Tag Archives: Dave Harwood

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 68

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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BACK TO WEEK 67

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 67

SATURDAY 4th NOVEMBER 1989

The return of two huge baddies this week on the covers of our main Marvel UK comics, although there’s a rather big difference in vibe. Anthony Williams, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell were behind the huge, lumbering Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for The Real Ghostbusters, while Megatron and his shadowy alter ego were drawn by Andrew Wildman for Transformers and Action Force.

The reason behind two Megatrons was that a previous plot point in the UK strips had gone unresolved for a long time, namely whether his mind was his own or that of the Cybertron-based commander, Lord Straxus. With writer Simon Furman now working for Marvel on both sides of the Atlantic and given his plans for future stories, any original plan he had for resolving this was brought forward into this two-parter. It did feel rushed after all this time and it was a bit disappointing after the brilliant set up, but at least long-time readers had it addressed rather than ignored. Of course, as a kid I hadn’t read the original storylines so this was all very confusing!

Inside The Real Ghostbusters was a story called These Spooks Were Made For Walking, a fun play on words for a tale about haunted shoes forcing people into long runs around New York. It’s not a reprint, but there was a previous strip some time back in the same comic called These Boots Were Made For Haunting. The plot? Haunted boots forcing people into long runs around New York. Hmm. Between this and the recent reprints was the comic running out of ideas 19 months into its run? (No pun intended.) Oh well, at least the rest of the issue was completely original and didn’t include more returning spooks from the movie like it did just ten weeks ago. Ahem.

Elsewhere, Doctor Who Magazine leading with pin-ups might sound strange in hindsight, given how they’d be considered as nothing more than space-fillers today, but you’ve got to remember these were the days before widespread internet, so pin ups were often the only way fans could enjoy stills from older episodes. I’ll forgive The Punisher for the misplaced apostrophe (I’m sorry, when it’s used like that it really bugs me) because the quick description of the stories more often than not make me want to add it to the blog’s list of potential real time read throughs. Even if it’s just to find out more about The ‘Nam, which as the back up is criminally underserved on the checklists.

The Incredible Hulk continues to present other stories he himself probably wouldn’t give a hoot about but which British Marvel fans would hopefully lap up. In fact, reading this checklist you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a range of titles in rude health, that Marvel UK were riding high. Unfortunately, one would be cancelled by Christmas (actually, right at Christmas!), with another only a few months behind. Oh well, at least that could make them easier to collect the complete sets of for the OiNK Blog, right? “Every cloud” and all that.

Next week we’re checklist-less again for the last time. In its place is an advert for a graphic novel that felt very out of place in the pages of my comics, although it may have been of interest to my mum! Plus, some insight into the behind-the-scenes of one of our regular comics from a Marvel UK editor and writer! See you in seven.

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WEEK 66 < > WEEK 68

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 66

SATURDAY 28th OCTOBER 1989

Just a quickie this week. Kicking things off as usual with the covers for The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers and Action Force and, unlike last year, the former was actually marking the occasion of Halloween, as it really should’ve every year. Slimer is drawn by Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell, the attack on the Autobot Ark is the work of Jeff Anderson.

Medic Ratchet, who was always a favourite character of mine in the early days of the Transformers comic, was going through something of a mental breakdown this week thanks to the Decepticon Micromasters controlling the bodies of his fallen comrades. He was always one of the better developed characters. In the exclusive UK strip one of the best artists at getting real character into these toys was Andrew Wildman. This week, Thunderwing attacked the chilled out (and ill-prepared) Autobots on the Ark and was announced as Decepticon leader after the successful mayhem and destruction. Let the games begin!

The Real Ghostbusters actually contained an honest-to-gosh reprint from an earlier issue this time and as a kid this really annoyed me (unlike Transformers which repeated some series from before I was a reader). Thankfully, they’d soon be replaced with American imports and the rest of the comic was always guaranteed quality. In particular, this week there was a surprise sequel story to an earlier strip about a haunted electric razor and the chaos this had caused for Peter. Both stories were among the funniest the comic produced, not that you’d know it was a funny comic from the advert appearing for the first time in other Marvel UK titles this week.

Then again, any fans of the movie and the cartoon should know what they’re going to get! This image was drawn by regular Real Ghostbusters artist, Anthony Larcombe and taken from one of his earlier strips. It would become synonymous with the comic for the rest of its run, as it was used in this promo for a long time throughout the publisher’s range. From what I recall, this dramatic entry into a client’s property to bust a supposedly terrifying monster was actually happening in Janine’s apartment where demons had taken possession of her mirror. I seem to recall it was more afraid of her than the ‘busters!

