1989: COMICS SCENE MAGAZINE ISSUE 6

From February 1989: the relaunched US magazine COMICS SCENE kicks-off 'The year of the Bat' with a preview of the BATMAN movie.

The age of the superhero movie was about to begin...

STARLOG'S COMICS WORLD becomes COMICS SCENE

Because the lawyers demanded it -

COMICS SCENE MAGAZINE was a mainstay of the STARLOG empire, not least because its fortunes waxed and waned through several runs depending on the public's overall interest in comics and their characters.

The mag was initially announced and promoted as COMICS WORLD (a title that would later become familiar with British collectors thanks to an entirely different magazine with a very similar - but not identical - title) but that fell victim to some sort of legal shenanigans/ prior title claim and had to be changed prior to the first issue hitting the stands.

After a quiet few months (during which time the collective Starlog brains trust must have been frantically brainstorming alternatives... and making sure fandom hadn't already thought of them) they bounced back with... COMICS SCENE.  Hurrah.

1993: COMICS SCENE ARTICLE ON MARVEL UK'S SUPER SOLDIERS

From May 1993: COMICS SCENE issue 33 previews MARVEL UK's SUPER SOLDIERS, one of the burgeoning number of UKverse books to hit in the booming months of early '93.

The book eventually ran for eight issues before being cancelled suddenly in the Genesis Massacre (the sudden decision, in the face of plummeting sales across the industry, to withdraw the British Bullpen from the US market).

The first issue, enhanced with a silver foil cover, shifted more than 200,000 copies. Issues can still be found in retailer dump bins to this day.

Issues 9 &10 were announced in the pages of MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE but never appeared. The eighth issue was the only part of the REDMIST 2020 crossover/ launch that actually made it into print. The other three books (DEATHDUTY, BLOOD RUSH and ROID RAGE) were all scrapped at the last possible moment.

1990: PLANET OF THE APES in COMICS SCENE MAGAZINE (Starlog)

From June 1990: STARLOG spin-off COMICS SCENE (the revived second incarnation, officially volume 2, issue 13) celebrate the launch of Adventure Comics' PLANET OF THE APES line.

This was the first time that the saga had been gifted a comic book version since the dying days of the 1970s Apes boom and Marvel's decision to drop the license on both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm not overly familiar with the Adventure Comics titles but I do know there was a lot of them... and the creative teams liked to play fast-and-loose with the format established in the screen incarnations.  Licensing restrictions meant that, with the exception of reprints of Marvel's after-the-fact adaptations of the first two movies, the film and TV characters were off limits.  

Adventure also reprinted some of Marvel's original strips (the only time to date that any of that inventory has seen the light of day again... amazing considering POTA's intermittent longevity in print and on screen) in the TERROR ON THE PLANET OF THE APES four-parter.  See here for more on that run.  

The POTA books (all of which, with the exception of the bonkers APE NATION, see here, appeared in black & white) seemed ubiquitous at the time but seldom seem to surface in any numbers in the UK today. 

1992: THE POWER PACK TV PILOT in COMICS SCENE MAGAZINE (Starlog)

Strange... but true: I've always liked Marvel's POWER PACK.  There: I said it.  I thought the book's first couple of years was far better than the concept deserved to be.  Later - of course - it degenerated into a succession of power-swaps, gratuitous (sales-booster) appearances by other Marvel characters and a succession of tie-ins with whatever was Marvel's latest crossover event.  I'd long ago stopped reading but when they announced the book was canned, I was relieved.

Surprisingly, just as the title was waning, Marvel's one-time owner (and still a business partner) tried to sell a PP TV show and actually shot a pilot episode.

This article, from STARLOG spin-off COMICS SCENE issue 20 (cover-dated August 1992), covers the making of that - ultimately unsold - one-shot.  The Canadian shot pilot was originally produced as a perspective series for NBC's Saturday morning schedule (the network was in the process of shifting from animation to tween-friendly live-action) but was then pitched to local stations when the peacock net passed.

According to the usual online sources, the pilot did subsequent air several times on FOX although that looks a little TBC.  Certainly a bootleg copy is in circulation as I acquired a copy several years ago.

It's not a bad little show, best described as a mix of THE RED HAND GANG and MY SECRET IDENTITY (a similar show which might have helped kill the appeal of a second syndicated teen super-power series for local stations).  The producers do play fast-and-loose with the formula but to no great detriment.  The relatively small budget meant a New York City locale was out-of-the-question and the kids powers were also made more budget-friendly.  Also jettisoned were the matching costumes but - honestly - that's no bad thing.  Not only would they have looked daft but I don't think we really want to see kids running around in lycra costumes!

One other change was making the Power parents aware of their offspring's powers (their origins are explained - via voiceover - at the top of the show) whereas - in the comic - keeping them secret was a major plot-point.  I assume the producers were skittish of the idea of kids keeping secrets from their parents in a show primarily pitched at a young audience.

The performances were all reasonable and the young cast do what they can with the thin material.  The haunted house plot seemed a little off-message for what was being pitched as a superhero show and I found myself wondering whether perspective buyers were confused as to whether they would be buying a superhero show or a supernatural show.  The scares are - predictably - virtually non-existant but at least the whole thing is played straight.

The pilot - unsurprisingly - never reached British TV although the comic strip will be familiar to anyone who read Marvel UK's RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly (serialised reprints filled 90-odd issues and only ended when the title was cancelled) and THUNDERCATS (where the reprints - beginning again at the beginning - appeared from the first issue until being ousted by the merger of THE ADVENTURES OF THE GALAXY RANGERS).

1982: COMICS FEATURE 15 (January 1982) NEWS PAGES

What was happening in the world of comic books at the end of 1981?  Here's the news pages from COMICS FEATURE issue 15 (cover-dated January 1982) to reveal all.  The big story is that Starlog's planned COMIC WORLD spin-off is mired in a legal dispute.  A swift name-change to COMICS SCENE fixed the problem.

In other news: Marvel announce plans for comics based on G.I. JOE, INDIANA JONES and - err - TEAM AMERICA.  And their STAR TREK title beams out after its 18th issue.

1982: COMICS SCENE ISSUE 1 CELEBRATES MARVEL'S 25th ANNIVERSARY

Marvel celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2009 but we're going back to 1982 and - errr - their 20th anniversary (it's true, time really does work differently in the four-coloured world!), as celebrated in the first issue of Starlog's COMICS SCENE magazine.

Below is their Lee/ Shooter head honchos interview.

COMICS SCENE applied the same formula STARLOG had been using since 1976 to comic books (and spin-off movie and TV projects), creating a professional-looking, widely distributed, article-based "fanzine".  A sure sign that comics were growing up.

The magazine enjoyed a chequered history: the initial run lasted a mere 11 issues (to September 1983) although Starlog continued to run comics reportage under the Comics Scene banner.

Volume 2 arrived in 1987 and enjoyed greater success during the industry's boom years, clocking-up 56 editions until folding again in 1996.  COMICS SCENE 2000 was a short-lived third go, publishing three issues in 2000.

Starlog continued until 2008 before succumbing to bankruptcy.