1992: STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION UK COMIC ISSUE 1

From November 1992: More TREKness... the first issue of the second (even less successful) crack at getting a STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION comic off the ground here in the UK.  This only seems to have run for a couple of issues.

MARVEL UK had the first go but misread the market by beaming out a quick-to-assemble comic full of material that fans could already find imported in their local comic shop.  Buyers hoping for a TREK centric version of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE had to wait another half-decade until Titan Magazines nailed it.  The Marvel version died after only a year or so.

This incarnation, an all-reprint companion to the Classic Trek version, fared even worse.  Vanishing after only a couple of issues.  Clearly the casual and commited fans who were watching the series on BBC TWO and SKY ONE (and buying the CIC vids) weren't rushing to read reprints of the American comics.

1992: THE BRITISH STAR TREK COMIC

From March 1992: the first issue of the long forgotten British STAR TREK comic.

This came from Phoenix/ Trident, the outfit that briefly looked like they were going to become a MARVEL UK style reprint house (albeit without much in the way of personality) with a raft of media tie-in titles including ALIENS, THE TERMINATOR, INDIANA JONES and even FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES.  They didn't last very long... possibly because their product wasn't great... and possibly because Dark Horse reclaimed their titles in order to launch Dark Horse International.

This one offered-up a bunch of movie era Trek reprints from the DC vaults.  From memory, the pages looked like they may well have been copied from copies of the original US books rather than from the original art or the film created for printing.

The title ran for at least 8 regular issues.  The same company also launched FINAL FRONTIER, the shady Trek magazine that didn't even bother with a license.

There was also, briefly, a STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic (which I'll get to) that plugged the gap between the end of the Marvel UK run and the launch of the (still running) Titan Magazine.  The latter, because it had limited distribution outside the UK, was also initally able to run DC reprints.

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE (1992 REVIVAL) VHS COVER

From the VHS era: The home video version of the 1992 revival of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE.
I've just started to rewatch this five-parter on DVD so it seemed like a good time to post the sleave for the VHS release from way-back-when.  The video cut condenses the five part broadcast version into one TV movie.  It is a long time since I have seen this edit but the hefty amount of cutting required to hit the correct duration means a lot must be missing.  There is a fair amount of padding in the broadcast version so hopefully the editor was smart enough to strip away the right bits.

The production itself is pretty good, albeit a little daft in places.  It's a reworking rather than a continuation of the earlier series and - for the most part - it works.  The premise is updated and none of the original cast return (neither does the original theme or title sequence), replaced by a new generation with a more international feel (to help sales, of course). There's a little too much kid-pleasing silliness but I guess the producers were pitching to a broad audience.  The plot is flabby in places (lots of sub-GRANGE HILL hijinks witht he local bullies... who aren't really bullies anyway) which - I assume - this cut sorts out.  There's also some daft attempts at passing off London as the States, a requirement dictated by US investment which clearly didn't go as far as actually bankrolling US filming.  The writing doesn't service the cast terribly well but they all do a good job with the material.

This did well enough on both sides of the Atlantic to survive the end of the Thames ITV franchise and contine for four more stories (each spanning five episodes) across two seasons.

I was surprised to spot Canadian Christian Tessier (Megabyte) many years later in the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA revival.

The real shame is that neither the BBC nor ITV would pump this much time, resource and effort into a Childrrens drama today.  It really does feel like a lost genre.

1992: GHOST RIDER MARVEL UK AUTUMN SPECIAL

From the autumn of 1992: The MARVEL UK published GHOST RIDER AUTUMN SPECIAL.

1992: THE BEST OF BILLY'S BOOTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL

From 1992: THE BEST OF BILLY'S BOOTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL VOLUME 2.

This was a late-in-the-day compilation of old strips which (along with its predecesor) passed me by completely at the time.  I guess I wasn't spending enough time in newsagents.

Billy Dane, owner of the supernatural footy boots of Charles 'Dead Shot' Keen lived a transitory life in British comics.  The strip started in SCORCHER in 1970 before transferring to TIGER when the titles merged in 1974.  He spent the next eleven years of his playing career in the pages of the sports weekly.  Billy's Boots was one of the better strips to transfer to the 'new' EAGLE AND TIGER in 1985.

