Category Archives: Mighty Marvel Checklists

Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK FOUR

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SATURDAY 20th AUGUST 1988

The Real Ghostbusters were taking another break this week before their last fortnightly issue but out in deep space Marvel UK’s The Transformers and Action Force had to get around a problem with their next imported US strip.

I remember receiving a Transformers video for Christmas back then with a particularly dodgy episode on it called The Big Broadcast of 2006. In the UK comic we had stories set after The Transformers: The Movie (which was set in the then-future of 2005/6) and those characters travelled back in time and interacted with the Cybertronians in present day tales skilfully interwoven with the imported strips from across the pond by writer Simon Furman.

But Marvel US had decided to adapt said dodgy cartoon episode into comic form and it completely contradicted a whole bunch of lengthy British story arcs. The solution? Lee Sullivan’s cover should tell you everything you need to know. One page was added at the beginning and end (next week) of the strip, giving the comic its own Dallas-type moment of “it was all a fairytale”, read out by TV-loving Wreck-Gar. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The UK bits, anyway.

More importantly though, we’re Checklist-less this time (don’t worry, very soon they’ll be here every single week) but that doesn’t mean I can’t uphold my promise from the beginning of this series. So I’ve borrowed an advert from another Marvel UK comic this week to plug the gap.

Around this time Marvel editor Richard Starkings knew from launching The Real Ghostbusters that it was possible to tell a story in one page so he commissioned strip adverts for a load of their comics, meaning they could be rerun instead of new ones having to created all the time for individual issues. Mostly these were all created in the style of the comic they were advertising and I particularly liked this one written by Simon, drawn by Lee and lettered by Richard.

Speaking of ads, alongside next week’s Mighty Marvel Checklist there’ll be two more adverts, one in keeping with the style above. Then, when The Real Ghostbusters goes weekly from #14 we’ll have an unbroken run of checklists for at least a couple of months. So I hope you’re enjoying these weekly trips down memory lane to the 80s so far. If so, please let me know on socials over at Bluesky (personal), Instagram (OiNK) and Facebook (OiNK).

See you next week!

TRANSFORMERS 180 (Instagram)

TRANSFORMERS READ THROUGH

WEEK THREE < > WEEK FiVE

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Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK THREE

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SATURDAY 13th AUGUST 1988

The Mighty Marvel Checklist is back after a week’s rest (that first outing must’ve exhausted the poor thing) and there’s a lot more squeezed into its half-page entry inside The Real Ghostbusters (cover by Brian Williamson and Dave Elliott) from this day way back in 1988. 

There was no checklist in #179 of The Transformers and Action Force but this will happen with either comic at different points over the course of the checklist’s run, and since I’ll be showing adverts from both along the way I’m just going to show both covers every week anyway. It also doesn’t hurt that Jerry Paris provided this Transforms cover, with the new and improved Optimus Prime taking on the role of quippy 80s action hero rather well.

The checklist doesn’t do the ‘busters justice this week, because not only do they meet the ghost of King Arthur of Camelot in the story briefly mentioned below, but in another strip the Containment Unit malfunctions and lots of fan-favourite ghosts and monsters from previous issues make cameo appearances and Slimer enters the unit to make the fix for Egon. Two very memorable strips for me.

Our two comics may get short-changed a bit but at least Huckleberry Hound gets his promotion promoted, the Galaxy Rangers edge closer to their final issue and in Thundercats did they really have to rescue those two? Interesting that the Doctor Who Magazine entry focuses solely on the comic strip when it’s only one part of the publication. Then again, it had a lot less pages back then so the strip was a bigger part of the whole.

Finally, Dragon and his Claws got their first inkling of the true nature of their missions for the National Union of Retired Sports Experts (N.U.R.S.E) in the dystopian future of 8162, the start of an arc that would become the main thread of the final issues the following year. I read the whole series for the first time only two years ago and it was a phenomenal comic, one that deserved to run and run but would ultimately be cut short just ten issues in.

As we go through this weekly series any issues of the comics featured on the checklist (or adverts) that have been covered on the blog (or on Instagram in the case of Transformers) will be linked to at the bottom of each post, alongside any titles that have received a more general round up in the Retrospectives section. You never know, there might be more of these Marvel UK comics to add to these links on the blog as time goes on.

Don’t forget, if you remember reading any of these issues let us know on the socials (links in the menu).

