1981: BLOCKBUSTER PART 2: ISSUE 1 (Marvel UK)

From June 1981:  Probably the most improbably titled series from the entire MARVEL UK oeuvre: the launch issue of BLOCKBUSTER monthly.

The Annex of Ideas tested the title (with a line-up of Thor and Omega) the previous Winter but cobbled together different contents for the ongoing version.  Omega returned, now accompanied by the b-list line-up of Iron Fist (last seen in the previous year's MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE WINTER SPECIAL) and the Inhumans.  Three perfectly serviceable strips but hardly a combo worthy of the title.

Interestingly, Marvel adopted the US Marvel Magazine Group house style for Blockbuster's cover design.  As far as I recall, this was the only place it was rolled out here... adding to the impression that this was an outsider even within the ranks of the British Bullpen.  

Blockbuster eventually ran for nine issues before succumbing, in the traditional turn-of-the-year cull of under performing titles, the following January.  The last issue was dated February 1982. 

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART 6 (Marvel UK)

From October 1981: the end is nigh... the final weeks of MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE.

Although it managed to outlive its companion MARVEL ACTION by sixteen issues, MSA didn't really fare much better and followed it into the pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA before the end of the year.  

The merger, which saw Daredevil survive but the MSA brand immediately vanish without trace (the first 'merged' issue conspicuously didn't mention MSA anywhere on the cover), coincided with the return of glossy covers (banished from the superhero weeklies since the Marvel Revolution of early 1979) and it's possible that the Bullpen deemed MSA unworthy of the upgrade... or they believed that marginal sales wouldn't survive the increased cover price (a 5p jump to 20p a copy).

The CAPTAIN AMERICA weekly, which also included Thor from the Marvel Action merger, was also on borrowed time.  This second merger, combined with the relaunch, pushed it into the following year but it was still cancelled in April.  

The Black Panther didn't fare quite so well and the end of MSA marked the last regular outing of the character in the UK line.  

Note the use of the word "newstand" in the half-page ad for the merger.  It might have been common parlance in the States but barely used here in the UK.  

BTW, for some reason I didn't scan the cover of issue 23.  I'll add it next time I have a scanning sesh. 

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART FIVE (Marvel UK)

From September 1981: five more doses (18-22) of "non-stop ripping action" (huh?) courtesy of MARVEL UK's not-much-longer-lived MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE weekly.

- To Be Continued -

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART FOUR (Marvel UK)

From August 1981: another four issues (14-17) from MARVEL UK's long-forgotten Daredevil/ Black Panther combo MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE.

- To Be Continued -

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART THREE (Marvel UK)

From July 1981: the next five issues (9-13) of MARVEL UK's brief MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE, the weekly with the Daredevil/ Black Panther double-act.  

- To Be Continued -

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART TWO (Marvel UK)

From June 1981: Issues 5-8 of MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE from the Annex of Ideas. 

1981: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE PART ONE: Issues 1-4 (Marvel UK)

From May 1981: the first four issues of MARVEL UK's twenty-six week wonder MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE.

MSA was a departure from M-UK's recent weekly fare.  It well and truly jettisoned Dez Skinn's pile-em-high policy of cramming as many strips as possible into every issue in favour of running just two.

DAREDEVIL, late of SPIDER-MAN's weekly following the demise of MARVEL COMIC, was the main attraction and reprinted a whole US instalment every week.  Just like the likes of THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR the previous decade, it seems that the Annex of Ideas hadn't really considered the long-term implications of burning through a month's worth of UK material every week. Maybe a lengthy run was never on the cards. 

The remaining pages were taken by shorter doses of Kirby's run on the BLACK PANTHER.  Possibly not one of Marvel's most bankable stars but a nice nod to pairing two of the Bullpen's less conventional heroes at a time when anti-heroes were still very much relegated to the margins of the black & white US magazines.  

Each of the first three issues were accompanied by loosely inserted t-shirt transfers although, typically, the second issue's cover neglected to even mention the freebie floating around inside.  

Marvel's notorious quality control even extended as far as publishing the first two issues with the same cover date (6 May) and then repeating the blunder on the next two issues (both dated 27 May).  

MSA fared better than its recently launched weekly companion MARVEL ACTION (with reprints of the Fantastic Four, Thor and Doctor Strange), which crashed after a mere fifteen weeks, but still expired before the end of the year.  Both weeklies folded into the CAPTAIN AMERICA, although MSA's merger didn't even merit a mention on the cover of the first combined issue.  

The title, but not the line-up, had been tested the previous year with a DEFENDERS-centric Winter Special.  

