Back Issue #63

, COMiCs bROnzE AGE AnD bEYOnD i.

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CBA’s Jon Cooke is back in April!

Make ready for COMIC BOOK CREATOR, the new voice of the comics medium!

TwoMorrows is proud to debut our newest magazine, COMIC BOOK CREATOR, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Behind an ALEX ROSS cover painting, our frantic FIRST ISSUE features an investigation of the oft despicable treatment JACK KIRBY endured from the very business he helped establish. From being cheated out of royalties in the ’40s and bullied in the ’80s by the publisher he made great, to his estate’s current fight for equitable recognition against an entertainment monolith where his characters have generated billions of dollars, we present Kirby’s cautionary tale in the eternal struggle for creator’s rights. Plus, CBC #1 interviews artist ALEX ROSS and writer KURT BUSIEK, spotlights the last years of writer/artist FRANK ROBBINS, remembers comics historian LES DANIELS, sports a color gallery of WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, showcases a joint talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL on their unforgettable collaborations, as well as throws a whole kit’n’caboodle of other creator-centric items atcha! Join us for the start of a new era as TwoMorrows welcomes back former Comic Book Artist editor JON B. COOKE, who helms the all-new, allcolor COMIC BOOK CREATOR!

80 pages • $8.95 All-color • Quarterly Digital Edition: $3.95 COMING THIS JULY: COMIC BOOK CREATOR #2 (double-size Summer Special) Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, rememberreturns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured through FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembertures: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY ing LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

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Volume 1, Number 63 April 2013 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael “Paul” Eury PUBLISHER John “John” Morrow DESIGNER Rich “George” Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Ron Wilson and Dave Hunt COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael “Ringo” Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek

FLASHBACK: The Mighty World of Marvel UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 How the Second Battle of Britain was Won! With a bounty of art unseen by most US readers

SPECIAL THANKS Peter Milligan Roger Ash Michael Aushenker Pat Mills Elizabeth Millsted Howard Bender Ian Millsted Jerry Boyd Pamela Mullin Mike Burkey Alan Murray Jarrod Buttery Kevin O’Neill Alan Davis Josh Palmano Jo Duffy Tim Quinn Mark Farmer Jim Salicrup Forbidden Planet (ForbiddenPlanet.com) Jason Shayer Dez Skinn Dave Gibbons Grand Comic-Book Dean Smith Tom Spurgeon Database Robert Greenberger Jim Starlin Herb Trimpe Dan Hogan Ray Wergan Heritage Comics Steve White Auctions James Kingman David Anthony Kraft VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO Nick Landau Rob Kirby Marvel Comics Brendan McCarthy Robert Menzies

FLASHBACK: The Launch of the “Titanic” Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Marvel UK’s ambitious, and sometimes problematic, landscape comics

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy (which entitles you to the free Digital Edition) at our website or your local comic book shop. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded at

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BACKSTAGE PASS: Comic Book Beatles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 The Fab Four in four-color, including the George Pérez-drawn The Beatles Story BEYOND CAPES: Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 The British TV show that crossed the pond and joined the Marvel lineup FLASHBACK: Warrior Magazine and the British Invasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Many of your favorite writers and artists got their start in this anthology series OFF MY CHEST: Eyewitness to the British Invasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Robert Greenberger’s observations of the British talent wave at DC Comics PRO2PRO: The Strange Worlds of Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy . . . . . . . . . . .54 Extraordinary collaborations from out-of-the-ordinary storytellers FLASHBACK: The Sword is Drawn!: Alan Davis’ Excalibur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 The artist’s on again/off again relationship with the “cosmic comedy” X-Men spin-off FLASHBACK: This Magazine is Now Under Marshal Law! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Deflating and defeating fraggin’ superheroes, with Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill OFF MY CHEST: Travels with V (for Vendetta) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 A very personal look at the seminal Alan Moore/David Lloyd shocker BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Letters on BI #57, the Jenette Kahn issue IN MEMORIAM: Joe Kubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com.

Six-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Ron Wilson and Dave Hunt.

Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2013 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. British Invasion Issue

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Detail from the cover of Captain Britain #1 (Jan. 1985). Art by Alan Davis. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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INTERVIEW: “Jigsaw” Jim Starlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Exploring some of the superstar artist’s earliest—and rarest—covers and art

In the post–war years, Marvel Comics had gradually been building an international presence through the licensing of its strips to foreign publishers. Since 1951, various British companies had been making good use of this treasure trove, but it was all very scattershot.

Suddenly, in the midst of a huge expansion in America in the early 1970s, Marvel suddenly put an end to this and began planning its own invasion with a line of comics created especially for the UK domestic market.

The big puzzle has always been why they did this, and until very recently answers remained elusive.

There was undoubtedly a financial gain to be had through advertising and the reach that publishing directly in the UK would grant Marvel, and with Marvel head editor Stan Lee being such an Anglophile, he would have been well aware that their stories didn’t require any major translation (bar the odd Anglicisation) to be intelligible to a British audience.

But neither of those reasons alone seemed enough.

There had to be more to it than that, and there was … although it’s taken me nearly two decades to finally uncover why the invasion happened!

by

Rob Kirby

WHY MARVEL INVADED BRITAIN I grew up with “British Marvel,” but this was a fan nickname and was never used officially. Throughout the 1970s they were Marvel Comics International, and from 1979 became Marvel Comics Ltd., complete with a new logo surrounded by the British flag. They didn’t use Marvel UK as a company logo until later in the 1980s. I’d eagerly clambered on board back in early 1976 after seeing Spider-Man’s origin story on television that previous summer. I eventually found a new-style copy of Super Spider-Man with the Superheroes and was hooked by it, so much so that I continue to buy the UK comics to this day; a perspective that then gave me an unusually complete overview when I decided to index the bulk of their output back in 1990.

I’d become curious, you see, as to what hadn’t been published over here and wanted to purchase any missing US stories that caught my interest. It was a lot of fun, but it did seem a shame to have generated such a huge pile of notes just for a want list. With nothing at all about Marvel UK in print, and precious little about US Marvel back then, either, it wasn’t long before I decided to develop my initial work into a book. Obviously, I’ve only been able to touch on some of the topics that are covered in far more detail over many paragraphs, pages, and even chapters in my book From Cents to Pence – The Definitive Guide to Marvel’s British Comics (1951–2011), but it’s my hope that this feature will suitably whet your appetite and encourage you to explore the company further.

Marvel had previously had some presence in Britain, and since 1951 various UK publishers from 2 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

EIC in the UK (above) The Thing pitches for a six-pack of posters sold through Marvel UK titles. (inset) Then-Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter visits the Marvel UK offices in 1987. (left to right) Wilf Prigmore, John Tomlinson, Richard Starkings, Spider-Woman (Wendy King), Dave Hine, Kev Hopgood, James Hill, Mike Collins, Jeff Anderson, Shooter, John Gatehouse, Tim Perkins, Stephen Baskerville, Ian Mennell, Simon Furman. Photo courtesy of Michael Aushenker.

Thanks John Tomlinson for identifying the depicted parties.

Special thanks to Steve White and Rob Kirby. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Strato to Thorpe and Porter, Len Miller, Alan Class, and latterly Odhams had all published various stories from the back catalogues of Atlas and Marvel. But apart from Odhams’ late-1960s line of Marvel-orientated “Power Comics,” this abundant source of strip material was merely treated as a cheap and cheerful reservoir for filling up the pages of a comic while keeping the costs of production and origination as low as possible.

What is far less well known is that black-and-white hard-copy prints used by the publishers were being supplied by an American company called Transworld Feature Syndicate. Understandably, few people knew anything about how they operated, never mind how extensive their involvement with Marvel was as the catalyst igniting their eventual British explosion in 1972. And this mystery might have remained so had the name Raymond Wergan not leapt out at me from the pages of The Times newspaper one Saturday in 2011. I’d long ago exhausted the few leads I had in trying to locate a Ray Wergan who’s been involved with Transworld in London, so I quickly sent an email to the editor of their Feedback column, hoping they might pass a message on. When a new email marked Marvel UK popped up a few days later, I knew my hunch had been correct, and it heralded the start of a continuing correspondence!

IT’S A TRANSWORLD To begin with, there were actually two separate businesses sharing the Transworld name, along with a network of subsidiary offices spread across the world.

Originally set up by Ida Landau in the late 1940s, by the early 1960s the New York-based Transworld Feature Syndicate Inc. was being run by her lawyer son Albert.

Initially “handling comics, teenage magazine stories and pictures, as well as fiction illustrations for women’s magazines,” Wergan tells me that by the turn of the 1960s they were targeting the growing comics market too. “One of Al Landau’s clients was Martin Goodman

Back in the Paste-Up Days Original letters page to Avengers (1st Series) #44 (July 20th, 1974). Courtesy of Rob Kirby. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

US EDITORS ON THE UK COMICS 1972–1974 – Jim Salicrup 1974 – Mark Hanerfield (for a matter of weeks helping Marvel out of a jam, and it’s thought that it was Mark who suggested converting the Killraven stories for the Planet of the Apes weekly to use) 1974–1976 – Duffy Vohland 1976 – David Warner 1976–1978 – Larry Lieber

US ASSOCIATE EDITORS ON THE UK COMICS 1972–1974 – Tony Isabella (preceded by one or two interns, and then by Steve Gerber, although none were ever credited in print) 1974 – Len Wein 1974 – Pete Iro 1974 – Scott Edelman 1975–1976 – Jay Boyar 1976 – Duffy Vohland 1976–1977 – Bob Budiansky 1977–1978 – Danny Fingeroth (who continued to have an involvement with the UK comics, after production shifted over completely to the UK under the aegis of Dez Skinn in late 1978, as their New York liaison man) British Invasion Issue

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UK’s “Big Three” with a Bigger Page Count (below) The Thing’s at it again, this time hawking the 1975 Marvel Annuals. (above) This logo, with the British flag, was adopted for Marvel Comics Ltd. in 1979. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

of Magazine Management,” Ray reveals, “and throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s Transworld in New York handled the worldwide syndication of Goodman’s action and superhero comics.”

By the turn of the 1960s, Wergan had become a respected sports journalist, and in 1961 he accepted a job as syndication manager on The Daily Express.

Moving over into their massive New York office, it was during his time there that Ray became acquainted with Al Landau on his regular return visits from London, where he was now living whilst overseeing Transworld’s office there. By 1964 he “wanted to change the direction of both their London and European business,” Wergan recalls, “and also wanted to return home to New York.”

Learning that Life magazine needed an independent representative based in London, but one who had the backing of an established agency not already working in the news field, Wergan knew just with whom to speak and within weeks he was installed as the new manager of Transworld’s London offices in the heart of High Holborn. Working alongside Landau, Wergan helped sign up an impressive roster of new clients, such as the Saturday Evening Post and Elle. In 1968 Landau permanently returned home to New York. An opportunity later arose for Wergan to purchase the London office outright in 1971, “as part of company policy in making managers responsible for their own overheads, sales, and profits,” and as Transworld (UK) “the company became a permanent partner of Transworld in New York and remained the head of their European operations,” a remit somewhat stretched to include both South Africa and Australia, too.

AN UNSEEN MARVEL The other strand in the story had already been set in place back in 1968, when Martin Goodman accepted a $15M offer from Martin Ackerman’s recently formed conglomerate, the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation (later renamed Cadence Industries), to purchase his entire Magazine Management business, including Marvel Comics itself. Thanks to Ackerman’s previous purchase of The Saturday Evening Post, Marvel’s comics were now being distributed by their Curtis Circulation Company (whose distinctive CCC logo would soon appear on their covers), thus allowing them to escape from their rather restrictive former arrangement with IND (as discussed in detail back in Alter Ego #49 and 59).

Goodman ultimately failed to retain influence in the company even though he’d held on to responsibility for running various areas of his old business, and left Marvel for good in 1972. But although Chip Goodman remained involved as late as 1973, wiser heads had by now prevailed and in 1971, even before Goodman Senior’s departure, Stan Lee became both president and publisher at the behest of Perfect Film’s new president Sheldon Feinberg.

This left Roy Thomas effectively taking over as editorin-chief (see Alter Ego #70), with Al Landau coming on board as president in 1973 after Lee opted out, feeling ill-suited to that role. Landau continued to run the Transworld Feature Syndicate during this period and understandably took a particular interest in pushing Marvel’s horizon beyond just publishing comics in the United States.

As publisher, Lee was no longer writing for a now rapidly expanding range of comics, and suddenly had a rare opportunity to step back and take a fresh look at Marvel’s present activities. He was particularly unhappy with the way Marvel’s material was now appearing in Britain, and there’s no doubt that it

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Glossy Gram Official correspondence, dated November 15th, 1973, confirming a format change in two Marvel UK titles. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

deserved far better treatment than it was receiving. The gamechanger came when IPC (International Publishing Company) finally canceled its ailing second volume of TV21 in 1971, leaving the undated Alan Class digest comics as the only source of Marvel strips in Britain.

Soon afterwards Marvel was approached by Marts Press, a “packaging house” run by ex-IPC man Leonard Matthews. They had previously worked on the second series of TV21, giving them some familiarity with Marvel’s characters. “Al Landau, Chip Goodman, and Stan Lee had talked about publishing in London,” Ray adds, “and it seemed to be on the way when they accepted that initiative from Leonard Matthews.” Their proposed comic was not that dissimilar to what Odhams had previously published (mixing together Marvel reprints with newly originated action/adventure fare), and an advert [that’s an advertisement, for you USA-types! –ed.] was duly placed in the trade press during the autumn of 1971.

With a launch in February 1972 now confirmed, and “distribution, promotion, and a launch gift all in the works,” industrial action then threw an unexpected spanner in the works, as Ray Wergan well remembers. The printers told Matthews “that they would have electricity to print his first and third issues, but would be shut down on the day scheduled to print issue #2. The launch was called off and re-planned for autumn.” Sadly for Marts Press, that remount never happened, and with the country hurtling toward an ever-worsening period of industrial unrest, the project died a quiet death there and then … or so it seemed. But at least fans still had the promise of another Marvel-related annual of some description in their stockings courtesy of World Distributors that Christmas.

RESETTING THE WHEELS IN MOTION By the summer of 1972, Stan Lee’s thoughts were now greatly occupied by the failure of Marvel’s partnership with Marts Press to produce their planned comic, a costly investment Marvel was very keen to recoup. “Having spent time in New York with the layouts [for the dummy issue], Lee decided that he did not want his superheroes diluted by being mixed with the traditional British comic-strip characters that Matthews had been proposing,” Ray explains. “Nor did he want dull letterpress. Stan wanted better color from web-offset printing.” And so, with the Marts Press deal at an end, both “Landau and Lee returned to London in summer 1972 to decide how best to salvage their new publication.”

A meeting was soon arranged at Transworld (UK)’s offices, with Wergan asked to sit in as a courtesy for Stan and Chip Goodman using his office space. It was quickly agreed that Magazine Management should invest in a new operation, but this time they would produce the comics themselves. And there was no time to waste. Having already invested a hefty £20,000 for some 50 reels of letterpress paper that now needed to be sold on, all they needed was a base and “someone to set up a printer, paper, distributor, TV launch, accounts, etc., and then to coordinate them as a publisher,” Wergan adds. That would all fall to him until somebody else was appointed. But things happened “so fast and so successfully,” Ray wryly notes, because that “in the meantime” ended up lasting some six years or so!

With an already-active Bullpen, it made sense for Marvel to keep everything in-house, and so New York would produce the artwork and editorial before shipping them over to London. And there was no need to search for an editorial assistant over in London, because they already had one on the payroll, former Odhams’ employee Pippa M. Melling, who was based in the offices of Levy Gee (Transworld [UK]’s accountants). To get things rolling quickly, Marvel chose to register the company there, and for a while, also used their address for mail, even after relocating to Wergan’s own offices.

MEANWHILE, AT THE RECRUITING OFFICE… Producing weekly anthology comics was entirely different to creating monthly color comics. Marvel needed someone suitably skilled to oversee the day-to-day running of their new UK Bullpen, operating out of one tiny corner of the US Bullpen, and Lee had the perfect candidate in mind—Sol Brodsky. The problem was that Sol no longer worked for Marvel, having left a few years earlier to join Israel Waldman in setting up Skywald. Lee needn’t have worried, though—the challenge he was dangling in front of Brodsky was just too tempting to resist.

Marvel had, of course, already dabbled with magazines such as The Spectacular Spider-Man and Comix Book, but Stan realized that he needed Sol’s experience to make a full-blown line of British and American magazine-sized comics possible. As part of a new strategy to develop Marvel’s image outside of the bounds of traditional comic books, Sol worked in tandem with Ivan Snyder to develop the licensing of Marvel characters in the face of growing demands from publishers all around the world. With overall responsibility for the new British line as well, by the end of the 1970s his workload had grown out of all proportion, with American black-and-white magazines, syndicated newspaper strips, trade paperbacks, newspaper insert comics, coloring books, and even calendars!

Sol Brodsky in New York and Ray Wergan in London made a formidable team. Both were equally important to the success of this project, and both were highly experienced in their respective fields, but more importantly they had business skills that marked them out as the safest pair of hands to administer this untried new venture into the British marketplace. Brodsky possibly had the tougher task—he would have to form a new Bullpen from scratch. But with so many enthusiastic newcomers now knocking at Marvel’s door, he would certainly not be short of talented individuals to choose from. The first recruits were not long in arriving. Jim Salicrup joined Marvel in the summer of 1972 as a “gofer,” but once “Sol noticed how much was being spent on the messenger service,” Jim laughs, “he realized it would be cheaper if Marvel hired their own fulltime messenger.” It was then that Jim was recruited by Tony Isabella and Sol to become editor on the new British Invasion Issue

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Loki and Lizard (left) Before Marvel UK, Odhams’ “Power Comics” line repackaged early Marvel stories for the British market. Fantastic #13 (May 13th, 1967) reprinted the Thor vs.

Loki battle from Journey into Mystery #92 (May 1963). Cover by Jack Kirby. (right) Among Jim Starlin’s earliest work was cover art for Marvel UK titles, including Mighty World of Marvel #12. (Turn to page 28 for more of Starlin’s UK comics art.) © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

line. Isabella had joined Marvel during Halloween 1972, becoming the first accredited editor on the British comics, although preceded by one or two interns and then Steve Gerber (although none of them were ever credited in the new weekly comics). Both Jim and Tony would then stay with the new UK Bullpen until 1974.

While run editorially from New York, hiring over in London was left entirely up to Wergan. His first move was to take on Alf Wallace, another former Odhams employee, as a consultant. While Wallace never received any formal credit, his work was certainly acknowledged in letter pages. But a strange thing then happened after Pippa Melling left: her successors Peta Skingley (1973–1974) and Maureen Softley (1974–1975) became men in print! Bizarre as it may sound today, back then it was felt that boys’ comics should have male editors, and so a variety of pseudonyms began appearing in the indicia. This was unnecessary once Neil Tennant arrived in a blaze of enthusiasm during 1975, and he really got into promoting their comics before handing them over to Nick Laing in 1977.

THE MIGHTY WORLD OF (BRITISH) MARVEL On the very last day of September 1972, Marvel finally invaded British newsagents with The Mighty World of Marvel (1st Series), and nothing would ever be the same again! Its launch would set the standard repeated by subsequent releases throughout the 1970s, most visibly through TV commercials and promotional visits by Stan the Man himself. The latter would include interviews with the national press, local and national radio spots, and television appearances, most notably on the BBC lunchtime show Pebble Mill at One. Costing just 5p, The Mighty World of Marvel (1st Series) was a revelation for readers used to weekly comics that stuffed up to eight short adventure stories and gag-strips inside every issue. Superficially it looked like almost any other British comic, especially with its whitebordered paper covers and no corner character box for the price, date, and issue number. The major difference was to be found inside.

With the entire look and format of the comic now in Marvel’s sole control, their new anthology leisurely spread out just three stories over those first 40 pages—the Incredible Hulk, the Amazing Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four—with a mixture of black-and-white, full-color, and partially colored interior pages to display this pure burst of Marvel magic.

There was also a free gift. These were usually given away with the first

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two or three issues, and occasionally with merger or relaunch editions— a practice that has moved well beyond such restraint these days!

Early issues of MWOM (as it was soon dubbed in letters columns) contained a full-length strip and stories split over two weeks, but gradually stories would be spread out over two- to four-week installments. Although splitting up stories like this was not particularly popular with early adopters, it was very necessary to prevent the ravenous weekly publication schedules from causing the UK reprints to catch up with the US color comics, even though (to London’s continuing despair, and readers’ warnings) they continually tried to reintroduce full-length reprints whenever they could, thereby causing the very problem that they’d tried to avoid!

MARVEL MAKES A “SPLASH” OF IT! British Marvel didn’t exactly enjoy a completely smooth ride, though.

The number-one criticism of British Marvel was that they were just a publisher of reprints. This was enough to cause some to look down their noses at the very idea, forgetting that this was exactly how the American comics industry had started out in the first place (by reprinting newspaper strips, until the hunger for new material led to the creation of Batman, Captain America, and the Human Torch, et al.).

This lack of historical perspective allowed the word “reprint” to acquire a new, derogatory undertone, one adopted with relish by some sectors of British fandom; however much the insults were hurled, their accusations simply missed the point. In producing a new line of comics aimed specifically for a British audience, Marvel was actually helping to bring on board a whole new generation of readers who, in all likelihood, would later move on to their American imports.

Although in the years before comic shops began over here, the emergence of British Marvel meant that imports of any American title appearing in the UK weeklies were usually dropped.

If we discount the obvious differences in frequency, size, and an eventual lack of interior color, in some respects things were not that dissimilar between Marvel’s comics on both sides of the Atlantic! Letters pages were immediately included—“The Mighty Marvel Mailbag” being the first in MWOM—and the new FOOM (Friends Of Ol’ Marvel) fan club was also advertised, capturing some 7000 new members by May 1973.

Given FOOM’s heavy promotion in the weeklies, the British comics were rarely mentioned therein until extra UK-related features commenced in 1976, preparing the ground for a very special new project that autumn.

This focus continued to a lesser degree thereafter until the demise of FOOM with #22 in the autumn of 1978.

A final, British-produced edition was mooted in 1979, and sadly #23 was never produced.

With a foothold firmly established in Britain, Marvel could now start selling readers exclusive merchandise just as they did back home. This kept a succession of part-time employees increasingly busy throughout the rest of the decade dispatching back issues, prizes to competition winners, new issues of FOOM, and a variety of books, T-shirts, and posters, as well as several different series of (pin) badges and clothing patches, too.

As more British weeklies were introduced, so the demand for creative help increased to handle the rapid turnaround of artwork required for covers (for those weeks when a US one wasn’t available), recap pages (to preface the latter segments of serialized stories), and poster pages (“pin-ups”). Original American covers from one of the supporting strips in a comic were rarely pressed into service by the UK weeklies.

Fortunately, with no shortage of talent waiting for their chance to break into the industry, and an impressive roll call of graduates heeded the call, including Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom (sometimes collectively credited as Gemini, a pun on “Jim-and-I” coined by Milgrom); the equally prolific Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos; and other future names such as John Romita, Jr., Dave Hunt, Keith Pollard, Mike Nasser, Carl Potts, Bob Budiansky, and Dave Wenzel. [Editor’s note: An interview with Starlin regarding his Marvel UK work follows in this very issue!]

Of course, the newbies didn’t have it all their own way, with the work of such established professionals as John Buscema, Gil Kane, John Romita, Sr., Neal Adams, Larry Lieber, and Carmine Infantino also gracing the interior pages and covers of the British comics during their first decade. Lieber once told me that after he became editor, and later a regular UK cover artist, he was more than happy to hand out assignments to anyone who needed the extra work.

THE EXPANSION BEGINS By 1973 the success of The Mighty World of Marvel had spawned a sister title as Spider-Man swung across into Spider-Man Comics Weekly (1st Series) (#1 dated: February 17th, 1973), which Robert Menzies looks at in greater detail later in this issue. Incidentally, these “series” designations are mine, as an aid to distinguishing between continuing series that featured different titles over the years, and different series featuring the same character (in 2013, for instance, The Astonishing Spider-Man is now his eighth UK series, sharing that title with two preceding volumes).

By now London was in desperate need of a production artist to help with the increased workload that a second weekly comic was bringing. Quite by chance, freelance artist Alan Murray (previously an advertising

Make Room for FOOM (top) Mighty Marvel Mailbag art, and (center) a FOOM advert from MWOM #22, courtesy of Rob Kirby. (bottom) Original cover art, by Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito, from 1973’s Spider-Man Comics Weekly #41. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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artist with the Vox speaker company) had heard about this and quickly AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! secured an appointment that very day. Upon Alan’s arrival he was ushered The Avengers (1st Series) (#1 dated: September 22nd, 1973) heralded through Transworld’s office and taken to a “lone desk at the far end of the welcome arrival of glossy covers. With paper shortages worsening the room, in front of a semi-circular window that looked out on High throughout the print industry, Marvel UK had already stopped using inteHolborn.” It was here that Murray was introduced to a “very pleasant girl” rior color and shrunk their other comics to 32 pages, but even this wasn’t who sat “amongst piles of art boards, paperwork, and comics.” enough. Switching to glossy covers and a different type of interior paper Impressed with his portfolio, Peta Skingley asked if he could stock that was easier to source meant they could keep the presses rolling. hand-letter something on the spot. “This was no problem for me The upside was they could increase to 36 pages, which more or less as it was part of the all-round artwork service I offered,” became the default format until early 1979, while the downside Alan explains. Using what little tools were available, he was that all the comics would now cost 6p instead. proceeded to letter a “Continued Next Week” caption It started with a lineup that featured Dr. Strange on a page of Spider-Man artwork that had probably and Shang-Chi as supporting features, with Iron Fist lost that additional caption during its journey over later began rotating with Shang-Chi, as a way of from New York. Alan remembers thinking that this making sure neither series caught up with the US seemed like “a fun thing to do,” and soon got color comics. Nothing major changed until #95, stuck into “adapting and correcting story panels, when the retitled The Avengers and the Savage creating new artwork for pages promoting their Sword of Conan (1st Series) (dated: July 12th, 1975) other magazines, competitions, and letters pages,” added Conan into the mix after the failure of his as well producing as all the other material that the own comic (see below). By merging an ailing comic American Bullpen couldn’t practically supply, like into a more established title, this provided a handy company greeting cards. sales boost in the process. Unfortunately, it also Contrary to previous speculation, British Marvel tended to leave some of Marvel’s comics sporting alan murray was also very profitable. “MWOM launched at some rather unwieldy names! Following #148 in 250,000 copies, before settling down at 200,000 a July 1976, the comic then folded into MWOM. week,” Wergan now reflects. “Marvel went for a new market, and Dracula Lives (with no exclamation mark, unlike its identically named produced a series of products that remitted a very high, six-figure US magazine counterpart) and Planet of the Apes were both supported Sterling sum to New York,” and this was after paying for all the print and by a pre–launch TV campaign reportedly costing somewhere in the production costs, plus “distribution, TV adverts, gifts, and promotion, region of £8-9000. The debut issue of each comic (both dated: October as well as the staff and rent.” The years 1973–1978 then saw a flurry of 26th, 1974) also came with a full-color fold-out poster as a free gift. different titles and formats spreading across the racks, and by 1976 seven While Dracula Lives initially contained reprints of stories taken from different titles were available every week. While I’ve devoted whole Frankenstein’s Monster and Werewolf by Night, later issues would variously chapters in From Cents to Pence to several of these comics, there’s only add Man-Thing, Brother Voodoo, and the Living Mummy. space here for a lightning overview of this initial period of expansion.

The launch of the UK weekly also had an effect back home. In #42 of the Tomb of Dracula color comic, it was noted that while sales were not tremendously healthy, the comic wouldn’t be stepping down to bimonthly frequency, as some other comics were, was because it was one of the “bestselling British titles and consequently we must keep it going here to help out our mother country.” Dracula Lives merged with POTA after #87.

Much of the saga of Planet of the Apes has been well covered here in BACK ISSUE, and in BI editor Michael Eury’s book Comics Gone Ape!: The Missing Link to Primates in Comics book—both including a few morsels from my own chapter on the UK edition of POTA. What wasn’t mentioned there, as it was quite beside the point, was that the UK weekly became an instant repository for science fiction and fantasy series that had no obvious home in the other superhero-dominated weeklies, taking in Ka-Zar, Warlock, Man-Thing, and various tales lifted out of Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, amongst others.

With #88 the comic became Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives, remaining under that title until its final issue (#123) in February 1977, with Dracula suddenly vanishing for good in a puff of smoke a few issues later after finally catching up with the States.

An occasional series of late Atlas/early Marvel-era non-continuity stories then took his place, running under the masthead “Dracula Presents” (latterly “Count Dracula, Lord of the Undead Presents”).

Foot Soldier Shang-Chi kicked his way onto this Ron Wilson-drawn cover to Avengers #28 (March 30th, 1974). (inset) Drac visits London in 1974’s Dracula Lives #3.

Cover by Pablo Marcos. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The Man with the Plan

NEW FORMATS AND A NEW SUPERHERO The next additions arrived simultaneously in the spring of 1975 with The Superheroes (#1 dated: March 8th, 1975) and The Savage Sword of Conan (1st Series). The former was a solid superhero book designed as a vehicle for full-length exploits of the Silver Surfer (topping at least one tally of reader requests sent to the States), with supporting players the X-Men later inheriting the lead spot and the Thing muscling those X-traordinary teen heroes out of the way just prior to the comic’s closure with #50. Other supporting strips included Giant-Man, the Cat, Doc Savage, and the Scarecrow.

As for Savage Sword of Conan, despite duplicating the name of one of Marvel’s most popular American magazines, this weekly actually reprinted full-length stories taken from Conan the Barbarian. Marie and John Severin’s classic work on Kull logically provided the only regular supporting strip in the short-lived anthology before it folded into The Avengers (1st Series) after #18.

The Titans (#1 dated: October 25th, 1975) was completely different to everything else currently on the newsstands. Lavishly launched by Stan Lee at London’s the Roundhouse, the event was inevitably packed out.

The biggest shock about The Titans, though, was its radical new format. By turning a standard A4-sized comic 90 degrees, with the shortest edge now folded and stapled, what you now had was a landscape-format comic! Inside, your senses were immediately overwhelmed by up to four A5-size story pages placed across a double-page spread, each mounted two to a page, with a thick, black bar separating each pair of pages.

But while this bold, new format allowed the comic to feature five series spread out over 60 pages of story every issue (once editorial pages, posters, and adverts were accounted for), The Titans never felt crowded.

The downside for Marvel was that every issue now had to have a new cover drawn especially for it. Few US covers could be successfully reformatted to work within the severely restrained height dimensions of the

format. (More on this bizarre format in that feature by Robert Menzies we mentioned earlier.)

With the Queen’s Silver Jubilee approaching, it was a perfect time to launch Captain Britain (1st Series) (#1 dated: October 13th, 1976). It was certainly a very welcome addition to the burgeoning UK line, but the London our new hero inhabited felt more like something out of an old Hollywood movie, with fog and cobbled streets everywhere! After so many weeks of teaser adverts, this was not exactly what eager readers were expecting, particularly given Marvel’s more realistic portrayal of American society to act as a backdrop, and counterpoint, to the more fantastic side of their stories.

Adding insult to injury, none of the creative team was British either, Marvel preferring to keep creative control firmly within the New York Bullpen. This was fudged by choosing creators with any UK connection they could find: Chris Claremont had been born in London; Herb Trimpe had just returned from a long, working stay in Cornwall; and Fred Kida had once been stationed here during WWII. “As if that would make a difference,” Trimpe laughed, when I interviewed him back in 2004.

British Invasion Issue

(left) Pablo Marcos cover on Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives #119 (January 26th, 1977). (above) Stan Lee (right) makes his first visit to London’s Roundhouse in 1976. Also pictured are (left) Ted Polhemus and (center) Ray Wergan.

Note that Ray, who contributed the photo, is wearing a “Make Mine Marvel” button from 1966! (below) Another London’s Roadhouse signing. Photo courtesy of Alan Murray.

Planet of the Apes © 20th Century Fox. Marvel characters and logos © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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The Other Fab Four (left) Original cover art

by Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia for The Complete Fantastic Four #2 (October 5th, 1977).

Courtesy of Heritage.

Note the cover blurb for the free prize, a common Marvel UK sales incentive. (right) Captain Britain takes on Dr. Synne on Al Milgrom’s cover to issue #13 (January 5th, 1977). © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

To allow both the new lead strip and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., the second supporting feature of at the back of the comic, to be printed in full color, each issue ran to just 28 pages, fronted by traditional paper covers. Early John Buscema-era Fantastic Four reprints occupied most of the 12 B&W center pages, accompanied by editorial pages, adverts, and a regular puzzle page devised by Owen McCarron. This was a common feature in some other UK comics, but a first for Marvel. The idea was later transferred to America, when Marvel commissioned McCarron to produce Marvel Fun and Games in 1979.

When John Buscema and Tom Palmer assumed art duties on Captain Britain from #24 the comic grew to 36 pages, switching to glossy covers and B&W interiors, before merging following #39 to create Super SpiderMan and Captain Britain (1st Series) with #231 (dated: July 13th, 1977). Captain Britain then limped on until #247, with the final six issues devoted to a two-part story pitting Captain Britain and Spider-Man against Arcade, printed several weeks ahead of its color appearance back in the States within the pages of Marvel Team-Up #65 and 66. While both stories were divided into three installments each, the first episode featured two quality splash pages placed before the second and final parts of the story by the original art

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team of John Byrne and Dave Hunt, something that had never happened before. Although one of the best stories to feature the good Captain, he would not resurface until a “Revolution” burst forth in 1979.

THE RAMPAGE AND THE FURY Until now, Stan Lee had overruled London’s pleas that they should produce a war comic. Finally relenting, The Mighty World of Marvel was co-opted as a launchpad during February 1977 with the cover-featured introduction of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Just weeks later they crossed over into the appropriately titled Fury (#1 dated: March 16th, 1977). To help Fury do battle against such stalwarts as Victor and Warlord, the new comic was only 28 pages, had paper covers, and no interior color, thus allowing it to be sold for 9p instead of the now-standard 10p cover price. Original covers appeared on every issue, with Dave Gibbons and Eric Bradbury providing artwork for the first two issues, and Carlos Ezquerra (of 2000 AD and Strontium Dog fame) producing every cover from #3 onwards.

Sgt. Fury’s adventures continued from where the series had ended in MWOM—continuity of series moving between different UK comics was always well-handled back then—with Captain Savage, and a selection of self-contained war stories from the pages of such 1950s Atlas comics as G.I. Tales, Battle, and Battleground, serving as the supporting content. But the American style of war comic was very different than the war comics that aficionados over here were used to, so it was perhaps little surprise that this journey into enemy territory was rather short-lived, just as many in the New York Bullpen had warned. By late August—just 25 issues later—Fury failed, leaving Sgt. Fury to retreat and merge with The Mighty World of Marvel for another nine-month stay, some three-and-a half months longer his own comic had managed!

Launched just weeks apart, The Complete Fantastic Four (1st Series) (#1 dated: September 28th, 1977), and Rampage, starring the Daring Defenders (1st Series)

(#1 dated: October 19th, 1977), both shared an identical format: a fulllength story at the front of the comic, with another half segment of story at the back—initially, the very first Fantastic Four stories in the former, and Nova in the latter. These supporting series were later reduced to three segments per story to squeeze in the Invaders alongside the two FF stories in that comic, with Iron Man then providing an additional change of pace in Rampage.