The strip was shuffled in the IPC portfolio again the following year, findinga  more natural home in ROY OF THE ROVERS weekly (itself a Tiger spin-off, launched in 1976) where it remained until 1990.  When Billy's playing days were finally over, the new strips were (true to Fleetway form at the time) reprints from the vaults.  The reprints later shifted to THE BEST OF ROY OF THE ROVERS.

1992: NOW COMICS ADAPTATION OF FREEJACK

From 1992: the three-issue NOW COMICS adaptation of the not-fondly-remembered futuristic Jagger-fest flick FREEJACK.  

1992: STAR TREK UK COMIC ISSUE 5

From July 1992: The fifth issue of the mostly-forgotten (it seems) British STAR TREK comic which slotted into the gap between MARVEL UK cancelling their NEXT GEN comic/ magazine and Titan stepping in with the launch of the their long-running mag (which did - initially - include some reprinted strip material).

This incarnation reprinted US strips from DC's first run, slotting new adventures into the gaps between the movies post-Khan.

The same publisher was also responsible for the FINAL FRONTIER magazine (which started out as a vehicle for Trek-related STARLOG reprints before collapsing into a combination of not-supplied-by-the-studio stills and mail order adverts for merchandise) and a companion NEXT GENERATION comic (also reprinting DC material) which, from memory, collapsed after only a few issues despite the show having high profile slots on both terrestrial and satellite TV at the time.

1992: THE FINAL ISSUE OF MARVEL UK'S TRANSFORMERS

From January 1992: The end of an era... the last edition of MARVEL UK'S TRANSFORMERS after 332 issues.

All good things must come to an end... especially in the media.  And so, after a successful run by pretty much any measure, the British edition of the TF comic finally shuttered.  There was definately the sense the title was living on borrowed time for a while with a cut in frequency back to fortnightly, the loss of some of the colour interiors and the end of originally commissioned British content.

The toyline was also winding down, at least in the States (Europe and elsewhere was a slightly different story) and was no longer a Marketing or sales priority for Hasbro.  That had a knock-on effect on the comics license which was also inevitably seen as a diminishing priority.  The toys and the comics were starved of the essential TV advertising that kept fickle consumers interested.  The animated series, once a fixture of TV-am's schedules had also been banished to satellite tv... and may well have vanished entirely.

Sales of British adventure comics, hard hit in the previous decade, were also continuing to decline.  Marvel's attempts at finding companions and successors to the Robots in Disguise had - with the exception of THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS - largely tanked.  

The final nail in the coffin was Marvel NY ending the US edition after 80 issues (76 more than they originally planned to publish) and putting the license (briefly as it turned out) on ice.  That cut off the supply of new content to the British edition... and put Marvel's association with the toys in doubt.

As it turned out, Marvel US did revisit the franchise by jumping onto the G2 franchise, at least for another twelve issues.  Oddly however, the British branch of the Bullpen let that ship sale and it fell to Fleetway to have a brief stab at their own version.  The short-lived title (and tie-in annual) mixed new content with Marvel reprints.

The British Bullpen had hoped that they would be able to reboot this title as a monthly.  Indeed, they had strongly hinted at the plan in previous weeks.  However, in the end, it fell victime to Marvel's traditional first quarter purge of underperforming publications.

1992: DOCTOR WHO FANZINE CYBERZONE ISSUE 1

From 1992: The first - and possibly only - issue of the DOCTOR WHO fanzine CYBERZONE, dedicated to all things Cybermen.

I *think* I found this one rummaging through the boxes of a now defunct secondhand bookshop in Birmingham's city centre.  It was a magical cave of paperbacks, comics, magazines and books of all subjects staffed by two chaps who never created the impression they really wanted to be there.  The prices weren't great and the stock was random but it was the sort of place you could happily browse for hours and spend a fortune.  Cash only.  Of course.  I miss it now...

Does anyone know anything more about the 'zine?

1992: DWB CELEBRATES 100 ISSUES

From April 1992: long-running DOCTOR WHO (and, latterly, telefantasy in general) fanzine DWB celebrates 100 issues with this fancy bit of cover photoshopping.

