1988: BATMAN MONTHLY ISSUE 1 (LONDON EDITIONS)

From 1988: the first issue of London Editions' BATMAN MONTHLY UK reprints. With free pin badge still just about attached. 

LE must have thought they were on pretty safe ground with this one. The Caped Crusader had always, along with Superman, enjoyed the highest profile of the DC heroes. That profile was particularly high thanks to what seemed like near-constant reruns of the 1960s TV show in the UK during the 1980s. 

The show popped up a lot across the ITV network, sometimes as a standalone programme and sometimes buried in a larger format like LWT's partially networked NIGHT NETWORK offering. 

Breakfast time operator TV-am had been using the show for a while as part of its weekend schedules, usually as part of the marathon kids show WIDE AWAKE CLUB. When a 24-hour ACTT technicians strike turned into a protracted lockout (followed by dismissal), the broadcaster used the Adam West show (along with FLIPPER, HAPPY DAYS and various already on the shelf animated series) to pad out their 6-9.25 schedule. 

Viewers liked the changes and ratings remained healthy. Although its perfectly possible audiences were just watching to see what technical mishap would strike next. With little or no technical staff left, it fell to management and non-union support staff to grapple with specialist broadcast technology. For months it looked like the station would fall off air at any moment. 

Then, of course, LE knew that the BATMAN movie was currently filming at Pinewood and was already generating some buzz. That anticipation exploded as the release date approached and the film's logo and merchandise became ubiquitous. 

LE were initially careful to select reprints which, whilst not as campy as the strip became in the sixties, weren't to far removed from the tone the general public expected from the character. Despite the mainstream press hype surrounding THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, this new launch was not the place to reprint it. 

As the UK public warmed to the darker tone of the cinematic Dark Knight over the next few years, the editors started to select darker and more contemporary strips to reprint. 

The heightened interest in the Bat Universe allowed LE to expand with a series of specials usually focused on one particular character. The SUPERMAN and BATMAN titles survived the expansions and contractions of the LE line (say hello, and goodbye, to HEROES, DC ACTION, ZONES and SHOCKWAVE) and the merger with Fleetway. The Supes book always looked the weaker and had its frequency reduced. Relaunches followed and both characters eventually found themselves sharing the same title. The writing was on the wall. 

1986: X-MEN UK SIGNING TOUR House Ad (Marvel UK)

From May 1986: A MARVEL UK House Ad with itinerary details for the Marvel US-organized (apparently as "thank you" overseas trip for the X-creative team) signing tour to promote the launch of the new CLASSIC X-MEN monthly.  

It's unlikely that a few extra copies flogged in the UK was going to make much difference to the overall sales figures so this was clearly a "working vacation" ruse on everyone's part.  

This was not the same tour that saw the team appear on TV-am's GOOD MORNING BRITAIN... that took place the previous year. 

CLASSIC X-MEN, which reprinted the New X-Men strips from a decade earlier, turned into a canny launch for Marvel.  It eventually clocked-up an impressive 110 issues through to 1995.  

It became X-MEN CLASSIC from the 45th issue, presumably to group it alongside the other X-books on retailer paperwork and on the shelves.  

Those initial four-odd years also included new material (supplementary pages of new art and back-up strips) intended to anchor the past events to current continuity or explore additional facets of the original storyline. 

1979: BATMAN CORGI TOYS ADVERT

 

The sixties West-and-Ward BATMAN TV show is finally (after years of wrangling and confusion over copyrights between 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers/ DC Comics) about to be released on DVD and BR disc.  Hurrah.  And bad news for convention bootleggers who have been taking advantage of the official void for years.  

To mark the occasion, here's a 1979 UK Corgi Toys advert for their line of vehicle spin-offs.  Yep, more than a decade after the TV show debuted on ABC in the States, the toys were still big business in the UK.  I certainly had the smaller version of the Batmobile and the Bat Boat (I believe they came in a car-boat-trailer combo set of some sort) and friends with better-resourced parents had the larger version with more action features (including the pop-out buzzsaw and rocket launcher).  

The TV show (and, latterly, the movie) had been mainstays of the British TV schedules for decades.  In the eighties, episodes turned-up on ITV (Anglia aired them on a Saturday lunchtime, although I don't know if that was regional or national scheduling), TV-am (ITV's national breakfast contractor) used them as part of their block of weekend early-morning kids programmes and - famously - as strike-breaking schedule-fillers during the prolonged and bitter technicians strike (unable to mount a full service, TV-am management loaded-up the VT machines and played whatever they had in the programme cupboard) and I'm sure the LWT-produced NIGHT NETWORK (a partially-networked, prerecorded overnight programme) also used reruns as part of its line-up.  

