FANTASTIC 50th!

Fifty years ago, on Saturday 11th February 1967, Odhams launched Fantastic comic, a new weekly that is still fondly remembered to this day. Odhams had been presenting reprints of Marvel strips in their other comics for several months by this time; The Incredible Hulk in Smash!, The Fantastic Four in Wham!, Spider-Man and Nick Fury in Pow!, but those reprints were sharing space with traditional British humour and adventure content. With Fantastic, the content was 90% Marvel reprint, (later 100%), making the comic unlike any other weekly on the stands in 1967.  

We're talking about classic Marvel material too, with strips by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck and more from the dawn of what Stan coined as "The Marvel Age of Comics". (Not that Odhams called it that. They changed references of Marvel to Power, to suit their Power Comics imprint.) Although it reprinted the strips in black and white, and usually cut into two or three parts, the reproduction of the strips had never been so crisp and clear. 

For many readers, Fantastic was a great introduction to the Marvel Universe and we became hooked on the comic. It was exciting and dynamic, making traditional British comics such as Victor look terribly dull in comparison. An advert in the Daily Mirror proclaimed Fantastic as "The new comic book that's so different!" and for many of us, that was part of its appeal. It had 40 pages, so was thicker than most other comics of the period, although that necessitated a 9d cover price meaning it was also one of the most expensive comics in 1967 too. (Most comics were 7d, Dandy and Beano were still only 3d.)

Sadly, perhaps the majority of British kids had more conservative tastes, or 9d was too expensive, for Fantastic only lasted for 89 weeks. Clearly it was ahead of its time (as were its loyal readers) because that similar template of packaging three Marvel stories into a 40 page comic was used with more success in 1972 with Marvel UK's The Mighty World of Marvel, and is still pretty much the format still used today in the popular 76 page Marvel Collector's Editions published by Panini UK.

The back-up strip in Fantastic was brand new; The Missing Link, superbly illustrated by Luis Bermejo. The Link would later evolve into UK superhero Johnny Future but here's the first episode when he was still a lumbering brute...

The free gift in Fantastic No.1 was suitably different too; a soft plastic pennant that could be used for various purposes. (I used mine as a pen holder for a while, and, yes, I still have it.) Artwork to insert into the pennant was on the back page of Fantastic and different characters were on the back pages of Wham!, Smash! and Pow! that week as well.

From a personal viewpoint, I have fond memories of Fantastic. It was a bit expensive, and my parents were already buying me several comics a week, so my Aunt Joan used to buy me Fantastic (and its soon-to-follow companion comic Terrific). I remember her bringing them for me every Saturday afternoon when she'd finished her shift at the bakehouse. (I'd save Terrific to read on a Sunday.) Happy times, long gone, but comics can be great artefacts for stirring up memories. 

I know some feel that 50 years ago was just like yesterday, but I must admit it really does feel like a very long time ago to me, when one considers the numerous things that happen in one's life over such a period. They were good days though, and Fantastic made the swingin' sixties swing even more. 

Here's how Fantastic was advertised in the Daily Mirror on Friday 10th February 1967. (Yes, I've kept this clipping for 50 years!)

...and how it was heralded in Pow! a week earlier (Pow! No.4, on sale 4th Feb 1967)...

As they told us, there's no doubt about it. It certainly was Fantastic!