With complete lead stories almost every week, new covers were unnecessary, although Tony DeZuniga was commissioned to illustrate the conclusion of a two-part serialization of a Giant-Size Defenders story for #26. But complete stories meant that both weeklies ate through almost three years’ worth of US continuity apiece in less than a year, so it was certainly a boost to British Marvel’s health that The Complete Fantastic Four merged into MWOM after just 37 issues, and that Rampage, starring the Daring Defenders (1st Series) was curtailed as a weekly after 34 issues.

The Savage Sword of Conan (2nd Series) (#1 dated: November 1977) was a bigger departure—literally! Not many UK comics were monthly at the time, and with a higher cover price of 35p per issue for 52 pages (early issues had more pages), so this was a smart way of helping to ensure that the material they contained—lifted from their more mature US black-andwhite magazines—only reached an older audience. Restarting from #1, Rampage Magazine (initially m) then followed suit in July 1978, with stories taken from The Rampaging Hulk cover-featured until the Uncanny X-Men replaced Hulk as the lead series. Other stories were taken variously from Nova and Marvel Two-in-One, with Luke Cage and later Iron Fist filling up the backup slots. It ran until #54 in December 1982.

MARVEL’S STELLAR SAVIOR Since the demise of their popular Planet of the Apes weekly, the clamor had grown for more science-fiction strips. Marvel’s acquisition of the rights to produce a Star Wars comic provided the perfect opportunity.

Having finally learned their lesson about releasing a British comic almost concurrent with its American cousin without having a sizeable body of back catalogue ready to sustain its relentless weekly progress, this time nothing was left to chance. With Star Wars not appearing in UK cinemas outside of London until February 1978, this provided an initial six-month cushion, but to increase this further, twice as much story material would now be produced every month as was being printed in America.

Although glossy-covered, Star Wars Weekly (1st Series) (#1 dated: February 8th, 1978) had a smaller 28-page count, thereby reprinting the monthly US material in the UK at a more manageable pace. Ray Wergan notes that “it was British Marvel’s greatest circulation success.”

Starting with a 250,000 print run for #1, some quick sales sampling ahead of official returns indicated that they needed to increase print orders for #3.

With sales levelling out at 270,000 copies a week by #7, for a while it sold better than rival 2000 AD. Almost every issue would have a new cover, another first, with some of the abandoned original US covers later turned into posters once new ones were no longer commissioned.

To help further the distance between the UK and US comics, Star Wars Weekly then ran two batches of stories from Pizzazz magazine, completing the final storyline cut short by that magazine’s cancellation. Similarly, when Marvel in NY had to start running their The Empire Strikes Back serialization earlier than planned, this meant they had to jettison no less than six completed episodes, with an inventory story by Archie Goodwin and Michael Golden filling the remaining one-issue gap. In the UK, all six stories appeared ahead of that Golden-drawn tale before Empire began.

American readers would have to wait until November 1981 before they got to see any of these missing stories—albeit in a panel-by-panel sliced-up form—when they were issued across two Marvel Illustrated paperbacks, Star Wars and Star Wars 2: World of Fire.

Feeling the Force As it did for Stateside Marvel, George Lucas’ Star Wars spawned a hit for Marvel UK. (top) This Star Wars Weekly ad repurposed Howard Chaykin’s SW #1 cover art. (bottom) Page 1 from Star Wars Weekly #60.

Star Wars TM & © Lucasfilm.

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Rerun Watcher (left) The Lee/Ditko backup from the aforementioned Journey into Mystery #92 was overhauled as this “Tales of the Watcher” feature in Star Wars Weekly #115.

Art © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. Star Wars TM & © Lucasfilm.

By dint of it being a science-fiction comic, Star Wars Weekly also pleased fans by providing the perfect vehicle to exploit a growing back catalogue of previously unused series. The roster was a varied one over its 171 issues (the comic going monthly from #140 in November 1980 and continuing until July 1983), taking in repeated visits by Star-Lord, as well as variously featuring Deathlok, the Micronauts, the Jim Starlin-era Warlock, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Man-Wolf, Gullivar Jones, Killraven, and ROM. But while repeated raids were made into the archives of such black-and-white magazines as Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction and Marvel Preview, it was left to some deft recycling of Atlas and early Marvel short strips to provide the most regular content towards the back of the comic. Printed under the banner “Tales of the Watcher”—and often retitled—the cosmic observer now provided new introductory narration to these classic tales in a nod to The Twilight Zone. The series launched in #47 with “The Sacrifice” from Strange Tales #91, with the choice of stories left entirely up to assistant editor Danny Fingeroth.

LAST TRAIN TO LONDON? By the late 1970s, the comics industry on both sides of the Atlantic was having a torrid time. Marvel’s savior in the States had undoubtedly been Star Wars, whose earliest issues had been reprinted several times (unheard of at the time), and Star Wars Weekly (1st Series) had been similarly successful here, too. By the autumn of 1978 it was still selling better than Super Spider-Man, but had now shrunk back to just 150,000 copies a week, with MWOM and the two monthly magazines now comprising the sum total of their range. It was clear to New York that their pioneering British division was struggling, but not wanting to close it down, Ray Wergan decided to commission a report suggesting possible ways forward.

Wergan contacted Dez Skinn, who had a well-established track record at IPC and Williams, then Warner Communications’ European publishing arm. Skinn had also previously been a question-setter for British Marvel’s own “Marvel Mastermind” contests, but probably came readily to mind after his newly self-published magazine Starburst had included features on Star Wars and the Spider-Man TV series before any of Marvel’s UK comics had even featured a word. Wergan certainly recalls “being annoyed with New York at not being kept in the loop [with regard to Spider-Man], but I wasn’t too embarrassed as I have been scooped many times down the years! You know you won’t win them all.”

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The timing was perfect for Dez, as Williams were about to stop publishing in Britain. After several rewrites to make his report less critical, he submitted his proposals. To his surprise, Marvel was so impressed that they immediately offered him the job of implementing his own plans, with Stan flying over to seal the deal. To smooth the transition, Marvel agreed to purchase Starburst magazine, thus keeping Skinn’s new readership, but were uninterested in House of Hammer (the rights to which Dez had recently purchased from Williams), having previously experienced mixed success with their own horror magazines.

Skinn quickly became a regular visitor to Sevenoaks in Kent, where Marvel had relocated the previous year. Wergan still had a London office for Transworld’s picture business, but by moving closer to home he avoided the daily commute down to the city. Dez decided to refine his thoughts on what needed to be done by making a scouting trip over to the US Bullpen to see how things were presently being run. This confirmed his initial impressions that the overall organization “wasn’t very good” at all.

“There was no feel for the comics,” Skinn explains, “and I knew that I was going to be bringing my own people in anyway, so I looked at the setup as it stood. I kept one or two people, and moved the others.” This meant the departure of Nick Laing—largely forgotten about due to the long shadow cast by Neil Tennant before him— although both Alan Murray and Elitta Fell remained on staff for a while longer. Officially joining Marvel as their first editorial director in October 1978, Skinn’s editorial credit began appearing in the indicia from issues dated November 22nd of that year. All that remained was to make the move back to London.

As for Ray Wergan, he already had new plans: “My main business was Transworld, remember. Marvel was just a contract. At that time we had moved with the changes in UK and European publishing to concentrate on supplying photo and feature coverage of TV programs, and we had a lot of photographers and writers working for us.” Indeed, Wergan had recently secured “world syndication rights in TV Times,” then the sole weekly listings magazine for the ITV television network, and Ray “wanted to develop that market fully.” Transworld (UK) would continue until 1988, when Ray sold his picture library to Scope Features, retiring to the Devon coast that same year.

(RE)BORN IN THE UK With production shifting over to London, America’s British Bullpen-within-a-Bullpen discovered it was to be disbanded. Sol Brodsky had so much work on his plate that he would hardly have missed the demise of the department, and editor Larry Lieber was soon to take over the Incredible Hulk newspaper strip, but this left Howard Bender (the first person on the US crew I ever had the pleasure of talking to) and Danny Cohen in production out on a limb. Assistant editor Danny Fingeroth was luckier, though, as he would now assume the role of a liaison officer between London and New York. It’s likely that the demise of the British Bullpen led to the creation of the “Romita’s Raiders” intern program to fill the training gap its loss would cause.

“It was a friendly team,” laughs Bender, who’d been working there for several years by then. “Because we knew the end was near, ol’ Dez Skinn was known as ‘Dead Skin’—sorry, Dez!” By now David Anthony Kraft was “no longer doing any of the British stuff,” since leaving New York City in the summer of 1978. “I can’t remember ever meeting Dez,” Kraft says, “although I do remember his name being bandied about the Bullpen.

By the time my Man-Wolf space saga—written pre– Star Wars—started appearing in Star Wars Weekly, I was long gone from Marvel.” Jim Salicrup was also no longer involved by then, but equally watched the transfer with great interest: “I thought it was great that Dez was going to take over. We needed someone who was both over there in the UK and understood how British comics worked, as well as understanding Marvel’s strengths.

That certainly wasn’t the case before.”

Dez wasted little time in securing new premises in Kentish Town and gathered together a new team.

Alan McKenzie was the first to join, rescued from compiling puzzle magazines and a short-lived line of Marvel reprint titles for a small rival called Portman.

Until then, Transworld had allowed several UK companies the rights to publish Marvel strips, at least until Skinn found out about it and put an immediate stop to it.

Richard Burton came next. He’d been successfully running Comics Media News, a very professional-looking fanzine, and Skinn admired his enthusiasm and knowledge of comics. With Burton on board, Paul Neary then joined the team, providing additional studio support and soon becoming de facto cover artist.

Other staff members included Steve Mackney and Paul Harwood, who handled production on Starburst; with Elitta Fell and Annie Parkhouse given responsibility for most of the weekly comics; and Graham de Lacy, who took over the kind of hand-lettering that Alan Murray used to do, in addition to cover production work on the weeklies. This left John Kelly with the tough task of maintaining a smooth-running operation that involved shepherding over 700 pages of artwork a month. The Annuals were now produced in-house, via Grandreams in their ground-floor offices, under editor John Barraclough and art editor Nigel Money (who’d previously been Dez’s art editor on House of Hammer, MAD, and Starburst).

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Apes Smash! (left) Cover to the kid-friendly mag Starburst #7, from 1978. (right) Original Pablo Marcos cover art, courtesy of Heritage, for Mighty World of Marvel #272 (May 18th, 1977). © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. Battlestar Galactica © Universal Television. Planet of the Apes © 20th Century Fox.

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When I first came into contact with Dez, he was well aware of my dislike of some of the early changes that had been made to the line, but he was keen to explain why he felt they were so necessary. The biggest change was a return to the same “cut-up” techniques that Odhams had previously used in the late 1960s on their Marvel-themed Power Comics. This involved reducing the size of each page of American artwork, cutting up every panel, and then creating new page layouts that crammed up to two pages of material onto one page. It was a lot of work, and it felt almost sacrilegious—to me, Marvel’s USP [Unique Selling Point] had always been exactly that their comics were so very different from any of their competitors’—and it certainly wasn’t popular with all of their audience either. But while readers were lost, many more were gained and the change helped save the company.

Skinn certainly knew what he wanted to do, “which hopefully was apparent, whether you liked it or not,” he laughs. “I wanted people who bought Valiant, Victor, The Hornet, and others to buy Marvel, too, and the only way to get them to buy the Marvel titles was if they looked like those comics.” By restructuring the line into three distinct groups, Dez’s starting point was “a line of D.C. Thomson-looking weeklies (as they were selling four to six times the quantity of Marvel’s titles), and these would introduce readers to the Marvel characters (8–12-year-olds,

More Than Comics (left) Spider-Man Comics Weekly patch. (inset) A Punisher logo pinback, included in Punisher #1. (top right) Spidey transfer sheet from 1985’s Spider-Man Comic #634. (bottom right) A plastic model insert that was included in Spider-Man Comic #652. Special thanks to Rob Kirby for these images! © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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basically), with a lower cover price and a format similar to standard UK titles.” Dropping the glossy covers also saved a huge amount of money, and by putting the weeklies on newsprint throughout, with vastly reduced costs and more reading material, sales actually shot up.”

With the weeklies now repositioned, their names were then shortened to match other native comics, as Marvel Comic (1st Series) and Spider-Man Comic (1st Series). The monthlies appealed to the older end of the spectrum. “With the UK weeklies as a springboard, readers could then move on to the US color titles as they grew older, and as their pocket money increased.” Skinn felt that “a 13- or 14-year-old should be reading an American comic by now, not a British one. You should be old enough to have moved on to them, or if you still liked the anthology format you could buy Rampage Magazine (2nd Series) or Marvel Superheroes (1st Series).” A dummy for a “Spidey” comic was also produced to add another tier for younger readers, but this was never realized.

THE “MARVEL REVOLUTION” BREAKS OUT! By late November 1978, Marvel commenced a run of adverts, coupled with some teaser lines below story pages, that built up to a multipage advert only weeks ahead of the change. But things did not go to plan. While the first comics from what was aptly billed as, the “Marvel Revolution” would surprise readers with their paper cover pages, “cut-up” strips, and just 24 eye-poppingly condensed pages of reading, at least Star Wars Weekly continued as it had previously … but they only surprised or shocked you if you could actually find them in your local newsagents!

By late 1978, the United Kingdom had all but come to a standstill.

A series of conflicts between the Labour government of the day and a majority of trade unions saw Britain engulfed in a series of running strikes, wildcat walk-outs, and other industrial action. But for comic fans, it would be the haulier’s dispute that had the most impact on their weekly routine. With the first new-style issues of Marvel Comic #330 and Spider-Man Comic #311 both set to come out with an offsale date of January 24th, 1979, suddenly the last issues of the old-style comics and the first few editions of the new-look issues got stuck at the distributors with no one prepared to deliver them.

Fortunately, the conflict did get resolved, but the damage had already been done, and depending on where you lived, you might have

to check your local newsagent several times in a week as issues started appearing completely out of order!

During this period, cover dates and/or issue numbers were deliberately dropped to give those issues caught in the system a longer shelf life before the trouble subsided.

In the end, Marvel stopped publishing anything for about a month to allow everything to filter through the system, before recommencing with issues dated March 7th, 1979. Star Wars Weekly managed to get away with a one-week shorter gap between editions.

Since 1976 a succession of additional series in MWOM had increased the number of series to a steady four per issue—this had suddenly been cut back to three to conclude various storylines ahead of the changes.

But there was another shock to come. Just three issues into the new Marvel Comic, the Hulk, a constant presence in the magazine since #1, was shoved out of the comic by the equally strong Godzilla, keeping the green right up the front of the comic!

The Fantastic Four had been another regular fixture in MWOM since the beginning, but had now relocated into Spider-Man Comic. This left Daredevil as the sole standard bearer from the original lineup. But, of course, in such a compact format there was plenty of room for other series—four extra series, to be precise: Tomb of Dracula, Conan the Barbarian, Skull the Slayer, and Shang-Chi. The latter picked up where the series had ended back in July 1976, but now appeared as “S.I.6.: The Specialists” in homage to popular TV series CI5: The Professionals.

Over in Spider-Man Comic, a rotation of stories from the Amazing and Spectacular Spider-Man books (in the main) would now be supported by newcomers Fantastic Four, Nova, and Sub-Mariner, with regular backup strips the Avengers and Thor continuing as before. But then a funny thing happened in July 1979 as Marvel Comic (1st Series) split itself in two with #352. Initially it merged into Spider-Man Comic and created The Spectacular Spider-Man Weekly with Marvel Comic (1st Series) instead. Just four weeks later, the Avengers then moved across to headline Marvel Superheroes (1st Series), a new monthly magazine

that adopted Marvel Comic’s old numbering from #353!

Two years later the magazine would reintroduce Captain Britain, but only after an earlier revival in the pages of Skinn’s first new addition.

You Say You Want a Revolution

ORIGINATION NATION

(left) Advert for the late-1970s’ Marvel Revolution. (right) From 1982’s The Daredevils #4, a bombastic Black Panther poster by Mick Austin.

While BACK ISSUE #28 (“Heroes Behaving Badly”) covered Hulk Comic (1st series) in far greater detail, it’s worth mentioning this was the culmination of an oftrepeated promise that the UK comics would eventually gain exclusive material. We’d had Captain Britain, of course, but as that had been produced in America it really didn’t count. Determined to make Hulk Comic “as un-American as possible” by adopting a variety format similar to the old TV variety shows, this time fortune shined down on the new comic and everything went smoothly. And it needed to, with over £100,000 invested in a heavily booked cross-media campaign. The BBC also helped, by choosing to film the launch as part of a series on modern marketing techniques called The Persuaders.

Hulk Comic (#1 dated: March 7th, 1979) featured nowhere near all-new material, by the way—that would have made it far too expensive to produce. But as Dez said about the other weeklies in BACK ISSUE #28, he “maxed” the mix here too by featuring atypical Marvel series Ant-Man (whose stories had never appeared in

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© 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Britain) and the Eternals. As noted previously, the comic later morphed into The Incredible Hulk Weekly (1st series) with #47, but this was after Skinn had left Marvel.

The eight extra pages then allowed both for longer installments of reprinted material and the inclusion of the Silver Surfer and the Defenders, with the “cut-up” technique being phased out for good a few months later. Unfortunately, most of the UK-generated content (Hulk, Night Raven, and Nick Fury) had stopped by then, leaving the Black Knight as sole standard bearer until both the series, and the comic itself, ended in May 1980 with #63.

Unlike almost all their rivals, Marvel had never produced regular seasonal Specials before. Alan Murray believes that the Treasury Editions had been deliberately imported to serve as ersatz Specials, but genuine UK editions had thus far numbered only an Amazing SpiderMan Poster Magazine and a Star Wars Collector’s Edition, both released in 1977. Dez felt that had to change. Seasonal Specials were great money spinners because they carried no cover dates and so could sit on newsagents’ shelves for several months.

The first Specials arrived in Summer 1979, and were cleverly used to test potential new titles. This worked very well, because out of the first four Specials both Marvel Superheroes and Frantic became new titles.

TV Heroes, however, was a previously advertised companion title for Starburst that, for one reason or another, never gained series status. A further four Specials followed that winter, with regular batches— later adding Spring, Easter, and Autumn editions— continuing thereafter until the mid-1990s.

But by far the most successful of all the comics that Skinn introduced during his tenure was Doctor Who Weekly, or Doctor Who Magazine as it’s better known today. It seemed a no-brainer. The TV series was easily the UK’s most popular science-fiction series and already had a huge cultural reach across generations, and yet by

Croc Around the Clock (left) The popularity of TV’s Incredible Hulk series inspired the inyour-face cover blurb on 1979’s Hulk Comic #3. That title was the home of the backup feature starring the “Mystery Man” Night Raven (originally Night-Raven), seen here (above) in a David Lloyd sketch and (right) in a page from the hero’s strip in Hulk Comic #4. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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August 1978 it had been reduced to two pages in TV Comic, long past its glory days in Countdown. Even worse, it was now regurgitating earlier strips by pasting Tom Baker’s face on top of the faces of earlier Doctors.

Having kept an eye on the series for years, the minute Dez heard the rights had lapsed he made a beeline for the BBC. What he found was a very receptive audience.

They’d just seen him on a TV documentary discussing Hulk Comic and were impressed, so much so that Skinn walked away with the rights to not only produce a comic strip but a whole magazine built around the character.

It’s often forgotten now that although Doctor Who Weekly (#1 dated: October 17th, 1979) had text material, it was actually very strip-orientated. Pat Mills and John Wagner took turns writing the Doctor Who serials, produced as 17-page episodes for future US use, but serialized in the UK over four and five weeks instead.

A series of new backup strips then featured solo adventures of the Daleks, Cybermen, and Autons. This left a selection of US reprints from Marvel Classics Comics, and later the Atlas/Marvel short story archives, to fill out most issues. No one could have guessed that the comic would thrive when converted into an increasingly text-driven magazine with #44 (September 1980) and that it would survive the demise of the original TV series itself at the end of the 1980s. By 2010 it was recognized by The Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running magazine based on a TV show.

FORCES IN COMBAT Even as Dez prepared to leave Marvel UK—wearying of escalating battles with management—several new titles and directions were already in the pipeline.

Frantic (#1 dated: March 1980) was the first of these, “MAD”-ly declaring itself “Number Two in a Field of One” and plundering the archives of both Not Brand Ecch and Crazy magazine, plus an occasional garnish of Howard the Duck. Another was Superhero Fun and Games (#1 dated: March 1980), which contained no

comic strips whatsoever—apart from one later competition strip— 1980) with their Earth 33 1/3 series newspaper-strip series, which soon recycling material from the Marvel Fun and Games US color comic. started appearing in many of the weeklies, along with Doctor Who in But Skinn’s final contribution was a blast … from the past! Realizing Doctor Who Magazine. Marvel Team-Up was as an unabashed superhero that Marvel had been around long enough in the UK that many readers compendium that granted Spider-Man a third title through the use of had never read some of their earliest stories, he modeled the “Marvel stories (unsurprisingly) taken from Marvel Team-Up! Bringing together Digest Series” on D.C. Thomson’s established Picture Library comics. a diverse selection of heroes, heroines, and those we were never quite Costing 15p, his new miniature, A5-sized, 52-page monthly comics sure about—from the Fantastic Four and the Jack of Hearts to Ms. featured a mix of previously reprinted material and some first-time Marvel and Morbius—various stories were selected from What If? to reprints. There were four digests in all: Chiller Pocket Book, The Fantastic sweeten the blend further. It wasn’t tasty enough, though, merging Four Pocket Book, Spider-Man Pocket Book, and Star Heroes Pocket Book with Spider-Man’s regular comic after just 25 issues. (none of which carried what should have been an April 1980 off-sale Another tranche of Pocket Books was introduced that October, date). Star Heroes Pocket Book would completely change name in taking in Conan the Barbarian Pocket Book, The Incredible Hulk Pocket 1981, becoming The X-Men Pocket Book with #12.

Book, The Titans Pocket Book, and Young Romance Pocket Book, the latter Skinn would then assist his successor, Paul Neary, over the a recent Special now receiving regular title status. A year next few months as a consultant, helping out with production later, Marvel Classics Comics was the final addition. With work on some of the Summer Specials in 1980, his last two issues going on sale every month, it was the only contribution to the company. Marvel under Neary then Pocket Book not to enjoy the occasional 100-page continued to power forward, with an ever-increasing double-sized edition for a princely 30p. succession of new titles rapidly replacing any that fell Savage Action (#1 dated: November 1980), by the wayside, but there was far less stability across meanwhile, featured reprints of material from various the range. This was due to an increasing pressure to B&W magazines (Punisher, Blade, and Moon Knight), maximize profits, which from the outside made it and later added some recent Ka-Zar stories, but look as though almost every possible approach was perhaps the most distinctive feature in the monthly now being tried, with increasingly variable results. A case was the return of Night Raven in text form. This inspired in point was the unexpectedly revival of Sgt. Fury in choice by editor Alan McKenzie would see the tortured Forces in Combat (#1 dated: May 15th, 1980). vigilante handled variously by writers of the caliber Continuing Dez’s policy of selecting the widest of Steve Parkhouse, Alan Moore, and Jamie Delano paul neary possible range of material, this brought together over the next six years as he shambled his way ROM, the Rawhide Kid, Machine Man, Kull, Shangthrough a cornucopia of different monthly comics.

Chi, and War is Hell, plus a vintage color centerspread featuring Wulf But while glossy covers remained the norm on the monthlies, the the Briton—reprinted from Express Weekly (1954–1962). With episodes weeklies were still stuck with paper ones, with Valour and Future Tense no longer being “cut-up” they were now spread out over a great (#1 both dated: November 5th, 1980) being no exceptions. Valour number of issues, and this made the comic feel very cramped indeed centered on Conan, with Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Strange, and Weirdworld until the number of series per issue was reduced. Lasting just 37 issues, as regular supporting features, while Future Tense initially showcased this was the first of many titles that would now regular fold into a newer comic long before reaching their first birthday.

Forces in Combat did leave one legacy, though, giving the gift of humor to Marvel through the work of Tim Quinn and Dickey Howett.

After their regular one-page strip “I Was Adolf’s Double” they then received a regular slot in Marvel Team-Up (#1 dated: September 11th

“Marvel Does It Again!” (left) A 1979 advert for Doctor Who Weekly (see page 37 for more on the Doctor). (right) This promo from 1980 touted Marvel UK’s digest-sized titles. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. Doctor Who © BBC.

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Marvel UK in the Early ’80s (left) Captain America #15 reprints the Stern/Byrne/Rubinstein tale from the Stateside Captain America #253 (Jan. 1981). (right) Alan Davis’ Captain Britain is cover-featured on The Daredevils #5. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

the Micronauts, with Seeker 3000, Paladin, Warlock, and Star-Lord coming along for the ride. ROM joined in #13 after Forces in Combat merged into Future Tense, and the introduction of Star Trek strengthened the lineup. Valour then collapsed into Future Tense after #19, with Conan the only holdover. Surprisingly, the incongruity of Conan in a science-fiction comic failed to prevent it from going monthly, notching up a far more respectable tally of 41 issues, ending at Christmas 1981.

MARVEL’S MAGAZINE MADHOUSE With former production manager Tim Hampson taking over from the departing Neary, 1981 saw a cluster of new weekly titles emerge, with Captain America (#1 dated: February 25th, 1981) finally getting his own comic. Featuring, variously, Dazzler, Iron Man, and the Defenders, Thor, and Daredevil would later usurp their spots as refugees from the short-lived Marvel Action (#1 dated: April 1st, 1981) and Marvel Super Adventure (#1 dated: May 6th, 1981) respectively, the latter weekly having recycled old Daredevil stories and added Jack Kirby’s idiosyncratic take on the Black Panther. By now, Captain America had become the first weekly to join the recently retitled Super Spider-Man TV Comic (1st Series) in reinstating glossy covers.

The bonus this time was that the inside covers and a glossy centerspread could also accommodate full-color pages or posters, too.

On the monthly front, Marvel Madhouse (#1 dated: June 1981) briefly joined Frantic in the mirth-making, before subsuming that older title and reintroducing full-length Howard the Duck stories every issue.

Blockbuster (#1 dated: June 1981) frankly wasn’t, and at just nine issues Iron Fist really wasn’t a recognizable enough headliner for a strange mix also featuring the Inhumans and Omega the Unknown. However, Blake’s 7 (#1 dated: October 1981) fared better after a ropey start— the comic-strip content aside—but had the misfortune of improving its contents only as the final season of the Blake’s 7 TV series was announced. It ran to 23 issues, ending with a giant-size Autumn Special.

1982 almost matched 1981’s total of weekly and monthly new additions. The Incredible Hulk (2nd Series) (#1 dated: March 31st, 1982) again took the archive route for its lead feature, with Iron Man the only other regular feature. Monster Monthly (#1 dated: April 1982) was the ultimate “green” comic, recycling articles and strips from past Marvel US horror magazines. At 56 pages, it had more pages than the other the monthlies, but even the inclusion of a regular glossy color-centerspread poster couldn’t save it from disappearing after just #8.

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By contrast, cinema (#1 dated: May 1982)—with a small “c”—was a high-gloss affair, and a worthy monthly companion for Starburst, but it was decided to prematurely kill the title with #9 when it became clear that the production team involved now had responsibility for too many titles and quality was beginning to suffer. It was a sad loss. A ridiculously cramped 24-page revival of the Fantastic Four (2nd Series) (#1 dated: October 6th, 1982) lasted only as far as April the following year.

Things were not looking good until an early Christmas present arrived in the form of The Daredevils (#1 dated: January 1983). This developed the increasingly hybrid UK/USA tone of Marvel Superheroes (1st Series) by placing a much longer Captain Britain strip up front, jumping past several years of continuity to restart Daredevil with Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s justifiably lauded run, and increasing the amount of text material devoted to comics. The Night Raven text series continued here, with vintage Spider-Man reprints almost picking up from where Spider-Man Pocket Book had finished off.

COLORFUL TRANSFORMATIONS The spring of 1983 was a colorful one indeed thanks to the staggered launch of The Mighty Thor (#1 dated: April 20th, 1983) and The Original X-Men (#1 dated: April 27th, 1983). But apart from their glossy covers, their mix of full-color, one-color, and B&W pages echoed the look of early editions of MWOM (1st Series). They would merge after #17 of the X-Men’s comic—with Devil Dinosaur abandoned just before its conclusion—to create The Mighty Thor and the X-Men, which then ran until #39 in early 1984. Early teething troubles caused some dreadful color misalignment, with the same problem then afflicting the first few editions of the monthly The Mighty World of Marvel (2nd Series) (#1 dated: June 1983). Captain Britain and Night Raven would transfer into MWOM (2nd Series) with the unavoidable absorption of The Daredevils with #5, playing second fiddle to a succession of US miniseries—Wolverine, Cloak and Dagger, and Magik—until the magazine’s conclusion with #17.

Meanwhile, the imminent arrival of a third Star Wars movie provided the perfect opportunity to refresh Star Wars (1st Series), with the monthly magazine relaunching as semi-color glossy-paper weekly during June 1983. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (#1 dated: June 22nd, 1983) predominantly featured film-related series in its support slot after Indiana Jones reprints ceased in #22. When Power Pack popped up in #69, it might have seemed an odd inclusion, but it was a popular choice and continued to run in the comic right through to

Action Figures Marvel UK’s Transformers #153 (February 28th, 1988) features both the Robots in Disguise and G.I. Joe, known in Britain as Action Force. © Hasbro.

its cancellation in June 1986, adding another 155 issues of Star Wars thrills to the first series’ run of 171 editions!

By then Jenny O’Connor and Ian Rimmer were assisting, easing Tim Hampson’s editorial role to that of production director. The next few years would see less new releases each year but a great stability, although 1984’s first entry—The Thing is Big Ben (#1 dated: March 28th, 1984)—didn’t bring anything much to the party except, perhaps, for the inclusion of a very curious one-page strip called “Donald Dogfly,” a character created by underground artist Hunt Emerson that had only previously appeared in a few issues of Zomic Comix for the Birmingham Arts Lab. Taking in some late-period Marvel Two-in-One tales, Power Man/Iron Fist, and Iron Man didn’t provide the necessary draw, and following #18 the comic folded into Spider-Man that July. A few months later, Indiana Jones (#1 dated: October 1984) did just what it said on the cover, offering two stories per issue, but after just 11 months had run through both film adaptations and most of the regular series too before folding into Spider-Man Comic in the dying months of that comic’s two-decades-spanning run that would soon end with #666.

But their most enduring success during the 1980s was perhaps the most unexpected: The Transformers (#1 dated: September 20th–October 3rd, 1984). Marvel previously had mixed success with licensed properties in the States, but the UK wing had been having great success developing a whole line of “nursery” titles for younger readers. No one could have known that a comic based on a line of transformable toys would have the impact it did, and I would certainly never have bet on it.

The origin of the series was, of course, covered in huge detail in BACK ISSUE #16 (“Toy Stories”), but its effect on the UK line was even more pronounced. The Transformers quickly became a huge seller and provided the perfect opportunity to produce ever more ambitious originated strips to fill the gaps in-between runs of the American strips.

This necessitated the development of a pool of artists to embellish the words of its most prolific writers, Ian Rimmer and Simon Furman.

And what a collection of talent it was: John Ridgway, Ron Smith, Stewart Johnson, Lee Sullivan, and Geoff Senior, to name but five! By the time the comic finally folded in 1992 with #332, it had published over twice as much originated strip material as the entire American output combined (and the latter issues of the regular US comic was also produced by UK creators anyway, don’t forget). Plans to relaunch the title as an American-format monthly sadly never came to fruition.

THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN BRITAIN! By 1985 Jenny O’Connor had taken over as editorial director (with Richard Starkings assisting during 1987–1989). Marvel was keen to capitalize on the Eagle Award-winning success of Captain Britain’s adventures in MWOM (2nd Series) and the result was the monthly black-and-white magazine Captain Britain (#1 dated: January 1985), which would now be sold on both sides of the Atlantic. A succession of new series introduced the Freefall Warriors, the Space Pirates, and the Cherubim, along with reprints of early Black Knight and Night Raven strips—the latter also gaining a new text story in the final few editions of the magazine. The comic ended just over a year later with #14; its B&W interiors and magazine-sized proportions are said to have caused some resistance among US retailers.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (#1 dated: April 27th–May 10th, 1985) was the only other addition during 1985, with the glossy color comic working through the original maxiseries, with the addition of early Alpha Flight episodes and a regular UK competition strip by Simon Jacob called “Marvel’s Secret Artist.” Initially fortnightly [biweekly],

the comic later adopted a weekly frequency, shrinking from 32 to 24 pages and adding the newly originated Zoids series from #20.

The Zoids strip left for a new home after #26, with the comic becoming Secret Wars II with #32. It then interwove selected crossover stories with the main maxiseries over the rest of its 80-issue run.

The next year saw only one new 24-page glossy weekly unveiled.

Spider-Man and Zoids (2nd Series) (#1 dated: March 8th, 1986) presented a series-spanning run of new Zoids episodes, with the Sectaurs, the Fantastic Four, Star Wars, the Star Brand, Strikeforce Morituri, and the Avengers all variously lending their support behind the lead Spider-Man feature. The series collapsed one issue shy of its first birthday, and Spider-Man would then not be featured in another UK comic under his own name until November 1990!

Things were not much better on the new-title front in 1987 either, with just two new series appearing in early spring, both again featuring a mix of originated material and US reprints. The first issue of the 24-page glossy weekly Action Force (#1 dated: March 7th, 1987) was sold banded-together with #2 and, apart from a few weeks of Shang-Chi episodes and a one-off UK-produced Spider-Man story, simply featured re-badged G.I. Joe reprints (the toys still being sold under the Action Force name in the Britain) and new UK strips side-by-side each issue.

Like The Transformers before it, the 24-page glossy color ThunderCats (#1 dated: March 21st, 1987) published new UK-produced installments in-between batches of US reprints. The UK content again far outstripped the US material due to the American title ending after only 24 issues, and even managed to make use of partially completed American strip material that no longer had a home.

During ThunderCats’ first 78 issues, Power Pack provided the only other strip material, before being usurped in #79 by a merger with a younger-readers originated title called Galaxy Rangers that had only lasted nine issues. Thundercats then went fortnightly with #84, becoming a monthly comic with #95 in March 1989 and continuing until #129 in January 1991.

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BACK ISSUE • 19

The Office The Marvel UK Bullpen at work, circa late 1980s.

Photo courtesy of Tim Quinn.

© 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ATLANTIC CROSSING It was clear that the weekly format was struggling.

Unlike other publishers, Marvel had successfully adopted a biweekly frequency as a way of easing new additions up to weekly status at a later date. This process would again apply to the introduction of this year’s only regular magazine-sized title, The Marvel Bumper Comic (#1 dated: October 1st, 1988), which only finally went weekly with #13. Aimed at a crossover audience of younger and slightly older readers, this 32-page glossy color comic returned to a more traditional anthology format featuring various unrelated strips, with new UK-originated material (the Real Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, and ThunderCats) sitting alongside US reprints (Popeye, Scooby-Doo, Defenders of the Earth, and Droids). Although Alf already possessed his own monthly color comic (#1 dated: May 1988), the furry alien troublemaker would also appear in most issues of The Marvel Bumper Comic.

But besides seeing the reintroduction—briefly—of both the Hulk and Spider-Man in any British comic, The Marvel Bumper Comic also featured a new series of William Tell stories based on a partially European-funded TV series that the ITV network was about to screen.

That William Tell only ran from #21–28 is less a reflection on its quality and more the result of ITV having a change of heart and burying the series in a late-night slot away from the gaze of the strip’s target audience.

