CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: SPIDER-MAN (UK) COVER GALLERY... (Updated)

Saturday, 24 June 2023

SPIDER-MAN (UK) COVER GALLERY... (Updated)

Spider-Man's UK mag started life as Spider-Man Comics Weekly and underwent several name changes over the course of its life to accommodate the merger of poorer selling titles - both before and after the issues you see in this post. (For a full list, click here.) For some reason I now forget, I started buying the comic again with the above ish (probably because it contained the first part of an adaptation of the 2nd Indiana Jones movie), and kept it up for a 32 issue run. Or at least, it would've been 32 if I hadn't somehow missed a few, which I eventually managed to acquire nearly 35 years after they first came out. In 2019 I rounded up the number to 33 with #622 in order to complete the storylines continued from #621, then rested from my labours. It may have taken a while, but I got there in the end.

What I find surprising (even though I shouldn't) is just how much I remember about certain issues and the days I bought them, the associations with times and places every bit as crystal clear as they were back then. Every single cover reminds me of the room and the house in which I lived at the time, and it's almost as though I'm back there and never flitted to return to my current home. (Regular readers will understand, so I won't go over old ground and risk boring everyone to death.) Take #594 as an example. I remember buying this from a newsagent's in the Old Village quarter of my town and leaning against a wall around a large old building which served as a bank as I browsed through its pages. It was a sunny Saturday in July and it only seems like last week to me - if even as long as that.

As I type, whenever I glance up from my keyboard, I almost see my old room around me and the view from my window across the playfields outside. That's one of the good things about comics - they have the uncanny ability to transport you back to an earlier period of your life, practically in the blink of an eye. Looking at these covers now, I'm aware that I have the original US issues of two or three of them, but the UK versions are just as memorable as their counterparts, each one having its own distinct set of memories, neither one 'pulling rank' on the other. Anyway, if you bought any of these mags back in the day, I'm sure you'll have your own reminiscences about them, so feel free to share them with your fellow Crivvies. And if you have a favourite cover (or covers), be sure to mention that too. Excelsior!

Update: I've now added the two Specials for '84 as well.

12 comments:

McSCOTTY said...: Certain comics take me " back in time" as well Kid, in fact that's probably the main reason I stuck with them so long. I don't recall any of these covers at all or the Spidey comic from this time. I stopped reading SMCW after the last issue ( well I bought a few of the Dez Skinn "Spider-Man Comic" issues) .I started again in the early 1990s picking up the occasional "Expoits of Spider-Man" UK monthly as it reprinted earlier issues ( and the new stories were actually ok).

