1983: THE X-MEN AND THE MICRONAUTS Limited Series (Marvel Comics)

From 1983/ 1984: One of the more bonkers limited series (at least until the X-MEN/ TREK crossovers of the Nineties) of the Star Age: X-MEN AND THE MICRONAUTS.

Well, maybe not so strange... the mighty miniature Micronauts were, after all, integral to the mainstream Marvel Universe even through the Bullpen had only borrowed them.  Quite why they were deemed to be worthy of a four-part run in the mutants is less clear.  Presumably the strong sales in the direct market made it a no-brainer for the circulation department.  

Back issue prices don't reflect it but this is also one of the rarest X-outings of the decade.  When Marvel lost the rights to the Micronauts a few years later (a plan to revive them a decade later stalled on the launch pad), they also lost the ability to reprint this four-parter.  It's not been seen outside the back issue bins (where, in truth, it seldom surfaces as a complete set) anywhere (except a four-issue rerun in MARVEL UK's THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL... which was cancelled a month after the reprints ended) since.  

The announcement that IDW have picked-up the rights to both the 'Nauts and ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT (who, unlike the former, didn't see a return to comics during the early Noughties fad for toy-based print revivals) opens up the slim possibility that both the original series will return to print... although IDW will still have to overcome the problem of multiple appearances by Marvel's copyrighted characters throughout both runs.  

The UK reprint in MWOM marked the last appearance of the Micronauts (following stints in STAR WARS WEEKLY, STAR HEROES and FUTURE TENSE) in the British line.  Their finale should have been in the pages of SECRET WARS II (yup, they were blessed by an encounter with the big-haired Beyonder) but the Annex of Ideas (possibly because the rights had already lapsed) skipped both the Micronauts and Rom crossovers.

1979: MARVEL's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA VOLUME 2

From 1979: the second (and last) paperback compilation of Marvel's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA run.

Marvel had already published (as part of their mag-paperback-treasury triple-play) their first (badly flawed) crack at adapting Saga of a Star World (aka "the movie") the previous year... and that edition has always been relatively easy to find in the UK.  It was widely sold through bookstores (certainly our local branch of Martins the Bookshop carried copies in their small science fiction section) and resurfaces even now from time-to-time.  My copy is packed away in storage.  

However, I had no idea that Marvel had published a second volume until I stumbled across a mention on anther website a few years ago.  In all my years of keeping an eye out for interesting bits of Galactica stuff, I'd never seen a copy.  That either means that it was published in relatively limited quantities (the show was dropped the same year which would have, almost instantly, put the kibbosh on plans to expand merchandising) or very few copies made it into the UK. 

I finally, thanks to Amazon and a secondhand dealer, managed to get hold of a copy this year.  

It's a compilation of the 4-6 issues of Marvel's ongoing (ultimately 23 issues) Battlestar monthly (the first three issues had been filled with a "fixed" version of the opener), an odd mix of a two-part adaptation of the TV adventure Lost Planet of the Gods (which was filmed later in production order but shuffled up the transmission order so that it played the weeks after the pilot) and Marvel's first all-original 'expanded universe' adventures.  

Marvel's (presumably cheapskate) licensing people only signed-up for the rights to the first five televised (not filmed... otherwise we would have seen The Gun On Ice planet Zero adapted instead) hours of the show.  Not only did this prevent them from any more direct adaptations but it also stopped them even referencing any one, any thing or anywhere referenced in the remainder of the series.  That prevented Marvel from doing much to explore the show's mythology but, more importantly, prevented any reference to any of the worthy-of-further-exploration elements teased in episodes like The Living Legend, War of the Gods or the Terra episodes.  Even Sheba, integral to the show from her mid-season debut onwards, never featured in the four-colour Colonial universe.  

