STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN

Showing posts with label SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. Show all posts

Monday, 18 April 2016

1984: CONAN THE DESTROYER ANNUAL (MARVEL UK)

From 1984: the MARVEL UK edition of the CONAN THE DESTROYER movie adaptation, published as an annual by MARVEL UK.

The strip was also serialized across several months of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN magazine, beginning with the MWOM merger issue. However, despite the introduction of a few colour pages much of the strip was still published in black & white. Herein was the only UK outlet in colour.

Quite how well this sold is anyone's guess. Its hard to imagine the audience for Conan (and Certificate 18 barbarian film fare) were perusing the table (it was always a table in them days) of annuals displayed in WH Smith. But maybe the sheer inability of younger readers to see the movie in cinemas actually helped sales.

They didn't publish another Conan annual over here and the magazine itself shuttered the following year.

Friday, 1 April 2016

1985 GRACE JONES, FROM CONAN THE DESTROYER, ON THE COVER OF THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN ISSUE 88 (MARVEL UK)

From February 1985: Grace Jones graces the eye-catching cover of MARVEL UK's THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN magazine issue 88. The still is, of course, from the sequel flick CONAN THE DESTROYER.

This is from the UK title's final year in print (although the Barbarian would make two further comebacks over the next decade), issue 93 was the last, and it's safe to say that it was probably the feature films that were keeping the venture afloat at this point.

The MWOM masthead continues to adorn the cover as one of the most incongruous mergers in the history of the Annex of Ideas officially continued. In reality this was the reprints of the X-Men limited series MAGIK and a few feature pages. The reprint, launched in MWOM's lacklustre finale, was presumably chosen because its fantasy fare was a reasonable post-merger fit but it still seems unlikely that Conan's self-contained audience would have been overwhelmed by the sudden invasion of the superhero universe. Did the merger prolong Savage Sword for a few more months... or did it hasten its demise?

Friday, 3 July 2015

1975: MARVEL UK CHECKLIST

From May 1975: That week's Mighty Marvel current attractions, courtesy of the British Bullpen.

This rundown appeared in THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly issue 9, dated 3 May.

Friday, 20 February 2015

1979: MARVEL UK MONTHLIES House Ad

From 1979: A bevy of MARVEL UK monthlies, proudly plugged in this full-page House Ad.

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

1979: MARVEL UK MONTHLIES HOUSE AD

From May 1979: A MARVEL UK House Ad for three of their blockbuster monthlies...STARBURST, RAMPAGE and THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.

Thursday, 25 September 2014

1985: THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN Issue 93 (Marvel UK)

The end of another chunk of MARVEL UK history: the hefty (84 pages!) finale of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN.

Cover-dated July 1985, a ninety-three issue run seems remarkable longevity. Even more so considering that the first volume of Savage Sword, published weekly, had been the British Bullpen's first significant failure: canned after a mere eighteen issues a decade earlier.

The only M-UK monthly to surpass this run was, of course, DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE which celebrated its 100th the same year… but that had the advantage of a 43 issue head start as a weekly. STARBURST MAGAZINE also soared way past the centenary mark… but only after M-UK had passed it onto Visual Imagination.

At his peak, circa early 1981, the Barbarian was appearing simultaneous in three titles: this monthly, the Pocket Book (also monthly) and in VALOUR/ FUTURE TENSE AND VALOUR.

Conan's fortunes were no doubt boosted by the two early eighties Arnie outings (the adaptation of the second, CONAN THE DESTROYER, had graced the pages of the magazine from issue 85 onwards) which, in turn, had spawned a flurry of (not always terribly good) cinematic imitators. Ironically, SS was cancelled just as Conan's co-star Red Sonja was also making her (underwhelming) screen debut.

