1979: MARVEL SUPERHEROES: A MARVEL MONTHLY COVER GALLERY - PART ONE (Marvel UK)

1979 was an eventful year for Marvel UK's venerable THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.  The weekly had spearheaded the Marvel invasion of the UK back in 1972 but had spent the rest of the decade hosting the Hulk alongside a succession of mergers (THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, PLANET OF THE APES, DRACULA LIVES and FURY) as the British line expanded and contracted.

The anthology probably would have shuttered earlier but the arrival of the live-action INCREDIBLE HULK TV show ("Marvel's TV sensation" as the cover splashes declared) undoubtably gave it a shot in the arm in '78.  Nevertheless, Dez Skinn had it in his sights as he prepared for his Marvel Revolution, to be instigated early the following year.

His plan was to remove the bulk of MWOM's superhero strips and relaunch it as the adventure anthology MARVEL COMIC.  The Green Goliath survived the first few weeks of the relaunch before shifting across to his own weekly.

Unfortunately, the early weeks of the revolution coincided with a national drivers strike which played havoc with distribution and forced Marvel to put the line on hiatus until the dispute ended and the issues already trapped in the system finally reached stores.  The strike probably contributed to what happened next.

Another Skinn innovation was the launch of one-shot Summer and Winter specials for the first time.  There was nothing revolutionary about that aspect of the revolution, Marvel's bigger rivals had been doing it for years but Marvel's New York management, largely ignorant of the British market, had previously nixed the idea in favour of imports of treasury editions, which they regarded as the Marvel equivalent.  

Skinn saw specials as a way of expanding the line dramatically (eight summer specials, and four winter specials, appeared in 1979) as well as piloting new ideas for possible regular books (other try-outs included FRANTIC, TV HEROES and STAR HEROES).

MARVEL SUPERHEROES was one of those first eight specials and Skinn was obviously pleased by the results as, by the end of summer, MARVEL COMIC was simultaneously cancelled (it officially merged with SPIDER-MAN) and revived as a monthly under the new masthead.  

The first relaunched issue was issue 353 although the numbering was omitted from the cover in favour of text that emphasised that this was a new launch.

The bankable initial line-up consisted of The Avengers, the original X-Men (the new incarnation of the merry muties was running in RAMPAGE) and makeweight Ms. Marvel.    

The monthly continued through to 1983 before finally expiring after an impressive 397 issues.  Arguably that may have been a deck-clearing exercise to make way for the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL which launched shortly after.  

Marvel Superheroes folded into THE DAREDEVILS from issue 6.  The Daredevils, in turn, shuttered after 11 issues and merged with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL volume 2.

Along the way, Marvel Superheroes absorbed companion monthlies SAVAGE ACTION from 382 and RAMPAGE from issue 393.  In the interrelated world of Marvel UK, Rampage had already absorbed the short-lived (and inappropriately titled) BLOCKBUSTER from issue 45.  

PREVIOUS POSTS YOU MAY FIND OF INTEREST:

The history of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (here)

The history of THE HULK at Marvel UK (here)

TV HEROES SUMMER SPECIAL '79 (here)

STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL '79 (here)

SUMMER SPECIAL 1979

ISSUE 353

September 1979

ISSUE 354

October 1979

ISSUE 355

November 1979

ISSUE 356

December 1979

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1978: STAR WARS OFFICIAL COLLECTORS EDITION MAGAZINE (Marvel Comics)

The STAR WARS OFFICIAL COLLECTORS EDITION is one of the earliest spin-off's from the Saga, published in early 1978 by Marvel Comics (although it contains no comic strip material).

As the double-page spread below suggests, this was a black and white magazine heavy on photos and recapping the film's story which - in the pre-VHS age (and a gap of at least 3-5 years before a TV outing) - is just what the kids wanted.

There was also some behind-the-scenes stuff, memorably comparing Chewbacca to Universal's Wolfman on account of the hair thing.  Sigh.

The Micronauts advert appeared on the back cover and pre-dates Marvel's tie-up with the toys by almost a year.

