1983: STAR WARS SUMMER SPECIAL 1983 (Marvel UK)

A few weeks ago, whilst blogging about FINALLY getting hold of the elusive THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL SUMMER SPECIAL 1983, I mentioned how hard it is to track down a copy of this: the 1983 STAR WARS SUMMER SPECIAL.

Well, at the weekend, I finally tracked-down (completely by chance, whilst rummaging through a pile of Marvel UK SW comics) this battered copy. I paid exactly half the sticker price.

Despite being one of M-UK's top-sellers, and having published Summer and Winter Specials since 1979, this is the first time that Marvel had published a spin-off special (excluding the annuals, a fixture since Christmas 1978) from the weekly/ monthly. Presumably this was down to a lack of surplus strip material to run.

This was published in the summer of 1983... the summer of RETURN OF THE JEDI. Yet... it makes no effort to attach itself to the movie hype machine. It feels very much like a late-out-the-stargate ESB spin-off.

Significantly (and this may explain why it exists at all: a second chance to recoup the origination costs), this collects four of the UK created strips originally created for the ESB/ SW MONTHLY. Quite why these strips were ever needed in the first place (other than to give work to UK creators) remains something of a mystery as the monthly reprint schedule should have - for the most part - fixed the supply problems of old.

This UK run of strips is known collectively as DEVILWORLDS (the title of one of the strips, not reprinted here) thanks to a two-issue reprint collection from Dark Horse Comics in 1996. The long out-of-print limited series published the strips in colour for the first time.

Death Masque was omitted (presumably because of lack of space) from the DH editions, making this its only reprint.

Although Flight of the Falcon shares its name with a video game, there's no direct connection between the two.

Marvel UK published several more Summer, Winter and Christmas specials.