Sunday, April 08, 2007

40 year Flashback: It's Terrific!





Still not recovered from illness so just a short entry today with comics I had to hand. Forty years ago today, Odhams launched the last (and least successful) of their "Power Comics" line. Terrific was, like Fantastic, a 40 page weekly reprinting three Marvel Comics strips but unlike its companion paper the new title was printed on slightly poorer quality paper.

Initially featuring Sub-Mariner, The Avengers, and Doctor Strange (with Giant-Man replacing Sub-Mariner when the reprints caught up with the American originals) Terrific lasted just 43 weeks before merging into Fantastic.

Amongst the reprints was one British strip which I believe was brand new: The Living Dolls. The hero of this two-page serial, Don Starr, later went on to feature in another serial Appointment with Fear, once Living Dolls ended.

I'll be featuring more about those back-up strips in a future blog hopefully. For now, here's a scan of one of the pages from the strip plus a small selection of Terrific covers.
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6 comments:

  1. Matthew ReesSunday, 8 April 2007 at 19:49:00 BST

    Thanks for bringing back some good memories and get well soon.

    Matthew

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSunday, 8 April 2007 at 20:19:00 BST

    Hope you get well soon Lew. You and Steve Holland have had a hard time, but we viewers/readers appreciate your efforts.

    Now, having bought those first issues of Terrific, I wonder why I have completely NO memory of Living Dolls? But I do half remember the sequel "Appointment with Fear"....weird thing memory!
    All the best,
    Norman

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lew StringerSunday, 8 April 2007 at 20:59:00 BST

    Didn't know Steve had been ill too. All the best Steve!

    Lew

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSaturday, 29 September 2007 at 01:26:00 BST

    I remember ironing (no pun) that Iron Man transfer onto a t-shirt myself. And I had a wall covered with the back-page "pinups" (taking the concept somewhat literally, except we used tape) from Fantastic and Terrific, which I bought every week (reserved)from the local newsagent until their demise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSunday, 19 January 2014 at 14:07:00 GMT

    I'm sure you already have them all, but I saw this auction today and thought of you (17 x Terrific!):

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TERRIFIC-1-5-7-18-1967-Odhams-POWER-COMIC-Marvel-UK-/191030444776?pt=UK_Books_Comics_Magazines_US_Comics_ET&hash=item2c7a4d42e8

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lew StringerSunday, 19 January 2014 at 15:18:00 GMT

    Yes I have the full run Bristle but I'm sure the link will be useful for others. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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