1983: STAR WARS SUMMER SPECIAL 1983 (Marvel UK)

A few weeks ago, whilst blogging about FINALLY getting hold of the elusive THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL SUMMER SPECIAL 1983, I mentioned how hard it is to track down a copy of this: the 1983 STAR WARS SUMMER SPECIAL.

Well, at the weekend, I finally tracked-down (completely by chance, whilst rummaging through a pile of Marvel UK SW comics) this battered copy.  I paid exactly half the sticker price.  

Despite being one of M-UK's top-sellers, and having published Summer and Winter Specials since 1979, this is the first time that Marvel had published a spin-off special (excluding the annuals, a fixture since Christmas 1978) from the weekly/ monthly.  Presumably this was down to a lack of surplus strip material to run.

This was published in the summer of 1983... the summer of RETURN OF THE JEDI.  Yet... it makes no effort to attach itself to the movie hype machine.  It feels very much like a late-out-the-stargate ESB spin-off.

Significantly (and this may explain why it exists at all: a second chance to recoup the origination costs), this collects four of the UK created strips originally created for the ESB/ SW MONTHLY.  Quite why these strips were ever needed in the first place (other than to give work to UK creators) remains something of a mystery as the monthly reprint schedule should have - for the most part - fixed the supply problems of old.  

This UK run of strips is known collectively as DEVILWORLDS (the title of one of the strips, not reprinted here) thanks to a two-issue reprint collection from Dark Horse Comics in 1996.  The long out-of-print limited series published the strips in colour for the first time.

Death Masque was omitted (presumably because of lack of space) from the DH editions, making this its only reprint.

Although Flight of the Falcon shares its name with a video game, there's no direct connection between the two.

Marvel UK published several more Summer, Winter and Christmas specials.

Originally published in:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 157.

Originally published in:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 156.

Originally published in:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 151.

Originally published in:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 149.

GET FRESH: ALAN MOORE INTERVIEW

Here's something fun: The mighty Alan Moore interviewed by Gaz Top (aka Gareth Jones) on ITV's kids show GET FRESH.

The video is undated but, presumably, from 1986 or 1987 (the years WATCHMEN was released).  Get Fresh ran from 1986-88.

The Saturday edition of the programme was a live outside broadcast (OB), usually hosted by one of the smaller ITV regions (this regional co-operation apparently means that a full set of episodes possibly no longer exists as no single ITV company had overall responsibility for archiving the series).  

The show's central conceit was that a large space ship, the Millennium Dustbin (named in a viewer competition), would land at a different location each week.  The interior of the spaceship set housed a small studio for interviews etc.

The programme initially included the animated series THE CENTURIONS.  Later seasons replaced it with THE ADVENTURES OF THE GALAXY RANGERS.  Both had British comics, from London Editions and Marvel UK respectively.

With season two, ITV launched the pre-recorded GET FRESH SUNDAY.  This was studio-bound (recorded and transmitted from Border Television) and consisted of short 'continuity links' (introducing other programmes in the line-up including THE ADVENTURES OF TEDDY RUXSPIN and Disney's THE GUMMI BEARS ) followed by the main Get Fresh Sunday programme.  

Not all ITV regions took the full networked schedule (LWT, for example, tended to run a local programme at the beginning of the morning) which led to a certain amount of repetition or unsubtle filling to ensure viewers who didn't see every link didn't notice. 

Moore's appearance is from one of these Sunday editions.

The Sunday edition was meant to take place aboard the Millennium Dustbin whilst in flight.  The sets were not used for the OB and, on one occasion, a young guest on the Saturday programme asked to see other parts of the ship.  Whoops.

Top's co-presenters were Charlotte Hindle and Gilbert the Alien (AKA Phil Cornwell).  A out-of-his-depth Gian Sammarco (ex of THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE) also presented on season one but didn't return.

Another edition of Get Fresh Sunday featured a telephone interview with William Shatner and a studio appearance by Patrick Stewart to coincide with STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's launch on rental VHS in the UK (from CIC Video).