The final third of the book wasted no time in establishing that the Marvel version was going to play by its own rules.  Using the conclusion of Lost Planet of the Gods as its starting point, it wasted no time in killing off Baltar (again... the first attempt at the pilot had featured his Hammer Horror inspired decapitation in the Cylon throne room... considerably toned down for the movie edit and jettisoned entirely for TV to accommodate the changed premise of the weekly series) by showing Lucifer leaving him to die in the ruins of Kobol (a plot point left unresolved in the screen version... although the character does have a noticeable limp in Gun On Ice Planet Zero which, although shot first, might have had these scenes inserted later).  See this previous post for Baltar's many deaths. 

The revised version of Saga of a Star World didn't see a UK edition until Titan published the first of two trade paperbacks of (unrestored) Marvel material to coincide with the TV revival.  The trade also featured the strips that went into this paperback.  The Lost Planet... adaptation had first seen print over here in 1979's STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (see here) which preceded the regular Pocket Book published in 1980-81 (see here). 

A full cover gallery for the original US run can be found here.

1978: BILL MANTLO on THE MICRONAUTS

This is a nice little two-page article - by prolific Marvel scribe (and - for a long time - their go-to guy for licensed properties) - Bill Mantlo, first published in THE COMICS JOURNAL issue 40 (June 1978) on the origins of THE MICRONAUTS.

As I've noted in various different posts, the diminutive warriors of the Microverse were Marvel UK mainstays between 1979 (when Dez Skinn launched them as a regular supporting feature in STAR WARS WEEKLY) and 1984 (their final regular appearance was their four-part team-up with the X-Men, reprinted in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL volume 2 13-16).  Along the way, they also appeared in STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL 1979, STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK and FUTURE TENSE.

1982: FUTURE TENSE: THE FINAL FAREWELL (Marvel UK)

Or - to be more accurate - not.  Having your comic cancelled can be an effective impediment to plans for vengeance. 

I've covered Marvel UK's short-lived, thrill-sucker infected, SF anthology FUTURE TENSE (1980-82.  Barely) in a few previous posts but I've finally got my paws on the hard-to-find final issue, so I thought it would be fun to share this full-page editorial farewell (below).

The panel above is the final frame from the final instalment of THE MICRONAUTS, a reprint of 'Betrayal' the 34th US issue.  Despite the optimistic caption, it marked the last regular appearance of the sometime denizens of the Marvel Microverse in the British line, ending a roller coaster ride encompassing STAR WARS WEEKLY, STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL/ POCKET BOOK (issues 1-8 only) and FUTURE TENSE.

The US book eventually clocked-up 59 issues, 2 annuals, the twenty-issue sequel MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES and a five-issue run of early reprints in a fancy format (The Micronauts Special Edition).

The Marvel Micronauts, despite a couple of revivals from other publishers, have been stuck in comic book limbo for decades.  The House of Ideas eventually surrendered the license, preventing them from reprinting the back catalogue.  Their decision to firmly route the books in the mainstream Marvel Universe (a sure-fire way of boosting sales with continuous cameos from better-selling characters) makes reprints from another publisher (such as Titan's reruns of Marvel's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA strips or IDW's collection of Marvel's STAR TREK run) unlikely.  It's still possible to find the original US books in the bargain boxes... and they're well-worth grabbing if you can.

The diminutive spacers made one final Marvel UK appearance: a reprint, in the pages of the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (13-16, June-September 1984) of THE X-MEN/ MICRONAUTS limited series.  Their SECRET WARS II tie-in (MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES 16, January 1986) was omitted (possibly for licensing reasons) from the British reprints.

You have to admire the final editorial below, it seems unusually honest and makes for an interesting recap of the title's (short) history.

FT didn't merge with any other title.  Presumably, the terms of the licensing agreements prevented any other comic rolling into the pages of Marvel's other three SF monthlies of the period (STAR WARS, DOCTOR WHO and BLAKE'S SEVEN) although ROM did, briefly, secure a supporting feature slot in the monthly Star Wars comic.

1980: STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK (Marvel UK)

I first looked at Marvel UK's POCKET BOOKS line last year but I recently acquired a full run of STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK, giving me the ideal excuse to revisit them.