This one-shot was heavily plugged in the earliest issues of Marvel UK's STAR WARS WEEKLY but is surprisingly hard to find today.  I stumbled across this copy, the only one I've ever seen, in a London comic book store and paid a premium for the privilege of owning it.

I'd always assumed that this was an import of a US edition but the back-page advert suggests that this edition was specifically prepared for the UK (Airfix - the model guys - were the  'nauts UK distributor) although possibly a printers' run-on from the US edition.

That's assuming there was an American edition... can anyone confirm?

The two sequels generated a cornucopia of book and magazine tie-ins and Marvel limited themselves to issuing their adaptation in as many formats as they could imagine.

** UPDATE 4 JUNE 2013: 
I picked-up some (lovely) late-seventies back issues of Jim Steranko's MEDIASCENE at the weekend and several of them included mail-away adverts for this, billed as being imported from the UK.  I guess that confirms that there was no US edition and Marvel only issued it overseas**

1985: EAGLE PICTURE LIBRARY COVER GALLERY (IPC)

I've already posted the house ads for this short-lived EAGLE spin-off so here's a nearly complete (I don't have issue 11) cover gallery.

As I mentioned last time, this digest-sized PICTURE LIBRARY series (a late entry into the Fleetway range) actually had naff-all to do with the core weekly and pulled its contents from the Fleetway/ IPC back catalogue.  Back in 1985 I could instantly spot this was a stinker.  Not only was it a classic case of passing-off but the reprints seemed incredibly dated.  Perhaps the IPC powers-that-be thought these would appeal to an older audience who remembered them the first time 'round.

It obviously didn't work as the title was canned after the 14th issue.  That's even less impressive than it sounds as two issues, published simultaneously, appeared monthly.

Picture Libraries are a niche collectable within the pantheon of geek media and seldom turn up anywhere other than specialist dealers (and - of course - online), making tracking down copies a challenge.  I also suspect that circulation was pretty low at this point as the rest of the comics business was firmly in decline.

** UPDATE 4 JUNE 2013: Completely by chance, I stumbled across the missing issue (11) at the weekend so I've added it to the gallery below.**

1987: THE UNPUBLISHED MAX HEADROOM 3D COMIC

On the spur-of-the-moment last night I grabbed my R1 MAX HEADROOM DVD box set and watched a random episode (Grossberg's Return, fact-fans)... and really enjoyed it.

As I was watching I was reminded of this planned, but never published, comic book adaptation of the show previewed in AMAZING HEROES PREVIEW SPECIAL 5: SUMMER 1987.

Comico cancelled the project after the TV show's second season, launched in the Fall of '87, swiftly spluttered to a halt.

I first fell in love the US version of the British character when, coals to Newcastle style, Channel Four imported the series and ran it in a late night slot.  I'd somehow missed the original British telefilm (which was reshot as the first episode of the US version: comparing the two is an interesting exercise) and the video compilation show.  In truth, I think I found Max a rather annoying gimmick that only really worked in the context of the drama.

I loved the US show because I loved the satire of a TV dominated society.  In this business, morals are one thing but ratings are everything.  It appealed to my own media-addled mind.

The first season of the show was released on rental tape here in the UK (with some nice cover artwork) but never generated a sell-through follow-up or DVD release.  For the longest time, it looked like the US show wouldn't get a stateside shiny disc release either but - eventually - Shout Factory delivered.  It's not a perfect release but just seeing - and owning - the show makes it worthwhile.  Not all the principle cast participate in the reunion, there's no sign of the British TV movie (criminally also never released on DVD) and I'd have really liked to have seen a full retrospective documentary pulling the complete Max phenomena.

1989: JOHN COLICOS IN STARLOG MAGAZINE

STAR TREK. Tick. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Tick.  WAR OF THE WORLDS.  Tick.  It must be John Colicos.  This is a 1988 interview with the late actor, published in STARLOG MAGAZINE issue 138, cover-dated January 1989.

