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Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 25

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SATURDAY 14th JANUARY 1989

The first post-holidays issue of The Real Ghostbusters (with cover by Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood) and the first post-200th Transformers and Action Force (with its cover by Dougie Braithwaite and Dave again) were ready to welcome me to Saturday after the first full week of the new school term back in 1989.

The Real Ghostbusters image looks more like a new range of Action Force figures rather than our New York firehouse residents, and for once it refers to a strip inside rather than the prose story. Also inside, Ozbusters isn’t a tale set Down Under, it’s about Egon’s haunted dream in which he’s the tin man, Winston’s the scarecrow and Ray’s the cowardly lion. Can’t fault the imagination in that comic.

Part Three of Transformers’ epic Time Wars may have some printing errors across its pages resulting in some strange colours but that doesn’t blunt its impact one iota, although it’s almost upstaged by Larry Hama’s incredible Hush Job strip in the back up spot, which may have no dialogue but has plenty of drama! Both of my comics were absolute winners this week but what else did Marvel UK have to offer us? Let’s check the checklist.

Thundercats sounds like a regular issue, the likes of which fans enjoyed for most of its run, until that “games and fun” bit at least. The comic’s relaunch for a younger audience was probably inspired by the success of The Real Ghostbusters, even if Marvel’s top-seller didn’t have to rely on such gimmicks. Some of the best issues of Death’s Head and Dragon’s Claws were covered last week, leaving only our ‘Don’t Miss’ comic.

Action Force Monthly lasted 16 issues, so technically longer than the weekly time-wise, and it and its weekly always sounded great. Especially now that I’m reading the G.I. Joe originals I must make it my mission to get caught up with all of the UK stories too. Finally, our only new comic advertisement this week can’t make its mind up whether it even is a comic!

I was never a fan of the Betty Boop cartoons growing up, but many were and I remember she was always on the telly, her merchandise seemed popular and of course she popped up in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It’s strange to find out there were only two new cartoon specials in the 80s and the rest were reruns. She’s even had a Broadway musical which only closed in 2025!

I don’t remember this comic/card combo at all, I didn’t even recall the adverts when reading these comics again all these years later. Do you remember Betty’s Valentine special? Did you perhaps receive it from a secret admirer? Or send it to one? As usual, I’d love to hear from you in the comments or on socials, the links to which are just below.

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TRANSFORMERS 201 (Instagram)

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WEEK 24 < > WEEK 26

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Christmas, Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 23

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NEW YEAR’S EVE 1988

It feels fitting that this is our last comics post of the year. I’ll have a New Year’s message later with news of the blog and more in 2026, but as for comics the final issues of The Real Ghostbusters and The Transformers and Action Force are it, their official release date being this day way back in 1988.

Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood’s Slimer fronted a celebratory issue, New Years being something none of my other non-humour comics celebrated. But the Ghostbusters were based in New York where the ball drops, they couldn’t miss out on this. Best of all though, the results of a readers’ poll was presented in strip form with the team attending a dinner alongside the Marvel UK writers and artists in attendance. It’s genius stuff!

But it’s Art Wetherell and Dave’s Galvatron cover that’ll have fans reminiscing the most. The Time Wars had begun! This was my first big epic as a kid and it enthralled me for weeks; no one was safe from being killed off, and I do mean anyone. This would also be the last time we’d see that logo before the big change in seven days. More on that below, but first up what else did Marvel UK wrap up the year with?

Action Force Monthly #8 and Death’s Head #2 continued to entertain through the school holidays. What, you mean you only read your comics once and not multiple times between issues? I’m surprised The Real Ghostbusters isn’t the ‘Don’t Miss’ title, what with it being the only one celebrating what day it was, but instead Thundercats #90 takes that honour in what seems a rather random choice.

This week’s advert is actually the Next Issue promo from the back inside cover of Transformers, but one glance and you’ll understand why I just had to include it. I always loved it when my comics got a new look and this was a big one. I was still a newbie to the world of Transformers comics and looking at that new logo, coupled with that image and all of the contents to come the following week, I remember this page being a real thrill. I’d jumped on at just the right time!

