The ALICE IN WONDERLAND comics adaptation, published in hardback by the British Bullpen sometime in the early 1980s. The book is undated but it does give Jadwin House as the company address,which places it before the company relocated to Redan Place.
There's also no clue as to whether this was a standalone book or whether it was one of several titles. My guess is that it's the latter, and there were several similar literary adaptations in the range, but I can't be sure.
Predictably, the strip first appeared in the States in MARVEL CLASSIC COMICS. Issue 35 to be precise.
Any idea who did that cover? Looks like it could be John Ridgway.
ReplyDeleteits a bit risqué to be honest.
ReplyDeleteWhen's exactly the cut-off line between Jadwin House and Redan Place? I think the dating of this volume should be placed as late as possible, the price and format of this book look very late-1980s. I know this volume (I think I was the one who signalled it to you in the first place a couple of years ago ;) ), I'm trying to catalogue all Marvel UK publications and I think I tentatively dated this Alice in Wonderland to 1988.
ReplyDeleteIt's thanks to John Pitt for tipping me off that you had an entry up for this book, which I admit I've never encountered before. Exciting to find something Marvel UK I haven't seen before!
ReplyDeleteAs is often the case with Annuals and hardbacks from this period, as you've correctly surmised, the copyrights often refer to the material being reprinted rather than the year the book was published.
Looking at the book - which arrived in the post today - at the moment the best we can do is place it within the period 1987 - 1989. By a process of reduction, John Ridgway had begun working for Marvel Uk in 1984, the same year that they moved into Redan Place, staying until 1989. However, their first Marvel only branded Annuals were only issued in 1987 (1986's editions were still carried the Marvel/Grandreams branding), hence narrowing the publication date for this book to a potential three year window.
A quick search found that several sellers were offering one, which makes me think that it never progressed beyond this volume unto a series. A British Library and ISBN search both link to the erroneous 1978 date. I had hoped the ISBN number would be electronically locked to the date it was issued to the publisher.
This will certainly be going into From Cents to Pence! (which I'm still hoping to finish writing this year!), as will the alternate Marvel Superheroes Omnibus you mentioned in another recent posting.
This is what I keep telling people - there's always something out there that you don't know about, so no work of history is ever truly complete.
Keep 'em coming Slow Robot!