For latecomers (who can't be bothered to click back): Dez Skinn created the black & white digest-sized line in 1980 as an economical way (for Marvel and readers) to expand the British line.  The smaller format was already well established in the UK thanks to the "pocket libraries" published by IPC and DC Thompson.  The Marvel UK books were all-reprint and most relied on archive material from the sixties, often a second (or even third) UK outing for the material (dating back to the Power Comics line of the late sixties).

STAR HEROES was the one exception: it reprinted the contemporary strips THE MICRONAUTS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.  The former, based on the toys, had already been given its (hyped - see another previous post) premiere in the pages of (the always desperate for suitable supporting features) STAR WARS WEEKLY.  The latter was based on the TV show although, unless they read STARLOG, STARBURST or one of the other imported SF mags, the chances are most British readers only knew it as a series of movies and had no idea they were actually edited TV episodes.

The Battlestar reprints kicked-off by rerunning the sixth US issue, the first to break away from TV adaptations in favour of a parallel continuity.

Skinn had tested the formula (along with several other "heroes" formats including MARVEL SUPERHEROES and TV HEROES) the previous year with the STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (notable for featuring an adaptation of the Battlestar episode Lost Planet of the Gods, a year before the two-parter hit British screens).

The STAR HEROES line-up remained constant for the first eight issues before the Micronauts vanished without any warning or explanation.  Reprints were also being serialised in FUTURE TENSE although Star Heroes readers would be none the wiser as no effort was made to tell anyone.

Issue 9 was a double-length issue all-Battlestar issue (including a reprint of the infamous ex-Tarzan strip, clumsily reworked to become a Battlestar tale involving giant apes).

The Galactica reprints continued in issue 10 but the arrival of sixties Lee/ Kirby X-MEN reprints (the New X-Men were simultaneously appearing in RAMPAGE MONTHLY) signalled change ahead.  This was (at least) the third time those strips had seen service in the UK (first appearing in FANTASTIC in the late sixties and again, in the seventies, in THE TITANS).  I'm pretty sure the first X-MEN strip also surfaced in one of the late seventies/ early eighties hardback annuals although I don't recall which one.  

The last of the Galactica reprints appeared in issue 11 and from 12 it officially became X-MEN POCKET BOOK, albeit with the (meaningless) top line "Marvel's star heroes".

The price jumped from 15p to 18p from issue 11 (without any of the usual editorial concessions to "rising prices").  Another leap, to 20p, kicked-in from issue 17 and again, to 25p, from issue 21. The double-sized 20th issue cost 40p.  Such rampant inflation might help explain the demise of the pocket books a few months later.

The renamed pocket book eventually clocked-up 28 issues before succumbing to the cancellation of the entire line (already pruned back in 1981) in '82. 

The same year, Marvel UK reran the same X-MEN reprints, albeit now in murky colour and at a larger size, again in X-MEN weekly (followed by THOR AND THE X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN).

1979: STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (Marvel UK)

Here's a fantastic slice of late seventies comics sic-fi: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE MICRONAUTS... in the same comic.  Only the addition of a ROM SPACEKNIGHT reprint could make this the perfect comic.

STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL was published under the Dez Skinn regime and marked the first time the British outpost had issued Winter one-shots (following a clutch of Summer Specials earlier in the year).

It's notable for three things:

1. The first British reprints of Marvel's Battlestar TV tie-in.  Marvel's adaptation of SAGA OF A STAR WORLD (aka the Battlestar Faux Feature) had reached British shores through imports of the US editions in Super Special, Treasury and paperback formats.

2.  The Battlestar strip, reprinted from US issues 4-5, adapted the TV adventure LOST PLANET OF THE GODS.  Although aired in the US in September 1978, it didn't reach UK screens (specifically the London region) for another year.

3.  Skinn used Marvel's one-shot specials as pilots for possible new ongoing titles.  This one was clearly deemed a success as STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK, with the same line-up, was part of the first wave of Pocket Books the following summer.