The Marvel Bumper Comic was a strange mix of material that never quite gelled, and it never seemed to know quite who its audience was, ending with #31.

1988 also saw a second assault on the American market. Action Force Monthly (#1 dated: June 1988)— full-color throughout, and this time American-comicbook-sized as well—would appear in America as G.I. Joe European Missions, reflecting the name difference between the toys on either side of the big pond. Other than that, it featured identical contents: a mixture of new strips and reprints from the weekly. The ten-issuelong Dragon’s Claws (#1 dated: July 1988), about a future Earth fight-game team, and Death’s Head (#1 dated: December 1988) both featured full-length original strips every issue. A longer-than-expected delay meant The Sleeze Brothers (#1 dated: August 1989) became a co-publication with Epic Comics. The sixissue miniseries reintroduced the Blues Brothersinspired bumbling PIs that had first been surfaced in the comic strip “Follow that Tardis” back in #147 of Doctor Who Magazine, and was later collected in a hard-to-find 1990 trade paperback The Sleeze Brothers Files.

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The bounty hunter Death’s Head (although best not to call him that to his face!) had previously been introduced in the British-produced Transformers strips, and was destined to play a pivotal role in an eventual explosion of similarly originated comics just two years later. By then Marvel UK had a much smaller range of titles aimed a teenagers—the nursery end of the market having long overtaken the market for boys comics—and with the surprise return of Paul Neary in 1991, and encouragement from Tom DeFalco, they embarked on a series of color comics aimed at American readers.

Revolving around a reconstructed Death’s Head II and the sinister MysTech organization, soon so many titles were being released every month that the company almost got swallowed when the comics market imploded at the nadir of the speculator boom.

By then, Marvel UK were being run through Figurine Panini, a sticker-book company (which Marvel had recently acquired) with a huge Pan-European distribution network not unlike Transworld’s back in the 1970s.

When Marvel in the States resolved its own financial problems, escaping from Chapter 11 protection (unlike many companies), Panini was sold off and Marvel UK went with them.

THE MARVEL COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS At the end of 1990, Marvel UK finally achieved something that the US Bullpen of the 1970s had never managed—a comic featuring full-length reprints in every issue! With America now releasing more than 12 issues a year for many of their top titles, by publishing The Complete Spider-Man (#1 dated: December 5th, 1990) as a four-weekly US-format full-color comic, its 100 pages could then encompass one full strip from each of the four Spider-Man comics then in print and still remain many months behind America. The only downside was that a big leap forward in continuity had to be taken from Spidey’s last regular British appearance to find a convenient starting point for all the series, but it would also provide the template for the UK division’s continued survival.

When The Complete Spider-Man wound down after 24 issues, it was immediately followed by another 40 issues of the magazine-sized The Exploits of Spider-Man (#1 dated: October 21st, 1992). When that 100-page monster ended, its immediate replacement, The Astonishing Spider-Man (#1 dated: November 15th, 1995), returned to US proportions, adding thick, laminated card covers to a slick 76-page full-color format. With weekly comics now almost extinct, this format stuck fast, and by the turn of the century Panini had slowly and patiently built Marvel UK’s most reliable US reprint line since 1976. These days, the majority of its comics now utilize this same “Marvel Collector’s Edition” format, with occasional 100-page specials included at no extra cost! And all this in addition to various other magazine format titles, Annuals, and not forgetting the evergreen Doctor Who Magazine, too.

It would seem that Marvel’s invasion of Britain is far from over!

ROB KIRBY has long been a collector of comic and other modern cultural artifacts (by which he means records, CDs and DVDs, kids!), and writes about such regularly in re:VOX—a journal of all things Ultravox related—as well previously cluttering up the pages of Record Collector and Comics International. You can find more from his blog (a-distant-beacon.blogspot.com), which contains links to various Facebook pages. Rob hopes to have completed production work on From Cents to Pence by the time this article sees print!

by

Robert Menzies

Art contributions and caprions provi ded by the author.

A Look Inside An example of the standard interior layout of a landscape comic.

This page from SSM #164 has a recap image not present in Iron Man vol.1 #10. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

For most British children during the 1970s, an original US Marvel comic book was as rare as a quiet day in the life of Peter Parker. Thankfully, as Rob Kirby has explained in this issue’s previous article, Marvel UK produced a flotilla of weekly anthologies that reprinted Silver and Bronze Age classics from the Marvel Comics library.

One of these titles was Spider-Man Comics Weekly (SMCW). Initially printed in the standard portrait format, with one page of SMCW equal to one page of an American monthly, SMCW remained that way until it adopted the distinctive landscape format in early 1976.

This new orientation first involved rotating a UK comic book 90 degrees onto its side. Then, each page of art was reduced to roughly A5 size so that two pages would fit side-by-side onto one page of the new format. Previously, the pages of art in a British comic book were printed at a larger size than the American editions to accommodate the traditional magazine-sized pages of a British comic (8" x 11"/20.5 cm. x 28 cm.). Now, the reverse was the case, and the British art was now smaller. Effectively, for a 1p increase in price to 9p, the amount of reading had doubled without changing the number of pages.

The identity of the person who first suggested the landscape format is a mystery, as is the reasoning behind its introduction,

although it was certainly discussed during the weekly transatlantic conferences between Marvel’s New York and London offices. It is distinctly possible that its introduction may have been influenced by the then-current economic situation. Britain was in the midst of a recession, and a bumper, value-for-money comic would have seemed more palatable to parents tightening the purse strings and to kids limited to one comic per week (like this writer).

The grim financial backdrop was acknowledged in the comics themselves. In a Spidey letters page from May 29th, 1976, the editor said that reducing the weeklies from seven to six was “forced upon us by the present economic cloud that most of the world is passing through.”

As it happened, the title that introduced this innovative format was not SMCW but an entirely new creation, The Titans. Shoehorned into the first issue of The Titans, released in October of 1975, were the Inhumans; Captain America; Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Sub-Mariner; and Captain Marvel. Even allowing for the fact that these stories were divided into episodes of six to eight pages, this was an incredible cast for one comic. Unsurprisingly, the new orientation soon became known as the “Titanic” format.

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Early the following year, SMCW #156 (February 7, 1976) had this enigmatic announcement: “Coming next week, BIG NEWS of a Super Spidey Sensation!”

The following issue revealed all: Move with Marvel as the Comic revolution continues! As the mighty Titans reaches its fifteenth great issue, it gives momentum to the comic revolution it began. The unique titanic format has been acclaimed by Marvelites all over Britain and spread the name of Marvel far and wide!

Now Spider-Man swings into line with a brandnew comic, assembling the most awe-inspiring array of super-heroes ever!

The power-packed punch of the Thing!

The god of thunder—Thor!

The mystical world of Dr. Strange!

The technological genius of Iron Man! All in the greatest-ever Marvel weekly, combining the format of the Titans with the magic of Marvel’s mightiest heroes!

The New Spider-Man Comics Weekly featuring the Super-Heroes is available next week.

This rather noisy proclamation, from issue #157, was just the first page of three whole pages of promotion.

Even if we were to cynically dismiss the largely positive feedback in the Titans’ letters pages as dishonestly selective, it seems hard to avoid the conclusion that the early sales figures for The Titans were very healthy.

If not, then why replicate an unsuccessful format?

When Martin Forrest appealed in The Titans #19 (February 28th, 1976) for all British Marvel titles to be released in the landscape format, he received the following reply: “Well, you’re far from being the only Marvelite to suggest we switch to the Titans format for all our mags, which is why we are going ahead with our plan to re-organize Spider-Man Comics Weekly.”

It is likely that Marvel saw the excellent early sales of The Titans and then decided that the new format could boost the circulation of SMCW. However, it is possible that even before the debut of The Titans, Marvel was thinking of adopting the “Titanic” orientation for Spidey’s title. It may even have prompted its creation.

There were mixed feelings about the new format in Marvel’s London offices and this may have been a compromise solution. Rather than blindly risk a top-selling title, Marvel may have created a new, and expendable, title to test the waters. If these speculations are true, that would mean that as soon as the first encouraging sales figures came in, Marvel was ready, willing, and able to relaunch SMCW. Whatever the exact circumstances may be—and with what we know of how the New York end of the British division operated, this does not incline an impartial observer into thinking that they were the greatest forward-thinkers in publishing history—the new incarnation of Spidey’s title bore little resemblance to its past form. Firstly, SMCW absorbed another failing Marvel anthology title, The Super-Heroes, to be renamed Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes (SSM). (One cannot help but wonder if the pairing of the adjective “super” with Spidey’s name was a bit of a cheeky dig at DC, which had no comparable presence in Britain.) The largest and most prominent change, of course, was in format.

To employ another term used by letter writers, the Wall-Crawler’s comic had been “Titanized.”

During SSM’s all-too-brief “Titanic” period—a mere 70 issues between February 1976 and June 1977—almost all the greatest artistic talents of the 22 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

Silver and Bronze Ages would take a bow: Kirby, Heck, Kane, Romita, John and Sal Buscema, Adams, Steranko, Andru, Starlin, Sinnott, Tuska, Buckler … the list went on and on. The initial roster of SSM changed several times to include other titles like The Avengers, Captain America, and The Invaders (yes, THREE Captain America stories per week!), but readers were always treated to five or six stories per issue, all selected by informed editors. Every week readers thrilled to iconic stories from the Birth of Captain America to the Death of Gwen Stacy. With these regular installments of Marvel’s Greatest Hits, it is difficult to imagine a better introduction to the Marvel Universe, and it’s no wonder this period made many readers into lifelong True Believers.

Nevertheless, the reprint comics of the early 1970s are often dismissed by commentators with the declaration that Marvel UK did not produce new material until the advent of the Captain Britain comic in October of 1976. This is a misleading assertion. True, there were no new stories before then, but there was a vast quantity of new covers, recap pages, and posters that were produced solely for the British audience. Like all other UK titles, right from its first issue SMCW had produced original covers, latterly every second issue as the covers alternated between reproducing the US edition’s cover with (admittedly, usually inferior) original British art. However, the new landscape orientation meant that entirely new covers had to be created every single week, even though these were often faithful swipes—compare ASM #122 and SSM #171 by John Romita, Sr. and Dave Hunt, respectively, for instance. Sometimes the covers were entirely different to the American editions. One of the most memorable was a Sal Buscema cover to SSM #193 (a reprint of ASM #144). Frustratingly, Marvel UK never showed much interest in crediting art, and very few covers were signed.

However, all is not lost. At the time of writing (July 2012), the romitaman.com website had a selection of British covers and recap splash pages for sale, including five SSM covers.

The owner, Mike Burkey, tells me that “almost all [original] UK art pieces … have a pre-printed

Wallopin’ Widescreen (opposite page) (top) Titans #1, a typical 1970s Marvel mashup. Art by Keith Pollard. (center) #23 recreates the cover to X-Men #35. (bottom) Titans #54 (cover by Ron Wilson) recreates the cover to Avengers #98. (this page) (above) Quad-poster info. (center) Centerspread from SSM #220 showing Captain Britain with his short-lived original costume and weapon. (bottom) Each issue featured several story-so-far pages. Despite what the credits claim, recap-page art was rarely by the original artists. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Cover Comparisons UK covers could be faithful, but expanded, copies (compare SSM #171 and ASM #122, top) or differ markedly, as shown below. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

box for penciler and inker initials on each piece.” The scans he kindly included with his email clearly showed these. From the available original cover art, it appears that the majority of the SSM covers were penciled by Larry Lieber, with Frank Giacoia on inks.

Marvel UK also clearly followed the old mantra that “every comic book is somebody’s first” and provided recap pages to bridge the gap they had created by dividing a story into two or three parts. These “story so far” pages were produced in the Stateside Marvel offices and each issue had at least one and sometimes as many as three, varying in size from a full- to a half-page splash.

An example of a recap page would be the Warriors Three illustration reprinted (without recap text) in BI #53. Recap pages were almost always misleadingly labeled as being the work of the artist who produced the original US art that began on the next page. If this

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was an attempt to hoodwink the readers into believing that all the story art was produced by the same hand/s, it was laughably unsuccessful. The recap art was rarely of comparable quality or style to the original, although there were some notable exceptions, a selection of which you will see accompanying this article. With hindsight, the editors could have easily avoided any confusion (or insult to the reader’s intelligence) by adding to the credits the brief note “Recap page by…”

Another selling point—and the most memorable and unique aspect of this period—was the large centerspread posters. These pinups bridged two entire landscape pages, creating a cinemascope–type effect that covered an art space that was over 21" long and over 7" high (approximately 54 cm. by 18.5 cm.). There was little, if any, logic in the choice of subject. The range of featured characters was eclectic, unpredictable, uncaring of British

Mayday! (left) This SSM #164 image by occasional cover and centerspread artist David Hunt is a swipe of the top panel from page 17 of ASM #115. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (below) Centerspread from SSM #186.

Art by Jeff Aclin and Duffy Vohland. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

continuity, and not limited to who was featured in the comic itself.

Headliners like Spidey and the FF were joined by surprise guests, including horror characters and the obscure Woodgod. In one astonishing example the content was uncensored: Marshall Rogers’ image of the Punisher messily executing criminals, from issue #180, predates the ultra-violence of Garth Ennis’ Punisher by decades. An explanation for all this randomness is the possibility that the artists, or at least some of the more famous ones, had free rein to draw whatever characters or situation they wished. Early in the new format, Herb Trimpe was asked to do a poster (see article by Neil Tennant, of the Pet Shop Boys, in SSM #164) and he chose to do a “history of warfare” military scene of aircraft and cavalry that appeared in the following issue.

It would appear that Frank Hampson was likewise given carte blanche.

Regrettably, while they were undeniably bold images, these posters were generally of a fairly poor standard, although some— especially later ones—are very fine indeed, in part because the oddly elongated shape of the art space lent itself to some rather impressive cinematic effects. Most of these posters did not carry any credits, although familiar names like John Buscema, Gil Kane, Herb Trimpe (he illustrated a second poster depicting the Hulk), Tom Palmer, and

Dan Adkins did make signed appearances. (The Kane DD centerspread, incidentally, later saw print in Marvel’s fanzine FOOM.) The editors were usually considerate enough to use the back of the posters for letters, bulletins, and adverts. That some of this “lost” art is by great artists sadly no longer with us makes it all the more pleasing that these gems are seeing the light of day again.

The centerspread’s finest moment—actually, fortnight—came during the hot summer of 1976 when SSM and The Titans, another reprint weekly, crossed over to create the staggering four-part “Quadra-poster” (or “Quad-poster”) that has been used as the cover to this edition of BACK ISSUE. Even British fans have never seen this Larry Lieber (layouts)/Ron Wilson (pencils)/Dave Hunt (inks) masterpiece in glorious color and, for me, it is easily this edition’s highlight. [Editor’s note: And let’s not forget the Quadra-poster’s newcomer, Glenn Whitmore, who colored this amazing image for our cover!]

Today, the “Titanic” format is regularly described in overly negative terms such as “controversial” and “bizarre.” This perception stands largely unchallenged, despite the fact that most evidence and common sense points to the format being popular: “ITEM! The final figures aren’t quite in yet, but it sure looks like our latest sensation, ‘Super British Invasion Issue

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Unc Ock?? (top) The splash from SSM #180 (July 21, 1976) is a recreation—and improvement—of the same page from ASM #131. (bottom left) SSM #201 reprinted the first half of ASM #151. Isn’t “He’s gone forever!” the worst prediction in Marvel history? (bottom right) A great cover on #215— even if this scene did not happen in the story!

(This issue reprints half of ASM #158.) © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes,’ is settin’ all kinds of records for sales!” (SSM #168) The first time the format change is discussed by readers in a letters page is in SSM #170 (May 15th, 1976).

Yorkshire’s Robert Hudson wrote: “The new Super Spiderman [sic] is obviously far better value than the old SMCW. … I would like you to change all your comics to the Titans format.” Sefton Collett regarded it as “a very bad mistake … It may hold more stories, but it completely spoils the superb artwork by reducing the frames to such a size. Who wants to see John Romita’s fantastic work on Spidey shrunk down?” Sandwiched between these opposing opinions, the editors commented: “There are those that welcome it and there are those that set their faces firmly against it. So far the score would appear to be around two to one in favor of the change.”

Meanwhile, amongst the many compliments, a disapproving minority continued to grumble about the new format. For example, a slightly hysterical Martin Tudor called it a “monstrosity” (SSM #176) and demanded, “Why don’t you give away a free magnifying glass instead of a poster?” The editor replied that “the original art was reproduced on a print area of 6" across by 9" deep. In Super/Spidey, this has been reduced to 5" across and 71/2" deep. Now, is that really so drastic?”

Three issues later, Neil Hainsworth also complained about the size of the reprints and the reply claimed,

not entirely convincingly, that the new format meant that the art was “only minimally smaller than the original artwork” (my emphasis). These editorial replies were unequivocal: “Titanized” comics were here to stay.

At the time, few cared—or even realized—that the format was unsustainable. In 1972, Marvel had started reprinting Spider-Man stories from the Web-Slinger’s very first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. The British edition may have started later, but it was printing stories at a quicker rate, so the time lag between the US and UK editions had been diminishing steadily year-on-year. With the new landscape format, this had greatly accelerated: SSM was now using up a year’s worth of ASM every three months. Graham Parkinson’s letter in the Spider-Man letters page for #177 (June 30th, 1977) was the first time this ticking time-bomb was publicly highlighted: Haven’t you done a silly thing? In the old SMCW it used to take two or three British editions to cover one American edition, and you were catching up to the American editions. Now it’s one British edition for one American edition, so you are going to catch up even faster. Not that I’m complaining of having a whole story in Spiderman [sic], far from it. It’s just that I’d like to know what you will do when you catch up.

The editor’s reply is surprising, if not alarming: We’ve always been firm believers in crossing our bridges when we come to ’em. So, as of this moment, we can’t reliably forecast what the picture will be when British Spidey overtakes U.S. Spidey.

Stephen Gooch, in SSM #181 (July 28th, 1976), even told them when this would happen: SSM and ASM would be printing the same story in 11 months. Perhaps tellingly, the editor made no comment on the deadline.

Certainly, as these letters and replies prove, Marvel knew that this problem was coming at least one year prior to the return to the portrait format. And it is surely absurd to think this had not occurred to them beforehand. Someone at Marvel—probably in New York, looking at sales figures—clearly had no immediate plans to reintroduce the portrait format. Again, this points to the format being successful and the dissenters amongst the readership being in the minority. That the London editors apparently had no idea what would happen when they reached the point when the reprints inevitably caught up with the American editions is,

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Last Look at Landscapes (top) Avengers vs. Sentinels in Titans #58. (bottom) SSM #228, the final landscape comic and the end of an era. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

however, inexplicable and disconcerting. Notably, in SSM #190, the editor claimed, without going into any detail, that they had “a comforting number of solutions to choose from.” With hindsight, one can only wonder if even they believed that to be true.

The Titans ran for 58 issues, ending in November 1976, when it merged with SSM. This resulted in yet another title change, to Super Spider-Man and the Titans. The union left SSM as the only landscape comic.

One possible conclusion from this is that The Titans failed because of its characters, not its format, otherwise Spidey’s title would have also failed. In fact, SSM continued in the landscape format for another 29 issues, right up till the comic had no choice but to start mining the material in the newest Spidey title Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man—a comic that Rob Kirby convincingly argues was created to rescue Spidey’s British comic book. That would mean that the format change was forced on Marvel because the UK reprints had caught up with the American editions of ASM and also exhausted much of Marvel Team-Up (MTU) into the bargain. It seems clear that the format was successful and, if they could have, Marvel would have continued with it.

Admittedly, months earlier there had been a halfhearted attempt to address this rapid exhaustion of Spider-Man’s back catalogue. When SSM and The Titans merged with issue #199, instead of printing an entire issue of The Amazing Spider-Man every week, they now divided it into two halves and spread it over a fortnight.

While this helped, it obviously merely delayed the inevitable. Between SSM #159 (the first landscape issue the week before reprinted an early MTU) and #228— that is, February 1976 until June 1977—Marvel UK had reprinted The Amazing Spider-Man #110–164 (July 1972–Jan. 1977)! The considerable time lag between American and British editions—which had been three years at the start of 1976—had been reduced to months by the summer of ’77. The end was nigh.

Abruptly, in late June of 1977, the editors used a full page in issue #228 to announce the switch back to the portrait format the following week. Interestingly, in a lengthy letter in the same issue, Peter Clark bemoaned the cut in the amount of Spider-Man pages and wanted a return to ten pages (20 pages of the original US comic). The reply he received was illuminating and is quoted in full below: It can’t be done, Peter. We’d love to give Spidey ten pages in every issue, but where would the material come from? If we printed ten pages of Spidey in every issue (and remember that would be more than the equivalent of one American Monthly comic) we would quickly run out of stories to print.

Unfortunately, it’s as simple as that. When we first introduced Super Spider-Man, we printed a whole American issue every week, but if we’d gone on like that, we’d have no stories to print now. And that’s why we’re returning to the original “upright” format on SMCW, so that the Spidey stories, although shorter than they once were, are better presented,

with larger art. I’m sure you’ll agree that this is better than having no Spidey stories at all.

To some, the sinking of the Titanic format was a welcome end to the most recklessly shortsighted, inventory-gobbling era in Marvel’s history. While that is essentially true, it’s an overly simplistic viewpoint. This was a time when comics were overflowing with classic stories and original covers, posters, and recap pages by some of the greatest creators in Marvel’s then-short history. The readers who were in the right place at the right time to experience it were lucky beyond words.

A Quadra-poster-sized thank-you to Rob Kirby for readily sharing his time and unequalled knowledge of British Marvel.

ROBERT MENZIES, proud owner of a No-Prize from Stan THE MAN Lee himself, started reading Marvel comics soon after the landscape format was introduced to the pages of SSM. He’s seen in this photo with The Man himself, taken at the London Super Comic Convention on Saturday, February 25, 2012.

To this day Robert remains a confirmed Titanorak and still feels that after they changed back to the portrait orientation things were never quite the same again. He also still misses Gwen.

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You could be forgiven for thinking that the career of Jim Starlin has been thoroughly mined. He has, after all, been the subject of many articles, interviews [even in this magazine, most notably in BACK ISSUE #34 – ed.], and even a hefty autobiographical retrospective. Nevertheless, you’d be mistaken. Incredibly, there is one important area of his work history that has never been reprinted and has been almost completely forgotten about—even by Starlin himself.

So, what was this art?

In the 1970s, early in his career with Marvel, Starlin produced a series of covers and other art to be used exclusively in the pages of the newly launched British reprint comics: in total, 27 covers, one back-page poster, and a jigsaw puzzle (hence my reworking of the old nickname “Judo Jim Starlin” in the title). The only locations you will find any reproduction of this lost art are a few scattered websites dedicated to British comics. This omission from his work history is all the more remarkable when you consider that Starlin was at the vanguard of Marvel’s huge success in Britain.

But let’s back up a little. To the astonishment of British fans, Jim Starlin visited both Scotland and England over the summer of 2012.

He appeared first at the annual Glasgow Comic Convention, Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1, 2012, before then attending the London Film & Comic Con, Friday, July 6 to Sunday, July 8. Mr. Starlin’s unexpected trip to the United Kingdom presented me with an ideal opportunity to speak to him about this forgotten art.

– Robert Menzies ROBERT MENZIES: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Jim, to discuss the little-known cover work that you did for the British market.

JIM STARLIN: Glad to be here.

MENZIES: I’d like to begin with some background information to set the scene. Your arrival at Marvel coincided with a huge expansion of Marvel titles and the arrival of a new generation of creators. It also coincided with an attempt by Marvel to break into the British market with a new title called The Mighty World of Marvel.

The experience of a Marvel fan in America and his/her equivalent in the UK was very different at this time. At the start of the 1970s, the US editions of both Marvel and DC titles were very hard to find and there were no reprint titles. Basically, Marvel had little or no presence in most of Britain.

However, in late 1972, Marvel launched The Mighty World of Marvel (MWOM) and distributed it throughout the UK. MWOM reprinted early Spider-Man, Hulk, and Fantastic Four stories. This was the gamechanger for Marvel in the UK. In much the same way that the success of the Fantastic Four’s comic led to the creation of Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, the Avengers, and so on, the success of The Mighty World of Marvel led to a number of other British titles and Marvel’s dominance of the UK superhero marketplace.

All of those titles came from the success of MWOM. STARLIN: I was never really aware of that.

MENZIES: Well, you are absolutely central to the whole success of Marvel in Britain because you were the first regular cover artist. John Buscema drew the cover to #1, and then you were the regular cover artist from #2 until 26. The first time readers of that era saw a Marvel image, it was probably your art they were seeing.

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by

Robert Menzies

Conducted on July 1, 2012 at the Glasgow Comic Con 2012 in the Macintosh Church, Glasgow.

Art contributions and captions provided by the author.

Starlin Smash!

This striking image for the cover of Marvel UK’s Mighty World of Marvel #160 (Oct. 25, 1975) has no relation to the issue’s reprinted tale that was taken from The Incredible Hulk #162 (Apr. 1973). Jim Starlin, on seeing this image among a selection of his cover (photo inset), says: “This is my favorite. Of those, that’s the one I like the best. It showed some actual drawing ability!” This art became quite familiar to British fans as a slightly altered version was used to advertise the UK annuals for Christmas 1976. Pencils by Starlin, inks by Al Milgrom. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

MWOM #3 (Oct. 21, 1972) Art: Pencils by Starlin, inks by Joe Sinnott Starlin’s second cover for British Marvel had no connection to the internal art that reprinted parts two and three from The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Mar. 1963). The original cover to ASM #1 was presented as an internal pinup.

Note Spider-Man’s right hand. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

STARLIN: I gotta tell you, these were just time-fillers for me. It may have changed things, but these were the things I did when I was waiting to get jobs I really wanted to do.

I really wanted to do the interior stuff, I wanted to tell stories.

These covers are the things you do to get to do what you really want. You know, I was waiting to get ahold of Iron Man, and I always figured I would become the permanent writer/artist on Iron Man. That was my ambition.

MENZIES: That didn’t exactly work out…

STARLIN: [laughs] No, I got fired from my second issue!

Stan [Lee] hated it; he thought we made Iron Man look bad. But then Roy [Thomas] gave me Captain Marvel, so it all worked out in the end.

MENZIES: I have with me all of your attributed British cover art. I consulted with Rob Kirby, an expert on British comics, and he was able to complete my list and provide me with scans for the few original issues I’m missing. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this artwork in a long time…

STARLIN: Not since probably then, at the time.

MENZIES: I suspected as much. It has never been mentioned in other articles or your hardback book.

STARLIN: The weeklies, they would give us four or five [covers] to do at a time.

MENZIES: Oh, right.

STARLIN: Yeah, so they would say, “Hey, we need these things for this issue,” so I would lay it out. I would maybe, out of the five, pencil completely one of them, or two of them, and then I would farm the other ones out to [Allen] Milgrom, [Bill] DuBay, or Jimmy James. They were all available and the covers usually had to be done pretty quickly.

MENZIES: I hadn’t realized that Milgrom was at Marvel that early. I thought there was a bigger gap between your arrival at Marvel and his.

STARLIN: He was working as Murphy Anderson’s assistant [at DC] for a time when he first got there.

MENZIES: Those other names I’ve never heard before…

STARLIN: Bill DuBay tightened some of these covers up.

He didn’t do muscles very well … and so he was just sort of faking it. [Jimmy James] did a couple of these [covers] but he never got much work [at Marvel]. I have a feeling [MWOM] #24 is his.

[Editor’s note: Editor/writer/artist Bill DuBay (1948– 2010) is best known for his work at Warren Publishing. His other clients included Pacific Comics and Archie Comics’ superhero line, plus Marvel Productions Ltd. and other animation houses. Artist Jimmy Janes has a range of Marvel and DC credits. He is best known for his early-1980s’ work on Legion of Super-Heroes and will be included in BACK ISSUE #68, our Legion issue.]

MENZIES: I really like the Hulk figure [on MWOM #24].

It’s strong and muscular.

STARLIN: Yeah, well, the legs are a bit wrong. I mean, those muscles don’t really go there [pointing to Hulk’s right thigh].

I obviously sketched them in and [James] did it himself.

MWOM #4 (Oct. 28, 1972) Art: Starlin and Joe Sinnott Starlin’s bold reinterpretation of the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #1. The second story from that classic issue—“Spider-Man vs. the Chameleon” —is reprinted inside. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MENZIES: Here is a list detailing the stories that the covers are based on.

Due to the delayed continuity of British Marvel, in 1972 they were reprinting the very first appearances of the Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Spidey, which can make these comics seem older than they really are. I know you were a Marvel fan in high school, so did you read these tales when they were originally published ten or more years earlier?

STARLIN: Yeah, I read all of these books as a kid, so I knew exactly where they were coming from and I probably had copies with me. I brought a suitcase [of comics] when I came to New York!

MENZIES: [laughs] That explains a lot! You’re excellent with the details.

This is your interpretation of The Amazing Spider-Man #1 [handing Starlin the copy of MWOM #4].

STARLIN: This Thing looks like it’s [by] me. Yeah.

MENZIES: Mr. Fantastic looks like it’s your art to me, as well.

STARLIN: Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s Joe Sinnott’s inks.

MENZIES: You’re spot-on with all your details, with one single exception.

Have a look at MWOM #3.

STARLIN: [looking at cover] Hmm. Give me a clue.

MENZIES: Spider-Man… STARLIN: Oh, of course! [Spider-Man is somehow firing his web-shooter without pressing the palm activator.]

MENZIES: [apologetically] Guys like me, we’re terrible, but we check every little thing…

STARLIN: [laughs] MENZIES: This is the one error and it’s early, only the second cover you drew. Everything else is bang-on, despite the considerable time delay.

STARLIN: Yeah, let me see that one again.

MENZIES: The fault may lie with the inker, of course…

STARLIN: …I think it’s all mine, actually. Looking at it again … [Frank] Giacoia was sort of becoming the art director [at Marvel] at this point.

He may have changed it for some reason. Or I may have messed it up.

MENZIES: It’s not like you, to be fair. Your knowledge of the Marvel Universe is obviously very deep. The single “D” on Daredevil’s chest [1964’s Daredevil #1–4] was soon replaced by a double “D” [#5–6] before he was given the red costume [#7]. It would have been easy to get that wrong in 1973, and yet you didn’t. This level of detail is in the American editions, too.

There’s an issue of your Captain Marvel, #27, and there’s a panel with Eros and Mentor fighting aliens and one of the aliens resembles the aliens from 1963’s Amazing Spider-Man #2, aliens which at that point had made one solitary appearance a decade earlier. [The aliens featured in ASM #2’s second story, “The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer.”]

STARLIN: [The aliens in Captain Marvel] were all from some other Marvel book, some of them from the early Captain Marvel books before I was on it. I remember the cover of the issue you’re talking about and it has [Super-Skrull] on it, and aliens from [Amazing] Spider-Man. Yeah, I grabbed them all from some place or another just so I was keeping

MWOM #7 (Nov. 18, 1972) Art: Starlin and Sinnott (top) Taken from The Incredible Hulk #4 (Nov. 1962). This is another example of Starlin’s reinterpretation being a huge improvement over the original cover. Also note the dropped hyphen from Spider-Man’s name.

MWOM #15 (Jan. 13, 1973) Art: Pencils by Starlin, inks by Frank Giacoia (below) I had believed this to be John Romita’s inks, but according to Jim Starlin, “It’s probably Frank Giacoia[’s inks].” This is the alternate British cover to Amazing Spider-Man #5 (Oct. 1963).

The original cover is employed internally as a splash page. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MWOM #24 (Mar. 17, 1973) Art: Layouts by Starlin, pencils by Bill DuBay (left) The interior FF story reprints the first half of Fantastic Four #12 (Mar. 1963), the first meeting of the FF and the Hulk. It’s a misleading cover, though, as the characters do not encounter each

with the continuity. I wanted to draw everything I could at that point! [laughs] MENZIES: [nodding] You can see it, you can see it.

This is one I wasn’t sure about because of the Watcher figure [MWOM #27]. You’re usually careful about details, but that doesn’t look quite like the Watcher.

STARLIN: I think they got other people to do this one.

I think Milgrom penciled it. I don’t think I had anything to do with this cover.

MENZIES: I’d like to talk more about who was involved with the covers. Was Joe Sinnott the inker for your first dozen or so covers?

STARLIN: I think so. They wanted it to look right.

Most of the time I laid them out and others tightened up the pencils.

MENZIES: MWOM #15 looks very much like John Romita’s handiwork.

STARLIN: I don’t remember John inking any of them.

It’s probably Frank Giacoia.

MENZIES: Oh, I was convinced it was Romita! It looks to me like you might have drawn Dr. Doom. The Spider-Man looks completely redrawn. It doesn’t, if you don’t mind me saying, look like your art.

STARLIN: I think maybe I laid it out. But I think this was tightened up by Bill DuBay and I’m pretty sure this is Frank Giacoia… [pauses as he looks at cover] That’s definitely Frank Giacoia.

MENZIES: Well, that’s a lifelong misconception corrected!

STARLIN: [laughs] MENZIES: This one [#20] is very interesting because it’s an homage to Detective Comics #38 (Apr. 1940), the first appearance of Robin. I’m not sure if that was your idea or the editor’s…?

STARLIN: I have no idea. It might have been [my idea] at the time. We’re talking 40 years ago. It probably came from something. I’m sure a lot of people have done that since then.

MENZIES: Ah, I hadn’t considered a previous homage between the original comic and your cover. I do know

other until the second part, which is printed in the next issue. Issue #25 would also advertise the battle in three panels beneath the main image of the Owl attacking Daredevil.

that Detective Comics #38 was voted 25th Most Iconic Cover Ever in a CBR Comics poll in 2009.

There have been recent swipes, so I guess older ones are possible, too.

That cover also reminds me a bit of Dreadstar Annual #1, which is a reprint of “The Price.” I’m a huge Dreadstar fan, so as soon as I saw this cover again I was reminded of this annual—just the way they’re standing.

STARLIN: Yep. I’m sure I didn’t think of that at the time, I just did it.

MENZIES: Did one person draw the entire cover, even when there are smaller boxes containing different characters from the comic book?

STARLIN: Yes. Occasionally they would throw in something right out of the book. They were pasting up some

by MWOM #17 because this [pointing to cover] is Ditko and that’s Colan, with Vince Colletta over the top.

MENZIES: Six months later, you returned to draw another cover, #44, which is your last until 1975.

STARLIN: I think I was doing interior stuff and they came back and asked me to do a couple [of covers].

MWOM #160 is me and Milgrom. Milgrom was inking at this point.

MENZIES: That was easy. You signed that one!

STARLIN: Yeah.

MENZIES: And your final cover: Captain Britain #13.

STARLIN: I don’t recognize this at all. Oh, Captain Britain! This is Milgrom. I think he probably penciled this, too. This looks like Allen’s pencils and inks.

MENZIES: I was absolutely convinced that this was your art.

STARLIN: No, no. I can tell by the layout. I would have come at it from a different angle. I would have done something similar to this but I’m fairly sure it’s Milgrom.

MENZIES: Another misconception quashed!

Well, time is against us, so I’d just like to close by saying that I’m glad someone has had a chance to tell you how great an impact you made on British comics.

Without the success of The Mighty World of Marvel and the other titles that it spawned, my generation probably wouldn’t be reading Marvel comics, so thank you.

STARLIN: You’re welcome.

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MWOM #33 (May 19, 1973) Art: Jim Starlin (right) When I mentioned to Jim Starlin at the end of our interview that he contributed a jigsaw to Marvel UK, he was intrigued.

