1985: SECRET WARS' SPIDER-MAN EXCLUSIVE

Here's Spider-man's little secret!  Here's a three-page Marvel UK SECRET WARS exclusive strip, penned by Marvel USA Editor-in-Chief (and Secret Wars scribe) Jim Shooter himself, created on TV-am's (ITV's national breakfast broadcaster) WIDE AWAKE CLUB (or WAC for short).

The Wide Awake Club aired live on Saturday mornings and Jim Shooter and UK artist Barry Kitson appeared live in October 1985 to promote Marvel UK.  As part of the appearance, Kitson started work on this strip which appeared in SECRET WARS issue 25 (21 December 1985), and nowhere else.

The strip appeared one week after Spider-man's own weekly (languishing under THE SPIDEY COMIC title) finally shuttered after 666 issues making it an unofficial (and short-lived) merger.  

Here's the preview from SECRET WARS issue 24.

SECRET WARS

ISSUE 25

21 December 1985

More from the Secret Wars... Coming soon.

1984: V THE COMIC BOOK ADVERT

As a postscript to Slow Robot's V: THE COMIC BOOK coverage, here's the one-page advert promoting its launch.  This particular scan came from the back cover of COMICS INTERVIEW 16, October 1984.

1982: DOOMLORD - PART FIVE

It's Doomlord Day Five...

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1983: EAGLE 41-50

It's 1983... and 3D!  The EAGLE's second year on the shelves saw new(ish) innovations (a three week run of issues with selected interior pages published in headache-inducing 3D*), a budget-scrunching relaunch, yet another freebie spinner and, eventually, the conclusion of Return of the Mekon.

Slow Robot's 30th anniversary nod to the (new) EAGLE continues...

ISSUE 41

1 January 1983

ISSUE 42

8 January 1983

ISSUE 43

15 January 1983

ISSUE 44

22 January 1983

ISSUE 45

29 January 1983

ISSUE 46

5 February 1983

ISSUE 47

12 February 1983

ISSUE 48

19 February 1983

ISSUE 49

26 February 1983

FREE GIFT: Cover-mounted 3D glasses.  Some interior pages printed in 3D.

ISSUE 50

5 March 1983

3D interior pages continue.

- MORE SOON - 

1984: MARVEL'S THE LAST STARFIGHTER ADAPTATION

Here are the US editions of Marvel's THE LAST STARFIGHTER movie adaptation.  Following the tried-and-tested release pattern, the whole strip appeared as an issue of MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL as well as being chopped into three chapters to appear as a regular-format limited series.

None of these received UK distribution outside specialist comic book stores but the strips were serialised (in even smaller chunks) as a back-up strip in SPIDER-MAN.

MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL ISSUE 31

1984

ISSUE 1

October 1984

ISSUE 2

November 1984

ISSUE 3

December 1984

1982: EAGLE 31-40

Slow Robot's (new) EAGLE 30th anniversary look-back reaches the end of 1982 today.  Watch out, Beadle's about...

ISSUE 31

23 October 1982

ISSUE 32

30 October 1982

ISSUE 33

6 November 1982

ISSUE 34

13 November 1982

ISSUE 35

20 November 1982

ISSUE 36

27 November 1982

ISSUE 37

4 December 1982

ISSUE 38

11 December 1982

ISSUE 39

18 December 1982

ISSUE 40

25 December 1982

- TOMORROW: WELCOME TO 1983 - 

1982: DOOMLORD PART FOUR

Doomlord goes to the dogs...

EAGLE's ace actors and cameraman didn't travel far for this episode:  That's IPC's HQ, Kings Reach Tower (also home of Tharg's Nerve Centre).  The bottom-right panel is clearly taken from the roof (that's LWT's, now ITV's, South Bank headquarters and studios in the distance) and the next panel clearly shows KRT itself.

- PART FIVE TOMORROW -

(Apologies for the lack of an EAGLE cover gallery update today, Blogger is reluctant to upload large images files.  With luck, normal service will be resumed tomorrow).

1984: THE LAST STARFIGHTER US PRINT ADVERT

Here's the advert for the movie THE LAST STARFIGHTER, released in 1984.

The advert ran in US comic books.

Marvel adapted the movie as a one-shot SUPER SPECIAL and a three-issue limited series.  The adaptation was serialised in Marvel UK's SPIDER-MAN weekly.

1993: BATTLETIDE UK EDITION

Here's the UK edition of BATTLETIDE, published by Marvel UK in 1993.  The hefty one-shot special collected the four-part US format limited series (starring Killpower and Death's Head II) for British readers.  It was the only OVERKILL spin-off.

BATTLETIDE

OVERKILL SPECIAL

EASTER 1993

See all of Marvel UK's US-format releases here and here.

1982: DOOMLORD PART THREE

Ace journalist Howard Harvey is on the case...

- PART FOUR TOMORROW - 

1982: EAGLE ISSUES 21-30

Day three of our EAGLE 30th anniversary cover gallery:

ISSUE 21

14 August 1982

ISSUE 22

21 August 1982

ISSUE 23

28 August 1982

ISSUE 24

4 September 1982

ISSUE 25

11 September 1982

ISSUE 26

18 September 1982

ISSUE 27

25 September 1982

ISSUE 28

2 October 1982

ISSUE 29

9 October 1982

ISSUE 30

16 October 1982

- MORE TOMORROW -