1995: COMICS INTERNATIONAL: MARVEL VERSUS DC

From October 1995: When titans clash... COMICS INTERNATIONAL previews the MARVEL VERSUS DC crossover event: an almighty punch-up between the two companies intended to bolster the sales - and profiles - of both companies in the midst of an industry in trouble.

Unfortunately, inter-company crossovers were so frequent during this period that - despite the literal heavy-hitters on parade here, it didn't seem as special as it once might have done.

SPACE: 1999 ALIEN ATTACK VHS

From Moonbase Alpha:  I was sad to hear that Martin Landau died overnight (London time).  He had a long and distinguished career (including an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in ED WOOD) but, for Star Warriors, he'll always be remembered for SPACE: 1999.  Not least because the moon was still bouncing around the ITV schedules well into the 1980s... followed by 1990s reruns on BRAVO and BBC TWO.

The show's home video carrer was a little more complex.  The early releases were restricted to cut-and-shunt multi-episode presentations created by ITC after the show itself.  The 1990s saw the newly-launched ITC VIDEO add it to their roster... Although they initially had to skip the episodes already licensed elsewhere for the 'movie' versions.  Which, naturally enough, included the all-important opening episode Breakaway.

Polygram had inherited the rights to pump out the movies onto tape and this reissue - from the 1990s - was released alongside the ITC tapes.  It contains Breakaway and War Games with - unusually - some additional sequences, with none of the original cast, set at the International Lunar Finance Commission.  They are, understandably, quite busy after they misplace the moon.

SAPPHIRE AND STEEL ITC VHS VIDEO ADVENTURE 1

From the VHS era: More SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, this time in the form of the first volume (a double tape affair) of the ITC VIDEO releases.

It was so cool to see this on the shelves of OUR PRICE VIDEO way-back-when.  Not only was it a long-lost show that I fondly remebered from over a decade earlier but it also showed the potential for VHS to bring all sorts of old shows - previously assumed lost in the vaults forever with no chance of a repeat outing - back from the dead.

As we've seen in past posts (and will do again in the future) ITC (who had spent the previous decade cut loose from the ITV system and doing not very much) really woke up to the potential of the programme library they had previously been - for the most part - sitting on.

Despite being banished from the ITV tent by the early 1980s franchise round, which saw ATV and ITC split with the former being reinvented as Central Independent Television with a new ownership structure and renewed commitment to the midlands (part of the deal was that they had to sell Elstree Centre, home of many of the ATV shows), old ITV shows (mostly the Gerry Anderson ones) had continued to appear on ITV throughout the decade (FIREBALL XL5, in black & white, during the school holidays anyone?).  But these were mostly the high-end film series that were ITC's forte.  Far less likely to see the light of day again were any of the former ATV shows that had become part of the ITC library after the restructure.  

Suddenly, in part thanks to some vintage repeats on Channel Four, ITC opened the floodgates with all manner of old shows suddenly hitting the shelves.  Some of the heavy hitters were initially off-limits thanks to existing licensing deals which - possibly - left some gaps in the schedule for the more obscure stuff.  TV Heaven was born.  

As for this show?  I love it.  For the most part.  The two leads are great, the writing top-notch and the production and direction really make the most of the studio-bound nature of the series.  Indeed it feels weird when, in one story, they briefly decamped to the roof of the London headquarters of ACC, parent company of ATV and ITC.  The sedate pace would horrify viewers today... but it feels just right.  

This isn't the most memorable story.  Some may argue that it is the one with 'the man without a face' (and it is genuinely great) but, I think for many, it is the second adventure: The abandoned railway station.  It suffers a little from being several episodes overlong but the atmosphere and drama is exceptional.  It was the stody that was in mid-run when - in 1979 - a series of local industrial disputes across the ITV network conflated into an all-out shutdown (except, where things are calmer, in the Channel Islands) which halted all broadcasts and production for ten week.  No programmes.  No adverts.  No income.  No TV TIMES And no other option than to watch the two BBC channels.  Those were the days.  

