STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: BATTLE

Showing posts with label BATTLE. Show all posts

Friday, 21 July 2017

1988: THE FIRST EAGLE AND BATTLE MERGED ISSUE

From January 1988: the first combined issue of EAGLE AND BATTLE.

As with the previous week's house ad for the merger, the combo is pretty low key. I almost missed that this was the first combined issue when I was flicking through a stack of random back issues in one of my boxes... There's none of the hoopla that surrounded the TIGER merger of previous years and there's a real sense of 'that'll do'.

The transferred strips were Stormforce (which appears to have already been doing double-duty in both BATTLE and EAGLE anyway), Charley's War and Johnny Red.

BATTLE did continue to appear as the occasional annual and special... I certainly have a copy of a special that was published (in the old tradition) several years after the main comic had been killed off.

Thursday, 20 July 2017

1988: MERGER ALERT: EAGLE ANNOUNCES THE MERGER OF BATTLE

From 1988: MERGER ALERT! Here's how the EAGLE announced the impending arrival of the refugees from the fall of BATTLE.

Despite the traditional hype ('Big News Issue!') it's obvious from the two-page house ad that this is now EAGLE AND TIGER style combination of equals (at least until the dust settled). The BATTLE logo is conspicuously smaller than the Eagle's. Funny that.

I think, by this point, two-thirds of the BATTLE strips were reprints anyway with only the fairly new Stormforce (introduced - after a treading-water hiatus - to plug the large gap left by the withdrawal of ACTION FORCE). Maybe that helped to stunt in-house enthusiasm for the merger.

1988: LAST ISSUE ALERT! THE FINAL ISSUE OF BATTLE

From 1988: Last Issue Alert! Years after the first predictions of its impending demise, BATTLE was finally overwhelmed by enemy forces (the enemy being changing tastes and a changing market) and plucked from the battlefield by - yup, you guessed it, EAGLE.

Given the deadlines and the on-sale date, it's easy to imagine that this issue, number 673, was put together just before the staff broke for the Christmas holidays and the end-of-year break.

By this time, despite the better printing that IPC/ Fleetway had switched to the previous year, BATTLE was a mere shadow of its former self. The loss of the ACTION FORCE franchise had done some serious damage (although Marvel's glossy successor was faring little better in a tough market) and Stormforce, their in-house successors were more gimmick than traditional military might. Charley's War and (as seen here) Johnny Red were really holding the fort... although one or both may have slipped into reprints by this point. Overall, BATTLE followed the same slow decline as the other IPC weeklies... more and more reprints as budgets got tighter and tighter.

IPC had launched BATTLE back in March 1975 to counter the early success of WARLORD, launched by DCT the previous September. Marvel UK also had a crack at their own me-too weekly, FURY, but that didn't work out so well. Battle eventually outlived Warlord, which closed in September 1986. The genre champion was, without doubt, Warlord's older sibbling VICTOR. Launched in January 1961, it didn't retire from active service until November 1992.

Battle folded into EAGLE, management's go-to title for failing comics. It's almost surprising that SUPERNATURALS and RING RAIDERS didn't go the same way but Fleetway opted to burn-off the remaining inventory from both early cancellations in end-of-run one-shots. Stormforce had already been appearing in Eagle for a month-or-so, presumably part of a plan to prepare for the merger. Or an indicator that the Eagle was also short of material pre-merger. Charley's War and Johnny Red remained Eagle mainstays for the rest of its run.

Thursday, 13 July 2017

1977: MERGER ALERT! THE FIRST COMBINED ISSUE OF BATTLE AND ACTION!

From November 1977: Merger alert! The well-past-its-prime ACTION had finally been axed the previous week... clearing the way for the merger with BATTLE to create - yup - BATTLE ACTION (not to be confused with BATTLE ACTION FORCE, of course).

And there's not a shark in sight...

Friday, 7 July 2017

1982: BATTLE RELAUNCH ISSUE

From 1982: You've seen the previous week's preview... now here's the first relaunched, now-an-adventure-comic issue of BATTLE.

None of the three new strips fit the existing BATTLE formula and it's obvious that IPC had realised the finite appeal of the all-war format of old. The three newcomers all feel like they could all have been lifted from a particularly exciting night's viewing on ITV... although the martial arts might have made the IBA a little nervous.