- To Be Continued - 

1981: THREE MARVEL UK TITLES THAT NEVER WERE (Probably)

From August 1981: Is this the British Bullpen's equivalent of Assistant Editors Month?  The week that some Ballpenner rashly announced three new titles... none of which actually appeared (unless you know otherwise).

WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS would have been the logical progression from the three Specials over the past couple of years... Although with Britain's youth fully immersed in the Star Age, its hard to imagine a long line forming at the newsagents to grab copies of creaky Marvel cowboy reprints.  

Did the SUPERTRONIC SPECIAL, dedicated to all-things-gizmo, ever surface?  I've certainly never seen a copy although, given its subject matter, it's unlikely to have had much appeal to collectors.  Computer and tech mags were a boom business in the Eighties but Marvel (at least in the UK... they had BLIP in the States) didn't capitalize.  

The impending TIME BANDITS one-shot may have been a reference to imported copies of the US Super Special Adaptation rather than a specific British edition.  But, either way, I don't think it happened.  The US adaptation came from the British creative team of Parkhouse and Lloyd but, ultimately, the only UK outing was as a back-up strip in the pages of RETURN OF THE JEDI weekly.  

This page also makes the bold statement that the much-missed glossy covers would not be making a comeback... but, of course, they did... within months.

This page appeared in MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE issue 15 (cover-dated 12 August 1981)... and probably the other weeklies as well. 

1980: MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE WINTER SPECIAL (Marvel UK)

The MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE WINTER SPECIAL 1980 was a one-shot mix of The Defenders, vintage Sub-Mariner and Iron Fist.

Although none of the strips made the cut, the title was revived the following May for a new weekly featuring longer (compared with the existing pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap(ish) Dez Skinn philosophy) instalments of DAREDEVIL (shuffled from the just-dead MARVEL TEAM-UP) and Black Panther.

The weekly notched-up 26 issues before merging with CAPTAIN AMERICA.

1981-82: CAPTAIN AMERICA WEEKLY PART.2

The second, and final, part of our look back at Captain America's 1981-82 UK weekly.

Things are about to go (a bit) glossy...

As with part one of this post, I'm missing a few issues so this (unfortunately) isn't a complete run of covers.  But it's close.

ISSUE 37

4 November 1981

Although it officially merges with this issue, MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE (briefly adding Daredevil) doesn't get a cover mention.

The "amazing 1st colour issue" splash is a tadge deceptive.  The only additional colour added with the relaunch was the glossy centre-spread plus the inside front and back covers (always black & white in the past, even with the original glossy covers), adding a whopping six pages of colour per issue (including the already-in-colour front and back covers).  The first "full colour" comics (and, even then, some of the pages were black & white + 1 colour and the rest frequently a murky mess) didn't arrive until 1983.

But, the return of the glossy covers did make Marvel's weeklies significantly more attractive than their IPC and DC Thomson rivals who would continue to use almost-newsprint for several more years.

The new format also cut the overall page count from 32 pages to a mere 24.  Despite the cut, the new format saw the price rise to 20p, a leap of 6p since the comic launched earlier the same year.

The free gift cardboard mask.

ISSUE 38

11 November 1981

ISSUE 40

25 November 1981

ISSUE 41

2 December 1981

ISSUE 43

16 December 1981

ISSUE 44

23 December 1981

ISSUE 46

6 June 1982

ISSUE 47

13 January 1981

ISSUE 48

20 January 1981

ISSUE 49

27 January 1981

A hammer in Hades... a pair of outrageous flairs in the fire!

ISSUE 50

3 February 1982

ISSUE 51

10 February 1982

ISSUE 52

17 February 1981

ISSUE 53

24 February 1981

ISSUE 54

3 March 1982

ISSUE 55

10 March 1981

ISSUE 56

17 March 1982

ISSUE 58

31 March 1982

ISSUE 59

7 April 1982

Cancellation announcement.

Oh the humiliation.  Marvel took the unusual step of cancelling the Cap's weekly but, despite being the star, not bothering to find him a home in another Marvel weekly.  Was it such a disaster that management didn't think it would transfer any new readers to another title?  

Thor took a temporary hiatus (his current strip was hastily wrapped-up by reviving the TITANS tradition of printing two US pages side-by-side on landscape orientated pages) before (briefly) powering back to his own weekly in 1983 (which he was soon forced to share with THE X-MEN).  Iron Man (who never nabbed his own weekly) was the sole survivor, rocketing into the pages of the about-to-launch THE INCREDIBLE HULK (volume 2) weekly.