SATURDAY 25th MARCH 1989

Kicking things off for Marvel UK’s two best-selling comics are covers from Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou for The Real Ghostbusters and Andrew Wildman for Transformers and Action Force, the latter of which reminds me of a school trip to London in P7.

While there we had to visit Hamley’s toy store, naturally. I bought Ecto-2 while my friend Roger bought Decepticon Pretender Beast, Carnivac. For the remainder of the trip Roger kept it sealed in its box, fearful of losing anything if he opened it before we got home. I didn’t have the patience for that so I took my Ecto-2 helicopter out of its box for a closer inspection… and promptly lost the missile launcher!

Anyway, Carnivac would become a favourite character of mine later in the comic’s run when he’d team up with the Autobot survivors of the recent Time Wars and Underbase Saga storylines. Back to this week and the Ghostbusters comic has a strip inside it that fans would find somewhat confusing. On the checklist it simply states they’re at a haunted film set but that’s only half the story.

They’re actually filming the live-action movie, with them in the starring roles. That’s weird enough, but in the cartoon they’d already visited the set of the film in which the original actors were playing the roles. It was a fan favourite episode (it even contained movie footage) so, combine this with Week 32’s Spengler’s Spirit Guide and it’s clear the comic’s team weren’t researching the show their work was based on.

Despite being an excellent issue and a sequel of sorts to a strip in Doctor Who Magazine, the first appearance of Death’s Head’s fifth issue wasn’t important enough to knock the first monthly Thundercats issue off the top spot. Thundercats seems to be getting the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot more than any other comic. They were really trying to push it, weren’t they? What else were they pushing at us this week, adverts-wise? Two Spring Specials, that’s what.

First up is Droids. This wasn’t an extra edition of a regular comic, rather a one-off special importing an American strip to the UK for the first time. Droids was a cartoon Star Wars spin-off released in the States as a companion series to Ewoks, the latter of which I remember my friends watching. Toys, comics and various other merchandise were all created for what would surely be a sure-fire hit, but in the end Droids only lasted one season of 13 episodes and a special, the comic also cancelled after eight bi-monthly issues so it never got beyond this edition and some Marvel Bumper Comic appearances this side of the Atlantic.

At least Droids brought us a strip we hadn’t seen yet, our next Spring Special was another matter entirely. I remember stumbling upon this edition of the Visionaries comic by accident, buying it immediately and loving it. I’d missed out on the monthly but had devoured the annual the previous Christmas. Little did I know this Spring Special was pretty much just the fifth and final issue of the comic repackaged with minimal changes.

Even the advert was recycled from the one used to promote the first issue the previous year. Released at the same time Visionaries returned to Transformers as the back up strip (a third printing of the origin story within 12 months), this was probably why the special was released. A quick copy and paste of a whole issue and any new readers would hopefully start picking up Transformers as a result. You can check out just how similar it was to the last issue in its review, link below.

After what seemed like a bumper year for Marvel UK in 1988, a year in which we got constant news of new comics and which saw me spending a lot of my parents’ money on them, not many survived and 1989 was turning out to be a year of reprints and big changes to some of their biggest titles. More on that soon!

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DEATH’S HEAD 5

ViSiONARiES SPRiNG SPECiAL

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SATURDAY 18th MARCH 1989

A funny cover by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou to mark the Easter school holidays for readers of The Real Ghostbusters, while those buying Transformers and Action Force were probably gasping in horror rather than giggling, thanks to Andrew Wildman’s shocking image.

The free gift was a Slimer-shaped jelly, a special sweet treat for that particular Saturday morning. I loved those things! I’d keep the plastic moulds to fill with my favourite drinks and stick in the freezer on warm summer days. Just me? Inside, a story about haunted shopping trollies explains a lot about those at my local supermarket, and Bad News was a very funny tale of a TV-addict ghost watching his own bust live on the gogglebox.

Cover artist Andrew is also a news story on the editorial page inside Transformers with the news of the birth of his third child, which was a lovely little moment in the comic. In the main strip, Starscream looks much more like last issue’s cover and it’s a cracking read, one of the very best of the American stories. It also sees the beginning of the fascinating dynamic between Optimus Prime and Scorponok that’d continue to play out until for next two years until they become firm friends(!) and it came to a tragic end.

The checklist is a good one this week.

How strange that the previous issue of Thundercats’ was the one to bring a brand new look to the comic instead of waiting until the first monthly issue to do so. It now contained two strips, the first was all about one of the most annoying cartoon characters ever while the other was a reprint. I don’t think it lasted too long after this if my memory of these checklists serves me right. Dragon’s Claws #10 missed out on top billing again but the ‘Don’t Miss’ title this week is rather special for us because it’s actually been covered on the blog before.

Doctor Who Magazine #147 not only contained that very funny comic strip of the Seventh Doctor’s run-in with The Sleeze Brothers, it also contained a full guide to season 25 of the classic show which began with a certain story called Remembrance of the Daleks. This just so happened to be the very first Doctor Who story I ever watched, so it was a nice surprise to read about it when I’d bought the issue solely for the brothers’ section of the blog.

So, I said previously we’d make up for the lack of comics adverts these past few weeks…

We’ve no less than three this week, beginning with the big news that The Marvel Bumper Comic was going weekly with #14, the same issue number as The Real Ghostbusters’ first weekly the year before. This wasn’t the only thing the two comics had in common either if you look at the free gifts coming up. A new weekly schedule usually meant a degree of success so it’s a surprise to know the comic would end up cancelled before the end of the year.

That’s a hell of a packed line-up too, so we know each strip had to be very short but it still intrigues me. Another star of the Bumper Comic at a later stage would be William Tell, who we saw previously when his non-existent fortnightly comic was advertised across Marvel UK’s range. Here, those first strips were collected together into a graphic novel so at least they could get them out there. Not that anyone in the UK was aware of the show yet.

