Tuesday, 3 February 2015

ROLL UP, ROLL UP! THE TITANS COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

As part of my constant quest to entertain all you Criv-ites, I now present the first part of The TITANS cover gallery, which will conclude with part six as there were only ever 58 issues published before it merged with SUPER SPIDER-MAN.  The Titans was an interesting mag, being the same size as MARVEL U.K.'s other weekly periodicals, but flipped on its side so that the bottom edge became the stapled spine. This allowed two reduced U.S. pages to be printed side by side, giving readers almost twice the content of other Marvel weeklies.

It's been said that The Titans was cancelled because it used up reprint material far too quickly, but Marvel is unlikely not to have anticipated this in advance.  It would've been a simple task to replace some strips with others when they started catching up with U.S. mags.  Besides, not all strips were presented complete in one issue, some being cut into two halves, with the second part appearing in the following ish.  Also, some splashes were redrawn to fill the full width of the page, effectively replacing two reduced U.S. pages, so Marvel certainly seems to have made allowances for the voracious nature of what was referred to as the 'landscape' format.

No 1's free gift colour poster

The fact is, had The Titans been the success that was hoped for, Marvel would've found the material to fill it, as no publisher ever cancels a hit mag.  And besides, they'd changed Spider-Man's comic into the same format, which they wouldn't have done had they been concerned about consuming their back-catalogue too rapidly. The simple fact is that sales gradually dropped off on The Titans and it was deemed to have gone as far as it could profitably go.

However, it was too good a name to lie dormant for long, and a few years later, the title and logo were revived for one of Marvel's Pocket Books.  However, that only lasted for 13 monthly issues, so the second incarnation, alas, fared no better than the first.  No need to shed too many tears over that sad fact now though, as we eagerly embark on a journey of rediscovery, ravenously revisiting The Titans' first ten of 58 certifiably classic covers.

And remember to come back for Part Two.  (You know how I hate to go anywhere by myself!)







Back cover to #7.  50p?  Aren't gifts supposed to be free?



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14 comments:

  1. John Pitt3 February 2015 at 12:32

    I never had this when it first came out, so it will be interesting to see everything I missed in chronological order.

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  2. Kid3 February 2015 at 13:06

    I've just recently re-acquired all 58 issues, JP - do I go beyond the call of duty to keep you entertained or not?

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  3. Anonymous3 February 2015 at 13:52

    If I remember correctly there was usually one complete story in each issue and the other four were split over two weeks in the normal Marvel UK manner - that's how it was with the FF issues anyway. Kid, you've said before that you didn't think much of The Titans so why acquire the whole set ?

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  4. Kid3 February 2015 at 13:57

    Duh?! Given my above response to JP, I'd have thought it was obvious, CJ - to post the covers on my blog.

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    Replies
    1. John Pitt3 February 2015 at 15:17

      Or even simply to HAVE a complete set of them!
      As they say in Pokeman,
      "Gotta catch 'em all!", eh?

      Delete
  5. Anonymous3 February 2015 at 14:05

    Oops, sorry !! And don't think I'm not grateful :)

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  6. Kid3 February 2015 at 14:08

    Oh good. I accept cheques, CJ.

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  7. Mondo3 February 2015 at 14:16

    I remember this title vividly. And for some reason - it makes me think of the flavour of Rancheros. Which may have come out at the same time - or I was on a buzz for them at the time...

    It was one of my earliest fascinations with Black Bolt - I'd seen him in an colour comic, years before but couldn't position the character or his power (see also Green Lantern). Wish I could remember what that original BB appearance was in

    The format never worked for me - and am still not sure what the reasoning was behind the flip was

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  8. Kid3 February 2015 at 14:25

    Simply to allow 2 reduced U.S. pages to be printed on one U.K. page without looking like a mistake, MM - and give readers more for their money. (And hopefully make money for Marvel in the process.)

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  9. Kid3 February 2015 at 15:21

    Well, there's always the nostalgia factor that compels one to re-acquire something, good or bad, from one's past, JP. The comics might not be that great, but they'll take me right back to that particular point in the mid-'70s.

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  10. Nick Caputo6 February 2015 at 01:31

    Kid,

    Nice to see these covers of which only a few are on the GCD. Keith Pollard appears to be the primary cover artist, with Frank Giacoia inking most of them. Keep them coming!

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  11. Kid6 February 2015 at 02:16

    Don't worry, Nick, I've got the full set, so feel free to copy these covers for the GCD.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rip Jagger6 February 2015 at 07:31

    These are Captain Marvel images I've never seen before. That's a treat. Thanks.

    Rip Off

    ReplyDelete
  13. Kid6 February 2015 at 13:10

    A pleasure, Rip. I think you'll find the covers yet to come quite interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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