1982: SAVAGE ACTION BOWS OUT WITH ISSUE 15 (Marvel UK)

From 1982*: the British Bullpen Spin Machine cranks up again to put a positive gloss on the demise of SAVAGE ACTION Monthly after fifteen issues.  

SA was a "mature readers" comic before the term had been invented... a hotch-potch of adventure and horror fare assembled (for the most part) from the US black & white magazine line. 

As Bernie says, putting a brave face on it, SA was about to fold into the pages of MARVEL SUPERHEROES from 382.  Which also happened to be the only issue to officially incorporate SA although the Night Raven text stories (the only survivor to emerge from the wreckage of SA) did continue. 

* This would have gone on sale in December 1981. 

1975: MAN THING'S DEBUT IN DRACULA LIVES House Ad (Marvel UK)

From 1975: A MARVEL UK House Ad teasing the British premiere of Man Thing (snigger) in the pages of DRACULA LIVES.  

I've not followed ol' MT's UK career particularly closely but I am aware that he popped-up (possibly in the same material again-and-again... as was the M-UK way) in DRACULA LIVES, PLANET OF THE APES (incorporating Dracula Lives), JOURNEY INTO NIGHTMARE (one of the published-under-license Marvel scare-fare monthlies from Portman), CHILLER POCKET BOOK and SAVAGE ACTION.  Did I miss any? 

This appeared in December 1975. 

1980: MARVEL UK COMICS, FILM & FANTASY CONVENTION

From 1981: Coverage of the previous October's MARVEL UK COMICS, FILM AND FANTASY CONVENTION from the pages of SAVAGE ACTION issue 4.  

I've previously posted some of the pre-publicity here.

1980: SAVAGE ACTION HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

A mean'n'moody November 1980 MARVEL UK House Ad for the monthly SAVAGE ACTION.  

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: NIGHT RAVEN

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

Here's a pre-GENESIS 92 character who may (or may not) be a participant in 2014's REVOLUTIONARY WAR series.

NIGHT RAVEN first appeared - of course - in HULK COMIC issue 1 and ran in the first 20-odd issues (I don't have the exact info in front of me) before succumbing to budget cuts.  It's a myth that the initial high quantities of originated British strips in HULK COMIC/ THE INCREDIBLE HULK remained for long and most were dropped within six months.  The sole survivor was The Black Knight.

The character was retooled as a text story for SAVAGE ACTION and then - like Captain Britain - played the cancellation-shuffle of the early eighties monthlies.

The Hulk-era strips were rerun in the pages of CAPTAIN BRITAIN monthly mid-decade and collected in trade paperback format a few years later.

A planned revival in the pages of STRIP (which had already serialised a DEATH'S HEAD series) was scuppered when the anthology was suddenly cancelled just before the strip was due to start.  Whoops.

1982-83: MARVEL SUPERHEROES - PART FOUR (Marvel UK)

Here's the last part of my MARVEL SUPERHEROES Cover Gallery spanning 1982-83.

Unfortunately, this entry is pretty patchy as I have some gaps in this latter part of the run and I apologise for that.  If anyone has the missing copies to flog - at a reasonable price - please get in touch.

The beginning of 1982 saw the demise of SAVAGE ACTION, followed by RAMPAGE a year later.  The former added the Night Raven text stories (which ultimately continued through to the demise of CAPTAIN BRITAIN monthly) whilst the latter added The New X-Men to the line-up.

Looking elsewhere on the 'net, the other shocker is the stonking price rise between issues 389 (45p) and 390 (60p) which is a rampant bit of inflation.  It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that sales dropped over the next seven months.

MSH didn't merge with another title and 397 is officially the final issue of the run.  However, as THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL volume 2 launched shortly thereafter I consider that part of the MWOM > MARVEL COMIC > MSH succession.  Using that logic, the run that started in 1972 eventually runs out of steam in 1984 with the merger of MWOM's second volume with (of all things) SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.

ISSUE 381

January 1982

ISSUE 382

February 1982

SAVAGE ACTION merges.  

ISSUE 383

March 1982

ISSUE 387

July 1982

ISSUE 393

January 1984

RAMPAGE merges.

ISSUE 394

February 1983

ISSUE 395

March 1983

ISSUE 396

April 1983

ISSUE 397

May 1983

Final issue.

1980: NIGHT RAVEN: THE PHANTOM OF WALPOLE TOWERS text story - PART TWO (Marvel UK)

Hot on the heels of part one, here's the concluding part of the first NIGHT RAVEN text story from Marvel UK's SAVAGE ACTION monthly 1-2, first published during the final months of 1980.

1980: SAVAGE ACTION ISSUE 1 (Marvel UK)

This is another blast (literally) from the Marvel UK archives: the launch issue of SAVAGE ACTION (A Marvel Monthly) from November 1980.

SA (which ultimately ran 15 issues to January 1982) was a "mature readers" title before anyone even knew what that meant.  The monthly pulled together the likes of The Punisher, Dominic Fortune, Moon Knight, Blade, The Black Widow, Man-Thing (again!), Man-God and Ka-zar ('savage' action, geddit?!?) from Marvel's US black & white magazines.

Amongst the reprints, the two standouts were the NIGHT RAVEN text stories which revived the character last seen (until the money ran out) in the pages of HULK COMIC and (beginning in the seventh issue) the text feature INSIDE COMICS.

The text stories demonstrated remarkable longevity and survived the cancellation of SA and continued, through a variety of titles, until the demise of CAPTAIN BRITAIN monthly.  Unlike the original NR strips (albeit decades ago), they've never been collected in book form.

Inside Comics was, as the title suggests, a regular text feature that appeared across the monthlies with a wandering brief to write about anything comics related that took the author's (including one Alan Moore) fancy.