1979: DC COMICS AND WEETABIX BREAKFAST CEREAL

Zap! Pow! Wham!  DC COMICS freebies at breakfast time!

I've mentioned this WEETABIX promotion before in a previous post but now I've (finally) found an advert (published in LOOK-IN cover-dated 10 November 1979) to prove it really did happen!

During the promotion, buyers of the (frankly unappetising) breakfast biscuits could collect the free cards within each box (the bigger the box, the more cards included).  Frustratingly, the advert doesn't show them.

Similar tie-ins also ran for FLASH GORDON and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (Weetabix really was the breakfast cereal of choice for would-be geeks).

The copy also mentions that the boxes doubles as action scenes for the cards (the base of the cards allowed you to stand them up, providing there was no hint of a breeze).  I don't recall these but i do remember boxes having a DC superhero mask printed on the reverse (I chose the Flash after careful consideration in the local Tesco) which suggests that the DC tie-in continued longer.

1979: THE MARVEL REVOLUTION: PHASE ONE (Marvel UK)

Here's a three-page MARVEL UK House Ad from January 1979 (cover-date 17 January 1979) heralding the first phase of Dez Skinn's 'Marvel Revolution': the comprehensive overhaul of the Annex of Idea's two super-powered weeklies: SPIDER-MAN and THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

1994: OVERKILL 3D CARDS BY BRYAN HITCH - PART TWO (Marvel UK)

Here's the second three-card set of OVERKILL 3D TRADING CARDS, illustrated by Bryan Hitch, presented free with OVERKILL issue 44, 12 January 1994.

1984: SPIDER-MAN - LONDON CALLING (Marvel UK)

Rumour has it that the next Spider-man movie will be called THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: LONDON CALLING (hurrah for the BBC World Service) which -if true - is very intriguing and opens up a world of possibilities.

Which gives me the excuse I needed to run these pages from Spidey's exclusive 1984 visit to London... and Birmingham.

Back in 1984, Marvel UK management faced a dilemma: should they introduce Spider-man's controversial black costume?

Sales of the weekly were already on-the-slide and they feared an unfamiliar look would confuse and alienate casual fans, as well as merchandisers looking to acquire the rights to the character (a lucrative sideline for the Annex of Ideas).

The original plan was - apparently - to cease reprints of the US strips in favour of all-new British-produced adventures.  These would have also - presumably - have been offered to other international publishers of Marvel strips with similar concerns.

After some delay (apparently Marvel US had to be convinced that their principle character could be entrusted to the UK operation), the plans for a regular run were truncated to a four-part try-out, running in issues 607-610.

Marvel were canny enough to peg the strip to a personal appearance of Spidey (aka a bloke in a costume) on ITV's live networked Saturday mornings kids show SATURDAY STARSHIP, produced by Central Independent Television from their Birmingham studios.

Ironically, the same morning, the BBC repeated an episode of SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS as part of their Saturday morning kids offering.

By this point in the weekly's long and convoluted history, it had adopted a format which ran alternate double-page spreads of colour and black & white art (giving the effect of watching a TV on the blink).  The UK-produced strips appeared in black & white throughout with only the splash pages given the colour treatment.

Issues 607 and 608 were also accompanied by loosely-inserted free gifts: transfers and a sticker.

Presumably deemed a failure (although the strips themselves are perfectly serviceable), the experiment was never repeated and the weekly went into a quick decline through 1985.  The page count was cut (albeit with glossy paper added), the main strip switched to older (out-of-continuity) reprints, production standards dropped and - from issue 634 - relaunched as THE SPIDER-MAN COMIC, pitched at a younger audience.  A further name-change -SPIDEY COMIC - followed from issue 651 and it was cancelled with issue 666, cover-dated 14 December 1985.

This adventure has never been reprinted on either side of the Atlantic.  Spidey staged another TV-related transatlantic trip to the UK during 1985.  You can read that adventure here.

ISSUE 607

27 October 1984

Splash page

Details of Spidey's appearance on ITV's SATURDAY STARSHIP.

Free transfers insert.

ISSUE 608

3 November 1984

Editorial.

Splash page.

Loosely inserted free sticker.

ISSUE 609

10 November 1984

Splash page.

ISSUE 610

17 November 1984

Splash page.

1975: ADVERT FOR MARVEL'S 1976 ANNUALS (Marvel UK)

Christmas is coming... so here's some stocking-stuffers of yore: the 1976 roster of MARVEL ANNUALS, as published (and plugged) in the last-quarter of 1975.

This Marvel UK house ad appeared in the British weeklies during October 1975.

1979: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA PREVIEW in LOOK-IN

I've already posted the first instalment of British weekly LOOK-IN's take on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA but here's the full-page preview published the week before (cover-dated 13 October 1979).

The TV series might have been eagerly awaited... but ITV still sat on it for another year, presumably to the annoyance of LOOK-IN's editors.

1993: OVERKILL 3D CARDS BY BRYAN HITCH - PART ONE (Marvel UK)

More freebies from Marvel UK's all-original anthology: OVERKILL.

The second set of OVERKILL TRADING CARDS came free with issues 43-45, a sales-booster to accompany the switch to a monthly schedule*, an increased page count and... inevitably... increased cover price.

Rather than add extra cards to the existing set, Marvel decided to be a little more fancy and give the second set (now down to three cards per-issue) the 3D treatment.

