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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS (and relevant owners) |
I can only speculate as to the reasons why, but after launching their first three British periodicals (The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY, and The AVENGERS) individually over a few months, MARVEL U.K. then adopted a somewhat different approach. DRACULA LIVES and PLANET Of The APES were both released the same week - as were their next two titles, The SUPER-HEROES and SAVAGE SWORD Of CONAN. Perhaps they felt that two new comics would make more of an impact on potential readers than one on its own. Who knows.
Marvel U.K.'s next two new publications, The TITANS and CAPTAIN BRITAIN, were released individually with almost a year between them, although with RAMPAGE and The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR in 1977, it was back to two at a time. (I think that the next two British Marvel weeklies released together were the THOR and X-MEN titles in early 1983, which soon merged into one mag - making it even more like the Odhams Press POWER COMIC aptly known as FANTASTIC from the late 1960s.)
Anyway, here's a selection of covers from some of the comics mentioned, simply because they're nice to look at and also bring back a lot of memories for me. I'm sure it's the same for you, too - so feel entirely free to indulge yourself in these images of yesteryear.
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It was unusual to launch two new comics on the same day but I imagine they were trying to dominate the marketplace as quickly as they could. Planet of the Apes was a big success for them I hear?
ReplyDeleteIt lasted 123 issues, so yeah, it was very succesful for over four years. In fact, I hear that Marvel US had to keep the American magazine going just to supply the British weekly with material. Amazing, eh?
ReplyDeletethese were my entry into british reprint world.
ReplyDeleteDo any of you remember the tv advertising for these items.
I bought them all from number one so I must have seen them advertised on kids tv.
I have vivid memories of one for the TITANS.
Planet of the apes even had the crazy idea of re-drawing ape faces on to characters in other stories to make them ape related...see KILLRAVEN.
I was the older brother so I chose Planet of the Apes and he would but Dracula lives...then swap over.
I still have a lot of these in a box...Sometimes I look through them and find messages and drawings from my childhood.contests entered but never sent..
I never saw the OLDHAM comics before this set of reprints.
The only TV ads for Marvel UK that I remember are the ones for MWOM and SMCW - if I saw any for subsequent comics then I've forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI do remember seeing one for Odhams' Fantastic back in the '60s 'though.
For my mum, who was placing the order and actually paying for the comics, I think Dracula Lives was a step too far. Wish I'd got it though.
ReplyDeleteI remember a relatively high tv profile for The Titans (Pebble Mill at One, maybe?) but not for any of the other titles.
The contents of the first 2 or 3 issues are included in Marvel Firsts: The 1970s Vol 1 - and in full colour!
ReplyDelete