October 24th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Winter can be a terrible time; a period of cold, damp and misery, the days growing shorter and the toes growing tinglier.

But it can also be a time of magic.

And the ebb tide of 1979 gave us just that because, following the success of the summer specials, October saw Marvel UK giving us a walloping four specials of the winter variety.

What were they?

And how special were they?

Keep reading to find out.

But first, there's the serious matter of international sport to be dealt with and this night in 1979 saw BBC Two broadcast The State Express World Challenge Cup, as Canada took on Australia at snooker.

To possibly no one's surprise, Canada were led by Cliff "The Grinder" Thorburn. However, Australia were represented by Gary Owen, Paddy Morgan and Ian Anderson, three people I've never heard of. How can this be right? If it's snooker and Australia, surely it has to be  Steady Eddie Charlton? His absence means my whole faith in the sport is shaken to the core.

It would be nice to think the Ian Anderson in question was the lead singer of Jethro Tull, having grabbed a cue and decided to give it a try but I suspect it wasn't.

Speaking of faith, this week in that year saw Lena Martell ascend to the top of the UK singles chart, with her Jesus-pestering gospel anthem One Day at a Time.

Over on the album chart, there was no change at the top, with Regatta de Blanc retaining its crown and doing so by seeing off the challenge of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk which crashed in at Number Two.

I can give no reliable information about the contents of this comic but I would assume the Surfer's still battling the Badoon.

The Watcher and Star-Lord's whereabouts are a complete blank to me.

I'm going to make a guess that Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in this issue.

I'm also confident no revelations of a familial nature will be made.

The Corporation are out for revenge on both the Hulk and Machine Man and, thus, trick Hulkie into thinking Machiney's kidnapped Trish Star, so the green grappler will want to kill him.

Captain Britain's origin's still being retold.

And, speaking of Trish Starr, Ant-Man also gets to meet her, this time when she has a public row with her uncle the villainous Egghead, prompting our hero to get involved.

Nick Fury's suspected of being a traitor, in an early Barry Smith tale.

The Eternals are still getting nowhere in their battle with the Hulkbot. Can't they just levitate him into space? That would seem, to me, to be the easiest solution.

In our second issue from TV's greatest hero, we get coverage of Brighton's 1979 Seacon convention, more from Chris Claremont's adaptation of War of the Worlds, an adaptation of An Unearthly Child, Cybermen, Daleks, and more from The Iron Legion.

All this in just 28 pages? How is such a thing even possible?

This comic must be bigger on the inside than on the outside!

Man-Wolf's kidnapped J Jonah Jameson, thanks to the malevolent machinations of the dying Professor Smythe - and only Spider-Man can stop him!

Actually, probably most Marvel heroes could stop him but it wouldn't have sounded so dramatic if I'd said that.

For a change, I have no idea what else happens in this issue.

This is it. The first of our winter specials arrives, as we get a good dose of both Battlestar Galactica and the Micronauts. No disrespect to either of those franchises but I'm not sure I'd want to spend 40 pence on either of them.

However, our second winter special's a full 15 pence cheaper, as we get all kinds of Marvel-related fun and games.

And, if you don't get your fill of Battlestar Galactica from the Star Heroes special, you can get even more of it from our third winter offering.

Amongst, no-doubt, riotous mirth from Howard the Duck, the Waltons and Silver Surfer, this magazine includes material from that well-known master of hilarity Alan Moore.

And, finally, among our winter specials, we discover Spider-Man's, in which the Watcher asks, "What if someone else had become Spider-Man?" a look at how the wall-crawler's British comic's changed over the last six years, and that 1960s tale which revealed how Lee and Ditko concoct a story.

It's the one with Sturdy Steve drawing Spidey on a rocket flying past the Statue of Liberty. I've always had a soft spot for that one.