Maybe the management were already thinking about a future without BATTLE and were introducing adventure strips that were better suited to being shifted into another title... possibly the new EAGLE, launching around this time.

By the following year, the rumours of an impending closure had grown louder and were now being reported in the fanzines... but then ACTION FORCE entered the circulation warzone and - much to the grumblings of the old guard - took over half the page count. Were they really any worse than Truck Turpin? IPC and Palitoy formed an alliance because the publisher needed the business and the toy company needed a comics partner after their early plans, announced to the toy trade, to launch a new weekly with MARVEL UK somehow collapsed.

Monday, 3 July 2017

1982: THE 'LAST' BATTLE

From February 1982: Relaunch alert! BATTLE is about to get a bold new mission!

It's generally agreed that IPC's BATTLE (created by Pat Mills and John Wagner and launched in March 1975) was a cracker of a comic... not least because it gave us Johnny Red and Charley's War, two strips that outlived (albeit by reprints) the comic itself. And still in print today.

The critics are quick to claim the at the rot really set it when IPC signed a deal with the 'devil' and gave over half the page count to strips promoting the ACTION FORCE toys. I have to disagree with that... I'm a big fan of the Action Force era and recently aquired an almost-complete run of that period in Battle's history.

I'd argue that the last true issue of BATTLE is this one. The last to pretty much (mergers allowing) to follow the 'total war' formula as concieved back in '75.

As you can see by this two-page teaser before... BATTLE was about to become an 'adventure' comic, throwing in new strips that tapped into the popular trends of the time... action TV shows, martial arts and - ahem - CB radio.

'The Hunters' were two special agents of the sort that can be assigned to any mission, anywhere, at the whim of the writer. The comparisons to LWT's THE PROFESSIONALS were numerous. 'The Fists of Jimmy Chang' channeled the martial arts boom... probably about a decade too late. Marvel London had been serving up Masters of Kung Fu across a variety of titles since the Seventies (and would continue to do so.. a strip even made it into their version of ACTION FORCE). Indeed, so tired was the franchise looking in 1979 that Dez Skinn reworked the reprints, in MARVEL COMIC, to create his own Professionals inspired knock off. 'Truck Turpin' was Battle's trucker movie, and quite possibly hoping to excite fans of BJ AND THE BEAR.

The reboot did at least hang onto some of the older strips... a tradition that would continue even after the Action Force takeover.

The changes must have worked... at least for the moment. The new formula continued right through 1982 and most of the following year. The first Action Force strip, initially a four week booking, appeared in July 1983. The powers-that-be must have been chuffed because - just in time for the Christmas sales season - Battle became BATTLE ACTION FORCE in October. The licensing deal ran through to late 1986, at which point the comic reverted to being BATTLE and slipped into a holding pattern until it could introduce Storm Force (basically a great idea for a toy line... without the toys) in 1987. That move kept Battle in business a bit longer... but those last issues were pretty scrappy (despite better print quality) and it was clear that, under the ownership of Robert Maxwell, everyone was just managing decline. It was cancelled, after 673 issues, in January 1988.

Friday, 30 June 2017

1977: MERGER ALERT! BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY AND ACTION MERGE

From 12 November 1977: Big News Issue! BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY announces the impending merger of the once-loved (especially if you were a journalist or a campaigner looking for an easy target or something to get all worked up about) ACTION.

I wasn't reading BATTLE (or ACTION) back in 1977 (or, indeed, anything at all) so it's hard to judge whether this merger would have been welcomed by the readers of Battle. I'm assuming Action's reduced readership would have been less chuffed by the news their weekly was doomed. On the face of it, Action still had some strong strips but it's hard to see how Spinball Wars (formally Death Game 1999 before Action's tone-it-down-now reboot and then Spinball after the hiatus) fits the war weekly formula. Despite yet another tiitle change. At least we didn't get 'Hookjaw Wars', which meant Action's best-known strip didn't survive the closure. The other strips seem a more natural fit and probably spiced things up sitting alongside the surviving Battle troopers ('Fighting the Japs... Indian style'. Ahem).

