1980: FRANTIC ISSUE 1 (MARVEL UK)

From March 1980: the first issue of the ongoing run of FRANTIC, the obvious MAD-alike magazine concocted by Dez Skinn (who just happened to be the former editor of the British edition of MAD) during his tenure as the Big Chief at MARVEL UK.

Dez, before committing too much effort to the title, tested the concept with two specials, summer and winter, published the previous year. With these deemed a success, the Annex of Ideas jumped in and launched its first regular humour title. It was all part of Dez's plan to break out of the superhero ghetto which was deemed to have a very finite audience amongst UK buyers.

The bulk of the material was swipped from Marvel's US Mad clone CRAZY, bulked out with pages from HOWARD THE DUCK and other humour fare. It also included a limited amount of original UK material.

It eventually ran for eighteen regular issues (and no further specials) before folding into the title obviously devised to replace it: MARVEL MADHOUSE.

Madhouse launched in June 1981 and the two titles merged with the fourth issue. Despite being heavily dependent on tired sixties reprints from NOT BRAND ECCH! (as well as new material by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett - their autobiography is out now and well worth a read for their adventures in comics and TV), MM mustered a commendable seventeen months before the Bullpen pulled the plug in October 1982.

1990: DARKMAN MOVIE ADAPTATION (MARVEL COMICS)

From October/ November 1990: Marvel's three issue adaptation of the horror/ superhero hybrid movie DARKMAN, co-written and directed by Sam Raimi and starring Liam Neeson.

Despite a distinctly b-movie feel, this seemed to enthuse both audiences and critics and had a fair amount of mainstream success. Marvel was one of the original licencees and timed these three issues (and a black & white magazine version) to coincide with the big screen release. Buoyed with initial success, they then followed up with a second series of new stories. That hit three years later (no rush) and ran for six issues.

Universal bankrolled a TV pilot in 1992 but couldn't find a buyer for a weekly series version. Direct to video sequels inevitably followed.

1998: CLEO, CAMPING, EMMANUELLE AND DICK FLYER (NATIONAL THEATRE)

From 1998: the flyer promoting the original London National Theatre run of the biographical CARRY ON play CLEO, CAMPING, EMMANUELLE AND DICK.

I was lucky enough to see this excellent play, chronicling the Carry On films and the private lives of their stars from the vantage point of a grotty caravan on the Pinewood lot, during this initial run... and loved it. The script was excellent, the performances top notch (without falling into parody) and the sense of love for these great British icons obvious. I'm pleased to say the rest of the audience seemed to agree with me. The simple staging (a caravan plonked on stage) also worked a treat and served as a focal point for the lives of Barbara, Sid and Kenny across many years and many films.

A few years later I got to meet Barbara Windsor and we chatted briefly about the play. We both agreed that someone should film it. A few years later: someone did. ITV adapted it as COR BLIMEY, a TV movie well worth seeing. Even if the both the play and the TV flick didn't exactly stick entirely to the fact. The closing minutes of the movie - and THAT little twist - are guaranteed to pull at the heart strings.

Not everyone was a fan however. I went to a talk and book launch by Joan Sims at the (now long gone) Borders Books flagship in Oxford Street (where - at various times - I also met the Hoff, Monica Lewinsky and the woman who sang the theme to Ally McBeal) and she was more damming of the venture. Saying - if memory serves - that she didn't think it reflected reality at all.

1990: COMICS INTERNATIONAL ISSUE 1 (QUALITY)

From April 1990: the first issue of British magazine COMICS INTERNATIONAL.

This doesn't boast of being the launch issue anywhere on the cover and - I must confess - I only realised it was when reading a retrospective on issues-to-date in the 50th edition. I imagine editor/ publisher Dez Skinn (him again) was trying to create an impression of immediate longevity.

The thought process behind CI is that it was to serve as the BROADCAST, VARIETY or HOLLYWOOD REPORTER for the comics industry: a news bible for both insiders and the fan. This was, of course, pretty much pre-internet when almost any trade or industry of any note had some form of news chronicle.

This was initially a freebie placed (in my experience) next to the tills in comic stores with the intention that readers grab a copy with their weekly stack of purchases. Costs were, of course, bankrolled by the many stores and dealers (far less so actual publishers) advertising inside. However, its status as a giveaway didn't last long and within a few issues a small cover price was slapped on each copy. But print runs continued to rise, buoyed by the industry boom.

By luck or judgement, CI launched at just the right moment. The industry boom was just about to go into overdrive and - at the very least - there would be no shortage of new product to write about. The boom was fuelled by newcomers attracted to the prospect that comics could become a valuable commodity but little actual knowledge of the industry or the output. The boom in buyers, and back issue investors, also boosted the number of comic book stores which jacked up the number of outlets carrying the  magazine and the number of advertisers. As I've posted in the past, there was also an awful lot of marts and fairs (pre EBay) taking place around the country. All of which needed publicity. Great timing.

CI predates WIZARD and the host of other wannabes that flooded into the marketplace in the early nineties. It also saw off its nearest UK competitor COMICS SPECULATOR NEWS. Its news-based agenda made it a nice compliment to the more features-based COMICS COLECTOR/ WORLD.

At some point CI apparently secured distribution through the newstrade but I don't recall ever seeing a copy in a newsagents which suggests that distribution was far from mainstream.

