Marvel In The UK

[MacNimon]

MWOM 145-147, SMCW 126-128, Avengers 95-97, Dracula Lives 38-40, POTA 38-40, Superheroes 19-21

[MacNimon]

double post!

[MacNimon]

Somehow I seem to have managed to get the Dracula Lives and POTA covers out of sync over the past several posts. Problem fixed in the previous post, and here are the two missing issues...

[MacNimon]

MWOM 148-150, SMCW 129-131, Avengers 98-100, Dracula Lives 41-43, POTA 41-43, Superheroes 22-24

[Stuart Wallis]

I'd forgotten there was a Doc Savage strip.

[Stephen Morgan]

I recall that Green Goblin storyline in the Spiderman weekly was an epic strip, it went on for several issues over the summer months. It was one of the highlights for me.

[MacNimon]

MWOM 151-153, SMCW 132-133, Avengers 101-103, Dracula Lives 44-46, POTA 44-46, Superheroes 25-27

[MacNimon]

MWOM 154-156, SMCW 134-136, Avengers 104-106, Dracula Lives 47-49, POTA 47-49, Superheroes 28-30

[MacNimon]

MWOM 157-159, SMCW 138-140, Avengers 107-109, Dracula Lives 50-52, POTA 50-52, Superheroes 31-33

[Stuart Wallis]

Does anyone find the name "Morbius" familiar...?

[MacNimon]

The Silver Surfer series in The Superheroes finished a few weeks earlier, having used up all available stories, and in his place we were introduced to...The Cat! This series ran for several issues, before being replaced in turn. I had totally forgotten about some of these strips until looking at these covers again, so it's been a joy rediscovering them! While the Cat's short run continued in The Superheroes which by now featured Ant-Man/Giant Man in the third slot, replacing Doc Savage, and The Avengers got a bold new logo at this time, life just generally continued as normal in the other titles in the range, which were all still selling well at this time. Selling enough that Marvel decided to add yet another title to their range; one which would offer twice as many pages of story and artwork for the same price. Marvel experimented with the design of their 8th UK title, The Titans, when it was released in October 1975. While the pages were exactly the same size and shape as all the other titles, they simply turned the pages onto their side (into a 'landscape' format rather than 'portrait') so that they could shrink the artwork and print two digest-sized pages on each page, allowing them to double the amount of material included in each comic. The fact that the material available for reprinting was dwindling didn't seem to be an issue here, because this title concentrated on those characters who generally hadn't yet appeared regularly in their own strips in other titles, such as Captain America, Nick Fury, The Inhumans, The Sub-Mariner, and Captain Marvel.

MWOM 160-161, SMCW 141-142, Avengers 110-111, Dracula Lives 53-54, POTA 53-54, Superheroes 34-35, The Titans 1-2.

[MacNimon]

MWOM 162-163, SMCW 143-144, Avengers 112-113, Dracula Lives 55-56, POTA 55-56, Superheroes 36-37, The Titans 3-4.

[Stephen Morgan]

I remember well buying these comics, and it certainly has been a joy rediscovering these covers in recent months.
While I clearly recall some of the story lines and characters, Spiderman/Lizard/Morbius stories in particular, I have no recollection whatsoever of The Cat, short lived as you say Kenny, but she rings no bells with me at all, although I know I bought those issue.
There are some other good covers on dispaly there too, those Hulk covers are very good, I especially like the Wendigo one, it's a little hard to believe that I would have been listening to Bohemian Rhapsody (as a new single) while reading these.

[Stuart Wallis]

I have a vague memory of the Cat being in the Defenders for a while.

[MacNimon]

I remember well buying these comics, and it certainly has been a joy rediscovering these covers in recent months.... it's a little hard to believe that I would have been listening to Bohemian Rhapsody (as a new single) while reading these.

They certainly bring back memories, don't they? That's why I abandoned the original Marvel US thread in favour of this one...because, although there were some great covers they didn't have the same nostalgia factor. I for one certainly don't have any memory of buying them...of course I read many of the stories from them in the UK reprints. These, however...I'm reliving my childhood all over again!

