MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MOTORMOUTH

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

£=<{ me!  It's potty-mouthed London teen Harley Davidson (yup, the copyright-baiting Brits were at it again), tricked into becoming an inadvertent dimension-hopper by the nefarious MyS-TECH thanks to their MOPED device... craftily concealed in a pair of designer trainers.

Harley, despite the TANK GIRL comparisons, was one of the more interesting of the first wave of Marvel UK GENESIS 92 characters.  She also demonstrated Arundel House's early determination to offer something a little more distinctive than the standard US superhero fare.

Her own comic, paired with the very nineties KILLPOWER (I'll get to him), ran for only a year but Harley has the distinction of being the only British character to make a contemporary appearance in a US book (THE INCREDIBLE HULK 408-409, courtesy of Peter David), beating the transatlantic guest-shot one-way-street.

MM also has the distinction of being the only G92 strip to appear in the UK twice.  She formed one-fifth of the original OVERKILL line-up and then appeared uncut (IE the full American edit of the strip) in the pages of THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN.

Harley was poised to make a double comeback in two new series just as the Genesis Implosion hit, leaving both unpublished.  One would have revived her partnership with Killpower whilst a second, MOTORMOUTH REMIX, would have used her dimension-jumping abilities to visit various alternate Marvel Earths with different takes on assorted established characters (WHAT IF meets SLIDERS).

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SEVENTEEN

This slightly V'ger-esque view is snapped from the basement of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE, looking up at the Helios statue and former fountain at the centre of the - ahem - centre.

This large open-plan area (which I rather liked) was offices BY this point although - I believe - in the dim-and-distant past it had housed TVC's VT machines when such things still filled several rooms.  Because the space was at the centre of the building, it was more-or-less equidistant to each of the studios and the Presentation suites.

1986: IPC/ FLEETWAY 1987 ANNUALS HOUSE AD

We're deep into "annual season" now so I thought it would be fun to run another of IPC/ Fleetway's ambitious advertising campaigns for their yearly offering.

This four-page feature took over the centre pages of the EAGLE (and, presumably, all the other weeklies) cover-dated 29 November 1986, just as kids across the UK were drawing-up their Christmas lists ("cut this out and give it to your parents").

Of the annuals featured here, I had 2000AD, Judge Dredd, Eagle, Dan Dare (the first time the new Eagle had spun their most bankable character into a separate book) and Battle Action Force.

By the time the annual saw print, the defunct TIGER had already been squeezed off the Eagle masthead but Fleetway were maintaining the old tradition of not allowing the cancellation of the comic to end the lifespan of the annual.  Presumably the logic was that previous readers would welcome the chance to be reunited with a former favourite and - more likely - it assumed that parents would be unfamiliar with the ebb-and-flow of the comics business and - when selecting a gift - they would go with a brand name they at least recognised.  Especially one with the longevity of Tiger.

1985: CYRIL MEETS THE SECRET ARTIST (Marvel UK)

I realised the other day that it has been a VERY long time since I last posted an instalment of CYRIL's adventures on STARLOGGED.

Normal service will be resumed soon (I must... I must) but - in the meantime - here's a rather special episode: When CYRIL met the Secret Artist!

For those unfamiliar with the mysterious menace of Redan Place, the Secret Artist was a regular two-page humour feature in the earliest issues of MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS (aka SECRET WARS).  It always followed the same formula as this episode: a page of strip followed by a full-page revelation of the latest "character assassination" by the purveyor of twisted portraiture.

Of course, CYRIL was also working at the British Bullpen so it was inevitable that the two would cross paths.

This strip originally appeared in an issue of SECRET WARS (I'm not sure which one) but was reprinted in RETURN OF THE JEDI issue 115 (31 August 1985), which is where I scanned this from.

A full run of SECRET ARTIST scans is buried (deep) in my mental STARLOGGED to-do list but it won't happen anytime soon as I have to unearth the issues from storage.

1982: FANTASTIC FOUR weekly OCTOBER COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

This is, according to the counter to my right, my 400th STARLOGGED post of 2013 so I've been holding this - the first part of my next MARVEL UK Cover Gallery - back to coincide with that magic number.  It remains to be seen whether I can muster another 113 posts to beat last year's final figure of 513.

400 posts.  FANTASTIC FOUR.  You can (kinda) see what I've done here.  I hope.

This 1982-83 weekly clocked-up an unimpressive 29 issues before being merged with SPIDER-MAN's weekly, supposedly to make way for the new THOR and X-MEN books.

