1979: LAST ISSUE ALERT! TORNADO CRASHES.

From 1979: Last Issue Alert!  After only 22 issues, IPC's TORNADO ran out of luck and announced its impending merger with 2000AD.

I posted the first merged issue the other day but this is the last of the vanquished, complete with the customary 'great news chums' cover splash... an announcement that meant either an impending freebie (this was the time when announcing an announcement was almost as big as whatever was being announced... sometimes bigger if it was just going to be a Heinz badge taped to the following week's cover) or the axeman cometh.  

It's interesting that the merger page goes big on the 2000AD characters and only mentions Tornado's lucky survivors as an afterthought.  Maybe no one thinks they are a strong selling point!  I'd have also changed how I presented the logo so that - in the advert at least - Tornado didn't look like such an afterthought.

On your marks... Get set... Stop!

1994: 2000AD's STRONTIUM DOGS THE POSTER PROG ONE-SHOT

From 1994: STRONTIUM DOGS THE POSTER PROG issue 1, a one-shot spin-off from Tharg's Command Module.

Poster mags were quite a sideline for Tharg between 1993-95 with five dedicated to JUDGE DREDD and one apiece for SLAINE, ROGUE TROOPER, NEMESIS and the Dogs.

The format consisted of a giant poster with an original six page strip printed on the reverse.

The very first, albeit unofficial, 'Poster Prog' was published within months of 2000AD's launch making it one of the very first spin-offs.  The DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE hit newsagents in August 1977, tucked into the schedule between the first 2000AD SUMMER SPECIAL (not yet the more familiar Sci-Fi Special) and the first 2000AD ANNUAL.  

1995: HORIZON: THE BLAKE'S 7 APPRECIATION SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 33

From November 1995: Issue 33 of HORIZON, THE BLAKE'S 7 APPRECIATION SOCIETY.

I suspect I'm not the only B7 fan who was 'reunited' with the show when the BBC started to release the show on tape in the early 1990s.  And I bet I'm not the only person who started off just buying one tape for nostalgia's sake... and then finding that I had to buy the whole lot as the addiction grew.

I also joined HORIZON (who had a useful plug on the back of every BBC tape, a move that probably helped deflect a ton of mail landing at BBC Woodlands wanting to know more about the show and the cast) around this time.  And rejoined several times over the next few years.  I don't honestly recall if this edition of the newsletter was one that I had at the time or one that I found later.  They don't surface in the wild very often.  As far as I know, copies were only ever available to members with - maybe - overstocks also sold at conventions.

The Horizon newsletters were, in my time, very hefty affairs stuffed full of letters, articles and updates (either news or reviews) of the cast's latest work.  Which seemed to involve a lot of trips to the theatre.

The club also offered members assorted limited-run merchandise like stills and t-shirts.

Spin-off publications included fiction-based fanzines (never my thing), a compilation of interviews (which i posted sometime previously) and a rather excellent Technical Manual with detailed plans and cross sections of assorted hardware and ships seen on the show.

I'm revisiting episodes of assorted Star Age SF shows at the moment (WAR OF THE WORLDS last night, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA earlier in the week) and rewatched a couple of long-unseen B7 S4 outings.  They have a reputation, not entirely undeserved, for looking a little rough around the edges and suffering from some overacting.  But I was impressed by 'Orbit' by Robert Holmes.  Not only does it include one of his trademark double acts but the performances towards the end of the episode, by Darrow and Keating, are first class.

Now... If only Network would get around to releasing Darrow's 1990 Thames series MAKING NEWS.

1992: THE BEST OF BILLY'S BOOTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL

From 1992: THE BEST OF BILLY'S BOOTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL VOLUME 2.

This was a late-in-the-day compilation of old strips which (along with its predecesor) passed me by completely at the time.  I guess I wasn't spending enough time in newsagents.

Billy Dane, owner of the supernatural footy boots of Charles 'Dead Shot' Keen lived a transitory life in British comics.  The strip started in SCORCHER in 1970 before transferring to TIGER when the titles merged in 1974.  He spent the next eleven years of his playing career in the pages of the sports weekly.  Billy's Boots was one of the better strips to transfer to the 'new' EAGLE AND TIGER in 1985.

The strip was shuffled in the IPC portfolio again the following year, findinga  more natural home in ROY OF THE ROVERS weekly (itself a Tiger spin-off, launched in 1976) where it remained until 1990.  When Billy's playing days were finally over, the new strips were (true to Fleetway form at the time) reprints from the vaults.  The reprints later shifted to THE BEST OF ROY OF THE ROVERS.

1994: MARVEL BUYS MALIBU COMICS.