More recently, the show resurfaced on BBC FOUR. 

1985: GET ALONG GANG ISSUE 1 (Marvel UK)

This is a Blast-from-the-MARVEL UK-past which, at first glance, probably wouldn't be deemed worthy of interest to many fans.

But. It is. Honest.

The first issue of the GET ALONG GANG weekly was the first M-UK comic to introduce the 24-page, full-colour glossy format that became the standard for the weeklies and fortnightlies over the next few years.

Marvel had been experimenting with colour interiors, with varying degrees of success, since the painful launch of THOR and X-MEN in 1983 but all their previous attempts all relied on a mix of colour and black & white pages, occasionally recreating the sensation of watching a TV about to die.

GAG (hmm!) was the first to crack all-colour interiors on a regular basis (THE TRANSFORMERS issue 1 was full-colour… but that was a one-off lure that didn't last).

The Robots in Disguise switched from issue 27 (cover-dated 21 September 1985), followed by RETURN OF THE JEDI (26 October 1985) and SECRET WARS from issue 19 (9 November).  SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS adopted it from launch (8 March 1986), as did ACTION FORCE (7 March 1987), THUNDERCATS (21 March 1987) and THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS (26 March 1988).

New additions to the range for younger readers, including THE CARE BEARS, MUPPET BABIES and ACORN GREEN all followed the same formula.

The comic itself was based on the US syndicated animated show which, as was the eighties way, expanded out to encompass all possible licensing opportunities.  The gist of the cartoon was that friendship and co-operation (some would say conformity) was the key to a better world, all delivered in a heavy-handed kid-friendly pro-social way.

The show itself formed part of TV-am's weekend line-up, the theme tune ("Get up with the Get Along Gang") being an absolute gift to the breakfast broadcaster (who was seldom averse to running merchandising-flogging animation unless chastised by the IBA).  For what it is, it isn't bad but it seems to have escaped the DVD era entirely.

Marvel US picked-up the GAG license and published a mere six issues under the just-created Star Comics brand.  Those six outings crossed the Atlantic and appeared in the UK edition but, with such poor pickings, the bulk of the British editions contained new strips from British creators.  The first back-up strip was Top Dog, also from the Star line.

The British edition ran for a highly creditable 93 issues through to early 1987 and also spun-off Collected Comics specials (from Winter 1985), annuals and other sundries.

1983: TV-am IN PRIVATE EYE MAGAZINE

These are two 1983 covers from Britain's satirical magazine PRIVATE EYE, celebrating the early highs and lows of Britain's first breakfast TV service: TV-am.

As bonkers as it might sound in today's zillion-channel media environment, I was there (way back in February 1983) for the arrival of Breakfast Television in the UK!  We'd only just gained a fourth channel the previous year (and the bulk of CHANNEL FOUR's niche-interest output was pretty-much off-limits due to intense dullness) and regularly-scheduled daytime and overnight services were still years away.  Yup, things really were bleak.

So the chance to see TV whilst getting ready for school was a real novelty.  First on-air was ITV's national service TV-am.  Thanks to ITV's unique regional structure, each of the local companies were required to handover their early morning hours to the new seven-day company (hardly a hardship considering those hours were hardly -if at all - ever used).

TV-am launched with a (fairly) high-minded service with viewer-unfriendly segments including long and indigestible interviews (conducted by David Frost or one of the other star name "Famous Five" presenters) and - of all things - farming prices.

The BBC launched their own, surprisingly informal, alternative - BBC BREAKFAST TIME - a few weeks later and swiftly hoovered-up the small audience willing to watch TV at that time of day.

TV-am, saddled with high running costs (the well rewarded "Five", purpose-built studios in North London's Camden and it's own News-gathering service after it failed to strike a deal with ITN, ITV's existing national and international news provider) and hit by a dispute between unions and advertisers (union disputes would haunt the company throughout its life), quickly went into panic mode.

By March, it's backers had parted company with its uber-brained instigator Peter Jay.  It's new management team also swiftly dumped most of the original presenting team, retaining only Michael Parkinson (hence the cover) and David Frost, although both would be shunted to the weekends with undue haste.

In 1987, the company became embroiled in an extended dispute with the broadcasting unions.  Technicians walked-out for 24-hour but management subsequently prevented them from returning to work until they signed new contracts.  With negotiations at an impasse, and the station outputting a ramshackle line-up of (mostly acquired) programmes staffed by management and non-technical staff, the union members were subsequently fired.  That action, against what Mrs Thatcher believed to be one of the last bastions of union power, appeared to win the company friends in high places (and repeats of the sixties BATMAN camp crusader show boasted the ratings).