The FF had been a British fixture right back to 1972 and the first issue of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (and actually back into pre-history thanks to the sixties Power Comics reprints of the same material) but this was Marvel's third crack at making their first family stick as a standalone title in the UK.  THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR ran for 37 issues between 1977-78 before merging back into THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, possibly because its cover-to-cover reprints were devouring material too fast to make it sustainable.

The foursome were back in 1980 as part of the POCKET BOOKS range.  With Dez Skinn long gone, the digest-sized line ran out of steam in 1982 but I assume the sales figures on THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR led directly to the launch of this weekly replacement.

The format followed the post-November 1981formula of 24-pages with glossy covers and centre-spreads with black & white interiors.  This earns it a little footnote in the history of the Annex of Ideas: the last new launch to have (centre-spread not withstanding) purely b&w interiors.  THE MIGHTY THOR would, after a (very) shaky start usher in a new era of colour interiors.

The reprints covered roughly the same timeframe as the FF's last weekly, kicking-off with a rerun of The Monster in the Streets from US FF 105, cover-dated December 1970.

I've blogged about the FF on this side of the Atlantic a few times before:
- Their Hero History, right through to the Panini era, can be found here.
- A Cover Gallery for THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR can be found here and here.
- An overview of the POCKET BOOKS line can be found here.
- The short-lived MARVEL ACTION HOUR TV spin-off, including the FF, is here.
- Ben Grimm's short-lived solo book, THE THING IS BIG BEN, is here.
- The colour-me-in FANTASTIC FOUR ALBUM is here.
- The FF run in MARVEL TEAM UP is here.
- Their brief stint in MARVEL ACTION is covered here.

- To Be Continued - 

1992: WARHEADS LAUNCH AD (Marvel UK)

The DEATH'S HEAD II limited series paved the way for the British (Marvel) invasion of the States in 1992 but references to the shared GENESIS 92 sub-universe were conspicuously absent (with the exception of the House Ads that I've been posting recently).

By that measure, the M-UK sub-universe really kicked-off with this book plugged (in the last issue of the DH II mini): issue one of WARHEADS, the first of the "Overkill" US books which went on sale in late April.

1975: HULK COVER PATCH AD (Marvel UK)

Here's a Mighty Marvel Mail Away from the past: the HULK COVER PATCH, as plugged in the UK weeklies during the Summer of 1975.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DIGITEK

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

A few days ago I posted the House Ad preview, from the DEATH'S HEAD II mini, for DIGITEK.

By way of a follow-up, here is the official HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE entry.

1986: MASK COMIC LAUNCH ADVERT

MASK (Mobile Armoured Strike - ahem - Kommand) was one of the most successful entries into the eighties era of toy/ animation/ comics/ licensing synergy.  In no small part because it liberally borrowed from two already established lines from Hasbro... and many of the same marketing tricks.

The G.I. JOE range was going great guns... so Kenner established their own high-tech counter-terrorism outfit. And THE TRANSFORMERS (and, to a lesser extent, all the knock-offs) showed that kids were hooked on the idea of vehicles with a secret.

So Kenner shamelessly designed a range of (almost*) JOE scaled figures and gave them vehicles with hidden weapons.

And - seemingly just to justify the name and placate the lawyers - each character, hero and villain, was given an easy-to-lose mask which (as established in the TV and comics lore) had a unique fighting feature.

MASK's battle with VENOM (Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem.  Really), as shown in the spin-off media, basically consisted of a succession of ill thought through villainous schemes perpetrated by the normal assorted of non-threatening lug-head villains.  Their criminal mastermind was - for some reason - a tubby old guy, Miles Mayhem.

Kenner borrowed every trick they could find from the Hasbro toy book.  They teamed-up with DIC to produce a better-than-average animated series which crossed the Atlantic as part of TV-am's toy-plugging weekend schedules.  The stateside comic book tie-in came courtesy of DC Comics who tested the waters with a four issue limited series (ala THE TRANSFORMERS) in 1985-86 followed by a regular series which clocked-up another nine issues.

Considerably more successful was the British comic from IPC/ Fleetway.  Rather than reprint the US strips (some of which appeared instead in the British MASK annuals), this contained all-new material from British creators.  The stories tended to be more juvenile than the US strips or most of Marvel's toy tie-in offerings.  However, the formula must have worked as the comic ran for a more-than-creditable 80 issues (fortnightly for the first year, then weekly for the remainder of the run) with a further run of strips within the pages of (of course) the EAGLE.

