Cover Of The Day

[SiHart]

Well that explains that one, yes?

[MacNimon]

I'm pretty sure Deaths Head was never a back-up strip, that he started in Transformers proper before spinning off everywhere, but then my memory may not be perfect.

You're nearly right there, Steve! But 'nearly' being the operative word, yes?

In fact, the character of Deaths Head was originally written as a one-off, to be killed off at the end of the story. However, during the creative process, they decided that the character was intriguing enough to return for future appearances and so rewrote the ending. However, this being a licensed comic, this meant that all rights to Deaths Head would belong to Hasbro (?) because he would have been deemed a character written specifically for the Transformers franchise; so to get around this, Marvel gave the character a special one-shot single page strip which was published in an issue before his initial Transformers storyline, thus ensuring the rights to the character belonged to Marvel.

Makes sense, yes?

[Dirk Gently]

This is an interesting conversation, yes?

[Andrew Curnow]

Now, have I got this right - we've got to end every post with a yes, yes?

[MacNimon]

Sticking with Marvel UK but going back to 1980 today. This cover features one of my favourite pieces of cover artwork, by the great Jim Steranko, although strangely recoloured. It reuses a classic Nick Fury cover from the 1960s (the original is below for the sake of comparison - I actually prefer the original, but Future Tense is the comic I wanted to feature today), even though Fury doesn't even appear in the comic.

At the start of the 1980s Marvel UK attempted copying IPC's success with themed titles (e.g. Battle was a war title, Tiger a sport title, 2000 AD a SF title, etc) by releasing its own themed titles, Valour (a fantasy themed comic) and Future Tense (sci-fi themed), both starting on the same week. The original Future Tense line-up was Micronauts, Paladin (from Marvel Premiere #43), Seeker 3000 (from Marvel Premiere #41) and Warlock (from Marvel Premiere #1); Star-Lord (from Marvel Spotlight #6) joined in #4 for a short run, while Marvel's Star Trek, beginning with the adaptation of the Motion Picture, replaced Seeker 3000 from #6 onwards. Star Trek and Micronauts were the only series which would feature for the remainder of the comic's run. Future Tense would swallow up failed titles such as Forces In Combat and Valour during it's run, adding such strips as Rom Spaceknight, Weirdworld and Conan to its line-up. Future Tense became a monthly in late 1991 and was cancelled itself after issue #41 in 1992.

Below is the original version of todays cover...Steranko is another of those artists I just can't get enough of!

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, I remember getting that first edition of Future Tense - I have a feeling that the luridly-coloured cover was what drew my eye to it. I never realised it was a gaudy reprint of a much better-looking cover.

I'm afraid I can't remember a single thing about the strips, but the free gift (as it says) was a 'build your own spaceship' which from memory was flat cardboard sections over probably 3 weeks that then had to be folded up and stuck together. I'm probably completely wrong, but my memory is that it came with no instructions at all.

1980, blimey!

[Alex]

I'd never seen or heard of Future Tense before, but it looks just like my kind of thing. I'm going to have to go and have words with my old newsagent as he clearly wasn't getting enough comics in!

[Alex]

Here's another of my favourite early 90's DC titles:



Originally created by Steve Ditko, Shade's first series only lasted for 8 issues and was largely forgotten about, until British writer Peter Milligan brought him back from obscurity for a 70 issue run, and made him one of the weirdest DC heroes ever seen.

The first twenty issues explore America in a quite unique way (as the main 'big bad', the American Scream, is attempting to turn the country quite quite mad), and it's fantastic stuff, but the series really came in to it's own after that as Shade quite literally becomes the Changing Man, and then Woman, and various other personas due to the effects his crazy old life has on him. There's a beautifully written central romance that ties everything together, and whilst at times it could be surreal, bleak, disturbing and plain weird, it was also very human, and knew the right time to inject humour in to proceedings.

Oh, and I choose this cover because it captures the disturbing nature of the early years in a quite beautiful way, if that makes any sense!

[Rob McCow]

It's a superb cover to Shade and no mistake - I'm really intrigued by this now! What possible reason could there be for such weirdness?

[MacNimon]

That sounds like one worth checking out too, Alex. While I'm familiar with Steve Ditko's short-lived original (I love Ditko!) I was totally unaware of this updated version. I'll need to have a look...

Sorry there haven't been any covers this week, I just haven't had much of a chance. It's nice to get a wee break now and again. Not that I've got much more time today, so a quickie this morning...another cover (#11) from the 1984 IPC horror comic, Scream!

Featuring a Tales from the Grave cover by Brendan MCarthy, other strips featured in this issue include the 11th episodes of The Dracula File, Monster and The Thirteenth Floor, as well as The Nightcomers, A Ghastly Tale and Library Of Death.