He did not recall ever hearing about this before and speculated that they had taken a piece of his art and cut it up without his knowledge. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

STARLIN INTERVIEW BONUS: BODAVIA OR BUST

JIM STARLIN’S MARVEL UK ART Throughout the interview, Jim made comments on cover art credits, and I have used these to compile a revised list of his UK art: • The Mighty World of Marvel #2–12, 14–21, 24–26 (Oct. 14, 1972–Mar. 31, 1973), MWOM #44 (Aug. 4, 1973), and MWOM #160 (Oct. 25, 1975) • Spider-Man Comics Weekly #3, 4, 8 (Feb. 17–Mar. 24, 1973) • Back-page poster: MWOM #23 (Mar. 10, 1973) • Jigsaw puzzle: MWOM #33 (May 19, 1973) Note: The cover to MWOM #105 (Oct. 5, 1975) was also a Starlin cover. However, unlike the other covers it was not an original piece and was reprinted from Marvel Super-Heroes #47 (Nov. 1974). This art saw life again as a very faithful— and rather excellent—swipe by Gary Brodsky and Joe Sinnott that appeared on the cover of The Incredible Hulk’s UK Annual for 1978. (I recommend that you Google it and have a look yourself.)

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(left) This back-page poster drawn by Jim Starlin for Mighty World of Marvel #23 (Mar. 10, 1973) is unusual, as MWOM pinups were usually doctored covers from the US editions or pinups from the US annuals. At first glance, this just looks like a typical Hulk-fights-the-army scene.

Certainly, this image does not refer to Hulk’s battle from that issue. (Ironically, despite his regular run-ins with the military, in the story from Tales to Astonish #70 reprinted in this issue, the Army is on the Hulk’s side as they are also trying to stop the Leader’s towering Humanoid.)

However, let’s pause for a moment to recall Jim Starlin’s familiarity with the Marvel Universe and his usual attention to detail. There are two large clues here to direct us to the source material: the tank insignia and the geography. If we hop back a few issues to MWOM #20, we can read a story (taken from Tales to Astonish #67, with some alterations) where Greenskin is battling tanks with this insignia somewhere in the mountains of a fictional country called “Bodavia” (p.1). So the pinup is definitely linked to this earlier story.

To confuse matters even further, the original US art that saw print in May 1965 had these tanks sporting a hammer-and-sickle symbol rather than a lightning bolt.

Moreover, the recap text by Stan Lee identifies the location as an “Iron Curtain nation” (p.1) and “the land of the Soviets” (p.7) rather than the invented Bodavia. The British version neutered much of the political/ideological Cold War slant of Lee’s original script, generalizing phrases like “unsuspecting Reds” to “unsuspecting troops” (p.3) and “Commies” to “tyrants” (p.9). In fact, in the British reprints—as Starlin must have known— Bodavia was editor Tony Isabella’s recurring stand-in for Russia and China, an editorial change he made reluctantly after objections and appeals from the UK. (Tom Orzechowski was the letterer hired by Isabella to make these text changes; this was Tom’s first job for Marvel.)

Later, Bodavia started to appear in US editions, also!

If you have managed to successfully negotiate that tangled path of continuity, you are left pondering one final question: Why did Isabella commission a new cover?

As you will recall, the printed cover to MWOM #20 shows Daredevil, the replacement for Spider-Man, who had left to headline his own comic book. By Starlin’s own admission, he was given “four or five” covers to do at a time. Therefore, it seems that the decision to launch a Spider-Man comic was taken after Starlin had been instructed to produce the cover to #20, necessitating a new cover by Starlin incorporating the Man without Fear.

Rather than waste this extra art, Marvel used it as a pinup. Unfortunately, this art was originally intended to be a cover, so it did not fill an entire page. (Starlin had, of course, left space for the banner at the top and box art of other characters at the bottom.) To solve this empty space issue, someone added some text above the image and then, incongruously, inserted the answers to the previous week’s quiz page!

Special thanks to the indispensable Rob Kirby; Tom Orzechowski; John Farman and Sha Nazir, event producers of the Glasgow Comic Convention 2012; the staff at the Mackintosh Church, Glasgow; and my long-suffering wife, Lesley, for taking me to the convention on Sunday morning before public transport came on!

Thanks especially go to Jim Starlin for kindly making time during a busy weekend to patiently answer my 40-year-old questions.

ROBERT MENZIES counts Jim Starlin’s original Warlock stories as his favorite comic books ever and couldn’t believe his luck when he heard that their legendary writer/artist was coming to his home city. He has his fingers crossed that one day Jim will return to Marvel to write more Thanos and Adam Warlock adventures.

by

Alan J. Porter

Fab Four Detail from Tom Palmer’s cover to Marvel Comics Super Special #4 (1978), The Beatles Story. Full cover shown above.

Beatles TM & © Apple Corps Ltd.

In our world of comics, the most famous foursome is arguably the group made up of Reed, Susan, Johnny, and Ben. Yet there is another equally fantastic—or should I say, fab—foursome that has a long, if somewhat on-again, off-again relationship with sequential art, for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are no strangers to the world of the four-color printed page.

The connection between The Beatles and comics dates back to the group’s early days and has been an almost constant presence throughout the days of Beatlemania and on into their solo careers.

Even before he started writing songs, the ten-year-old John Lennon’s creative outlet was producing hand-drawn comics, copying the style of the weekly tabloid style comics that dominated the British newsstands in the 1950s. While John’s “The Daily Howl” may have copied the style of the regular comics, his own particular sense of humor was already apparent in the spot illustrations and articles.

When John discovered Elvis in 1956, he also made a connection with another lover of the comics medium, for Elvis was one of the earliest serious comic-book collectors, with a particular penchant for comics featuring Captain Marvel and his various spin-offs. In fact, Elvis’ trademark hairstyle was a copy of Captain Marvel, Jr. [Editor’s note: See BI #27 (“Comic Book Royalty”) for the Elvis/Captain Marvel, Jr. story.]

But while Elvis was a self-proclaimed comics fan, none of The Beatles has ever publicly acknowledged any particular passion for the medium.

Yet the clues are there, scattered through their songs and their movies.

COMICS IN THE BEATLES’ MUSIC AND MEDIA John’s love of absurd and irreverent comics surfaced during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night when it was John who suggested that the favorite reading material of their roadie, “Shakey” (played by John Junkin), should be MAD magazine.

During the same movie, in the dressing room scene, Paul grabs a makeup artist’s sheet, drapes it over his shoulders, and does his own Captain Marvel impersonation, complete with a shout of “Shazam!,” the magic word that gave the Captain his powers.

The good Captain also gets a mention in the lyrics of “The Continuing Saga of Bungalow Bill” from the White Album, the only fictional character to get a name-check in a Beatles song.

The movie connection doesn’t stop with A Hard Day’s Night.

In Help!, the music stand on Paul’s rising cinema organ is covered with DC Comics, mainly Superman and Jimmy Olsen issues from the quick glance you get.

During John’s first appearance in the animated Yellow Submarine movie, he is surrounded by pop icons including comic-book characters the Phantom and Mandrake.

John’s comic-book connection continued after his move to the US, when in 1975 he was contacted by Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas about appearing in some of their books.

Roy tells BACK ISSUE that he’d seen John and Yoko going into the building where Marvel was then housed, because National Lampoon British Invasion Issue

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We Love Them Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

From the Silver Age, (left) Dell Comics’ one-shot The Beatles #1 (Sept.–Nov. 1964), a fan mag in comics form published during the year the Lads from Liverpool invaded the USA, and (right) Yellow Submarine (1968), a Gold Key one-shot by writer Paul Newman and artist Jose Delbo adapting the Beatles’ Peter Max-inspired animated movie.

Beatles TM & © Apple Corps Ltd.

was a couple of floors away, and they did a couple of “Foto Funnies” During the early days of Beatlemania, many publishers looked for for the satire magazine. any excuse to put the loveable Mop Tops in the magazines as a way Thomas continues, “Around the middle of 1975, I decided to see if to attract buyers and increase sales. In several instances, The Beatles John was agreeable to appearing in a Marvel comic. The idea was that never even appeared in the stories printed inside. Of the 60 US he’d be in a few panels, as a character in a crowd, I believe. In response comics published during the 1960s that featured The Beatles, 12 had to my letter, I got a phone call from a rep of his and was told he was them just appearing on the cover, and for most of the others it was amenable and would I like to meet with him. I said yes, and we made just a brief appearance in a couple of panels or as a cameo. a tentative agreement to set something up soon.

One of the earliest US Comics to feature The Beatles was a “Alas, a couple of weeks later, my father had a heart attack back “biography” published by Dell Comics in 1964. For the next four years, in Missouri and went into the hospital, where he stayed in a comic would appear every couple of months on average with intensive care for a couple of weeks before passing away,” some Beatles connection. Perhaps the strangest were when says Thomas. “I was back and forth to Missouri, and The Beatles met various superheroes. At DC Comics, the somehow the moment passed and I never followed British Invasion and the “Mop Top” craze was satirized through on it, to my regret.” in the pages of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (#70, In one of those strange coincidences that seem 1964), while over at hipper, trendier Marvel Comics, to punctuate The Beatles’ story, when John and the boys appeared as themselves, hanging out with Yoko first moved to New York in the early ’70s, the other Fantastic Four and even getting invited to their first business offices were set up at 1700 a superhero wedding as guests (FF Annual #3, 1965).

Broadway. Today those same offices are occupied After the breakup of the group in 1970, interest by the editorial and production staff from DC in The Beatles as a way to sell comics waned.

Comics and MAD magazine.

Perhaps the only notable example of this period is Paul McCartney has also made comics connections a Batman story in which the “Paul is dead” hoax is in his post–Beatles career, most noticeably with the used as a plot device. (Batman #222, 1970) roy thomas song “Magneto and Titanium Man,” a song named In 1977, Marvel launched a new magazine-sized after two Marvel Comics bad guys, from the Venus publication under the Marvel Super Special title. and Mars album performed by Paul’s band Wings.

Each issue was designed to showcase stories and concepts that didn’t fit into the standard Marvel offerings of the time.

THE BEATLES IN COMICS It was launched with the notorious KISS comic that proudly proclaimed While The Beatles themselves appear to have an apparent love for it to be “printed with KISS blood,” a true rock-and-roll start for the new the medium of comics, the comic-book creators have a definite affinity book. The next two issues featured an extended Conan the Barbarian for the Lads from Liverpool. story and an adaptation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

As icons of pop culture, The Beatles have appeared in numerous But in the fourth issue, Marvel Super Special returned to its roots comics over the years, from cover shots to cameos to spoofs, and in with a spectacular Beatles issue, The Beatles Story. some cases as guest-stars in the most improbable stories.

For many Beatles collectors, this is regarded as THE Beatles comic But what makes The Beatles different from other pop and rock to own. It is often referred to as the best pictorial telling of the Beatles groups is that their comics appearances aren’t just confined to the story. Written, and largely produced, by David Anthony Kraft (for years when they were at the height of their fame, but rather have whom it was clearly a labor of love) with interior art by George continued on a fairly regular basis for over nearly 50 years.

Pérez and Klaus Janson—all under a wraparound poster cover painting 34 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

by Tom Palmer—it was, and remains, one of the bestA contemporary report suggested that it had been looking Beatles books produced. published in Japan and that a few other foreignThe Super Special mixes text articles on the band’s language translations also existed, but for many history to date, their various film appearances, a years there has been doubt as to whether discography and filmography, and a 37-page it exists at all. However, one of the top biography comic of the band. The biography Beatles comic collectors has images of is well researched and written based what look to be the covers of Dutch, on information available at the time.

German, and French editions on Although it does gloss over some of the his website (see inset). It seems less-appealing incidents in The Beatles’ that the true story and distribucareer and takes a few narrative jumps, tion of this missing Beatles it still holds up well today. Pérez’s art is related comic is still to be told. clean and vibrant, with his distinctive MAGICAL MISERY TOUR style making for a well-designed story flow.

On a totally different tangent, While some of the early Liverpool and just a few years later, 1980 saw Hamburg scenes are a little too clean what is probably one of the george pérez and bright for the historical settings, strangest appearances of The once the story hits The Beatles’ more Beatles in a comic, and one psychedelic era the artwork really shines. which writer/artist Bob Boze Bell now regrets.

HELP! (IN FINDING THIS COMIC) Bell, now better known as a Western historian Given the high sales of The Beatles Story, the Fab Four and publisher of True West magazine, was a big Beatles were also slated to return to Marvel Super Special fan in the 1960s, teaching himself to play the drums (sort of) just a few issues later with issue #7. This was destined to become the “holy grail” of comic books for Beatles comics collectors. Look it up in Overstreet and you will see that the issue numbers jump from #6 to #8. In the Standard Catalog of Comic Books, issue #7 is listed as “nonexistent?”

The missing Marvel Super Special #7 was planned to be an adaptation of the film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on The Beatles’ groundbreaking concept album, and starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. However, the book, once again to be scripted

by Kraft and drawn by Pérez, soon hit problems.

Pérez has been quoted in several online interviews as saying that the whole effort was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the movie’s production company, particularly with respect to an ever-changing script and not even knowing which guest-stars to draw as their appearances in the movie weren’t even certain.

With the book running late, Jim Mooney was assigned to assist. Pérez admitted that even though Mooney did the best he could under the circumstances, their two styles didn’t work well together.

Given these problems and the commercial failure of the movie, the book was never released in the US market. In fact, Pérez says that he has never seen a copy and describes it as the rarest piece of his printed artwork you can find.

Beatles TM & © Apple Corps Ltd.

Beatlemania While Ringo and the lads occassionally read comic books (center), The Beatles’ popularity was evident in titles such as (top left) Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #79 and (top right) Strange Tales #130. (bottom left) The “Paul is dead” rumor influenced Batman #222, while (bottom right) the band’s tune “Rocky Raccoon” inspired Marvel’s Rocket Raccoon, a character that will be seen on movie screens in 2014 in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Superman, Jimmy Olsen, and Batman TM & © DC Comics.

Strange Tales and Rocket Raccoon © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Hello Goodbye Two interior pages from Marvel Comics Super Special #4: The Beatles Story.

Script by David Anthony Kraft, art by George Pérez and Klaus Janson, and colors by Petra Goldberg.

Beatles TM & © Apple Corps Ltd.

by copying Ringo’s technique and even buying an identical drum set. short months before its fantastic plot idea became chilling reality His devotion to the group went so far as to sneak into their hotel outside New York’s Dakota building, where Lennon was shot to death suite at the Sahara when they played in Las Vegas. on December 8, 1980.

The spark for Bell’s comic’s story was the news that Paul had Bell laments, “Needless to say, that is an episode of Sue I wish I bought a ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Bell muses, “If Paul is going to be had back. Too dark, too prophetic, too sad. I couldn’t even read that spending time in Tucson, what if he ate at the Crossroads Drive-In and particular comic for years afterwards and even had a shortlived hung out at all the honkytonks I used to play at like the Embers, the fantasy of buying back all the issues and burning them. Like I said, Doll House, the Cedars, the Dunes, [and] the Long Branch?”

I’m a huge fan of The Beatles, and for other fans of the group His character Honktonk Sue was “born in the weekly I’m sorry I have this story to be remembered by.” comic strip I wrote for the New Times Weekly, a Phoenix, Following John’s death there was a rush of various Arizona, alternative paper, where the strip ran from unauthorized “biography” and “tribute”–style comics 1978 to 1980. The strips were converted into four mainly produced by small independent publishers different comic books,” of which the meeting with The and distributed through music stores.

Beatles was the third, Honkytonk Sue #3 (Aug. 1980).

YESTERDAY AND TODAY As for the story itself, Bell “tried to imagine By the 1990s, a number of the mainstream comicwhat the most ridiculous scenario could possibly book writers started to acknowledge the influence be, and came up with the idea that someone, that The Beatles had had on them and various specifically a redneck anti-rock-and-roller, would incarnations of the group appeared in some of the want to kill a Beatle (yikes!). It seemed absurd at higher-quality prestige comics and graphic novels the time, but tragically naive in retrospect. being published by the mainstream creative houses “The issue was not very successful (or I should bob boze bell like Marvel and DC. From the young Beatles in say, is the least favorite of diehard Sue fans),” Bell Hamburg (DC’s Thrillkiller #1) to Sgt. Pepper–style continues,” probably because the people who loved robots (Kingdom Come #2), nearly every incarnation the world that Honkytonk Sue inhabited did not care for The Beatles. of The Beatles has been depicted in the pages of a comic. There has And the people who dug the Fab Four were not particularly turned on by honkytonk life. It was kind of the worst of both worlds for me. even been a band of Skrull Beatles!

Beatles iconography has also become a fairly regular visual design I didn’t feel like it worked, at least not like I hoped it might.” element in recent years with many covers In fact, one of those dissatisfied readers was Paul McCartney.

Bell relates how he managed to get a copy of his book in front invoking images inspired by various Beatles of Paul: “I knew a lawyer who was doing some legal work for the album covers, especially Sgt. Pepper’s and ‘Cute Beatle’ and he showed my Honkytonk Sue, featuring the Abbey Road.

It seems that as long as there are comics Beatles in it, to Paul. I was so thrilled to have scored such a coup, creators who enjoy and are inspired by The until I talked to the lawyer and he said, ‘No, Paul didn’t like it, especially the part about trying to kill Ringo at a concert.’ Ouch! Beatles, their music, and their art, we will I never realized that this was a part of their lives even then. Only continue to see references and homages to later, when I read George Harrison’s book [I, Me, Mine], did I the Fab Four in the funnybook pages. understand that they dealt with death threats and all the insanity ALAN J. PORTER has been writing on various aspects of pop culture for over ten years, but somehow always of fame long before John Lennon’s shooting.”

Timing was also conspiring against Bell’s story, as it appeared on seems to come back to the Beatles, Batman, and Bond. the newsstands and in the comic-book stores in mid-1980, just a few You can find out more at alanjporter.com.

36 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

TM

The British Invasion didn’t just refer to creators. Doctor Who, the longest-running science-fiction program in the world, debuted on British TV on November 23, 1963.

Early attempts to broadcast the show in America failed, and it was not until some Tom Baker episodes were sold to PBS in 1978 that the show was screened widely.

Marvel’s involvement commenced soon after...

CROSSING THE POND

by

Jarrod

In 1972 Marvel UK was formed to reprint US comics in a weekly black-and-white British format. Initial sales were strong, but the weekly distribution soon ate away at Marvel’s inventory (which was barely a decade old in the early ’70s). Sales and interest began to decline.

Dez Skinn, publisher of Starburst magazine, was commissioned to write a report on the overall state of the UK comics market. Impressed with the report, Stan Lee asked Skinn to head Marvel UK. Amongst other initiatives, Skinn launched the phenomenally successful Hulk Comic, which was closer in tone to the TV show than the US comic series. This success provided clout when Skinn approached the BBC about a Doctor Who magazine.

A lifelong fan of the cult British TV show, Skinn was Buttery eager to publish a weekly Doctor Who magazine, but the licence was held by someone else. Britain’s TV Comic had been publishing a weekly Doctor Who comic strip since 1964.

However, when TV Comic’s licence expired in 1979, Skinn prepared a mock-up magazine and a proposal for the BBC. “I’d had a terrifically successful launch with Hulk Comic,” Skinn tells BACK ISSUE, “which got me on a national primetime BBC1 documentary, sandwiched in-between pieces on Walt Disney and Mary Quant. It was only a few days after transmission that I took the Doctor Who Weekly mock-up into their dave gibbons offices. Absurdly, the head man in licensing told me later he’d been a bit scared of me, having seen me on the TV, so he’d agreed to my ideas straight away. Madness.”

Skinn contacted Dave Gibbons with a proposal: “Dez Skinn, whom I’d known for many years, called me up,” remembers Gibbons. “He’d had the quite brilliant idea to do a weekly Doctor Who magazine.

It was going to be part features and part comic strip, having five pages of comics per week. He wanted his art director, Paul Neary, to pencil the stories and for me to ink them. That didn’t really appeal to me because it would only be about half a week’s work,

Hats Off to America!

The Good Doctor arrives at the House of Ideas in Marvel Premiere #57 (Dec. 1980).

Detail from the cover, with art by Walter Simonson.

Doctor Who © BBC.

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Superstar Cover Artists (left) original cover art signed by artist Gene Day for Marvel Premiere #59 (Apr. 1981), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (right) Frank Miller and Terry Austin’s cover graced Doctor Who’s second Marvel outing, in MP #58 (Feb. 1981). © BBC.

so I told him that I’d like to do the whole thing. I did Skinn called the pair and proposed a use for some samples of Tom Baker which Dez seemed to their unused material. Doctor Who Weekly debuted like—Tom was quite easy to draw with all that in October 1979 and “The Iron Legion” was curly hair, big nose, double chin, and serialized in issues #1–8 (Oct. 17 –Dec. 5, extreme expressions. The other thing 1979). “Yes, some stories were originally that I think was a bit of a brainwave on pitched as ideas for the BBC,” confirms my part was that I happened to know Mills. “John and I would work out the that Pat Mills and John Wagner had stories together and then write them unsuccessfully pitched some Doctor separately. In fact, another one we Who stories to the BBC. They were dreamed up, ‘Space Whale,’ was the guys who really founded 2000 accepted, paid for, and scheduled, AD, but I never really had the chance but didn’t ultimately appear. Instead, to work with them. I thought if I could I adapted it as a Doctor Who audio get them to write the Doctor Who play—one of three I wrote over the strip then I could work with them, last four or five years.” Mills was and also probably Dez would think asked if any changes were needed to tom baker that it was a pretty good idea that convert the stories to a comic-book he’d sort of poached a couple of format? “No, no significant rewriting 2000 AD’s top writers. I suggested this to Dez, and I for comics other than they could be more visual.” spoke to Pat and John as well, and everybody seemed Gibbons elaborates: “Pat wrote ‘The Iron Legion’ very happy with the arrangement—including me!” and ‘The Star Beast,’ and John wrote “The City of the Damned” and “The Dogs of Doom.” Pat would tend to write quite descriptive scripts while John’s scripts were very terse, giving you the information you needed but not elaborating beyond that. I actually liked the variety—they’re both excellent scriptwriters and I was very pleased and happy to be able to work with both of them.”

“The Iron Legion” featured the then-current Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, travelling alone. “Companions changed far more frequently than Doctors and we had basically no advance information about anything from the BBC,” explains Skinn. “But equally, they left us alone to do what we wished. I’d hate to have saddled Pat Mills and John Wagner with a need to follow BBC continuity, so the less we had to do with their characters, the better!”

38 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

Is There a Doctor in the House (of Ideas)?

Marvel followed the Doctor’s four-issue Marvel Premiere tryout with an ongoing monthly series produced for the direct-sales market. (left) Doctor Who #1 (Oct. 1984) and (right) #3 (Dec. 1984). Covers

by Dave Gibbons. © BBC.

something a little different was irresistible. I also enjoy seeing THE MASTER PLAN “Part of my original plan was to make Marvel UK profitable with the US comics from other countries.”

Marvel Premiere #57–60 (Dec. 1979–June 1980) reprinted “The Iron reprint material and then plough those profits into origination,” states Skinn. “So instead of it being a one-way street, with us on the receiving Legion” and “City of the Damned” (retitled “City of the Cursed” for more end of material that didn’t particularly suit a UK market, we could sensitive American audiences). “It was always our plan that they’d be create tailor-made content which would sell far better. From the outset, reprinted, and I was quite thrilled to see them appearing in that formats!” says Gibbons. “I was really thrilled that the covers were drawn by artists these strips were designed so that they could easily be reprinted.

“With the writers working in story arcs, I’d had Dave Gibbons produce that I liked and that later went on to become even more famous. the weekly five- or six-page installments in such a way that there was Walt Simonson drew the first cover, and Frank Miller inked by Terry Austin drew one; Gene Day and Earl Norem did the others.” only a splash page every fifth week,” Skinn explains. “The other “I assigned the covers and extra articles,” recalls four weeks kicked off with a full-width opening frame so Salicrup. “I believe Ed Hannigan probably designed we could put the ‘Doctor Who’ diamond title into an the covers, working out the concepts with me. I was unimportant space, along with a story recap, but in aware of the TV series, but wasn’t an expert on the the States the continuity would hopefully be seamless.

Good Doctor, by any means. I’m sure Jo Duffy I figured this would give the strips a secondary life probably suggested a lot of ideas and artists, and I as, even in those pre–trade-paperback days, I was very was happy to follow her suggestions. She certainly aware of how European publishers made collected knew then, and I’m sure now, far more than I’ll hardcover albums of their most popular weekly serials.” ever know about Doctor Who.” Indeed, the strips were reprinted just a year later.

For the Doctor’s US debut, MP #57 contained a The Doctor’s US comic debut occurred in Marvel thorough two-page explanatory text piece by Jo Premiere #57 (Dec. 1979). Why so quickly? “It came Duffy. “I was one of the big Doctor Who lovers at about because Stan wanted to do it!” recalls Skinn.

Marvel,” remembers Duffy, “and the only one at “Stan being a massive Anglophile (right down to jo duffy the time who was a writer. Doing that article was having a Brit wife, Joan!), he was very keen to pick up a great thrill and a joy.” our ideas for use in the States. The only budget cost Salicrup believes, “Those issues of Premiere was coloring, so they had very low breakevens. And at a time when Marvel was going head-to-head with DC, every extra title Marvel sold well enough to give the Doctor his own series.” Doctor Who #1 produced increased their market share and boosted their ad revenue.” (Oct. 1984), a full-color, monthly, direct-sales title, continued the Mills/Wagner/Gibbons/Skinn reprints. “I drew new covers for each THE AMERICAN REPRINTS DELIVERED INTRIGUING issue, which I really enjoyed doing,” Gibbons says. “It was really quite STORIES good to be able to go and revisit what I’d done several years earlier Jim Salicrup was the editor of Marvel Premiere, and welcomed the and do spanking new covers for them. I actually think that that Doctor: “My first editing job at Marvel was reformatting the US series was my favorite color reprinting of the material.” Gibbons also Marvel comics to fit into the standard British weekly format. So the generously volunteered the use of his original interior art for opportunity to do the opposite—take a comic produced in the UK reproduction (see sidebar). The series lasted 23 issues—reprinting and reformat it for the US—was a lot of fun. I love all types of and coloring all of Gibbons’ Fourth and Fifth Doctor stories—before comics, not just superhero comics, and the opportunity to publish declining sales forced its cancellation.

British Invasion Issue

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PERILS OF THE POSTAL SYSTEM! soon and would love to pick up his artwork. I told him that Jim Salicrup, editor of Marvel’s American Doctor Who reprints, we had already shipped his artwork back to him, and he told kindly shares a 1980s horror story with BACK ISSUE: me he hadn’t received anything and asked how it was sent.

“One of the things I remember most about Doctor Who is Yikes! I told Dave I would, uh, get back to him. that our UK office really didn’t have good materials from “I was panic-stricken. Hundreds of original Dave Gibbons which we could reproduce those comics. I believe they were pages were apparently lost! I tore the Marvel Bullpen apart simply sending us Photostat copies of the printed pages from looking for those pages. While I did manage to uncover Doctor Who Weekly. After the four-issue Marvel Premiere lots of other long-lost pages of original Marvel run, Marvel launched an ongoing Doctor Who artwork, I didn’t find any Doctor Who pages. “deluxe” comics series, printed on the white Dave had told me that he was getting about Baxter paper stock that was all the rage back $25 per page when he sold the artwork, so I then. After the first issue, I got a call from was going nuts trying to figure out how I Dave Gibbons. He was concerned about how could possibly pay him back for all those his artwork was being reproduced, and pages. I mean, he loaned them to me— agreed to loan me his original artwork to not Marvel. I was responsible, so I had to pay. reproduce from.

A day or so later, Dave called back. This was it; “Now, the thing to understand here is I had to confess to him that I had lost the that at this point Dave was doing Marvel a hundreds of pages of original artwork that he favor by sending us that artwork—he was in jim salicrup so kindly loaned to me. Shaking, I took the no way obligated to do so. He was just telephone receiver and said, ‘Uh, hi, Dave…’ loaning us his artwork so that it could look its “But before I could utter another word, he said, ‘Good news, best in the American editions. So we made the best copies we Jim! The artwork finally arrived! I got it all safe and sound. could of every page, in those pre–digital days, and then You guys sent it the cheapest and slowest way possible, but it returned the artwork promptly to Mr. Gibbons. A month or so all made it.’ Whew!” later, I got a call from Dave, saying that he might be in NYC

THE ULTIMATE CRITIC

Gibbons’ Doctor Who Collected Cover to Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Treasury Edition #1, an oversized, color collection of Fourth Doctor tales by dashing Dave, released in 2012 by IDW. © BBC.

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Gibbons finally met Tom Baker at a convention just a few years ago. “It was great to finally meet Tom. I think he may have been vaguely aware that, some years ago, he was drawn in comics, and he was quite gracious to me … but I don’t think he had a clue who I was,” admits Gibbons. Baker has an official website and has been asked if he ever read “his” weekly comic strip adventures? Baker posted: “I never followed the comic strip at all—why should I? My life at the time was a complete comic strip and much funnier and crazier than the comic!”

Doctor Who Weekly became Doctor Who Magazine, which continues to be published to this day. IDW publishes regular comics and the TV show is more popular than ever. Invasion successful.

The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to Jo Duffy, Dave Gibbons, Pat Mills, Jim Salicrup, and Dez Skinn for their generous help with this article.

Thanks also to Bob Budiansky, Louise Simonson, and John Wagner, who replied to queries but were unable to contribute.

JARROD BUTTERY lives in Western Australia. He discovered Doctor Who before he discovered comics. To this day, he clearly remembers finding Marvel Premiere #57, combining his two childhood passions, and is pleased to have had the opportunity to write about both.

®

by

Ian Millsted

Of the comics creators in the vanguard of the British invasion of the mid-1980s, nearly all produced work within the pages of Warrior magazine. When the magazine was launched in early 1982, Barry WindsorSmith, Steve Parkhouse, and John Bolton (at Marvel Comics), Paul Neary (at Warren), and Brian Bolland (at DC) had managed to break into American comics. By the time of the magazines’ demise in 1985 they had been followed by the likes of Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Steve Moore, Jim Baikie, Alan Davis, and Cam Kennedy.

Whether Warrior was a more significant showcase for new talent than 2000 AD or the Marvel UK is impossible to say with certainty, especially as many creators worked for different companies simultaneously (for example, Alan Moore and Alan Davis worked on D.R. and Quinch for 2000 AD, Captain Britain for Marvel UK, and Marvelman for Warrior), but there is certainly some evidence to suggest that a credit in Warrior could lead to more lucrative work at Marvel or DC. Warrior was an anthology title in what would be described in the US industry as magazine format: i.e., 8.25" by 11.75" and black and white behind a full-color cover. Each issue dez skinn contained roughly five or six stories, mostly continuing serials but with occasional standalone strips. The anthology format was far and away the most common and popular format in British comics, and even as late as 1982 there were many weekly anthologies. The most successful tended to have a key spine character around which other strips would rotate. Examples included Judge Dredd in 2000 AD, Roy of the Rovers in the eponymously titled football (soccer)-themed weekly, and even The Four Marys in all but a handful of the 2249 issues of the girls’ comic Bunty.

“YOUR FIRST ISSUE IS ALWAYS THE WORST ISSUE” Warrior #1 (Mar. 1982) launched with Laser Eraser & Pressbutton as the cover feature but with Marvelman as the first story inside the magazine. At the time, Laser Eraser & Pressbutton was perhaps the more likely candidate to emerge as the spine feature with its darkhumor science fiction being closest to the type of strips that were popular in 2000 AD at the time, whereas Marvelman was a superhero feature which was a genre that had never taken off in British comics in the way they had in the US. Marvelman, however, created by

Warrior Summer Special 1982 Steve Dillon cover art depicting: (flying) Marvelman and Big Ben; (on foot, left to right) V, Caed (from “The Spiral Path”), Warpsmith, Raiko (not actually featured in Warrior until #18), Axel Pressbutton, and Myrta Mystralis. © 1982 Quality Communications and the characters’ respective copyright holders.

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That’s One Psychotic Cyborg! (left) From Warrior #1 (Mar. 1982). Art by Steve Dillon, script by Steve Moore (under the pseudonym Pedro Henry). (right) Warrior #1 cover by Dillon. © 1982 Quality Communications.

Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller Ltd., had enjoyed fair success in the late 1950s and very early 1960s.

Dez Skinn, who had previously worked for publishing giants IPC as well as Marvel UK, was the editor, and effectively publisher, of Warrior through Quality Communications Limited (he also owned a comic shop in London, which will become relevant later). Being an independent title meant there were certain advantages when it came to starting up the magazine. As Skinn explained in an interview in the 16th issue of Warrior: “Usually, the editor gets minimal advance warning to come up with a new title to fill a gap when two comics are about to merge. We had our characters well thought out in advance. None of this throw the ideas together, replace the ‘bottom tow’ in several months until you get the formula right. We had to get the formula as right as we could before the biggest cost … printing.” Dez elaborates to BACK ISSUE on the beginnings: “I’d built up a team of reliable contributors over the years, from IPC through to House of Hammer, MAD, Doctor Who Weekly, and Marvel, so I first turned to them. These included Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons, Steve Moore, David Lloyd, John Bolton, Brian Bolland, and Steve Dillon. But I spent the best part of a year refining it simply because your first is always the worst, as you’ve had the least experience of the title, but

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it’s the issue you’re judged by. There was no real sales plan.

I knew comics could work from having produced such for other people. I just felt it was about time we did one for ourselves! With a heady cocktail of altruism and idealism, I thought if we did a good job it would reflect in sales.

I guess the plan was to throw a load of copies out across the UK federated news trade, hold my breath for a month, and hope not too many boomeranged back as unsolds.”

The first issue of Warrior had seven separate stories.

The first eight pages were given over to Marvelman from writer Alan Moore and artist Garry Leach, both of whom were new to the group of creators Skinn had built up over the years. “Alan Moore had produced a two-page humor strip for me,” Skinn explains, “for Frantic (Number Two in a field of One, as I subtitled it). But it wasn’t very memorable and I don’t think I’d met him back then (c. 1979), as he’s physically quite memorable. In fact, I discovered later he’d been a buyer of my old fanzines in the late 1960s. But I wouldn’t say I knew him, any more than any other reader and very occasional contributor.

“When the two Steves (Parkhouse and Moore) both turned down writing a superhero strip for Warrior, Steve Moore suggested his pal Alan would die to write it,” Skinn continues. “I didn’t know if he’d be up to it, never having worked regularly before and not very impressed with the work I had given him, so I agreed on spec. That is, if I didn’t like his treatment and first script, there wouldn’t be a kill fee.”

As for the choice of artist for Marvelman, Skinn says, “I’d offered the strip to Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland first, as they’d both had some experience of drawing superheroes through the Nigerian Power-Man comic that their agent, Bardon Art, had got them. But neither of them fancied it. Somebody suggested Garry Leach, another name I didn’t know. I was shown a Dan Dare strip in an old annual as samples of his style. I found it terribly overworked, possibly through lack of confidence, but with nobody else up for it, I gave him the job. So the lead strip was in the hands of two relative newcomers, a brave or

“Awfully Weird Heroes” (left) Marvelman, illo’ed by Garry Leach, coverfeatured on Warrior #2 (Apr. 1982). (right) Paul Neary’s Madman cover, for issue #3 (July 1982). (background) Detail from David Jackson’s Father Shandor cover for Warrior #8 (Dec. 1982). © 1982 Quality Communications.

