1991: MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE ISSUE 100

From May 1991: MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE, the in-house fanzine for Marvel's wares, celebrates its 100th regular issue with this silver ink cover.

Despite being officially designated a magazine, it always appeared in a comic book format and in standard comic book dimensions.

A 100 issue run is it itself pretty impressive but MA eventually mustered 140 regular issues (it succumbed to the imploding market in September 1994) as well as sundry annuals and preview specials as well as several magazine one-shots.

1993: MANGA MANIA Issue 1 (Dark Horse International)

From July 1993: A hefty new launch from London-based Dark Horse International: The 128-page beast that was MANGA MANIA.  

There's something of an unplanned MARVEL UK reunion happening in this first outing.  GODZILLA (albeit Marvel's controversy-attracting take on the city-stomper) had previously enjoyed a 1979 Marvel Revolution era run in MARVEL COMIC and, latterly, SPIDER-MAN whilst AKIRA (in colour, courtesy of Epic reprints) had graced the six-issue experiment that was MELTDOWN (1991-92).  

DHI, which burned bright briefly by following the tried-and-tested old British Bullpen formula of reprinting (mostly licensed) characters from the US line-up, didn't last long (the mid-decade slump forced Dark Horse to retrench back to the States) but MM itself soldiered on under two further owners: Manga (who probably saw it as a handy outlet to plug their own VHS offerings) and then Titan Magazines.  

I'm indebted to STARLOGGED reader "Jon T" who, back in 2013, posted the following excellent potted history of the title after I noted the first issue of Titan's eventually successor: 1998's MANGA MAX (see: here).  I hope he doesn't mind me running it again here.

In summary, Dark Horse UK wanted to capitalise on the rising crest of UK anime video releases in 1993 by putting a magazine together around manga strips they had the rights to (including nabbing Akira from Marvel).

The following year Dark Horse closed their UK operation, at which point Manga Video got into publishing and continued the magazine themselves (around the same time they semi-controversially tried to copyright the word "Manga"). The magazine was much the same as before, and eventually even became squarebound, although noted writer Helen McCarthy was forced out due to friction with Manga Video.

Real trouble on the horizon began towards the end of 1996 when the magazine finished their serialization of Akira in issue 37. The next issue saw the magazine branch into live-action Asian movies, which didn't go down too well with some readers at the time. Issue 39 was the last squarebound issue and the last one published by Manga, who shut down their publishing division shortly thereafter.

Manga Mania was next picked up by third publisher Titan Books, with issue 40 appearing three months later, although issue 41 would appear a staggering five months after that. The last few issues appeared some two-three months apart until issue 46 in mid-1998, which was the final issue.

A second volume of Manga Mania with a more international bent was promised, but ultimately appeared as Manga Max, apparently due to a trademark issue in the U.S. Although Manga Max stuck back to a monthly schedule, it had a much smaller page count and, in their effort to appeal to U.S. readers, often annoyingly featured reviews of anime video releases that would never see the light of day in the U.K.

Ultimately, the effort to appeal to the U.S. is what finally killed it, as Titan was shipping copies out to the U.S. by sea. Consequently, by the time it hit the stands over there, most of the breaking news featured within was wildly out of date. Manga Max's final issue was #20 in mid-2000. Another comeback was promised, but never materialized.

1979: MARVEL BULLPEN BULLETINS (Marvel UK)

From 1979: The British Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page plugs the delights of Dez's TV HEROES, a STARBURST-alike which intended to expand the franchise to cover general small screen shenanigans.  

The project never progressed beyond the pilot (a familiar TV tale) which either means that sales and trade reaction was stunning enough to make it viable.  Or the British Bullpen concluded that the amount of effort involved in putting together another magazine (or top of the weeklies and monthlies) just wasn't possible.  

There's also another plug for FOOM issue 23... another much-hyped project that ultimately failed to fly. 

This appeared in MARVEL COMIC issue 344 (30 May 1979). 