Another thing worth commenting on is the logos for all these titles...I think they were all really attractive, eye-catching titles. MWOM lost something when it added the 'starring The Incredible Hulk' byline (and I felt the same happened with The Avengers), but the original was one of my all-time favourite logos. Dracula Lives, The Superheroes, Conan...they all had excellent mastheads which looked great and added something to the covers. Spider-Man lost something in later years once it started merging with other titles but at this point it still looked great.

As for Bohemian Rhapsody, I actually hadn't thought about it in those terms. A scary thought! Now that you mention it, it would have been interesting to see what else was going on music-wise at the time, and what we were watching on tv (a mini version of what's in the PS Goes Back To... board) and what Doctor Who story was on tv when these were out, but it's probably a bit late in the day for that...

[Stephen Morgan]

They certainly bring back memories, don't they? .

..it would have been interesting to see what else was going on music-wise at the time, and what we were watching on tv (a mini version of what's in the PS Goes Back To... board) and what Doctor Who story was on tv when these were out, but it's probably a bit late in the day for that...

It's actually quite easy to find out, but, no, we don't want to go into that here, and anyway, I would think we'd cover all that whenever we get to the 1975 Dr. Who's in the PS Goes Back thread. That's something I'll be looking forwards to, meantime I'm about to update the 1964 contemporary music in the season 1 thread.

[MacNimon]

no, we don't want to go into that here

No, I totally agree! It was just one of those fleeting thoughts which pop into your head now and again...!

[MacNimon]

Again, proof that 1975 shows Marvel UK at its peak, now back to seven weekly titles following the release of The Titans. At this point, the failure of The Savage Sword Of Conan was simply a blip on its record. Unfortunately, things weren't going to be as rosy in 1976...

November 1975: MWOM 164-165, SMCW 145-146, Avengers 114-115, Dracula Lives 57-58, POTA 57-58, Superheroes 38-39, The Titans 5-6.

[MacNimon]

December 1975: MWOM 166-167, SMCW 147-148, Avengers 116-117, Dracula Lives 59-60, POTA 59-60, Superheroes 40-41, The Titans 7-8.

A slight change of logo for Dracula Lives this time round; however there was no merger involved, or actual change of contents from previous issues...presumably this was simply to draw potential readers/buyers attention to the fact that there was more than just Dracula himself featured inside...

[MacNimon]

December 1975: MWOM 168-169, SMCW 149-150, Avengers 118-119, Dracula Lives 61-62, POTA 61-62, Superheroes 42-43, The Titans 9-10.

[MacNimon]

January 1976: MWOM 170-171, SMCW 151-152, Avengers 120-121, Dracula Lives 63-64, POTA 63-64, Superheroes 44-45, The Titans 11-12.

Although 1975 had been a great year for the company with 7 weekly titles being published for most of the year, 1976 was the year where it all started to go wrong. A combination of material running short for some titles, and poor sales for others, meant that a number of titles were ripe for cancellation over the coming year and this would would lead to several years of short-lived titles before Marvel got it right again with a steady line-up at the end of the decade. But we're getting a bit in front of ourselves...let's go back to January, 1976...

[Stuart Wallis]

Something tells me a black man cast as a villain called Man-ape wouldn't get past the censors today...

[MacNimon]

January 1976: MWOM 172-173, SMCW 153-154, Avengers 122-123, Dracula Lives 65-66, POTA 65-66, Superheroes 46-47, The Titans 13-14.

[MacNimon]

I'll be getting back to this just shortly...I'm in the process of renaming images and organising them into easier to access collections to make for easier posting. Long file names for some have been causing problems...and I've spent so much time looking at/collecting/organising covers etc recently that it's been at the expense of everything else! There's a huge backlog of threads to catch up on...

[Stephen Morgan]

Still looking good though, I can't wait to see more titles/covers from 1976.