Tag Archives: Geoff Senior

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

BACK TO WEEK 64

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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 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 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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THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 3

WEEK 58 < > WEEK 60

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 58

SATURDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER 1989

There was no let-up from John Marshall and Dave Harwood’s lengthy series of covers for The Real Ghostbusters this week in 1989, while Geoff Senior’s superb drawing for Transformers and Action Force doesn’t make up for the mess within.

In the former, while Egon waxed lyrical about ghosts of long dead plants in his Spengler’s Spirit Guide, the checklist entry for The Real Ghostbusters promised readers “a chance to revisit” two strips. That was a dreaded phrase, one we all hated, as it singled reprints. Another chance to read? But we never threw out our issues so we could reread them anytime! As it turned out this was a rather big error on the part of the checklist because everything inside this issue was brand new. Whoopsie.

As a kid I always felt it cringeworthy that the one and only female Transformer had to suffer the indignity of having pink lipstick. Previous to this issue one reader had actually written in to complain about this and asked why there weren’t more women robots. The response? We had Arcee, that would do. This origin strip for poor Arcee is demeaning and incredibly patronising. An awful editorial to start the issue doesn’t help either and overall everything comes across as nothing more than sexist drivel. It’s a world away from modern Transformers comics I’m glad to say. Thankfully Action Force and a laugh-out-loud Combat Colin from Lew Stringer more than made up for these five pages of garbage.

Formatting and grammar mistakes aside, the checklist detailed winning comics to make up for the Marvel UK top-seller’s misstep. However, the ‘Don’t Miss…’ box had gone the way of the dodo for the remainder of the series, meaning the brand new issue of The Sleeze Brothers had to slum it with the rest of the comics. A shame, because every issue of that short series was an event when I read them for the first time a couple of years ago, so they each deserved all the hype the checklists could muster. I have to say though, I don’t envy the writer who had to summarise any of The Sleeze Brothers stories into one paragraph!

The sixth issue of The Punisher gets a rather grin-worthy summary of its own. Listing off such adult themes as just run-of-the-mill everyday occurrences definitely would’ve piqued interest in the younger readers. It certainly did for me but my reserve list was already full and there were just too many other comics to sample first issues of back in 1988 and 1989. It’s still possible The Punisher could make it to the blog to see what I missed out on, but then again I’ve also thought that for The Marvel Bumper Comic and Action Force and Spider-Man and Zoids and…

There’s a shocking cover for Transformers next week that really took me by surprise when I first saw it all those years ago. It accompanies the last checklist you’ll see in this format. Changes are afoot. See you in seven. 

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WEEK 57 < > WEEK 59

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 53

SATURDAY 29th JULY 1989

At the time of this post we’re one day away from the year anniversary of these posts and it’s a particularly brilliant checklist this week! First though, check out John Marshall and Dave Harwood’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters which reminded me of the lacklustre second movie, and Geoff Senior’s exciting Dinobot cover to Transformers and Action Force.

Not mentioned in the editorial of the former is a multi-issue competition to win a bunch of toys. Readers had to design a new monster for the team to fight. I designed a version of their HQ building that had been taken over by Gozer but I never sent it in. Guess what someone else across the water in England completely randomly also designed and ultimately won the competition with? Damn it. On the letters page a reader has gone to the trouble of writing in to ask why Winston had a moustache in the film but not the cartoon, only for Peter to reply explaining what razors are.

In Transformers, the UK black and white story was drawn by Simon Coleby and it suited his style perfectly! The lack of colour also brought a darker tone to some of the storytelling and settings. For example, this tale was set somewhere called Slaughter City, a place full of dead, partly decapitated Decepticons strung up everywhere as a warning. Glorious stuff that was exclusive to us this side of The Pond. Wonderful! There was also news of the next week’s story and I just might read that issue again next time, as it’s one of my absolute favourites!

The Sleeze Brothers got a funny description in this week’s checklist and it really was a belter of a story, but then again every single one of their issues was a classic. With just the one, long story their comic gets a lot more detail than Transformers or The Real Ghostbusters, because those two had so much content to list off. However, a new weekly comic was about to give the monthlies a run for their money in terms of story length.

I bought the first issue of The Punisher but can’t remember if I owned any more. Having such a huge comic as a weekly was awesome. Even though the following issues would be half the size they were still thicker than the usual Marvel UK weeklies. I remember putting the badge on my schoolbag and I loved the RoboCop movie adaptation back up which was fun to read. While I don’t usually like movie adaptations I’d only seen the film once and, due to its contents, it wasn’t something I was going to get a chance to watch again at home for a while!

No new adverts this week, not even for the release of a brand new comic. Frank Castle would have to wait a month to get a bit of solo promotion. Then again, the checklists did that for them, a handful of comics at a time. These lists told us a lot more than most of the adverts anyway. See you in seven.