As you can see, there was no checklist in either of these comics this week. It was out there somewhere, possibly in the pages of the others I haven’t collected. It was mentioned on the editorial page of The Real Ghostbusters but where it should’ve been we were met with a half-page advert for The Incredible Hulk Presents instead, which you can check out in last week’s post as it happens.

The list reappears next week (for one week anyway) with details of no less than five comics, and our two lead weeklies have covers representing the return of two big baddies. One terrifying, one cuddly and delicious. See you in seven.

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THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS RETROSPECTiVE

WEEK 65 < > WEEK 67

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 65

SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER 1989

I’ve got a bumper selection of nostalgia for you this week, with no less than five comics on the checklist and three contemporary comics adverts. Well, two are versions of each other but they still count. We kick things off as per usual with the covers of the two comics they’re all being pulled from.

Once again Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell team up for The Real Ghostbusters and I’ve noticed in the way I’ve taken this photo that the sheen on the top-left clearly shows the higher paper grade both comics were enjoying around this time. For their outer 16 pages anyway. The funniest moment inside came from a tenuous link between a ghost pilot and dimensional planes in Spengler’s Spirit Guide, a page that was always guaranteed to raise a giggle.

Geoff Senior’s cover for Transformers and Action Force hinted at the return from the depths of the terrifying Thunderwing, but not before the American story continued to build towards the return of four classic characters in their new Pretender forms, namely Jazz, Bumblebee, Grimlock and Starscream. It was such an exciting time for me as a reader, the US and UK strips so simpatico with one another in each issue; side-by-side rather than the comic alternating between the two. Having four fan favourite characters I’d missed out on from earlier issues was the icing on the cake.

I mentioned before how the new look checklist would allow more comics to be covered upon occasion and this week is one such occasion. Ignore the listing of two strips as reprints for The Real Ghostbusters (possibly putting potential readers off), as discussed last time this was a mistake again. That Action Force story briefly mentioned in the entry for Transformers was superb, with the team disavowed while behind enemy lines. I’ve got great memories of that one with its superb original villains.

The cover to The Sleeze Brothers’ penultimate issue saw the duo’s idiotic faces coming out of an overflowing toilet, setting the scene perfectly for a misadventure in the sewers. Check it out in more depth in the full review at the link further below. The 13th edition of The Punisher began another new story that could easily have been set today, while the Thundercats got such a perfunctory description you have to wonder why the writer of the checklist even bothered.

On to our adverts. In this week’s Transformers the Deception Flamefeather came off the worse for wear thanks to his wannabe leader Thunderwing, but he got the star power treatment on the advert for the latest special.

Jeff Anderson’s pencils and Stephen Baskerville’s inks for the hugely enjoyable Enemy Action story were the stars of Collected Comics 14, one of the best reprint specials of the run which saw the Seacons, Firecons and Sparkler Minibots (the latter two groups based on pull-back-and-release toys that produced little sparks that were so much fun for us kids) up against none other than the always-entertaining Galvatron. Along with a superb annual story and some new A-Z fact-files it was a great special to see in the darker days with.

The other adverts were full-page and half-page variations for the new Incredible Hulk Presents, a weekly which saw the green one’s strip backed up with a variety of other tales from Action Force, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones. As a kid, the title star never appealed and his strips were the least interesting of those advertised, so I never tried the comic out. It didn’t last very long, just 12 issues and it ended one week before the checklists did, just two-and-a-half months after the premiere issue.

It had actually been launched the week before this but for some reason hadn’t made the cut for the checklists, despite there being plenty of room for it last time. I always thought it was a strange mix, what with Action Force and Doctor Who already having strips elsewhere. Although, apparently the Doctor’s stories here were brand new and would be reprinted in Doctor Who Magazine later. With four strips for what seemed like disparate audiences no wonder it didn’t last, becoming just another of a myriad of new comics launched by Marvel UK in 1988 and 1989 that disappeared quickly.

Next week, for the first time in 36 weeks there’ll be no checklist. Instead, one of our main comics gets an advert for those who were somehow unaware of it, or who maybe just needed a poke to buy one of the best comics around at the time. It’ll be here in seven days. Will you?

