Sunday 18 October 2015

October 18th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It's been an exciting week here in 2015, with the revelation that the Kepler space telescope may have discovered evidence of giant artificial structures orbiting a distant star - meaning there may well be intelligent life out there.

But, back in 1975, we knew there was intelligent life down here.

How? Because only the mightiest of intellects could possibly have been behind the treats that awaited us when we opened the covers of Marvel UK's latest output.

Marvel UK, Avengers #109

It's the Invaders who'll soon be seeing stars, as they foolishly take on the Avengers.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #52

The caption implies that Dracula is inside the room.

The picture implies he's outside the room.

Which is the deadly truth?

I never got to find out, as I never had the comic.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #52

It's more escaping from the Planet of the Apes. Although escaping from the forearm of the apes appears to be a more demanding challenge.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #140, Morbius

It's a classic tale for Spidey.

But what I remember most about this issue is me suddenly realising that the colours on its cover consisted of tiny dots - and me therefore subsequently trying to colour in a picture by using tiny, hand-drawn dots.

I soon realised that such an act was more trouble than it was worth, and I never again dared repeat such a dread experiment.

Mighty World of Marvel #159, Hulk vs Tiger Shark

Its the return of Tiger Shark - and the return of that cover from just five issues ago. Let's see how they compare.

Marvel UK, Super-Heroes #33, X-Men


My knowledge of the Mimic comes entirely from his early 1970s appearance in the Hulk's comic.

I always liked that tale.

Not having read it, I can make no comment about this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two examples here of how shabby Marvel UK could sometimes get 1) repeating that MWOM cover is just disgraceful - they had a whole month to realize their mistake and make a new cover 2) that cover of POTA depicts an event which doesn't happen till the NEXT issue, bah !! We still loved them though.

Unknown said...

I bought every issue of MWOM and I didn't remember that duplicate cover (I must have been a a Marvel Zombie at the time) that really is bad even in amongst all those awful covers they produced week after week. Such as pity as the early years (well first 3 years)of Marvel UK were really very professional indeed.

Unknown said...

Ooops sorry make that "..the first 2 years of Marvel UK were really very professional indeed" , after that time they were pretty poorly produced comics.

Dougie said...

Huge fan of the Mimic and the Werner Roth Era of X-Men in general. I thought Mimic had a great, dynamic design and he's the meery mutants very first Enemy -Turned- Team-mate. However, that trope has neutered all the best X-Villains, unfortunately.