1990: STARLOG GROUP HOUSE ADS

Here's a couple of 1990 STARLOG HOUSE ADS (specifically from STARLOG SPECTACULAR issue 1, if you're keeping score) which shows the Starlog Group in the boom years: at least five regular magazines (I say "at least" as Starlog Spectacular itself is conspicuous in its absence, as is the 1987-launched STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION OFFICIAL MAGAZINE) and, in a separate ad, some of the numerous official movie tie-in magazines* that they would regularly churn out to accompany any would-be blockbuster (OVER THE TOP anyone?).

* Starlog's cosy relationships with the studio's Marketing, PR and Licensing departments might have given them greater access to productions and their stars but also gave the magazine an uncritical stance which left it looking old-fashioned compared with more feisty upstarts like SFX or, indeed, that new fangled internet thingy.

1979: LESLIE STEVENS DISCUSSES BUCK ROGERS IN FUTURE MAGAZINE

Here's another dip into the FUTURE MAGAZINE vaults for an interview with Leslie Stevens, writer and supervising producer for the feature-length BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY opener (released as a quickie feature in the United States, UK and elsewhere).

FUTURE MAGAZINE

ISSUE 7

January 1979

1984: C.Y.R.I.L in RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly

Here's the second instalment of C.Y.R.I.L the Editor Droid's adventures at Marvel UK (from RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly), this time officially credited to Steve Parkhouse (script and art?)

RETURN OF THE JEDI

ISSUE 74

17 November 1984

1976: STAR TREK LIVES! UK PAPERBACK

Here's early evidence that STAR TREK's popularity was growing, thanks to constant reruns, in the mid-seventies.  STAR TREK LIVES! was a mass-market non-fiction paperback, published in 1976, pitched at Trek's growing fandom.

This is the UK edition, published by Corgi (and also, evidentially, shipped to Australia and New Zealand).  There was also a US edition, published a year earlier.  That edition's Enterprise-centric cover seems to be much more prominently featured online.

I picked-up this copy from an Oxfam Bookshop a while back.

US Edition

1975

1984: C.Y.R.I.L IN RETURN OF THE JEDI WEEKLY

The unseen C.Y.R.I.L had been hosting the letters page of Marvel UK's Star Wars comic since the STAR WARS WEEKLY era (1978-80) but readers didn't see him until 1984.

Initially Marvel claimed C.Y.R.I.L was a computer, specially programmed to handle readers letters on the Cosmic Correspondence page (overseas readers flummoxed by the whole idea should know that fictional editors were a British comics tradition, albeit a conceit rarely adopted by Marvel UK) but evolved over time, becoming a droid responsible for producing the whole comic.

He first appeared in a series of spot-illustrations (beginning in issue 61, cover-dated 15 August 1984) before graduating to his own one-page humour strip, beginning with this opening instalment from RETURN OF THE JEDI issue 73, cover-dated 10 November 1984.

The strip appeared weekly for the next year, appearing for the last time in issue 126 (16 November 1985).  The weekly had shifted to Marvel's 24-page full-colour format by this point but C.Y.R.I.L's adventures continued to appear in black & white (the extra costs of a colour strip obviously more than Marvel's meagre budgets could accommodate).

The strips were generally uncredited but the art was by Steve Parkhouse and John Ridgway, although their Wikipedia entries don't mention it.  The writer is unknown.

The strip take place in-and-around Marvel UK's Redan Place base.  Marvel's offices were also plagued by the mysterious Secret Artist (in the pages of MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS) during this period and the Editor Droid made occasional appearances there.

RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly, still edited by C.Y.R.I.L, eventually clocked up 155 issues before merging with SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS.  He's not been seen since.

1983: MARVEL IN JAPAN (Comics Interview 3, May 1983)

Marvel's US and UK operations are (to varying degrees) fairly well documented (and we're trying to do our bit here too) but almost nothing seems to have been written about Marvel's Japanese operation.

I stumbled across this brief (two pages) interview in the back of COMICS INTERVIEW issue 3 (cover-dated May 1983) which mentions some Marvel projects that have been lost in the mists of time (we kinda assume they never happened... unless you know otherwise...). The Japanese live-action SPIDER-MAN series did, of course, happen and has become more widely available in the interweb age... and is well worth a look.

It also confirms that Marvel were one of the first Western media outfits to spot the 'Power Ranger" potential, a decade before they became a global phenomenon. The story goes that Margaret Loesch, head of Marvel Productions, couldn't find a US broadcaster willing to buy the show and had to shelve it.  Then, when she was boss of Fox Kids in the nineties, she was offered the show by Haim Saban... and snapped it up!

1982: REVENGE OF THE JEDI SET VISIT COMPETITION

This is the offer that no kid could refuse: A chance to visit Elstree studios during the shooting of REVENGE OF THE JEDI!  Runners-up could grab a STAR WARS mini-rig from the Palitoy range... which was a pretty crappy consolation prize considering the not-seen-on-screen toys were specifically created to allow cash-strapped fans to own a cheap SW vehicle.

This advert appeared in Marvel UK's titles (specifically CAPTAIN AMERICA 51 for this particular scan) during February 1982.

The promotion was to push Palitoy's ESB toy range during those difficult between-movies periods.

The name of the winner, what they saw and who they met are all lost to history.... unless you know better!

1974: MARVEL UK'S WEEKLIES GET GLOSSY COVERS

Here's a monumental moment in the hallowed history of Marvel UK: the time, in January 1974, when the Annex of Ideas' weeklies adopted glossy covers and what became their standard seventies format.

Prior to this point, Marvel's UK books had cheap covers and interiors using the same paper stock throughout, except for colour printing on the covers.

THE AVENGERS weekly was the first to go glossy, from issue one, followed by its older siblings THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL and SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY.

The glossy covers would remain until January 1979 and Dez Skinn's Marvel Revolution which drastically overhauled the superhero books (what we call the 'Skinn I' format) but left STAR WARS WEEKLY largely unscathed.

Glossy covers would stage a triumphant return in 1981 and remain, with a few exceptions (THE THING IS BIG BEN, THE PUNISHER, THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS etc), until the company became Panini Comics in 1995.

1979: SPIDER-MAN STRIKES BACK VHS COVER

Here's a VHS sleeve from the middle entry in the first SPIDER-MAN "movie trilogy". Released in 1979, SPIDER-MAN STRIKES BACK had originally aired stateside the previous year as the two-part TV adventure The Deadly Dust.

The three movies were staples of the VHS era (this particular release was probably intended to trick unsuspecting punters into thinking they were buying the first of the new films, hence the 'Spider-man the movie' logo) but neither they nor the series that spawned them have been released on DVD although bootlegs are widely available.

1982: COMICS FEATURE 15 (January 1982) NEWS PAGES

What was happening in the world of comic books at the end of 1981?  Here's the news pages from COMICS FEATURE issue 15 (cover-dated January 1982) to reveal all.  The big story is that Starlog's planned COMIC WORLD spin-off is mired in a legal dispute.  A swift name-change to COMICS SCENE fixed the problem.

In other news: Marvel announce plans for comics based on G.I. JOE, INDIANA JONES and - err - TEAM AMERICA.  And their STAR TREK title beams out after its 18th issue.