I would eventually stay with the comic all the way to its conclusion with #332 so this logo became the de facto one for me and the issue was an incredible way to start the new year. Was it “The Ultimate Comic”? Pretty much. Even Lew Stringer’s strips were getting a crossover and hyped on the page.

With that, both 1988 and 2025 come to a close. As I said I’ll be back later on today to sign off for the year properly, then the blog’s first post for 2026 will be the next checklist. There’ll be new issues of the monthlies to find out about and no guesses for which comic would be the hot one to see in 1989.

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TRANSFORMERS 199 (Instagram)

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WEEK 22 < > WEEK 24

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 17

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SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER 1988

Ah, Saturday 19th November 1988. My parents and I were about to travel by bus somewhere and I asked if I could get the latest issue of The Transformers after my mum had bought me the recent Christmassy Winter Special while I was off sick from school. Luckily, my newsagent hadn’t sent back the unsold copies of the previous week’s yet so on this date 37 years ago I very happily read both of my first weekly issues.

Andrew Wildman’s cover was so exciting to me after reading the issue leading into it and it revealed my friend’s mammoth Scorponok toy as the villain behind the scheme. That was so much fun. Even though it’s a small scale story compared to others I’d end up reading, it felt so much more grown up than the cartoon with its gritty human characters and what felt like a real threat to the Autobots. Ca$h and Car-nage! remains a favourite to this day.

Brian Williamson’s cover to The Real Ghostbusters introduced us to an issue that contained haunted tongues but no checklist. Yup, unfortunately both our comics were just too packed to make room for our weekly shopping list, even though it was listed on the contents page of Ghostbusters. Instead, the Dragon’s Claws strip advert was in its place and in the pages of my second Transformers I was introduced to someone else via a similar page.

Written by Simon Furman as always, with art by Death’s Head regular strip artist Bryan Hitch and coloured by Steve White, every Marvel UK fan remembers this particular advert. It perfectly sums up the monthly comic. Action, adventure and a mean looking protagonist, all undermined by a ridiculous scenario and a hilarious sense of humour. If you haven’t seen this before I hope it makes up for the lack of a checklist this week. I’m sure it does.

It wasn’t the only one-page strip advert the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent received and you can check out the other one at the link below. The checklist returns next week when there’ll be snow on the blog’s logo because we’ll be in full Christmas swing, so appropriately enough there’ll be a couple of annuals adverts too. See you then.

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TRANSFORMERS 193 (Instagram)

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DEATH’S HEAD: iN REAL TiME

WEEK 16 < > WEEK 18

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 15

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SATURDAY 5th NOVEMBER 1988

I always enjoyed stories with Janine Melnitz at the centre of them in Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters, but as much as Brian Williamson’s and Cam Smith’s cover excited me when I picked it up from the newsagent as a kid, right now that Art Wetherell and Stephen Baskerville cover to The Transformers and Action Force is the business!

Skullgrin battling his outer Pretender shell? What’s not to enjoy here? A much maligned story by fans took things up a notch and even included the return of my favourite human character (as in, the one I loved to hate), Circuit Breaker. This was also the final issue before I originally became a reader. What an issue to miss out on. Well, that’s been rectified now, that’s what counts. But it wasn’t like The Real Ghostbusters were slacking for ten-year-old me this week.

For the only time in all of Ghostbusters mythos we got the origin story of Slimer thanks to some time travelling on Peter’s part. It seems the green spud was a food-loving (surprise, surprise) King who beheaded jesters who didn’t make him laugh. Although, Egon does say this is only one of his past incarnations, just in case the cartoon ever had their own version (they never did). There’s also a very Fleetway-like strip that sees a baby ghost transmogrifying the team into toddlers, drawn by John Geering no less.

But the big news this week was clear for all to see. The first of many yellow boxes pointing out the big comic for the week was given to the premiere issue of Death’s Head, of course. It was a superb debut, full of action and plenty of comedy. I have a distinct memory of this issue and reading it in bed while off sick from school, such was the impact it made even my greying memory cells remember that. But he wasn’t the only highlight this week 37 years ago.