Savage Sword had, for the most part, been left to do its own thing throughout the lifespan of the title. The only significant (and arguably ill-advised) intervention from the rest of the M-UK line being the merger of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL spanning issues 85-90. Did this uncomfortable combination extend the life of Savage Sword by another few months… or hasten its demise as traditional readers turned away from the unwelcome infusion of the mainstream Marvel Universe?

Conan had nowhere to merge (a sign of the times) but this didn't end his British run entirely. After a five year hiatus he returned as part of the line-up of the short-lived anti-heroes weekly HAVOC and then vanished again until the even-more-short-lived CONAN THE ADVENTURER.

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

1984: SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL MERGE (Marvel UK)

The end of another MARVEL UK era: THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN issue 84 (October 1984) announces the impending merger of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

Although MWOM's second volume only clocked-up seventeen issues, it's line could be tracked (with a couple of brief hiatuses along the way) all the way back to the launch of the original MWOM, the British Bullpen's first title, in 1972.

The Marvel Revolution transformed MWOM weekly into the new MARVEL COMIC in January 1979 (February's copies were lost in a distribution strike which forced Marvel to briefly shut up shop) only to see another relaunch, as the monthly MARVEL SUPERHEROES, that summer.

MARVEL SUPERHEROES clocked-up 397 issues (retaining the original numbering dating back to 1972) before expiring in May 1983, giving way for the revived MWOM.

Folding MWOM into SAVAGE SWORD wasn't an obvious combination (indeed, it seems to have been design to annoy readers of both) but it's a sign of how few options Marvel had left. For the first time since the launch of RAMPAGE's second volume, Marvel UK had no monthly superhero book.

The British Bullpen had at least been canny enough to cue up a fantasy strip (a reprint of the X-Men spin-off MAGIK, another four-issue limited series) in MWOM's final outing rather than try and shoehorn in a pure tights-and-flights story.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the combination, Conan's own time was coming to an end and Savage Sword itself shuttered with a hefty extra-length 93rd issue within a year.

Savage Sword 85 was also the first issue of the Conan monthly to boast colour interior pages.

Marvel UK also issued the CONAN THE DESTROYER movie adaptation as an annual.

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

1984: CAPTAIN BRITAIN and THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL House Ads (Marvel UK)

This full-page of MARVEL UK House Ads appeared in the 84th issue (the last with all black-and-white interiors trivia fans) of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN monthly from October 1984.

The top one previews the about-to-launch (it was slightly delayed, actually going on sale in December/ January) CAPTAIN BRITAIN monthly, a return to his own title after half-a-decade bumming around assorted (always about to close) M-UK monthlies. What's interesting here is that they still hadn't quite nailed the line-up: Jeff Hawke (presumably reprints) never did appear. Incidentally, a fanzine article from this period revealed that Alpha Flight was part of the in-house dummies, a strip that eventually went into MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS instead.

The other half-pager is promoting what was actually the final issue of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL's second run (finally ending a run that, despite various name and frequency changes, could be traced back to the launch of M-UK back in 1972) and the beginning of a reprint run of the X-Men related Magik four-parter. Another full-page add elsewhere in the same issue announced that, as of the following month, it would be continuing in the pages of Conan itself (a merger every bit as bonkers as when the original Savage Sword was folded into THE AVENGERS in the seventies).

The final issue of MWOM itself was distinctly lacklustre and apparently only allowed out the door to prime readers for the upcoming merger. The page count was dropped and the interior colour abandoned altogether. Needless to say, the changes extracted no downward pressure on the cover price.

Friday, 5 September 2014

1975: SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN Launch Ad (Marvel UK)

This is the March 1975 Launch Ad for MARVEL UK's SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.

This turned-out to be the first duffer from the Annex of Ideas: the ill-fated weekly closed after only eighteen issues… although the strip went on to have a healthy run as the regular back-yup strip in THE AVENGERS and then transferred into THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

The British Bullpen recycled the title (purloined from the US magazine… which supplied the bulk of the material) for a monthly incarnation a few years later. This proved a much more successful endeavour, clocking-up a commendable 93 issues.

