1984: SPIDER-MAN - LONDON CALLING (Marvel UK)

Rumour has it that the next Spider-man movie will be called THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: LONDON CALLING (hurrah for the BBC World Service) which -if true - is very intriguing and opens up a world of possibilities.

Which gives me the excuse I needed to run these pages from Spidey's exclusive 1984 visit to London... and Birmingham.

Back in 1984, Marvel UK management faced a dilemma: should they introduce Spider-man's controversial black costume?

Sales of the weekly were already on-the-slide and they feared an unfamiliar look would confuse and alienate casual fans, as well as merchandisers looking to acquire the rights to the character (a lucrative sideline for the Annex of Ideas).

The original plan was - apparently - to cease reprints of the US strips in favour of all-new British-produced adventures.  These would have also - presumably - have been offered to other international publishers of Marvel strips with similar concerns.

After some delay (apparently Marvel US had to be convinced that their principle character could be entrusted to the UK operation), the plans for a regular run were truncated to a four-part try-out, running in issues 607-610.

Marvel were canny enough to peg the strip to a personal appearance of Spidey (aka a bloke in a costume) on ITV's live networked Saturday mornings kids show SATURDAY STARSHIP, produced by Central Independent Television from their Birmingham studios.

Ironically, the same morning, the BBC repeated an episode of SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS as part of their Saturday morning kids offering.

By this point in the weekly's long and convoluted history, it had adopted a format which ran alternate double-page spreads of colour and black & white art (giving the effect of watching a TV on the blink).  The UK-produced strips appeared in black & white throughout with only the splash pages given the colour treatment.

Issues 607 and 608 were also accompanied by loosely-inserted free gifts: transfers and a sticker.

Presumably deemed a failure (although the strips themselves are perfectly serviceable), the experiment was never repeated and the weekly went into a quick decline through 1985.  The page count was cut (albeit with glossy paper added), the main strip switched to older (out-of-continuity) reprints, production standards dropped and - from issue 634 - relaunched as THE SPIDER-MAN COMIC, pitched at a younger audience.  A further name-change -SPIDEY COMIC - followed from issue 651 and it was cancelled with issue 666, cover-dated 14 December 1985.

This adventure has never been reprinted on either side of the Atlantic.  Spidey staged another TV-related transatlantic trip to the UK during 1985.  You can read that adventure here.

ISSUE 607

27 October 1984

Splash page

Details of Spidey's appearance on ITV's SATURDAY STARSHIP.

Free transfers insert.

ISSUE 608

3 November 1984

Editorial.

Splash page.

Loosely inserted free sticker.

ISSUE 609

10 November 1984

Splash page.

ISSUE 610

17 November 1984

Splash page.

1985: THE FINK BROTHERS: MUTANTS IN MEGA CITY ONE

At the turn of 1985, Tharg the Mighty began to plug his "Master Plan".  Readers were left to ponder what this might be (an impending merger?  A spin-off comic, possibly starring Judge Dredd?  Or, possibly, the long-discussed Dredd movie?).

Finally, all was revealed in Prog (or was that Disc?) 403, on sale in Earth's newsagents in the last week of January.

The fearsome Fink Brothers, hitherto not noted for their musical talents, had made a single.

Of course, these muties from the future were really moonlighting musicians Suggs (aka Fink Angel) and Carl Smythe (aka Mean Machine) in some novelty green make-up (making them look like sickly cybernetic versions of WORZEL GUMMIDGE).

The Mighty One (no stranger to green), clearly sensing a chance to repel Thrill Suckers (and get some free publicity for the Galaxy's Greatest Weekly), fully endorsed this escapade.  Brian Bolland's iconic artwork (which, according to his book, he never got back) for the single, picture disc and promotional poster also graced the cover of Prog 403.

The shameless pop chancres also made a couple of TV appearances.  TOP OF THE POPS was clearly booked but (inexplicably) BBC Manchester's OXFORD ROAD SHOW (by now renamed the "funky" ORS 85 - and about to be cancelled) took the bait along with Central Television's networked ITV Saturday morning kids show SATURDAY STARSHIP (also about to be cancelled.  You can almost see a pattern here...).

The single troubled the chart for four weeks, rising for two weeks before dropping and then vanishing.

FIRST CHART APPEARANCE: 9 February 1985
CHART PLACINGS:
9 Feb 1985 - 75
16 Feb 1985 - 50
23 Feb 1985 - 54
2 March 1985 - 62 (last placing)

2000AD'S MEGA PLAN REVEALED
PROG 403 - 2 February 1985

Cover by Brian Bolland

 PROG 404 - 9 February 1985

TV APPEARANCES:

SATURDAY STARSHIP (Central Independent Television for ITV)

TX DATE Saturday 26 January 1985.

Extract from video followed by live studio appearance by the Fink Brothers.

This was the last episode of the series and the Brothers were seen to take part in the (unscripted?) demolition of the show's set.

ORS85 (aka THE OXFORD ROAD SHOW) (BBC Manchester for BBC TWO)

TX DATE unknown (possibly Friday 25 January 1985)