Skinn has said, in subsequent articles, that he was underwhelmed by Battlestar and didn't think it stood much chance of replicating the runaway success of STAR WARS.  Faced with a dearth of suitable back-up strips for the pages of the ravenous STAR WARS WEEKLY, Skinn planned to run the Battlestar strip there, until outside forces (ahem) intervened.  George Lucas and 20th Century Fox were embroiled in a copyright dispute with Universal over the (undeniable) similarities between their respective space franchises.  In such a climate, running Battlestar in a Star Wars comic was not a smart move.

With that plan nixed, and believing Battlestar wasn't strong enough to fly solo, Skinn created Star Heroes and bundled in The Micronauts, hitherto a Star Wars back-up.

Universal's licensing people, apparently not grasping the term "exclusive", also gave British weekly LOOK-IN the green light to start running a regular Battlestar strip almost simultaneously.  Both were hampered by the no-show of the TV series itself (held back by the studio to maximise income from the Battlestar movies in overseas markets) until September 1980.

BTW: the cover flash "and lots more" is somewhat spurious... there's nothing else!

1998: THE MICRONAUTS in MARVEL VISION MAGAZINE

I was flicking through this copy of MARVEL VISION at the weekend, and found this interesting preview for an upcoming Marvel series which surely should be filed under (to borrow from the rather brilliant BACK ISSUE magazine) "Greatest Stories Never Told": The return of the MICRONAUTS.

Marvel must have been pretty confident that this Mego revival was going to happen but - for whatever reason - it never did (Image Comics, followed by Devil's Due, finally had a punt beginning in 2002).

What we see here is - ahem - pretty sketchy which suggests that things hadn't progressed much beyond the development and pitch stage.  There's no sign of any completed interior pages or even a finished cover for promotional and solicitation purposes.

A lot more detail on the failed revival can be found here.

Marvel's original MICRONAUTS ran for 59 issues (1979-84) and two annuals.  The relaunched MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES (1984-86) immediately followed and clocked-up another 20 issues.  

In 1983, Marvel launched the deluxe format (lovely paper and printing) MICRONAUTS SPECIAL EDITION (5 issues) that reprinted the early issues.

As mentioned in previous posts, the diminutive warriors made their UK debut in the pages of STAR WARS WEEKLY.  They then appeared, alongside BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, in STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (1979) before becoming a regular fixture, again with Battlestar, in STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK from the following summer.  When that became X-MEN POCKET BOOK, they transferred to FUTURE TENSE weekly (later monthly).  Their final Marvel UK appearance was the reprint of the X-MEN/ MICRONAUTS Limited Series in the pages of the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

MARVEL VISION was Marvel New York's successor to MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE and, once again, served as Marvel's in-house fanzine/ purveyor of puff-pieces.  This issue (cover-dated June 1998) was the last.

1980: MARVEL UK'S POCKET BOOKS LINE

Back in 1980, as part of his Marvel Revolution Project, Marvel UK boss Dez Skinn was charged with increasing the Annex of Idea's output without devouring contemporary material at an even greater (and unsustainable - special UK strips were already being created by the New York mothership to fuel STAR WARS WEEKLY) rate.  As with Skinn's seasonal specials (launched the previous year), Skinn also looked to his competitors for his next 'innovation': digests!

Rivals DC Thompson and IPC had been cranking-out their pocket library digests for years... considerably longer than Marvel's wannabes would last.

Skinn believed their diminutive size would ensure newsagents placed them at the front of displays, ensuring maximum exposure.  The bitter truth was that they were more likely to get lost in the sea of comics or racked adjacent to the more attractive (colour!) US imports.  Marvel's oft-patchy distribution certainly didn't help.

The A5, black and white, pocket book line largely exploited Marvel's sixties back catalogue with only CHILLER, STAR HEROES and, briefly, SPIDER-MAN running more recent material.

The range (initially THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDER-MAN, CHILLER and STAR HEROES) launched in March 1980 with a second wave (YOUNG ROMANCE, TITANS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and CONAN THE BARBARIAN) launched in September.

Several of the featured characters (The Hulk, Conan, Spider-man etc.) were already appearing elsewhere in the Marvel UK line-up: an early example of M-UK brand extension.