I see one of the comics here says it features a new UK Spidey tale , was that a specially created UK only strip?; 25 June 2023 at 01:30
Kid said...: Yep, it sure was, McS. It was a four-parter, which began in #607. That was one of the issues I missed at the time, only obtaining it around a year or so back (along with its free gift). I bought the first 29 issues of Exploits, many of which contained great free full-colour posters. I'll have to think about putting them up on a spare bit of bedroom wall one of these days. Sadly though, I don't actually have any spare bedroom wall at the moment.; 25 June 2023 at 03:52
Colin Jones said...: I stopped reading Marvel UK around 1981 so I've never seen these covers before and I've never heard of Exploits Of Spider-Man but it would be interesting to see a cover gallery, Kid.; 25 June 2023 at 11:29
Kid said...: And such an episodic gallery already exists on the blog, CJ. In fact, you even commented on it, back in 2014. Type 'Exploits Of Spider-Man Cover & Image Gallery' into the blog's search box. I may do an omnibus post of the covers one day.; 25 June 2023 at 12:36
Colin Jones said...: Kid, my ageing, feeble brain can't possibly remember 2014 but I did as you instructed and lo and behold I had indeed commented on those Exploits Of Spider-Man posts. It was very strange reading comments by me that I have no memory of writing. Those two sherry glasses from the '70s that I mentioned in one of my comments have since been smashed unfortunately but on the plus side I did start buying bagels.; 26 June 2023 at 14:15
Kid said...: BOTH sherry glasses broken, CJ? You need to cut back on the sherries if that's how clumsy you get after you've had a few. Regarding comments, I'm the exact same on other blogs, often being surprised on seeing a comment from me that I've no memory of writing. Hell, I'm the same with my own replies on this blog. I must modestly confess to being amazed at how clever I am on some of my replies though. "Did I really type that?" I'm continually asking myself, obviously because I don't always realise I'm as smart as I am. (And humble with it.); 26 June 2023 at 15:18
Gene Phillips said...: So am I correctly understanding, from the British Comics DB, that the "Big Ben" on these covers is not in any way related to WARRIOR's "Big Ben?" That Marvel, irritated by the use the Marvel name in Marvelman, actually tried to flip off WARRIOR by creating a feature, "The Thing is Big Ben," which was just various MARVEL TWO IN ONE reprints?; 27 June 2023 at 03:43
Kid said...: I don't know if that was the reason for Marvel's use of the name or not, GP. Seems a reasonable speculation and it could even be a fact.; 27 June 2023 at 04:27
Monty said...: I collected Spider-Man comic for 2 or 3 years from issue 450 when it became Spider-Man TV Comic. I had my name printed in one of them, no letter though, just acknowledgement that I had written to them with a long list of other people.; 28 June 2023 at 10:37
Kid said...: Did you keep that issue as a memento of your claim to fame, M, or has it vanished into limbo?; 28 June 2023 at 12:23
Monty said...: I've still got it, Kid and all the others. I did have a letter printed in Battle, I figured grovelling was the way to go to get my name in print so I told them how great the comic was. Although I meant it, looking back I think I may have gone slightly over the top. I also won a prize in Smash Hits, the top prize was everything electronic and state of the art, TV, video, hi-fi, ghetto blaster, Walkman, laser disk player. I won a credit card radio runner-up prize which I gave to my Grandad as I thought he would get more use out of it. He walked around with it in his top pocket until one day he bent to pick something up and it fell out and smashed on the floor. Funny how your posts can start a chain of thought, Kid. Very thought provoking, they are.; 28 June 2023 at 17:41
Kid said...: I had a few letters printed in various UK Marvel mags, but I never kept them at the time. Managed to find replacements for all of them (I think) decades later, which I still have. I also won £1 for a drawing (inked by Ken Reid over my art) in Shiver & Shake. Plus, I won a Treasury Edition for taking part in a competition in The Titans, but it must've gone missing in the post, 'cos I never received it. Nice to hear my posts are provocative in a good way.; 28 June 2023 at 18:37

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artist on various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artist and spot illustrator on pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

For MARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as a restoration artist for MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

Have also made TV appearances as a collector of memorabilia.

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Just some of the titles I worked on are:

2000 A.D. * JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE * DICEMAN * SONIC The COMIC * JUDGE DREDD, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE * CRISIS * REVOLVER * EAGLE * TIGER * BATTLE ACTION-FORCE * BUSTER * WHIZZER & CHIPS * WHOOPEE * NIPPER * SCHOOL FUN * ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE * The REAL GHOSTBUSTERS * DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE * COUNT DUCKULA * RUGRATS * The TRANSFORMERS * DEATH'S HEAD * THUNDERCATS * GALAXY RANGERS * DRAGON'S CLAWS * SINDY * MARVEL MASTERWORKS * The TROLLS * LOADED * INFERNO * WARHAMMER * ROSE BLACK.

Copyright Notice:

Images remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are used here only for the purpose of review, promotion, and nostalgia.

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In the case of images culled from my own collection where copyright of an item isn't mine, I impose no copying restrictions on fellow bloggers.

(Although, if you don't allow copying on your own site, then you really shouldn't be copying from others, should you?)

And while you can credit this blog if you like, it's not mandatory. Who has time to make notes of every casually visited site during an idle browse of the internet?

In the case of anyone copying images of my own artwork and calligraphy, I affirm my right to be identified as the creator, and any such copying should not be for the purpose of monetary or material gain. (Unless it's mine.)

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