1980: YOUNG ROMANCE SUMMER SPECIAL (MARVEL UK)

From 1980: a very atypical offering from the Annex of Ideas: The YOUNG ROMANCE SUMMER SPECIAL.

I would rank this as one of the Top Ten rarest MARVEL UK books published (not that I have ever written such a list) because copies very seldom surface in the back issue market. I've only ever seen one copy on sale... And this is it. I bought it for a couple of quid a few months ago from a London shop. 

Why so rare, albeit not terribly valuable? Because only romantically inclined Marvel fans, and compleatests, would have ever bought it to begin with. Despite creator credits for Stan and the greats of the US Bullpen, there's little to appeal to kids looking for their latest Star Age fix of action and adventure. 

YR, which also had a brief run as part of the POCKET BOOKS line, is also a Marvel UK landmark because it was the first time that the Bullpen had launched a title aimed primarily at girls. IPC and the Marvel's other rivals had, if course, considerable presence in this sector but it was unknown territory for the British Bullpen.

That said, I'm unconvinced these dated reprints from the US romance titles would have held much appeal to anyone other than collectors in 1980. It all seems rather twee and old-fashioned. But who am I to judge? It's not a sector I know much about and its hard to judge how these US tales sat beside homegrown offerings from the other publishers. 

I'm not sure if they reworked the cover art to make it look a little more contemporary but the chap on the cover does look a little like David Essex (I know this because I recently watched THAT'LL BE THE DAY and STARDUST... both of which were pretty good). 

1980: STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK (Marvel UK)

I first looked at Marvel UK's POCKET BOOKS line last year but I recently acquired a full run of STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK, giving me the ideal excuse to revisit them.

For latecomers (who can't be bothered to click back): Dez Skinn created the black & white digest-sized line in 1980 as an economical way (for Marvel and readers) to expand the British line.  The smaller format was already well established in the UK thanks to the "pocket libraries" published by IPC and DC Thompson.  The Marvel UK books were all-reprint and most relied on archive material from the sixties, often a second (or even third) UK outing for the material (dating back to the Power Comics line of the late sixties).

STAR HEROES was the one exception: it reprinted the contemporary strips THE MICRONAUTS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.  The former, based on the toys, had already been given its (hyped - see another previous post) premiere in the pages of (the always desperate for suitable supporting features) STAR WARS WEEKLY.  The latter was based on the TV show although, unless they read STARLOG, STARBURST or one of the other imported SF mags, the chances are most British readers only knew it as a series of movies and had no idea they were actually edited TV episodes.

The Battlestar reprints kicked-off by rerunning the sixth US issue, the first to break away from TV adaptations in favour of a parallel continuity.

Skinn had tested the formula (along with several other "heroes" formats including MARVEL SUPERHEROES and TV HEROES) the previous year with the STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (notable for featuring an adaptation of the Battlestar episode Lost Planet of the Gods, a year before the two-parter hit British screens).

The STAR HEROES line-up remained constant for the first eight issues before the Micronauts vanished without any warning or explanation.  Reprints were also being serialised in FUTURE TENSE although Star Heroes readers would be none the wiser as no effort was made to tell anyone.

Issue 9 was a double-length issue all-Battlestar issue (including a reprint of the infamous ex-Tarzan strip, clumsily reworked to become a Battlestar tale involving giant apes).

The Galactica reprints continued in issue 10 but the arrival of sixties Lee/ Kirby X-MEN reprints (the New X-Men were simultaneously appearing in RAMPAGE MONTHLY) signalled change ahead.  This was (at least) the third time those strips had seen service in the UK (first appearing in FANTASTIC in the late sixties and again, in the seventies, in THE TITANS).  I'm pretty sure the first X-MEN strip also surfaced in one of the late seventies/ early eighties hardback annuals although I don't recall which one.  

The last of the Galactica reprints appeared in issue 11 and from 12 it officially became X-MEN POCKET BOOK, albeit with the (meaningless) top line "Marvel's star heroes".

The price jumped from 15p to 18p from issue 11 (without any of the usual editorial concessions to "rising prices").  Another leap, to 20p, kicked-in from issue 17 and again, to 25p, from issue 21. The double-sized 20th issue cost 40p.  Such rampant inflation might help explain the demise of the pocket books a few months later.

The renamed pocket book eventually clocked-up 28 issues before succumbing to the cancellation of the entire line (already pruned back in 1981) in '82. 

