SATURDAY 11th NOVEMBER 1989
No checklist again this week, coming only a fortnight after the last disappearance, but this is the final time you’ll be missing out as it would appear in either (or both) The Real Ghostbusters or Transformers and Action Force every week for the rest of the series. I do have something rather unique from their pages this week though.
First up, let’s take a look at our covers and a quick glance inside, shall we? The Real Ghostbusters cover was by Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell and at the top was the first time the upcoming sequel movie had been mentioned. Also inside, the winner of the Design-A-Spook competition from #50 was announced, and I was crestfallen to discover the winner had designed the exact same thing as I’d drawn but never sent in! The winning entry was a haunted version of the firehouse, although mine had signalled the return of Gozer instead of being a regular ghost. The designs were spookily similar too!
Geoff Senior’s cover for Transformers and Action Force relates to the ultimate fight between two Megatrons, as I explained last time. The story has divided adult fans ever since but which 12-year-old at the time wouldn’t have been excited by two Megatrons fighting it out to the death? It’s a fun conclusion to a long arc even if it is a little too neat. It was necessary though, or the UK and US stories under Simon Furman would’ve ended up contradicting each other. In a neat twist, his US strip this week also referenced this story, not that the Americans would’ve been any the wiser. Fans of Lew Stringer’s Fanzine Funnies should also check out this issue at the link further below to see Combat Colin captured and ending up a ‘Prisoner’.
This advert always felt like a weird addition to my comics as a kid. But hey, Marvel UK had to promote it and my mum may have been interested if I’d bothered to tell her. I can remember her watching Beauty and the Beast on Friday nights (I think) on UTV back then, although it’s only now in doing a little research for this post that I’ve discovered it was Ron Perlman behind the Beast! With Terminator star Linda Hamilton as fellow lead actor perhaps it’s worth catching up on after all. Did you know that George R.R. Martin was also a writer and producer?
This graphic novel imported the strip from the American publication by First Comics, written and drawn by Wendy Pini (Elfquest, Masque of the Red Death, Galileo). I’m sure for fans it was an essential read and perhaps if I do decide to give the show a go so might I, but in 1989 the promise of a “tale of forbidden passion” wasn’t really what this fan of robotic civil war and ghost chasing was looking for.
In seven days prepare yourself for possibly the least welcome addition to the Mighty Marvel Checklist yet. A right stinker joins the fray in seven.
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