1984: STAR WARS VIDEO GAME ADVERT

I've always loved this advert for the home computing incarnation of the STAR WARS ARCADE GAME, published on the back page of US comics in the latter part of 1984.  This scan comes from a November dated Marvel comic, which probably would have been on-sale in the States around September time.

It's such a great idea for a print campaign but - honestly - in those pre-Photoshop days, someone should have checked the guy's nostrils and extracted the rather obvious snot wedged up there!  Kids look for that sort of thing!

1977-78: THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR - PART TWO

Here's the second part of my two-part look back at the 1977-78 THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR weekly from Marvel UK, covering issues 20 to 37.

ISSUE 20

8 February 1978

ISSUE 21

15 February 1978

ISSUE 22

22February 1978

ISSUE 23

1 March 1978

ISSUE 24

8 March 1978

ISSUE 25

15 march 1978

ISSUE 26

22 March 1978

ISSUE 27

29 March 1978

ISSUE 28

5 April 1978

ISSUE 29

12 April 1978

ISSUE 30

19 April 1978

ISSUE 31

26 April 1978

ISSUE 32

3 May 1978

ISSUE 33

10 May 1978

ISSUE 34

17 May 1978

ISSUE 35

24 May 1978

ISSUE 36

31 may 1978

ISSUE 37

7 June 1978

- FINAL ISSUE-

MERGER ANNOUNCEMENT

(Back page)

1981: THE MYSTERY OF THE "MISSING" ISSUE OF SPIDER-MAN WEEKLY

Oh Marvel UK.  I love you (and your flimsy reprint-centric weeklies) very much.  But - lets be honest - you could be a little slap-dash sometimes.  The more I collect your back catalogue, and find out about your little Annex of Ideas, the more I realise that - sometimes - you were out-of-your-depths.

Here's a great example from 1981: the numbering on SPIDER-MAN (also, at that point, providing temporary accommodation for THE INCREDIBLE HULK and refugees from the short-lived MARVEL TEAM-UP weeklies) suddenly jumps from issue 427 to 429.  And then remains 429 the following week.  Whoever was responsible for pasting-up the cover box (a London production function since '79) boobed. Oopsie!

So, although there isn't ACTUALLY a missing issue (Spidey's weekly ran a commendable 666 issues), anyone looking to complete their collection with issue 428 will have a long hunt.

I think this mistake was acknowledged in a latter Spidey letters page.

ISSUE 427

13 May 1981

ISSUE 429.1

20 May 1981

ISSUE 429.2

27 May 1981

1977: THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR - PART ONE

It's been a while since I've done a Marvel UK cover gallery so - to make amends - here's the first part of a multi-part rundown of THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, from 1977-78.

Marvel's first family had been part of the all-star inaugural line-up of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (along with SPIDER-MAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK) back in 1972, but they didn't graduate to their own solo title until September 1977 (Spidey, by way of comparison, only had to wait until 1973.  The Jolly Green Giant was left holding-the-fort until his own weekly in '79).

TCFF, as the name suggests, ran the equivalent of one relatively recent US issue per week (reprinted from c1973), backed-up by MORE FF dating back to 1961 and US issue 1.

The weekly followed M-UK's standard late-seventies formula: a black-and-white interior (on newsprint) wrapped inside a glossy cover.

A fantabulosa field day for FF fans, but no-one in the US Bullpen (who were, presumably, making these decisions based on the advise of the UK branch) seems to have spotted that devouring one US monthly ever week was going to - eventually - cause problems.  Maybe no-one thought this would survive long enough for it to matter.  Or, maybe, they never planned TCFF to have - ahem - a long shelf life.

True to M-UK form, TCFF managed to survive only a year, returning Reed and family to THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (from issue 298) after only 37 issues.

The FF flew solo again (talking of flying... I'm not impressed by the utterly unrelated free gifts with the launch issues) in 1980 with the launch of their POCKET BOOK.  That ended, along with the last vestiges of the range, in 1982... just in time for a second (shorter-lived) solo weekly (which also reprinted early seventies fare).

ISSUE 1

28 September 1977

ISSUE 2

5 October 1977

ISSUE 3

12 October 1977

ISSUE 4

19 October 1977

ISSUE 5

26 October 1977

ISSUE 6

2 November 1977

ISSUE 7

9 November 1977

ISSUE 8

16 November 1977

ISSUE 9

23 November 1977

ISSUE 10

30 November 1977

ISSUE 11

7 December 1977

ISSUE 12

14 December 1977

ISSUE 13

21 December 1977

ISSUE 14

28 December 1977

ISSUE 15

4 January 1978

ISSUE 16

11 January 1978

ISSUE 17

18 January 1978

ISSUE 18

25 January 1978

ISSUE 19

1 February 1978

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1979: STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (Marvel UK)

Here's a fantastic slice of late seventies comics sic-fi: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE MICRONAUTS... in the same comic.  Only the addition of a ROM SPACEKNIGHT reprint could make this the perfect comic.

STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL was published under the Dez Skinn regime and marked the first time the British outpost had issued Winter one-shots (following a clutch of Summer Specials earlier in the year).

It's notable for three things:

1. The first British reprints of Marvel's Battlestar TV tie-in.  Marvel's adaptation of SAGA OF A STAR WORLD (aka the Battlestar Faux Feature) had reached British shores through imports of the US editions in Super Special, Treasury and paperback formats.

2.  The Battlestar strip, reprinted from US issues 4-5, adapted the TV adventure LOST PLANET OF THE GODS.  Although aired in the US in September 1978, it didn't reach UK screens (specifically the London region) for another year.

3.  Skinn used Marvel's one-shot specials as pilots for possible new ongoing titles.  This one was clearly deemed a success as STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK, with the same line-up, was part of the first wave of Pocket Books the following summer.

Skinn has said, in subsequent articles, that he was underwhelmed by Battlestar and didn't think it stood much chance of replicating the runaway success of STAR WARS.  Faced with a dearth of suitable back-up strips for the pages of the ravenous STAR WARS WEEKLY, Skinn planned to run the Battlestar strip there, until outside forces (ahem) intervened.  George Lucas and 20th Century Fox were embroiled in a copyright dispute with Universal over the (undeniable) similarities between their respective space franchises.  In such a climate, running Battlestar in a Star Wars comic was not a smart move.

With that plan nixed, and believing Battlestar wasn't strong enough to fly solo, Skinn created Star Heroes and bundled in The Micronauts, hitherto a Star Wars back-up.

Universal's licensing people, apparently not grasping the term "exclusive", also gave British weekly LOOK-IN the green light to start running a regular Battlestar strip almost simultaneously.  Both were hampered by the no-show of the TV series itself (held back by the studio to maximise income from the Battlestar movies in overseas markets) until September 1980.

BTW: the cover flash "and lots more" is somewhat spurious... there's nothing else!

1983: MARVEL UK CREATORS AT WESTMINSTER COMIC MART

Here's a photo-packed Special Report from the pages of SPIDER-MAN weekly issue 543 (cover-dated 3 August 1983) covering Marvel UK's work-in at the WESTMINSTER COMIC MART (remember those?) held on 4 June. 

It looks like an all-star line-up of guests including Moore, Bolland, Austin, Lloyd and more.

Also, it looks like merry Marvel mirth-makers Quinn and Howett were plugging Marvel's wares (their CHANNEL 33 1/3 one-shot) across Yorkshire's media (not exactly "all over the country".  Does anyone (including ITV) have these on tape?

1982: STAR TREK WINTER SPECIAL (Marvel UK)

Marvel US abandoned the STAR TREK license, after an erratic 18-issue run, at the tail-end of 1981.  A situation which didn't seem to deter the London office from publishing this one-shot special to coincide with the second movie (released in the UK that July).

DC Comics, spurred on by the success of THE WRATH OF KHAN (and fuelled by some insider fans), launched their US Trek monthly a few months later so, presumably, Marvel still held the license (or negotiated an extension) even if the parent company weren't actively doing anything with it.

Despite the Khan-tastic cover, the strip contents don't have anything to do with the second movie* and come from the regular US title (issues 4 and 5 to be precise: 'The Haunting of Thallus!" and "The Haunting of the Enterprise!").  Both stories had previously been serialised in FUTURE TENSE weekly.

The impressive new cover is by prolific British artist John Higgins. 

This was the last STAR TREK tie-in from M-UK until the launch of their short-lived STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic/ magazine in 1990.

Marvel UK had previously reprinted parts of the US Trek run in STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE ANNUAL (the movie adaptation), FUTURE TENSE (AND VALOUR) weekly/ monthly (1980-1982) and STAR TREK SUMMER SPECIAL.

1982: MONSTER MONTHLY (Marvel UK)

Here's another obscurity from the Marvel UK vaults: the short-lived MONSTER MONTHLY, which clocked-up a mere 8 issues beginning in March (cover-dated April) 1982.

Edited by the legendary Bernie Jaye, it was a mixture of Marvel horror tales resurrected from the vaults alongside some film-themed text and photo (unfortunately badly let-down by Marvel's cheap-as-chips printing technology) pieces.

It's hasty demise, and genuine obscurity today, suggests that it was far from a bloody great success for M-UK.  It also marked the Annex-of-Ideas last regular excursion into the horror genre (except for the nineties text-based HAMMER HORROR) after several previous efforts.