Finally for this week, a brand new humour comic was revealed!

Oh dear. Not only has the printing gone horribly wrong for the advert’s debut but there’s no indication of what It’s Wicked! would actually be. The inclusion of Slimer (whose popularity Marvel UK was rinsing as much as they could) told us it would be a funny comic, but the line of text at the bottom read like it was telling us something completely different. It’d essentially be a ghosts-and-monsters-themed take on Beano and The Dandy but it didn’t last long, just 17 issues in the end. With this advert as the pre-release hype I can see why kids didn’t exactly rush out to buy it.

If you thought that was a bad advert, wait until you see one (of two) to come next week. It changes one line of text from a year-old advert to publicise a supposedly new Spring Special, but it’s really just a carbon copy of a previous comic with a different issue number. Not the company’s finest hour. I’ll catch you back here in seven.

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DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 147

DRAGON’S CLAWS 10

WEEK 33 < > WEEK 35

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SATURDAY 18th FEBRUARY 1989

The cover of this week’s The Real Ghostbusters drawn by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou instantly takes me back and across the way Andy WIldman’s cover to Transformers and Action Force signals a return to American writer Bob Budiansky’s swansong epic. What a week this was!

That fiery ghost that’s all mouth, teeth and flame was one of the best creations the comic ever produced and I mustn’t have been alone in thinking it because it’d return a few times, on this occasion alongside other fan faves when the containment unit was breached. In another story a giant ghost cat was more cuddly than scary, and in the end we find out it was actually a good ghost and the team sided with it as it protected stray cats out on the streets of New York from cruel humans. Aww.

After the epic Time Wars we were back to the second half of the even-more-epic Underbase Saga. I loved this probably even more than Time Wars because Starscream was at the centre of everything; his massive ego getting hold of unlimited power was hugely entertaining and the resulting casualty list was even more shocking than the UK story. Dreadwind also gives one of his best answers on the letters page, check it out at the link below. Both of these comics deserved the ‘Don’t Miss…’ slot on the checklist as far as I’m concerned. What a shame there wasn’t one then, despite being on the Ghostbusters’ contents page.

Which 80s TV fans recognised the quote I used last time when referencing this week’s advert? I remember watching Alf’s first season (before it shifted to satellite TV and out of reach for many of us back then) and not really understanding what all the fuss was about. Then again, even at a very young age I had an aversion to obvious laugh tracks on sitcoms instead of live audiences. Due to how Alf was filmed they just couldn’t have a studio audience, but the laugh track suffered as they all do with guffaws and roars of excitement from the American ‘audience’ for every little thing that happened, whether it was funny or not.

I sound like an old man! But that was also how I felt when I was only 11. Only later in life have I remembered Alf apparently ate cats too, though obviously not on screen. That’s not going to endear him to me now, that’s for sure. Anyway, no advert next week but the checklist will be back with a comic we haven’t heard from in a long time. A Bumper post coming up in just seven days.

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SATURDAY 11th FEBRUARY 1989

A silly cover for Valentine’s Day by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou, and a brutal death-laden cover to mark the end of the latest epic by Andrew Wildman, who is credited as “Andy” here. During my real time read through Andrew told me he’d no idea why they did that as he’s never gone by that name. Anyway, that aside Marvel UK had all bases covered.

Despite Slimer making the cover, The Real Ghostbusters focuses instead on Egon and Janine for the lovey-dovey season, although Egon’s idea of celebrations may have suited the other comic above, what with his Spengler’s Spirit Guide focusing on those who have died for love. It’s all tongue-in-cheek of course, and the previously advertised Betty Boop Valentine Card Comic is released for £1.15 according to the editorial. I wonder how many of those they sold?

In Transformers and Action Force the epic to end all epics… um, ends. It does so in fine form with some truly shocking moments drawn by Lee Sullivan. Probably most memorable of all is Galvatron being literally pulled apart, from his outer metal all the way through to his inner electronics by an angry and vengeful universe. What an experience this was as a kid, especially as I’d only begun reading the comic a few months beforehand! Surely this is the big title of the week?

Nope, that honour goes to the new issue of Action Force Monthly, even though it could’ve been given the top spot anytime over the next few weeks (which we’ve seen before for the monthlies) whereas this truly incredible Transformers is here for one week only. Two keys details in Action Force for me are the boast of four stories (so they must be rather short) and the use of the phrase “another outing” (oh dear, a reprint).

Thundercats is also a new entry for the fortnightly comic and it sounds more like the earlier editions once more. A fully British line up too. We’ve got a new comic advert this week as well for another brand new fortnightly. At least in theory. In reality it never appeared and that was only one half of the confusion that occurred when I saw this promo way back in 1989.

A brand new TV series and a brand new comic to accompany it? And of a story I enjoyed as a child too? I was in. I asked my newsagents every week if they knew when it’d be out and I trawled the listings in the family TV Times over and over, week after week, convinced it had to be somewhere in there. Neither appeared. It’s only decades later for blog research that I found out what had happened.

ITV decided to hold the series back for the summer, so with no accompanying telly show we weren’t going to rush out and buy a new comic of it, were we? All of the material created would end up in a graphic novel collection, The Marvel Bumper Comic and a Holiday Special, then the annual would appear later in the year. In the end it was the right call because ITV pulled it from their schedules pretty quickly after they started showing it. It was a big enough hit in the States to get three seasons though and it’s available on DVD under its original name, Crossbow if you fancy it.

That’s us for another week. Next time there’ll be an advert I’m sure will get some of you reminiscing, “no problem”.

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BETTY BOOP COMiC ADVERT

DRAGON’S CLAWS 9

WEEK 28 < > WEEK 30

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