A few years ago Panini UK launched Marvel Heroes as a comic magazine for children featuring brand new Marvel comic strip by British creators. Last year, after 35 issues, Marvel's owners Disney decreed that the UK could no longer generate its own material and should use content that they supplied instead. They also changed the magazine title to Marvel Super Heroes.
This week, the title changes again just in time for a certain movie premiere. Now it's Marvel Super Heroes featuring The Avengers, - although it's obvious by the cover that kids will just refer to it as The Avengers comic.
Although Panini UK already publish Avengers Assemble (running reprints of recent Marvel material) for older readers, this new Avengers comic is aimed at the younger end of the market. It contains an 11 page comic strip from Marvel's "adventures" line and various puzzles, fact files, posters and suchlike. Plus a cover-mounted toy in the form of a Grabber Claw. 36 pages for £2.50.
Yesterday also saw the publication of ThunderCats No.2, also from Panini UK. However this title does feature all-new British comic strip. A 13 page story by Ferg Handley, illustrated by Cosmo White with Kat Nicholson on colours. And they did the cover too. Very nice work. This has the potential to become this generation's Sonic the Comic hopefully.
ThunderCats also features activity pages, fact files and posters, plus a two-page photo strip using ThunderCats action figures which actually works better than you might imagine. Bagged with a toy it's 36 pages for £2.99.
The shelves of UK newsagents are certainly packed these days. Admittedly many of the titles don't feature comic strip, or feature reprint from overseas, but with titles such as ThunderCats, Beano, Toxic, Dandy, 2000AD, BeanoMAX, Commando, and more it's obvious that the mainstream UK comics industry is not as dead as some critics claim.
Who says mainstream British comics are dead? The last few months have already seen the launch of Strip Magazine and The Phoenix, and now this Thursday (March 22nd) another all-new UK comic makes its debut with ThunderCats No.1.
Published by Panini UK, the 36 page ThunderCats Magazine will be published every four weeks and is based on the new series of ThunderCats animated adventures currently being shown on Channel 5 and Cartoon Network. The original ThunderCats TV series aired in 1987 and fast became a pop-culture phenomenon, spawning a regular comic from Marvel UK along the way. Fans of that comic will no doubt be pleased to see its return.
The new ThunderCats Magazine is aimed at 7 to 12 year old boys (although I'll bet some girls will enjoy it just as much) and will feature brand new comic strip expanding on the ThunderCats universe along with fact files, puzzles, activities, competitions and puzzle pages.
As you can see from the samples that editor Simon Frith kindly supplied, the standard of the comic strip is very high, with scripts by Ferg Handley, artwork by Cosmo White, and colours by Kat Nicholson. This is definitely looking like a quality production.
There's also a one-page action figure photo-strip in the first issue, which I'm sure will go down well with younger readers and inspire them to make up adventures with their own action figures. A nice idea, and well executed.
When the new ThunderCats cartoon show first aired in the UK on Cartoon Network it was viewed 157,000 times, and its screening on Channel 5 on December 18th gained it 197,000 viewers. There's clearly a potentially large market for this new comic so let's hope it does well.
ThunderCats Magazine No.1 will be on sale Thursday March 22nd priced £2.99, available at all major retail outlets across the UK. Every issue will carry a gift, with the first one being a Sword of Omens. Here's the polybagged comic and gift below to look out for in the shops:
Panini Comics UK website:http://www.paninicomics.co.uk/web/guest/home
Yesterday also saw the publication of ThunderCats No.2, also from Panini UK. However this title does feature all-new British comic strip. A 13 page story by Ferg Handley, illustrated by Cosmo White with Kat Nicholson on colours. And they did the cover too. Very nice work. This has the potential to become this generation's Sonic the Comic hopefully. 
