1972: THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL: THE BIRTH OF MARVEL UK.

This is it true believers!  The Mighty Marvel UK age starts here!  After a decade of allowing others (Alan Class, Oldham's Alf and Bart and IPC ) to publish their strips in the UK, Marvel open their own UK operation to repackage their American strips!

The format was 40 newsprint-type pages, with 8 in colour.  Others were printed with one other colour, usually green to the benefit of the Hulk strip (and detriment of the others).  Glossy covers (and entirely black and white interiors) were added after a year.

Despite having a UK office in London's Newgate Street, the majority of the packaging and production was handled by the New York office, leaving London to handle editorial, administration, advertising and distribution.  Marvel UK remained a firmly US affair until Dez Skinn took the helm in 1978.

Their first launch was THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (MWOM), a weekly anthology of SPIDER-MAN, THE HULK and THE FANTASTIC FOUR, all beginning with their respective US first issues.  The line-up didn't last long, Spidey spun-off into his own weekly from February 1973 leaving a gap for DAREDEVIL.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK remained a constant throughout MWOM's life, supported by an ever-changing line-up.  Expansions and (more often) contractions in the Marvel UK line added, at various times, THE AVENGERS (and CONAN THE BARBARIAN), DRACULA LIVES!, PLANET OF THE APES and FURY.

An increasingly lacklustre MWOM limped on to January 1979, bolstered by the UK premiere of the INCREDIBLE HULK TV show, before being rebooted by Skinn in January 1979 as MARVEL COMIC from issue 333.  The reworked anthology wasn't a success and ended after issue 352 (cover dated 25 July 1979), merging with SPIDER-MAN COMIC while simultaneously reemerging as MARVEL SUPERHEROES: A MARVEL MONTHLY.

The MWOM brand was revived in June 1983 for Marvel UK's new monthly, briefly home to Captain Britain (after it absorbed THE DAREDEVILS), before ending after 17 issues (merging with THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN).  Marvel licensee Panini revived the name again for one of its COLLECTORS' EDITION anthologies in February 2003.  But we'll get to those.

THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL

Volume 1

Issue 1

17 October 1972

FREE GIFT: Hulk iron-on t-shirt transfer.

40 pages.

MWOM Issue 1

Salutations from Stan Lee.

Whatever could it be??*

Black & white + 1

The Incredible Hulk from issue 1

ISSUE 2

14 October 1972

FREE GIFT: Spider-man iron-on t-shirt transfer.

ISSUE 3

21 October 1972

Free Gift: Stickers

ISSUE 5

4 November 1972

ISSUE 5

The first Marvel UK letters page.

First letter published: Christopher Thompson, Wembley Park, Middlesex.

ISSUE 6

11 November 1972

ISSUE 7

18 November 1972

*It's a mail-away premium poster!

1993: MARVEL UK AT THE LONDON LORD MAYOR'S SHOW

To celebrate Marvel UK's 21st birthday, and the boom years for the Temple-based UK operation, the company had a float in the 1993 London Lord Mayor's Show.  Look out for Death's Head II amongst the assembled heroes and villains.

THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW 1993

1994: DEATH'S HEAD II LIVES!

During the Marvel UK boom years of the early 1990s, the Marvel mandarins indulged in a little cosplay and invested in a DEATH'S HEAD II costume for personal appearances.  Here are a few stills that appeared in THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN.

FULL-PAGE POSTER

THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN ISSUE 19

Cover-dated 9 March 1994

THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN ISSUE 14

20 October 1993

1978: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA VIDEO VAULT

As part of Slow Robot's ongoing salute to the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, here are several more videos gathered from that wonderful land of You Tube.

STORYBOARDS AND DESIGNS

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA STORYBOARD AND DESIGNS

A selection of hitherto unseen storyboards for the opening Cylon attack in Saga of a Star World (aka the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA movie).  Note that the Galactica, Raider and Vipers are pretty much locked but the Cylon Centurions and Cylon Baseships are still based on earlier pre-production designs.