Action Force had returned to The Transformers and #6 of their own comic was “still on sale” (a space to fill on the checklist?) and I never knew the UK comic had their own exclusive prequel to the cartoon movie. I must check that out sometime. There was also plenty of drama in Dragon’s Claws #6 for Tanya (Dragon’s wife) and Mercy, so it’s unforgivable neither of these brilliant female characters got any mention in the checklist.

As you can see Death’s Head had certainly arrived! The front cover to his first issue made for the perfect advert across much of the publisher’s range and Transformers even ran a little extra half-page featurette. However, judging by the introduction the advert was probably meant to have been the strip version, a brilliant one-page tale you’ll see soon in this series.

Finally, celebrating 25 years of Doctor Who? The series I watched the 60th anniversary specials of a couple of years ago? Oh man, talk about feeling old! I do love writing this blog. I know it’s dedicated to classic comics, but ho boy there can be times when it suddenly hits me just how much time has passed. The fact it’s a Doctor Who advert that’s the culprit this time is not lost on me. I think I need a lie down. See you next week!

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DEATH’S HEAD 1

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WEEK 14 < > WEEK 16

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 12

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SATURDAY 15th OCTOBER 1988

Were you thirsty on the morning of Saturday 15th October 1988? You could’ve grabbed a free can of Tango with your copy of Marvel UK’s The Transformers and Visionaries #188! You could’ve used it to cool yourself off from Jeff Anderson’s hot cover, or after lumping the hefty 19th issue of the publisher’s The Real Ghostbusters all the way home.

There were no extra pages behind Brian Williamson and Dave Elliott’s cover but the whole issue was printed on matte paper that had a lovely look (giving the false impression of the paper really soaking up the solid black inks) and heavier feel to it. Inside, there was a musical strip starring The Ghostie Boys backed up with a look at spiritual musical instruments in Spengler’s Spirit Guide, such as the Nullify Flute which could cancel out all music but offered “no protection against Tiffany”.

Jeff’s cover depicted a scene from Firebug, a one-off story needed for scheduling reasons but which (like most such tales in Transformers) was great. It had an original and honest-to-gosh happy ending that raised a smile, accompanied by a reader on the letters page saying such UK strips were intelligent while the American ones were stupid! Dreadwind scolds him for being harsh, “After all, we do see fit to showcase their stories in our Transformers comic.” How kind. So, what else was up for grabs?

Thundercats (already minus the Galaxy Rangers) changed up a bit, with an emphasis on appealing to younger readers with the extras first, strip second, and the beginning of what seemed like endless frequency changes. So Count Duckula joined the Marvel Bumper Comic? Now that’s yet another reason to add it to the (long) list of potential real time read throughs on the OiNK Blog.

Having now started watching Doctor Who from the (very) beginning I can better appreciate the magazine’s focus on classic tales such as Keys of Marinus here, complete with its scuba gear-wearing ‘aliens’, although an interview with my first ever Doctor would’ve sealed the deal for me anyway. I never realised Alf’s monthly lasted even this long and below is the advert of his I mentioned last week that made us giggle while not actually featuring the titular star.

This was typical of a few of the adverts for his comic which told us nothing about it but did include a surreal joke showcasing the humour we could find inside (I assume). It may sound strange nowadays, but there was no regular Marvel UK comic starring the classic Super Heroes at the time. After Spider-Man and Zoids and before The Incredible Hulk Presents fans had to make do with specials and annuals, such as the one advertised here.

Next week a new addition to the Marvel fold mentioned above gets their own winter special, and I’m aghast I never picked it up! You can find out who I missed out on when their advert appears here in seven days alongside another checklist. Until then, why don’t you let me know if you remember reading any of the issues above by leaving a comment here or on the socials below? G’wan!

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TRANSFORMERS 188 (Instagram)

TRANSFORMERS & ViSiONARiES: PART TWO

WEEK 11 < > WEEK 13

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