1990: STRIP ISSUE 21 Preview (Marvel UK)

From November 1990: The STRIP that never was.  

A full-page plug, from the twentieth issue, for the launch of the new NIGHT RAVEN strip destined for the never-to-be-published twenty-first edition. 

1990: STRIP PART 4 - Issues 16-20 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: The final five issues of MARVEL UK's twenty-issue wonder STRIP.

The sixteenth issue saw the arrival of THE PUNISHER to the ranks.  Although this may appear to be a merger of Castle's own weekly (cancelled after thirty issues), it isn't really.  The last issue of his solo title had actually hit the stands in late February) and he didn't join Strip until September.  Nevertheless, the British Bullpen still pushed the boat out with a free fabric patch along the lines of the ones that accompanied the contemporary launch issues of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION and THE COMPLETE SPIDER-MAN (suggesting that there were some economies of scale by having three designs made).

Rather than pick up where the ongoing title unexpectedly left off, Strip went back to the character's roots by representing, albeit now in colour, his first pulp-inspired adventure from two decades earlier.  

See here for the final issues of Punny's own British book.  

The DEATH'S HEAD strip (The Body In Question, collected as a graphic novel the same year.  See here) wrapped with the twentieth issue, leaving a vacant slot destined to be filled by the return of another M-UK here: NIGHT RAVEN.  

Unfortunately, the Marvel axe swung without warning again and despite the investment in the new material (and continuing to offer subscriptions), the 21st issue never appeared.  Ooops.

The new NIGHT RAVEN material did appear in book form.  Twice.  It was first issued in late 1990 as a graphic novel and then, with the GENESIS line in full swing, reissued as a prestige format one-shot.  It's actually the latter that is far harder to find.  Both editions appear here. 

1990: STRIP PART 3 - Issues 11-15 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: We're into the second half of the short life of STRIP, the MARVEL UK anthology which, in my opinion, got better over time.  The 13th issue even ushered in the return of a certain Freelance Bounty Hunter...

- To Be Concluded - 

1990: STRIP PART TWO - Issues 6-10 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: another five (issues 6-10) fortnightly outings of MARVEL UK's STRIP.

The sixth issue is actually the reprint that was issued as a freebie with copies of the ninth.  Marvel's printers initially screwed up and published it on inferior paper stock.  The Bullpen clearly extracted a heavy price for the error and arranged a reprint that was packaged with issue 9.  I have a copy of the original version in a box somewhere but, typically, I couldn't locate it when I came to scan the run and I could only find the reissue.  

- To Be Continued -

1990: STRIP PART ONE - Issues 1-5 (Marvel UK)

From 1990: The first five (of twenty) issues of MARVEL UK's STRIP.

As the sub-title ("The comic grows up") suggests, this was one of the many 'Mature Readers' title that followed CRISIS onto the shelves of the nation's newsagents in the hope of capturing a chunk of the apparently large, and hitherto under served, market of older readers who were still keen for a bit of paneled action but had little in the way of options beyond 2000AD.  

The publishers, of course, hoped that this untapped revenue stream might (in some small way) off-set the collapse in sales of weeklies AND that one-time reliable cash cow: the annual.

Of the assorted launches of the time (CRISIS, REVOLVER, BLAST, DC ACTION, ZONES, MELTDOWN, DEADLINE, TOXIC and others), only the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE proved to have any longevity (thanks it part to a bewildering number of relaunches and reboots).  

Strip's clunky slogan inspired TOXIC's "the comic throws up!"

Kudos to the Annex of Ideas for putting some real effort into strip.  You can see from the covers above that it's a top-notch, although possibly not very commercial, roster of strips and creators.  And the British Bullpen, once the home of the low-cost reprints, packaged them up in an appealing but not overly expensive full-colour format.  

The business model herein was, where M-UK had commissioned the material, it was also destined for collection as a graphic novel.  The Grimtoad material was reprinted as done-in-one book, as was (from later in the run) the return of Death's Head.  Night Raven, due to start in the 21st issue, ultimately only appeared in a collected edition when Strip was cancelled without warning.  

As we'll see later in the run, The Punisher snuck in (following the cancellation of his own book) in what looked suspiciously like an unofficial merger (even through the Strip... errr... strip hailed from the Seventies and didn't pick up where the weekly/ fortnightly left off) even through it was supposed to herald a new run of "classic" reprints.  Quite what else was due to follow Frank Castle's formative years remains unclear.  