Don't be tempted to confuse the BATTLE ACTION run with the later BATTLE ACTION FORCE era. Same weekly: different times.

Friday, 2 June 2017

1984: BARON IRONBLOOD BATTLE ACTION FORCE HOUSE AD

From 1984: It looks like - judging from the illustrations in the new issue of the Diamond PREVIEWS door-stopper - that a certain BARON IRONBLOOD is about to be introduced to the new IDW/ Hasbro shared universe. Which - if I'm reading the runes correctly - would make me want to snap up a copy in a round three months time. They've given him a makeover so he looks a little less like Ned Kelly. I can't imagine why...

In the meantime, here is a bit of vintage Baron Booby Buckethead in an IPC House Ad for another buy-it-for-the-next-month retention ruse: a Baron Ironblood poster hogging one of the colour pages of BATTLE ACTION FORCE.

Good luck making the four parts line-up!

Friday, 21 April 2017

1983: ADVERT FOR BATTLE'S AIR ACES BOOKLET

From January 1983: an IPC in-house advert (published in the EAGLE) for another one of those clip-and-collect circulation-maintaining booklets so beloved of the Youth Group during this period. This time: BATTLE'S AIR ACES BOOKLET!

Friday, 7 June 2013

1985: BATTLE ACTION FORCE HOUSE AD (IPC)

This is a 1985 IPC House Ad for BATTLE ACTION FORCE, originally published on the back cover of EAGLE PICTURE LIBRARY.

ACTION FORCE, now in its G.I. JOE era, is clearly the main selling point with no mention of Battle's homegrown characters such as Johnny Red and Charley's War.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

1981: BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY STICKER ALBUM (Panini)

Here's another online find (from a certain auction site): the BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY Panini sticker album, free with IPC's BATTLE ACTION cover-dated 16 May 1981. As the one-size-fits-all bag indicates, it also accompanied that week's 2000AD.

They were 'generous' enough (like a crack dealer that gives his latest convert a free sample) to give away the album but four solitary starter stickers seems decidedly stingy. In later years, they'd just chuck in an off-the-shelf pack.

I collected this album when I was little and swaps were valued playtime currency. The must-have sticker, in those primitive days before fancy foil, holograms and other 'premiums' , was number one: Buck Rogers himself. Any sticker that featured nob-headed 'bot Twiki also commanded a playground premium.

I doubt my album came with one of these comics, I think it was probably an over-the-counter buy (by my mum) from the local newsagent.

About a decade ago, I stumbled across a complete album in a (now defunct) London comic book store... and snapped-it-up. I think it was a fiver. I'll post it on here someday.

The stickers featured stills from the majority of the first-season episodes which - when stuck in the correct place in the album - featured a short summary of events below. The cover is, of course, the marketing key art for the movie.

I recall that, at the time we were actively collecting the stickers, ITV had moved onto the rebooted second season of the show because I remember noting the absence of any of the second season regulars.

Thursday, 10 January 2013

1983: BATTLE BECOMES BATTLE ACTION FORCE (IPC)

At the same time that the EAGLE was rebooting as a traditional weekly, IPC were also revitalising BATTLE.

The home of Charley's War, Johnny Red, Darkie's Mob and Major Easy had fallen on hard times by '83. Despite rebooting as a general action-adventure weekly to broaden its appeal, British fanzines were already speculating that a merger with the Eagle was imminent. Instead, the Kings Reach Tower mandarins pulled a licensing masterstroke which dodged cancellation (BATTLE did eventually fold into Eagle, but not until January 1988), boosted readership and slashed costs: turning over half the comic to strips based on Palitoy's ACTION FORCE toys, bankrolled by the Leicestershire company.

The weekly had already dabbled with a four-part Action Force strip earlier in the year, followed by five mini-comics inserted (on a fortnightly schedule) into IPC comics over the summer. October saw the culmination of this collaboration: 50% of the comic turned over to the toy heroes in a deal that ran until November 1986.

