The TITANS COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Up next, another ten covers of The TITANS comic from back in the '70s.  One of the things about British MARVEL weeklies was that they sometimes seemed a bit makeshift, and The Titans was no exception.  Perhaps it was due to the American production staff being more accustomed to turning out mags for a monthly instead of a weekly schedule, but whatever the reason, I found myself somewhat irked by the less than perfect results.  Whether it was art varying in size from page to page, or having no margins because they'd been trimmed too close to the panels, it robbed the comic of a truly 'professional' look.  Also, the reproduction varied in quality, and some pages had Letra-tone (which was sometimes too dark in such a reduced size) and some didn't.  Had a bit more care and attention being lavished on the title, it may well have lasted for far longer than a mere 58 issues.

Take a look at the FANTASTIC FOUR splash pages from #s 29 & 30 - they're not the originals, but have been redrawn to fit the 'landscape' format in a style pretty close to that of JACK KIRBY's.  This was a neat way of filling up one full U.K. page with the equivalent of one U.S. page (instead of two) and thereby using less material per issue.  Some re-drawn splashes were better than others, but you'll be able to judge for yourselves as this six-part series unfolds.  The FF covers (and one or two others by the look of it) have been similarly redrawn - most likely by LARRY LIEBER (#s 27 & 29) - and they're fairly good imitations.  So there you have it for the moment, but be sure to return for the next set of covers - coming soon!  In the meantime, as always, if you'd like to reminisce about any cover in particular (or just the comic in general), then feel free to do so in our ever-lovin' comments section.

Back page cover ad to #22