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THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 5

WEEK 64 < > WEEK 66

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 64

SATURDAY 14th OCTOBER 1989

It took the talented trio of Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell to produce the week’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters, while Andrew Wildman had to cope all on his lonesome to knock out this fantastic front page for Transformers and Action Force with some funny hidden gems in there (a toaster, bike pedal and a UK plug?).

At last the New York team got the same paper upgrade the Cybertronians had been enjoying on-and-off for a while. Speaking of things finally happening, that Pharaoh story mentioned in week 59’s checklist saw the light of day, but now of course Spengler’s Spirit Guide no longer matched up. A child’s letter questioned the science behind the naming of their Proton Packs and for once the comic gave a considered, serious response! Again, this issue was all-new but the checklist describes some stories as reprints. There could be a reason for this, one which we may get a definitive answer to on the blog in the future.

First, that Transformers cover represented a very funny strip also drawn by Andrew. It involved a double-dealing ‘bot and The Mechannibals in a tense stand off followed by a magnificent 80s-style bar brawl, but the highlight was (letter answerer) Dreadwind and his partner, Darkwing. Drunk on dodgy oil after the failure of their most recent mission several months back, the story jumped back and forth between their slurred speech and feeling-sorry-for-themselves comedy in every left-hand panel, while the drama and action played out in every right-hand panel. It’s hilarious stuff and indicative of the kind of thing the comic was perfect at in this three-story format. It also broke up all of that tension and darkness from previous weeks nicely.

As you can see, this week’s checklist was light on quantity but the comics featured made up for that in quality. Not only was the UK Transformers story magnificent this week, the imported US stories changed hands, with Brit Simon Furman now writing for both sides of the Atlantic. Hasbro had brought back four toys from the original line up as Pretenders and this was the beginning of Simon’s wonderful take on their reissue. From here until the end (in January 1992) Simon would do a magnificent job of creating back stories for any toy release they could come up with.

Also, check out the link below to see Lew Stringer introduce Dara O’Briain in Combat Colin! (Not really.)

The only other new point of interest this week was the latest issue of The Punisher and, while the comic itself did a better job of it (from what I’m told), I’m really not comfortable with how these checklists have generalised certain things (groups, historical moments, plot points) at times. It’ll be interesting to see how the comic itself portrayed these stories. In the meantime, you can look forward to an absolute bumper crop of goodies in next week’s post with five comics on the checklist and three new adverts. Well, two really. Well, technically three. You’ll see what I mean in seven.

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WEEK 63 < > WEEK 65

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 63

SATURDAY 7th OCTOBER 1989

Another pretty generic cover for The Real Ghostbusters comic this week, even without a free gift. It’s still a nice piece by John Marshall and Dave Harwood though, even if it is put to shame somewhat by Geoff Senior’s fantastic Transformers and Action Force cover featuring the Mayhem Attack Squad!

Geoff’s art really shone this week thanks to Marvel UK upping the paper quality again, the outer 16 pages adding a gorgeous gloss and weight to the comic, it was that good. Geoff also draws the black and white UK strip and it was an action-packed few pages after the tension building the past few weeks. Dare I say it but I think it looked even more stunning in black and white thanks to the dark nature of the story and the atmosphere Geoff brought to it with his inks. Maybe it’s due to the lack of colour that my eyes are picking out more details or perhaps Geoff was really able to go to town for the same reason. Simply incredible stuff and you can check out some highlights at the link below.

Inside The Real Ghostbusters it’s all brand new material again after some reprints, which the checklist gets wrong. Again. The list really hasn’t been working in this comic’s favour for a while now. With the final part of the multi-issue competition the editor finally decided it’s time to show us some photos and gave details of the plethora of prizes up for grabs. That list in full: a trike, jogging bottoms, hooded sweatshirt, a parka, a visor, a watch, a ghostly make-up kit, the new annual, a Ghostball, more books and book/cassette packs. Quite the haul! Not sure why I never entered it. Perhaps I didn’t want to be lumbered with the trike or make-up.

A quick glance of the (colour) checklist and the only other new entry was #11 of The Punisher weekly. Reading his bit I’d have been concerned about its worldviews being a bit restricted, a bit too 80s, if it weren’t for who the baddies were the last few weeks, so I know that’s not the case. I’m very aware of how certain hateful people in America wear the comic’s skull motif nowadays and how ridiculed they are for completely missing the point of the character and the stories he starred in. I’ll have to find out for myself one of these days. The Sleeze Brothers’ trip to an outer space Bates Motel continued to bring up the rear and that’s yer lot for this week.

