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Within minutes of someone mentioning this mag in a comment on a recent post, I bought it on eBay. It arrived yesterday and I read it last night, the realisation that I was a mere 21 years old when it was first published uppermost in my mind. So, effectively, time travel, as in my head I had returned 42-and-a-half years into the past - almost two-thirds of my life ago. I hadn't even known of its existence back then, but it can now join the first three issues of the regular Marvel UK weekly comic of the same name, which I still have all these years later. And thus that particular circle is complete, and I can fool myself into believing that I've owned this mag since it first came out.
Any of you Crivvies buy it at the time? Any memories, associations, thoughts or observations you'd like to share? The comments section awaits your esteemed presence - after you've enjoyed perusing these pulsating pages and pin-ups, of course.
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I didn't know this Winter Special even existed but I did own the issue of Marvel Team-Up from where the Spidey & Red Sonja story originally came so I vaguely remember it. Both Red Sonja and an evil wizard come forward in time to the present day and there's a scene where the wizard is astonished when he sees the size of New York's skyscrapers if I recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteI loved MTU, (both the US and UK versions!)
ReplyDeleteThe UK comic had so much crammed into it (was it five strips?). Unfortunately it had a short life and soon merged into Spidey's own weekly, as per usual!
You're more or less correct, CJ. The evil wizard 'possesses' and transforms the body of a security guard into a double of himself (the wizard, that is), and Mary Jane transforms into Red Sonja, both courtesy of some magical amulet or something. (I've already forgotten the precise details.) And you're right about the skyscrapers.
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It's a shame so many UK Marvel mags failed to be successful with the comics-buying public, JP. Quite a few of them deserved a longer life than they ended up with.
I wasn't aware that there was a Marvel UK Team-Up comic but like Colin, I had ( still have) the US Red Sonja & Spidey team up issue. It was one of my favourite Marvel Team-Up comics with great John Byrne art
ReplyDelete"...soon merged into Spidey's own weekly"
ReplyDeleteWas it preceded by a "Great news, pals!" notification in the previous issue? That was the standard operating procedure, if I recall.
Hi Kid! I bought this off the news stand when it first came out,in a shop in Hanwell, London, when I briefly lived and went to school in the wonderful UK. (Ealing College of Higher Education). I was feeling homesick, and I had stopped buying comics in the states when they went up to
ReplyDelete, Horrors, 35 cents!! Then I saw this, and remember Byrne from his Charlton days. I also started to buy the Marvel Pocket Book magazine of the Fantastic Four. I loved the art in black and white.
By this time the regular weeklies weren't quite so impressive, McS, with no colour (except on the cover) and ordinary paper covers. Of course, MWOM and SMCW had ordinary paper covers as well at the start of their 'career', but they somehow seemed far more spectacular. I think Marvel's later UK weeklies didn't stand out on the newsagents' shelves to the same degree, which is why some of them weren't noticed by potential readers at the time.
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Marvel UK didn't seem to use the 'great news inside' line on their comics, BS, though there was usually a page or half-page inside, advertising the contents of the next week's 'combined issue'.
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I've got a full set of those FF Pocket Books, LM (they're on the blog somewhere), though I missed a few issues at the time. Thankfully, I was able to plug the gaps just a few short years ago.
Hi Kid, that's a good tip about the team-up special. Is the printing up to scratch tho? I ask because I do love to see some artists work in pure b/w, especially the Byrne and Austin team so if you get a spare minute could you say a0 whether it's printed larger than the standard US comic size and b0 is the print nice and sharp? The pages you posted look OK but the devil's in the detail - literally sometimes lol. Cheers mate!!
ReplyDeleteIt's around the usual size of a Marvel b&w mag, MN, which is bigger than a colour one. The printing is clear enough, though I've brightened the pages slightly for cleaner reproduction on the blog.
ReplyDeleteGood enough for me - off to el ebay right now lol. Thanks Kid!!
ReplyDeleteNae bother at all, MN.
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