DEATH'S HEAD RETURNS... IN THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2 MOVIE SPECIAL

From today... Look who's back... In the exclusive (it says here) new comic strip in Panini's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 OFFICIAL MOVIE MAGAZINE. Bit of a surprise, yes?

Does this mean that the Marvel movies and the TRANSFORMERS movies are now one-step-removed?

1991: DEATH'S HEAD in SHE-HULK

From 1991: the original DEATH'S HEAD crosses the Atlantic for a rare US appearance in the pages of THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK 24.

Appearances by Marvel UKverse characters (except, of course, it didn't exist when this appeared) outside their own books are so rare that its often easy to overlook them because you just assume they don't exist to begin with.

This has a higher profile than most because it was included in the DH Panini trade paperback collections.

The She-Hulk, somewhat of a second tier title, was by this point in the care of Brits Simon Furman and Bryan Hitch, a dream team combo of DH collaborators that made the guest shot possible. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to convince incoming British Bullpen boss Paul Neary to relaunch the Freelance Peace Keeper in a new limited series, pitched at the States, and he scrapped the project in favour of DEATH'S HEAD II and the start of the UKverse the following year. 

There was, except for the much more recent trade paperback, no contemporary UK edition but it was reprinted in the hard-to-find final issue (12) of THE INCOMPLETE DEATH'S HEAD in late 1993/ early 1994: one of the final titles to emerge before the Genesis Massacre shredded the UK line. 

1990: STRIP PART 4 - Issues 16-20 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: The final five issues of MARVEL UK's twenty-issue wonder STRIP.

The sixteenth issue saw the arrival of THE PUNISHER to the ranks.  Although this may appear to be a merger of Castle's own weekly (cancelled after thirty issues), it isn't really.  The last issue of his solo title had actually hit the stands in late February) and he didn't join Strip until September.  Nevertheless, the British Bullpen still pushed the boat out with a free fabric patch along the lines of the ones that accompanied the contemporary launch issues of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION and THE COMPLETE SPIDER-MAN (suggesting that there were some economies of scale by having three designs made).

Rather than pick up where the ongoing title unexpectedly left off, Strip went back to the character's roots by representing, albeit now in colour, his first pulp-inspired adventure from two decades earlier.  

See here for the final issues of Punny's own British book.  

The DEATH'S HEAD strip (The Body In Question, collected as a graphic novel the same year.  See here) wrapped with the twentieth issue, leaving a vacant slot destined to be filled by the return of another M-UK here: NIGHT RAVEN.  

Unfortunately, the Marvel axe swung without warning again and despite the investment in the new material (and continuing to offer subscriptions), the 21st issue never appeared.  Ooops.

The new NIGHT RAVEN material did appear in book form.  Twice.  It was first issued in late 1990 as a graphic novel and then, with the GENESIS line in full swing, reissued as a prestige format one-shot.  It's actually the latter that is far harder to find.  Both editions appear here. 

1990: STRIP PART 3 - Issues 11-15 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: We're into the second half of the short life of STRIP, the MARVEL UK anthology which, in my opinion, got better over time.  The 13th issue even ushered in the return of a certain Freelance Bounty Hunter...

- To Be Concluded - 

1990: STRIP PART ONE - Issues 1-5 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: The first five (of twenty) issues of MARVEL UK's STRIP.

As the sub-title ("The comic grows up") suggests, this was one of the many 'Mature Readers' title that followed CRISIS onto the shelves of the nation's newsagents in the hope of capturing a chunk of the apparently large, and hitherto under served, market of older readers who were still keen for a bit of paneled action but had little in the way of options beyond 2000AD.  

The publishers, of course, hoped that this untapped revenue stream might (in some small way) off-set the collapse in sales of weeklies AND that one-time reliable cash cow: the annual.

Of the assorted launches of the time (CRISIS, REVOLVER, BLAST, DC ACTION, ZONES, MELTDOWN, DEADLINE, TOXIC and others), only the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE proved to have any longevity (thanks it part to a bewildering number of relaunches and reboots).  

Strip's clunky slogan inspired TOXIC's "the comic throws up!"

Kudos to the Annex of Ideas for putting some real effort into strip.  You can see from the covers above that it's a top-notch, although possibly not very commercial, roster of strips and creators.  And the British Bullpen, once the home of the low-cost reprints, packaged them up in an appealing but not overly expensive full-colour format.  

The business model herein was, where M-UK had commissioned the material, it was also destined for collection as a graphic novel.  The Grimtoad material was reprinted as done-in-one book, as was (from later in the run) the return of Death's Head.  Night Raven, due to start in the 21st issue, ultimately only appeared in a collected edition when Strip was cancelled without warning.  

