This wasn't the first outing of the iconic-yet-underrated action show in British comics. Cannell's guns for hire had already been appearing in TV COMIC, the moribund long-runner that had shown some belated signs of life in the Eighties by running original strips based on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY and - ahem MISTER MERLIN.
Signing the A-listers hadn't been enough to keep the weekly in business and LOOK-IN were quick to swoop once the property came into play. It really was a logical team-up and it must have annoyed and frustrated ITV Publications that - somehow - Universal had licensed it to someone else first.
However, adapting the show was not without some hassles. Despite ruling the early Saturday night schedules (sorry Colin Baker), editors were worried that the random gun play (and cigars) might attract the attention of parents when translated to the printed page. So firearms and tobacco were strictly controlled, no doubt to the frustration of the writers.
Universal's fast-and-loose licensing struck agaion the following summer when MARVEL UK published the first of two TAT specials, recycling the three-issue mini-series rushed into print in the States. Someone had obviously spotted that LOOK-IN had securred the rights to publish a weekly strip... but not all comics rights. It's telling that Marvel were never tempted to rerun the reprints, in serial form, in any of their late-eighties anthologies (THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS or MARVEL BUMPER COMIC) when the show was still bouncing around the ITV schedules.
I've posted about those Marvel specials, and the US limited series that spawned them, in posts-long-past. Follow the link below to see my A-Team musings to date.
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