The tease that something was to be announced in the follow week's issue was a sure-fire way to ensure a fortnight's worth of tension and anticipation. A week to wait to find out what the news was... and another week to wait for the relevent issue to arrive.
Sometimes the announcement would be disappointing (like a really duff free gift. Or even worse: a freebie that was actually just part of someone else's marketing campaign for cornflakes or baked beans) but sometimes - if the gift looked promising or a relaunch/ reboot was involved - it would ratchet up the anticipation to at least eleven.
The masterclass in this regard was 'Tharg's Megaplan', an extended piece of multi-week puffing that promised something whopping. Playground rumours suggested a bold new look. Or a Judge Dredd spin-off (we didn't know, of course, that IPC had wrestled with that one for years). Or the impending merger of THE EAGLE (Dan Dare and - especially - Doomlord looked natural transfers... even if older Tharg acolytes might have been horrified by the idea). In the end it turned out to be a record. Which seemed like the sort of project that engaged the staff of the weekly far more than it excited the readership. Despite the cross-promotional opportunities if it became a hit. Which it didn't.
This was the first official notice that change was coming soon. Although readers more attentive than I might have already been able to read the runes. EAGLE had already dropped in its first reprint strip (One-Eyed Jack... now about to be issued in book form) and was generally shifted from photo-strips to more traditional comic strips. Which didn't demand the same high-quality printing. Many other IPC weeklies already appeared in the cheaper 'newsprint' format so it would make sense, from a production and economic point-of-view, to align Eagle with the rest of the line.
A fortnight to wait... but only seven days until more stickers for the RETURN OF THE JEDI sticker album (which - curiously - I always found very dull.... possibly because so many stills from the film were available across so many sources).
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