Marvel reprints in British comics pre-Marvel UK

[GrowlerRob]

I'm trying to find information regarding the reprinting of Marvel Comics characters and stories during the 1960s, specifically those published in Smash, Terrific, and TV21.

I distinctly remember comparing a Spider-Man strip, possibly in TV21, where Spidey encounters Silver Surfer, with the original US copy and noticing that, while the pages were panel-for-panel almost identical, there were slight differences in the line-work that suggested to me that they weren't direct reprints, but had been skilfully copied from the originals.

I also remember seeing the Fantastic Four in an annual from the late '60s wherein the team's costumes were red instead of the traditional blue colour.

I was very young at the time but I learned to read with these comics (as well as Lion) and am hoping someone cold enlighten me about the above-mentioned curiosities, as these things have been stuck in my mind for the last forty-odd years and are driving me slowly nuts!

Thanks.

[Lew Stringer]

Here you go. I covered the early Marvel appearances in British comics in a series of articles on my blog a few years ago. Hope this helps:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... art-1.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... art-2.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... art-3.html

Regarding the Spider-Man strips in TV21, they were reprints but were edited to fit more panels onto a page. Therefore some cropping or extensions were necessary. They were also re-lettered.

A few more links:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/ ... rific.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... astic.html



You'll find lots of other info on Smash!, Fantastic, Terrific, Pow!, and Wham! on my blog. Just type a comic title's name into the search window and the relevant articles will show up.

[tony ingram]

The Odhams annuals had a very eccentric approach to colouring the Marvel reprints. I have a couple of Fantastic annuals (1968 and 1970) in which the colourist seems to have been guessing wildly at what colours the costumes were, with the result that we got, amongst other oddities, a bare legged Mighty Thor in a yellow tunic and shorts with green dots on them, and a Scarlet Witch clad all in green!

[Lew Stringer]

The Odhams annuals had a very eccentric approach to colouring the Marvel reprints. I have a couple of Fantastic annuals (1968 and 1970) in which the colourist seems to have been guessing wildly at what colours the costumes were, with the result that we got, amongst other oddities, a bare legged Mighty Thor in a yellow tunic and shorts with green dots on them, and a Scarlet Witch clad all in green!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_448y6kVhntg/R ... h/thor.jpg

[philcom55]

Oddly enough the Scarlet Witch's costume was coloured green for her very first American cover appearance on X-Men no.4. I guess that's what comes of dabbling in Chaos Magic!

- Phil R.

[Digifiend]

I assume that was a mistake, considering her name makes it obvious she should be wearing red?

Issue 5 has the same mistake, and in both, Magneto is shown with a purple helmet, which should also be red. Issue 33 has a yellow Juggernaut - another case where red should've been used.

[Lew Stringer]

I assume that was a mistake, considering her name makes it obvious she should be wearing red?

Issue 5 has the same mistake, and in both, Magneto is shown with a purple helmet, which should also be red. Issue 33 has a yellow Juggernaut - another case where red should've been used.

Presumably Wanda is green on those covers because she's right bedside or behind Magneto (who is wearing mostly red) so green makes her more distinct for cover purposes. Daft I know, but with covers back then, and Marvel still in second place to DC, they needed to do what they could to make their covers stand out. (Another reason may be that the Comics Code might have thought her too demonic in red originally. Just a thought.)

So that would be intentional, but there have been lots of mistakes in colouring of course. Back on topic, the thing GrowlerRob is talking about is where Marvel strips were reprinted in the UK with obviously no reference to the original comics. (They'd just have black and white prints to colour.) So in some books, the FF are wearing red costumes and in one, the Human Torch is blue! (Powered by gas perhaps. ) Again, the examples are in the links I provided if people care to click on them. They won't bite.

[philcom55]

It's a very nice sequence Lew. Looking at it again, though, I can't help wondering what happened to that promised book on 'The History of Marvel UK'.

- Phil R.

[Lew Stringer]

It's a very nice sequence Lew. Looking at it again, though, I can't help wondering what happened to that promised book on 'The History of Marvel UK'.

- Phil R.

The author is still working on it apparently but I don't think we'll see it this year.

[tony ingram]

It's a very nice sequence Lew. Looking at it again, though, I can't help wondering what happened to that promised book on 'The History of Marvel UK'.

- Phil R.

The author is still working on it apparently but I don't think we'll see it this year.

How many years has it been, now? I know it was already in the works in 2008, that's the earliest correspondence I have with him that I can recall.

[Lew Stringer]

It's a very nice sequence Lew. Looking at it again, though, I can't help wondering what happened to that promised book on 'The History of Marvel UK'.

- Phil R.

The author is still working on it apparently but I don't think we'll see it this year.

How many years has it been, now? I know it was already in the works in 2008, that's the earliest correspondence I have with him that I can recall.

He mentions it in those comments after the posts on my blog in Feb 2008, but it must have been late 2007 when I first heard about it.

I suggested the title could be "Wham! Bam! Thank you Stan! Marvel Comics: Over priced, Over-sexed and Over here" - but apparently he's going with "From Cents to Pence" instead.

[alanultron5]

I have the later `Fantastic` issues featuring Dr Strange. I also have original `Strange tales` US mags where the Dr Strange stories first appeared. Odhams deleted great chunks of storyline and also edited text in speech baloons! They did change US Colloquilisms-but in Dr Strange many speech baloons altered to fit the heavily edited storylines!

[stevezodiac]

I was always interested in what they did with the space that originally contained the credits. It was something I think I could have had a bash at.

[alanultron5]

In the Doctor Strange strip they actually `completed` the artwork-sort of guessing what would be in the gap where US credits would be! I know, as I have both US originals and the Odhams version in `Fantastic`

[stevezodiac]

With the Doc Strange strips being only ten or eleven pages in Strange Tales they could reprint a new story every week in Terrific and then Fantastic and Terrific. With the other characters they had to split twenty page stories so they only had to mess about with the credit box every fortnight although they then had the problem of replacing the original splash page - sometimes with a dramatic panel blown up a few sizes.