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THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 2

WEEK 52 < > WEEK 54

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 51

SATURDAY 15th JULY 1989

Geoff Senior’s Transformers and Action Force cover somewhat overshadows John Marshall’s and Dave Harwood’s one for The Real Ghostbusters. That’s obviously not a criticism of the latter. How can you compete with Geoff drawing Unicron?

With a reprint of a superb Death’s Head story I’d never read before and the return of the God of Chaos from Transformers: The Movie, young me was absolutely thrilled with this issue! This was when I really fell in love with the black and white art thanks to the opening splash page, which got across the size and power of Unicron much more effectively than most of the colour movie adaptation did. Drawn by Simon Coleby and Cam Smith (what a team!), check it out at the link at the bottom of this post.

The Real Ghostbusters’ front page to #58 would be reprinted as the cover for the final issue, #192. Its first outing was for a fun story inside which was basically a retread of (or should we say ”inspired by”) Eddie Murphy movie, The Golden Child. Thankfully, the story concentrated on monsters from Eastern Mythology rather than making a joke out of a people’s history. After last issue’s abomination that’s a blessed relief!

Action Force Monthly nabbed the top spot this week 37 years ago. With the gift of hindsight (as well as just living in the modern world) it seems the good guys may have been on the wrong side of things in their latest issue, and in Transformers their story wasn’t exactly hyped compared to the other strips, was it? At least there was an interesting-sounding Snake Eyes story to back things up.

The Sleeze Brothers took a week off from grabbing all the checklist glory and Death’s Head’s penultimate issue hung around a bit too, but still doesn’t make it to ‘unmissable’ level. With no new comics adverts and a rather basic update to the checklist you’d be mistaken for thinking it was a quiet week on UK comics shelves for Marvel UK, but that Transformers issue does a lot of heavy lifting. I may be biased but it really should’ve got the yellow box!

In fact, Transformers would go from strength-to-strength from here on (not that it wasn’t already superb, of course), so expect a lot of excited text from me over the remainder of the year. There’ll be more of that next week, in fact. See you then.

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DEATH’S HEAD 9

WEEK 50 < > WEEK 52

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 48

SATURDAY 24th JUNE 1989

On this day back in 1989 Marvel UK spoiled us with two ace covers for their top selling comics. Anthony Williams and Nick Abadzis joined forces for a funny yet thrilling environmental message for The Real Ghostbusters, while Geoff Senior stunned us two weeks in a row with his Transformers and Action Force page.

Back in week 42 I mentioned how one of that week’s Real Ghostbusters stories was a bit strange because it went against the comic’s previous environmental messages. Well, here we are just six weeks on from that strip flying against the comic’s stance and thankfully things have been corrected once again. Elsewhere, Slimer comes to Peter’s rescue when he brings home a haunted takeaway and the Dead True story this week is all about the Mary Celeste (although no mention of it being the fault of the Daleks – if you know you know).

In Transformers’ UK story (part two of Aspects of Evil) we learn the time fracture of Time Wars has healed itself, but the only way it could do so was to make sure it never happened in the first place, meaning Galvatron never travelled back in time (despite that being the reprint elsewhere in this issue). Everything that happened before still happened, but at the same time won’t happen. Brilliant, mature storytelling that treated the children as intelligent readers while setting things up for the next few years of the comic.

After a few weeks of repeated highlights it’s all brand new editions for the checklist this week. Transformers gets a bit of a by-the-numbers description compared to the rest, and in hindsight starting a so-called ‘Chinese Trilogy’ with a story called The Take-Away Terror in The Real Ghostbusters is as clichéd as it gets. (That’s me being kind, because that’s the least of its problems.) Action Force Monthly’s latest issue lived up to its ‘European Missions’ subtitle when it was exported to the US, but it’s not just a new issue that’s bagged the top spot, it’s a whole new (mini) series.

After several months of teaser ads The Sleeze Brothers were finally here! I bought the first issue as a kid and loved it, but my fickle attention span didn’t last a month so I never bought any more, despite the creative team being some of my favourites from The Real Ghostbusters. However, that has since been corrected, just a couple of years ago in fact right here on the blog. A link to the first issue’s review is below and from there you can check out the rest in that comic’s own section of the site. It was unlike anything I’d ever read before, that one issue sticking in my mind for decades after the fact.

Last week I mentioned how the Marvel Bumper Comic hadn’t been seen on the checklist for months. Well, this week’s contemporary advert sees it return in a somewhat strange comics merger. Much like how the monthly Slimer comic’s merge into The Real Ghostbusters felt weird because he was already in the comic and thus it didn’t need the “and Slimer” in the title, alien Alf had already been in the Bumper Comic too. They could’ve just continued printing his strips in it and nothing would’ve felt any different. But with his own comic ending Marvel UK would’ve seen the marketing potential in acting like it was a ‘new’ addition.