Marvelman © Marvel Characters, Inc.

foolish move!” In fact, an inspired one, as both Moore and Leach “SIX ACTION-PACKED HERO STRIPS INSIDE!” produced excellent work that attracted admirers from the very start. Marvelman, V for Vendetta, Spiral Path, Shandor, and Laser Eraser & As explained in more detail in the TwoMorrows-published Kimota: The Pressbutton all continued in Warrior #2 (Apr. 1982) and were joined Miracleman Companion by George Khoury, Marvelman has a publishing by new ongoing series Madman, written and drawn by Paul Neary. history that both predates and survives Warrior. Some of the history was Marvelman was featured on the cover with art by Garry Leach. explained in an accompanying article also included in the first issue.

Warrior #3 (July 1982), with a Madman cover by Neary, saw all the After the lead strip came The Spiral Path, written and drawn by ongoing series continue along with an extra strip, Zirk, which was a Steve Parkhouse. Parkhouse had previously written the popular fantasy- spin-off prequel to Laser Eraser & Pressbutton. This was to be the only oriented Black Knight series for Marvel UK’s Hulk Comic, and The Spiral strip drawn for Warrior by Brian Bolland, with scripts by Steve Moore.

Path was another fantasy series. Not to everyone’s taste, perhaps, but it Zirk being a small, spherical, sex-obsessed alien caused some problems, would have benefited from being collected, and read, in a according to Skinn: “Brian Bolland’s work on Zirk in issue #3 European-style album. Dave Gibbons, already busy drawing cost me around 30% of the distribution for the next six Doctor Who for Marvel UK and Rogue Trooper for 2000 months when a mother complained about its somewhat AD, contributed only one strip to Warrior. This was sexual undertones!” Meanwhile, in the main Laser a two-page, self-contained story written by Steve Eraser strip there was a cameo by a character, Moore titled “A True Story.” Next was The Legend of Ektryn, that would appear in their own right later.

Prester John, a fantasy-tinged historical story written This issue also included the first letters column,

by Steve Moore with art by John Bolton. which would go on to be one of the more thoughtful, The fifth strip in the first issue was another ongoing and occasionally spiky, such columns. Among the series which has, arguably, gone on to be the most letters here was one from future Alan Moore enduring and commercially successful feature to come collaborator Kev O’Neill, an established comic artist from Warrior: V for Vendetta. Written by Alan Moore on series such as Nemesis the Warlock in 2000 AD. and drawn by David Lloyd, V for Vendetta was a For decades, summer specials—extra-length dystopian near-future thriller. With some roots in the issues of regular titles—were a staple of the UK garry leach pulp-era Night Raven that David Lloyd had drawn for comics industry. Skinn had hoped to release such a Hulk Comic [see BACK ISSUE #28], V for Vendetta was special in 1982 but with the magazine only just a mature, political, and anarchistic serial that would appear in all bar established he was advised otherwise by his distributors. Some of the one issue of Warrior and go on to continue at DC Comics thereafter. material intended for the special was incorporated into ongoing issue The sixth feature, Father Shandor Demon Hunter, was a reprint from #4 (Summer 1982), which became a mixture of continuing serial House of Hammer with script by Steve Moore and art by John Bolton. episodes and one-off samplers behind an ensemble character cover by After three issues of reprints, this supernatural horror series would go Steve Dillon. The ten-page Marvelman story, for example, was separate on to original material. Closing off the issue was the science-fiction from ongoing continuity being set three years in advance of the series Laser Eraser & Pressbutton. Written under the pseudonym Pedro ongoing story. Moore’s script was drawn in three separate episodes by Henry by Steve Moore and drawn by Steve Dillon, this was a prequel Steve Dillon, Paul Neary, and Alan Davis. This story was never reprinted to a comic strip by Steve Moore and Alan Moore that had appeared in the Miracleman series from Eclipse and remains something of a in music journal Sounds. The combination of glamorous assassin collector’s item. It also features a cameo from the Warpsmith character Mysta Mistralis (also featured in this issue in a full-page frontispiece that would later gain his own series in Warrior. The Spiral Path, V for

by Garry Leach) and anti-hero cyborg Axel Pressbutton with clean, Vendetta, and Madman continued as before, while Shandor started new dramatic art from Dillon suggested a bright future for this series. stories with art from David Jackson. The Laser Eraser & Pressbutton story British Invasion Issue

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was another outside-of-continuity episode, being a prequel to the ongoing story with David Jackson replacing Dillon on art. A one-off curiosity was The Golden Amazon by writer/artist David Lloyd. This was an adaptation of John Russell Fearn’s pulp/SF character from the 1940s.

Lloyd’s art was strong, but the unsympathetic nature of the character meant there was no great clamoring for more. Future comics pro Warren Ellis was among the letter writers.

Service as usual was resumed in Warrior #5 (Sept. 1982), with Leach back on Marvelman and Dillon back on Laser Eraser & Pressbutton. All other series continued with their regular creators (plus Mick Austin joining Paul Neary on Madman) and there was an extra V for Vendetta strip.

The main development in Warrior #6 (Oct. 1982) was Alan Davis taking over from Garry Leach as artist on Marvelman. Although Leach inked Davis for this and the following episode, this was effectively Garry leaving the series even as he was winning awards for his work so far. The time required to do the work to the standard he wanted meant it was not commercially worthwhile. In the aforementioned Kimota: The Miracleman Companion, Leach revealed that “drawing that strip seemed to drain all my time, and coupled with my lack of productivity and the low page rate, I was barely making any money.” Leach continued to be associated with Warrior, not least in the role of art director. Dez Skinn remembers, “Garry became art director because he lived locally to our office and really hated how long it took him to produce those half-a-dozen pages of artwork. I think he much more enjoyed mucking in behind the scenes, working with film seps and odd bits of coloring and suchlike.”

Followers of Steve Moore and Steve Dillon’s previous work together on Abslom Daak in Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly would have spotted that character making a sneaky cameo in this issue’s Laser Eraser & Pressbutton episode.

Mick Austin provided the striking Marvelman cover for Warrior #7 (Nov. 1982), in which all six ongoing series continued with their regular creative teams. However, this was the last appearance for Neary and Austin’s Madman. Its place in Warrior #8 (Dec. 1982) was taken by the one-off strip Stir Crazy by writer/artist Hunt Emerson.

This issue also contained Alan Davis’ first full art on Marvelman.

While Garry Leach was no longer artist on Marvelman, he continued to work with Alan Moore on Warpsmith, which started in Warrior #9 (Jan. 1983). Another new arrival was artist John Ridgway, who had previously worked for Dundee-based DC Thomson on their digestsized war comic Commando (a title that is still going, having reached issue numbers beyond #4500, and for which Ridgway still occasionally produces art). Ridgway initially joined Steve Parkhouse to ink his work on The Spiral Path. The same lineup of series and creators continued in Warrior #10 (May 1983) with a Garry Leach Warpsmith cover, although this was to be the last appearance of Warpsmith in Warrior. Also missing in Warrior #11 (July 1983)—albeit only temporarily—was Shandor. Instead, there was a belated second appearance of The Legend of Prester John, with John Stokes illustrating Steve Moore’s script. The Marvelman strip reached the end of its first story arc (and what would later be collected as Miracleman Book One: A Dream of Flying).

As an interlude before the next story arc for Marvelman, Warrior #12 (Aug. 1983) contained a five-page Young Marvelman story

by Alan Moore and John Ridgway. This issue also saw the first appearance of Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse’s The Bojeffries Saga.

Those who associate Moore with grim-and-gritty series could do worse than seek out this laugh-out-loud series. Mick Austin replaced Steve Dillon on Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, which disappeared from the magazine for several issues after this, and The Legend of Prester John and The Spiral Path both concluded.

Warrior #13 (Sept. 1983) saw a cover and four-page Zirk story drawn by Garry Leach. Marvelman and Shandor returned, while V for Vendetta and The Bojeffries Saga continued. There was a stand-alone story “The Shroud,” by Steve Parkhouse and John Ridgway. Ongoing series Marvelman, V for Vendetta, and Shandor continued in Warrior #14 (October 1983) which also saw two new science-fiction series. Twilight World by writer Steve Moore and artist Jim Baikie (who also provided the cover) started a four-issue run, and Moore also scripted Ektryn, drawn by Cam Kennedy, which had long been in the planning.

Steve Dillon returned to art duties on Laser Eraser & Pressbutton in Warrior #15 (Nov. 1983), but it would be his last work for the magazine. “The problem with creator-owned material,” says Skinn, “is that if the artist, or writer, disappears for any reason, the other is buggered, to put it bluntly. The artist can’t bring in a new writer without the original writer’s approval and vice versa. So when Steve disappeared off the face of the map for about six months, the strip disappeared, too. But with anthologies you really can’t assess whether one of six strips changing makes much difference.”

Warrior #16 (Dec. 1983) had a Marvelman cover by Steve Parkhouse and ongoing episodes of Marvelman, Twilight World, Shandor, and V for Vendetta by the regular creators. However, only Shandor and Twilight World continued into Warrior #17 (Mar. 1984).

The ongoing Marvelman story was replaced by a 12-page Marvelman Family stand-alone by Alan Moore and John Ridgway. There was also a complete short story, “Home is the Sailor,” by Steve Parkhouse (script) and John Ridgeway (art). While there was no new installment of V for Vendetta, there was an extended article on the series.

Mister Miracle First page of the uncollected Marvelman strip from Warrior #4 (Summer 1982). Art by Dillon, script by Moore. (background) Detail from the Jim Baikie cover to #14 (Oct. 1983), featuring Twilight World. © 1983 Quality Communications. Marvelman © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MARVEL COMICS RESENTS V for Vendetta returned in Warrior #18 (Apr. 1984), while Marvelman and Shandor continued. There were complete stories from Steve Parkhouse and Martin Aspbury. The next month saw the publication of a seemingly inoffensive Marvelman Special (May 1984), which would have longterm ramifications.

The main content of the special was a series of reprints of original Marvelman stories from the characters original 1950s run. There were four pages of linking material written by the current Marvelman team of Alan Moore and Alan Davis, as well as a backup strip featuring Dez Skinn’s own creation Big Ben (the man with no time for crime), a quirky British crimefighter with a nod to TV series such as The Avengers. Dez elaborates: “I guess I was mainly pleased to see my promise to Mick Anglo came to pass before he died. I’d said that our version of Marvelman (which he wasn’t that fond of, but was a property he didn’t care much about anymore), if it worked, would provide a justification for reprinting those creaky old 1950s stories he and his team had produced. Then we’d be able to justify paying them some money. There was so little about the revamp that needed the original that we could easily have made him a completely new character. I didn’t think we’d gain many extra readers by revamping the old Miller version. But I owed Mick a favor, for indirectly getting me into the business 12 years earlier, so I wanted to see him do all right.”

However, once the special was released, Marvel Comics’ lawyers were unleashed, demanding that Skinn discontinue using the Marvelman character and name despite the character having been created and published several years before Marvel Comics started using that name. The Special is another collector’s item as the linking material has not been reprinted anywhere.

Ominously, Marvelman was absent from Warrior #19 (June 1984), but another two-issue run of The Bojeffries Saga began and, following his appearance in the Marvelman Special, Big Ben began a regular run written by Skinn and with art by Will Simpson.

Shandor and V for Vendetta continued and there was another complete strip, this time by writer Alan Booth and artist David Jackson. Marvelman returned in Warrior #20 (July 1984) to bring the complement of regular strips back up to five. Issue #21 (Aug. 1984) saw The Bojeffries Saga replaced by the return of Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, with Alan Davis replacing Steve Dillon as series artist.

Marvelman was absent from Warrior #22 (Sept.

1984), and indeed was not to appear again in the magazine. The lawyers, it seemed, had done their job.

The magazine looked the poorer for the absence, as there were only 16 pages of original comic material.

New science-fiction serial The Liberators by Dez Skinn and artist John Ridgway joined ongoing series Big Ben and V for Vendetta. The page count was made up with reprinted Spanish material and editorial content.

The pattern continued in Warrior #23 (Oct. 1984), with Shandor returning in place of The Liberators.

Laser Eraser & Pressbutton returned in Warrior #24 (Nov. 1984) to boost the number of strips to four, which included the conclusion of the ongoing Shandor serial. Things looked more promising in Warrior #25 (Dec. 1984), with Ektryn rejoining the lineup and an alternative-storyline episode of Shandor, with John Stokes replacing David Jackson on art.

SURPRISE FINAL ISSUE

Stocking Stuffer

There was no indication in Warrior #26 (Feb. 1985) that it was the final issue. The Liberators returned with new writer Grant Morrison replacing Dez Skinn as writer and V for Vendetta gave every indication of having some way to go before the story was concluded.

Garry Leach drew a two-page Zirk story and there was a complete story from Carl Critchlow.

Did the removal of Marvelman kill the magazine?

Dez Skinn says otherwise: “Warrior could have continued with or without Marvelman. That’s the whole point of anthologies. They can go through shaky years— look at Jim Warren’s line before Toutain’s artists came to the rescue. But if the idea’s sound, they can survive lean times, provided they have a publisher with deep pockets to get them through the tight years, Unfortunately, my shop manager was overbuying for our comics shops like crazy and I got a sudden phone call from Titan/Diamond’s UK MD Mike Lake, one Saturday morning, to say we owed them £25,000 beyond our contra deal. I just didn’t have that kind of money in reserve, so I could not afford to commission artists, writers, or printers anymore. A bit of a whimper of an ending, really.”

In fact, Warrior was never a commercial success.

“Realistically,” Skinn says, “in terms of sales, it didn’t set the world afire! With no real direct-market safety net,

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Garry Leachrendered, staffsigned Christmas card featuring Zirk and Mysta Mistralis, from Warrior #15 (Dec. 1983). © 1983 Quality Communications.

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Move Over, Monty Python (left) The irreverent “Bojeffries Saga”, spotlighted in Warrior #12 (Aug. 1983).

Cover by Steve Parkhouse. (right) Mick Austin’s cover for the litigation-luring Marvelman Special #1 (1984). Special thanks to Ian Millsted for providing art for this article. © 1983 Quality Communications.

Marvelman © Marvel Characters, Inc.

it relied on corner newsagents around the country displaying it on the correct shelf (whichever that would be, when it was unlike anything else out there!). But any publishing company run by figures-men would have killed it as soon as the final sales for issue #1 came in. I only canceled the 1982 Summer Special. But I had faith in comics as an under-developed medium, though, and I worried that if a title with such stellar contributors and ideas failed, nobody would try anything similar for the next ten years! So I felt I had a responsibility to keep it going, to get money from anywhere to keep it alive, just to convince the bigger players that they should have a go and try something similar. I’ve always considered myself a catalyst, and I guess that’s what I wanted Warrior to be, too!”

USA ECLIPSE There was one final appearance of Warrior many years later when Skinn used some completed but unpublished work as a flip book at the back of his comics-industry magazine Comics International in the form of Warrior Spring Special (Apr. 1996), where further episodes of The Liberators and Big Ben appeared. However, the ongoing legacy was to be found, in different forms, in the US comics industry.

Not only did key series from Warrior find a place at American comics publishers, but many of the magazines writers and artists were increasingly working for the big American comic companies. This had always been envisaged by Skinn, as he recalls: “Dick Giordano, at DC Comics, was an old mate of mine. I used to joke that he and Joe Kubert, also doing an editorial stint at the time, used Warrior as a takeaway menu. They’d use it to take away all my best people! And it was kinda tough saying ‘no’ when they’d ask, because I didn’t want to hold anybody back, but it was an absolute pain finding equally talented replacements (who they’d only try to nick a few months later!). Such is the lot of the self-financed indie publisher. This was, of course, pre–Internet and almost pre–direct market, and certainly pre–graphic novels. But through being good mates with Jean-Pierre Dionnet in France (publisher of Metal Hurlant), I was well aware of the potential of album collections, as well as periodical syndication. So I grilled the writers to work in chunks which would adapt easily into both collections and foreign editions.”

The first US edition came in the form of Miracleman #1 (Aug. 1985), which reprinted the first three installments of Marvelman, but with the character renamed in order to avoid the legal difficulties. By the sixth issue (Feb. 1986), the original stories were used up and new material was being produced. The series was a commercial and critical success for Eclipse Comics, with Neil Gaiman replacing Alan Moore as writer issue #17, before financial problems caused Eclipse 46 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

to go out of business. Following that, legal problems have prevented the continuation of the character under either name in new stories.

[Editor’s note: Marvelman—or Miracleman—has been previously covered in this magazine in BI #28, 34, and 46.]

Eclipse also published a six-issue run of Laser Eraser & Pressbutton starting with Axel Pressbutton #1 (Nov. 1984). This was followed by a six-issue series of Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, with all-new stories by Steve Moore and art by Steve Dillon (#1), David Lloyd (#2), Jerry Paris and Garry Leach (#3), and Cam Kennedy (#5 and 6).

V for Vendetta was reprinted by DC comics starting in September 1988. Issues #7 (Jan. 1989) to 10 (May 1989) contained new material to conclude the story. The collected edition has been in print since, and a film version, written and produced by the Wachowski brothers, was released in 2006. [Editor’s note: Writer Jim Kingman curls up with his V for Vendettas beginning on page 71 of this issue.]

The Bojeffries Saga continued in another anthology comic A1, and a collection was released by Kitchen Sink in 1994, which now commands high prices on Amazon and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, many of the creators from Warrior formed part of the British invasion of comics talent that had really started with Brian Bolland drawing the cover of Green Lantern #131 (Aug. 1980). Dave Gibbons debuted on Green Lantern with #161 (Aug. 1983). Steve Moore wrote Marvel Super Special #26 (Sept. 1983), adapting the film Octopussy for comics, but apart from the aforementioned Laser Eraser series, did not become a regular in American comics. His friend Alan Moore arrived with Swamp Thing #20 (Jan. 1984), sending out roots from which much of the later Vertigo line at DC Comics would be developed. Jim Baikie started at DC Comics with Vigilante #17 (May 1985), and Alan Davis took over the art on Batman and the Outsiders with #22 (June 1985). Other Warrior alumni Cam Kennedy, David Lloyd, Grant Morrison, John Ridgway, and John Stokes all followed.

How influential was Warrior? Without it we might not have seen V for Vendetta or Miracleman, but I suspect most of the talent would eventually have been recognized through other work.

Last word goes to Alan Davis: “In later years, various staff at DC and Marvel claimed to have been fans of numerous UK publications, but I suspect a degree of self-hype or flattery. If all the people who claimed to have bought Warrior when it was being published did, it would have been outselling X-Men.” With thanks to Dez Skinn, Alan Davis, and Elizabeth Millsted. Dez’s website is recommended: dezskinn.com.

IAN MILLSTED is a teacher and writer based in Bristol, England.

by

Robert Greenberger

Ever since I read George Perry and Alan Aldridge’s The Penguin Book of Comics [first edition: 1967], I knew there were comic books produced overseas. I recognized they were produced at different sizes, released on varying frequencies, and aimed at various audiences. I was first introduced to the Philippine artists thanks to DC’s recruitment of “cheap” talent from the south. They populated DC’s 1970s war, Western, and mystery titles before seeping into the superheroic fare. At much the same time, and for the same reasons, Jim Warren also gave us the great Spanish artists as he added color sections to Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. It was certainly eye-opening for a young reader to suddenly see all these different styles employed to tell stories. (It’s where I first discovered the incredible work of Esteban Maroto, whom I was honored to work with years later on The Atlantis Chronicles.)

In time, I began to see some of the British weeklies, notably the first two months of Marvel’s entrée into the field in the early 1970s. They were reprints of the 1960s early Marvel Universe stories, but in keeping an eye on them, it also exposed me to some of England’s homegrown talent.

“SOME GUY NAMED BRIAN BOLLAND”

Bolland’s Spirit of ’76 Before he broke in across the pond at DC, Brian Bolland (in foreground of cover) riffed on JLA #1’s cover in this British Comicon 1976 convention booklet cover. Art courtesy of Dave Smith.

JLA and related characters TM & © DC Comics. House of Hammer © Hammer Films.

Conan © Conan Properties. Powerman © Bardon Press Features.

During the summer of 1980, before joining Starlog Press, I was working as a summer employee at DC Comics. Thanks to the keen-eyed staff there, I was made aware of 2000 AD, the great British weekly that featured all sorts of dystopic characters. I recall Jack C. Harris showing off a Tales of the Green Lantern Corps cover by some guy named Brian Bolland. He was apparently a Brit, and a huge GL fan. Joe Staton, then penciling the series, had met Brian and suggested he do some covers, so his work on Green Lantern #127 (Apr. 1980) was a harbinger of things to come. His cover work on the monthly led to the miniseries assignment, paving the way for a fresh influx of talent.

As Bolland explained in Comics Interview #19 (Jan. 1985), he and Staton met at a UK convention and they agreed to swap assignments. Bolland took on the cover while Staton drew an installment of Blackhawk (not the Quality/DC hero) for 2000 AD. “I got a wonderful feeling of fannish delight from doing the DC characters with whom I’d grown up,” Bolland enthused with a sentiment that his brethren would repeat in interviews throughout the 1980s.

The artist recounted how he had visited the DC offices for four consecutive summers in the hopes of getting work. During his first visit, he received a tour by Paul Levitz, who didn’t know who he was. His second visit went better since a few of the staff had seen Judge Dredd by then. The third summer was entirely different as he was wined and dined, wooed into working for them on what became Camelot 3000.

“The year after that, I was appearing at conventions and having to promote Camelot 3000,” he said.

Bolland recounted how he met writer/editor Len Wein at the World Science Fiction Convention, Seacon, in 1979, and even then there was talk of poaching the British talent for the American comics, but it took a while for that to become a reality.

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2000 AD, largely written by Pat Mills and John Wagner beginning in 1977, was a different sort of comic and one American fans were totally unprepared for. As the directsales market was growing, Nick Landau and Mike Lake had a UK distribution company and attempted exporting the weekly series to American shops. Nick recently told me they would bag up four issues at a shot, sending them over as a monthly installment, but fans weren’t biting.

Lake and Landau, though, took their distribution experience and founded Forbidden Planet, one of the preeminent science-fiction and comic shops found in Europe or America. The London store’s success led to a chain of shops that finally crossed the Atlantic. Additionally, they founded Titan Books, which would play a key role in paving the way for British talent to come to America.

But first, Landau landed a job as editor at 2000 AD after a brief stop editing IPC Magazines’ Action. It was at 2000 AD where Landau launched some of the bestremembered Judge Dredd serials including “The Cursed Earth.” It was there he got to know and work with many of the country’s premier creators, so in 1981, when director Ridley Scott came looking for talent to help imagine his take on Frank Herbert’s Dune, he was able to recommend Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, and Kevin O’Neill. As it turned out, veteran artist Martin Asbury hit it off with Scott and went to work for him on the never-to-be-realized adaptation, although it gave Asbury a career as a storyboard artist.

It was around that time that Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano took a trip to England in 1981 to see the talent for themselves. Landau, by then done with editing and launching his own Titan Books company, played guide, introducing the executives to the talent, a role he would play again and again.

“I had grown quite chatty with Dick and to a good extent, with Joe,” Landau recalls. “I seem to recall Dick reaching out to me and then sitting with Dick and Joe when they got over here. I was telling them my Ridley Scott story and they were interested, and I was happy to provide introductions.”

It was at this time that Titan Books licensed the rights to collect the 2000 AD stories in a series of albums that pioneered the collected-edition market in the UK more than five years before DC did the same domestically with The Dark Knight Returns. Titan cut a deal with Phil Seuling’s Seagate Distributors to bring the albums to America, which was the first chance most readers had to meet Judge Dredd, Nemesis, Harlem Heroes, and other characters while reading the early works from Wagner, Mills, and a newcomer, Alan Moore.

Landau notes that Giordano and Orlando were in the UK just before Moore came to preeminence in the

A Hitchhiker at Forbidden Planet (top) Courtesy of ForbiddenPlanet.com, this 1980 photo shows (left) Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and (right) UK comics distributor and editor Nick Landau during an appearance by Adams at London’s legendary Forbidden Planet shop. (bottom) Brian Bolland’s cover to DC’s Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #3 (July 1981).

TM & © DC Comics.

48 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

Gibbons on Monitor Duty From Dave Gibbons’ way-too-short-but-fondly-remembered stint on Green Lantern, a slice-of-life (and bowl-of-chili) original page also featuring Green Arrow, the Flash, and the JLA satellite. Page 15 of issue #180 (Sept. 1984), scripted

by Len Wein, penciled by Gibbons, and inked by Mike DeCarlo. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

United Kingdom, exploding to stardom through his short stories and series work in 2000 AD. I distinctly recall Phil visiting the Starlog Press offices in 1981, dropping copies of The Chronicles of Judge Dredd vol. 1 on my desk.

While I recognized Bolland’s style from the GL covers, I was stunned with his beautiful storytelling. When Comics Scene went from idea to reality later that year, I made certain to make others aware of this cool stuff with a features in issue #2 and 11.

As independent publishers proliferated, Landau launched the Eagle Comics imprint, named after the legendary British weekly from the 1950s and 1960s. The short-lived line brought color to Judge Dredd, reducing the larger British pages to standard American comic size. The 32-page, $1 comic reprinted the early tales, but couldn’t gain a toehold and folded after three years and nine different titles.

The transition for the artists wasn’t always a smooth one. As Bolland told Comics Interview, “I think I was trying to overcompensate and draw DC stuff exactly the way I thought people at DC would like it—and finding that it was quite an alien thing to have a more-or-less naked person flying. It’s something you don’t find in Judge Dredd, so I had to produce a grace and flowing line that wasn’t really required in British comics. Joe Orlando gave me a pep talk on what the figure ought to look when it was flying.” Later, Bolland was chafed when he received cover layouts from in-house artist Ross Andru.

DAVE GIBBONS ON GREEN LANTERN From that handful of visits, members of the artistic community began receiving assignments. After Bolland, there was Gibbons also making his American debut in 1983 with the Emerald Crusader in Green Lantern #161. Apparently, Giordano thought Gibbons’ experience with Doctor Who made him ideal for the just-acquired Star Trek license, but the artist was not interested. Nor was he keen on taking over Swamp Thing despite doing a sample page.

Gibbons’ version of events, from Comics Interview, was that he “got a call from Nick Landau, who had been in contact with Dick Giordano and Joe Orlando of DC Comics. They were in Britain looking for new talent, to expand the DC line. So they got in touch with me, and Mick McMahon, and Kevin O’Neill, and a few others, and convinced us we should be drawing for DC Comics. I had been doing Doctor Who for about three years, and I was still enjoying the character, but I thought maybe the change would be nice. Certainly, what they were offering me was a far better deal than anything that was obtainable in Britain.” One perk included the return of the original artwork, a practice the English publishers had not yet adopted.

“Before long, I was offered the lead strip in Green Lantern, which was something of a boyhood dream come true for me,” Gibbons wrote in Watching the Watchmen. Len Wein flew over to England where he spent a week over the summer of 1983 with the artist to figure out their approach, knowing in advance Gibbons committed to no more than a year. “The stories… were well-written, but the

Earthbound soap-opera plots didn’t suit me, and I resolved that I’d give it up after a year,” Gibbons added years later.

The reality is that Ernie Colón left staff as an editor and the erratically edited book was turned over to Wein for a revamp. He would be the writer/editor, working with Gibbons. But when I arrived on staff in January 1984, Len was consistently running behind on his plots.

Things were produced haphazardly with Dave left waiting between batches of pages, and in order to maintain the schedule, he finally had to accept inkers starting with Mike DeCarlo. In time, he invited his mate Mark Farmer to ink the work. The young inker made his debut with issue #183 (Dec. 1984) and has been a domestic mainstay ever since.

Green Lantern was a frustrating experience for Gibbons since he had such affection for Hal Jordan but was left with John Stewart, as Jordan quit the Corps. The stories were loosely conceived long-term, with Wein struggling to figure out issue-by-issue beats while still managing the Bat-titles and editing Who’s Who. The working relationship was not ideal for either the writer or artist, even if the final result was a far cry better than what preceded their tenure.

Meanwhile, Len was a huge fan of 2000 AD, and as an editor he loved the wordsmithing done by these writers, especially a new name: Alan Moore. Sometime around the summer of 1983, Len asked Alan about taking over Saga of the Swamp Thing from Martin Pasko, and we all know how that turned out. I was stunned to see how lengthy and detailed Alan’s scripts were, having read nothing like it compared with the terseness of a Robert Kanigher war story or the plot-first work from Len, Marv Wolfman, Mike Barr, and others.

Barr, it should be noted, was also keeping an eye on the British creators, so it was no mistake that his Camelot 3000 was illustrated by Bolland. Brian’s longest work arrived with a huge splash, and I was enamored enough to put the two on the cover of Comics Scene #6 (and British Invasion Issue

•

BACK ISSUE • 49

have the original artwork in need of framing). Bolland had been doing some covers and agreed to do any series the company offered him. Barr created Camelot, which seemed ideal for the British-born artist. From there, Bolland’s next project was to collaborate with Moore on a Batman/ Judge Dredd crossover, but when the deal fell through, despite a story being worked out, Moore whipped up a Batman/Joker story that Bolland then spent the next four years working on. Of course, that little project became the acclaimed and oft-reprinted The Killing Joke.

ALAN DAVIS MISSES THE BOAT TO ATLANTIS

TM & © DC Comics.

Alan Davis, at the time, known for working with Moore on D.R. & Quinch, was perhaps the next artist to land a DC assignment, but not the one readers may recall.

“Nothing remarkable ever took place,” Davis says, “in part because I never took any of it seriously. I’d been working in the ‘real world’ until just a few months earlier and was focused on establishing myself at 2000 AD—and still learning many of the basics.

“Dick Giordano said he’d find me a miniseries.

I never expected it to materialize. But true to his word, I was sent the first part of an Aquaman miniseries along with two volumes of Dick’s own Time-Life volumes, loaned for refs with pages marked. (An amazingly kind gesture to a stranger.) Soon after I shipped the first issue of pencils (and his book).”

At the time, art director Neal Pozner wanted to write and pitched a fresh take on Aquaman that was approved for a miniseries. Davis landed the assignment and penciled the first issue. “Dick Giordano sent me scripts or my approval of the Aquaman miniseries, and I was really delighted because I’d always liked Aquaman. I regret not getting the chance to actually do it as I’d penciled the first issue but never got to ink it and it’ll never see print, but I really did like the idea of doing Aquaman,” Davis told Amazing Heroes.

At the time, Batman and the Outsiders was tapped to be the third title to receive DC’s experimental hardcover/ softcover treatment, and based on seeing those pencils, Giordano decided Davis was a perfect fit for this book.

Barr, the BATO writer/editor agreed, and they had to talk Davis into taking the higher-profile project. As a result, Davis’ lush work was seen in Batman and the Outsiders #21 (May 1985). He too struggled at first, explaining, “I screwed up the first few episodes of BATO because I’d over-simplified my style as I was expecting color to add something, but it actually flattens things out rather than enhances their form. I think this stems from working in color over here and using tonal color as opposed to the flat-print color in the USA. I also noticed things like lines thickening up, probably to do with their printing process. It was strange because I’d actually had the reverse problem with Marvel UK just before starting with DC, where Marvel’s printing process was actually losing lines because my lines were too fine.”

“A DESPERATE NEED FOR NEW ARTISTIC VISIONS” It’s interesting to note that other than Moore, the British writers took far longer to crack DC and Marvel. At the time, so many of the books were being produced by writer/editors that there was a greater need for artists than other writers. Vets like Gerry Conway and Michael Fleisher were tied to hefty exclusive contracts which ate up a goodly number of pages available every month, coupled with the output from Len, Marv, the recently arrived Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, and newcomers like Kurt Busiek and the team of Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn—there was a lot less need for scribes.

Instead, there was a desperate need for new artistic visions. After the arrival of a new generation of talents in the early 1970s (among them Jim Starlin, Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Howard Chaykin, and Walter Simonson), after that a previous few made a significant splash. By the early 1980s, John Byrne and Frank Miller were the toast of Marvel, and DC was slowly gaining

Alan Davis—Simply Amazing!

One of our favorite artists (featured later in this issue in the Excalibur article) produced this cover for one of our favorite fanzines (Amazing Heroes, issue #85) in 1985, featuring the characters he was most identified with at the time: Miracleman, Captain Britain, and D.R. & Quinch. Around this time his first DC worked appeared in Batman and the Outsiders. Courtesy of Heritage.

Captain Britain and Miracleman © Marvel Characters, Inc. D.R. & Quinch © Alan Moore and Alan Davis.

50 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

the services of folk like Gene Colan and George Tuska, veterans chased away from Marvel. DC keenly needed fresh talent, which no doubt helped propel Orlando and Giordano (who rejoined staff in fall 1980) to check out the British community.

Even so, idiosyncratic talents such as Kevin O’Neill had a harder time finding places for their talents, limited at first to backups in Green Lantern and The Omega Men, beginning with the latter’s issue #18 (Sept. 1984).

Pat Mills was the next writer to make a domestic sale, working with O’Neill on the 1986 science-fiction graphic novel Metalzoic.

His colleagues, John Wagner and Alan Grant, didn’t make a sale until their original maxiseries Outcasts in October 1987, bringing along Scottish talent Cam Kennedy. Fellow Scot Jim Baikie had already made the transition with Doug Moench’s underrated Electric Warrior a year earlier.

My wife happened to have a business trip to London in January 1985 and I planned to tag along and make a vacation out of it. Still, when I told Dick about it, he suggested I try and meet with the talent in exchange for some comp time. By then, I had met Nick Landau through covering the Titan material in Comics Scene and when he heard I was coming, agreed to help me set up two group dinners.

At this point, my work on Crisis on Infinite Earths and Who’s Who was in good shape so a few days away wasn’t going to hurt, but I was asked to spend some extra time with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons since they had already begun work on their Watchmen maxiseries.

By then, I had read at least the first script and had some idea of what the project was about, although it was way too early to realize just how special this was going to be.

On a dreary weekday afternoon, the two met me at New York’s Tower Hotel and we spent hours talking about the project. Even then, a year before the first issue arrived in print, they were brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. Dave proudly showed off character designs and cover treatments as Alan talked me through the characters and their motivations. Each arc was clearly in his mind and it was just a matter of researching and writing.

In addition to layouts and designs, some of which were on display in Gibbons’ Watching the Watchmen, they showed me their marketing ideas. Yes, a year in advance, they already had a ton of sketches for how to market and promote the book. Since it would deal with adult themes and be aimed at older readers, one idea I distinctly recall was the idea of the bloody smiley face being used for cardboard coasters to be distributed to bars.

As I recall, not a single one of the ideas I saw that afternoon was accepted and used by Bruce Bristow and DC’s marketing team.

After this memorable and enchanting afternoon, the three of us regrouped at the Fall of the Raj, where we were joined by Alan Davis, Brian Bolland, and Mark Farmer. Bolland and I had met when my wife Deb took the Comic Scene cover image of him and Barr, so it was nice to see the artist again. I did my best as a host, extolling the virtues of working for DC, how excited we were to be celebrating our golden anniversary, and the opportunities the Crisis would present.

The following evening, Nick Landau joined Deb and me at Rasa Sayang in Soho, where we repeated the event, this time with a Polynesian twist. While Nick and I tried to recreate the complete guest list, time has eroded the veracity of our memories but we’re fairly certain Dave made a repeat appearance along with Mike McMahon, John Wagner, and maybe Pat Mills, among others. During the cocktails before dinner, McMahon kept challenging me about why he would ever want to work for the company. He seemed perfectly content in the UK; this was before he created The Last American, co-written by Wagner and Alan Grant, found a home at Marvel’s Epic imprint in 1991.