The material here, which came from the earliest issues of the US colour comic (the b&w printing was a great showcase for Barry Windsor-Smith's stunning art), appeared again in the 1980-81 CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

1975: US MONTHLIES SUBSCRIPTIONS FROM MARVEL UK

Here is an interesting one from July 1975: the opportunity to subscribe to selected hard-to-find US colour monthlies, direct from Marvel UK.

I assume the embargoed titles (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, INCREDIBLE HULK, THE AVENGERS, TOMB OF DRACULA and MASTERS OF KUNG FU) were all made unavailable in the UK because they would eat into sales of the UK weeklies (even through most of the strips were still years behind the current US editions at this point) as well as - probably - avoiding any confusion amongst newsagents and distributors being presented with two comics with the same name.

The Hulk was the main attraction in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL whilst Masters of Kung Fu was obviously considered a highly bankable supporting feature in the British edition of THE AVENGERS.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN is prominently featured in the advert's artwork and mentioned in the text top-left but isn't one of the available titles (it probably should have been the last option listed). This may be because someone boobed or - probably - plans changed at the last minute because the UK weekly was cancelled, after only 18 issues, just as this advert appeared.

1979: MARVEL MONTHLIES HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

This is a 'Marvel Revolution' House Ad, extolling the virtues of the revitalised UK monthlies, from May 1979.

Friday, 23 November 2012

1994: CONAN THE ADVENTURER FORTNIGHTLY (Marvel UK)

This is another long-forgotten chapter in Marvel UK's history: the final outing of CONAN THE BARBARIAN in the UK.

CONAN THE ADVENTURER was a full-colour fortnightly, published in the summer of 1994, to coincide with the animated TV show of the same name. It lasted (a spectacularly short) three issues.

I don't have issue one but, below, are the covers and contents for the final two issues.

The reprints date back to 1970 and the first three issues of the US CONAN THE BARBARIAN book (it's a very safe bet that issue one of CtA reprinted The Coming of Conan! from CtB issue 1, October 1970).

This was the third time (at least) that these issues were reprinted in the UK, albeit in colour for the first time. They'd previously appeared in the early issues of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly (1975) and CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK (1980).

CtA vanished after the third issue, yet another swift M-UK cancellation. There was no announcement in the final issue.

Issue three appears as just 'CONAN" although it's still Conan the Adventurer in the copyright information on page two. Whether this was a deliberate title-change or just an omission (unlikely) is unknown.

As mentioned in a previous post, Conan's first UK outing (the 1975 weekly) was a flop, cancelled after only 18 weeks. But the Barbarian went on to have a lengthy run across the Marvel UK line, appearing in (variously) THE AVENGERS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, PLANET OF THE APES, MARVEL COMIC, THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN MONTHLY, CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK, VALOUR, FUTURE TENSE and HAVOC before returning to this solo title.

ISSUE 2

15 July 1994

Reprints Lair of the Beast Men from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN issue 2 and King of the Forgotten People (part two) from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL 6 (1981)

ISSUE 3

29 JULY 1994

FINAL ISSUE

Reprints Twilight of the Grim Grey God from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3 and King of the Forgotten People (part three) from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL 6 (1981)

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

1975-76: THE AVENGERS AND THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN

With just days to go until THE AVENGERS assemble in cinemas, now seems a good time to wind back to 1975 and Marvel UK's THE AVENGERS AND SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly.

The long-winded name was the result of the hasty cancellation of Conan's own weekly after a mere 18 weeks. Surprisingly, the merger stuck for the remainder of the title's run, prominently featuring the subsumed title's name and star on covers, before transferring both strips to THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL. Compare that with the demise of FORCES IN COMBAT, expunged from FUTURE TENSE with undue haste.

THE AVENGERS had already been through its martial arts obsession phase, which we'll get to eventually.

Details of SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN Volume 1 can be found here.