1993: MYS-TECH WARS House Ad (Marvel UK)

From 1993: Fight! Fight! Fight!  MYS-TECH WARS was an ambitious multi-book MARVEL UK crossover (then, as now, all the rage) that, in addition to the core four-issue limited series, also crossed over into a number of other UKverse books.  

I always got the impression, possibly entirely misplaced, that the British Bullpen had high hopes that they could bring some of the American books into the fold and make this a truly transatlantic event... but couldn't persuade the US editorial team to play along.  

The Genesis books that were official part of the arc were:

MOTORMOUTH AND KILLPOWER Issue 9 (the "it starts here" prelude)

DARK ANGEL Issues 10 and 11

WARHEADS Issue 11

KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON Issue 12

DEATH'S HEAD II Issue 5

The black and white art in this House Ad was part of the massive, and most impressive, gatefold by Bryan Hitch.  

The series wasn't reprinted in OVERKILL, although it was considered for THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN.  I can't recall whether the crossovers ever appeared either. 

1992: HELL'S ANGEL becomes DARK ANGEL (Marvel UK)

Here's what happens when your legal guys are asleep at the wheel... the hasty reboot of MARVEL UK's HELL'S ANGEL as the little less trademark lawsuit-baiting DARK ANGEL after only six months on sale.  Not a great way to build a loyal audience in a febrile market.  

Apparently, Marvel had to make a $35,000 donation to the charity Ronald McDonald House as recompense for troubling the biker collective.  Harley Davidson obviously didn't read a lot of British comics at the time.

It's telling that Marvel weren't even able to insert a "Hell's Angel becomes Dark Angel" type cover splash to ease the transition on this issue.  

I also vaguely recall that a small indie also had prior claim to the second title... but I can't find anything to that effect online.  

Under the two titles, the book ran for a total of sixteen issues which makes it one of the longest survivors of the Genesis books.  The strip, complete with name-change, was also reprinted in OVERKILL for the home market. 

1992: MARVEL UK OVERKILL STICKER

I stumbled across this slice of Marvel UK history whilst - ahem - browsing the bargain bins of a London comic shop earlier this week: an unopened edition of HELL'S ANGEL (latterly Dark Angel after a threatened law suit from a certain copyright-savy biker collective) with the OVERKILL STICKER still (just about) intact.

When Marvel UK launched their range of US comics, they were initially concerned that sales in their home market would cannibalise sales from OVERKILL, the newsagent-sold fortnightly which serialised (almost) the same material.

Initially, there was talk of copies of the US editions (Digitek, The Knights of Pendragon, Warheads and Motormouth) would be embargoed and imports (officially) banned for UK comic book stores.  That plan was quickly abandoned in favour of sealing copies in comic bags (the type used by collectors and retailers rather than mechanically-sealed polybags used by WIZARD and other comics and magazines) with this sticker used as the seal (in this case, applied upside down).

Issues were also held back so that the strips made their first appearance in Overkill, meaning British collectors got their copies around a month after they appeared in the states.

The information is slightly disingenuous, it's true that the US monthlies didn't contain all the supplementary material that Overkill did, but they did contain a lot of strip material (featuring US Marvel characters) omitted from the UK fortnightly.  

As the range expanded, the bag'n'sticker policy was abandoned and copies shipped to British retailers at the same time as their trans-Atlantic neighbours.  As the boom turned to bust, M-UK was probably grateful for every UK sale as well!

The policy of omitting pages from Overkill was also abandoned, probably to the relief of creators who had to structure issues to allow pages to be dropped.

1992: AMAZING HEROES: THE MARVEL-UK UNIVERSE LAUNCHES

Today, Slow Robot ushers in the Marvel-UK Universe (M-UK-U) with this article from US pro-zine AMAZING HEROES 202, June 1992 (actually the penultimate issue: the double-numbered 203/204 was the last regular edition).

GENESIS '92 was the working title for the five original M-UK US-format monthlies (THE KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON, MOTORMOUTH, WARHEADS, HELL'S ANGEL and the limited series DIGITEK) which also, in edited form, formed the inaugural line-up for the UK fortnightly OVERKILL.

DEATH'S HEAD II, the first of the M-UK monthlies specifically produced for the US market, wasn't originally part of the 'Overkill family' but his (brief) runaway sales success ensured he appeared there (and everywhere else) as well.

Slow Robot will have lots more on the M-UK-U in future postings.