It's worth noting that this wasn't a merger, there was no solo AF title prior to the relaunch (Palitoy and Marvel UK had planned something - announced in some early retailer briefings for the toys - but the project was abandoned for reasons unknown) although once the license transferred from IPC to Marvel UK, from early 1987, the Annex of Ideas published two ongoing Action Force comics (weekly and monthly) as well as spin-off specials and annuals.

In retrospect, IPC were pretty radical in their thinking (and deal-making) here. Rival toy-based comics (like THE TRANSFORMERS and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE) didn't become a common sight in British newsagents until sometime later

Below is the full-page announcement of the changes from Battle itself (note the clumsy use of the Action Force part of the new logo) and two house ads from Eagle. I was interested to note that the cross-promotion didn't extend beyond the first two weeks of the relaunch (although certain key - usually ones with gifts - issues were promoted later).

I suspect there was also a TV spot for the relaunch but - truth be told - I remember nothing about the details and can't find anything on-line.

Copies of the first relaunched issue, with the original inside back page (pages from Charley Bourne's A-Z of World War I) substituted for a full-page advert for the AF toys and the cover copy slightly amended, were also handed out free in toy stores.

One other inconsistency that I never clocked at the time: The Eagle was 22p a week (a legacy from the photo-story era: IPC didn't cut the cover price when they switched formats) whilst Battle was only 20p for what was essentially the same offering (print quality, page count etc). Kerching!

BATTLE

1 October 1983

EAGLE HOUSE AD

1 October 1983

EAGLE HOUSE AD

15 October 1983

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

1977: FURY

The much-mocked FURY (Dez Skinn cites it as an example of how far Marvel UK had lost its way in the second-half of the seventies) is a rarity for the Annex of Ideas: the only time they tried a pure-war weekly (as discussed yesterday, FORCES IN COMBAT, despite the title and run of military covers, was really a mixed action comic) and a rare example of management looking at the UK market, seeing what was selling, and launching a me-too version.

Britain's boom in war weeklies started with DC Thomson's WARLORD in September 1974. Seeing the healthy sales figures, IPC launched their own (even more radical) BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY (latterly just BATTLE) the following March. That sold well too. And Marvel wanted a piece of the action.

The impression created by Marvel's early seventies UK launches is that they looked at the material they already had and attempted to foist it onto British readers. If it sold: brilliant. If it didn't: no problem, launch another. With Fury, under the auspices of Neil Tennant (yup, that one), you really felt like Marvel had analysed their competitors and, to the best of their ability (and small budgets), mimicked them.

Marvel UK's covers were always a haphazard concoction of reworked US originals and specially-comissioned new art, from US creators, to plug the gaps. With Fury, they turned to Spanish artist (and master of his game) Carlos Ezquerra to supply brand-new covers in the Battle style. A radical departure. They probably didn't always match the contents... but that's part of the M-UK charm.

Unfortunately, Marvel didn't lavish as much attention on the interiors. While Battle and Warlord were shaking up the industry with new anti-heroes, plucky tommies and unprecedented levels of violence (plus some of-the-time casual racism), Marvel fell back on tired old US reprints about American daring-do and single-handedly vanquishing the world of the Axis of Evil. Captain Savage and the Leatherneck Commandos and (inevitably) Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (can you see a pattern?) were poor substitutes for the strips emerging from Dundee and King's Reach Tower.

Marvel's new-found attention to the competition even extended to the format. For the first time since they were introduced (and pre-empting Skinn's overhaul of the weeklies in '79), glossy covers were abandoned (shaving a penny off the cover price) in favour of the same newsprint covers-and-interior printing favoured by the opposition.

Inevitably, and despite Carlos' best efforts, Fury didn't survive the summer of '77 and merged with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (fast becoming a dumping ground of Marvel's various failures) after only 25 issues.

The first combined issue was 258. The Fury cover-billing survived until issue 297 (reworked to read "Sgt. Fury" from 275) which meant it lasted longer in the pages of MWOM than as a comic in its own right. It's billing was guzumped by the just-cancelled (COMPLETE) FANTASTIC FOUR the following week.

WARLORD soldiered-on (ahem) until September 1986 (627 issues), outlived by BATTLE which, after years of slow decline, finally folded into the pages of EAGLE (an MWOM for the eighties, scooping up IPC's other ailing weeklies) in January 1988 (673 issues).