THE STARS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA LOOK BACK

THE STARS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - PART ONE

A 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

THE STARS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - PART TWO

A 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ATTRACTION AT LA'S UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

BATTLE FOR GALACTICA

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS TOUR

This attraction, which opened shortly after the TV show was cancelled, lived on until the early 1990s.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA- THE DVD DOCUMENTARY

REMEMBERING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA PART ONE

REMEMBERING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA PART TWO

REMEMBERING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA PART THREE

REMEMBERING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA PART FOUR

25TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE

LOOKING BACK

25TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE

LOOKING BACK

25TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE

EXTENDED CAREER-RETROSPECTIVE INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER GLEN A. LARSON

GLEN LARSON EMMY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW

PART ONE

GLEN LARSON EMMY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW

PART TWO

GLEN LARSON EMMY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW

PART THREE

GLEN LARSON EMMY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW

PART FOUR

GLEN LARSON EMMY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW

PART FIVE

THE TRANSFORMERS - Marvel TV commercial for US issue 1

Following the success of TV spots plugging the G.I. JOE comic book, a crafty way of circumventing rules about using animation to promote toys, Hasbro bankrolled similar spots to launch Marvel's TRANSFORMERS limited series.  

The commercial is only very loosely based on the plot of the first issue.  Note that Megatron's design is significantly different to the model sheets used on the animated series.

Both the G.I. JOE and TRANSFORMERS commercials were produced by Sunbow and Marvel Productions.

This would have aired around August/ September 1984.

1978: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE MARVEL COMICS

Nice spaceships, shame about the scripts!

The famously unexpected success of STAR WARS sent every Hollywood (and a few Italians) scurrying around to see what long-in-development projects could be given a hasty sic-fi sheen.  Fortunately for Universal, producer Glen Larson had something called ADAM'S ARK (the last survivors of an about-to-go-boom Earth are whisked into space by a Howard Hughes type) which, with a little bit of work, could be made to look an awful lot like STAR WARS.  Phew.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA arrived with much hype in the Fall of 1978, giving sic-fi fanatics a chance to see a close approximation of STAR WARS, for free, every week.  Well done Glen.

Universal were spending a fortune on the TV show (the three-hour pilot apparently cashed-in at $12 million + and subsequent episodes, despite being noticeably cheaper, still apparently cost near to $1 million) but cashing in on sneaking out selected episodes as faux feature films in overseas markets and offering shedloads of (frequently sub-standard) merchandise.

Unfortunately, broadcaster ABC wasn't getting a piece of the merchandising action and its crack accountants quickly calculated that the hefty price they were paying for the show didn't leave much room for a stellar profit margin.  So, after a year and despite none-too-shabby ratings, ABC pulled the plug.

They had a change of heart within six months and tried again with the cut-price catastrophe GALACTICA 1980.  But, we'll get to that.

Marvel, flush with their STAR WARS success, were quick to snaffle-up the comic book license.

They produced an adaptation of the extended pilot (released theatrically overseas) in the Super Special magazine format.  And repackaged the same material in Treasury (tabloid) and paperback formats.

Obviously produced while the show was still at the earliest stages of production, the Super Special version includes several inconsistencies compared with the final screen version.

Marvel used the same material to form the basis of the first three issues of their regular Battlestar monthly but less pressing deadlines allowed them to amend and correct the earlier version.

ISSUE 1

Cover dated March 1979

ISSUE 2

April 1979

ISSUE 3

May 1979

Issue 4 and 5 adapted the TV episodes Lost Planet of the Gods.  The first story aired after the pilot (The Gun on Ice Planet Zero was shot first), it was originally intended to be one of the three TV movies (along with the pilot and GOIPZ) before ABC decided to commit to a full series on the strength of the rushes from the first episodes.

ISSUE 4

June 1979

ISSUE 5

July 1979

Marvel's license only covered the first five TV hours (which meant they were unable to incorporate any of the later characters and concepts like the Eastern Alliance), leaving it free to create its own interpretation of the series.  Cue: space vampires, peckish planets, new-fangled flashback machines and space pirates.  One notable difference to the TV version is that Marvel left Baltar to die in the rubble of Kobol whereas the TV show inexplicably resurrected him, albeit with a limp, the following week.