It survived the industry collapse mid decade and continued to report of the convulsions that shook the business. It faired less well as the Internet  became the principle means of disseminating news, reviewing titles, sharing gossip and debating whatever. It tried to adjust by adding more feature and retrospectives which did - once again - make It an essential purchase.

Dez, who published under his long standing Quality Comics banner, sold out in 2006 and fandom mainstay Mike Conroy took the helm. However, the gap between issues began to expend and it was not uncommon to find that the contents - even the adverts - were out of date by the time the issue hit stores. Articles on the comics histories of DOCTOR WHO and GERRY ANDERSON's shows were highlights.

CI bowed out with two excellent specials devoted to horror comics and a (near) complete history of STAR TREK comics. The latter is well worth tacking down.

1988: DWB ISSUE 57

From August 1988: DWB issue 57, celebrating five years in print.

1988: MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK UK VHS SLEEVE (CIC VIDEO)

From circa 1988: the first UK sell-through VHS release of the second BATTLESTAR GALACTICA faux feature film MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK.

Once again presented in the familiar CIC livery of the day, this was first released in UK cinemas in 1980 as a quickie cash-in to lure people away from the delights of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (other science fiction blockbusters are available). It started doing the international circuit in 1979.

The film itself is a competent chop-together of three episodes from the 1978-79 weekly series. The two stories (the double-length The Living Legend and Fire in Space) were both blessed with higher-than-average production values, presumably because the studio already had plans to reuse the material overseas (MG, unlike its predecessor, never had a theatrical release in US movie houses but did surface on home video and cable TV).

Even with the extra investment, the sequel still struggles to match the production standards of he first movie. Many of the effects shots are (like most of the series) stock from the opening night and their reuse stands out here. The problem is magnified by some unfortunate continuity errors created by mis-matched shots. The live action material is entirely competent and has the right levels of excitement when required. Much of the staging of the Fire In Space segment stands head and shoulders above similar starship in peril outings on other shows. The movie cut wisely dispenses with some of the more obvious disaster movie cliches which clutter the TV outing.

The big let down is the final spectacular space walk. It's incredibly poorly staged with obvious wire work, a poor photographic backdrop of a section of the miniature and - worst of all - costumes that aren't air tight.

The two plots mesh together pretty well and I think casual viewers would struggle to spot they are watching a cut-and-shunt production crafted in a Universal edit suite. Only one shot looks obviously out-of-place (watch for it). Other delights include the return of the Imperious Leader (on an excursion), Lloyd Bridges as swaggering Commander Cain, the arrival of Sheba as a series regular (although no one knew officially), gossiping Cylons, an unconvincing air drop and lots of explosions.

It's no ESB but it's a great slice of Galactca.

Once again, tangled rights problems prevented BBC TWO from repeating The Living Legend. Fire in Space had booked a place in the schedules but the fire at London's Kings Cross underground station a day earlier meant it was bumped from the running order and not reinstated later in the run.

The conclusion of the Galactica trilogy, CONQUEST OF THE EARTH, was never given a sell-through release. Nor, indeed, a DVD one.

1986: 2000AD'S DICEMAN ISSUE 3 (IPC)

From 1986: the third issue of the glossy spin-off 2000AD'S DICEMAN, Pat Mill's bold experiment to meld Tharg's inventory of established characters (and new creations like Diceman himself, on the left) with the Fighting Fantasy boom.

1994: CONAN THE ADVENTURER ISSUE 1 (MARVEL UK)

From July 1994: the first issue of the very short-lived return of the Barbarian: the first (of only three) issue of Marvel UK's CONAN THE ADVENTURER.

This full-colour fortnightly was the last time that Marvel UK published the character, ending a long, albeit intermittent, run that stretched all the way back to the first issue of SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly nineteen years earlier.

That first volume was a dud but greater success was to be found as a supporting feature in THE AVENGERS weekly followed by runs in MWOM, POTA, MARVEL COMIC, VALOUR, FUTURE TENSE AND VALOUR and HAVOC. He did, of course, also regain star billing in the long-running monthly reboot of SAVAGE SWORD and in the considerably shorter-lived CONAN POCKET BOOK.

This new run, coinciding with the animated series of the same name (although the strips were vastly different to the game kid-vid, which may have surprised a few parents) reprinted (again) the first issue of the US colour comic book and the first part of a serialized reprint of the sixth Conan (US) annual.

I'm not sure how a Conan notepad sits with the franchise but I was chuffed to find this issue with the unique gift still attached.

The last issue, now called simply Conan for reasons possibly no more mysterious than aiding the cover layout, hit newsagents in mid July. It didn't announce its own demise.

1988: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA UK VHS RELEASE (CIC VIDEO)

From circa 1988: the first UK sell-through VHS release of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

This is, of course, the shorter theatrical cut of the show's epic (but suspiciously episodic in structure) blockbuster pilot Saga of a Star World, as seen in British cinemas in 1979.

This was released around the same time as the show was getting a welcome rerun (in Its first networked slot after ITV left It to float around the regions from 1980 onwards) on BBC TWO. This release partially plugged an importantlyt gap as the BBC were forced to skip the opener altogether because ITV still held the rights as part of a separate package of Universal films and tele-flicks.They dived straight in with part one of Lost Planet of the Gods.

CIC Video was the long-standing partnership between Universal and Paramount in the UK.

1985: BEEB ISSUES 15-18

From May 1985: the BBC's BEEB weekly issues 15-18, including the infamous must-have-seemed-a-good-idea-at-the-time Gary Glitter cover...