SATURDAY 24th JUNE 1989
On this day back in 1989 Marvel UK spoiled us with two ace covers for their top selling comics. Anthony Williams and Nick Abadzis joined forces for a funny yet thrilling environmental message for The Real Ghostbusters, while Geoff Senior stunned us two weeks in a row with his Transformers and Action Force page.
Back in week 42 I mentioned how one of that week’s Real Ghostbusters stories was a bit strange because it went against the comic’s previous environmental messages. Well, here we are just six weeks on from that strip flying against the comic’s stance and thankfully things have been corrected once again. Elsewhere, Slimer comes to Peter’s rescue when he brings home a haunted takeaway and the Dead True story this week is all about the Mary Celeste (although no mention of it being the fault of the Daleks – if you know you know).
In Transformers’ UK story (part two of Aspects of Evil) we learn the time fracture of Time Wars has healed itself, but the only way it could do so was to make sure it never happened in the first place, meaning Galvatron never travelled back in time (despite that being the reprint elsewhere in this issue). Everything that happened before still happened, but at the same time won’t happen. Brilliant, mature storytelling that treated the children as intelligent readers while setting things up for the next few years of the comic.
After a few weeks of repeated highlights it’s all brand new editions for the checklist this week. Transformers gets a bit of a by-the-numbers description compared to the rest, and in hindsight starting a so-called ‘Chinese Trilogy’ with a story called The Take-Away Terror in The Real Ghostbusters is as clichéd as it gets. (That’s me being kind, because that’s the least of its problems.) Action Force Monthly’s latest issue lived up to its ‘European Missions’ subtitle when it was exported to the US, but it’s not just a new issue that’s bagged the top spot, it’s a whole new (mini) series.
After several months of teaser ads The Sleeze Brothers were finally here! I bought the first issue as a kid and loved it, but my fickle attention span didn’t last a month so I never bought any more, despite the creative team being some of my favourites from The Real Ghostbusters. However, that has since been corrected, just a couple of years ago in fact right here on the blog. A link to the first issue’s review is below and from there you can check out the rest in that comic’s own section of the site. It was unlike anything I’d ever read before, that one issue sticking in my mind for decades after the fact.
Last week I mentioned how the Marvel Bumper Comic hadn’t been seen on the checklist for months. Well, this week’s contemporary advert sees it return in a somewhat strange comics merger. Much like how the monthly Slimer comic’s merge into The Real Ghostbusters felt weird because he was already in the comic and thus it didn’t need the “and Slimer” in the title, alien Alf had already been in the Bumper Comic too. They could’ve just continued printing his strips in it and nothing would’ve felt any different. But with his own comic ending Marvel UK would’ve seen the marketing potential in acting like it was a ‘new’ addition.
Next week the checklist pretty much stays the same but given the quality of their new comic I’ll forgive them this once. There’ll also be a tiny black and white advert (there’ll be more monochrome ads as we continue thanks to Transformers) that somehow still packed a bigger punch than those full-page, full-colour Popeye and Tom & Jerry ads recently. See you in seven more.
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