Tuesday 30 September 2014

1993: FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED House Ad (Marvel UK)


A MARVEL UK House Ad from 1993, announcing the imminent launch of the new, quarterly, FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED, an anthology spin-off from M-UK's Frontier Comics imprint.

FC aimed to be something more akin to DC's Vertigo line: more edgy output that may, or may not, feature established Marvel characters.  

The line, edited by Michael Bennent, was made up of the Conan-alike BLOODSEED (announced as a four-issue limited series, of which two appeared, with a further two issues scheduled for 1994.  They never appeared), IMMORTALIS, DANCES WITH DEMONS and CHILDREN OF THE VOYAGER.  All of the above were four-issue series.

Not mentioned here are two original strips, Evil Eye and The Fallen which, presumably, were slated as possible contenders for their own FC books or, at the very least, return engagements in the quarterly.

Unfortunately, the Frontier Comics line was one of the first things to be jettisoned when the GENESIS EXPLOSION started to turn swiftly into an IMPLOSION.  Fortunately, with the exception of Paul Neary's own Bloodseed, the existing series were all wrapped-up (not a privilege given to many of the M-UK books as the situation swiftly deteriorated) but the line was shuttered and all future projects abandoned.  The first issue of Unlimited was hastily rebadged FRONTIER COMICS SPECIAL (they forgot to change the small print) and issued as a one-shot.  

MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE covered the launch of the line here and there was also coverage in the short-lived UK fanzine COMICS SPECULATOR NEWS (yuck!) here.

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