this time.  The benefits were obvious: quick to paginate, no origination costs, no back-end payments to the creators.  In short: a very profitable way of making the IPC archives work harder to offset falling sales in the core comics business.

Some of these titles did very well.  THE BEST OF 2000AD MONTHLY ran for a decade AND spun-off a JUDGE DREDD solo version and a few specials as well.  This one, on the other hand, shuttered after a mere six issues.  Despite being a spin-off from IPC's most successful new launch of the decade.  Very strange.

Maybe the strips were too recent.  Maybe EAGLE's readership had no interest in revisiting the past.  Maybe IPC couldn't secure decent distribution.  Or maybe they realised that they would need to run more and more reprints in the core title in the years ahead... so didn't want to run them all in a spin-off.

It's not to be confused with the dying days of the main EAGLE comic.  It switched to a monthly frequency and - with a few exceptions - became a mostly reprint title as the sales dropped through the floor.

These six issues are now pretty hard to find.  They are worth picking up if you do.

1988: TIME SCREEN ISSUE 3 (REVISED EDITION)

From Autumn 1988: TIME SCREEN magazine issue 3.  Revised edition.

TIME SCREEN, companion to S.I.G, was the much-missed magazine (really a fanzine although it boosted excellent print and production standards) 'magazine of British Telefantasy'.

It launched sometime in the early 1980s as an all (including the covers) black & white affair.  Later in the decade, to supplement new issues, the team would revisit and reissue the early issues with revised articles (this being the time before the web when solid information and old programmes were often hard to find), better production standards and a nice colour cover.

It's a magazine that I always pick-up if I find the odd old copy on my travels.  I don't have a complete collection but I thought I would post what I have here on STARLOGGED.

This was a good time to be buying fanzines with THE FRAME, DWB, S.I.G and TIME SCREEN all doing well and available through comic book stores.

1988: 2000AD'S THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES ON STAGE

From 1988: Does anyone remember the stage production of THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES?

i'd completely forgotten about it (and certainly never saw it) until I was flicking through the 1988 2000AD SCI-FI SPECIAL and fond this photo-feature.  It certainly looks cool... in a very 1980s sort of way.

Did anyone see it?  Do you have any other material - or reviews - related to it?

1988: UK FANZINE SPEAKEASY ISSUE 58

From January 1988: SPEAKEASY issue 58.

1988: MARVEL UK'S THUNDERCATS AND THE ADVENTURES OF THE GALAXY RANGERS MERGE

From September 1988: Merger alert!  The short-lived THE ADVENTURES OF THE GALAXY RANGERS (nine issues over eighteen weeks) folds into the pages of MARVEL UK's THUNDERCATS.

I assume Marvel had already commissioned some more GR strips and didn't want to write-off the investment (especially if there was a chance that the TV show would still be floating around the ITV schedules).  Once the original strips were exhausted, Thundercats went on to reprint the British-created strips originally seen in the one-and-only GALAXY RANGERS ANNUAL.

1988: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA DIRECTOR RICHARD A. COLLA TALKS TO STARLOG MAGAZINE... BUT DOESN'T MENTION GETTING SACKED!

From 1988: TV veteran Richard A. Colla discusses his life in SF TV with STARLOG MAGAZINE... including his stint directing (most of) the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA pilot episode (and faux feature film) SAGA OF A STAR WORLD.

A quick re-read of the interview is interesting.... He doesn't seem to mention that he had an almighty bust-up with Glen Larson during the shooting of Saga and was fired from the project before principal photography was completed.  According to other accounts, there was only four days left on the schedule when he was replaced.

His uncredited successor was another small-screen trooper Alan J. Levi.  Larson had already booked him to deliver the next story to shoot, the two-part Hoth alike (but shot more than six months before filming started on EMPIRE) GUN ON ICE PLANET ZERO.  Levi was dragged in early to pick up where Colla was forced to leave off.

The reason for the sacking? Colla claims Larson was interferring too much with the filming and a succession of minor disagreements eventually escalated into his dismissal.  I'm sure Iove seen Larson claim he has let go because the shoot was too far behind schedule and costing too much.  I suspect both are probably close to the truth.  The sheer amount of shot-but-never-used footage for the opener (see the DVD and BR releases) is a sure sign that, behnd-the-scenes, the decision-making process was a little murkey.

Trivia of the day: Directing TV pilots can be a lucrative business.  If the show sells and goes to series, the original director continues to recieve a per-episode payment for establishing the initial look-and-feel of the show (including key elements like casting, costume etc).  So, even if the director is never invited back (or doesn't want to go back), they'll continue to profit from the success.

