The new issue of the ever-brilliant BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE is now on sale on both sides of the Atlantic. And, if you go down to the Geek Store today, you won't be able to miss it. Just look for the huge Alex Ross Legion of Super Heroes cover. Yup, it really is huge. The new BI looks back at TREASURY COMICS from various publishers and gets in the mood by going - for one issue only - tabloid-sized too.
So I've been rummaging in the Slow Robot vaults and found these early Marvel UK House Ads for imported copies of Marvel's Treasury Editions, starting from the start in 1974.
These ads appeared in the UK weeklies, reminding British Bullpen Buyers to seek out these oversized monsters.
The dates beneath each ad correspond with the month they appeared, although some may have started to appear slightly earlier... or continued to appear into the following month.
These Treasury Editions are one of the reasons that Marvel UK didn't publish standalone Holiday Specials (a great British comics tradition) until the summer of 1979 (under the stewardship of Dez Skinn), these imports were considered to serve a similar function (although their publication wasn't limited to the traditional school holiday sales dates).
The imports continued throughout the 1970s, although I can't be certain that the entire US range reached British newsagents. Also, despite the heavy plugging, I'm not sure quite how well they were distributed.
The books themselves were identical to the US editions, just with the US price box substituted for the UK one.
ISSUE 1
September 1974
ISSUE 2
March 1975
ISSUE 3
April 1975
ISSUE 4
July 1975
ISSUE 5
August 1975
ISSUE 6
September 1976
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