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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Within a year of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL being launched in Britain, STEVE DITKO's back-catalogue of SPIDER-MAN stories had been exhausted, the last of them appearing in SMCW #32 - released 15 days short of a full 12 months since the first issue of MWOM had gone on sale on September 30th, 1972. Had the early Spider-Man adventures been reprinted in complete instalments, they'd have been used up far quicker than they were.
Just goes to show that U.K. weekly comics consumed far more material that their U.S. monthly counterparts. In fact, I believe that the Stateside PLANET Of The APES was kept going in later issues mainly to provide material for the British POTA because it was so popular, thereby adding to the merry Marvel coffers.
Like its companion title, SMCW by this time was completely devoid of colour - apart from front and back covers - and had lost some of the visual appeal that earlier issues had. Nonetheless, at 40 pages for 5p, it still represented good value for money, and was to prove the longest-lasting title in the British Marvel stable.
However, a surprise was lurking around the corner. Maybe I'll tell you about it in our next Spidey cover gallery post.
3 comments:
Kid,
Those two Romita Spider-Man pin-ups may have been drawn especially for Marvel UK. I don't recall seeing them elsewhere.
Perhaps they're utilising a couple of Romita panels from Spidey stories, Nick, that have been turned into pin-ups?
Always possible, but nothing I recognize.
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