All ITV franchises came up for renewal at the turn of the decade and Thatcher's Conservative government introduced a new bidding system.  Now, assuming the applicant reached the minimum quality threshold, the highest bidder would win, regardless of the performance of the current operator.  TV-am, now highly profitable thanks to its cheap-and-cheerful programme formula, bid low (inexplicably) believing that (somehow) its programme quality would see off all challengers.  It didn't stand a chance.

Defeated, it soldiered on for the remaining eighteen months of the contract, slashing costs and staff along the way in a final dash for profit.  The last episode of GOOD MORNING BRITAIN, TV-am's flagship programme, soldiered on until 31 December 1992.  Its successor, GMTV, took to the air the following morning.

Not only was TV-am's garish sofa a comforting early-morning sight for a generation of geeks, it was also a reliable source of (not-entirely-good-for-you) entertainment.  Always watching the pennies, TV-am was fairly shameless in acquiring toy-based animation (THE TRANSFORMERS, CHALLENGE OF THE GOBOTS, M.A.S.K, JEM as well as CARE BEARS and THE GET ALONG GANG) and - as mentioned in previous posts - it also hosted visits from various Marvel US creative types.  It also aired the sixties BATMAN live-action show.  Initially intended for weekend slots (along with FLIPPER), episodes were swiftly drafted-in to fill the strike-hit weekday schedules.

1983: MARVEL UK on TV-am's DATA RUN

This Bullpen Bulletins page (from the weeklies dated 21 December 1983) includes a report on a visit to Redan Place by TV-am's (which launched earlier in the year) Saturday morning kids show DATA RUN (predecessor for the Wide Awake Club).

I have the very vaguest memory of seeing this report at the time.  I seem to remember that the (by now long-defunct) PLANET OF THE APES weekly was mentioned.  Does the memory cheat?  Am I thinking of a different programme?  I'm really not sure.

As I've mentioned before, TV-am's archive appears to be well preserved so - possibly - this episode still exists.   

1985: X-MEN CREATORS ON TV-am

Here's a unique piece of X-MEN art which, nevertheless, will be familiar to long-time Marvel UK readers - and devotees of early-morning British breakfast TV.

In May 1985, Marvel New York despatched Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and Dan Green on a European tour, officially to promote their X-Men title but really as a company-bankrolled reward for making it a bestseller.

The UK was one of the stops on the tour and they made a live promotional appearance on GOOD MORNING BRITAIN, ITV's national breakfast programme from TV-am's Camden Lock studios.

As part of the appearance, the art duo created this piece featuring TV-am presenters-of-the-day Anne Diamond and Henry Kelly.

After the programme, the artwork was included in Marvel UK's Prize Draw to help Ethiopia.  Two versions of the art were included: the fully painted final version (framed!) and Romita's original pencils.

The draw took place at the Westminster Central Hall Comic Mart in December 1985.  Quite what happened to the art after that is lost to the mists of time.

But, UK fanzine SPEAKESY did include it on the cover of one of their (undated) 1985 editions to accompany an interview with the X-creatives.  Presumably the art was loaned for the cover before it found a new home.

I've done a You Tube search to see if I can find the original TV-am footage but it doesn't appear to have been uploaded anywhere.  TV-am itself lost its franchise in the 1991 auction (along with fellow ITV license holders Thames, TVS and TSW) and ceased broadcasting on 31 December 1992.

The TV-am archive, which appears to be fairly comprehensive, was sold-on to the Moving Image Company.  They have set up a dedicated TV-am You Tube channel with selected material, although not this particular interview.  The TV-am brand has also been sold to journalist Ian White who now operates a website devoted to the company.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter also appeared on TV-am's kids show the WIDE AWAKE CLUB (aka WAC) whilst visiting the UK in October 1985.

October 1985

1985: SECRET WARS' SPIDER-MAN EXCLUSIVE

Here's Spider-man's little secret!  Here's a three-page Marvel UK SECRET WARS exclusive strip, penned by Marvel USA Editor-in-Chief (and Secret Wars scribe) Jim Shooter himself, created on TV-am's (ITV's national breakfast broadcaster) WIDE AWAKE CLUB (or WAC for short).

The Wide Awake Club aired live on Saturday mornings and Jim Shooter and UK artist Barry Kitson appeared live in October 1985 to promote Marvel UK.  As part of the appearance, Kitson started work on this strip which appeared in SECRET WARS issue 25 (21 December 1985), and nowhere else.

The strip appeared one week after Spider-man's own weekly (languishing under THE SPIDEY COMIC title) finally shuttered after 666 issues making it an unofficial (and short-lived) merger.  

Here's the preview from SECRET WARS issue 24.

SECRET WARS

ISSUE 25

21 December 1985

More from the Secret Wars... Coming soon.