1988: MIDLAND BANK GRIFFIN SAVERS ACCOUNT

From the summer of 1984: the ubiquitous MIDLAND BANK sign-up-the-kids-and-we'll-have-em-for-life GRIFFIN SAVERS 'starter kit', as advertised in the pages of EAGLE.

This has a huge nostalgia quotant:
- A long-gone from the High Street brand name.
- A cunning way of making a staid-and-stuffy brand identity look more - ahem - human.
- An ace marketing slogan that's outlived the bank itself in the public conscious. Beat that HSBC UK!
- A school bag that everyone seemed to have... especially if you had parents who saw the value in savings AND saving money. As the term went on, sightings would become rarer as the good-but-not-great quality succumbed to daily wear-and-tear.
- A dictionary which was likely to be defaced on the first day of term... and almost certainly didn't have any rude words in (the ones that did were always deemed to be THE BEST dictionary).
- A stationery set once again pitched at the price-sensitive parent.  With a compass ideal for unexpected attacks on classmates during a dull GCSE English Lit. class.  How many people have actually ever used one - for anything - since they left school?  Except - maybe - for pipe fitters and circular hole makers.  It's bonkers to think that this was a time before Poundland and free stationery kits as comics freebies when such a set would actually represent a considerable start-of-term investment.
- A folder.  Because everyone knows that a folder is a great starting point for any project.

1988: FLEETWAY COMICS HOUSE AD

From 1988: A classic 'twenty minutes until home time and I need to fill half-a-page' house ad showing the beleaguered state of the Fleetway boys' adventure line-up.  EAGLE had just gobbled-up BATTLE (the latest in a long list of conquests), MASK was a toy/ TV tie-in with a finite lifespan (I wonder where that ended up....?) and ROY OF THE ROVERS was the sort of comic read by people that didn't look at the other titles.  And visa versa.

Interesting to note that 2000AD wasn't seen as part of the line-up.

1988: DUNCAN REGEHR TALKS V: THE SERIES WITH STARLOG MAGAZINE

From 1988: Actor Duncan Regehr discusses his brief stint on V; THE SERIES (four episodes, a wedding and a murder), the movie MONSTER SQUAD, the blink-and-you-missed-it fantasy show WIZARDS AND WARRIORS and the even more fleeting EARTH*STAR VOYAGER.

His four weeks on V:THE SERIES, playing the charismatic Charles, was one of the highlights of the erratic series and came mid-run, just as the show was transitioning from the A-TEAM/ Soap hybrid of the early episodes (something akin to the successful format of the two mini-series, especially THE FINAL BATTLE) into the bargain-basement campery of the show's final months on the air.

What I find interesting in this interview, and it is something that does not appear to have been picked up elsewhere, is that the twin-brother-with-the-same-fake-face plotline, eventually given to Frank Ashmore all but reprising his role as Martin from the mini-series and first hour of the weekly series, was originally devised to allow Regehr to step back into the show.  It would have been a lot more interesting to have seen 'Charles II' as the traitor in the midst of the alien ranks.

Regehr was one of those prolific actors of the period who never quite became a star.  Maybe it was a succession of poor choices (none of his TV work seemed to go very far for very long) or because he seldom seems to look like the same person in any two productions.  I still find it hard to spot him... even when i know the character he is playing.

The interview is from STARLOG MAGAZINE.

1988: JANE BADLER TALKS 'V' AND THE HIGHWAYMAN IN STARLOG MAGAZINE

From 1988: the lovely Jane Badler discusses 'V', Larson's THE HIGHWAYMAN (behind-the-scenes punch-up alert!) and her other 1980s projects with STARLOG MAGAZINE.

1988: RARE MARVEL UK LAUNCH ADVERT FOR DRAGON'S TEETH (aka DRAGON'S CLAWS)

From June 1988: Before they had claws... they had teeth!

A rare MARVEL UK advert, published in the UK fanzine SPEAKEASY, for the about-to-launch DRAGON'S CLAWS title in the (almost) US format. DRAGON'S TEETH was the original title, used in all the pre-publicity (including an article in this very same issue), until the lawyers stepped in and claimed a small (?) US publisher had prior claim.

Cue a bit of frantic rebadging (which apparently only delayed publication by a week) and the new title.

DRAGON'S CLAWS ultimately enjoyed a ten issue run before vaguely wrapping with no official notice that the book was closing.  was anyone left looking for the never-to-arrive 11th issue because they hadn't read the runes correctly?  As far as I know, the characters have remained in Marvel limbo ever since.  Unlike DEATH'S HEAD (kinda) and THE KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON (ditto), they weren't included in the 1992 UKverse reboot.  The complete run was - however - reprinted in trade form by Panini.  Yay.