1980: REJECTED STAR TREK COVER (Marvel Comics)

Waste-not, want-not.  This full-page pin-up appeared in the final (18th) issue of Marvel's STAR TREK comic book.  It features a Terry Austin piece originally intended to grace the cover of the 2nd issue, the mid-part of the movie adaptation.

The published version - along with all the covers from the series - can be found in my post here.

1985: EAGLE PICTURE LIBRARY HOUSE ADS (IPC)

The EAGLE PICTURE LIBRARY was an opportunist piece of brand extension shenanigans from IPC: slapping the EAGLE logo onto a run of otherwise unrelated reprints dredged-up from the IPC vaults.

I was never interested at the time and its hasty demise suggests that few other readers were suckered-in either.

I'll post a Cover Gallery in the near future but - in the meantime - here's a run of House Ads as published, unsurprisingly, in the core weekly.

11 May 1985

6 July 1985

10 August 1985

7 September 1985

12 October 1985

1985: EAGLE JULY COVER GALLERY (IPC)

It's the summer of 1985 as my weekly dip into the EAGLE archives reaches July.

1981: WORZEL GUMMIDGE: A MARVEL MONTHLY (Marvel UK)

This is a long-forgotten oddity from the MARVEL UK vaults: WORZEL GUMMIDGE monthly, launched in September/ October 1981 alongside BLAKE'S SEVEN monthly.

It was based on the Southern Television TV show which, in turn, was based on the original series of books by Barbara Euphan Todd.  It was timed to coincide with the launch of the show's (starring, of course, Jon Pertwee) fourth season on ITV.

Producer Southern Television lost their ITV franchise in the shake-up of 1980/ 1981 and went off-air at the end of '81.  Their successor, TVS, didn't continue with the series and the fourth year was the last.  Marvel UK presumably knew all this when they acquired the license although, perhaps, they hoped that another ITV contractor would continue with the series.

The first issue, pitched at younger readers, came with a great freebie: a flexidisk featuring the show's memorable theme tune, as performed by Pertwee.  That alone would make it worth buying (although, sadly, my copy has long-since parted company with the disk).  Records were not a frequent Marvel UK giveaway although - in the eighties - they launched the CARE BEARS and ACORN GREEN with similar giveaways.

A Worzel strip had previously appeared in ITV's own LOOK-IN weekly along with occasional features (memorably the lyrics to the theme).

I'm not sure how long the monthly ran but it was subsequently replaced by a weekly version which was based on the books with no overt links to the TV show.  I imagine Marvel went straight to the book publishers for the license rather than whatever remained of Southern's licensing operation.

The TV show returned in 1987 for two more season produced in New Zealand which saw Pertwee (along with Una Stubbs) reprise their roles.

1986: ROBOTECH ART BOOKS (Starblaze Editions)

ROBOTECH was something of an unknown commodity to British Star Heroes in the eighties: evidence of the US animated series (actually three Japanese animated series bolted together to create one series for daily syndication) filtered through to the UK in the form of occasional magazine articles (notably an extensive piece in an issue of AMAZING HEROES... but we'll get to that) and copies of the copious Comico adaptations (although their crack at the franchise was nothing compared with the bewildering number of series and specials published by their successors) but we never got to see the series itself.

I'm sure it's subsequently turned-up on multi-channel TV somewhere and the whole run was released on DVD (the first time I saw the show) a few years ago.

These three books used to turn-up in British comic book stores in the eighties but, without any knowledge of the TV show, didn't mean much to me.  And, I'm pretty sure they were expensive as well!

Nevertheless, I've tracked down copies over the last few years.  The third book is, in many ways, the most interesting as it covers THE SENTINELS, the sequel series which would have followed the success of the original.  With production already underway, the deal fell through and the completed footage was released (to minimal effect) as a movie in the States.  I have a *vague* idea that it may have surfaced, without fanfare, on VHS in the UK, possibly on one of those "pocket money" priced tapes.  It was certainly available as a bonus feature on one of the US DVD sets, which is how I acquired it.

Was there really - ever - such a thing as "Rambo-philes"?