SATURDAY 16th SEPTEMBER 1989
Would John Marshall and Dave Harwood ever get time away from The Real Ghostbusters covers? Not that this week’s would’ve been particularly taxing with a huge gap designed to contain the free gift. Meanwhile, Lee Sullivan’s work for Transformers and Action Force told us more dark Deathbringer delights awaited us inside.
Those Slime Slurps were bits of moulded plastic filled with a rubbery jelly sweet which I’d refill with a soft drink of my choice and freeze for future enjoyment. (Hey, it was nicer than the sweet!) There was an Egyptian mummy story this week but the title and creative team still didn’t match those erroneously written about in last week’s checklist. There was also the start of one of those multi-issue competitions both of these comics were keen on, although strangely with no indication of what the prize was.
Transformers felt different this week. Literally. The outer colour pages were of a really good paper grade and it felt terrific! Unfortunately this would only semi-regularly once in a while instead of every week. Artist Staz Johnson also debuted this issue with the second part of Deathbringer, following on from Geoff Senior last week. (No pressure for a newbie there!) Needless to say Staz did a great job and would become one of my favourite artists for the rest of the comic’s life. In fact, an Optimus Prime panel of his from this issue’s story had already been used six weeks ago in advert for the comic. Way to go to make an entrance, Staz.
A shame his incredible debut isn’t mentioned on the checklist, which gets the details of the UK strip completely wrong. There have been quite a few such errors recently on these lists, I must say. If this week’s issue of The Punisher was released in modern day Britain I’m sure we’d hear all about it from certain tabloids and politicians calling for it to be banned, don’t you think? Which would probably just increase sales with the rest of us.
This new look to the checklist led to them including more titles in the same space but for now it stuck to the usual four. The entry for Doctor Who Magazine squeezed an awful lot of information into a tiny space and the good ol’ Doc was also the star of this week’s new advert. DWM was celebrating its tenth anniversary with what appeared to have been a special issue, although there’s no indication of the celebratory nature of it on the checklist, strangely enough.
Why was Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor used? The series was by now starring its Seventh Doctor as played so wonderfully by Sylvester McCoy (that’s his series’ funky logo). Well, Tom’s Doctor was the star of the show and the magazine’s comic strips and news articles when it began back in 1979, that’s why. In this series of blog posts we’ve already seen an advert for the special edition focussing on the show’s 25th anniversary and a checklist entry for the magazine’s 150th issue. The show celebrated its 60th a few years ago now, the magazine is only three years away from its own 50th and the current issue on sale at the time of writing is #634. Talk about feeling as old as a Time Lord!
I think I need a lie down after that realisation. Next week’s adverts include the launch of a spin-off from one of the above comics, as well as the one and only advert for all of Marvel UK’s annuals for Christmas 1989. I’ll definitely see you in seven, then.
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