From December 1994: Marvel Comics gobbles up the MALIBU ULTRAVERSE, as reported in the UK's COMICS INTERNATIONAL.

Malibu, one-time home of Alien Nation, Planet of the Apes, Japanese animation, Deep Space Nine and softcore titty books, hit pay dirt when - for a year - they looked after the just-launched Image Comics and, when that contract came to an end, they realised there was a good living to be made from superheroes.  So they unleashed the Ultraverse.  

Fair to say they were not the only publisher to be launching new shared universe books at the time.  Dark Horse went for it in a big way and gave the world Barb Wire.  There was Milestone.  Marvel had a whole bunch of new universes, including our own UKverse.  

But Malibu burned pretty bright.  In addition to A LOT of comics, they also expanded fast into syndicated animation (Ultraforce), action figures, computer games, TV advertising ('Jump On Now'), TV series (Glen Larson's Nightman adaptation) and much else besides.  They were burning bright... but also burning cash.

The owners raised the 'for sale' sign and DC came oround to measure for curtains.  That paniced Marvel who knew a DC takeover would catipult their rival to numero uno by marketshare... and that would dent Marvel's all important shareprice.  So they swooped.  

It's pretty safe to say that Marvel were only vaguely interested in the comics themselves.  The move removed a competitor but Malibu's existing multimedia deals didn't sit well with Marvel's business people and the characters were never going to be as important to Marvel as their own.  But they must have wondered how an upstart like Malibu could get a two-season deal for a (cheap) syndicated action show when Stan Lee had spent a decade in Hollywood delivering not very much.  

Marvel made some half-hearted moves to merge the Ultraverse with the Marvel Universe (this was, after all, the era where inter-company crossovers were pretty much a monthly event) but Marvel fans weren't interested and Ultraverse readers resented the takeover.  The line was slimmed... and then closed altogether.  And another sub-set of 'Marvel' characters were warehoused.  

Which is the interesting bit.  Marvel will dust off old characters either just because they can or because the lawyers tell them they are in danger of slipping out of copyright.  But the lawyers are saying something else about the Malibu Ultraverse.  It seems that the whole shebang is out-of-bounds.  And no-one seems to quite know why.  Although it is a safe bet that someone, somewhere, would have to be paid if they were resurected.  And it seems that Disney and Marvel just don't care that much.  

The good news is that - should you be tempted - the Ultraverse is a staple of the 50p back issue box.  Dealers must have ordered so many of these books that they are still trying to shift the stock decades later.  There are - of course - a lot of special and limited edition copies (this WAS the 1990s) that are harder to find but the core books are a pretty easy find.  Take a punt.  

BTW: Stan's EXCELSIOR COMICS, yet another Marvel imprint, failed to see the light of day.  

1978: MERGER ALERT! 2000AD AND TORNADO

From August 1979: Merger Alert!  Tharg reluctantly welcomes the refugees from another defunct IPC weekly with the first combined issue of 2000AD AND TORNADO.  It is unlikely that anyone in King's Reach Tower, or indeed the nation at large, was celebrating.

The collapse of STARLORD, covered in a previous post, had been something of a shot-in-the-arm for 2000AD, shoving it out of a creative slump and introducing new strips that would become bedrocks of the title.  Not so much with the scruffy band of survivors from TORNADO.

I think the cover designer was taking the pee slightly by announcing 'at last' considering Tornado had only mustered the IPC-standard 22 issues before the accounts department despatched it.

And, did anyone call their comics 'papers'?  It's an IPC term (possibly also so used by their Dundee rivals... I didn't read many) that survived into the eighties.  But, as a buyer, I never used the term and I don't know anyone who did.  Not even my parents.  Newspapers were papers.  Magazines were magazines.  And comics were comics.  It has the whiff of an in-house term that they forgot no one in the real world used.

Not the nice rich colours on the cover as well.  That's not some fancy bit of digital clean-up, the IPC weeklies really did have better printing prior to the 1980s shift to newsprint.

1988: TIME SCREEN ISSUE 3 (REVISED EDITION)

From Autumn 1988: TIME SCREEN magazine issue 3.  Revised edition.

TIME SCREEN, companion to S.I.G, was the much-missed magazine (really a fanzine although it boosted excellent print and production standards) 'magazine of British Telefantasy'.

It launched sometime in the early 1980s as an all (including the covers) black & white affair.  Later in the decade, to supplement new issues, the team would revisit and reissue the early issues with revised articles (this being the time before the web when solid information and old programmes were often hard to find), better production standards and a nice colour cover.

It's a magazine that I always pick-up if I find the odd old copy on my travels.  I don't have a complete collection but I thought I would post what I have here on STARLOGGED.