BRIDGING THE CONTINENTS According to Landau, the page rates between British comics and DC were not that far apart back then. The appeal to the talent had a lot to do with being approached by the current caretakers of the comics this generation of talent grew up reading. Gibbons recalls it differently, having written that the rates offered by DC were far superior: “I would think it was that these were the American comics they loved as a kid,” Gibbons tells BACK ISSUE. “There was a relative maturity of content compared with the typical English output. These were guys in their late teens or 20s who felt more simpatico with the American content. There was also the idea that they no longer had to put their eggs in one basket, as it were.”

In America, Landau noted the aware editors at DC and Marvel, like the British creators themselves, had a passion for the content of 2000 AD and later, the short-lived Warrior magazine.

Dave Gibbons adds, “As for the UK creatives’ attitude to DC at the time, I recall it as being very positive. In view of the better rates and terms that DC was offering, not to mention the international exposure coupled with the downturn in British comics, everybody saw it as a career step upwards.”

Landau described British creators as being one of two generations at the time, those like Martin Asbury, who grew up on the great Eagle, which featured work from Frank Hampson, Frank Bellamy, and Keith Watson “each doing this amazing full-color work week after week,” and the generation that grew up after American imports arrived with greater regularity in the 1960s.

British comics had this fertile period in the 1950s with Eagle leading the way with the science-fiction exploits of Dan Dare, more recently revived by Garth Ennis. It was "good space stuff, some of the best science-fiction art to appear in comics,” according to Landau, whose Titan Books has resurrected this work in new editions.

The 1960s saw the rise of TV21, a title that sold over one million copies at inception, fueled by the fascination with stories based on

Rock ’Em, Sock ’Em Robots Page 3 of Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Metalzoic, published in the States in 1986 as DC Graphic Novel #6.

TM & © DC Comics.

British Invasion Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 51

The British Are Coming! (left) Brian Bolland’s preliminary pencils for page 11 of Batman: The Killing Joke. Courtesy of Heritage. (right) Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen #12. (Ye ed wishes he had a bloody smiley face Watchmen coaster…!)

TM & © DC Comics.

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Supermarionation series such as Captain Scarlett and Thunderbirds. Bellamy continued his work here, bridging the eras. He was joined by artists including Don Lawrence before the fad ended in the early 1970s. The British comics field was left with pure juvenile fare such as Beano until 1977, when 2000 AD arrived.

One result from these meetings was an introduction from Alan Moore to Steve Moore (no relation). I had gotten familiar with Steve thanks to Eclipse Comics reprinting the British feature Laser Eraser & Pressbutton, which featured early art from Steve Dillon. (And it was my fascination with that series that prompted me to commission Dillon’s first DC art, Queen Bee for Who’s Who.) Steve Moore was especially keen on doing something fresh with a post–Crisis Adam Strange, and we spent a fair amount of time working up a proposal that went nowhere as management wound up favoring a different proposal from art director Richard Bruning. As it was, despite trying to find Steve work because I genuinely liked him and his style, he never wound up working for DC, although he did novelize Alan’s V for Vendetta.

After I returned from this successful foray, I turned over all my notes in an extensive memo to Dick, who made noises about me or someone needing to be out there on a regular basis. As it turned out, that opportunity fell to Karen Berger a year or so later, as Jenette Kahn

52 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

recognized the value the British creators brought to DC. As covered in BACK ISSUE #57, Jenette, Dick, and Karen became the vanguard of that international outreach.

Rapidly, a second wave of British talent was found as Karen and Jenette made the rounds. Their expedition brought back new writers Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman. It was Morrison’s thoughtful approach to Animal Man, first conceived as a miniseries before being upgraded to an ongoing, that led me to turn to him for a reboot of Doom Patrol, which was floundering in the sales after Paul Kupperberg and Erik Larsen failed to excite the fans (the change in artists from Steve Lightle to Larsen had much to do with the title’s sales).

By this time, the later 1980s, the British talent was here to stay and no one was grumbling about losing work to them. It was a flush time for the business and if you were exceptionally good and reasonably on-time, there was work aplenty for you. DC had to find and train a new crop of talent to take up the work left undone. This certainly meant more opportunities for the local talent that might have existed before, and was probably good for one and all.

Obviously, since this explosion of creative energy 30 years back, they’ve become mainstays, leaving indelibly marks on American comics and global pop culture.

ROBERT GREENBERGER is a longtime comics historian and former staffer at DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

A fulltime freelance writer and editor, his recent works have included The Essential Superman Encyclopedia (with Martin Pasko) and The Spider-Man Vault (with Peter David). He continues to write reviews for ComicMix.com and more about Bob can be found at BobGreenberger.com.

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The first time I recall seeing a comic by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy was in their anthology title from Eclipse, Strange Days #1 (Nov. 1984), which also included work by Brett Ewins. The book featured “Freakwave,” a post–apocalyptic story in which the Earth was mostly covered with water and a wandering surfer simply called the Drifter faced the maniacal Captain Roaring, and “Paradax!,” the story of a slacker who finds a miraculous superhero costume in the hollowed-out center of a book. Both stories were wildly different from each other both in tone and style, and were like nothing I had seen before. I was (and still am) deeply into 2 Tone-era ska and New Wave music, and they somehow managed to capture that sensibility on the printed page. I was hooked. From then on, I eagerly awaited any work they did together, from the two-issue Paradax! (1987) series at Vortex; to DC/Vertigo’s Shade the Changing Man (beginning in 1990), which featured Milligan’s writing and McCarthy cover art; to Skin (1992) from Tundra, the story a thalidomide skinhead in the UK; to their phantasmagorical Indian fantasy epic, Rogan Gosh (1994), which was printed in the US by DC/Vertigo.

In July 2012, I had the pleasure of interviewing Milligan and McCarthy about their work together, including some stories that US readers may be unfamiliar with.

– Roger Ash ROGER ASH: I believe your first work together was on “The Electric Hoax” (1978). How did you come to collaborate on that?

PETER MILLIGAN: Brendan was working on the strip— for Sounds, I think—and he asked me to come on board. I think it was just about the first comic-book writing I’d done. I was experimenting with some words and images and was writing, but I didn’t really know how a comic strip worked.

BRENDAN McCARTHY: I had sold a weekly strip to the music paper Sounds and it was taking me longer to write it than draw it… So I asked Pete to help out, and he quickly got into the flow and handled the writing very well. And as he was better at it than me, I thought it logical that he should become “the writer.”

ASH: That’s a strip I don’t know very well. What was it about?

MILLIGAN: Brendan, what was it about? How I saw it, on one level it was a metaphor for restless punk youth searching for meaning and discovering that actually there is no meaning.

McCARTHY: It wasn’t about anything much, other than a wade through a miasma of punk characters and abstract postmodern smart-arsery. Our approach at that time was influenced by punk and glam and psychedelic music, rather than aping film clichés—which is why our stuff reads differently to the comics produced today.

Strange Days House Ad This Eclipse promo features two of Strange Days’ features: Paradax by Milligan and McCarthy and Johnny Nemo by Milligan and Brett Ewins. © 1984 Eclipse Comics. Characters © the respective copyright holders.

54 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

by

Roger Ash

ASH: How did you move from that to being published

by Pacific Comics?

MILLIGAN: Brendan, did we contact them?

McCARTHY: I turned up in their offices in San Diego, with an introduction from the late and great Dave Stevens, whom I met in L.A. on my first visit there.

They said yes to “Freakwave” straight away.

ASH: You did “Freakwave,” a post–apocalyptic surfing adventure, for Vanguard Illustrated #1–3 (Nov. 1983– Mar. 1984). That began as a film treatment. What made it good basis for a comic story, and how much did you change between the film treatment and the comics?

MILLIGAN: Is that the way it was? Not sure if the comic didn’t come first. In any event, we did develop an amazing, large illustrated treatment. A work of art in itself, as I remember.

McCARTHY: Yes, the “Freakwave” Vanguard comic three-parter came first, and then the Eclipse sequel came after the movie pitch treatment.

ASH: “Freakwave” eventually continued in your own comic at Eclipse, Strange Days. How did that series come about?

MILLIGAN: How I remember it, Brendan, [is that] you came back from living and working in Australia with your head full of images of surfing.

McCARTHY: And the magnificent Mad Max 2.

ASH: “Freakwave” kept the adventure but added allegorical overtones with the Drifter being revealed as the new messiah. Was that something that you had planned from the beginning?

MILLIGAN: This is where “Freakwave” really took off and came into its own. The freedom and allegorical nature of the comic and story has a lot to do with how we were producing it. It was a bit like a little cottage industry. There’d be a rough script and then the art would be produced, which, of course, didn’t necessarily have a lot to do with the script. Then I would physically do the lettering. Often it was at this lettering stage that a lot of the writing was done, and this allowed me to riff off the art and to allow the narrative to be as free and wild as Brendan’s art was. I think I almost became addicted to tea, staying up late and writing/ lettering this thing.

McCARTHY: Because we were both fine arts painting graduates, we were aware of many different working methods we could use. So this wasn’t a “writer dictates story” setup—which sometimes we would do if it suited us. The process of creating the comic had a lot of randomness thrown in. We were Brian Eno fans at the time, so anything accidental or leftfield was treasured.

Brett Ewins had a big input, too, as we were all working on each other’s strips and throwing ideas about. We were more of a Beatles-type pop-art group setup… Tony Wright also drew a one-pager.

ASH: Strange Days also introduced “Paradax!,” which is a fairly straight-ahead superhero story.

What can you say about the development of this strip?

MILLIGAN: I remember seeing Brendan’s initial sketches, in some pub or maybe his bedroom.

McCARTHY: Alan Moore’s Marvelman, a “revisionist” superhero, had come out at the time, but I thought “Paradax!” was something more along the lines of what someone like us would be like, if we could be bothered to be superheroes. It was a statement about comics, and what they should be like. “Paradax!” was decidedly anti-nerd.

ASH: “Paradax!” seems to me to be one of the early stories that showed how superheroes would develop and change in the ’80s. Do you agree?

Beginnings: Sometime Stories (1977)

Milestones: Comics: Judge Dredd / Strange Days /covers for Shade the Changing Man / Skin / Rogan Gosh / Swimini Purpose / Solo / Spider-Man: Fever Film and TV: Reboot / Coneheads / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Lost in Space

Works in Progress: Comics: The Zaucer of Zilk (2000 AD/IDW) Film: Mad Max: Fury Road

Cyberspace: www.swiminipurpose.com

brendan mccarthy

Beginnings: 2000 AD (1984)

Milestones: Shade the Changing Man / Strange Days / Skin / Skreemer / Human Target / Greek Street / Rogan Gosh / X-Statix / X-Men

Works in Progress: Hellblazer / Red Lanterns / Stormwatch

Cyberspace: www.petermilligan.co.uk

peter milligan

British Invasion Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 55

Waterworld (left) Opening page from Freakwave in Pacific Comics’ Vanguard Illustrated #1 (Nov. 1983). (right) Paradax! hogs the cover of Strange Days #3 (Apr. 1985).

Cover art by Brendan McCarthy. © Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy.

MILLIGAN: I think it was ahead of its time. Even now, “Paradax”’s mix of the ironic and knowing with that “normal guy in a suit” quality feels as though it could be being produced now.

McCARTHY: It set the tone for a whole bunch of those media-savvy, narcissistic superheroes that derived from “Paradax!,” like Zenith, Animal Man, etc. Kick-Ass is an updated take on that trope.

ASH: Paradax eventually got his own series at Vortex.

How did that come to be?

MILLIGAN: I’m useless at remembering this stuff.

Brendan, did they approach us?

McCARTHY: Yeah, Bill Marks at Vortex Comics, Canadian hipster publishers of Mr. X, asked us to do a miniseries.

ASH: Aside from the Paradax story in the first issue, you have stories featuring Rudcliff and Williams, the two old men from “Freakwave,” and Mirkin the Mystic.

What about Rudcliff and Williams made you want to do a story starring them?

MILLIGAN: Mostly because we both loved the characters and we were really happy with how the story turned

56 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

out. And they were just so bloody unlike anything else being done. It also expanded the universe of “Freakwave,” but in an unexpected way. There was a kind of old-fashioned gentleness about R&W, a very British Morecambe and Wise world, where male friends could innocently share a bed—albeit one floating in a drowned world populated by post–punk mutants and lunatics.

McCARTHY: I liked those two characters a great deal.

I could do more of them, especially as I’m getting older myself!

ASH: Mirkin was a fun take on the mystic hero. I know Brendan is a [Steve] Ditko fan. Was part of this done as a tribute to Dr. Strange?

MILLIGAN: I think a lot of it came from Brendan’s love of Ditko and Dr. Strange, and it was one of those stories where everything really clicked.

McCARTHY: Lots of people loved “Mirkin the Mystic.”

The narrative voice was a superb blend of Oscar Wilde and Pete being snarky and very funny. Seeing our characters interacting with actual authors and their fictional characters was an influential conceit: It has kept our dear friend Alan Moore busy for many years.

ASH: Looking online, Mirkin seems to be a character readers remember quite fondly. What do you think his lasting appeal is?

MILLIGAN: As I said, I think the story clicked. And though Mirkin’s pretty strange and he occupies a bizarre world where fiction and fact merge, he’s also kind of instantly recognizable.

McCARTHY: One day, “Mirkin shall return.”

MILLIGAN: I’d be up for that! One might almost become excited.

ASH: While you were working on these books, there were a couple projects you did that many readers in the US probably aren’t familiar with. The first is the timetravel story featuring Michael “Swifty” Swift called

“Sooner or Later,” which ran in 2000 AD #468–499 (May–Dec. 1986). What was the genesis of this story?

MILLIGAN: I think it started out as a short story. I used to hang around Camden Town in North London when I was a kid and loved the idea of setting a story around the canal there. I think then we kind of badgered the editor into allowing us free reign over the back page.

I have a feeling they thought it was only one page, so it didn’t really matter if we f*cked it up. As it was I think it became the most interesting and certainly the most experimental strip running at that time.

McCARTHY: Yeah, 2000 AD was on a roll under editor Steve MacManus in those days.

ASH: Many of the installments of “Sooner or Later” were only one page. What challenges did that present you?

MILLIGAN: They were good challenges. You could have an idea, say it, and get out before anyone noticed. I think “Sooner or Later” worked best when it was one page.

McCARTHY: It was sometimes a bit patchy on the art, I thought, but that was me being a lazy bugger. Tony Wright contributed quite a few pencils during that series, as I recall. A brilliant artist.

ASH: Next is “Summer of Love” (1987), which I admit I’ve been able to learn very little about. What can you say about this strip?

MILLIGAN: I think someone approached Brendan from a short-lived, leftwing Sunday newspaper. I had a great ending planned which I didn’t get to write when the strip was pulled. The curse of “Summer of Love” struck and the newspaper soon went under.

McCARTHY: And someone stole a lot of my art. You quickly learn that there are lots of amoral thieves in the comics scene…

ASH: Going on to something very different, you worked together on Shade the Changing Man at DC, though not as writer and artist as you had in the past.

Brendan did design work and covers for the series.

What exactly did he do on the design end, and how much contact did you have with each other about the designs and covers?

MILLIGAN: I remember mostly Brendan doing the covers. We were often hanging out together, so there was a fair degree of cross-pollination of ideas going on.

McCARTHY: I was going to actually draw the series, but I think the film work was starting to take off at that time, and I ended up going over to Hollywood to work with the SNL/Lorne Michaels crowd on the Coneheads movie at Paramount. That was a really good laugh, working on that film.

ASH: You did finally collaborate on issue #22. What was that experience like?

MILLIGAN: Probably, a pain in the arse.

McCARTHY: The best bit about it all was asking Pete to leave some pages at the end for an art “guitar solo” … and that’s how we came up with that great piece at the finale of the story.

ASH: One of my favorite books that you two did together was also one of your most controversial, Skin.

You had trouble even getting that one published.

Where exactly did the controversy come from and how did you end up at Tundra?

MILLIGAN: The comic was scheduled to come out in Crisis, a book that aimed to publish cutting-edge comics. I remember the editor saying—about Skin— that that was when Crisis really started to do what it aimed to do. But people higher up the food chain

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Psychedelic Storytelling (left) Micky Swift learns more of Britain 1,000 years in the future in the “Sooner or Later” strip from 2000 AD Prog 469. (right) A guitar-solo page (page 19) from Shade, the Changing Man #22 (Apr. 1992).

Sooner or Later © Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy.

Shade TM & © DC Comics.

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Milligan and McCarthy One-Shots (left) From Tundra UK, Skin #1. (right) From DC/Vertigo, Rogan Gosh #1 (1994). Autographed comics scans courtesy of Roger Ash, who contributed this article’s artwork. © Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy/TM & © DC Comics.

became very nervous and pulled it. One could talk a lot about the reasons why—how people are uncomfortable about the mix of sex and disability, how our hero just want to be a hooligan like his mates, and wishes he was able to masturbate.

McCARTHY: Me, too.

ASH: A thalidomide skinhead isn’t a typical protagonist. Where did Martin Atchitson’s story come from? [Interviewer’s note: Thalidomide was a drug that was prescribed as a sedative. It was supposedly safe for pregnant women. However, it caused horrible birth defects.]

MILLIGAN: Brendan had the original idea. Of course, I like to think that it developed in the writing. We both did a lot of research; the story certainly grew in the making.

McCARTHY: I invented the character and basic storyline, but Pete’s writing on that one blew me away. It’s his single best script, I think.

Brilliant work. Kinell!

ASH: How did Rogan Gosh end up at Vertigo?

MILLIGAN: Christ, I forget. Brendan?

McCARTHY: Probably Karen Berger asked us. Things were pretty buzzing in those frantic heydays of yore. At that stage, we were so “uber-hip” in comics we could have wiped our asses on the page, called it “Abstract Asswipe Comics,” printed it on dayglo paper with luminous inks, and walked away with a few hundred Eisner Awards.

ASH: Rogan Gosh is very complex in how you tell the story. It could be read from any one of the main character’s points of view. How difficult was that to map out?

MILLIGAN: It was difficult enough, but it was also a complete scream to work on. In some ways I felt we’d come full circle. Though I didn’t do the lettering, there were elements of the fluidity of “Freakwave” in Rogan Gosh.

McCARTHY: Yes, Rogan Gosh was a good one. Some folks think it’s our best piece. It was certainly my longest work to that point.

Generally, I prefer the shorter eight-page installment myself. I could never be bothered to read those 400-page graphic novels. I’m not too taken with complexity and self-conscious “literariness.” I prefer a Zen–like simplicity and brevity to things. Probably comes from having a Painter’s mentality.

ASH: One of the major recurring themes in Rogan Gosh is food. Why?

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MILLIGAN: That is insane, I know. Rogan Gosh is a succulent Indian dish. I really liked the way this everyday name, ripped from a Curry House menu, undercut the spiritual elements in the book. And for the working-class white kid who gets to know Raju Dhawan, this is probably as close to Indian culture as he ever get.

McCARTHY: I loved Pete writing parts of the strip in the style of an Indian restaurant menu, composed by someone whose grasp of English is a bit shaky and cloyingly over-descriptive. It cracked me up when I read those sequences after I got the scripts. A thousand times better than anything else ever written in comics, in my view.

ASH: Looking back at your collaborations, all of them have an identity of their own. Each is written and drawn in a different style. Was that a conscious decision on your part?

MILLIGAN: I don’t think it was a conscious decision.

McCARTHY: Yes, for sure. Style is as important a component to the overall flavor of a piece as the subject matter, the characters, the plot, etc. Our work was always “stylish” in whatever style it was produced in.

ASH: Any plans to work together again?

MILLIGAN: No plans. But I can’t imagine we won’t.

McCARTHY: You never know. Maybe something before we die.

ASH: Any closing comments?

MILLIGAN: Reading through these questions made me remember the times when we worked on these various projects. And I think it’s really exciting that these disparate, strange, and, I think, unique stories will soon be finding a home together.

McCARTHY: A high-quality collection of the Best of Milligan & McCarthy could well be on the horizon.

A special thank you to Pamela Mullin at DC Comics.

This interview would not have been possible without her assistance.

ROGER ASH lives in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, where he works for Westfield Comics and lives with his cat, Candy, and his growing collection of hats.

Alan Davis has been a driving force in the comicbook industry for over 30 years and his enriching presence has had a profound effect on Marvel Comics’ X-Universe. Davis’ entry into the US market was subtle, working quietly from within, and then ® taking off as the regular penciler for the X-Men spin-off title, Excalibur. That venture allowed him to integrate Marvel UK characters into the Marvel Universe proper, like Captain Britain and Meggan, along with his rogues’ gallery, the Crazy Gang, and Gatecrasher and the Technet.

DAVIS INVADES THE X-UNIVERSE Davis’ first North American work was on DC Jason Shayer Comics’ Batman and the Outsiders in 1985. From there, he moved on to Detective Comics where, after only six issues, internal politics forced him off the book in the middle of the Batman: Year Two storyline.

He then took on assignments with Marvel Comics, testing their corporate waters drawing a couple of X-Universe annuals and a fill-in on Uncanny X-Men. New Mutants Annual #2 (Oct. 1986) was my first exposure to Alan Davis, and it blew me away. The fun aspect to Davis’ artwork was a refreshing change to the darker and grittier tones of the late 1980s.

Davis’ fill-in art for Uncanny X-Men alan davis #213 (Jan. 1987), which was part of the “Mutant Massacre” crossover event, stood out in particular. His fluid and versatile art style was perfect for the quiet moments focusing on the lovely Betsy Braddock and then juxtaposed with the amazing fight sequences between Wolverine and Sabretooth. Davis’ art was so clean and smooth, and seemed to relax your eye as you took it all in.

Despite having worked in British comics for years, having his work published in North America required some adjustments. “When I started at DC on Batman and the Outsiders,” says Alan Davis, “the instructions were to use less black and rendering. And to draw smaller noses on women. When I moved over to Marvel, the rule was black and rendering should only be on one plane.

“The only element of what might be termed ‘culture clash’ was in the attitudes to sex and violence,” he continues. “In the 1980s, the British attitude to sex was more liberal than in America, while the reverse was true for violence. In an episode of Harry 20, for 2000 AD, I had to draw a guy being shot, then dragged away. He was facing the shooter when he went down, but as he was dragged away I showed a smoldering patch on his back. This was considered too violent and edited London Calling out. The women I drew at Marvel were edited on Meggan, Captain Britain, Phoenix, Shadowcat, and occasion—I never understood why—but the strangest edit concerned the character Joyboy. His Nightcrawler. Detail from the cover of Excalibur #1 (Oct. 1988). navel would always be removed. Nobody ever told Art by Alan Davis and Paul Neary. me not to draw the navel but, as far as I recall, it was always whited out.” © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. by

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emotional heart of the team, and Rachel their powerhouse, wielding DRAWING THE SWORD “I began figuring what could I do with the X-Men who weren’t going the power of the Phoenix Force.

Each character struggled with the emotional weight of the death to be in the ‘Fall of the Mutants’ [crossover event], like Kitty and Nightcrawler,” writer Chris Claremont stated in an interview in Amazing of the X-Men during the “Fall of the Mutants” crossover. Captain Britain Heroes #134 (Feb. 1988), “because I knew if I didn’t do anything with had been hit particularly hard by the death of his sister, Betsy Braddock, them, other people would leap forward like rabid wolves to heist them. also known as Psylocke. The story brought together all of these characters as they were in the same geographic area with Kitty and Nightcrawler, Alan [Davis] and I had been talking over the idea of doing something recuperating from their injuries on Muir Island near Scotland. together—a graphic novel, a series, or some such.”

What brought them together as a team was a Claremont The pairing of Alan Davis and Chris Claremont was a plot dangler from The Uncanny X-Men #209 (Sept. 1986), natural fit. Back in 1976, Claremont created Captain where a mortally wounded Rachel Summers was Britain with Herb Trimpe and wrote his original tales, lured by Spiral into the Mojoverse, where she was while Davis had drawn the title and designed his held captive. Upon her escape, Opal Luna Saturnyne new modern look. Alan Davis restored my faith the Omniversal Majestrix, responsible for order in in the X-Men franchise of the late 1980s. I was this sector of reality, saw the Phoenix as a significant heartbroken that my favorite X-Men team had threat and dispatched Gatecrasher to apprehend her. imploded in the wake of the “Mutant Massacre” Of course, that brought Gatecrasher and the Technet crossover, but Claremont and Davis’ Excalibur into conflict with our heroes. And at the same time, recaptured that sense of action, adventure, and fun Phoenix had escaped from the clutches of Mojo of the early 1980s’ Uncanny X-Men. who had, in turn, unleashed his Warwolves on her.

Building on their existing relationship, Claremont So that set up a great series of events and conflicts. and Davis put out the Excalibur Special Edition in late chris claremont What was so great about this issue was the 1987. This comic wasn’t your usual four-color fare, additional conflict from within this group of as it stood out on comic-store shelves with its heroes. Nightcrawler argued with Brian about the nature of being a impressive 64-page, squarebound, bookshelf format.

Davis’ artistic versatility was in fully display as he aptly handled a superhero and the heavy cost the X-Men had paid. In the aftermath broad cast of characters and provided fun, innovative page layouts. of the climactic battle, the heroes banded together to honor the The cast of characters all complemented one another, with Captain memory of the X-Men and to keep Professor Xavier’s dream alive.

Almost a year later, the first issue of the Excalibur regular ongoing Britain as their leader, Nightcrawler as the second-in-command, Shadowcat as the computer geek, Meggan as the shapechanger and series was published (cover-dated Oct. 1986). It was great to have Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and Shadowcat back in regular action again after almost a two-year hiatus.

From an interview in Marvel Age #60 (Mar. 1988), Davis revealed: “The main difference in Excalibur will be mood. There is a sort of tongue-in-cheek aspect of it. It’s also much more—not silly, but in a peculiar way, we take the adventures one degree further into the absurd. Things that happen with Excalibur couldn’t really happen with the X-Men, even though some of the same characters are the same. It’s really a case of taking the same characters and placing them in a much more interesting and different setting.”

Davis’ workload in those first ten issues was impressive, as he not only drew the 22 pages for each issue, but he designed and drew most of the covers and the back covers, which were poster-quality pinups.

THE COSMIC COMEDY “It was designated as ‘the cosmic comedy,’” Alan said in an interview with Amazing Heroes #193 (Aug. 1991), “I think by Ann Nocenti when she was the editor. It was originally explained to me that Excalibur was going to be ‘the X-Men in Britain,’ then suddenly it was ‘the cosmic comedy.’ It’s hard work matching that label, but it’s something I can live with. I think that people perceive an element of comedy in my work anyway. I don’t consciously put it there, but it’s inherent in my nature and shows through in the work.”

Davis’ influence was clearly seen as he worked the humorous side of Excalibur’s characters and designed memorable covers for that book. The early covers captured the fun that Davis and Claremont had on the title.

“This was again due to [editor] Terry Kavanagh,” Davis says.

“Marvel had decided Excalibur would have a separate identity from the other X-books and promoted it as a cosmic comedy—which flew in the face of the growing movement for gritty realism at that time. I had

New X-Men (left) An undated pencil illo by Davis of Nightcrawler, with Colossus and Storm. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (background) Cover to 1988’s Excalibur Special Edition. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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drawn a sketch for the first issue which was a straight group shot. Terry asked could I make it funny. My only idea was to squeeze in the Warwolves at the bottom of the cover, mocking Excalibur’s heroic pose—oblivious to the proximity of the villains they are pursuing. Not particularly funny, but I was uncertain to what degree of humor was appropriate for a superhero title.

“For the second issue, I drew a standard superhero action shot, as it appeared in print, but larger and the center of the page, with the comedy element, partially as it appeared in print, but much smaller and heavily cropped at the cover edge,” Davis says. “Terry told me to shift the focus onto the humor and push the action into the background. When I proposed the Juggernaut cover for issue #3 (Dec. 1988), the reaction was unanimously that I had nailed it, which I took to mean— make the covers a single-frame gag! Issue #4 (Jan. 1989) immediately challenged that, because there weren’t any big dramatic scenes in the issue because it was pretty much a setup for issue #5 (Feb. 1989) and beyond. In desperation I drew the janitor image and wrote text—my first writing work for Marvel—which read as published except for the last line. I had written, ‘…you’ll need to wait for next issue for that.’ After that I was given a free hand with the covers, and I had a terrific time.”

In their second year on the title, Claremont and Davis kicked off an ambitious story arc called “The Cross-Time Caper.” Originally planned as a nine-issue storyline, “The Cross-Time Caper” would be derailed by fill-ins and a biweekly publishing schedule through the summer of 1990. During this storyline, Claremont and Davis hit their mark in terms of the entertainment and zaniness. Traveling through a variety of parallel worlds allowed them to have a lot of fun depicting the exotic and madcap versions of Excalibur.

“I started to get more comfortable working the Marvel way and with Chris’ densely layered, stream-ofconsciousness plots and how much freedom they gave for me to take the ball and run,” says Davis. “Chris’ plots always nailed the story and characters while allowing plenty of opportunities to throw my ideas into the mix—especially during the ‘Cross-Time Caper.’ So when Chris asked for the team to be chased by Indians, I threw in a lot of other weird stuff to suggest something more interesting and complex than a chase had occurred.

This is also true for the ‘Munster’ castle with green flamingo and Captain Britain duck, and the Carmen Miranda Kitty and Kapitain Russkie. Chris and I were basically having fun trying to top each other.”

“The Cosmic Comedy” (left) Alan Davis’ sense of humor made his Excalibur covers stand out amid a sea of much darker fare.

Cover to issue #2 (Nov. 1988). (below) Detail from #3’s cover, featuring Juggernaut. Inks by Paul Neary.

A FRESH TAKE ON NIGHTCRAWLER One highlight during this story arc was a two-issue story spotlighting Nightcrawler at his swashbuckling best. The cover of Excalibur #16 (Dec. 1989) was a beautiful homage to the pulp science-fiction and fantasy tales, but also captured, in one image, the essential qualities of the story and characters, in particular, Davis’ take on Nightcrawler.

Davis’ depiction of Nightcrawler within this story pulled him out from the shadows and set him up as more of a dashing rogue, much like Nightcrawler’s idol, Errol Flynn. Nightcrawler had been humbled by his injuries, but had also matured and gained confidence, so much so that he acted more like the team’s leader than Captain Britain did at the time.

No longer was Nightcrawler concerned with his appearance and the reaction it might garner—instead, he accepted who he was and expected everyone else around him to do the same.

Issue #16 was perfectly tailored to Nightcrawler’s swashbuckling personality, with space pirates,

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an enthralling villainess, and an otherworldly tentacled monster eager to devour everything in our universe. Using these story devices, Davis not only focused on Nightcrawler, but established a new direction for everyone’s favorite fuzzy elf.

DAVIS MAKES HIS FIRST EXIT After a few fill-in issues, Davis returned to wrap up the “CrossTime Caper” storyline in Excalibur #23–24 (June–July 1990), but it would also mark the end of his first run on the title.

“The plots were always late, which not only meant I had less time to physically draw an issue but my domestic life had to be structured around the availability of a plot,” Davis admits. “Days wasted while I waited for a plot, then family events spoiled by having to work. On one occasion, despite giving months of advanced warning that I needed a plot to be on time because I was going on vacation, I spent the first week working in a hotel room while my family was on the beach. At that point I decided I’d had enough.”

After penciling 16 of the first 24 issues, Davis stepped away from the title.

RETURN AS ARTIST AND WRITER Just over a year later in 1991, Alan Davis returned to the title he cocreated, but this time he took on the full creative reins as penciler and writer. “Excalibur editor Terry Kavanagh knew I wanted to write but had lacked the confidence to attempt a monthly mainstream title,” Davis explains. “At that point I’d written and plotted a number of Captain Britain strips and co-written Wolverine: Bloodlust with Paul Neary. Terry believed I was capable, supported me in what must have seemed like crazy ideas sometimes, and essentially created a situation where I could find my feet.

“The first writing assignment I had been offered was the book that became Wolverine: Bloodlust. Shortly after my story idea was approved, and I began work on the plot, I lost confidence in my ability to write dialogue. Truth is, I’d never been that confident and the reality of falling flat on my face gave me stage fright.

“Paul [Neary] and I were already working together as penciler and inker, so I asked him if he’d like to dialogue the story—since he is much smarter and more literate than me,” Davis continues. “It wasn’t a good fit. I expected Paul to somehow (telepathically) flesh out my sketchy plot dialogue to match my sensibilities, so it wasn’t a partnership as much as my using Paul as a backstop. The experience proved to me that I couldn’t share the creative process. I also accepted that my own functional, but unspectacular, dialogue was preferable to diluting the story or ideas with another perspective. This was confirmed during my time plotting X-Men and Uncanny X-Men [circa 1999–2000].”

Claremont’s last issue was Excalibur #34 (Feb. 1991), after almost three years on the title. Scott Lobdell wrote issues #37–41 (May–Sept. 1991) and cleaned up some of the more glaring plot danglers that were left behind.

When Davis took over, he picked up some of the other plot danglers from his first run. But, to his credit, Davis didn’t simply tie them off to be rid of them, but rather, he invested an appropriate time to properly close them off.

“Dialogue aside, only in so far as the degree of involvement changed,” says Davis when I asked him about the transition to a writer and artist. “I’ve always thought of myself as a storyteller, so, even on tightly plotted full scripts, there were details of every scene that needed to be rationalized, fleshed out, between plot/script and art, so I’ve never just populated panels. Being responsible for the plot meant I didn’t have to consider what the writer might want, but also meant I had no one for confirmation or support when things got tough.”

Elf’s-a-Hoppin’ (above) Detail from the Nightcrawler pinup from #3. (left) “Cross-Time Caper” lunacy from Excalibur #16 (Dec. 1989), including … Captain Britain duck (!). © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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When asked if there a change in Davis’ approach as a writer and artist, longtime inker Mark Farmer, who had joined Davis for his second run, says, “Probably that he was allowed to just tell the stories he wanted to without crossovers and tie-ins getting in the way and before the X-books began spiraling out of control.

“Speaking as an Alan Davis fan who had seen his work from the earliest days, I was pleased to see Alan opening up his artwork,” Farmer states. “When Chris Claremont wrote Excalibur, I always felt there were too many panels on a page and that Alan’s work looks best when he’s allowed to vary his page layouts more.”

From the first few pages of Excalibur #42 (Oct. 1991), there’s an immediate change in the feeling of the book, a freshness that readers welcomed. Davis rejuvenated the series, allowing the fun, light-hearted tone of his memorable first run to reassert itself.

Davis’ return was also felt in the cover art, bringing back his tongue-in-cheek, slapstick style to them, especially with issue #43 (Nov. 1991) as an apologetic Kitty Pryde stood in front of the ensuing chaos behind her and tried to explain, red-faced, that “although this issue has been approved by the Comics Code, the editor-in-chief thought it was advisable to warn that some of the material inside may be offensive to natives of Alpha Centauri.”

Davis didn’t shy away from playing with the team mechanics. The team split up with issue #44 (Dec. 1991), allowing Davis to spend more quality time with each of them. Each character had their own character arc that culminated at the same time as the plot points did for the big climax of Davis’ first year in Excalibur #50 (May 1992).

Along the way, Davis introduced several new original characters that joined the ranks of Excalibur, including the mage Feron; Kylun, wielder of the enchanted blades of Zz’ria; and the Shi’ar female warrior Cerise.

Another fun character he created was Micromax, the UK’s size-shifting crimefighter.

“Looking back, all I see are flaws,” Davis says. “There are occasional panels or pages that I’m pleased with, but rarely a full issue. I enjoyed working with Chris Claremont on Excalibur, and learned a tremendous amount in the process, but the most satisfying thing from my time on Excalibur was that so many people mistakenly believed my storyline to resolve various lingering loose ends read as if I had followed some longterm plan established at the start of the series.

