There was no issue of Marvel UK’s (Epic imprint) monthly comic during October 1989. The fifth issue of The Sleeze Brothers was released at the end of September (just three weeks after the previous issue) despite its cover date being ‘December’. The sixth and final issue wouldn’t arrive until just two days before Christmas either. Why the big gap? I have no idea. I just know these were the release dates thanks to information in sister titles Transformers and The Real Ghostbusters.
But after really (really, really) enjoying the issues so far that’s just too long a wait with nothing new from El’ Ape and Deadbeat for the blog. Thankfully, there was a neat little extra in the first issue that I decided to hold back to help plug this gap. It’s a page at the rear of the issue where the Sleezes looked upon the team responsible for bringing them to life in the first place. Suitably enough, it’s a criminal line up! But it’s even better than that.
Drawn by the regular team of penciller Andy Lanning and inker Stephen Baskerville, it paints quite the picture of Marvel UK’s finest, doesn’t it? I’ve praised this team endlessly these past few months and for good reason. Looking at this it’s clear to me the weird and wacky world of The Sleeze Brothers needed an equally weird and wacky team behind it all. It gives the impression this was a fun comic to work on and from speaking to originating editor Richard Starkings, that was certainly the case.
I adore all the little in-jokes in the descriptions of each person, although my favourite part is the fact Steve White is drawn as a dinosaur. He produced some gorgeous colouring for another favourite comic of mine, Dark Horse International’s UK Jurassic Park comic, and today his incredibly elaborate and, frankly, bloody stunning dinosaur illustrations fill his Instagram, website and self-published books.
The final issue of The Sleeze Brothers will be reviewed here on Monday 23rd December 2024 but that won’t be the end of their coverage on the OiNK Blog. You’ll have to wait for that final regular review to find out what else is to come in the future, but until then I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the offices of Marvel UK as much as I did. We’ll return to the apparently “not-too-distant future” Earth this Christmas.
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