The first cards, illustrated by soon-to-be-superstar Bryan Hitch, came cover-mounted to issue 43 (cover-dated 15 December 1993) along with the obligatory glasses, above.  The reverse of the glasses are blank white card.

Marvel missed the opportunity to run any 3D material inside the comic itself, which is a pity.

3D enhancement was an old standby for British comics looking for a novelty sales-booster and Starlogged readers may recall previous excursions into the extra dimension by EAGLE, BATTLE ACTION FORCE and LOOK-IN.  

Six further cards followed, and I'll post those soon.

*A sure sign that sales are in the toilet.

1979: MARVEL UK in COMIC MEDIA NEWS INTERNATIONAL

This is COMIC MEDIA NEWS INTERNATIONAL, a late seventies British fanzine.  This issue (39, May-June 1979) appeared during the early months of Dez Skinn's reign at Marvel UK... and the early stages of his Marvel Revolution: overhauling the weeklies.

HULK COMIC, the first M-UK weekly to feature predominantly new UK-generated material, understandably gets the bulk of the coverage... along with some great illustrations.

1992: OVERKILL T-SHIRT OFFER (Marvel UK)

Here's a long-forgotten item from the back of the Marvel UK closet: the OVERKILL DIGITEK T-SHIRT, offered to readers (for a mere £14.99) back in November 1992.

1982: WHO KILLED THE BATTLESTAR? (Fantastic Films Magazine)

Here's a great 1982 article, by William D. Adams, analysing why BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was unceremoniously canned after a single season (1978-79) on-air.

It appeared in the oft-forgotten US magazine FANTASTIC FILMS, issue 29 (June 1982). 

1983: ABC FALL SATURDAY MORNING SCHEDULE

Here's an advert hyping ABC's Fall 1983 SATURDAY MORNING KID-VID schedule.  It's pretty underwhelming stuff, bookended by two outings of SCOOBY DOO (unfortunately partnered by the loathsome Scrappy).

Several of these shows crossed the Atlantic: PAC-MAN was part of TV-am's early-morning schedules whilst THE PUPPY'S NEW ADVENTURES aired in the BBC.

The ad appeared in Marvel Comics.

1985: MARVEL UK PAPERWORK

I've been meaning to run these for ages but never quite got around to it: some MARVEL UK PAPERWORK related to the free ZOIDS insert with INDIANA JONES MONTHLY issue 5.

As you'll see below, Tomy paid M-UK £400 to run the insert in 40,000 copies of Indy.

The invoice was a two-sheet affair so I've scanned both.  The first scan includes the lower-half of the second page.

The second scan is the second page.

The ZOIDS insert also appeared in RETURN OF THE JEDI (84) and SPIDER-MAN (620) weeklies dated 26 January 1985.

A second Zoids insert ran in September 1985, by which time Indy had been cancelled.

How did I get these?  I stumbled across some back issues of INDIANA JONES MONTHLY in a (now defunct) London comic book store a few years ago.  They weren't in terribly good condition (battered and hole-punched) but I needed them to fill some gaps.  And they were cheap.

I noticed these invoices paper-clipped to the interior of this issue, as well as a freelancer payment for a text feature attached to another issue, which seemed pretty unusual.  Another reason to plonk down the required 50p an issue.

I can only assume that these were M-UK file copies, probably held by the advertising sales department, that somehow escaped the business.  Possibly during an office spring clean or - maybe - when Marvel moved from Redan Place to Arundel House or (more likely) when they decamped from London to Kent.

1994: CONAN THE ADVENTURER FORTNIGHTLY (Marvel UK)

This is another long-forgotten chapter in Marvel UK's history: the final outing of CONAN THE BARBARIAN in the UK.

CONAN THE ADVENTURER was a full-colour fortnightly, published in the summer of 1994, to coincide with the animated TV show of the same name.  It lasted (a spectacularly short) three issues.

I don't have issue one but, below, are the covers and contents for the final two issues.  

The reprints date back to 1970 and the first three issues of the US CONAN THE BARBARIAN book (it's a very safe bet that issue one of CtA reprinted The Coming of Conan! from CtB issue 1, October 1970).

This was the third time (at least) that these issues were reprinted in the UK, albeit in colour for the first time.  They'd previously appeared in the early issues of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly (1975) and CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK (1980).

CtA vanished after the third issue, yet another swift M-UK cancellation.  There was no announcement in the final issue.

Issue three appears as just 'CONAN" although it's still Conan the Adventurer in the copyright information on page two.  Whether this was a deliberate title-change or just an omission (unlikely) is unknown.

As mentioned in a previous post, Conan's first UK outing (the 1975 weekly) was a flop, cancelled after only 18 weeks.  But the Barbarian went on to have a lengthy run across the Marvel UK line, appearing in (variously) THE AVENGERS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, PLANET OF THE APES, MARVEL COMIC, THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN MONTHLY, CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK, VALOUR, FUTURE TENSE and HAVOC before returning to this solo title.

 

ISSUE 2

15 July 1994

Reprints Lair of the Beast Men from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN issue 2 and King of the Forgotten People (part two) from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL 6 (1981)

ISSUE 3

29 JULY 1994

FINAL ISSUE

Reprints Twilight of the Grim Grey God from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3 and King of the Forgotten People (part three) from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL 6 (1981)