1991: AVENGERS FANZINE BIZARRE ISSUE 2

From February 1991: the second issue of British AVENGERS TV fanzine BIZARRE.

1992: STINGRAY ISSUE 1 (FLEETWAY)

From October 1992: the first issue of the Fleetway STINGRAY comic, timed to coincide with reruns of the 1960s Gerry Anderson extravaganza on the BBC.

Most of the material was recycled from TV CENTURY 21, published in the late Sixties.

This, along with companion titles dedicated to CAPTAIN SCARLET and JOE 90, didn't fare as well as the runaway success of the THUNDERBIRDS title and they all eventually found themselves merged into one almighty Gerry Anderson megamix.

LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 7 (INNOVATION)

From June 1992: Cast member Mark Goddard (Major Don West) contributes to Innovation's ongoing LOST IN SPACE comic book.

1992: LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 6 (INNOVATION COMICS)

From May 1992: Innovation's LOST IN SPACE issue 6.

1992: PERSONALITY PRESENTS STAR TREK: PATRICK STEWART

From July 1992: Another entry into the PERSONALITY PRESENTS STAR TREK run, this time focused on the Next Gen crew. The first issue, naturally, focused on Patrick Stewart.

Make it so.

1992: DOCTOR WHO YEARBOOK #2 (MARVEL UK)

From 1992: the second DOCTOR WHO YEARBOOK, published by Marvel UK and (as per tradition) dated for the year ahead.

1992: LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 5 (INNOVATION)

From March 1992: LOST IN SPACE issue 5, published in the States by Innovation.

If I recall correctly, this issue explained away some of the more bonkers bits of the TV show by saying they were Penny's accounts of far more dramatic moments in the life of the J2 crew.

1992: DOCTOR WHO YEARBOOK (MARVEL UK)

From 1992: the first (of four) DOCTOR WHO YEARBOOKS published by MARVEL UK in the 1990s.

These hardbacks, containing a mixture of features, prose and comic strips, marked a triumphant - and somewhat surprising - return of a publishing tradition that had petered out the previous decade. The last of the often unloved (by fans and the show's productiin team) World Distributors annuals had hit the shelves back in 1986. World pulled the plug on the long-running series because of falling sales, declining interest in the show and doubts over its very survival.

Marvel aggressively expanded their WHO offering - despite the TV show having closed at the very end of the previous decade - by adding the ongoing CLASSIC COMICS and POSTER MAGAZINES, continuing with the periodic specials and adding BLAKE'S SEVEN and HAMMER HORROR titles intended to tap into a similar nostalgia market.

The move was even more surprising because the annuals market had itself entered a slump. In previous decades, publishers were able to rely on the annual income from a myriad of books based on current or past media brands, comics, magazines, toys, movies, pop stars and anything else that might catch the buyer's eye on those big
table displays in WH Smith, Martins, Menzies, book and department stores (indeed, department stores often seemed to carry more obscure titles overlooked by the mainstream multiples... which made them an essential destination when making the traditional gift list for the Christmas season) but by the turn of the decade this market had all but collapsed. Which may have actually strengthened Marvel's hand by making them a bigger player in a diminished market.

Compiled by the editorial team behind the regular magazine, these were certainly a considerable improvemenI over the efforts of the previous decade. The line, along with all the spin-offs from the core mag, eventually floundered when Panini took over the Marvel UK operation and streamlined by closing the 'non-core' magazine line (including the about to launch PLAYBACK and BIZARRE) with the exception of last-man-standing DWM itself.

1992: LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 4 (INNOVATION COMICS)

From February 1992: the Robinson's get menaced again in the 4th issue of Innovation's LOST IN SPACE comic.

Anyone familiar with the 1960s CBS series (this title was published before any of the periodic screen revivals) will know that this sort of thing just didn't gappen on the altogether more wholesome show. Blame the Nineties.

1992: LAUGH: THE COMEDY MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

From 1992... and Australia... the first issue of LAUGH: THE COMEDY MAGAZINE.

I found this random copy in a store. I don't know much else about it and a quick spot of Googling reveals nothing more. But I've posted it here for posterity.