As we'll see later in the run, The Punisher snuck in (following the cancellation of his own book) in what looked suspiciously like an unofficial merger (even through the Strip... errr... strip hailed from the Seventies and didn't pick up where the weekly/ fortnightly left off) even through it was supposed to herald a new run of "classic" reprints.  Quite what else was due to follow Frank Castle's formative years remains unclear.  

- TO BE CONTINUED -

1988: SPEAKEASY PREVIEWS DEATH'S HEAD

From 1988: UK fanzine SPEAKEASY previews the new MARVEL UK series DEATH'S HEAD in its November issue. 

1990: MARVEL UK BOOKS House Ad

From December 1990: something of a work-in-progress House Ad for some of MARVEL UK's Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks.  

The NIGHT RAVEN book doesn't seem to have any cover art so the designer has used some panels from the strips themselves.  The final cover for NIGHT RAVEN THE COLLECTED STORIES can be found here.

THE CHRONICLES OF GENGHIS GRIMTOAD was a graphic novel rather than a trade paperback.  I've posted the cover here. 

DEATH'S HEAD THE BODY IN QUESTION was, indeed, a graphic novel (and also serialized in STRIP) and a full scan of the cover can be found here.  "Also trade paperback" must refer, not to an alternative edition of TBIQ, but to THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEATH'S HEAD (see here for the cover). 

The artwork for THE SLEEZE BROTHERS is the cover of the first issue of the comic.  The collection was issued with new art.  See here.

1993: DEATH-WRECK and DEATH METAL House Ad (Marvel UK)

From November 1993: A MARVEL UK House Ad promoting two DEATH'S HEAD II spin-off/ knock-off books... DEATH-WRECK and DEATH METAL.  

I remember thinking at the time that things must be pretty desperate if they were cloning DHII and spinning-off more books... and that this couldn't last.  It turns out I was right.

The books themselves aren't bad but, by this point, Death's Head II was so over-exposed that we needed a bit of a rest... not two more similar characters.  Especially, as was often the case with the Genesis Books, there's always the sense that someone came up with the names first and then crafted a book and character around the title.  

Simon Furman created the original DEATH'S HEAD but had been shoved aside by the previous year's revamp.  

Both of these series ran for the designated four issues... which makes them amongst the last of the M-UK line to appear before the Genesis Massacre hit.  

Neither of these strips appeared in the UK line.  

The adds themselves are in the late-Genesis House Style of bizarre captions.  Presumably the top one is a dig at the Image guys.... naming no names. 

1990: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEATH'S HEAD House Ad (Marvel UK)

From December 1990: a MARVEL UK House Ad for THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEATH'S HEAD Trade Paperback… on sale just in time for Christmas!

1990: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEATH'S HEAD Trade Paperback (Marvel UK)

 

This 1990 compilation of strips from the original 10-issue run of DEATH'S HEAD has been superseded in recent years by the more comprehensive Panini volumes but, for many years, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEATH'S HEAD trade paperback, published by MARVEL UK, was the best way to catch-up with those Freelance Peacekeeping adventures.   

THE INCOMPLETE DEATH'S HEAD, Marvel's 1993 12-issue limited series, also reprinted the 1988-89 series along with some of his other appearances on both sides of the Atlantic and a new wrap-around story, featuring his successor, linking the reprints together.  

1989: DEATH'S HEAD House Ad (Marvel UK)

The MARVEL UK House Ad for the US-format (but pre-Genesis) DEATH'S HEAD comic, from January 1989.  

1993: THE INCOMPLETE DEATH'S HEAD House Ad (Marvel UK)

The original DEATH'S HEAD was hardly favour-of-the-month with Paul Neary (hence his swift despatch in the first issue of the DEATH'S HEAD II limited series) but, under pressure to get more DH-branded books onto the shelves whilst the character was red hot (to use the WIZARD MAGAZINE parlance), he conceded to a twelve-issue rerun of the original's post-TRANSFORMERS (the rights to which, Marvel had already conceded) adventures.  DOCTOR WHO readers take note: his encounters with the Time Lord were amongst the reprints.  

Rather than simply rehash the originals, the series also used a brand-new linking sequence (which normally appeared as bookends to each reprint) which also allowed for the sales-boosting incorporation of appearances by his successor.  Each issue also had a newly-comissioned cover.

This is a THE INCOMPLETE DEATH'S HEAD House Ad, published in the US GENESIS 92 books, from February 1993, trumpeting the launch of the series.  

Ironically, the year-long run meant that the finale appeared just before the GENESIS IMPLOSION sunk the whole shebang.  

The original DH strips have been reprinted in trade paperback form by Panini but the DHII-era wraparound have never been reprinted.  