This was a good time to be buying fanzines with THE FRAME, DWB, S.I.G and TIME SCREEN all doing well and available through comic book stores.

1997: TV SCENE MAGAZINE ISSUE 2

From the summer of 1997: Another magazine I had no idea existed until I found this copy on my travels recently... the second issue of TV SCENE.

And a reminder that cult actor Bruce Campbell once starred in a made-for-TV version of THE LOVE BUG, a one-shot that aired on ABC in November of that year.

Disney and CBS had tried to make Herbie into a TV star back in 1982.  The franchise-killing weekly series mustered only five episodes before being cancelled.  Ending any fresh adventures, on any screen size, until this reboot spluttered into view.  

The precursor to KITT first appeared in THE LOVE BUG in 1968 and three sequels before stalling on the small screen.  

I have no idea how long the magazine rolled on for but I don't think it had very good (if any) distribution in the UK.  

1979: THE BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY FOTONOVEL

From 1979: The BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY FOTONOVEL.

This was - for the longest time - something of a grail item for me.  I knew it existed but - for some reason - I had never spotted one out in the 'wild'.  Maybe it's not that unusual, these 'fotonovels' seldom seem to surface on the second-hand circuit so why should Buck Rogers be any different?

Except that the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA edition pops up from time-to-time.  And the STAR TREK ones (based on selected episodes of the TV show... and the first two movies) also seem more plentiful.  Others, like THE INCREDIBLE HULK one (adapting the TV pilot/ faux feature), command silly prices on Amazon.

It was clearly intended for sale in the UK although I suspect that the pence price has been added afterwards (or as part of a run-on) as it doesn't look quite right.

I finally managed to track down a copy - at a price I was willing to pay - and here it is.  It's an adaptation of 'The Awakening' and was clearly completed after the edit was finally locked at there are no missing scenes.  Unfortunately.

It continues to surprise me that some mass-market items, like this and the Marvel STAR WARS paperbacks, seem so hard to find despite being based on popular mainstream media franchises and presumably published in numbers that even if small at the time would make most publishers very happy today.

1982: THE 'LAST' BATTLE

From February 1982: Relaunch alert!  BATTLE is about to get a bold new mission!

It's generally agreed that IPC's BATTLE (created by Pat Mills and John Wagner and launched in March 1975) was a cracker of a comic... not least because it gave us Johnny Red and Charley's War, two strips that outlived (albeit by reprints) the comic itself.  And still in print today.

The critics are quick to claim the at the rot really set it when IPC signed a deal with the 'devil' and gave over half the page count to strips promoting the ACTION FORCE toys.  I have to disagree with that... I'm a big fan of the Action Force era and recently aquired an almost-complete run of that period in Battle's history.

I'd argue that the last true issue of BATTLE is this one.  The last to pretty much (mergers allowing) to follow the 'total war' formula as concieved back in '75.

As you can see by this two-page teaser before... BATTLE was about to become an 'adventure' comic, throwing in new strips that tapped into the popular trends of the time... action TV shows, martial arts and - ahem - CB radio.

'The Hunters' were two special agents of the sort that can be assigned to any mission, anywhere, at the whim of the writer.  The comparisons to LWT's THE PROFESSIONALS were numerous.  'The Fists of Jimmy Chang' channeled the martial arts boom... probably about a decade too late.  Marvel London had been serving up Masters of Kung Fu across a variety of titles since the Seventies (and would continue to do so.. a strip even made it into their version of ACTION FORCE).  Indeed, so tired was the franchise looking in 1979 that Dez Skinn reworked the reprints, in MARVEL COMIC, to create his own Professionals inspired knock off.  'Truck Turpin' was Battle's trucker movie, and quite possibly hoping to excite fans of BJ AND THE BEAR.

The reboot did at least hang onto some of the older strips... a tradition that would continue even after the Action Force takeover.

The changes must have worked... at least for the moment.  The new formula continued right through 1982 and most of the following year.  The first Action Force strip, initially a four week booking, appeared in July 1983.  The powers-that-be must have been chuffed because - just in time for the Christmas sales season - Battle became BATTLE ACTION FORCE in October.  The licensing deal ran through to late 1986, at which point the comic reverted to being BATTLE and slipped into a holding pattern until it could introduce Storm Force (basically a great idea for a toy line... without the toys) in 1987.  That move kept Battle in business a bit longer... but those last issues were pretty scrappy (despite better print quality) and it was clear that, under the ownership of Robert Maxwell, everyone was just managing decline.  It was cancelled, after 673 issues, in January 1988.