[Alex]

It's a superb cover to Shade and no mistake - I'm really intrigued by this now! What possible reason could there be for such weirdness?

Ah, I could tell you, but that'd spoil the fun of it all!

Featuring a Tales from the Grave cover by Brendan MCarthy

Out of interest, was that intentional Kenny? It's just that the Shade cover is by Brendan as well, and it's quite fascinating to compare the two...

[MacNimon]

It wasn't intentional, Alex. I honestly didn't realise...

I know how sometimes seeing a cover by a particular artist can make you intentionally want to post another (like Brian Bolland earlier in the thread) but that easn't the case this time round. Although he's an artist I know of, I simply haven't seen enough of his stuff over the years to instantly recognise his style in the way I can with a lot of artists.

[Alex]

I completely understand where you're coming from there, though it's a cool coincidence too! McCarthy's fairly unique in some ways as he's great at conventional artwork, but definitely seems happier when he's allowed to go to really crazy places - http://brendanmccarthy.byethost8.com/gallery/index.html

[MacNimon]

Today, we have the final issue of one of my favourite comic series of all, Brian Vaughn and Pia Guerra's Y-The Last Man. The artwork was possibly a little bit on the bland side, nothing wrong with it but not particularly exciting either, but that didn't really matter as the fabulous story unfolded...

For anyone who hasn't read this story about a plague which wipes out every male mammal on the planet except for one young man and his pet monkey, I really can't recommend this highly enough. Check it out!

[Alex]

That's one of my favourites as well, I was absolutely gripped by it at the time and raced through it. I'm glad to say the ending was really satisfying as well, unlike too many comics series.

[MacNimon]

I used to love those painted covers from the 1970s B&W Marvel magazines, some of which were reused a few years later on UK reprints. I first became aware of this Earl Norem cover on an early Rampage Monthly cover where the artwork was cropped and fitted into a frame. I much prefer the original US version, though...

[Rob McCow]

That is a rather wonderful cover! Hope that the storyline is as big as this suggests.

Always a bit weird to see the old-school Iron Man armour. It's a very 1930's cheapo robot look. The re-design was a vast improvement I reckons.

[Stuart Wallis]

Robotman meets King of the Rocket Men. They've got to start somewhere though...

[MacNimon]

Another favourite of mine today...Weird Western Tales #20 featuring an early appearance of bounty hunter, Jonah Hex. Hex went on to become one of DC's most popular characters and this cover hails from the period of his original creative team, writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and the character was so obviously a comic version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name...and reading these early tales, it's so easy to imagine Clint playing the part in a film version.

The cover wasn't by DeZuniga though, it was by Luis Dominguez and was used as the cover for the DC Showcase reprint collection, a few years ago.

[MacNimon]

Today we have the first appearance of one of Marvel's biggest and most popular villains. A Stan Lee/Jack Kirby classic from 1966 which also introduced the Silver Surfer...

[Rob McCow]

Also one of the most outrageous hats in comic book history.

Galactus is a bit of a story black-hole I reckon. He's far too powerful (and large) for any sensible interaction with any superhero. I've seen part of a cartoon adaptation of the storyline, so I've got no idea how the F4 ever saw the be-hatted bugger of the Power Cosmic off. Surely it's always going to be an intergalactic cop-out?

[Nyder]

I'm sure I used to read a comic with "The Amazing Three" in it. One of the heroes wore a cape I think..... I think I'd best rush off to Google! Back in a mo....

[Nyder]

Yes it was from the Jackpot comic c.1980. Here's a description of them from WikiP:-

"The Amazing Three" comic strip
Three ordinary young people - Sam Pacey (Oakman), Sue (Tanya) & Craig Travers (Blue Wizard), become gifted with super powers. Their arch foe was the Voggler. Drawn by Trevor Metcalfe.

It was The Blue Wizard who had the cape (and a cane I think!) I think Oakman was a direct rip-off of the Big Fella in Fantastic Four. Oh drat I'll have to hunt down a copy now!

[Logo Polish]

The Blue Wizard did indeed have a Magic Cane, which would always appear in his hand whenever they said "Rings of Zorr!" to turn themselves into the Amazing Three. Something which turned out to be quite useful when escaping from a cliffhanger in one story when all three of them were sinking into quicksand, and the cane had already gone from Wizard's grip and been swallowed by the sand.

Tanya simply uttered the phrase as above, and turned themselves back into their ordinary selves. "Crikey Sue, how's this help?" said one of the men plaintively, as they sank further. But then Sue just said it again, transforming them once more into the Amazing Three, and hence, the Magic Cane was back in the Blue Wizard's hand, and they could make good their escape.

[SiHart]

Wasn't that the cover that was the inspiration for Chris Achilleos' cover for The Three Doctors Target book?