The first wave was heavily cross-promoted in the Pocket Books range and the wider Marvel line but the second range received much less publicity and, by 1981 (and the first raft of cancellations), Marvel's new management seemed to have lost interest in the digests with barely an editorial nod.

CHILLER POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

March 1980 - July 1982

Horror strips including THE TOMB OF DRACULA, MAN-THING and material from the US horror comic and magazine lines.

Issues 9 & 20 were double-length.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Conan reprints from US CONAN THE BARBARIAN issue 1 onwards.

This material had previously appeared in the UK in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (Volume 1), 1975.

Conan strips also ran in THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (volume 2) and VALOUR (latterly FUTURE TENSE AND VALOUR) during this period.

Issue 3 was double-length.

THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

April 1980 - July 1982

Reprints from US THE FANTASTIC FOUR 43 onwards.

The FF had previously had a solo run in THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR (53 issues) from September 1977.

More contemporary FF reprints were also appearing in MARVEL TEAM-UP (1980), MARVEL ACTION (1981) and CAPTAIN AMERICA (1981) during this period.

The foursome graduated to their own weekly (29 issues) from 6 October 1982 - 20 April 1983.

FF POCKET BOOK issue 1 editorial

THE INCREDIBLE HULK POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Reprints from US THE INCREDIBLE HULK issue 1 onwards.

Previously reprinted in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (volume one), 1973.

Issue 3 was double-length.

The Hulk's popularity was bolstered during this period by the Universal live-action TV show.

The Green Goliath also appeared in HULK COMIC, SPIDER-MAN AND HULK WEEKLY and RAMPAGE MONTHLY during this period.

SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK

28 ISSUES

March 1980 - July 1982

Initially a venue for MARVEL TEAM-UP reprints, these strips were swiftly diverted to the new weekly of the same name, replaced here by sixties Spider-man reprints beginning with US AMAZING FANTASY 15.

Despite Skinn's request for mail (above), none of the Pocket Books range ever featured a letters page.

Issues 9 & 20 were double-length.

Spider-man also appeared in SPIDER-MAN weekly and MARVEL TEAM-UP weekly during this period.

The Spider-man reprints continued briefly in THE DAREDEVILS, 1982.

STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

March 1980 - May 1981

13 Issues

Piloted with (the standard-format) STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL 1979.

Contemporary reprints of the TV-based BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and toy-based THE MICRONAUTS.

Episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978-79) were initially reworked as feature films in the UK.  The TV series did not debut until September 1980 (with some ITV regions airing it considerably later).

A 'rival' Battlestar strip also appeared in LOOK-IN weekly during this period.

THE MICRONAUTS had initially appeared as a back-up strip in STAR WARS WEEKLY.  They would appear next in FUTURE TENSE (1981).

Original X-Men strips, beginning with US THE UNCANNY X-MEN 1, were added from issue 10.  

Becomes X-MEN POCKET BOOK from issue 14.

STAR HEROES HOUSE AD

THE TITANS POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Avengers-centric sixties reprints of Captain America, Iron Man and The Mighty Thor.

Issue 3 was double-length.

TITANS was previously a landscape-format weekly (coining the description "Titans format") published for 58 issues between 25 October 1975 and 24 November 1976, merging with SPIDER-MAN from 199.

THE X-MEN POCKET BOOK

14 ISSUES*

June 1981 - August 1982

Issues 1-13 published as STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK.  Issues 14-28 as THE X-MEN POCKET BOOK.

X-Men reprints began to appear from issue 10, with the covers redesigned (see above) to prepare for the change of title.

X-Men reprints began from US THE UNCANNY X-MEN 1.  The same material, albeit in colour and at a larger page size, would appear again in 1983 in X-MEN weekly.

YOUNG ROMANCE POCKET BOOK

13 ISSUES

September 1980 - November 1981

Classic Marvel romance strips, presumably pitched at a female audience (making it a rarity amongst Marvel UK's output of this period).

POCKET BOOKS ASSORTED HOUSE ADS: