The Christmas... THOR AND THE X-MEN? (1983)

When is a Christmas comic not a Christmas comic? When it's a Marvel UK comic reprinting stories out of season I guess. The short-lived Thor and the X-Men comic from 1983 was a merger of two of their weekly titles and reprinted 1960s and 1970s material from their American counterparts. 

The editor didn't have to make this a festive issue, as the stories certainly didn't reference Christmas, but snow still adorned the logo and Iceman appeared in the corner vignette so that was close enough. On page two, the Bullpen Bulletins editorial page (which would have also appeared in some of their other weeklies) also made references to Christmas, so all in all I'm calling this a Christmas comic.

This 28 page weekly was a slim comic that split the Thor and X-Men stories into two halves over two weeks. This issue featured the second halves of the U.S. editions of Thor No.232 (Feb. 1975) and X-Men No.30 (March 1967). 

The rest of the comic included a few pin-ups and a readers' art page. There was also the classified ads page, where comic shops and sellers could advertise. How many of these comic shops are still in business? Nostalgia and Comics has become Worlds Apart, Forbidden Planet has moved and expanded to branches in other cities. What about the rest? 

With it being Christmas, there were also adverts for the annuals that Marvel UK had produced that year. None of these TV shows appealed to me but I suspect those of you who are a bit younger will have enjoyed them...

Sadly, after a run of many years, there are no annuals in the UK featuring Marvel characters this year. Surprising, as I would have thought at least a Spider-Man Annual might still appeal to kids, but evidently not. Times are changing fast.

Keeping that UK Marvel tradition alive, Panini editor Brady Webb always makes sure The Astonishing Spider-Man has a festive look every year. This week's issue is on sale this Thursday, 19th December.

Panini's Spider-Man comic for younger readers also has a festive touch with Spidey swinging through a snowstorm. In the shops now.

Another classic Christmas comic soon, and next time we're going way back!

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That time Geoff Campion drew Spider-Man

Geoff Campion was one of Fleetway/IPC's top adventure strip artists from the 1950s to the 1970s. You'll know his work from strips such as The Spellbinder in Lion to D-Day Dawson in Battle Picture Weekly, and the numerous covers and other strips he illustrated for the company. 

Perhaps one of his most unusual assignments was to draw the cover to the Marvel Annual in 1973. Although Marvel UK were publishing the weekly Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly at the time it seems that IPC packaged the annuals for them for two years. 

The Marvel Annual was all-reprint inside, but the cover was new. Geoff Campion gave us a dynamic Spidey swinging in two tackle a bunch of crooks in a colourful image full of impact. He even managed to sign it (bottom right) as a name chalked on the wall. (Campion was the only artist who had a credit box in Lion, along with writer Frank Pepper, for the Spellbinder strip at that time.) 

It would have been interesting to see his take on a Spider-Man strip, but that never happened. It would be years before any Spidey strips were produced in the UK.

So, next time you think of artists in the UK who have drawn Spider-Man, and names such as Mike Collins, Andy Tong, and Simon Williams come to mind, add Geoff Campion to the list too! 

Steve Ditko R.I.P.

The comics industry was saddened last night to hear the news that Steve Ditko had passed away. His body was found in his Manhattan apartment on 29th June, and he's thought to have passed away a few days earlier. A sad end for the co-creator of Spider-Man, yet he lived his life as he wanted to, avoiding the public gaze and minding his own business. 

The first imagery of Steve Ditko's I saw as a child was when Odhams' Smash! weekly began reprinting The Hulk stories in 1966. They began with reprinting Hulk No.2, and that powerful image of the Hulk emerging from the swamp burnt itself into my brain forever. The art was actually by Jack Kirby, but it was Steve Ditko's inks that dominated the images, in a positive way. 

Odhams later went on to reprint Spider-Man in the pages of Pow! in 1967, with Steve Ditko on art, co-creating the character with Stan Lee's scripts, producing arguably the most popular superhero in the world. 

It was Doctor Strange that enthralled me the most though. Another Lee-Ditko co-creation, Odhams reprinted the strips in Terrific weekly in 1967. Comic readers had never seen anything like this before, with the stories taking us on unexpected journeys to nightmare realms and other dimensions, expertly realised by Ditko's unique artwork. This sequence from the first Dr.Strange story, where Strange says he will enter a dream amazed my 8 year old self and still leaves an impression today. 

The British reprints were in black and white, but we didn't mind. All the better to see Ditko's stunning designs in a way without being distracted by colour. 

Steve Ditko's run on Doctor Strange concluded with an astonishing battle between Dormammu and Eternity, - pretty much Marvel's equivalent of Satan vs God at that time. Was it any wonder I wasn't impressed by the likes of Victor and Hornet comics when such wonders as these lay in the pages of Terrific? 

Over the years I've discovered Ditko's earlier works, through reprints of his 1950s horror/mystery stories and they're moody and magnificent strips well worth checking out. 

Steve Ditko was quite reclusive, refusing interviews and publicity, but he carried on producing his own comics right up to his death. I'm sure others will go into more detail about his life, but today I just wanted to post my personal thoughts about his work. His classic strips continue to be popular, and Panini UK's Mighty World of Marvel is currently reprinting his early Doctor Strange strips every month. Check them out!

I'll also recommend the hardback books on Ditko published by Yoe! Books / IDW that reprint his early work. Essential reading!

Rest In Peace, Mr.Ditko, and thank you for the memories of such amazing work, and for the work of yours I've still to discover!

APOLLO lands soon!

A new graphic novel from London publisher Selfmadehero is arriving soon, and it sounds great!

Here's the PR....

NEW BOOK RELEASE
SelfMadeHero are delighted to announce the UK release of APOLLO, the dramatic account of that one giant leap for mankind in 1969 when  man first set foot on the moon, from an all british team of creators. Renowned writers Matt Fitch and Chris Baker team up with prolific illustrator Mike Collins (Doctor Who, Wonder Woman, Judge Dredd) to bring the story of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins’ momentous voyage to graphic novel form.

APOLLO is published in full-colour hardback on 7 June  (rrp £15.99) from SelfMadeHero. www.selfmadehero.com 

1969 saw one giant leap for mankind when the first man set foot on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins were the torchbearers for our collective aspirations. Backed by the brightest minds in engineering and science, the three boarded a rocket and flew through the void – just to prove that we could. 

An all-British creative team tells the story of this historic moment. Writers Matt Fitch and Chris Baker (Dead Canary Comics) have teamed up with artist Mike Collins, the prolific illustrator of characters including Batman, Judge Dredd and Doctor Who, to unpack the urban legends, the gossip and the speculation to reveal a remarkable true story about life, death, dreams and the reality of humanity’s greatest exploratory achievement. 

Supported by extensive research from books, official documents and recordings, Apollo offers an authentic and unique account of this historic event ahead of its 50th anniversary celebrations. 

About the creators: 

Mike Collins is a comic book artist based in Wales. He has worked for Marvel UK on comics including Spider-man and Transformers; for DC Comics on flagship titles such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, and for the UK’s celebrated weekly comic 2000AD on Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, among others. 

Matt Fitch and Chris Baker are co-founders of Dead Canary Comics, a small press dedicated to comics and graphic novels. Together they are the authors to Reddin (with Conor Boyle) and The Fitzroy, a collection of stories featuring artwork by Krent Able, Charlie Hodgson, Will Ronson, Scott Cooper and Will Kirkby. 

SelfMadeHero publishes works that provoke, entertain, inspire and inform through the medium of the graphic novel. The company is proud to showcase ground-breaking and beautiful work by authors and artists from across the globe, from the quirky and humorous to the political and profound. Releases for Spring 2018 include Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B.’s Best of Enemies, Vol 3; Andrzej Klimowski’s Poster Book; Reinhard Kleist’s Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book; Jesús Carrasco and Javi Rey’s Out in the Open; John Harris Dunning & Michael Kennedy’s Tumult; and Martin Rowson’s The Communist Manifesto. 

www.selfmadehero.com 

Out now from Panini UK

The very first UK Spider-Man title was Spider-Man Comics Weekly, launched in 1973. Although he'd previously appeared in Pow!, Smash!, TV21, and The Mighty World of Marvel, (and various Alan Class comics) Spider-Man Comics Weekly was the first British comic named after the character.

That title went through various changes; Super Spider-Man, Spider-Man TV Comic, Spidey, and others.. and led to other Marvel UK comics such as The Exploits of Spider-Man. The current one, The Astonishing Spider-Man, has been running since 1995, and has been the most consistent. Apparently it's the most popular of Panini's Marvel Collectors Editions as it's the only one published fortnightly instead of every four weeks. It's had various re-numberings, and the current issue is Volume 6, No.42 which goes on sale today.

Astonishing Spider-Man Vol.6 #42. On sale 15th March! 
76 pages packed with arachnid-adventure! Only £3.99!
Peter Parker is on the run and hunted by the NYPD! (So, business as usual.)
Also: How did Normie Osborn become the CEO of Oscorp, and what does he have planned for Spider-Man?!!
Plus: The Wall-Crawler vs. The Sleeper! ‘Nuff said!
By Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, Juan Frigeri, Ryan Stegman, Nathan Stockman, Mark Waid, James Robinson and Gabrielle Dell’Otto.
Includes material reprinted from Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #297, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #10 and Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business: Original Graphic Novel.

There's also a monthly Spider-Man magazine for younger readers that features some comic strip material. This has also gone through a few title changes and for several years it featured all-new Spider-Man strips by British creators. Sadly, it now features American material.

Cover image of the junior Spider-Man comic from this site:
http://www.newsstand.co.uk/108-Primary-Boys-Magazines/3297-Subscribe-to-SPIDERMAN-MAGAZINE-Magazine-Subscription.aspx

45 Year Flashback: MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL No.1 (1972)

The Mighty World of Marvel No.1 arrived in newsagents across the UK 45 years ago this week. I don't have time to write a new post about it at present but couldn't let the moment pass without celebrating it, so here's an updated version of a post I wrote five years ago, accompanied by scans and photos from the issue I own...

This coming Saturday, September 30th 2017, marks the 45th anniversary of The Mighty World of Marvel No.1, - and 40 years since Marvel UK set up business. (Even though, initially, the comics were edited and designed in New York, with a London office just handling advertising, printing and distribution.)

Marvel UK no longer exist under that name of course. For many years now Marvel have been represented in Britain by Panini UK who have the license to publish UK editions of Marvel Comics (and a great job they do too). However, Marvel UK had a good run and it all kicked off four and a half decades ago with the comic shown in this post.

For some reason I missed the TV advertisements on September 30th for the launch of the comic and the first I knew about it was a few days later when my Mum and I were about to embark on a day trip to Blackpool. Nipping into the bus station newsagent to buy a bottle of pop for the journey I still remember the excitement when I spotted a pile of copies of The Mighty World of Marvel No.1 on the counter. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. A British Marvel reprint comic to replace the much-missed Fantastic which had folded four years earlier! And with a brand new John Buscema cover to boot!

Needless to say, a good portion of the coach journey to Blackpool was taken up reading the comic from cover to cover. The weather was pleasant that day anyway, but I don't think I'd have noticed if it had been lashing down with rain as I was too engrossed in that issue.

British reprints of Marvel comics had been appearing since the 1950s. Firstly with Len Miller reprinting Human Torch, Kid Colt, and more, and Odhams in the 1960s with their late lamented "Power Comics". Alan Class comics had haphazardly reprinted some Marvel classics too, but Marvel UK had been set up to introduce Marvel to Britain for a new generation. Therefore Mighty World of Marvel was printed Web Offset on matt paper (like Tiger and Cor!!) so it resembled the familiar British format. 

MWOM imitated the format of its predecessor, Fantastic, in that it was a 40 page comic comprised of an anthology of three strips, reprinting half of each of the original comics. Therefore we were given the first 10 pages of The Incredible Hulk No.1, the first half of Fantastic Four No.1, and the Spider-Man origin story from Amazing Fantasy No.15. (Subsequent weeks would continue this serialised approach, so issue 2 presented the second halves of Hulk and FF and the first half of Amazing Spider-Man No.1, and so on.)

