STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN

Thursday, 26 April 2012

1988-89: THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC

THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC was Marvel UK's short-lived eccentric anthology, combining various characters from across the Marvel UK line.

The 1988 special and first issues of the fortnightly functioned very much as a sampler for the rest of the M-UK range, throwing together adventure strips (Thundercats, Doctor Who), comedy-adventure (The Real Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo) and humour (A.L.F, Lew Stringer's Combat Colin) in an unruly mix of reprints.

Over time, the editorial focus shifted with an evolving line-up of (mostly) media-based strips (Defenders of the earth, Star Wars: Droids) which enjoyed a TV presence, and a Marvel special, but were presumably deemed an insufficient draw to support their own on-going title.

William Tell, beginning in issue 21, was Marvel UK's adaptation of the long-forgotten live-action TV show. Marvel management clearly hoped for big things from the license and also published a graphic novel (collecting the material serialised here), a one-shot special (also collected in the graphic novel) and an annual (with strip material not found elsewhere).

Demonstrating quite how far superhero fare had fallen by the end of the eighties, Marvel's key characters were conspicuous by their absence for most of the early issues (remember: Spider-man had lost his own regular title in 1987), only belatedly reappearing from issue 26.

The Real Ghostbusters remained a mainstay throughout making The Bumper Comic one of several (IT'S WICKED!, BLIMEY IT'S SLIMER!, Collected Comics and annuals) outlets for their adventures beyond their own title.

The Transformers (as well as, to a lesser extent, other Hasbro characters), despite having amassed quite a back-catalogue of material since 1984, were conspicuous in their absence suggesting the terms of Marvel's license preventing them moonlighting here.

A.L.F, based on the live-action and animated TV shows, appeared in the early issues before fading away... allowing Marvel to officially merge his own comic into the MBC from issue 28.

M-UK had already reprinted all the available US DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH (4 issues!), based on the Marvel Productions animated series, in two specials and an annual.

The MBC can also be seen as a pilot for (the even more short-lived) THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS (launched later in 1989 and MBC obvious successor), testing a media-based adventure anthology format and using two strips (Doctor Who and The Incredible Hulk) first used here.

The covers of the last two issues show Marvel were still trying to use kid-friendly celebrities (Kylie, Bros etc...) to hook readers in, a recurrent rouse throughout MBC's run (they also tried it in the dying days of Spider-man's weekly in 1985). The decision to cancel seems to have been a hasty one but the editor was able to sneak in several references.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1988

ISSUE 1

1 October 1988

Free Panini THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS sticker albums and sticker pack.

ISSUE 2

15 October 1988

Free Panini THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS stickers.

ISSUE 3

29 October 1988

ISSUE 4

12 November 1988

ISSUE 5

26 November 1988

ISSUE 6

10 December 1988

ISSUE 7

24 December 1988

ISSUE 8

7 January 1989

ISSUE 9

21 January 1989

ISSUE 10

4 February 1989

ISSUE 11

18 February 1989

ISSUE 12

4 March 1989

ISSUE 13

18 March 1989

DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH begin.

ISSUE 14

25 March 1989

First weekly issue.

STAR WARS: DROIDS begin.

ISSUE 15

1 April 1989

Free THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS cover-mounted stickers.

ISSUE 16

8 April 1989

Free cover-mounted snappy-badges.

ISSUE 17

15 April 1989

Special fetish issue?!?

ISSUE 18

22 April 1989

ISSUE 19

29 April 1989

ISSUE 20

6 May 1989

ISSUE 21

13 May 1989

First WILLIAM TELL strip.

ISSUE 22

20 May 1989

ISSUE 23

27 May 1989

ISSUE 24

3 June 1989

ISSUE 25

10 June 1989

Last STAR WARS: DROIDS.

ISSUE 26

17 June 1989

First SPIDER-MAN and HULK STRIP.

ISSUE 27

24 June 1989

ISSUE 28

1 June 1989

First A.L.F merged issue.

ISSUE 29

8 July 1989

ISSUE 30

15 July 1989

ISSUE 31

22 June 1989

Final issue.

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

1983: THOR AND THE X-MEN

Forget THE AVENGERS VS. THE X-MEN. Way-back-when, one member of the Avengers was forced into a cancellation-dodging cohabitation of convenience. It's perfectly possible to find a whole raft of reasons why Marvel UK's two 1983 colour weeklies failed miserably (appalling printing, X-Men's impossible-to-operate free gift, the X-Men getting stuck at customs and creaky reprints) so the sanctuary of a merger seemed inevitable.

The merger was a pretty equal affair, each strip occupying half of each issue and, generally, alternating cover slots. The numbering continued from THE MIGHTY THOR (which hits the stands first, partially a result of the aforementioned action by customs who delayed copies of the X-Men issue 1 shipped from the Irish printers).

The partial colour interiors continued, with the worst printing problems of the early issues now fixed. However, Marvel had already cut the number of colour interior pages printed in a cost-cutting move.

Despite (relative) strength-in-numbers, the combined title only survived another 19 weeks before transferring both strips to SPIDER-MAN (in its Amazing Friends era) from issue 567.