ISSUE 6

August 1979

ISSUE 7

September 1979

ISSUE 8

October 1979

ISSUE 9

November 1979

ISSUE 10

December 1979

ISSUE 11

January 1980

ISSUE 12

February 1980

ISSUE 13

March 1980

ISSUE 14

April 1980

ISSUE 15

May 1980

ISSUE 16

June 1980

ISSUE 17

July 1980

ISSUE 18

August 1980

This issue is actually an unused TARZAN: LORD OF THE JUNGLE inventory story left on file after the book was hastily cancelled (29 issues, 1977-1979), reworked to fit Battlestar (with Apollo substituted for Tarzan!).  Issue 17 was especially created to lead into the amended strip.

ISSUE 19

September 1980

ISSUE 20

October 1980

ISSUE 21

November 1980

ISSUE 22

December 1980

ISSUE 23

January 1981

There was no UK edition of the pilot/ movie adaptation but the two-part Lost Planet of the Gods was published in STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL 1979 (along with THE MICRONAUTS), almost a year before it appeared on screen (and then only in the London region).

Marvel UK Editor in Chief Dez Skinn had initially planned to run the Battlestar reprints as a back-up strip in STAR WARS WEEKLY (always desperate for suitable material) but Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox (who were busy suing Battlestar for ripping-off Star Wars) got wind of the plan and swiftly put the kibosh on it.

The summer of 1980 saw the launch of Marvel UK's black and white A3 POCKET BOOK range (largely assembled of sixties reprints) including STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK, reprinting (again) The Micronauts and Battlestar beginning with US 5.  With the Battlestar reprints exhausted, and The Micronauts required for the new weekly FUTURE TENSE, Star Heroes morphed into X-MEN POCKET BOOK after a year.

Selected Marvel Battlestar strips were reprinted in two Titan Books trade paperbacks: SAGA OF A STAR WORLD and THE MEMORY MACHINE.

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BROADCAST DATES

US

17 September 1978 (ABC)

UK

4 September 1980 (Thames Television/ London)

The series didn't earn a network slot and different ITV regions aired the show at very different times (or even not at all).  Thames aired the pilot, The Living Legend and Fire in Space although other regions subsequently omitted them because they formed the first two theatrical releases (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK).

G.I. JOE MARVEL TV COMMERCIALS

In the early 1980s, US TV bigwigs had strict rules about using animation to promote toys.  The boffins were concerned that young consumers would be misled into believing the toys were more impressive than they really were by the cunning use of cartoons.

Hasbro's Marketing brains-trust spotted a devious way to circumvent the rules: bankroll TV spots for Marvel's G.I. JOE comics which, conveniently, just happened to feature the very same toys that Hasbro wanted to promote.  But - because the commercials were for the comics and most definitely NOT the toys - the rules didn't apply. As sneaky as Serpentor!

And it gave Marvel a best-seller (on newsstands, in grocery stores and by subscription although it failed to make the same impact in comic book stores)!

This is a handy compilation of all the Marvel spots, beginning with issue 1:

1978: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BLOOPER REEL

It's NOT on the DVD release!  The official for-the-eyes-of-the-crew-only BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BLOOPER REEL.

1978: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CLASSIC TV SPOTS

TV's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was heavily merchandised as everyone looked to capture a piece of the STAR WARS action.  Here is a selection of classic TV spots: 

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SMALL ACTION FIGURES

MATTEL TV COMMERCIAL

1978

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA BUBBLE MACHINE

TV COMMERCIAL

1978

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA LARGE ACTION FIGURES

MATTEL TV COMMERCIAL

1978

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA VIPER LAUNCHER

MATTEL TV COMMERCIAL

1978

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ABC PREMIERE TRAILER

ABC TV

1978

THE UNEMPLOYED CYLON

SPACE

CANADA

1984: V: THE DC COMIC

In 1983, the Earth was invaded.  Two years, and two invasions, later.  It was all over.

'V' was writer/ producer/ director Ken Johnson's account of how individuals would react to the arrival of (apparently) peaceful aliens with a covert mission to harvest the population.

The original four-hour (three-hours plus commercials) mini-series is a TV landmark, combining smart (for the period) writing, impressive (except for the odd against-the-deadline shot) and well-paced scares and revelations which maintain the pace.  The DVD is made a must-have thanks to Johnson's observed, detailed and honest commentary.