Having 40 pages, The Mighty World of Marvel (or MWOM as it was often referred to) was a bit more substantial than the average 32 page UK comic, and its 5p cover price reflected that. (Most UK adventure comics of the time, such as Valiant, were around 3p in 1972.) Like most British comics back then, full colour on every page was out of the question if they wanted to keep costs down, but rather than print in black and white MWOM alternated between green spot colour and pale green paper. (I know some readers hated this but I really liked it. Unfortunately it was dropped several months later and contents became entirely black and white.) 

Only 5 pages were in full colour (increasing to 8 a few weeks later). Issue 1 used the colour of one page for a pin-up by recolouring the cover of Fantastic Four No.1. 

The centre pages of MWOM were used for self-promotion, and who better to present those pages than Stan Lee himself? (Although there's no guarantee he wrote his own editorial every week.)

The rest of the spread was taken up with teasers for 'The World's Greatest Free Gift Offer', encouraging readers to clip out the coupons over 11 weeks and send them in for a mystery gift. Clues were provided every week ("It's bigger than a breadbox") and eventually it was revealed to be an excellent full colour poster drawn by John Buscema of Spider-Man, Hulk, and the FF. (Yes, I clipped out the coupons and sent away for it, and had the poster on my bedroom wall until I left school and decided I was perhaps a tad too old for superhero pin-ups.) 

The free gift tucked inside MWOM No.1 was heralded on the cover as "A Green-Skinned Monster T-Shirt Transfer". It was of course The Hulk, but bearing in mind this comic was aimed at a brand new readership who would never have encountered him before, the words "Green-Skinned Monster" in the topline were probably more effective. 

(Mt transfer remains unused. At the time I felt I was too old for superhero T-shirt transfers. Besides, as you can see, it arrived slightly damaged.)

With such an incredibly strong line up of characters and featuring some of Marvel's most iconic stories, how could it fail? Although I'd read some of the material before in Odhams comics and American reprint comics such as Marvel Tales I bought Mighty World of Marvel avidly every week. I was 13 at the time, and getting a bit jaded by traditional British comics of the day, so this was just the ticket. Seems a lot of other people felt the same, as Marvel UK swiftly expanded with more comics, - Spider-Man Comics Weekly, The Avengers, Planet of the Apes, Dracula Lives, The Superheroes, Savage Sword of Conan, and numerous others. Some were successful, some were complete flops, but Marvel were firmly established as part of the UK comics scene. 

As the message in issue one said, "The excitement is just beginning". It certainly was. I could never have dreamed back in 1972, reading Mighty World of Marvel No.1 on that coach journey to Blackpool, that I'd be a contributor to MWOM's second series in the 1980s with some of my earliest cartoons appearing in its pages alongside Captain Britain by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. 


That second run was short lived, but after a gap of about 20 years Panini UK revived The Mighty World of Marvel. Now published every four weeks, that incarnation is still running and the latest issue (below) is in the shops now. The original MWOM had 40 pages for 5p with only a handful of colour. The current issue has 76 pages in full colour for £3.99. Not a bad evolution for the price. 

If you want to read more about the comics published by the predecessors to Marvel UK, see these old posts of mine...

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/road-to-marvel-uk-part-1.html

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/road-to-marvel-uk-part-2.html

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/road-to-marvel-uk-part-3.html

Review: The Leopard from Lime Street

In this, the second book in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line, The Leopard From Lime Street reprints the weekly episodes that originally appeared in Buster from 12th March 1976 to 11th June 1977. 

This was during a period when I'd stopped buying most British comics so the strips are new to me. Well, not entirely true. I'd seen one or two episodes back then, and haughtily dismissed the strip as a rip-off of Spider-Man. On a very basic surface level, it certainly is, but The Leopard from Lime Street has a charm and excitement all its own, and the artwork is of the highest standard seen in British weeklies. 

The plot: young Billy Farmer is scratched by a radioactive leopard and gains the strength and agility of a jungle cat. He makes a costume and sets out to fight crime, whilst taking photos for his local paper. Yep, the similarities to Spider-Man are glaring, but the British working class setting and distinctive UK storylines raise it above being a mere Spidey copy. Tom Tully's lively, fast-paced scripts carry the reader along, making the book an exciting page turner. The art, by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury is crisp and detailed, giving the strips a toughness and streetwise quality. It was very unusual in British comics back then for two artists to work as a pencil/ink team but it really works. In later episodes I'm guessing Western may have only supplied layouts, as Bradbury's style becomes more evident, but it's all great. Two of the best British artists working together? What's not to like?