Yup, no new adverts to feature this time. In fact, not only do next week’s comics not feature any either, but the checklist has even less contents than normal! There’s a Transformers cover that brings back some funny memories though, so we’ll reminisce about that instead in seven days.

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THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 4

WEEK 62 < > WEEK 64

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 62

SATURDAY 30th SEPTEMBER 1989

Today 37 years ago Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood teamed up again for The Real Ghostbusters and another cover promoting a gift with a somewhat generic image. Although, I did like the way the logo sticker was incorporated. Meanwhile, Andrew Wildman returns to Transformers and Action Force with a thrilling cover for a thrilling strip.

It wouldn’t be long until The Real Ghostbusters began importing American strips as their back up. The first would be the Ghostbusters II adaptation and in the meantime the comic seemed to be treading water, already relying on reprints just a year-and-a-half into its run. As a kid I hung on in there but I’ll admit I was close to cancelling my order at this stage if the reprints didn’t disappear. This week it was another from the first annual. Did they think less readers would catch on if it came from the book? Even the new story wasn’t groundbreaking, with ghostly doubles of the team being something the comic had already done more than once (as had the cartoon).

Decepticon Pretender Beast Carnivac continued to be an intriguing character. He was a Decepticon trying his best to do the right thing but his programming was so ingrained that he’d often do the right thing through some very dark means. Here he learned about guilt the hard way after deserting some human soldiers to save his own (metallic) hide. Lee Sullivan’s strip art really was second-to-none here. At the link below check out the final panel of the story in which Octopunch has Carnivac captured. This was top tier Transformers!

Elsewhere on this week’s checklist, “brain-washed refugees” actually referred to the Christian followers of an evangelical-type leader as they landed on foreign shores in The Punisher. I doubt many such-minded people today would see the irony. The fourth issue of The Sleeze Brothers’ six-issue run was one of my favourites. I missed out on it decades ago and only put that right in 2024 so the checklist didn’t really do its hype man job for me. That was my own fault, although the description here does sound a bit too run-of-the-mill for that comic. Read its entry above and then pop over to its full review at the link below to see just how different it really was!

One advert this week and it’s for another magazine rather than Marvel UK’s bread and butter. I’ll admit I’ve never been a huge Star Trek fan. I did enjoy a few of the movies as a teenager when they were on the telly but once they were over I kind of just moved on. A friend of mine has recently been trying to get me to watch Picard, despite the fact I never watched The Next Generation (although it always looked the most appealing of all the series). At the moment I’m on an umpteenth rewatch of Babylon 5 so Jean-Luc will have to wait for now.

We’re back to a little advert wasteland next week but the new look checklist will be in colour. Um, will that be enough to entice you back? I’ll guess I’ll find out in seven.

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THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 4

WEEK 61 < > WEEK 63

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 61

SATURDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 1989

John Marshall got a break thanks to Brian Williamson but Dave Harwood was still slogging away on the latest cover for The Real Ghostbusters this week in 1989, while Geoff Senior supplied us with superb Pretender Beasts action for Transformers and Action Force.

The cover for The Real Ghostbusters was another promoting the free gift rather than any story, just like last week’s and a recent one for Transformers back in week 57. It was the same type of gift as the latter, too. According to the checklist there are two reprints in the comic, but in reality (again) there was only one, taken from the annual we all received just the previous Christmas. They really hadn’t been the best at marketing this comic over the past few weeks, had they? Also, only 68 issues and one-and-a-half-years in and it was already relying on reprints? It was Marvel UK’s top-selling comic by this stage so this was a real disappointment, albeit a temporary situation.

In the UK Transformers strip we were reintroduced to Decepticon Pretender Beast, Carnivac. A friend of mine owned the toy at the time and I thought it was awesome, so it was a shame he’d cancelled his comic order not long before this. Joining the Autobot Wreckers and forming The Survivors (of both the Time Wars and Underbase sagas), he wasn’t necessarily evil but his programming was still Decepticon in nature. This made for a really interesting character over the following months; one of my very favourite arcs from the whole run actually. Simon Coleby’s art was superb too, with real weight behind the action scenes. Any fan should check it out at the link below.

