1983: RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly COVER BLOOPER

Spot C.Y.R.I.L's - ahem - deliberate mistake on the cover of Marvel UK's RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly issue 9!

The cover-mounted gift itself was a "May The Force Be With You!" pin badge, tapped to each copy top-left.  It's long-since vanished from this particular copy.

The lure of the badge, and Marvel's sometimes erratic distribution, meant I couldn't actually find a copy of this issue when it was published and only tracked-down this sans-gift copy many years later.

The photo-covers were a canny ploy by Marvel to attract casual readers and continued for quite some time... basically until the stock of suitable images were well-and-truly exhausted (some looked a little desperate although Star Warriors didn't care).  Dez Skinn had first introduced photo-covers to STAR WARS WEEKLY when he took the Marvel UK helm in 1979, although they never fully replaced artwork covers as a regular fixture.