I know that The Leopard from Lime Street has long had a dedicated following in British comics and I've never really understood why... until now. The advantage of this collected edition is it gives the reader the opportunity to get into the storylines and put aside any concerns of the source that inspired it. 

The book has an introduction by Steve Holland, and in the back there's a preview of forthcoming books in the Treasury of British Comics line, including Marney the Fox and Faceache. It's all looking good, so I hope fans of UK comics who have been clamouring for a return to the "good old days" will support these books so the line can grow. 

• CREATIVE TEAM:  Tom Tully (w) Eric Bradbury, Mike Western (a) 
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 13 July 2017
• PAPERBACK - 162 pages
• PRICE: £14.99 (UK)
• ISBN: 9781781085974
• DIAMOND: MAY171761

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

The Easter POW! (1968)

The Cloak, by Mike Higgs, was one of my favourite strips of the 1960s so I was over the moon to find myself working as Mike's assistant for a while in the early 1980s. I'm proud that I can call Mike a friend and still see him regularly when we put the world of comics to rights over a pie and a pint. (Not necessarily a pie.) Here's Mike's brilliant Cloak strip on the cover of the Easter edition of Pow! back in 1968. 

The strip continued inside. (The depiction of the natives wouldn't be permissible today but it has to be seen in the context of the times.)

The rest of the issue also had an Easter theme to the humour strips. Here's Ken Reid's incredible work on Dare-A-Day Davy...

The Tiddlers and The Dolls, drawn by Mike Lacey...

Georgie's Germs, drawn by Cyril Price, a veteran artist who had been illustrating comics since the 1930s and was still producing great work in the 1960s...

...and, on the back page, Sammy Shrink by Terry Bave...

Pow! also contained two Marvel reprints (Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four) and a few home-grown adventure strips. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the X-Men never had a strip in Pow!... except for this issue, when an edited version of a strip was used to promote that week's issue of Fantastic...

The 1960s were good days for British weekly comics. As with all things, times change, but the UK comics industry continues to evolve and survive (see my recent article on that here). Happy Easter!

This week in 1967: POW! No.12

As you were good enough to play along with my Pow! "mirror comic" April Fool, here's a few pages from the issue of the comic that was on sale exactly 50 years ago in 1967. 

The front cover highlights the SHIELD story inside (a reprint from Stange Tales No.140) but the cover image isn't a direct reprint of Jack Kirby's Strange Tales cover. It's actually a recreation for some reason, and lacking the skill of the original in places. (See here to compare it: 
http://www.reececomics.com/enlarged/STRANGE_TALES_140_9_0.jpg)

Odhams had a few covers redrawn like that, and I can only guess that they hadn't received a black and white copy from America and perhaps had someone trace a blow up of the actual American comic instead.

Pow's other Marvel strip was of course Spider-Man, with this issue of Pow! reprinting more of Amazing Spider-Man No.6 (which they serialised over three weeks). Script: Stan Lee, Art: Steve Ditko.

One of the Pow! strip I enjoyed the most was Kicks, drawn by Graham Allen...

A first glance at The Group might lead some to think it's Leo Baxendale artwork, but it's Mike Brown doing a great imitation of Leo's style...

There were four weekly Power Comics by this time, and the fifth (and final) one was to be added a week later. Here's the advert announcing Terrific, and I'll cover that comic next weekend. 

On the back page, Ken Reid only had a half page that week for his Dare-A-Day-Davy strip but he certainly packed a lot into it. The rest of the page was taken up with an advert for the very tasty Wiz ice cream lolly. They were delicious! 

I always felt that Pow! improved as it went on. These early issues were enjoyable but it wasn't until strips such as The Cloak and Experiment X were added that it started to find its identity. The 'Power Comics' always had a bit of a 'rough and ready' aspect to them though; robust stories and (sometimes) sloppy editorial design, but that was part of their appeal! They were an important part of children's pop culture in the sixties and I'm glad I was there to appreciate them.