The same year, Marvel UK reran the same X-MEN reprints, albeit now in murky colour and at a larger size, again in X-MEN weekly (followed by THOR AND THE X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN).

1975: THE TITANS - PART ONE

In October 1975, British Marvel flipped!  On a mission to give British kids more punch for their pence, Marvel experimented with the eccentric landscape format.

The so-called TITANS format involved turning the A4 comic on its side so that the staples now ran along what would have been the top.  The paper format was still the established mix of glossy colour covers and black and white interiors on cheap paper.

The new format required the production of new landscape "widescreen" cover artwork.

Inside, some new landscape splash pages and posters were producers (by uncredited US artists) while the existing US pages were shrunk to A5 size and printed side-by-side, two to a page.  The reduced size, and Marvel's patchy printing, did the artwork no favours.

The two-to-a-page formula allowed Marvel to (give or take) run twice as many story pages as one of their traditional portrait-style weeklies.  The Titans' line-up consisted of (all reprints) Captain America, The Sub Mariner, The Inhumans, Captain Marvel, Nick Fury, The X-Men, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider.

The new weekly was accompanied by a major promotional push.  Coinciding with the first issue, Stan Lee travelled to the UK for a series of media interviews and personal appearances including a display of Marvel art at London's ICA and a talk hosted by Lee at Camden's Roundhouse (a sell-out thanks to heavy promotion in the weeklies).  We'll do more about Lee's UK visit in a future post.

Inexplicably, issues 11 and 12 were special "emergency" issues with a reduced page count and no glossy cover (and a penny off the cover price to compensate).  Marvel clearly knew this was on-the-cards as they had time to change the pagination of the issues and include a line of cover text.  An explanation (of a kind) appeared in issue 14, placing the blame on mysterious "technical problems".  Presumably this was either a lack of paper or mechanical problems at the printer.  Marvel used to print two weeks worth of issues in one hit, explaining why the problem affected two issues.

The Titans format was obviously deemed successful enough to also be adopted by SPIDER-MAN, partially to allow it to accommodate refugees from the just-cancelled THE SUPER-HEROES.  Spidey flipped from issue 158.

What no-one at Marvel seemed to have seriously considered is that the Titans format devoured material twice as fast as the existing weekly package, exhausting strips even quicker.  That's fine for strips with years of back-issues available to plunder but dangerous for the likes of Spider-Man which was already rapidly catching-up with the US editions.

The Titans folded after a year, merging into SPIDER-MAN from issue 199 (1 December 1976) and retained cover-billing until issue 230.

The Titans brand was revived, briefly, in 1980-81 for THE TITANS POCKET BOOK.

ISSUE 1

25 October 1975

Free poster

ISSUE 2

1 November 1975

ISSUE 3

8 November 1975

ISSUE 3

Belated Stan Lee editorial

ISSUE 4

15 November 1975

ISSUE 5

22 November 1975

ISSUE 6

29 November 1975

ISSUE 7

6 December 1975

ISSUE 8

13 December 1975

ISSUE 9

20 December 1975

ISSUE 10

27 December 1975

ISSUE 11

3 January 1975

*special emergency issue*

ISSUE 12

10 January 1976

*special emergency issue*

ISSUE 13

17 January 1976

ISSUE 14

24 January 1976

ISSUE 14

Explanation (of a short) for the emergency issues.

ISSUE 15

31 January 1976

ISSUE 16

7 February 1976

ISSUE 17

14 February 1976

ISSUE 18

21 February 1976

ISSUE 19

28 February 1976

ISSUE 20

6 March 1976

ISSUE 21

13 March 1976

ISSUE 22

20 March 1976

ISSUE 23

27 March 1976

ISSUE 24

3 April 1976

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1980: MARVEL UK'S POCKET BOOKS LINE

Back in 1980, as part of his Marvel Revolution Project, Marvel UK boss Dez Skinn was charged with increasing the Annex of Idea's output without devouring contemporary material at an even greater (and unsustainable - special UK strips were already being created by the New York mothership to fuel STAR WARS WEEKLY) rate.  As with Skinn's seasonal specials (launched the previous year), Skinn also looked to his competitors for his next 'innovation': digests!

Rivals DC Thompson and IPC had been cranking-out their pocket library digests for years... considerably longer than Marvel's wannabes would last.

Skinn believed their diminutive size would ensure newsagents placed them at the front of displays, ensuring maximum exposure.  The bitter truth was that they were more likely to get lost in the sea of comics or racked adjacent to the more attractive (colour!) US imports.  Marvel's oft-patchy distribution certainly didn't help.

