From 1987: a cavalcade of MARVEL UK ANNUALS.
It says a lot that there's no SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL in the bunch... that's how far the mighty had fallen in the second half of the eighties. The MARVEL SUPERHEROES edition was, however, an excellent alternative and must rank as one of the very best single annuals of the Star Age.
The rest are a motley bunch of licensed titles... and equally good indicator of the direction of travel for the Annex of Ideas... and the state of the annuals business.
The ACTION FORCE edition was the first from Marvel UK... and also the first time the Force had gone solo in a yearbook. The previous three years had (logically enough) seen them sharing the pages of the BATTLE ANNUAL from Fleetway. Unlike the previous years, this was (with the exception of a new text story) an all-reprint affair, drawing on the US G.I. JOE strips.
THE TRANSFORMERS ANNUAL was the third, and the first year that the movie characters had featured. For some... this marked the end of the golden age of the Robots in Disguise.
THE THUNDERCATS edition was the second, spun-off from the popular weekly, toys and animated series (aired on the BBC).
The seldom seen DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS book, presumably (like the one-shot special I've covered before), reprinted the Spanish strips based on the Marvel Productions TV show.
The rest, pitched at younger readers, are all based on toy or animated (or both) characters. I think the INSPECTOR GADGET (who I'm sure also had a slot in LOOK-IN... although I don't know if the two licenses overlapped) strips also came from Europe. ACORN GREEN was a toy line that also had it's own Eco-themed comic from the British Bullpen. POPPLES, CARE BEARS and MADBALLS all had Star Comics in the States. MY PET MONSTER was another toy tie-in which spawned an animated series (and straight-to-tape movie).
this is the kind of post that makes me cherish the day I discovered this blog. So many wonderful covers in that ad alone, never even knew the dungeons and dragons annual existed.
ReplyDeleteThanks slow !
Hi ed, are you ( like me ) trying to document EVERY single Marvel UK publication?
Deletehi john, I suppose I am a completist when it comes to collecting and it was researching marvel uk that led me to this blog in the first place. STARLOGGED has certainly increased my intrest in and love of uk comics although i'm not sure it would be possible to document every one ever published. There will always be some title that goes undiscovered. Its an achievement in itself just to find a cover image of some rarer items.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the content in the Marvel Superheroes annual?
ReplyDelete