Given such a long hiatus, ITV's schedulers opted to repeat the story from the start rather than rely on anyone remembering what had happened the best part of three months ago.  

Other contemporary S&S merchandise included a novelisation, an annual (with new stories) and - most memorably - a great LOOK-IN comic strip.

1989: SAPPHIRE AND STEEL ON THE COVER OF TIME SCREEN REVISED ISSUE 4

From Summer 1989: the revised and updated second edition of TIME SCREEN issue 4, with a cracking line-up of classic British Telefantasy shows.

Sapphire and Steel have been assigned...

1984: THE FIRST A-TEAM STRIP in LOOK-IN

From October 1984: THE A-TEAM arrive, in comics form, in LOOK-IN.

This wasn't the first outing of the iconic-yet-underrated action show in British comics.  Cannell's guns for hire had already been appearing in TV COMIC, the moribund long-runner that had shown some belated signs of life in the Eighties by running original strips based on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY and - ahem MISTER MERLIN.

Signing the A-listers hadn't been enough to keep the weekly in business and LOOK-IN were quick to swoop once the property came into play.  It really was a logical team-up and it must have annoyed and frustrated ITV Publications that - somehow - Universal had licensed it to someone else first.

However, adapting the show was not without some hassles.  Despite ruling the early Saturday night schedules (sorry Colin Baker), editors were worried that the random gun play (and cigars) might attract the attention of parents when translated to the printed page.  So firearms and tobacco were strictly controlled, no doubt to the frustration of the writers.

Universal's fast-and-loose licensing struck agaion the following summer when MARVEL UK published the first of two TAT specials, recycling the three-issue mini-series rushed into print in the States.  Someone had obviously spotted that LOOK-IN had securred the rights to publish a weekly strip... but not all comics rights.  It's telling that Marvel were never tempted to rerun the reprints, in serial form, in any of their late-eighties anthologies (THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS or MARVEL BUMPER COMIC) when the show was still bouncing around the ITV schedules.

I've posted about those Marvel specials, and the US limited series that spawned them, in posts-long-past.  Follow the link below to see my A-Team musings to date.

1977: MERGER ALERT! THE FIRST COMBINED ISSUE OF BATTLE AND ACTION!

From November 1977: Merger alert!  The well-past-its-prime ACTION had finally been axed the previous week... clearing the way for the merger with BATTLE to create - yup - BATTLE ACTION (not to be confused with BATTLE ACTION FORCE, of course).

And there's not a shark in sight...

BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH NOVELISATION

It's not a great horror film.  It's not a great comedy film.  I would be amazed if it is a great paperback (I've not actually read it... can you imagine the looks I would get on the bus?) but this was too bizarre to pass up: the official novelisation of Britain's BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH, the now (and then) obscure movie starring one of my heroes: Kenny Everett!

I've got a bootleg copy of the movie stashed away but it is a while since I've seen it.  I remember being - for the most part - underwhelmed when I did.  But, after finding this, it feels like one I should revisit again.  

1996: HORIZON, NEWSLETTER OF THE BLAKE'S SEVEN APPRECIATION SOCIETY ISSUE 35

From December 1996: Another issue (number 35) of HORIZON, the official (and hefty) newsletter of THE BLAKE'S 7 APPRECIATION SOCIETY.

1992: GHOST RIDER MARVEL UK AUTUMN SPECIAL

From the autumn of 1992: The MARVEL UK published GHOST RIDER AUTUMN SPECIAL.

1995: COMICS INTERNATIONAL REPORTS THE EXPANSION OF THE MARVEL MUSIC LINE

From February 1995: COMICS INTERNATIONAL reports the substantial expansion of the MARVEL MUSIC imprint.

This one caught my eye because it got me wondering: how many of these projects actually made it into stores?  This looks like a very ambitious publishing slate... yet copies of Marvel's music industry books very seldom seem to surface.  Which makes me think many of them were distributed in very small numbers, were distributed outside the direct market or (and given the dodgy financial status of Marvel - and the marketplace - at the time) never actually happened at all.