The Real Ghostbusters finally told readers what the prizes were in that multi-issue competition, namely book and cassette packs, “ghostly” make-up sets, watches, Ghostballs and Rough Riders tricycles. A rather random mashup if ever there was one. More Christians-as-baddies storylines in this week’s The Punisher makes it seem rather contemporary in our modern 2026 world, never mind the 80s, and below that is a surprise entry for the Thundercats.

I say it’s a surprise because we haven’t seen them in a while. In fact, their celebratory (I’m assuming) 100th issue never featured on the checklists at all, which was rather strange. It’s also a surprise because many people I’ve spoken to on the blog’s socials were sure it was cancelled before it hit the big one-oh-oh. In actual fact, it would continue in its monthly guise for a while longer and revert to fortnightly with #105, eventually lasting until #129. Given how a formerly weekly comic becoming monthly usually signalled its death knell, kudos to the cats for continuing to fight the good fight for so long.

Two ads this week, the first for a Slimer spin-off which I didn’t buy as a child. We never got the Slimer TV show here in the UK (shown as part of a Real Ghostbusters hour-long slot in the States with the main show) and so the strips in this were weird to me as a kid. It had a childish art style, he had a bunch of human friends and a whole life away from the ‘busters, and in general Slimer was very different to the one I was enjoying in the weekly comic. This monthly of American import strips would last 13 issues before merging with the main comic, where I’d ignore the strips.

Our other advert shows all of the publisher’s range of Christmas annuals for 1989. Unbelievably, despite doing such a brilliant job of showcasing many of their books with individual promos in 1988, this was the one and only advert they produced for ’89. I don’t know why they didn’t bother doing the same thing (or a variation thereof) from the year before. The Transformers and Real Ghostbusters annuals were superb and deserved more publicity, and I would’ve loved to have found out more about Action Force and Dino-Riders, but unfortunately all we got were these teeny tiny cover images, so I never asked Santa for any more than my regulars.

More cover gifts and brutal action for our two main comics next week and a certain sci-fi franchise gets the magazine treatment. See you then.

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WEEK 60 < > WEEK 62

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 60

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 (and this was the same image used for #1). 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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WEEK 59 < > WEEK 61

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 59

SATURDAY 9th SEPTEMBER 1989

John Marshall and Dave Harwood laughed it up with their cover to the latest issue of Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters, and Geoff Senior’s stunning cover to Transformers and Action Force shocked us all! Two great comics on sale today back in 1989.

It seems there was some degree of miscommunication going on within the walls of Marvel UK as far as The Real Ghostbusters was concerned. Last week the checklist told us we should be happy with two reprint strips but everything inside was brand new. This week, we’re promised a tale called Curse That Pharaoh and as a nut for Ancient Egypt I was disappointed to see no such strip inside, despite Spengler’s Spirit Guide (which usually tied in with at least one of the stories) being a very funny guide to Egyptian burial tombs.

After last week’s blip, the British Transformers story was not only back on form, it was brilliant. An alien discovered Optimus Prime’s long-lost body, which had been jettisoned into space about 130 issues ago! This was the beginning of the UK’s preludes to what would become the epic Matrix Quest in the US strips. Writing for both sides of the Atlantic, Simon Furman was perfectly placed to give UK readers exclusive prequel stories, extra character development, foreshadowing for future events and more that would make our comic even more epic. A hugely atmospheric beginning too.

There were no new contemporary comic adverts this week again so you’ll have to make do with this checklist all on its own. The monthly Sleeze Brothers entry from last week is repeated but the rest are for weeklies so are all new. I can’t help feeling more could’ve been made of the Deathbringer description though. Then again, little did us kids know just how fantastic the following years of Transformers were going to be, and that it had all begun right before our eyes.

For The Punisher entry we must firstly remember this was 1989. It was a very different time, although with hindsight that’s still no excuse for the clichéd way in which South America is described. It’s not as bad as last week’s incredibly sexist Transformers story but still, put that and this checklist together and it doesn’t exactly scream of people who have seen much of the world outside of their male-dominated office in England. I guess that’s part and parcel of looking back on 80s comics though, in that we’re reminded of just how far we’ve come since.

It’s all change next week with a brand new look to the checklist that’ll eventually allow for more comics to take centre stage. Take a gander at the title graphic of every one of these posts for a clue (or to jog your memory) of what’s to come. Also next week, one of Marvel UK’s regulars reaches a landmark 10th anniversary! See you in seven.

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TRANSFORMERS 235 (Instagram)

THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 3

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