TRANSFORMERS 179 (Instagram)

DRAGON’S CLAWS 3

WEEK TWO < > WEEK FOUR

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Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK TWO

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SATURDAY 6th AUGUST 1988

Okay, so as I said on the menu page for this series there were eight weeks in total out of a whopping 74 that The Real Ghostbusters (still fortnightly so no issue this week) and Transformers didn’t print a Mighty Marvel Checklist. However, I did promise I’d also be showing you all of the comics adverts published alongside the checklists as we go, and that they’d help us plug those annoying gaps.

First up though, what’s with that circus-based Stephen Baskerville cover? The Cosmic Carnival is a story I’ve seen derided in the usual negativity-filled corners of the fandom but when I read it for the first time a handful of years back I found it to be a silly but fun story. Taking prisoner the brilliant Sky Lynx and the human children he’s protecting, a space station-based circus puts them to work in small display cages and in the ring for daring feats. It’s actually a clever script that highlighted the problem with zoos of the day, as well as introducing a wider universe of alien species to the comic.

It’s also important to remember we’re talking about a comic starring sentient robots from outer space that can transform into various forms of human transport so sometimes it’s best not to take things too seriously. So, on to that advert and it’s one that brings back memories. Back in 1988 I read the comic advertised this week, the very first edition of The Marvel Bumper Comic. Fleetway had been enjoying great success with their Big Comic Books and had just released their new fortnightly comic version in mid-June. Repackaging reprints had the potential of great returns with little outgoings.

The Marvel Bumper Comic would soon become a fortnightly (then weekly) comic itself but this was the only one I bought as a kid. I remember enjoying it but wishing the strips weren’t so short. Obviously quantity was key here to reinforce the “Bumper” part of the title. Plus it didn’t hurt trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It’s a curious glimpse at the Marvel UK of the day in one purchase if you can find it on eBay. Perhaps one to join the blog at a later date? Perhaps.

Did you buy the Holiday Special edition of the Bumper Comic? Have you any particularly fond memories of it or any of its contents? What did you think of publishers repackaging old strips to coax more pocket money out of our… erm, pockets? Let us know on the socials at Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook, why don’t you? More comics to check off the list next week.

TRANSFORMERS 178 (Instagram)

WEEK ONE < > WEEK THREE

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK ONE

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SATURDAY 30th JULY 1988

Welcome to this new weekly series! Off we go! The very first Mighty Marvel Checklist appeared in one of the earliest editions of The Real Ghostbusters when it was still a fortnightly comic, a week which also saw some fella return to The Transformers and Action Force that was kind of a big deal.

Yes, Optimus Prime had been resurrected as a Headmaster (cover by Jeff Anderson). The Autobot leader now had a humanoid companion who could transform into his head(!), combining to form an insanely powerful version of the character. I wasn’t yet collecting the comic at the time (that would come later in the same year), however when I read them all for the blog’s real time read through on Instagram this issue was a real thrill because this was the version of the toy I had as a kid.

Unlike Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters (cover by Phil Elliott) was made up of a handful of shorter stories, all much more comedy focussed (re: bad puns), the best often being the prose series Winston’s Diary which was told from the perspective of my favourite character. Also unmissable was the text-based Spengler’s Spirit Guide, the hilarious manual on all things supernatural which appeared in every issue, expertly crafted by Dan Abnett. And of course there was also the Lew Stringer-drawn humour strip Blimey It’s Slimer, however this issue was the last time Lew would be responsible before it was permanently taken over by Bambos Georgiou.

That’s the quick introduction of the comics I’m using out of the way, so what else was on sale that very same week in the summer of ’88? The first Mighty Marvel Checklist takes me back to watching The Adventures of The Galaxy Rangers on the telly every morning. I don’t remember much about them other than I enjoyed the cartoon but apparently not enough to buy their comic, a title that would only make it to #9 before being cancelled.

I never got on with Thundercats but its comic was a huge success, amassing over 100 issues in total, although I remember from the checklists that it seemed to go through a lot of changes and different frequencies towards the end. Fred Flintstone et all round things up at a time when comics such as Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head weren’t on the list yet. I also liked the way The Real Ghostbusters is coloured differently just so they could show off the “Real” part in read. Imagine doing that every time it’s mentioned, eh?

As this series continues I’d love to find out if you remember any of the specific issues mentioned in any of the checklists, so mosey on over to the socials on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook and let’s get the conversation started, shall we? Next week we’ll see our first classic comic advert.

TRANSFORMERS 177 (Instagram)

THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS RETROSPECTiVE

GO TO WEEK TWO

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