1979: MARVEL COMIC MARCH COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

Monday, 17 June 2013

1979: MARVEL COMIC MARCH COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

Was MARVEL COMIC doomed to failure from the beginning? It certainly got off to a very inauspicious start.

Dez Skinn's much-hyped Marvel Revolution unfortunately coincided with a national haulage strike which played havoc with the distribution of Marvel's titles. Some areas apparently started receiving copies of the new-look weeklies BEFORE the last copies of the pre-revolution editions. Other areas - inevitably - didn't see copies at all.

As a result, the second issue of MC arrived undated in newsagents to try and minimise confusion. However, the lack of an on-cover issue number probably hindered, rather than helped, the situation. After only two issues, publication was suspended and only resumed in early March.

The Hulk only appeared in the first three issues of MC before transferring to his own weekly to capitalise on the success of the live-action TV show running on ITV. Skinn wisely replaced him with another bankable green goliath with a good media profile: reprints of the licensed US Godzilla strip.

The end of the month saw another crisis hit when the courier company charged with rushing the completed issues to the printer managed to misplace the whole consignment. The London Bullpen despatched two issues at a time to the printer, resulting in the loss of four completed editions. The lost issues were Marvel Comic 335 & 336 and SPIDER-MAN COMIC 316 & 317. Unwilling to loose more sales so soon after the strike, Skinn hastily assembled 'emergency' issues using inventory strips that hadn't been re-edited to fit the new more-panels-per-page format. Dez did at least use the opportunity to run strips, like the X-Men, that cross-promoted the UK monthlies. Skinn's first new-format Bullpen Bulletins explained what was happening.