“When I took over as writer on Excalibur, I was asked to resolve a number of stories that had remained unresolved for years—and to position Phoenix for events in another X-book—but I didn’t want to do a series of resolution issues, so I devised a plot to pull together all of the random plotlines into one. I attempted to do a similar thing while I was plotting X-Men and Uncanny X-Men with the ‘Twelve’ storyline, but it didn’t work out as well. Too many cooks!”

What’s also worth noting was how Davis never leaned on the other X-yitles or used crossovers to keep his core storylines in motion. There were a few artistic fill-ins that did feature and deal with the eventual reunion of Excalibur and “resurrected” X-Men. Davis’ Excalibur run as a writer and artist was an impressive first effort. It was well paced and Davis adeptly handled multiple characters and multiple plot lines, bringing several story arcs to satisfying and rewarding conclusions.

And Now, A Message from Our Sponsor (left) Kitty’s PSA, on the hilarious Alan Davis/Mark Farmer cover to Excalibur #43 (Nov. 1993). (right) Kurt cuddles with his shapeshifting sweetie in this sequence from page 22 of issue #23 (June 1990), by Claremont/Davis/ Neary. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

ARTHURIAN ROMANCE Excalibur in its namesake and theme flowed from Arthurian legend. Claremont and Davis borrowed from those stories and had Nightcrawler play the Lancelot to Captain Britain’s King Arthur, with Meggan playing Guinevere. From the very beginning with the Excalibur Special Edition, there’s an attraction setup between Meggan and Nightcrawler. It starts off as something playful and escalates quickly into something more serious. Meggan’s form and behavior is influenced by the desires of those around her.

Consequently, the more Nightcrawler is attracted to her, the more she becomes the woman of his dreams.

While their unrequited love didn’t follow the Arthurian storyline, it did come to a head in Excalibur #43 (Nov. 1991), where Captain Britain has had enough of Nightcrawler’s interest in Meggan. It was the object of their affection, Meggan, that broke up their exchange of fisticuffs. While the men felt a bit better after their physical encounter, which resulted in a broken leg for Nightcrawler, Brian and Nightcrawler resolved their issues and moved on. However, Davis then took the opportunity to focus on Meggan and Brian and to explore

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their relationship. There are a few stumbles and mishaps as they fumbled through their relationship challenges, especially as their adventures prevent them from having the time required to nurture their relationship.

In a fun, ironic twist, it was Nightcrawler, in Excalibur #61 (Jan. 1993), who helped ground Brian and made him see exactly what he had in Meggan, reminding him that he didn’t often tell her how he felt about her. Brian took action and proposed to Meggan and she accepted, although they wouldn’t get married until Excalibur #125 (Oct. 1998).

In Excalibur #67 (July 1993), Brian snuck in a quiet, but poignant moment with Meggan before a climactic battle. There wasn’t a magic resolution to their relationship problems, but rather an exchange of their love and understanding that they would continue to work at it.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Be Afwaid …

Be Vewwy, Vewwy Afwaid Really, you’ve gotta love Hard-Boiled Henry! From Excalibur #42 (whose cover is seen in the background of this page). © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

In the aftermath of Brian’s assault on Nightcrawler, he was brought before an interdimensional court that oversaw the actions of all the versions of Captain Britain from all the multiverses of reality. As a member of the Captain Britain Corps, under the authority of Roma, daughter of Merlyn, Brian was unknowingly bound to a moral code that was strictly and mercilessly enforced.

Davis’ creative genius was on full display here as his depictions of the multiple versions of Captain Britain were clever and fun. He took his time to introduce and explore Captain Britain’s origins and continuity, knowing full well that his North American audience wasn’t well versed in Captain Britain’s established history as it was deeply rooted in UK continuity rather than that of the core Marvel Universe.

Davis worked to sort out and define the source of Captain Britain’s powers. From issue #45 (Dec. 1991), Brian had “the ability to absorb and metabolize the energy from the matrix,” which was centered on the British Isles. He also established that on every multiverse, there was a tower, like the lighthouse on Earth-616, built by Merlyn and served as a focal point for his powers.

During his forced sabbatical on the Otherworld, the realm of Roma and the Captain Britain Corps, Brian mulled over his role as a hero and as a member of Excalibur. He was hard on himself, seeing nothing but mistakes and failures in his wake.

Brian then discovered that he was being manipulated

by Roma herself; in fact, she was manipulating the entire

team in an attempt to keep her father’s plan in motion.

Brian returned to his team with a restored confidence and drive, just as the threat of the mad sorcerer-supreme Necrom has surfaced. It turned out that Merlyn wasn’t dead, just moving all the necessary pieces in place from the shadows so not to alert his adversary, Necrom.

Merlyn’s plans came to fruition and Necrom was defeated. However, Excalibur was understandably annoyed at being so callously manipulated. Captain Britain and Meggan channeled the remainder of the energies with which they had been empowered by Roma and Merlyn to destroy the lighthouse. The lighthouse, as well as its counterparts across the multiverse, were destroyed in a chain reaction that freed Excalibur from Merlyn’s manipulations, allowing them to act independently.

Davis’ efforts paid off as he defined Captain Britain’s power source, allowing other writers to build on this simplified power source and to focus on other aspects of Brian’s character. In addition to this, Davis focused on Brian’s natural tendencies to anger quickly and resort to violence. Brian’s struggles with his all-too-human nature were genuine and added depth to his character. He was always striving to do better, but would often make the illogical, but more human, choice. Fortunately, he would learn from his mistakes, usually with guidance and encouragement from his Excalibur teammates.

WIDGET The Excalibur Special Edition (1987) had introduced a new character, Widget, who was a small, floating robot seemingly thrown together by the Crazy Gang member known as Tweedle-Dope. Somehow, TweedleDope’s tinkering resulted in a functioning robot with some level of consciousness. This little robot would have a connection to both Rachel and Kitty and the alternate-future timeline from the Uncanny X-Men classic story, “Days of Future Past.”

Early on, Widget served mostly as a minor character in a running subplot, one that didn’t get resolved until Davis’ second run. He took on a greater, but more passive, role as a transportation vehicle for the team to jump through multiple parallel universes during the “Cross-Time Caper” event.

During his second run on Excalibur, Davis picked up this story thread fleshed it out rather cleverly. Widget evolved from a small, hovering robot to a robot who had formed a human-shaped body. In Excalibur #66 (June 1993), it was then revealed that Widget was Kate Pryde, the future-timeline version of Kitty Pryde.

Her essence had merged with a Sentinel and was sent back in time and space to be reunited with Rachel Summers.

THE REBIRTH OF PHOENIX Davis invested considerable time dealing with Rachel Summers and trying to figure out her role in the universe as the Phoenix. Claremont didn’t have an opportunity to tackle Rachel’s development during his tenure. Also, a planned Phoenix miniseries by Claremont and Rick Leonardi was never published and would have delved into her background and character. Rachel was a daunting character to handle, as her Phoenix powers made her nearly omniscient, and the only way to ground her was through her damaged psyche.

With Excalibur #45 (Dec. 1991), we saw a young woman with all of this power venture off with Meggan in an attempt to find Meggan’s parents. Not only was she a troubled person herself, but she was compassionate to others’ needs and responsible enough to actively help them. Despite having these godlike powers and 64 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

Hasta La Vista, Alan! (left) Phoenix is back! Cover to Excalibur #61 (late Jan. 1993). (right) Kitty Pryde riffs on Sarah Connor as Alan Davis terminates his run in #67 (July 1993). Cover inks for both by Mark Farmer. © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

the constant struggle to keep a clear head despite the seductive allure of that power, Davis tapped into her sense of responsibility formed out of her training as an X-Man. Despite her decision to will the Phoenix Force into dormancy, Rachel reawoke the awesome power to deal with the wizard Necrom and his unquenchable thirst for power. But this time it was on her terms, and she accepted its power and the responsibility for it. His mad thirst for power ultimately destroyed Necrom; however, the Phoenix Force saved Rachel, leaving her in the original Phoenix costume instead of her red hound uniform.

For almost a year, her story arc took a backstage to the rest of the team. With Excalibur #61 (Jan. 1993), the Phoenix was desperate to find meaning in her life and encountered the cosmic being known as Galactus, the world-devourer. She boldly attacked him in defense of the world he was about to destroy. However, the battle left her with even more doubts as she was horrified to discover her power source came from the creative forces of the universe, “the sea of life yet unborn,” and using that power “denies existence to generations of the future.”

In Excalibur #64 (Apr. 1993), Rachel’s quest came to a climax as she finally confronted the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force told Rachel that she was “reborn from the ashes of defeat as the one true Phoenix… The past is forever gone, cherish your future.” The Phoenix Force repaired Rachel’s fractured psyche before withdrawing to her true form, which was a non-physical manifestation that has a greater, but more subtle effect on the universe.

Davis’ purification of Rachel’s psyche allowed her a rebirth to move forward in her life, leaving behind the horrors of her nightmare past. Rachel was free of Ahab’s hound programming and Mojo’s programming, and able to act knowing that her mind, thoughts, and memories were hers. As a final act, building on her restored confidence, Rachel chose to wear her mother’s Dark Phoenix costume.

With his last two issues of Excalibur, Davis put a British spin on the X-Men’s “Days of Future Past” story. Not only did it bring a satisfying conclusion to that alternate-future story, it was an opportunity to test Rachel’s new convictions and direction. With this two-part story, Davis brought his tenure on Excalibur to an end and brought the book full circle. Phoenix was the inciting incident that brought

Excalibur together, and in this story, she came to the end of her journey, much as Alan Davis had.

“When I first agreed to return to Excalibur, I ensured I had a healthy deadline just in case I couldn’t cope with writing and penciling a book a month,” Davis says. “About three months in, Excalibur was moved to a biweekly schedule, and what had started as a reasonable schedule became constant deadline hell.

“I did enjoy my tenure on Excalibur, but it was only Terry Kavanagh’s support, encouragement, and persistence that made me stay as long as I did,” Davis continues. “When I introduced Feron, Kylun, Cerise, and Micromax, I had a lot of plans for the future, but as things got progressively tougher I was forced to accept that my passion for the characters wasn’t enough. So around issue #62 or #63 I decided to wrap up the storylines I had begun as best I could in as few issues as possible.”

FINAL WORDS When asked if he had any favorite characters, Davis responds, “It may seem like a cop-out, but I think it is crucial for writers and pencilers to find something they enjoy or like in every character. While it is true there are characters that are easier to write or draw, or that fit in with certain scenes and moods better than others, I believe any lack of enthusiasm or favoritism translates to the reader, and if their favorite character is a writer or penciler’s least favorite, the reader will feel let down.”

The characters were always in the forefront of his mind when Davis worked on his stories. He carefully crafted the story arcs to line up with the character arcs, and allowed the characters the necessary time to change in meaningful ways and to contribute to the conclusion of those story arcs.

Alan Davis is a humble man who is a solid craftsman, always dedicated to and concerned with the quality of his work. What more could we ask of any writer or artist?

JASON SHAYER’s addiction to comic books and his 12-year-old mind-set have caused more than a few people to raise an eyebrow. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s teaching his two kids the finer points of comic-book collecting.

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The grim-and-gritty attitude of the 1980s exploded in comicdom’s lap and was … lapped up voraciously!

Times and heroes had changed. Some movie critics who’d denounced Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry film reassessed the anti-hero and cheered him on in the ‘80s when he delivered magnum force to the vicious lowlifes he encountered on the screen.

In the world of comics, the Punisher was Marvel’s guy. He meted out a final judgment and penalty to his foes. Frank Miller’s aging Batman used rubber bullets but a similar mindset toward criminals.

Mighty Marvel had established the successful beginnings for its overseas market in the 1960s in England, but two decades later, British fans and creators were ready to turn a more cynical and detached eye to costumed demigods that appeared to be such models of perfection. Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill were two such creators, and their takes on masked, mysterious men and women would be unprecedented in the art form—simultaneously hilarious and unnerving, and all the while redefining grim-and-gritty.

HOW DO THINGS BECOME LAW? Pat Mills tells me, “I’ve never related to mainstream costumed superheroes, although I like other varieties such as those featured in the British TV series Misfits.

They’re excellent! I believe there’s an American version in the works. I guess what doesn’t appeal to me is the way they’re usually so elitist either in their powers or their personal backgrounds or both. So Marshal Law is an antidote to this.

“Kevin [O’Neill] had visualized a character that looked—to me—like a superhero hunter and that was something I felt supremely qualified to write, because of my negative views,” Mills continues. “I’m also fascinated by the concept of heroes, and I think the word is debased both in the news media and popular culture. This means we don’t respect genuine heroes, but think an Air Force pilot dropping bombs on civilians or a superhero blasting them with a laser beam is a hero. They’re both symbols of power, rather than true heroes.”

Kevin O’Neill adds, “Marshal Law began as a name and rough costume design that I sent to Pat to see if he was interested in developing the idea for the new creator-owned line at Marvel—Epic Comics, run by the brilliant Archie Goodwin. We continued our sense of drama, satire, and black comedy on Marshal Law, but the mood of it was also affected by the then-recent Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen—reinventions of the superhero genre.”

Marshal Law #1 (Oct. 1987) begins in the devastated ruins of San Francisco. The once-beautiful metropolis is delineated with few trees/shrubs or anything approaching a pleasant atmosphere. This futuristic hub is called San

Marvel Uni-versus Marshal Law demolishing the House of Ideas.

Detail from the cover art of Amazing Heroes #182 (Aug. 1990), submitted by Jerry Boyd.

Art by Kevin O’Neill. © 2013 Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill. Marvel icons © 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Jerry Boyd

Futuro, a sad result of a mega-quake caused by the tidal pull of the planets on the San Andreas Fault. Worse, a nearby nuclear power plant went off soon afterwards. Worse still (if you can believe that!), war broke out in South America and the US had decided to use super-scientific advantages by manufacturing superheroes to go in pat mills and fight it. This feat was manufactured through a unique process engineered by a Dr. Shocc (a strange little doctor with a “sinister East European accent”). Natural talents dormant in man were awakened … new ones could be “bred in.”

However, some of these veterans returned home quite disturbed, with homicidal tendencies. And with their abilities and powers, San Futuro could be an extremely scary town to inhabit. Who keeps the law?

Marshal Law is that man, a darkly clad cop, authorized by the city police commissioner to keep the anarchic gangs of super-doers in check. This our hero does with play with seemed very much part of our 2000 AD roots as well as contributing to the whole Metropolis/Gotham a passion.

Mills explains the Marshal’s reason for being: “At first City fictional superhero geography of America. We just we were thinking in a Mad Max direction, but once looked at it with jaundiced post–WWII British eyes.”

Along with Mad Max, there was another prominent we saw him as a superhero hunter, everything fell into place. Although there’s a strong element of satire in influence. Pat notes, “I think when Kevin and I were Law toward well-established popular-culture icons, it’s working on Judge Dredd … that gave us insights into actually a secondary element. The prime element is how a future cop could be portrayed.” Marshal Law usually a political or crime scandal using superheroes as had his world (of problem people) and was ready to a metaphor to make it particularly entertaining.” O’Neill dispense justice! sees the city of San Futuro this way: “I was fascinated THE KILLER ELITE! by the image of San Francisco from films and television. In the six-part miniseries that introduced Marshal Law As a kid, Steve McQueen in Bullitt with that brilliant (going from Oct. 1987–Apr. 1989), the wasteland hill-jumping chase hardwired into my mind the streets of San Futuro witnesses the terror of a sinister selfof San Francisco. It had Alcatraz! When Pat and I were loathing villain called the Sleepman. He’s killing doing research, we found the city’s roots as a Barbary young women dressed up as Celeste, the lovely/ Coast hellhole—also the great earthquake, San Andreas sexy companion to the Public Spirit, the most beloved Fault, seismic shifts … all gave us great material to of superheroes. His powers had been engineered develop our San Futuro besides the ruins of the old before the quake or war and his reputation was city of San Francisco, now overrun by gangs and the impeccable. An uncontrollable superhero is clearly dispossessed. Also, our creating our own fictional city to British Invasion Issue

Flashback (left) Pat (seated on right) talks to a fan at an English comics store in the 1980s. Photo courtesy of Pat Mills. (right) San Futuro is a dangerous place to be!

This opening splash (from Marshal Law #1) of the ruined city speaks volumes about Law’s beat. © 2013 Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill.

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to blame, but could the Public Spirit be a suspect? To Marshal Law, he’s not above suspicion…

“I’m a hero hunter. I hunt heroes. Haven’t found any yet.” With a cynical and detached eye toward all capes and cowls, Marshal Law repeats those lines often and for good reason. “Fear and Loathing,” the title linking all six chapters together, delves into the lives of Col. Buck Caine (a clever pastiche of Superman and Captain America), the Public Spirit and Celeste (a pretty pastiche of Wonder Woman and Black Canary—she’s even got a siren call!), and others. As Marshal Law’s investigation gets under way, this detective comic takes on many dark but exciting twists and there’s a strange connection between the Sleepman, Celeste, and Caine. I won’t spoil it for the uninitiated.

What about the Marshal? We find a tortured soul in him. Like the costumed maniacs he hunts, he also was a soldier in “the Zone” (that combat area in South America), going under the name/mask of the Screaming Eagles unit (think: Easy Company meets the Blackhawks).

He saw what combat did to his brothers-in-arms, and that’s one reason he tries to aid their rehabilitation in the local hospital as Joe Gilmore, an ordinary blue-collar worker.

Joe relieves some of his tension as ML, but also through his love for his significant other, a beautiful brunette named Lynn (also ordinary).

She doesn’t care for Marshal Law, however. Lynn detests the twisted heroes that do damage and pervert what’s left of her community, and observing ML, she states, “That fascist pig? That’s even worse!

That’s really sick!” Though sassy and extremely opinionated, she’s likable, full of a tough, big-city girl charm. Sadly, she doesn’t live long.

Protesting “star whores” (her words) like Celeste while wearing the superheroine’s costume to mock her, she’s murdered by the Sleepman. Her death devastates her lover, adding to his growing fixation that the Public Spirit is to blame, personally and indirectly (by example). A woman spurned by Caine years ago provides another nice variable. At the end of six issues, O’Neill and Mills had a hit for Epic.

HUMOR’S NOT AGAINST THE LAW Now, all this might’ve been too grim-and-gritty, too dark … if it weren’t for lots of dark humor served up excellently! Kevin tells us, “I have helped on stories and often added sight gags and graffiti as we went along. Growing up with MAD paperback reprints and MAD magazine had a big influence on me and my way of working (and a cynical outlook on commerce).” And the tension’s always lessened by funny sayings on the billboards, walls, and even the costumes of the deranged heroes— ML’s got nifty nonsense on the back of his outfit from time to time, also! And like other ’80s anti-heroes, ML dispatches his nemeses with the best one-liners. I can’t forget Suicida and his troop of chartreusegarbed henchmen collectively called Gangreen (think: Sgt. Bull McGiveney and his Maulers from Sgt. Fury’s book and, uh … the Blackhawks?). Gangreen’s a running joke, usually showing up to do somebody dirty and then getting beat down by ML. Pat says of him, “I saw the name Suicida amongst a list of crazy Contras in Central America and came up with the name Gangreen. Kevin is particularly fond of Suicida and we often thought he should have a spin-off series.”

O’Neil adds, “Gangreen was Pat’s idea, and was a concept I could get my teeth into as it offered interesting character design and action situations. I think Gangreen’s leader Suicida was one of my favorite characters from the Marshal Law series, as he had more in common with our outlook on the material set in this moody, near-future society.

Suicida could be violent, tragic, and funny, and was the only character we briefly considered worthy of his own series!”

Yes, characters could be killed and tortured in terrible ways, but the creative team balanced it all beautifully with a cartoony flair. Marshal Law, despite the scandals, tragedies, angst, and hard-hitting battles, is always (this is for you “Englanders”) jolly good fun!

MARVEL SCREAM-UP!

Who to skewer next? In 1989, Mills and O’Neill sent their non-powered law officer to New York City to return the Persecutor (that’s right—“the Punisher”!) to San Futuro, where Commissioner McGland wants him jailed. It appears McGland, Law’s boss, is embarrassed by the Persecutor’s murdering of Hispanics who “were complaining about racism in the police force” (ML’s words). To avoid prosecution/the death penalty, the kevin o’neill Persecutor’s applied for admission in a NYC asylum for mentally disturbed superheroes. There’s a look back at a Punisher-style origin, with Don Matrione, a former sadistic government torturer in the Zone who saw his family mowed down by two competing teams of vengeful hit squads (!!). Matrione survived and took on the costume and “persecution complex” that made him—the Persecutor!

In the asylum he pleads his case to Old Glory (another Capt.

America/Shield pastiche), the Master of Magic (a deranged Dr. Strange stand-in), the Lord of Valhalla, and less-than-marvelous lookalikes for Mr. Fantastic, Sub-Mariner, Ant-Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and others.

ML engages these nutcases in hilarious battles and finally bests Matrione. Deciding not to waste a plane ticket on him, he leaves the sadistic mass murderer to a gang of homeless cannibals! After tossing Matrione’s dog tags to McGland, ML ends the saga with “’NUFF SAID!” This second outing, also under Epic, was called Crime and Punishment: Marshal Law Takes Manhattan (1989) and it worked over the Marvel Universe in spectacular and hysterical fashion! The DCU was next…

HE’S GONE BATS Kingdom of the Blind (1990) was another one-shot, this time published

by Apocalypse Comics. The subject of ML’s wrath this time out is the Private Eye, the “street surgeon” that cuts off body parts of bad

Sketchy Character Kevin graciously drew this ML marker sketch for Jerry Boyd in L.A. in 2007.

Art © 2013 Kevin O’Neill.

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people. He’s really billionaire Scott Brennan, whose parents were killed by criminals years ago. Almost as much of a legend as the Public Spirit, the Private Eye privately wants ML dead. Meanwhile, he’s looking for his seventh sidekick, a new lad to be “the Emergency Ward,” a.k.a. “the Half-Pint Hercules.” It seems the other six … well, you remember Jason Todd, right?

I asked the two creators who’s been the one character that’s been the most fun to skewer. Pat says, “Batman. Kingdom of the Blind was seen as rather mean-spirited by our fellow professionals and that was years ago. Today, Batman is almost a deity to them, so I imagine some professionals will like it even less now.

But a general public will see it in a more balanced way and find it amusing—I still do. Satire should take no prisoners and there are some real issues that the story raises which I don’t think have ever been looked at.”

Does it ever! The Private Eye uses his “boy wonders” to prolong his life by taking their young organs and transplanting them inside of him! Still, the hero’s a legendary figure, and greatly respected. Even the Marshal stands in awe as he swings upward toward rooftops one dark night (I couldn’t resist). Kevin enjoyed this one a lot, also. “Kingdom of the Blind was a book that gave me a great deal of pleasure.”

Marshal Law discovers the terrible secrets Brennan’s been hiding, and in a nice nod to Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, ML fights it out with the Private Eye among some giant props in his “Eyerie.” Brennan wastes ML’s buddy Kiloton. Bad move, prompting the lawman to mutter, “I feel a hero-hate coming on…”

The Private Eye is about to end Marshal Law’s life/and sex life, as well, but (in another nice nod to Greenway Productions) his move is thwarted by the marshal’s use of “insulated under-trunks.”

A little Ozymandias was thrown into the character of the Private Eye for good measure, and the Caped Crusader’s 50th anniversary, though the Private Eye, got thoroughly fragged over!

DEAD HEROES

Familiar Faces

The Hateful Dead (1991) and the follow-up Super Babylon (1992) put a spin on zombies in a wild two-part tale that saw Golden Age heroes (the JSA and others, specifically) return to life. The trouble is, they’re still seeing Axis agents everywhere! Lynn is revived as the evil Vindicta, to the horror of Marshal Law. He rejects a chance to be her dead consort and shouts, “Welcome to the Lead Age!” as he rumbles an old German tank across the zombies’ flying and flailing bodies. In a last-ditch attempt to add to their dwindling numbers, some survivors use their toxic chemicals to revive regular GIs from their graves.

However, these skeletal soldiers resent the gaudy caped men and women who “glamorized war”—like real zombies (?), they devour Carrion Crow (think: Hawkman meets actor Cameron Crowe?) and his fellows. ML wins again.

In 1993, ML’s return to Epic saw his first real crossover: Pinhead vs. Marshal Law in Hell, co-starring the Clive Barker-created Pinhead from the Hellraiser series. ML gets a new love interest called Super Nova. A mysterious box

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(right) A few Marveltypes (can you name ’em?) get fragged over

by Mills and O’Neil in Crime and Punishment: Marshal Law Takes Manhattan (1989). (left) Law takes down a dinosaur on this great edition for the Mar. 1991 cover of the British tabloid comic Toxic! © 2013 Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill.

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Secret Tribunal (a group of young mutants) to track the alien and destroy it. Public Spirit, Jr. is as two-faced as his inspiration and a coward, to boot! Growing Boy gets past some puberty issues and Law and his fellows end the problem. (Make sure you don’t miss Transparent Lad and Abnormal Boy—too funny!)

MARSHAL’S TWO-IN-ONES A madman called the Commandment Killer brings Image Comics’ Savage Dragon into S.F. in The Savage Dragon/Marshal Law #1 and 2 (July and Aug. 1997).

The Commandment Killer uses the Ten Commandments as rationale to wipe out heroes who transgress them.

ML evolves, learns more about himself during this adventure, and sees that there is a hero out there … himself.

The Mask/Marshal Law #1 and 2 (Feb. and Mar. 1998) came out from Dark Horse Comics. And in this twoparter, the Sleepman returned. With the powers of the Mask being used as experimentation, you can bet this one was crazier than the Jim Carrey film!

THEY MAKE THE LAW

…and the Law Won (left) A ring-bearing hero gets downed by ML in Super Babylon #2 (May 1992). Reproduced for us by Jerry Boyd. (right) Pat Mills (left) and Kevin O’Neill paused for this photo taken at an event in London in 2012.

Thanks go out to Lisa Gerrard and Pat Mills for most of the photos and artwork accompanying this article.

transports them both to the infernal regions, where Pinhead decides to show ML the true nature of pain and suffering. Law discovers that Pinhead was once a heroic officer during WWI. The two debate the worth of phony heroes and true heroes. Pinhead releases Law and his lady to renew his earthly crusade, but Super Nova wants her man to give his career up after they’ve returned to S.F.—he can’t. Boy loses girl, but he does get to live again, and after a sojourn in hell, that’s a lot!

THE NEW TEEN CRETINS “I guess the sendup that gave me the most satisfaction was our League of Heroes in the Secret Tribunal two-parter,” O’Neill reveals. We had Public Spirit, Jr., Growing Boy, Super Sensitive Girl, and others. And we howled with laughter working with those characters.

As a kid I simply hated the Legion of Super-Heroes—it had a dull quality about it that’s hard to quantify.”

As a sendup, this was one of the men’s best! The League of Heroes, teen adventurers all, is orbiting the Earth as Secret Tribunal (1993–1994, Dark Horse) begins.

An alien attacks and kills Luminous Lad and later, Super Sensitive Girl. Against his better judgment, Law leads the

© 2013 Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill.

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The quality of the ML stories stands tall because of the consistent brilliance of Mills and O’Neill, who share the dialogue and background details at times. Veterans of British strips like Ro-Busters, ABC Warrior, and Nemesis, they were polished professionals by the time most Americans found out how good they were when Marshal Law erupted. “When I created 2000 AD, I needed an art editor and Kevin was working for the same publishers,” Mills recalls. “I liked his portfolio and he joined 2000 AD.” O’Neill tells us, “Pat and I found out while working together on staff at 2000 AD that we shared a similar sense of the absurd and aptitude for black comedy.”

Nowadays, Kevin’s been very busy with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and no ML tales are on the horizon. Pat reports, “There’s a DC Comics collection due out in the spring of 2013.” At one point there was even talk of a film! We’ll see…

Whatever goes down, you can bet it’ll be fraggin’ awesome.

Special thanks to Pat Mills and Lisa Gerrard for their help, Rob Kirby for contact information, and Josh Palmano and Kevin O’Neill for getting me comments under a punishing deadline with other projects.

JERRY BOYD has written numerous articles for fanzines The Jack Kirby Collector, BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, The Harveyville Fun Times!, and the Spooky Fearbook. He’s proud to have interviewed numerous professionals in the industry, as well, for those publications.

by

Jim Kingman

Rose Almond loved her husband, Derek. At his funeral, she reflected on their relationship. He had been an abusive partner, going so far as to point an unloaded gun at her head. As chief of the Finger, the secret police/ military branch of the Head, the ruling fascist government of Great Britain in the post–apocalyptic world of 1997, Derek had been under great pressure since the mysterious anarchist designated as Codename: V blew up the Houses of Parliament and executed members of his force. When Derek confronted V with the unloaded gun (which, in haste he had failed to load), V promptly killed him, leaving his wife a widow with no pension and in despair. At his funeral, she knew her life would have to change.

Adam Susan loved his computer, Fate, but she cheated on him, and had been cheating on him for some time. Broken-hearted, he left their home, and went down to the streets of London to establish a more open relationship with the people he ruled.

He was a proud fascist, and oppressed all forms of freedom, but now his love was gone, subverted by V and turned against him. As he sat in the back of his limousine, he pondered his life and his loss and decided it was time to be more accommodating to his people. It was time for a change. He reached his hand out to the masses. Rose Almond was waiting for him. She raised the loaded gun she had purchased and blew half of Susan’s head off. In the midst of great upheaval instigated by V, the fascist government had finally completely toppled.

V for Vendetta is about change—change in the individual and change in society. Everyone and everything introduced in V for Vendetta changes during the course of the story, some for the better, some for the worse, some morally, some fatally. V, anarchist (selfproclaimed)/terrorist (proclaimed by the government), also changes at story’s end, but his true transformation comes well before the story’s beginning, and it is his vendetta that is the catalyst impacting all.

“Dystopian” is a key word tossed around a lot in critical circles about V for Vendetta, and with good reason. The series is set in a late 1990s England rocked years earlier by near-nuclear holocaust where the populace now lead dehumanized and fearful lives ruled by Norsefire, the arrogant and fascist few. “Freedom” is a dirty word—just ask Susan, proud fascist; but freedom does live in the mind and cause of V, a man who knows that sustainment of freedom requires more than one individual encouraging anarchy behind a Guy Fawkes mask. It’s an idea that must take root, be nurtured, allowed to grow then blossom, and carry on. That is V’s purpose, but in the story’s first act he would undertake a more personal vendetta.

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Anarchy, Act One The final page of the first “V for Vendetta” installment from Warrior #1 (Mar. 1982). Script by Alan Moore, art by David Lloyd. Image courtesy of Ian Millsted.

TM & © DC Comics.

concentration camp) with severe acts of destruction (i.e., THE VENDETTA The time frame for V for Vendetta is just over a year, 370 blowing up Parliament, and the statue of Justice atop the days to be exact, from November 5, 1997 to November Old Bailey building) conducted to suggest a larger picture.

Evey represents the masses. She has been told by 10, 1998. The story opens with the pre-recorded “voice a fascist regime what to do, how to do it, when of Fate” announcing current news and weather to do it. Her life is nothing but following conditions from loudspeakers installed orders. It’s not enough to survive, and to throughout the streets of London, while do that she decides to prostitute herself, 16-year-old Evey Hammond prepares and in so doing changes her life. for her first night out as a prostitute.

V rescues Evey from a task force of V ends on a desolate English highway Fingermen, who have busted her for outside of London at night, with the prostitution and are on the verge of former Inspector Eric Finch quietly raping her. From a safe distance atop walking away from a city that has a nearby building, V recites to Evey a descended into anarchy, both their portion of the English folk verse “The futures unclear. In-between is The Fifth of November.” (“Remember, Villain, Victims, Vaudeville, Violence, remember! The fifth of November, the Vicious Cabaret, Vengeance, Valerie, Gunpowder treason and plot; I know Various Valentines, Vindication, and alan moore of no reason, why the Gunpowder Vincent, and those are just ten of the treason, should ever be forgot!”) This 40 chapter titles across three books.

While Evey and Finch are the strongest of a strong cast is followed by the explosion that destroys the Houses of Parliament. What Guy Fawkes could not accomplish of supporting characters, this is V’s story all the way. with gunpowder 392 years before, V appears to pull Book One, “Europe After the Reign,” deals with V’s off with ease. The fireworks that follow capture the personal vendetta against those who apprehended and attention of a suppressed populace. V’s vendetta, well experimented on him at Larkhill Resettlement Camp (i.e., underway in secret, has now gone public.

Susan is notified of the incident and hours later confers with the top men of the departments under him: Almond of the Finger; Conrad Heyer of the Eye, the surveillance branch that monitors the populace; Brian Etheridge of the Ear, the audio surveillance branch; and Finch of the Nose, the regular police and criminal investigations branch. Susan is not happy that a masked terrorist has made the ruling party vulnerable.

In his Shadow Gallery, V listens to Evey’s story involving the war and its aftermath, and how it affected her family, as already his vendetta has escalated. For some time he has been secretly and discretely executing anyone working at the Larkhill Resettlement Camp, where he was held captive in room V. Now he turns his focus on those at various levels of power in the fascist regime.

By definition, “vendetta” suggests a blood feud, and while a bloodline may not flow directly between V and his victims, he sees those who transformed him at Larkhill as his creators, a “family” to do away with. (The reader never learns V’s identity prior to his captivity.)

V has already kidnapped the voice of Fate, Lewis Prothero, former commander of the resettlement camp, and soon tortures him to the point where Prothero loses his mind. With Evey’s unwitting aid V murders Bishop Lilliman, a child molester who was head of clergy at the camp, with a communion wafer soaked in cyanide. Finally, V murders Dr. Delia Surridge, pathologist and former director of hormone research at Larkhill, and Derek Almond, head of the Finger, who upon learning V’s whereabouts rushed to apprehend him. With V’s personal vendetta accomplished, he retreats to the Shadow Gallery. Meanwhile, Finch comes into possession of Dr. Surridge’s journal, and learns what V was and how he came to be.

V is the sole survivor of those held captive at Larkhill where non-Whites, homosexuals, liberals, and socialists were taken and sent to the ovens. A smaller group was experimented on, and V was one of them.

V’s super-intelligence, along with enhanced strength, is a result of constant injection to a hormone drug called Batch 5, a pituarin/pinearin mixture.

His powers are uncanny, to the point where I’m

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practically convinced it’s not just incredible smarts, but a superpower of self-fulfilling prophecy. His desire and determination to carry out his vendetta against those who wronged and altered him physically and mentally, and topple the fascist regime, is extraordinarily and meticulously planned, right down to the manipulation of people to unknowingly do his bidding. There is no room for failure.

Book Two, “This Vicious Cabaret,” focuses more on the supporting characters, particularly Evey, but it’s V who orchestrates the show.

V celebrates the New Year 1998 with a piano recital of “This Vicious Cabaret.” After an awkward conversation wherein Evey wonders if V is her father, who was apprehended by Norsefire years before and never seen

by Evey again, V abandons Evey on the streets of London.

Meanwhile, Rose wrestles with her grief and mourns her past, present, and future at her husband’s funeral.

V then infiltrates the broadcast tower of Norsefire and takes over the airwaves. V broadcasts his video chastising the masses, leaving them with an ultimatum, and then keeps to the shadows, watching all he intends to influence.

Alone on the streets, seeking solace in a strip bar, Evey is befriended by Gordon, who takes her in but does not reveal his criminal ties. They become lovers.

When Gordon is violently executed in his own home, Evey goes into shock. On the verge of shooting the man who killed her lover, Evey is abducted and held captive in a cell, tortured, and led to believe that her captors are the Norsefire military. But it’s another of V’s plans—one of his most disturbing, as it involves preying on an innocent.