1979: SPIDER-MAN AND MARVEL COMIC MERGE (Marvel UK)

Continuing - literarily - from my MARVEL COMIC post - here's another Minor Marvel UK Landmark: the first merged issue of THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN WEEKLY (previously SPIDER-MAN COMIC) and MARVEL COMIC (334, 1 August 1979).

Spidey's weekly added eight extra pages to accommodate the refugees (Godzilla and Daredevil) from the defunct successor to THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL alongside Spider-man, Thor, The Sub-Mariner, The Avengers, Thor, the Fantastic Four and Nova.

The Avengers soon shuffled again, taking pole position in MC's successor MARVEL SUPERHEROES. Phew.

1979: JULY BULLPEN BULLETINS PAGES (Marvel UK)

Once again, here are the UK BULLPEN BULLETINS pages that appeared in MARVEL COMIC during it's final month on the stands.

The first is the usual puff-piece but the second is a little more fun as Dez valiantly attempts to spin the demise of MARVEL COMIC as the fifth part of his glorious revolution.  In fairness, the launch of MARVEL SUPERHEROES was one of his more lasting contributions to the M-UK canon, chocking-up a reasonable run (see posts past) and - after his time - housing the revived Captain Britain.

The new title to house Dracula was CHILLER POCKET BOOK.  In his (excellent) blog, Dez also talks about a potential new horror weekly, HAUNTED, which he proposed in 1980.  It's possible, when he penned these words, he wasn't sure exactly what format (and name) Drac's new home would have... so he was hedging his bets....

1979: MARVEL COMIC JULY COVER GALLERY... AND CANCELLATION (Marvel UK)

Oh dear...  it's been a turbulent six-or-so months over at the MARVEL COMIC.  A relaunch in January, publication suspended by industrial action the following month... and two week's of sub-standard emergency issues the next.  What could possibly happen next?  Howzabout... cancellation?!?

Yup, the bold experiment that was the relaunched THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL succumbed to poor sales over the summer of 1979, the first victim of Dez Skinn's Marvel Revolution.

Would it have fared better if Dez had left well alone?  Would it have survived if the TV-featured Hulk had remained the anchor strip?  Were the production and distribution problems too much for such a (relatively) young comic?  Was Dez's faith in the power of Godzilla misplaced?  Were readers rejecting the loss of the glossy covers and rejigged interiors in favour of the US originals (if you could find them)?

I'll guess we'll never know but they're probably all contributing factors.  The brand continued - briefly - on the masthead of THE SPIDER-MAN COMIC before vanishing forever.  Numerically, MWOM/ MC continued as MARVEL SUPERHEROES: A MARVEL MONTHLY.

1979: JUNE BULLPEN BULLETINS PAGE (Marvel UK)

Here's the only Marvel UK BULLPEN BULLETINS release to grace the pages of MARVEL COMIC during June 1979.  Here's Dez to explain why keeping the Annex of Ideas going week-in/ week-out is actually jolly hard work.  Maybe that's why he didn't stick around...

1979: MARVEL COMIC JUNE COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

More from the mighty world of the MARVEL COMIC as the cover gallery reaches June 1979.

Dez obviously thought Godzilla, standing-in for the Hulk, was the most bankable star on offer as the city-stomper takes three of the four cover slots this month.

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1979: MARVEL COMIC MAY COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

May 1979... and the MARVEL COMIC era of MWOM/ MC/ MSH continues its brief run.

The significant change this month was the addition of Ms. Marvel reprints to the line-up.

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1979: MARVEL UK SUMMER SPECIALS HOUSE AD

The sun is out in London today (a rare thing indeed) and no rain is forecast (surely even rarer) so I thought I'd get into the mood with this May 1979 half-page House Ad for two of Marvel UK's SUMMER SPECIALS: SPIDER-MAN and MARVEL SUPERHEROES.

These marked another turning point in the history of the Annex of Ideas: the first time the British operation had published holiday specials.

