Marvel In The UK

[MacNimon]

The monthlies...






...and the Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

Covers from 21st January, 1982 - 11th February, 1982

The covers of the weeklies certainly had improved by this time, hadn't they? All two of them! Unfortunately I was no longer a regular buyer by this point, although I was still getting the monthlies regularly. I was concentrating on the US stuff at this point, though!

This month also sees the last issues of Blockbuster and Chiller Pocket Book.

SMCW 463-466, Captain America 48-51, SSOC 52, Starburst 42, Rampage 44, Marvel Superheroes 382, Doctor Who 61, Star Wars 155, Blockbuster 9, Marvel Madhouse 8 (no cover available), Blakes 7 5. Pocket Books - Chiller #23, Fantastic Four #23, Spider-Man #23, X-Men #23.

The monthlies...

[IMG][/IMG]

...and the Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

Covers from 18th February, 1982 - 10th March, 1982



SMCW 467-470, Captain America 52-55, SSOC 53, Starburst 43, Rampage 45, Marvel Superheroes 383, Doctor Who 62, Star Wars 156, Marvel Madhouse 9 (no cover available), Blakes 7 6. Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #23, Spider-Man #23, X-Men #23.

The monthlies...

...and the Pocket Books...

Just another couple of posts tomorrow will bring things as up-to-date as I've got...

[Dirk Gently]

I must say I've been enjoying most of the Conan covers...they really were stating to push the boundaries by March '82. That woman is now only wearing bits of metal instead of clothing.

[MacNimon]

I was moving onto the American originals by now, too. Most (but not all) of the weekly covers are new to me now, although I remember buying the occasional one - especially when a new title was launched - and I was even drifting away from Rampage because they were now reprinting stories I had already read. MSH was just the same, but theinclusion of Captain Britain in its pages kept my attention for a bit longer. Conan, Starburst, DWM, MSH and the Pocket Books were my regular purchases at this point, with the others just occasionally.

Covers from 17th March, 1982 - 7th April, 1982

One of the weeklies was now facing cancellation, once again. Captain America would end with issue #59, with a replacement title appearing the following week. This would become common practice for some time, two superhero titles per week. If one was cancelled, another would appear to take its place...at one point in the not too distant future (at least as far as this thread is concerned!) they attempted more but as you'll see when we get to it, it wouldn't be a success. However, a certain Spider-title continued to go from strength to strength...and I've got to say, in my opinion at least, with the return of glossy covers and some colour interior pages printed on better quality paper it certainly looked better than it had for quite some time...

SMCW 471-474, Captain America 56-59, SSOC 54, Starburst 44, Rampage 46, Marvel Superheroes 384, Doctor Who 63, Star Wars 157, Marvel Madhouse 10 (no cover available), Blakes 7 7 . Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #24, Spider-Man #24, X-Men #24 (no covers).

[MacNimon]

Marvel UK had already used up practically all of the material available for reprinting (although not all!) and were severely limited in what they could now offer. The monthly superhero magazines were reprinting material which had been released only a year or two earlier (if that) and the originals had been been easily found on UK newsagents shelves...because of the monthly publication period they weren't catching up any further though; and if they were now reprinting stories which were so familiar and recent to me, how many others around the country felt the same? And the weeklies were now reprinting older material which we (the older readers) had already seen before in the UK titles, so there wasn't much appeal there either...

This was the main reason for the dwindling sales of the range at this point. Why buy B&W reprints of stuff you already had? You were better off spending that same money on new, original product which had never been seen before. Marvel in the UK were facing a losing battle at this point. There would be a renaissance late in the 80s/early 90s of original UK-produced material which would eventually lead to the rather healthy range that Panini publish nowadays, but all that will be beyond the remit of this thread which will end at 1986 (although I might extend it a little, briefly looking at some of those later titles. It will be a voyage of discovery for me at that point as I'm not familiar with the period at all!) However, back in 1982 only a few titles appeared to be thriving...the ever-popular Spider-Man, Conan (which was reprinting quality material not previously available in the UK), Starburst (all original UK articles) and their other licensed products - Star Wars, Doctor Who and Blakes 7. Superheroes seemed to be on the way out, it seemed...

I'm pretty certain that I once read somewhere that the Marvel UK range was regarded as a feeder range by this point to get people interested in the main US range which was much more easily available now in the UK. I'll maybe do a sidestep next week and post covers of the US Marvel material which was available at the same time as the UK ones we're covering here.

Covers from 12th May, 1982 - 2nd June, 1982

Another Pocket Book falls by the wayside this month, Spider-Man ending with issue 25.