Here is a nicely assembled fan-made 'trailer' for the original mini-series (which also incorporates footage from the sequel):

Johnson bailed-out of the 1984 sequel V: THE FINAL BATTLE in a dispute over a shrinking budget.  The six-hour (with those pesky breaks) mini-series was based on his story outline but severely diluted by less writing talents and the studio's accountants.

THE FINAL BATTLE turned out to be anything but with a hastily-commissioned (and long-threatened) weekly series cobbled together for the same year.  A bloated cast (including many familiar faces retained from the first two chapters), improbable premise (the aliens, despite overwhelming firepower, accept Los Angeles is an "Open City" where only limited, budget-friendly, skirmishes are permissible) and an impossibly inept budget were wholly inappropriate for the ambition of the premise.  With falling ratings and a shrinking budget, V: THE SERIES swiftly dive-bombed into cash-strepped camp with a distinctive whiff of decay and impending doom.  Sure enough, it was cancelled after 19 episodes (one of which, Breakout, was deemed too violent and omitted from the original run but restored for summer reruns) and loose talk of a retooled second season, TVM's or another mini-series all amounted to nothing.

Just how camp did things get?

DC Comics, flush with the success of their licensed STAR TREK monthly, loyally licensed 'V' from their telly-producing corporate cousin and attempted to weave new stories between the weekly series radially changing format.

Cary Bates was the lead writer with art from industry legend (and no stranger to licensed titles, having been a prominent contributor to Marvel's STAR WARS saga) Carmine Infantino.

Readers criticised the inconsistent likenesses of TV characters (a contractual requirement to avoid additional payments and approvals), hitherto unseen Visitor technology (flying platforms, jet packs and the ability to casually regenerate missing limbs) and Motherships which alternated between high and low orbit depending on the whim of the artist.

ISSUE 1

Cover date: February 1985

The early issues were clearly produced whilst the exact format of the weekly series was still being refined.  Several regular characters are conspicuous in their absence and Chris Farber is far more prominently featured here than in the show (the character only appears a couple of times).

The title sequence for episodes 1-11

ISSUE 2

March 1985

ISSUE 3

April 1985

ISSUE 4

May 1985

ISSUE 5

June 1985

The Visitor leader Charles (Duncan Regehr on-screen) appears for the first time in this issue.

ISSUE 6

July 1985

ISSUE 7

August 1985

This issue is largely a Julie Parish solo story.

ISSUE 8

September 1985

Ham Tyler, Robin Maxwell and Chris Farber left the LA Resistance (and, in the real world, the show), as part of the mid-season revamp, to aid the Chicago Resistance.  Although never seen on-screen again, their adventures are featured here and in issue 15.

This, and the following, issue is set in New York City and is a semi-sequel to the novel EAST COAST CRISIS.

Charles is dead in this issue and Phillip, Martin's brother (also played by Frank Ashmore) appears for the first time.

ISSUE 9

October 1985

This is the first issue to reflect the revised format (and reduced cast) introduced to the TV series mid-season.

ISSUE 10

November 1985

ISSUE 11

December 1985

This issue introduces Bron, the Supreme Leader's son.  A comic creation who remains until issue 16.

ISSUE 12

January 1986

ISSUE 13

February 1986

ISSUE 14

March 1986

ISSUE 15

April 1986

Another Ham, Robin and Chris adventure.

ISSUE 16

May 1986

The conclusion of this issue dove-tails into the opening moments of the final TV episode and the Leader's unexpected announcement of an end to hostilities.

ISSUE 17

June 1986

This, and the following issue, was originally intended to form the contents of the first V ANNUAL.  The TV show's cancellation, and falling sales of the comic book, ended those plans and the material appears here instead.

ISSUE 18

July 1986

This is the final issue.

There was no UK edition (although it was translated into Dutch and other languages) but the US issues were distributed to UK newsagents as part of a package of DC imports.

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US BROADCAST (NBC)

V (The mini-series) 1-2 May 1983

V: THE FINAL BATTLE 6-8 May 1984

V: THE SERIES 26 October 1984-22 March 1985

UK BROADCAST (ITV)

V (The mini-series) 30-31 July 1984

V: THE FINAL BATTLE 1-3 August 1984

V: THE SERIES 3 June - 23 September 1985 (Thames Television/ London)