The concept was nothing new to other publishers: they'd been doing it for decades to take advantage of kids with time on their hands (and parents looking for something to keep the brats entertained) during the long school holidays.  M-UK hadn't ventured into this territory before partly because the US-controlled operation had little empathy (or - at times - grasp) of the British market and partly because they were busy shipping over copies of the various US one-shots (like the treasury editions and the Super Specials) and regular magazines and saw no need to add more.

Dez Skinn's newly semi-autonimous British Bullpen was briefed to expand the British offering and one-shots specials were an obvious way to do that.

The Spider-man special was a no-brainer: the web-slinger was, after- all, the most consistent performer in the British portfolio.  Marvel Superheroes, on the other hand, was a good example of how Skinn was going to use one-shots as a way of testing new titles and formulas without the risk of launching - and loosing - a regular title.  Marvel Superheroes paved the way for the second 1979 relaunch of the former THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL when the MARVEL COMIC formula proved a bust.

1979: MARVEL UK APRIL BULLPEN BULLETINS

As an addendum to the MARVEL COMIC April '79 cover gallery (see my previous post), here are the full-page BULLPEN BULLETINS pages that appeared that month.

Note the new corporate logo which continued long past the end of the Skinn era and was still used on the company letterhead in 1989 (see here).

The MARVEL STRIKE FORCE was an unrealised plan by Skinn to mobilise readers to (somehow) bolster Marvel's notoriously bad (shipping strikes not withstanding) distribution compared with its better-resourced rivals.

18 April 1979

25 April 1979

1979: MARVEL COMIC APRIL COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

Here's another run of eye catching covers from the short-lived MARVEL COMIC.

The first April issue was the second of the "emergency" issues.  The London Bullpen would dispatch two issues at a time to their Irish printers so - in total - four editions (two SPIDER-MAN COMIC and two MARVEL COMIC) were lost by the courier.  Rather than loose their slot on the presses, Skinn and co. cobbled together these issues from standby material (most of which hadn't been reworked to fit the SKINN I more-panels-per-page format).

These ropey-looking issues (although the Vision cover is a corker) probably hammered more nails into MC just weeks after the prolonged distribution problems at the start of the year.

1979: MARVEL COMIC MARCH COVER GALLERY (Marvel UK)

Was MARVEL COMIC doomed to failure from the beginning?  It certainly got off to a very inauspicious start.

Dez Skinn's much-hyped Marvel Revolution unfortunately coincided with a national haulage strike which played havoc with the distribution of Marvel's titles.  Some areas apparently started receiving copies of the new-look weeklies BEFORE the last copies of the pre-revolution editions.  Other areas - inevitably - didn't see copies at all.

As a result, the second issue of MC arrived undated in newsagents to try and minimise confusion.  However, the lack of an on-cover issue number probably hindered, rather than helped, the situation.  After only two issues, publication was suspended and only resumed in early March.

The Hulk only appeared in the first three issues of MC before transferring to his own weekly to capitalise on the success of the live-action TV show running on ITV.  Skinn wisely replaced him with another bankable green goliath with a good media profile: reprints of the licensed US Godzilla strip.

The end of the month saw another crisis hit when the courier company charged with rushing the completed issues to the printer managed to misplace the whole consignment.  The London Bullpen despatched two issues at a time to the printer, resulting in the loss of four completed editions.  The lost issues were Marvel Comic 335 & 336 and SPIDER-MAN COMIC 316 & 317.  Unwilling to loose more sales so soon after the strike, Skinn hastily assembled 'emergency' issues using inventory strips that hadn't been re-edited to fit the new more-panels-per-page format.  Dez did at least use the opportunity to run strips, like the X-Men, that cross-promoted the UK monthlies.  Skinn's first new-format Bullpen Bulletins explained what was happening.

