1980: FORCES IN COMBAT

FORCES IN COMBAT was Marvel UK's long-forgotten 1980-81 adventure weekly, a rare departure from the company's default superhero formula.

FiC is often grouped together with (the also long-overlooked) FURY as M-UK's other war weekly but, despite a long run of war-themed covers, the all-reprint line-up was a more diverse mix of strips, dabbling in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

FiC appeared in the "Skinn II" format: retaining the newsprint covers and interiors from Dez Skinn's January 1979 (partial) relaunch of the weeklies but abandoning his policy of reworking the original US artwork to cram in more panels per page. 

The line-up of strips included FURY OF THE COMMANDOS, MASTERS OF KUNG FU, ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT, THE RAWHIDE KID, KULL, MACHINE MAN, WULF THE BRITON (a rare non-Marvel reprint, originally published in EXPRESS/ TV EXPRESS WEEKLY), WAR IS HELL (the memorable WWII horror series) and the humour strip I WAS ADOLF'S DOUBLE.

Issues 1-3 reinforced the perception of being a war weekly by giving away free stickers of tanks.

From issue 8 onwards, a conscious decision seems to have been made to make FiC appear to be a war weekly with a run of covers through to 21.  The emphasis then switches to a fantasy theme (frequently featuring the Space Knight) for the rest of the run.  It's probable Marvel management saw FiC's fluid formula as a way of testing the popularity of various genres, setting the way for the simultaneous launch of FUTURE TENSE (SF) and VALOUR (Fantasy).

This strategy was probably a mistake as it meant FiC was offering similar material to its newly-launched companions.  For example, VALOUR had Conan whilst FiC had the very similar Kull.  The market for such fantasy fare was presumably limited and Marvel did their best to split it across two weeklies.  It's telling that both shuttered within a few weeks of each other in 1981.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN popped-up everywhere in the seventies and (early) eighties: in his own weekly and monthly (the latter ran concurrently with FiC), THE AVENGERS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL and THE MARVEL COMIC.  Still to come were CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK and VALOUR.

MACHINE MAN would later become familiar to TRANSFORMERS fans as the original back-up strip for the 1984-launched fortnightly.

ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT continued his adventures in FUTURE TENSE (the only strip to survive the merger) and the early FiC material was rerun as a back-up strip in STAR WARS monthly.

MASTERS OF KUNG FU made its UK debut, at the height of the martial arts craze, in the pages of THE AVENGERS.  In 1979, Dez Skinn craftily reworked reprints in MARVEL COMIC as The Specialists, a blatant "borrow" from LWT's THE PROFESSIONALS.

FORCES IN COMBAT merged with FUTURE TENSE... but only for one issue!  Although Rom continued to appear until FT itself was canned but the FiC logo received cover billing for only one issue.

ISSUE 1

15 May 1980

Free loosely-inserted sticker.

ISSUE 2

22 May 1980

Free loosely-inserted tank sticker

ISSUE 3

29 May 1980

Free loosely-inserted tank sticker

ISSUE 4

5 June 1980

ISSUE 5

12 June 1980

ISSUE 6

19 June 1980

ISSUE 7

26 June 1980

ISSUE 8

3 July 1980

ISSUE 9

10 July 1980

ISSUE 10

17 July 1980

ISSUE 11

24 July 1980

ISSUE 12

24 July 1980

ISSUE 13

7 August 1980

ISSUE 14

14 August 1980

ISSUE 15

21 August 1980

ISSUE 16

28 August 1980

ISSUE 17

4 September 1980

ISSUE 18

11 September 1980

ISSUE 19

17 September 1980

ISSUE 20

24 September 1980

ISSUE 21

2 October 1980

ISSUE 22

9 October 1980

ISSUE 23

16 October 1980

ISSUE 24

22 October 1980

ISSUE 25

29 October 1980

ISSUE 26

5 November 1980

ISSUE 27

12 November 1980

ISSUE 28

19 November 1980

ISSUE 29

26 November 1980

ISSUE 30

3 December 1980

ISSUE 31

10 December 1980

ISSUE 32

17 December 1980

ISSUE 33

24 December 1980

ISSUE 34

31 December 1980

ISSUE 35

7 January 1981

ISSUE 36

14 January 1981

ISSUE 37

21 January 1981

Final issue - Merges with FUTURE TENSE.

FUTURE TENSE

ISSUE 13

28 January 1981

The only issue to incorporate the FiC logo.