Mighty World of Marvel 1972 Annual : whats going on here?

[STARBOY]

I recently came across the first MWOM annual printed in 1972 and was suprised to see it was printed by Fleetway and not Marvel UK which seems strange. Although I was a massive Marvel UK fan in the 70s I never bought the annuals (only picking up 3 very recently) I looked at them in John Menzies Newsagents and was happy to wait for the strips to appear in my UK comic or I probably had the US vesrsion but I noticed the MWOM annual featured strips that appeared in the weekly comic probably from around a fwew weeks/months beofre the annual was printed - does anyone know why this was and why Fleetway published this? - cool cover all the same.

[Digifiend]

Marvel UK had only just been set up at that time (MWOM itself only started that year and was their first title) and they probably didn't have the facilities to print annuals. Fleetway did, and until 1969, Odhams printed Marvel material. Who owned Odhams? IPC, who also owned Fleetway. I bet that's why Fleetway printed that annual.

[Lew Stringer]

Marvel UK had only just been set up at that time (MWOM itself only started that year and was their first title) and they probably didn't have the facilities to print annuals. Fleetway did, and until 1969, Odhams printed Marvel material. Who owned Odhams? IPC, who also owned Fleetway. I bet that's why Fleetway printed that annual.

Sort of, but not quite.

Firstly it's not a "Mighty World of Marvel Annual". It was simply called Marvel Annual and has no connection with MWOM. Fleetway did not exist by 1972, having been absorbed into IPC in late 1968, but IPC retained the words "A Fleetway Annual" on the covers of their annuals for a while.

That Marvel Annual you have Starboy was put together before Marvel UK set up. Several companies had a license to use Marvel material including Martspress who had been running Marvel reprints in TV21 in 1971, which was later taken over by IPC. Therefore IPC had the rights too.

IPC did a second and final Marvel Annual in 1973 with a Spider-Man cover by UK comic great Geoff Campion. It does sound as though Digi is right in that Marvel UK were happy with this deal as MWOM featured ads for that first IPC annual (and the second, I think).

Marvel UK then started producing their own annuals around 1974/75.

More info here:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/02 ... art-3.html

[philcom55]

Strangely enough, if you leave aside the British b&w 'comic books' published by L Miller & Son et al in the 1950s, the earliest Marvel strip to be reprinted by a major UK publisher may well have been Stan Lee's 'Millie the Model' from (of all people) DC Thomson!

- Phil Rushton

[Digifiend]

That does sound odd, Millie the Model was a long running comic in the US - but it's not well known here at all, and I wouldn't have ever expected DCT to use Marvel material, even if it's not superheroes. Which of DCT's titles printed it?

[Kremmen]

Also, some annuals made it to WH Smith printed upside-down!

That is, the cover showing the Hulk was stuck on the wrong way around in relation to its contents. I know 'cos I saw some at the time. They musta got withdrawn as they soon vanished. Didn't see the 1973 Marvel annual till later whan they'd put it right.

[Lew Stringer]

More info on pre-Marvel UK annuals if you're interested Starboy:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/01 ... art-2.html

And on the 1950s/60s reprints in the UK:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/01 ... art-1.html

Phil, I never knew Millie the Model was reprinted in the UK by D.C. Thomson! Could you supply more info about that please? Thanks.

[STARBOY]

Lew , Digi ( et all) thank you for this - I couldn't see the "wood for the trees" there Lew, of course the book wasn't the "MightY World Of Marvel " but as you state simply "Marvel Annaul" duh!!! makes sense now - thanks for the links Lew I will look forward to reading these later (I got a re interested in UK Marvel of the 70s again- used to love them so much).

Very interested in the Millie the Model info also it would be nice to know where these were printed - Im a big fan of Dan De Carlo (though not sur eif this would have been after the DCT reprints)

[philcom55]

I'll leave one of the gurus to provide chapter and verse on issue numbers if they can but to the best of my knowledge Millie appeared in Romeo from 1957 to 1960, with early episodes actually carrying the 'Stan & Dan' byline. Here are two examples from late 1958 and early 1960 respectively:




- Phil Rushton ( - gotta love that DeCarlo art! )

[STARBOY]

Thanks for posting this Phil good to see its DeCarlo art as well. Dan DeCarlo was such a great artist it's just a pity he seems to have gotten more recognition since his death than when he was alive (maybe thats the way it alway is) . He drew amazing women all the same - I just loved his ARCHIE comics work as a kid.

[Lew Stringer]

Amazing! Thanks for that Phil. I've learned something new today. Never even considered that Thomsons would have featured a Marvel (or Atlas) strip of any description.

Stan Lee was a real master of naturally funny dialogue wasn't he? (And he's still funny today, if his Twitter comments are anything to go by.)

[philcom55]

I think you can tell that Stan genuinely enjoyed writing Millie - to the extent that he fought to keep her book on the stands long after the new Marvel superhero titles began to outsell it.

- Phil Rushton

[STARBOY]

Was stunned to see on Ebay (USA) that someone was asking $699 EACH (over £300) for Marvel annual 1973 and 1974 (also for those 1969 Marvel annuals that were issued not sure the company). Even madder someone had "slabbed" 3 weekly issues one Spiderman Comics Weekly no14 for $300 , Super Spiderman.. no 129 (the Punisher issue) for $205 and Avengers weekly number 1 (not "slabbed") $125 - I got my Marvel annual very nice condition last month for £3 ( about $6 ) mind you if he/she sells them good luck to them.

[chrissmillie]

I doubt very much they'll sell for those prices.

What does quite nicely though is 1970s Star Wars Marvel UK (or British Marvel as we were then). To the average comic reader, they're just B&W reprints. But to the general public, they're the first Star Wars comics from the Seventies in the UK. Add a zero on at public auctions, marts etc (NB: not dedicated comic ones).

[Phoenix]

I'll leave one of the gurus to provide chapter and verse on issue numbers if they can but to the best of my knowledge Millie appeared in Romeo from 1957 to 1960, with early episodes actually carrying the 'Stan & Dan' byline.

I'm not going to be too helpful with this query, I'm afraid, Phil. I do have thousands of Thomsons' girls' papers but where Romeo is concerned I only have eight, just as examples. I just have a very low tolerance threshold for love stories!! Fortunately I can post two Millie strips. The first is from issue 18 (Dec. 28 1957), and carries the Stan and Dan byline you referred to, the other is from issue 135 (Mar. 26 1960), which doesn't. The strip would appear to have bitten the dust very shortly afterwards because before or by issue 142 (May 14 1960) Millie had been replaced by Pam. This strip is also posted here. Kashgar, or possibly helsbels, may well have more information for you.