Management really pushed the boat out to make MASK a success.  A special glossy Preview Edition was bagged with IPC's other weeklies just before launch and the four-page insert, below, appeared in the EAGLE cover-dated 1 November 1986.

The regular comic also boasted better printing, better paper and more colour than IPC's tired looking existing titles.  Tharg and Max must have looked on in despair.  Of course, such decadence didn't come cheap and the new launch was priced at 35p, a whole nine pence more than the other weeklies (although issues only appeared fortnightly).

The early issues borrowed a tried-and-tested IPC toy plugging idea by including free cardboard masks. Presumably it didn't take the ace freebie planners at King's Reach Tower long to concoct that particular tie-in.

The US MASK books were included in the bundle of US DC titles shipped to British newsagents.

MASK managed to dodge the whole early nineties cartoons-are-cool-again revival which means done of the comics material has ever been reprinted.  The TV show was, however, released on DVD and is worth another look.

*As KK points out in the comments, they were actually a bit smaller.  

1986: EAGLE NOVEMBER COVER GALLERY (IPC)

It's another five-cover-month from the EAGLE as we return to November 1986 for my penultimate post in this long-running series.

It looks like it was another good month for freebies with another two weeks of Halloween goodies AND a LINKETS sticker plugging the toys in the critical pre-Christmas sales period.

And... talking of Christmas... note the unsubtle plus for the 1987 annual sneaking onto a couple of the covers.  That's a smart use of your real estate.

- To Be Continued - 

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART SIXTEEN

This is the main BBC Newsroom from TELEVISION CENTRE, a double level affair located immediately above the Main Reception and facing onto Wood Lane (which proved something of a design flaw when the IRA came a calling).

I always thought this was a pretty impressive space although, in comparison with the vast atriums of New Broadcasting House, it does look a little quaint.

Those stairs, or the alternate set to the left of this shot, were a favoured place for shooting trailers, interviews and talking heads pieces.  But they were well-traversed which could create some problems if someone needed to pass mid-rant.

If you look closely at the perspex guards attached to the railings, you'll see that they feature patterns from the original 'flags' era of BBC NEWS 24 (now the BBC News Channel) when - in typical BBC fashion - it didn't look like any other part of the BBC News output.

That was one of things I loved about TVC... you could always find little nods to the past that had survived for years longer than the programme or service that had spawned them.

This photo was taken after much of the BBC News output had already decamped to their new home so staff were thin on the ground.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DIGITEK

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

This is another one of the preview piece editorial features that ran in the back of the four-part DEATH'S HEAD II mini (aka The Wild Hunt) to drum up interest for the about-to-launch Marvel UK Genesis 92 sub-universe.

DIGITEK (The "Ultimate Computer Warrior" although he looks like AUTOMAN in a samurai suit) was, thanks to the painted artwork by Dermot Power, the classiest of the first wave of "Overkill" books, although the extra attention lavished on the contents created some deadline problems and the four-parter eventually shipped several months later (the cover dates span December 1992 to March '93) than the other launch books.

It did feature as part of the launch team for OVERKILL, which meant Brits saw the earliest instalments months before the states... although it did have to take periodic breaks to allow the creators to catch up.

The scripts, by John Tomlinson and Andy Lanning, were cutting edge techno-fare in the early nineties but DT's reliance on Fax machines and pagers now looks painfully quaint.  Which is a shame as, re-reading the books today, there is a lot of good stuff to be found therein.

This series - like most of the other M-UK books - can (with a little perseverance) be found in the 50p bargain boxes.  They're well worth a look.

1989: THE PUNISHER NOVEMBER COVER GALLERY (MARVEL UK)

Here - after a break - are the next four covers from the thirty issue run of THE PUNISHER from Marvel UK.  These all hail from November 1989.

Once again, Arundel House were favouring new covers from British artists over recycling US art.

Cover by Mark Farmer

Cover by Bryan Hitch and Jeff Anderson

Cover by Barry Kitson

Cover by Kev O'Neil

- To Be Continued - 

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FIFTEEN

Another snapshot from the final days of the BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: the huge exterior doors, leading onto the Ring Road, for studio TC1.

TC1 (Television Centre 1) was (and will be, once the site is redeveloped) the largest of the eight main studios on the site.  It's size, and capacity to hold a large audience if required (on retractable seating) made it the studio of choice for large "shiny floor" entertainment shows and flagship BBC output like the annual CHILDREN IN NEED bucket-shake.