The weekly DRACULA LIVES!, not to be confused with the US magazine of the same name, had notched-up 87 issues between (1974 and 1976) before continuing the TOMB OF DRACULA reprints, as supporting features, in PLANET OF THE APES, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL and MARVEL COMIC.  

CHILLER POCKET BOOK, again featuring Dracula along with Man-Thing and other sundry scares, was part of the initial wave of Pocket Book launches in the summer of 1980.  It ran for 28 issues, closing (along with the whole line) in 1982.  MONSTER MONTHLY was, presumably, intended to be a partial replacement, taking advantage in the resurgence of horror films in the cinema and on home video.

One of the more interesting, and generally unmentioned, moments in the history of Marvel's British adventures, was a deal to reprint, under license to an outfit called Portman, Marvel horror strips in TALES OF TERROR and CASTLE OF HORROR. The only time (excluding Marvel's annuals), as far as I can recall, that Marvel material was published by anyone other than Marvel themselves during the lifetime of M-UK.

IPC's own short-lived entry into the genre, SCREAM!, appeared for a mere 15 weeks (plus subsequent specials) in 1984.

1983: JUDGE DREDD: THE US COMIC (Eagle Comics)

DREDD 3D opens in the UK this weekend (I'm going Saturday night... and I can't wait) so, to mark the occasion (albeit in the smallest of small ways), here's the launch advert for the JUDGE DREDD issue 1, published by Eagle Comics in the summer of 1983.

These colour, US-format reprints from Eagle Comics (a collaboration between IPC and Titan Books, borrowing the company name from the original incarnation of the British weekly) were the first time that most Americans had encountered ol' JD.

Eagle Comics took the original UK material, adjusted the page size (to make them taller, slimmer and  - of course - smaller overall) to fit the standard US format, removed the obvious recaps and chapter breaks inherent in the serialised British material and added colour for the first time.  Opinions vary about quite how well they achieved any of it.  

The Eagle Comics were distributed, via Titan Distributors (another part of the Titan empire), to British comic stores (and, I'm pretty sure, newsagents like WH Smith as well).  Titan Books were already issuing selected 200AD back catalogue material (in their original black & white) in album format but these could be pretty hard to find (not to mention pricy) outside of larger towns and cities.  

Eagle Comics expanded to add further titles assembled from Tharg's library: several JD limited series were released in different formats at different price points (THE EARLY CASES, CRIME FILE and THE JUDGE CHILD QUEST), as were limited series reprinting STRONTIUM DOG, ROBO-HUNTER, THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT, NEMESIS THE WARLOCK and a 2000AD anthology.

IPC's traditional business model purchased all rights to the original work, allowing them to syndicate, reprint and merchandise it to their hearts content without any additional payment to the original creators.  Uncomfortable with this arrangement, Titan's Nick Landau (also responsible for the FORBIDDEN PLANET retail chain - phew!) made additional payments direct to the original creative teams.

Faced with the problems of a UK-based company trying to do business - at a distance - in the United States, Eagle Comics shuttered after publishing 33 monthly issues of Judge Dredd.  The license transferred to Dez Skinn's Quality Comics who, in the pages of Speakeasy and other fanzines, announced ambitious plans for recycling the IPC vaults as well as adding new material.  Those plans petered-out pretty quick when Skinn quit the endeavour, ironically in a dispute over the quality of the finished product.

These shouldn't be confused with the two regular US JD titles, published under license, that DC Comics issued between 1994 and 1996.  JUDGE DREDD clocked-up 18 issues, JUDGE DREDD: LEGENDS OF THE LAW mustered 13.  Frustratingly, neither runs have - to date - been reprinted.

1982: MARVEL UK SUMMER SPECIALS

Here's a House Ad for Marvel's 1982 UK Summer Specials.  Note how the advert, which ran across the UK range, demonstrates M-UK's legendary attention-to-detail by omitting a key word!

To - briefly - run through each:

DRACULA was a strangely-timed (wouldn't this sell better in the darker months of autumn or winter?) TOMB OF DRACULA reprint.  It appeared alongside Marvel's latest attempt at a regular horror title (following DRACULA LIVES and CHILLER POCKET BOOK), the long-forgotten MONSTER MONTHLY (8 issues in 1982). 

ROM I've covered this in its own posting but, just to note, despite a varied UK run, this is the SpaceKnight's only UK solo outing.

SPIDER-MAN was, of course, still appearing in his own weekly (currently in its SPIDER-MAN TV COMIC incarnation).  

THE INCREDIBLE HULK was currently appearing in his own weekly, the second within two years.

THE FANTASTIC FOUR appeared here several months before the launch of their own (albeit short-lived) weekly (their second UK solo title) and probably acted as a pilot for the new title.