In her cell Evey comes across a note written by a woman named Valerie. Evey believes that Valerie was a recently held prisoner in her vicinity, when actually it is a letter V has held onto since his days in the resettlement camp. Its content, depicting Valerie’s troubled life but

happy period with her lesbian lover, then the captivity that leads to her death, moves Evey as it did V. V releases Evey after she has chosen death over turning V in to the authorities, and she is shocked to learn that he was her sole captor and torturer. After a dramatic cleansing of Evey’s soul during a pouring rain, V shows Evey who Valerie was, the woman who inspired V’s vendetta. She was also a prisoner at the Larkhill Resettlement Camp.

Captive Audience (above) V controls London’s TV broadcasts in this final page from the collectededition representation of Book Three, “The Land of Do-As-YouPlease.” Words by Alan Moore, images by David Lloyd. (left) The photo cover for Quality’s Warrior #5 symbolizes V’s bleak future.

Book Three, “The Land of Do-As-You-Please,” is V’s vendetta on steroids, an all-out crescendo of destruction, chaos, death, the toppling of the fascist regime, and a future of uncertainty, although V has paved the way for progress and enlightenment.

With a wave of his baton, two buildings in London explode, and the Eye and the Ear are instantly disabled.

V returns to his Shadow Gallery where he discusses anarchy and chaos with Evey. The people of London, with two of their suppressed freedoms returned, descend into disorder, confusion, and turmoil, while authority strikes back harshly. V sets up hundreds of dominos to form a giant “V,” symbolizing how the toppling of one will set into motion the toppling of all.

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TM & © DC Comics.

Warrior © Quality Communications.

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Facing the Future A mask representing Guy Fawkes, the poster child for post–anarchism, is cover-spotlighted on David Lloyd’s covers to (left) Warrior #11 and (right) the first issue of DC Comics’ presentation of the series, V for Vendetta #1 (Sept. 1988).

TM & © DC Comics.

Warrior © Quality Communications.

Meanwhile, those who plot to achieve power, Peter Creedy (who VIGNETTES replaced Derek Almond as chief of the Finger, and who covets Susan’s Once lawlessness and political disorder has been achieved in V for position), Alistair Harper (a sleazy Scottish crime boss who orders Vendetta, it becomes readily apparent that the freedom for the masses Gordon’s murder and slowly works his way into the fascist hierarchy), the masses weren’t asking for isn’t just going to rise up from totalitarand Helen Heyer (Conrad’s wife and king maker, who wants to rule ianism’s ashes for all to see. Someone is going to have to direct the from behind the scenes), set their own plans in motion, while those people toward freedom. This was another of V’s plans, meant to take who seek relief from personal loss—Rose, Finch, and Susan— root while he lived, and grow in his permanent absence. V for draw closer to actions that will change their lives. Yet V Vendetta ends on the cusp of a new beginning in the hands remains in complete control. of Eve Hammond, and possibly Eric Finch.

V reveals to Eve (since her transformation, he no Evey is introduced to the reader as victim. Later she longer addresses her as Evey) that he has been in is kidnapped and tortured, re-emerging again more charge of the computer Fate for quite some time. victimized than before, garnering our sympathies, Meanwhile, Dominic, Inspector Finch’s assistant, channeling our confusion. Yet she has become informs Adam Susan of the same information, stronger. With V’s death, Eve is not manipulated or but a crushed Susan already knows. The V symbol forced to make a decision about her future; she glares from his computer monitor. weighs her inner temptations and offers, and makes Meanwhile, Finch has decided that the only way her own choice. “Freedom” is another word for to think like V, and therefore capture V, is to journey to knowing not what to lose. When Evey achieves her the ruins of Larkhill, drop LSD, and wait for a vision final rite of passage, and a knowing smile signals to enlighten him. When that vision comes, he realizes that achievement, we’re not just proud of her— david lloyd more about his own inner turmoil. He stumbles We’re rooting for her. from the ruins naked, entering into the fading light V knew that his vendetta went against laws of day, and the symbolism of Stonehenge. and morals higher than the dictations of a fascist Two days later, Finch has returned to London, no more in V’s head regime, and so made plans to secure his own death as a form of than when he started. However, he has a better understanding of justice. There appeared the implication that he hoped Evey would the clues, and so comes upon the entrance to V’s Shadow Gallery, execute him, but when she flat-out refused to be involved with any the closed Victorian station stairway descending into a portion of killing after her involvement with the assassination of Bishop Lilliman, London’s subway system that was supposedly under repair. Down someone else would have to fill that role. That someone was below, Finch finally confronts V. The Inspector shoots and mortally Inspector Finch. wounds the “monster,” in Finch’s own words.

The soul of V for Vendetta resides in Finch. He regrets the past, In the wake of Adam Susan’s assassination by Rose Almond, Finch tolerates the present, and is afraid of the future. He does his job as a announces his triumphant killing of V to the remaining Norsefire way to escape what he has lost (his family during the war, his sense leaders. Dying, V stumbles to the heart of the Shadow Gallery, where of purpose), and doesn’t see himself as a supporter of Norsefire. he collapses before Eve. He leaves her vague, abstract instructions, The admiration he begins to develop for V dissipates when V executes then dies. Shocked, distraught, in disbelief, she paces the Shadow Dr. Surridge, who Finch was briefly involved with romantically. But Gallery. The Evey of old begins to re-emerge. She struggles with Finch also experiences additional turmoil when he learns Surridge’s decisions, and eventually decides on one: The right one. role at Larkhill, something she had hid from him.

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With Evey shunning the idea of killing, V casts Finch as his executioner. V confronts the practically broken inspector, speaking only for a moment, then seemingly taunting him with silence. Finch shoots him, potentially freeing himself of past and present, but there’s no real guarantee he will exonerate himself by this violent “cleansing.” Finch’s fate is ambiguous: Is he on the road to recovery, or forever lost?

“I think V for Vendetta is one of Alan Moore’s better works,” notes Tom Spurgeon, comics journalist and editor of thecomicsreporter.com. “It’s certainly one of his easiest to parse works: I think you can come at it not having read a lot of the other things he’s done, or having to understand the milieu in which he’s working.

It strikes me as a younger man’s work: ambitious, angry, romantic, singularly targeted.”

VARIATIONS For a wide-ranging appreciation of V for Vendetta, there are four versions to choose from.

The Warrior Years The first version ran in black and white, serialized form in the British magazine Warrior beginning in #1 (Mar. 1982) through #26 (Feb. 1985), published

by Quality Communications. During that time, Moore and Lloyd finished two-thirds of the story while also juggling other projects. When Warrior was discontinued, the story, cut off at the end of the second book, was unfinished. Moore’s huge success at DC Comics with Swamp Thing and Watchmen renewed interest in V for Vendetta, and DC arranged for the creators to finish the book and have it published in its entirety.

Having purchased two issues of Warrior recently just to get the feel for how V was originally published, I enjoyed the “primitive” look of the series, black and white on now slightly yellowed paper, similar to the Marvel magazines of the 1970s. Also, V shares space with other terrific ongoing features, including Moore and artist Garry Leach’s “Marvelman.”

There are two Interludes in V for Vendetta, “Vertigo” and “Vincent,” both published at the end of issue VII (Jan. 1989), between Evey’s emergence from captivity and V’s own final push against the evil empire. Tony Weare provided the artwork for “Vincent,” and also contributed to two other chapters.

A Rose, Withered The bleak existence of Rose Almond, from V for Vendetta’s Book One, Chapter Seven, “Virtue Victorious,” as originally published in Warrior #7 (Nov. 1982). Special thanks to Jim Kingman for art scans.

The Collected Edition The third version is the collected edition published in 1990, which includes an introduction from Lloyd along with Moore’s foreword from the maxiseries, and an extensive article, “Behind the Painted Smile,” which Moore wrote about the series while it was a work in progress in the early 1980s. This edition is minus the chapter bridges.

Absolute V for Vendetta Finally, there is the expensive, oversized Absolute V for Vendetta edition published in 2010, which includes the creator introductions, Moore’s article, the chapter bridges (recolored by Lloyd), and a never-before-published set of Lloyd’s sketches. While I’m partial to the original maxiseries (because it’s in standard comic-book form, stroking the traditionalist in me), the Absolute edition is tremendously impressive, bringing out the detail and superb use of shadows in Lloyd’s artwork.

V for Vendetta TM & © DC Comics.

The Maxiseries The second version is the completed edition, which DC ran as a ten-issue maxiseries in 1988–1989.

Included were all-new, full-page chapter “bridges” by Lloyd, which add a melodramatic tension between episodes (even in quiet scenes, as when two men wait outside a hospital, talking and indulging in cigarettes), and an introduction by Moore, written early in 1988, shortly after Margaret Thatcher began her third term as England’s prime minister.

“Thatcherism” is the veiled nemesis in V for Vendetta, and the Iron Lady’s conservative policies were enough to almost drive Moore from England.

Thatcher resigned in 1990, and by then Moore was developing a new enemy in DC Comics. He has remained in England.

In coloring V for Vendetta for the DC maxiseries, Lloyd utilized a muted palette that preserved the intensity of the shadows that haunted the city and protected V’s movements.

In the chapter entitled “The Vortex” (Issue III), the last panel of the sixth page, where Dr. Surridge sits up in bed awaiting her fate at the hands of V, is in black and white. As far as I can discern, this is the only panel in the series that was not colored; whether it was overlooked by Lloyd or done on purpose I don’t know. It remains uncolored in subsequent editions.

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V for Vendetta, the Movie The screenwriting Wachowski Brothers brought V for Vendetta to the big screen in 2005, with Natalie Portman as Evey and Hugo Weaving as V. TM & © DC Comics. © 2005 Warner Bros.

VARIABLES When I first started researching this article, I drafted an outline to compare the themes and motifs of V for Vendetta with two of today’s hot political causes: The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements.

I was also going to integrate some of John Steinbeck’s views of American society in the early 1960s so eloquently written in his America and Americans. I was then going to segue into a more “closer to home” comparison, that of Moore’s long-standing personal grievances with DC Comics. Maybe even touch on the 2005 motion-picture adaptation, starring Natalie Portman. These are controversial subjects of discussion, to be sure, but certainly not beyond the scope of a comics-related publication now tackling the early stages of the Modern Age of Comics (along with, of course, BACK ISSUE’s nostalgia-tinged studies of the Bronze Age). However, the more I read V for Vendetta the more I realized that in pursuing those topics I was overlooking the heart of one of comics’ most critically acclaimed graphic novels.

The heart of V is in the depiction of its characters: major, such as V, Evey Hammond, and Inspector Finch, and supporting (not minor; there are no minor characters in V for Vendetta), which is why I chose Rose and Mr. Susan to open this article. While they are certainly not likable, over several re-readings Rose became less pathetic (beaten beyond recognition by the police after assassinating Susan, I genuinely felt sorry for her) and Susan less coldly evil. Both are deeply, deeply troubled. Desperate for love.

I was well aware that V for Vendetta was a revered work within the comics industry, and just assumed its influence was more widespread.

“Poetic, fascinating, and beautifully crafted,” wrote Chris Staros, now co-publisher of Top Shelf Production, in The Staros Report, 1996. Fiona Jerome’s compelling assessment of the series from The Slings & Arrows

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Comic Guide and Paul Gravett’s studied breakdown of three sequences published in Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life certainly confirms its place in the pantheon of comic book/graphic novel masterworks.

But when I asked Spurgeon if he felt V for Vendetta remained as influential/inspirational today as it was during the time of its original publication, he replied: “I actually don’t know that V for Vendetta was influential/inspiration then or that it is now. Is it? Certainly a bunch of kids have latched onto the mask and I assume some of the surface generalities of the story’s anti-authoritarian attitude and the extreme effectiveness of its lone protagonist. There hasn’t been a whole lot like it in comics now or then, so I’m not sure it’s influential at all as a work of comics art.” I saw his point. I wanted to believe that V for Vendetta’s influence was more widespread, but there was no indication that it was.

Yet I couldn’t help but feel the story inspiring me. It continues after multiple readings to pull me into its story and mesmerize me, although I’m never comfortable with the locale. V for Vendetta is visually discomforting for me, because I’m a “desert boy”; give me the great wide open, the starkness of a parched landscape, lots of sun and blue skies, and a silence that roars. That is definitely not V’s setting. While Moore and Lloyd’s London is brilliantly detailed and atmospheric, I perceive it as hopelessly grey and claustrophobic.

There’s a robotic, glazed-over look and flow to the citizens. I shudder at the dread reverb of the subway system. I want out. And then I’m pulled back in again.

“Two things that distinguish V for Vendetta for me,” Spurgeon continues, “is that it’s a very specific criticism of Thatcher-era England and that it’s morally complex for adventure literature. By the latter I mean that there are unpleasant elements to the solutions as embodied by its hero. I’d welcome more work of its type.”

I’ve brought the book with me on all my travels throughout California in 2012. Its message resonates through me as I look at the financial troubles going on in my home state. Cities are declaring bankruptcy. Unemployment is high. State parks are being closed due to budget cuts. It’s distressing, and it’s only part of so many things gone wrong in this country.

Many believe that the United States today is in a state of inverted totalitarianism, where rule is not by one demagogue but many corporations (in the name of greed), while a portion of the free-thinking masses has been reduced to a hypnotized herd (in the name of consumption). The concept of more burns at both ends of the candlestick, which is not a fire someone like V could easily snuff out; after all, it is one thing to topple fascism, it’s another to enlighten a populace against the pursuit of individual riches and success.

There is oppression in America, however, although it’s much more subtle. Its existence has been reported and documented (as an example, I highly recommend journalist Chris Hedges and artist Joe Sacco’s Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt). It is foolish and irresponsible to ignore. Maybe we do require a less extreme version of V to sway us into positive action. That remains to be seen. I like the thought of it, though, that the idea of V for Vendetta will always prevail.

JIM KINGMAN purchased his first comic book, DC’s World’s Finest Comics #211, on a family road trip in March of 1972, and has been reading and collecting comic books ever since (with no end in sight). He has been writing about comics since 1993.

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

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REMEMBERING JOE KUBERT

Tarzan © ERB, Inc. © Gemstone Publishing.

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When I was looking at the Yahoo website and saw that we lost Joe Kubert, it was truly sad. The first time that I had heard about him was from buying an issue of Legion of Super-Heroes where his school was mentioned. When I was subscribing to Wizard magazine, his artistic techniques were being showcased through that magazine’s run.

You also did a wonderful tribute to the Kubert School in BACK ISSUE #37 (“Comics Go to War,” Dec. 2009). When I think about not only his artistic skills as a pioneering contributor to comics, but to his creating a school where talented comic-book creators can make an imprint in the industry for many years to come, I realize that there was no one else like Joe Kubert! He will be truly missed and will never be forgotten.

Will there be another special tribute for Joe Kubert in BACK ISSUE? – Ricky T. Butler, Jr. Ricky, within hours of the announcement of Mr. Kubert’s death on August 12, 2012, I received requests for a Joe Kubert tribute edition of BACK ISSUE. Despite his busy schedule and unmatchable stature in this industry, Joe Kubert was always willing to discuss comics with ye ed and with BI’s writers. His heart was as big as his talent.

And thus Joe’s Bronze Age material is a road well traveled in these pages: issue #1 (Tarzan), #15 (Ragman), #26 (The Redeemer), #37 (Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, the Kubert School), #43 (Rima, the Jungle Girl), and #61 (The Bible), as well as my book, Comics Gone Ape (Tarzan and Tor). Many Kubert covers have also been published with various BI articles, and his son Adam’s Jezebel Jade miniseries, a Jonny Quest spin-off, was discussed in #59.

With that much previous Kubert coverage in BI, a tribute issue unfortunately will not happen. You’ll be pleased to learn, however, that the April 2013 edition of our big-sister publication, Alter Ego (#116), is a Kubert tribute, produced by editor Roy Thomas. And Jon B. Cooke’s new TwoMorrows magazine, Comic Book Creator, is dedicating its second issue (available in July) to Joe Kubert.

Still, we can’t let Mr. Kubert’s passing go without a final salute in BACK ISSUE. Writer Dan Johnson is preparing “The Kubert School: First Class,” an article about the slew of mega-talents who

emerged from Joe’s tutelage in his school’s earliest years, for an upcoming issue.

In the meantime, please turn to page 80 for what we believe is the best way to remember Joe Kubert—through his artwork. The Viking Prince illustration there was produced by Joe for Comixscene #5 (July–Aug. 1973). The scan is courtesy of Dean Smith.

– M.E.

TONY ISABELLA TELLS US… I enjoyed the Jenette Kahn interview in BACK ISSUE #57. Despite my contentious relationship with DC Comics, I always liked Jenette and thought she did a lot of good things for DC creators. Not enough, mind you, but that’s been the case with the company for longer than I’ve been alive. I like to remind people Liebowitz and Donenfeld swindled Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, arguably the company’s first creator, out of the company the Major founded. DC’s record in the ensuing decades is spotty at best. But I digress.

My enjoyment of the Kahn interview was marred by interviewer Robert Greenberger getting virtually every “Tony Isabella” fact wrong as he fed questions to Jenette. For the record...

I was NEVER an assistant editor at DC Comics. I was NEVER one of Sol Harrison’s Junior Woodchucks. I didn’t even like Harrison and, in my world, he ranks as low as Liebowitz and Donenfeld.

I was NOT hired as a “story editor,” that ridiculous position that DC created because Vince Colletta had been given such a tough time by editors and writers whose deadlines he routinely saved. I had been a full editor at Marvel Comics and, when DC asked me to join its staff, the position offered and accepted was as a FULL editor. On my first day, I learned DC had failed to honor an agreement made with me. Ultimately, the company would fail to honor almost every agreement it made with me.

Technically, I guess I did replace Bob Rozakis. I’m not sure his transition from editorial to production was as straightforward as Greenberger would have. I recall it as a shameful treatment of a loyal, talented employee. But that’s Bob’s story to tell.

I usually refer to the six months or so I spent in the DC editorial officers as “my mercifully brief time at DC.” It was a nightmare of arrogant and petty decisions, which I’ve touched on in my blog and which I’ll doubtless discuss further at some near-future time.

I saw the writing on the wall when I was told I couldn’t personally give Dick Ayers his first Freedom Fighters script. I had to give it to Levitz to give to Colletta so that Colletta could then give it to Dick.

Yeah, it was as stupid as it sounds.

I had worked with Dick at Marvel. We were friends. I knew he did his best work when given a pep talk by an editor or a writer. But I was told I had to somehow deliver this pep talk through Colletta. My goal was, as always, to create the best comic books I could. I didn’t see how I could do this if I couldn’t talk to the artists. Madness.

My memory is a little foggy on this last bit. Either on my final day on staff or during my first Black Lightning series, I outlined to a friend still working at DC exactly what was going to happen at the company in the next several years. To this day, when I speak with my friend, he expresses his amazement that my predictions were all dead on.

Please correct the misinformation Greenberger wrote about my brief, my mercifully brief, time working in the DC offices.

Naturally, I’ll be doing this in my blog as well, but it would be nice if the readers of BACK ISSUE were told the truth as well.

– Tony Isabella http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com/ Robert Greenberger responds: “As Tony knows, memory can be a tricky thing, so we’re often correcting others and sometimes have to correct ourselves. In this case, despite fact-checking this with online records and having Paul Levitz review the interview, some he said/she said appears to have crept in. Tony may not have been an assistant editor or Woodchuck, although the later term seems to have taken on an elastic nature, so anyone from that younger generation may have been so labeled. When Bob Rozakis moved from editorial to production (and yes, that is Bob’s story to tell and a misdeed on DC’s part), Paul asserts the open slot went to Tony at much the same time the story editor rank was British Invasion Issue

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created. So, while Tony may not have been technically a Woodchuck, he most certainly was a story editor as verified by the printed credits in the titles he edited. The story editor title was obviously for salary and rank purposes, but the day-to-day job was that of a full editor, which Tony executed during his brief tenure on staff.

The way work was processed is news to me and I have not heard others talk about work going from story editor to editorial coordinator to art director, but as Jenette herself noted, the AD position was one of her early errors as she remade the company.

I’m sorry that Tony remains so obviously incensed over that period of time and he should know no harm was intentional on my part.

SUPER-NOSTALGIA Here in the UK I’ve just received my copy of issue #57 of BACK ISSUE magazine.

I’d just like to compliment you on the continuing excellence of this publication. It’s really great to read about and remember all those titles and strips we read back then.

I’ve been reading US comics since 1960, and was somewhat blown away to see the mention in Bob Wayne’s interview that his first purchased comic book was Superman #137 (May 1960). That really struck home with me, as that selfsame issue was my first purchase into the world of superheroes!

Superman #137 always seemed special to me. I guess partly because in one issue it introduced the whole Superman mythos as the story moves from baby Kal-El’s launch into space from Krypton, through his “adoption” by the Kents, to growing up as Superboy with Krypto the Super-Dog, and on to his career as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent for “that great metropolitan newspaper,” the Daily Planet. Mort Weisinger certainly gave you your money’s worth!

I was somewhat disappointed, some years later, when DC reprinted the story in 80-page Giant Magazine #1 (originally intended as Superman Annual #9, I think). That reprint became labeled as an “imaginary story.” I’m still unclear as to why, as I never felt that it contradicted what had then become Superman continuity. I also recall that there were one or two revisions to the captions and text in referring to Superman’s super-vision powers—sorting out the use of the terms X-ray vision and heat vision, I think. (It’s amazing how much trivia you find floating around in your grey cells after all this time…)

Anyways, regardless of it being labeled as an imaginary story or otherwise—things are quite moot given the reinvention of the DC multiverse over the years—it’s still one of my favorite comic books.

And seeing Bob with a copy of it in his office just made me sigh!

Thanks for stirring some happy memories in me, Bob Wayne; I just wish my copy of Superman #137 looked in as good condition as yours!

Continuing to look forward to future issues of BACK ISSUE, Michael—congrats to you and your team.

– Allan Palmer Basingstoke, UK

P.S. For what it’s worth, the first Marvel I read was Fantastic Four #2, and around that time I recall many issues of Dell’s Four-Color line with all those Disney titles and TV/film adaptations.

A CLASS ACT First of all, thanks, for being a part of my vacation. I went out of town for three days; knowing I’d have plenty of time to kick back with some good reading, I passed over the books accumulating on my bookshelf for my latest issue of BI. I knew its content-heavy articles would keep me busy, and once again, you didn’t disappoint.

The Jenette Kahn interview was one of your best. As you said in your editorial, every word was pure gold. I knew Kahn was an important player in DC history, but this interview really showed the scope of her work. And I was impressed with how she always gave credit where it was due. It would have been very easy to simply say, “Yes, I did that,” but she repeatedly named names of the people who deserved the accolades, even to the point of correcting Robert [Greenberger]’s assumptions. Jenette Kahn is a class act.

The Lost DC Kids line was intriguing; the Greatest Stories Never Told feature always fascinates me. More, please.

Finally, another pat on the back goes to your page designers.

The phantom printing in one column is a unique look that makes me look over each page twice; once to read, and once to look at.

– Michal Jacot That “phantom printing” technique has appeared in BI before, Michal, but since issue #57 was so content heavy, designer Rich Fowlks wisely used it throughout the issue to include art that would not have been printed otherwise. Thanks, Rich! (And you’ll note that “phantom lady” Jenette Kahn, as rendered by Neal Adams, appears behind your letter above, Michal.)

By the way, Rich is our magazine’s sole designer, although Michael Kronenberg—who guest-designed BI #58—lays out our covers.

– M.E.

REELING IN THE YEARS I don’t think I’ve ever seen, much less read, an interview with Jenette Kahn, so I was looking forward to #57. Frankly, Kahn seems to have mentally left comics behind long ago and most of her answers seemed to reflect that. It felt like she was doing a favor for an old colleague and had no real desire to tell the story of her years at DC. Still, there were plenty of insights into her tenure that were interesting—especially the early years—and I’m glad it ran.

The response that most intrigued me was when she was speaking of the beginning of the miniseries and mentioned that to sell them in Canada it was more financially favorable to have four issues than three. I would love for someone to provide some insight into why that was.

– Daniel Trogdon Daniel, there was some discussion to the birth of the miniseries format in last issue’s World of Krypton article. But perhaps a behind-the-scenes exploration of this format’s development, marketing, and distribution would be appreciated by readers. Anyone else interested in learning more?

– M.E.

MORE ABOUT MANAGEMENT, PLEASE I had commented awhile back on Facebook that I was really looking forward to this issue (BI #57) because Jenette Kahn was the publisher and EIC of DC for a large part of my comic-book reading life (1971 to present), but I did not know a TM & © DC Comics. lot about her other than she had started Dynamite magazine (which I read avidly from its inception until the end of middle school) prior to her coming to DC Comics.

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anies.

Characters © their respective comp Book © Michael Eury.

Other than that, she seemed to stay in the background running the company, unlike Stan Lee and Jim Shooter, who were not only well known for their creative role in comics but also actively involved with the fans of Marvel Comics through editorials and interviews in the comics media. Issue #57 did a great job of filling in what she did during her tenure at DC and really opened my eyes to what a large influence she had in making DC the comicbook company it is today.

I also really enjoyed the article on the DC Dollar Comics line and the article on Vertigo comics. The article about Vertigo was very interesting, as over the past ten years I have become a fan of Vertigo, reading Fables since it was released and reading all of the trades of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, and Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets, just to name a few, but did not really know the history of the line as I had always been more of a superhero comic fan. Like the article on Ms. Kahn, this was very well written and informative and I enjoyed it greatly.

Not knowing how well received this has been by other fans, this would be a great format to continue once yearly, delving into the careers of the people who are in management positions at the BACK ISSUE-era comic companies who have been very influential on their company(ies) or on the comics industry as a whole. A couple of people who I would like to see an article like this written about would be: Paul Levitz, even delving into his days of fandom through the end of his career; Jim Shooter, who could speak about his career as a teenage creator all the way through to current day or the end of the BACK ISSUE era; and Dick Giordano, who already had a great TwoMorrows publication done on him by Michael, but I am sure there is more to be written about his illustrious career.

Again, another issue well done. I am looking forward to the next half-dozen issues, especially the Treasury Edition special, as I always loved those books even though they were three times more expensive, but for some reason in my young mind they seemed three times cooler and I couldn’t wait to grab them off the newsstand when I saw them. Thank you and keep up the good work!

– Matt Hamilton, via Facebook

Would other readers like to see career-spanning interviews or articles about those movers and shakers of the BI era? (Jim Shooter, unfortunately, is not available for interviews for any TwoMorrows publications.)

In the meantime, a Legion of Super-Heroes-focused interview with Paul Levitz, conducted by ye ed at a HeroesCon panel in June 2012, will appear in BACK ISSUE #68, our “Legion in the Bronze Age” issue.

– M.E.

THE RETRO DC COMICS EXPERIENCE Just got home from work and a visit to my LCS; picked up issue #57 and flipped through it as always. You guys should’ve temporarily changed the mag’s title to “the retro DC comics experience.” That’s NOT a complaint. Can’t wait to dive in to this over the weekend.

I also want to say thanks for the Ed Barreto tribute.

– Michael S. Williams You’re welcome, Michael. And you may have noticed that we’ve changed our tagline to “Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond.”

Next issue: Backup Series of the Bronze Age”! Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Metamorpho, ARCHIE GOODWIN and WALTER SIMONSON’S Manhunter, MARTIN PASKO and KEITH GIFFEN’s Dr. Fate, Whatever Happened To…?, Nemesis, Rose and the Thorn, Jason Bard, and the Seven Soldiers of Victory! Featuring NEAL ADAMS, CARY BATES, RICH BUCKLER, CARY BURKETT, JOHN CALNAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MIKE GRELL, GIL KANE, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, DAN SPIEGLE, MIKE TIEFENBACHER, and more! With a GL/BA/BC cover by Grell and JOE RUBINSTEIN. Don’t ask— just BI it! See you in thirty!

Michael Eury, editor-in-chief Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and comics covers TM & © DC Comics.

BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

All Rights Reserved.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s through the 1990s: • • • • • • •

Unpublished artwork and covers Commissions (color or B&W) and professional-quality specialty drawings 1970s–1990s creator and convention photographs Character designs and model sheets Original art: covers and significant interior pages Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities

If you have any of the above materials, please query the editor via email prior to submission. Art contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive a complimentary copy of the issue.

Since BI is a full-color publication, preference is given to color artwork.

Random convention sketches and “quick sketches” that do not reflect an artist’s best work and were not intended for print will no longer be considered for publication.

Advertise In BACK ISSUE!

BACK ISSUE does not read or consider unsolicited manuscripts. However, we routinely welcome new writers to our magazine, and have done so since day one!

TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings)

If you’re interested in writing for BI, please request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writer’s Style Guide by emailing the editor at euryman@gmail.com.

Contact BI at: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE Concord, NC 28025

FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100 Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Back Issue, or any combination and save:

These rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as cameraready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up.

Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply.

Sorry, display ads not available for the Jack Kirby Collector.

Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds), Visa, or Mastercard to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

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Viking Prince © DC Comics.

80 • BACK ISSUE • British Invasion Issue

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #61

DRAW! #25

BRICKJOURNAL #24

• Digital Editions available: $3.95!

• Back Issue, Draw & Alter Ego full-color!

• Lower international shipping rates!

JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond!

Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, and “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software! Mature readers only.

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

SUBSCRIBE AT: www.twomorrows.com

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2013

THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #1

ALTER EGO #115

ALTER EGO #116

ALTER EGO #117

ALTER EGO #118

Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (includes FREE GLASSES!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!

JOE KUBERT TRIBUTE! Four Kubert interviews, art by RUSS HEATH, NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, SHELDON MOLDOFF, IRV NOVICK, and others, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive, FCA’s Captain Video conclusion by GEORGE EVANS that inspired Avengers foe Ultron, cover by KUBERT, with a portrait by DANIEL JAMES COX!

GOLDEN AGE ARTISTS L.B. COLE AND JAY DISBROW! DISBROW’s memoir of COLE and his work on CAT-MAN, art by BOB FUJITANI, CHARLES QUINLAN, IRWIN HASEN, FCA (Fawcett Collector’s of America) on the two-media career of Captain Video, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, Cat-Man cover

by L.B. COLE!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, ROY THOMAS on writing the Avengers, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

BACK ISSUE #61

BACK ISSUE #62

BACK ISSUE #64

BACK ISSUE #65

BACK ISSUE #66

“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more.

Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!

“Superman in the Bronze Age”! JULIUS SCHWARTZ, CURT SWAN, Superman Family, World of Krypton miniseries, and ALAN MOORE’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, art & comments

by ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, CHAYKIN, PAUL KUPPERBERG, OKSNER, O’NEIL, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SAVIUK, and more. Cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and SCOTT WILLIAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

“Bronze Age Backup Series”! Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Metamorpho, GOODWIN and SIMONSON’s Manhunter, PASKO and GIFFEN’s Dr. Fate, “Whatever Happened To…?”, Nemesis, Rose and the Thorn, Seven Soldiers of Victory, art and commentary by CARY BURKETT, JOHN CALNAN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, DAN SPIEGLE, cover

by GRELL and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

(84-page TABLOID with color) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2013

NEW BOOKS!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1960-64 and The 1980s

The start of an ambitious new series of FULL-COLOR HARDCOVERS, where TwoMorrows’ top authors document every decade of comic book history from the 1940s to today!

JOHN WELLS leads off with the first of two volumes on the 1960s, covering all the pivotal moments and behind-the-scenes details of comics in the JFK and Beatles era! You’ll get a year-by-year account of the most significant publications, notable creators, and impactful trends, including: DC Comics’ rebirth of GREEN LANTERN, HAWKMAN, and others, and the launch of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and multiple earths! STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY’S transformation of superhero comics with the debut of Marvel’s FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, X-MEN, AVENGERS, and other iconic characters! Plus BATMAN gets a “new look”, the BLUE BEETLE is revamped at Charlton Comics, and CREEPY #1 brings horror back to comic book form, just as Harvey’s “kid” comics are booming!

(224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • Now shipping!

KEITH DALLAS headlines the volume on the 1980s, covering all the pivotal moments and behind-the-scenes details of comics during the Reagan years! You’ll get a year-by-year account of: The rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER at Marvel Comics! The ascendancy of FRANK MILLER as a comic book superstar with works like DAREDEVIL, RONIN and THE DARK KNIGHT! DC Comics’ reboot with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and its Renaissance with a British invasion of talent like ALAN MOORE, GRANT MORRISON, and NEIL GAIMAN! The emergence of Direct Marketexclusive publishers like ECLIPSE COMICS, PACIFIC COMICS, FIRST COMICS, COMICO, DARK HORSE COMICS and others! These are just a few of the events chronicled in this exhaustive, full-color hardcover.

(288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 • Now shipping!

PLUGGED IN!

COMICS PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY PLUGGED IN! shows how comic book professionals work in the field of Video Gaming, offering invaluable tips for those thinking of entering the field, or anyone with a fascination for the inner workings of both comics and gaming. Features JIMMY PALMIOTTI (Ash, Jonah Hex), CHRIS BACHALO (Death: the High Cost of Living, Uncanny XMen), MIKE DEODATO (Wonder Woman, Amazing Spider-Man), RICK REMENDER (Fear Agent, X-Force), TRENT KANIUGA (CreeD), and others. Whether you’re a noob or experienced gamer or comics fan, be sure to get PLUGGED IN! Written by KEITH VERONESE. (128-page trade paperback with COLOR) $16.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Now shipping!

Taken together, the series forms a cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history, sure to be an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast! Look for the 1965-69 volume this Summer, and the 1970s volume this Fall, followed by two 1940s volumes by ROY THOMAS and a 1950s volume by BILL SCHELLY in 2014, just in time for TwoMorrows’ 20th Anniversary!

DAN SPIEGLE: A LIFE IN COMIC ART

MODERN MASTERS: CLIFF CHIANG

Spotlights the career of CLIFF CHIANG (artist of DC’s New 52 breakout hit WONDER WOMAN series) through a career-spanning interview, and loads of both iconic and rarely seen artwork from Cliff’s personal files. There’s also an in-depth look into the artist’s work process, and an extensive gallery of commissioned pieces, many in full-color. By CHRIS ARRANT and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $15.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships May 2013

THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOL. 2

This sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE presents more vintage features from the first super-hero fanzine, begun by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS. Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY reveal undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published from 1961-78, including features on Hawkman, the Spectre, Blackhawk, the JLA, All Winners Squad, the Heap, an unsold “Tor” newspaper strip by JOE KUBERT, and more!

Documents DAN SPIEGLE’S 60-year career as a comic book artist on DELL and GOLD KEY’S licensed TV and Movie adaptions (LOST IN SPACE, KORAK, MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER, MIGHTY SAMPSON, BUCK ROGERS), at DC COMICS on BATMAN, UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMAHAWK, JONAH HEX, TEEN TITANS, and the fanfavorite reboot of BLACKHAWK (taking the character back to its World War II roots), as well as his popular CROSSFIRE series for ECLIPSE COMICS, DARK HORSE’S INDIANA JONES series, and more. It includes dozens of images of Dan’s work, along with personal photos of family and industry peers, and numerous private commission drawings. Written by JOHN COATES.

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $6.95 • Ships May 2013

(104-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships May 2013

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrowspubs.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

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Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MARVEL UK • V FOR VENDETTA • EXCALIBUR • THE BEATLES DC’s BRITISH TALENT WAVE featuring BRIAN BOLLAND ALAN DAVIS • DAVE GIBBONS • STAN LEE • DEZ SKINN & more!

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