It's the front of TC1 that forms the iconic "brick wall" frontage of the centre, sporting the signage and "drawing pin" studs.

The size of the studio was variously described to be as "the largest purpose-built TV studio in the world" or - possibly - "the largest in Europe".  There was apparently some doubt whether there was a bigger studio, possibly used for soaps, in Brazil or some such.  The "purpose built" caveat is certainly important as film sound stages can certainly be used for TV projects... as can converted warehouses, factories and the like.

The doors were, of course, used to move sets and other items in and out of the studio.  At its peak, TVC was a very efficient factory with sets being struck as soon as a production had ended so that another set - for a completely different programme - could be set overnight ready for rehearsals and recording the next day.  The beauty of that system, and lengthy rehearsals off-site prior to recording, was that precious studio time could be maximised and the programme shot as quickly as possible... and turfed-out for the next production.

It's hard to get a sense of the height of the doors from the photo... maybe the "Biffa Bin" skip to the right of the shot will help.

I spoke to studio staff who wondered how that efficiency could possibly be retained now that the studios will be at the heart of a residential and hotel complex.  Living on top of a iconic TV studio might be trendy but not when you are kept awake every night by noisy tele-folk man-handling sets and equipment all night.  If that work has to be done during the day then down-time increases, the facility becomes less efficient and less flexible and, therefore, less competitive compared with rivals located well away from residential areas.

1983: SCOOBY-DOO COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

The Scoobster takes us into 1983 with three (slightly battered) copies of Marvel UK's SCOOBY-DOO AND HIS T.V. FRIENDS from January.

Once again, apologies for the gap (no copy of 47) but the collection I acquired a while ago wasn't complete.

1986: EAGLE JOGGING SUITS from the EAGLE (IPC)

Here's a chance to show your true colours (fleshy-but-healthy pink or Venusian green) whilst engaging in moderate physical exercise... or bumming around the house counting down the minutes until LOOSE WOMEN starts: DAN DARE or MEKON JOGGING SUITS, courtesy of the 1986 EAGLE.

I can say with 100% confidence that I have NEVER spotted anyone attired in these trackies-for-geeks but just imagine the impression you would create hanging around outside Aldi in one of these nifty numbers.

Considering the comic cost 26p at the time, they weren't cheap either!

I'd love to see a photo of a whole family attired in a set of these.  That would be amazing!

1982: FANTASTIC FOUR POSTER by ALAN DAVIS (Marvel UK)

COMING SOON TO STARLOGGED: 
THE FANTASTIC FOUR

This rarely-seen centre-page spread (hence the two parts) from Alan Davis seemed like a good way to announce that I'll soon be starting off a Cover Gallery for the 1982-83 FF weekly from the Annex of Ideas.

The piece appeared in the 2nd issue, cover-dated 13 October 1982.

 

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART FOURTEEN

Here's a little close-up detail from my farewell tour of BBC TELEVISION CENTRE: the branded South Hall doors leading out into the 'doughnut' courtyard at the heart of the site.

I must admit, I was very disappointed to see these.  Let me elaborate.  These doors retained similar "push" signage featuring an older, slanted, version of the BBC logo for years and it always struck me as a quaint nod to the past.  When I came to look around this last time, I found that some bright spark had belatedly embraced modernity by slapping these new ones over the top.

If you look behind, you'll see one of my lasting memories of the Centre: cables trailing everywhere.  Despite being a purpose-built TV factory, the boffins always seemed to be reduced to trailing hefty cables out of windows.

And - as an aside - there always seemed to be corridors around the building with the false ceilings removed and more boffin-types, up ladders, adding more cables to already packed cable holders.  It's no wonder that no-one knew what any of the cables did anymore... but didn't dare remove them in case it inadvertently pulled some broadcast-critical piece of gubbins off-air.  Or... so the legend goes...

1986: EAGLE OCTOBER COVER GALLERY (IPC)

My trawl through the EAGLE back catalogue is beginning to reach the end of the current run... just a couple more posts in the series before I run out of scanned covers.

These issues appeared in October 1986 and MAX seems to have really got into the Halloween swing with a three-week run of (long since separated from these copies) fright freebies...

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE - PART THIRTEEN

Today's tour of the now defunct BBC TELEVISION CENTRE takes us outside to the Ring Road, standing roughly outside TC1 (or - possibly - TC2) and looking up towards the East Tower.