Next week the checklist pretty much stays the same but given the quality of their new comic I’ll forgive them this once. There’ll also be a tiny black and white advert (there’ll be more monochrome ads as we continue thanks to Transformers) that somehow still packed a bigger punch than those full-page, full-colour Popeye and Tom & Jerry ads recently. See you in seven more.

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WEEK 47 < > WEEK 49

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 47

SATURDAY 17th JUNE 1989

There’s something strange (in the neighbourhood?) going on with the speech balloons on Brian Williamson’s and Dave Harwood’s The Real Ghostbusters cover, while the triumphant return of Geoff Senior to the front page of Transformers and Action Force heralded an exciting beginning inside.

A couple of weeks ago messed up speech was also main gag of the prose story and cover for The Real Ghostbusters, however this time it does so in a different way. Instead of nonsense, Egon’s and Winston’s speech patterns were swapped in a funny tale written by one of the comic’s best writers, Dan Abnett. Speaking of writers, Jane Fabian is a wonderful addition if her Super Bowl strip is anything to go by.

In Transformers, that fantastic cover heralds the start of UK stories written and drawn specifically for the new 5-page black and white format, and it shows! Aspects of Evil told five individual stories with a linking theme of the most evil characters in Transformers lore, beginning with one of the better developed Decepticons, Scorponok. It’s a packed little tale and Jeff Anderson really shows us what can be achieved without colour, upping the ante with his superb inking.

Why did our two top-selling comics get such a raw deal on the checklist?

On a quick separate note, this issue of Transformers and Action Force also contains the first advert for Hasbro’s new Pretender Classics range. The Pretenders had an outer shell (usually human-like or some horrible monster) with the Transformer inside. The Classics were all large humans wearing intricate sci-fi military gear but inside were characters such as Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jazz and Starscream. Their release really excited me as a child because I’d missed out on those toys as I became a fan after they’d originally been discontinued. So why did I never asked Santa for any?!

Back to the checklist and Thundercats steals the top position as it always does, albeit this time it’s taken until its second week on sale thanks to the Doctor. So the only new information here is for our two weeklies, everything else has already been covered. Although, it does beg the question of why our two top-selling comics got such a raw deal on the checklist. They may have always been first and second on the list but the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot seems to be given almost solely to the monthlies.

Transformers has only had that honour three times in nearly a year and the Ghostbusters once, with even its milestone 50th issue passed over while others such as Thundercats hogged the limelight, sometimes two weeks in a row with the same issue. Other comics such as the Marvel Bumper Comic disappeared completely from the checklist after only a few entries. As a promotional tool it’s a great idea but sometimes I do question its contents.

At least next week there’s a brand new, sleazy (or is that “Sleezy”) comic that readers definitely wouldn’t want to miss! See you then.

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DEATH’S HEAD 8

WEEK 46 < > WEEK 48

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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 33

SATURDAY 11th MARCH 1989

The Real Ghostbusters’ cover by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou doesn’t stand a chance this week when compared to the epic nature of that for Transformers and Action Force. They even had Geoff Senior render the scene for the front page! A shame then that it refers to next week’s issue instead.

Inside, Starscream does appear as a yellow ethereal being but for the most part he keeps to his normal proportions so he can get up close and personal with his victims. It’ll be next week before he’ll appear like the cover in some of the best artwork the US comic imports had before the UK team made the transfer. There are plenty of Starscream victims though with the death toll increasing exponentially, while Cobra Commander shows his softer side when he finds his long-lost son.

Across the way, some of toy company Kenner’s original ghost creations made their first appearances in this week’s issue, something they never did in the US comic or the cartoon series. Spengler’s Spirit Guide made me laugh with its details about Egyptian Pharaoh Halitoses Nuff, and a haunted cinema brings to life Mr Stay Puft (again), a vampire Charlie Chaplin and even Howard the Duck is spoofed, which he deserved after that movie!

The editorial in Transformers broke the sad news of the cancellation of Dragon’s Claws so it’s surprising to see it wasn’t given the ‘Don’t Miss’ slot on this week’s checklist. In fact, that honour isn’t given to any new comic, instead going to last week’s Thundercats again. You’ve got to start wondering what that slot is even for by this stage.

The description of the Transformers story, that Starscream is taking on not only the Autobots but all Transformers makes it sound unmissable too, so it could’ve got the top billing and I’d have been happy. Death’s Head #5 was also released this week but is for some reason completely absent here to make room for yet another repeated listing for Action Force Monthly. 

Hopefully more thought is put into next week’s checklist. What I do know is that new comics adverts return in seven days. As promised previously, they’ll make up for being absent these past few weeks because there are no less than three to transport you back to 1989 in The Mighty Marvel Checklist: Week 34. See you then!

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DRAGON’S CLAWS 10

WEEK 32 < > WEEK 34

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