- TO BE CONTINUED -

1990: THE CHRONICLES OF GENGHIS GRIMTOAD (Marvel UK)

This only arrived in the post last week so I've not had a chance to read it yet but, as it's an oft-overlooked part of MARVEL UK's output, I thought it was worth posting.

THE CHRONICLES OF GENGHIS GRIMTOAD was a strip in - err - STRIP, M-UK's short-lived anthology that had a stab at the supposedly booming "mature readers' market in 1990.

Anything with Alan Grant, John Wagner and Ian Gibson's names on the credits is surely worth a look.  

STRIP itself stalled after a mere twenty issues (the twenty-first should have debuted NIGHT RAVEN: HOUSE OF CARDS... an indication of how quickly the plug was pulled) but this graphic novel was added to Marvel's swiftly-growing roster of books later in the year. 

1990: DEATH'S HEAD: THE BODY IN QUESTION Graphic Novel (Marvel UK)

DEATH'S HEAD: THE BODY IN QUESTION was an October 1990 original, full colour, graphic novel published by MARVEL UK which also turned-out to be the last significant hurrah of the the original Freelance Peacekeeper before he was dispatched by his successor at the beginning of GENESIS 92.

This Simon Furman/ Geoff Senior collaboration was also serialised in the pages of STRIP, M-UK's ill-fated anthology pitched at the booming (at least if you believed the mainstream media, not-so-much according to the sales figures) market for comics-for-grown-ups.  

Apparently Furman was working on a four-issue DH limited series when Paul Neary returned to the Annex of Ideas.  Neary was no fan of DH (he publicly stuck the knife in during an interview published in COMIC WORLD here) but, because it was already planned, couldn't abandon the project entirely… so he handed it over to a new creative team to be 'retooled' for the new decade.

THE BODY IN QUESTION is included in Panini's compilation of DH's non-Transformers adventures.

1990: STRIP Issue 1 (Marvel UK)

STRIP was a 1990 MARVEL UK launch, which notched-up twenty issues before succumbing, that was part of the wave of comics-for-adults (or, at least, older children) that surfaced around the turn of the decade (see also: VIZ and its numerous imitators, CRISIS, REVOLVER, BLAST, JUDGE DREDD THE MEGAZINE, MELTDOWN and others).  

The logic was simple: kids weren't buying comics anymore so, to stay in business, publishers needed to hold onto their existing audience for a few years longer.

Plus, in the wake of the success of THE DARK KNIGHT, SWAMP THING (the comic… not the movies), the Vertigo line and the BATMAN movie… comics were (as far as the media were concerned anyway) COOL.  Official.  

Marvel UK went after the slice of the action with STRIP.  The cover copy above sets out the early line-up.  Later additions included THE PUNISHER (an unofficial merger of sorts following the demise of Frank Castle's own title) and a new DEATH'S HEAD adventure (The Body In Question, also collected in Graphic Novel form).  A new NIGHT RAVEN adventure was scheduled for the 21st issue but, despite some promotion, the fortnightly was canned (without warning) an issue earlier.  House of Cards eventually appeared (twice!) in graphic novel form.  

Note the small freebie, a pin badge, still attached to this copy.

The slogan "The Comic Grows Up", a familiar refrain at the time, was subsequently spoofed by TOXIC: "The Comic Throws Up". 

1992: NIGHT RAVEN: HOUSE OF CARDS House Ad (Marvel UK)

This is a nice, appropriately noir, advert for the second edition of MARVEL UK's revival of NIGHT RAVEN: HOUSE OF CARDS.

The Graphic Novel had already appeared once, with a different cover, to little fanfare a couple of years earlier (a serialised reprint in STRIP was nixed when the anthology was unexpectedly cancelled the issue before the run was due to start) but was dusted off for another edition as part of Paul Neary's attempts to exploit the (minimal) M-UK back catalogue during the GENESIS 92 era.

Either edition is worth grabbing…

1990: STRIP House ad (Marvel UK)

I mentioned MARVEL UK's STRIP in my previous THE PUNISHER post: it was another attempt by the ailing British comics industry (BBC TWO's THE MONEY PROGRAMME had run a piece on the sorry state of the industry back in 1985) to chase older and lapsed readers to counter the collapse of the more traditional - and younger - readership.

I have a complete run of STRIP back issues filed away somewhere and - come the day I unearth them - I'll post them all here but, in the meantime...

... this is a January 1990 House Ad.