The concrete carbuncle was yet another reminder of how vast the TVC site really was.  Not only did it already occupy a large footprint someone, at some point (I'd guess the sixties), thought that the BBC required even more office space... and put up a whole tower block.

I guess TV was a far more labour intensive business back then (for example, when I joined in 2000 the prospect of doing your own editing - without a craft professional - was seen as a non-starter by most staff in my department necessitating a trip to an in-house, or Soho, edit suite... now I imagine close to 100% would be quite happy to sit at a desktop machine and cut their own material) and the BBC did a lot more in-house but the BBC property portfolio was vast.

Not only did BBC TV occupy TVC... it also sprawled outwards to occupy other West London sites like The Television Theatre, Lime Grove, Union House, Threshold House, Centre House, sites in Acton and Ealing (OB's, VFX, Finance, Costumes and Wigs) and - latterly - the White City Building.  Plus the whole Elstree Centre.  All to house two TV channels that weren't even on-air 24-hours a day.

In fairness, that portfolio did slim down considerably over time as buildings were closed and formally in-house divisions were sold off or run-down (the results of John Birt's Producers Choice internal market) and - presumably - production and resources were allocated more efficiently, allowing programmes (WOGAN!) that were in other studios to be pulled into TVC (or just cancelled).

I never worked in the East Tower and - until the very end - barely visited it in all the time I worked there.  It mostly (entirely?) housed the Children's Department and I never worked in that area.  They did - of course - decamp to Salford leaving the Tower surplus to requirements.

I know the Tower was in quite a poor state of repair - the result of sub-standard construction - and I wouldn't mind betting that it was a headache the BBC would rather be shot off rather than try and continue to patch it up - or demolish it in the middle of a working office and studio complex.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD II

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

From DEATH'S HEAD (yesterday) to DEATH'S HEAD II: the briefly ubiquitous poster boy for the entire MARVEL UK sub-universe thanks to a succession of guest appearances, cameos and crossovers as Arundel House chased the holy grail of the initial sales figures for his limited series and the first few issues of the regular book.  Didn't happen.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE: PART TWELVE

Welcome back to BBC TELEVISION CENTRE in sunny W12.

This is a view of the original Main Reception area at the base on the concrete doughnut.  This was renamed Stage Door when the (far more practical) street-facing reception was opened along with the rest of Stage 6 (see posts previous) sometime in the 1990s.

This angle captures the elaborate ceiling design in the double-height space, the charming wood-paneled walls (left of shot), the balcony on the first floor (left), the tall windows looking into the circular courtyard beyond, the BBC Transport Desk (despite the stick that the BBC constantly gets for excessive taxi bills, booking cars is sometimes essential for moving staff out-of-hours and getting staff, crew, kit and contributors to locations around London when a trip on the tube just wouldn't be practical... although I've done that too.  In my experience, taxis were never booked casually and a great deal of thought went into how to minimise the number of bookings required for any project) and the (ahem) top-notch seating provided for guests waiting to be whisked off to other parts of the centre.

This space could often be seen in news programmes when (usually political) guests were seen entering or leaving the building and was sometimes commandeered for live broadcasts such as CHILDREN IN NEED and - famously - the WOGAN talk show when they were forced to decamp from their usual TVC studio in the great asbestos scare of the late 1980s.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: 
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

You can't keep a good Freelance Peacekeeper down it seems.  Whilst the rest of the MARVEL UK sub-universe has been languishing in unloved obscurity for two decades, the original created-for-a-one-shot-appearence DEATH'S HEAD (originally phased-out in favour of his II successor... until M-UK realised there was money to be made in re-releasing his back catalogue) has been popping-up periodically... most recently in the pages of IRON MAN*.

So here's DH's entry from THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE.

* You probably missed it but the good news is that Panini have issued a new UK trade paperback collection collecting what appears to be the first half of the story.  There is also an (inevitably more expensive) hardback Marvel edition from the states which - at a casual glance - appears to reprint the same strips.

THE LAST DAYS OF BBC TV CENTRE: PART ELEVEN

Here's another glimpse behind-the-scenes at TVC...

I snapped this through the glass part of a locked door which helps explain why its even more murky than my other efforts.

This was the gallery for one of the studios, already stripped of all the monitors, controls and equipment leaving just the fittings behind.

Annoyingly, I don't recall which gallery/ studio this was and none of the other pictures taken immediately before and after this one give any particular clues.  Bah.