ISSUE 331

Undated

ISSUE 332

7 March 1979

ISSUE 333

14 March 1979

ISSUE 334

21 March 1979

ISSUE 335

28 March 1979

*Special emergency issue*

ISSUE 335

Bullpen Bulletins

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1979: MARVEL COMIC ISSUE ONE (Marvel UK)

New year.  New comic.  And the next stage of Dez Skinn's Marvel Revolution*.  Despite the hype, readers of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL must have been more than a little confused when, in mid January 1979, they found MWOM AWOL, replaced by a 'new' weekly: MARVEL COMIC.

The venerable MWOM (Marvel's first British weekly, launched in 1972) had spent much of the seventies as a weather-worn dumping ground for Marvel's failed weeklies and sales were moribund.  Stan's new man in London, Dez Skinn, decided radical surgery was the only thing to avoid cancellation.

The new Marvel Comic was an adventure weekly with only a sprinkling of superhero strips.  As you'll see below, a wider range of reprints included horror (from TOMB OF DRACULA), fantasy (SKULL THE SLAYER and the inevitable CONAN THE BARBARIAN) and martial arts adventure (MASTERS OF KUNG FU) alongside THE INCREDIBLE HULK and DAREDEVIL.

To cut costs, and make the UK line more closely resemble their homegrown rivals, Skinn also pruned the page count (down to a mere 24 pages) and jettisoned the glossy covers in favour of newsprint.

To fit more material into less pages, and increase readers perception of value, Skinn took his scalpel to the original US pages and crammed more panels per page (he did the same to the similarly relaunched SPIDER-MAN COMIC but left STAR WARS WEEKLY well alone... partly because he was already struggling to find enough material to fill the existing format).  Splash pages, recaps and creator credits were also done away with.

SI-6 THE SPECIALISTS was a shameless riff on LWT's popular post-watershed show THE PROFESSIONALS (the fictional CI-5) in an attempt to pass-off dated (but still excellent) MASTERS OF KUNG FU reprints.

The Green Goliath, a mainstay of MWOM since the first issue, briefly survived the changes but only to allow time for Skinn to launch the third stage of his British revolution: the launch of HULK COMIC.

I've posted the first pages of each of the strips below.  I'm not familiar enough with the original material to be able to identify where the strips first appeared stateside.  Can anyone help?

To emphasis the 'newness' of the MC, the issue number was dropped from the cover for the first few weeks.  This would have been the 330th issue of MWOM.

The Marvel Comic incarnation wasn't a sales bonanza and - by the summer - Skinn was forced to admit defeat and rolled it into SPIDER-MAN COMIC.  At the same time, he announced plans for a new monthly - MARVEL SUPERHEROES - which would (subtly at first) retain the same numbering.

Over several posts, I'll run a full cover gallery for MC as well as some other supplementary material.

* Phase 1 was an overhaul of the monthlies.

For more on the Revolution, follow these posts:
- Marvel House Ads promoting the new SPIDER-MAN COMIC and MARVEL COMIC (here).
- The history of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL can be found here.
- The first issue of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, marking the launch of Marvel UK, can be found here.
- A MARVEL SUPERHEROES: A MARVEL MONTHLY cover gallery begins here.
- Dez Skinn writes about the Marvel Revolution in Bullpen Bulletins here.

1979: DRACULA IN MARVEL COMIC HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

Here's another MARVEL COMIC House Ad (from May 1979) from Marvel UK.

DRACULA LIVES! had, of course, been the title of the British horror weekly, of a few years earlier, that reprinted (in glorious black & white) TOMB OF DRACULA alongside a smorgasbord of seventies supernatural scares (Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, Legion of Monsters etc.).

Much more MARVEL COMIC coming soon....

1979: THE INCREDIBLE HULK POSTER MAGAZINE (Marvel UK)

This is a 1979 Marvel UK House Ad (from MARVEL COMIC 331) giving readers the opportunity to mail away for the US ($1.50) TV tie-in THE INCREDIBLE HULK POSTER MAGAZINE, published the previous year.

1979: GODZILLA in MARVEL COMIC HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

COMING SOON TO STARLOGGED... 

