1981: THE MYSTERY OF THE "MISSING" ISSUE OF SPIDER-MAN WEEKLY

Oh Marvel UK.  I love you (and your flimsy reprint-centric weeklies) very much.  But - lets be honest - you could be a little slap-dash sometimes.  The more I collect your back catalogue, and find out about your little Annex of Ideas, the more I realise that - sometimes - you were out-of-your-depths.

Here's a great example from 1981: the numbering on SPIDER-MAN (also, at that point, providing temporary accommodation for THE INCREDIBLE HULK and refugees from the short-lived MARVEL TEAM-UP weeklies) suddenly jumps from issue 427 to 429.  And then remains 429 the following week.  Whoever was responsible for pasting-up the cover box (a London production function since '79) boobed. Oopsie!

So, although there isn't ACTUALLY a missing issue (Spidey's weekly ran a commendable 666 issues), anyone looking to complete their collection with issue 428 will have a long hunt.

I think this mistake was acknowledged in a latter Spidey letters page.

ISSUE 427

13 May 1981

ISSUE 429.1

20 May 1981

ISSUE 429.2

27 May 1981