SMCW 479-482, Incredible Hulk 5-8, SSOC 55, Starburst 45, Rampage 47, Marvel Superheroes 385, Doctor Who 64, Star Wars 158, Marvel Madhouse 11 (no cover available), Blakes 7 8 . Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #25, Spider-Man #25, X-Men #25.

The monthlies...





...and the Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

I might as well round the week off with the last batch of Marvel UK covers I've got. It was an interesting project for a while, particularly gathering together all those 70s covers into chronological order, but the later ones just didn't have the same appeal for me and things ground to a halt, as covers from this period were becoming harder and harder to locate.

I've still got a complete set of 1977-1981 covers though which I'll probably return to at some point in the future to complete the thread, albeit out of order...

Covers from 9th June, 1982 - 30th June, 1982



SMCW 483-486, Incredible Hulk 9-12(no cover #12), SSOC 56, Starburst 46, Rampage 48, Marvel Superheroes 386, Doctor Who 65, Star Wars 159, Marvel Madhouse 12 (no cover available), Blakes 7 9 . Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #26, X-Men #26.









The monthlies...





...and the Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

SMCW 487-490, Incredible Hulk 13-16, SSOC 57, Starburst 47, Rampage 49, Marvel Superheroes 387, Doctor Who 656, Star Wars 160, Marvel Madhouse 13 (no cover available), Blakes 7 10 . Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #27, X-Men #27.






The monthlies...





...and the Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

SMCW 491-494, Incredible Hulk 17-20, SSOC 58, Starburst 48, Rampage 50, Marvel Superheroes 388, Doctor Who 67, Star Wars 161 (no cover available), Marvel Madhouse 14 (no cover available), Blakes 7 11 . Pocket Books - Fantastic Four #28, X-Men #28.






The monthlies...





...and the final Pocket Books...

[MacNimon]

And finally as the range shrinks again and the Pocket Books finally disappear...

By this point, only the Starburst, DWM, Conan and B7 covers really hold any appeal for me...

Covers from 11th August, 1982 - 1st September, 1982



SMCW 495-498, Incredible Hulk 21-24, SSOC 59, Starburst 49, Rampage 51, Marvel Superheroes 389, Doctor Who 68, Star Wars 161, Marvel Madhouse 15 (no cover available), Blakes 7 12.






The monthlies...

Back to normal Cover Of The Day service next week!

[Dirk Gently]

Thanks for these, Kenny. There's some 'interesting shading' on the last Incredible Hulk cover that I'm surprised they got away with.

[Rob McCow]

Some of these covers were a bit pervy, weren't they? And Spider-Man's enemies were always trying to hump him from behind.

Shock! Spock for Star Trek II! My, those really were simpler times.

[Andrew Curnow]

Do you know the 2nd part of the Fruit Gum Secret? I used to get B7 magazine every month, but I must admit I don't know it!!

[Stephen Morgan]

I might as well round the week off with the last batch of Marvel UK covers I've got. It was an interesting project for a while, particularly gathering together all those 70s covers into chronological order, but the later ones just didn't have the same appeal for me and things ground to a halt, as covers from this period were becoming harder and harder to locate.
I've still got a complete set of 1977-1981 covers though which I'll probably return to at some point in the future to complete the thread, albeit out of order...

It has been an interesting project, certainly for me as the covers brought back all sorts of memories, particularly as all the weeklies are hanging around at my parents attic and are awkward to get at. I'd love nothing more than to physically revisit them.
I too lost interest around '81/82 as my newsagent seemed to be having trouble getting the monthlies in?? Dr. Who monthly was on the shelves then anyway and I naturally migrated to that one, therefore never losing contact with comic buying which had dominated my life since at least the early 1960s, shame I didn't keep everything I bought or ever had.
Kenny, this has been a great thread, thanks for the time and patience in putting up these memorable covers, it's made me happy just to see those, one day I shall come back to them.

[Jonno]

Must just pop in to say a massive thanks to Kenny for your time and dedication in not just putting these covers up, but for all the background info you supply. If you made a book of all these, I'd buy it!

I appreciate that you've put a lot of these up for me further to what I've been writing on the Comics Thread. What this has done is answer some questions from my personal memory, but also raised a few more! I'll post more about this on the Comics Thread in due course.

[MacNimon]

No problem, Jonno...you're welcome. I was happy just to have an excuse to post them! It was basically just a copy-and-paste job anyway because I already had the posts prepared...just a little tinkering was needed because of the limit here of the number of images allowed per post. That was still easier than just selecting the covers you originally mentioned...