MARVEL COMIC

This is a House Ad, from MARVEL COMIC 332 (7 March 1979), announcing the imminent arrival of GODZILLA in the just (re)launched weekly.

The text below the add is - I assume - a production error.  It relates to the about-to-launch HULK COMIC but doesn't correspond to anything else in the issue.

I'll be doing much more on the short-lived successor to THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL in the near future.

1979: MARVEL SUPERHEROES: A MARVEL MONTHLY COVER GALLERY - PART ONE (Marvel UK)

1979 was an eventful year for Marvel UK's venerable THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.  The weekly had spearheaded the Marvel invasion of the UK back in 1972 but had spent the rest of the decade hosting the Hulk alongside a succession of mergers (THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, PLANET OF THE APES, DRACULA LIVES and FURY) as the British line expanded and contracted.

The anthology probably would have shuttered earlier but the arrival of the live-action INCREDIBLE HULK TV show ("Marvel's TV sensation" as the cover splashes declared) undoubtably gave it a shot in the arm in '78.  Nevertheless, Dez Skinn had it in his sights as he prepared for his Marvel Revolution, to be instigated early the following year.

His plan was to remove the bulk of MWOM's superhero strips and relaunch it as the adventure anthology MARVEL COMIC.  The Green Goliath survived the first few weeks of the relaunch before shifting across to his own weekly.

Unfortunately, the early weeks of the revolution coincided with a national drivers strike which played havoc with distribution and forced Marvel to put the line on hiatus until the dispute ended and the issues already trapped in the system finally reached stores.  The strike probably contributed to what happened next.

Another Skinn innovation was the launch of one-shot Summer and Winter specials for the first time.  There was nothing revolutionary about that aspect of the revolution, Marvel's bigger rivals had been doing it for years but Marvel's New York management, largely ignorant of the British market, had previously nixed the idea in favour of imports of treasury editions, which they regarded as the Marvel equivalent.  

Skinn saw specials as a way of expanding the line dramatically (eight summer specials, and four winter specials, appeared in 1979) as well as piloting new ideas for possible regular books (other try-outs included FRANTIC, TV HEROES and STAR HEROES).

MARVEL SUPERHEROES was one of those first eight specials and Skinn was obviously pleased by the results as, by the end of summer, MARVEL COMIC was simultaneously cancelled (it officially merged with SPIDER-MAN) and revived as a monthly under the new masthead.  

The first relaunched issue was issue 353 although the numbering was omitted from the cover in favour of text that emphasised that this was a new launch.

The bankable initial line-up consisted of The Avengers, the original X-Men (the new incarnation of the merry muties was running in RAMPAGE) and makeweight Ms. Marvel.    

The monthly continued through to 1983 before finally expiring after an impressive 397 issues.  Arguably that may have been a deck-clearing exercise to make way for the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL which launched shortly after.  

Marvel Superheroes folded into THE DAREDEVILS from issue 6.  The Daredevils, in turn, shuttered after 11 issues and merged with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL volume 2.

Along the way, Marvel Superheroes absorbed companion monthlies SAVAGE ACTION from 382 and RAMPAGE from issue 393.  In the interrelated world of Marvel UK, Rampage had already absorbed the short-lived (and inappropriately titled) BLOCKBUSTER from issue 45.  

PREVIOUS POSTS YOU MAY FIND OF INTEREST:

The history of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (here)

The history of THE HULK at Marvel UK (here)

TV HEROES SUMMER SPECIAL '79 (here)

STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL '79 (here)

SUMMER SPECIAL 1979

ISSUE 353

September 1979

ISSUE 354

October 1979

ISSUE 355

November 1979

ISSUE 356

December 1979

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1979: THE MARVEL REVOLUTION: PHASE ONE (Marvel UK)

Here's a three-page MARVEL UK House Ad from January 1979 (cover-date 17 January 1979) heralding the first phase of Dez Skinn's 'Marvel Revolution': the comprehensive overhaul of the Annex of Idea's two super-powered weeklies: SPIDER-MAN and THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.