1990: DEATH'S HEAD: THE BODY IN QUESTION Graphic Novel (Marvel UK)

DEATH'S HEAD: THE BODY IN QUESTION was an October 1990 original, full colour, graphic novel published by MARVEL UK which also turned-out to be the last significant hurrah of the the original Freelance Peacekeeper before he was dispatched by his successor at the beginning of GENESIS 92.

This Simon Furman/ Geoff Senior collaboration was also serialised in the pages of STRIP, M-UK's ill-fated anthology pitched at the booming (at least if you believed the mainstream media, not-so-much according to the sales figures) market for comics-for-grown-ups.  

Apparently Furman was working on a four-issue DH limited series when Paul Neary returned to the Annex of Ideas.  Neary was no fan of DH (he publicly stuck the knife in during an interview published in COMIC WORLD here) but, because it was already planned, couldn't abandon the project entirely… so he handed it over to a new creative team to be 'retooled' for the new decade.

THE BODY IN QUESTION is included in Panini's compilation of DH's non-Transformers adventures.

1989: DEATH'S HEAD HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

This was a one-page strip-cum-House Ad that appeared across the MARVEL UK range in late 1988/ early 1989.  It was, of course, plugging DEATH'S HEAD's US-format monthly.  

2005: DEATH'S HEAD CUSTOM ACTION FIGURE (Toyfare Magazine)

I stumbled across this completely by chance in a random issue of the US magazine TOYFARE: a reader-made custom DEATH'S HEAD figure.  The closest we'll probably get, unless REVOLUTIONARY WAR sets the world alight, to seeing an actual, honest-to-goodness DH action figure.

This appeared in issue 97, cover-dated September 2005.

TOYFARE was a spin-off from the WIZARD hype machine and, as the name suggests, it specialised in action figures and associated shelf-filling nicknacks.  At its peak, it even (for a price) offered exclusive figures as mail-away items for readers.

It expired alongside the rest of WIZARD's print efforts when the company bailed out of the publishing business in favour of organising conventions across the States.

1992: DEATH'S HEAD II INTERVIEW In COMIC WORLD MAGAZINE

This is another dip into COMIC WORLD magazine's contemporary coverage of MARVEL UK's GENESIS 92 line: a feature on flavour-of-the-moment cyborg assassin DEATH'S HEAD II published in the 8th issue, cover-dated October 1992.

The early nineties was a time when every publisher, especially Marvel, were stretching their cash cow characters as thinly as possible to grab every dollar (and, ideally, squeeze the competition off the racks) but, by the time the Genesis Implosion rolled around, overkill could have referred as much to DHII as it did to Marvel's British anthology.

It's amusing to see Neary's quote about the original DH considering he wasted no time on cashing-in on the success of his successor by dusting-off as many of the character's previous appearances as licensing deals would allow to publish the twelve-part THE INCOMPLETE DEATH'S HEAD for an easy buck.

1992: DEATH'S HEAD HERO HISTORY (COMIC WORLD)

Here's a rather nice one-page Hero History for the original DEATH'S HEAD, published in COMIC WORLD (formally Comic Collector) issue 5 (cover-dated July 1992) just as the GENESIS 92 line was running up to speed.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD II

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

From DEATH'S HEAD (yesterday) to DEATH'S HEAD II: the briefly ubiquitous poster boy for the entire MARVEL UK sub-universe thanks to a succession of guest appearances, cameos and crossovers as Arundel House chased the holy grail of the initial sales figures for his limited series and the first few issues of the regular book.  Didn't happen.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: 
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

You can't keep a good Freelance Peacekeeper down it seems.  Whilst the rest of the MARVEL UK sub-universe has been languishing in unloved obscurity for two decades, the original created-for-a-one-shot-appearence DEATH'S HEAD (originally phased-out in favour of his II successor... until M-UK realised there was money to be made in re-releasing his back catalogue) has been popping-up periodically... most recently in the pages of IRON MAN*.

So here's DH's entry from THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE.

* You probably missed it but the good news is that Panini have issued a new UK trade paperback collection collecting what appears to be the first half of the story.  There is also an (inevitably more expensive) hardback Marvel edition from the states which - at a casual glance - appears to reprint the same strips.

1992: DEATH'S HEAD II SKETCHES by LIAM SHARP (Marvel UK)

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
DEATH'S HEAD II "OUTTAKES" 

Here's some behind-the-scenes "outtakes" from the Marvel UK DEATH'S HEAD II limited series: unused pencils by artist Liam Sharp, including his "first ever" (it says here) design for the character.

This page appeared in the fourth - and final - issue of the limited series (aka The Wild Hunt), cover-dated June 1993.