The A5, black and white, pocket book line largely exploited Marvel's sixties back catalogue with only CHILLER, STAR HEROES and, briefly, SPIDER-MAN running more recent material.

The range (initially THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDER-MAN, CHILLER and STAR HEROES) launched in March 1980 with a second wave (YOUNG ROMANCE, TITANS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and CONAN THE BARBARIAN) launched in September.

Several of the featured characters (The Hulk, Conan, Spider-man etc.) were already appearing elsewhere in the Marvel UK line-up: an early example of M-UK brand extension.

The first wave was heavily cross-promoted in the Pocket Books range and the wider Marvel line but the second range received much less publicity and, by 1981 (and the first raft of cancellations), Marvel's new management seemed to have lost interest in the digests with barely an editorial nod.

CHILLER POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

March 1980 - July 1982

Horror strips including THE TOMB OF DRACULA, MAN-THING and material from the US horror comic and magazine lines.

Issues 9 & 20 were double-length.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Conan reprints from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN issue 1 onwards.

This material had previously appeared in the UK in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (Volume 1), 1975.

Conan strips also ran in THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (volume 2) and VALOUR (latterly FUTURE TENSE AND VALOUR) during this period.

Issue 3 was double-length.

THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

April 1980 - July 1982

Reprints from US THE FANTASTIC FOUR 43 onwards.

The FF had previously had a solo run in THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR (53 issues) from September 1977.

More contemporary FF reprints were also appearing in MARVEL TEAM-UP (1980), MARVEL ACTION (1981) and CAPTAIN AMERICA (1981) during this period.

The foursome graduated to their own weekly (29 issues) from 6 October 1982 - 20 April 1983.

FF POCKET BOOK issue 1 editorial

THE INCREDIBLE HULK POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Reprints from US THE INCREDIBLE HULK issue 1 onwards.

Previously reprinted in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (volume one), 1973.

Issue 3 was double-length.

The Hulk's popularity was bolstered during this period by the Universal live-action TV show.

The Green Goliath also appeared in HULK COMIC, SPIDER-MAN AND HULK WEEKLY and RAMPAGE MONTHLY during this period.

SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

March 1980 - July 1982

Initially a venue for MARVEL TEAM-UP reprints, these strips were swiftly diverted to the new weekly of the same name, replaced here by sixties Spider-man reprints beginning with US AMAZING FANTASY 15.

Despite Skinn's request for mail (above), none of the Pocket Books range ever featured a letters page.

Issues 9 & 20 were double-length.

Spider-man also appeared in SPIDER-MAN weekly and MARVEL TEAM-UP weekly during this period.

The Spider-man reprints continued briefly in THE DAREDEVILS, 1982.

STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

March 1980 - May 1981

13 Issues

Piloted with (the standard-format) STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL 1979.

Contemporary reprints of the TV-based BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and toy-based THE MICRONAUTS.

Episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978-79) were initially reworked as feature films in the UK.  The TV series did not debut until September 1980 (with some ITV regions airing it considerably later).

A 'rival' Battlestar strip also appeared in LOOK-IN weekly during this period.

THE MICRONAUTS had initially appeared as a back-up strip in STAR WARS WEEKLY.  They would appear next in FUTURE TENSE (1981).

Original X-Men strips, beginning with US THE UNCANNY X-MEN 1, were added from issue 10.  

Becomes X-MEN POCKET BOOK from issue 14.

STAR HEROES HOUSE AD

THE TITANS POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Avengers-centric sixties reprints of Captain America, Iron Man and The Mighty Thor.

Issue 3 was double-length.

TITANS was previously a landscape-format weekly (coining the description "Titans format") published for 58 issues between 25 October 1975 and 24 November 1976, merging with SPIDER-MAN from 199.

THE X-MEN POCKET BOOK

14 ISSUES*

June 1981 - August 1982

Issues 1-13 published as STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK.  Issues 14-28 as THE X-MEN POCKET BOOK.

X-Men reprints began to appear from issue 10, with the covers redesigned (see above) to prepare for the change of title.

X-Men reprints began from US THE UNCANNY X-MEN 1.  The same material, albeit in colour and at a larger page size, would appear again in 1983 in X-MEN weekly.

YOUNG ROMANCE POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Classic Marvel romance strips, presumably pitched at a female audience (making it a rarity amongst Marvel UK's output of this period).

POCKET BOOKS ASSORTED HOUSE ADS: