Marvel UK

Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US-produced stories for the British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon, and Grant Morrison.

There were a number of editors in charge of overseeing the UK editions. Although based in the United States, Tony Isabella oversaw the establishment of Marvel UK. He was succeeded by UK-based editors Peter L. Skingley (a.k.a. Peter Allan) and then Matt Softly – both of whom were women who adopted male pen names for the job (in reality, they were Petra Skingley and Maureen Softly). They were then replaced by Neil Tennant, who later found fame with the pop group the Pet Shop Boys. Nick Laing succeeded him, but with a turbulent market and falling sales, Laing was let go and Dez Skinn took over. Skinn revived much of the brand in his two years on the job, and was then succeeded by Bernie Jaye (another woman with a male nom de plume, Bernadette Jakowski) and later John Freeman. Paul Neary was editor in chief in 1995, when Marvel UK was shut down.Wymann, Adrian
"The Mighty World of Bronze Age British Marvel (1972–1979) Part One, 1972–194: Setting Up Marvel UK"
The Thought Balloon (2014). Accessed January 2, 2015.

Panini Comics obtained the license to print Marvel material in 1995 and took over the UK office's remaining titles.

Publishing history

Predecessors

After World War II, the UK was intent on promoting homegrown publishers, and thus banned the direct importation of American periodicals, including comic books; that ban was lifted in 1959.Chibnall, Steve. "The Sign of the Tee Pee: The Story of Thorpe & Porter," ''Paperback, Pulp and Comic Collector'' Vol. 1: "SF Crime Horror Westerns & Comics" (Wilts, UK: Zeon Publishing / Zardoz Books, 1993), pp. 16–29
Archived
at Box.com. Retrieved Dec. 28, 2020. The British company Thorpe & Porter became the sole UK distributor of both DC and Marvel comics. Thus it was that in the early 1960s brand-new American-printed copies of ''Fantastic Four'' #1, ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15, and countless others appeared in the UK. Alan Class Comics also reprinted select Marvel superhero stories during this period. Thorpe & Porter, however, went bankrupt in 1966 and was purchased by Independent News Distributors (IND), the distribution arm of National Periodical Publications (DC Comics). As a result, T & P's output became almost exclusively reprints of DC titles.

At that point, in early 1966, Odhams Press (a division of IPC Magazines) acquired the Marvel license, and reprints of American Marvel superhero material — including the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor, and the X-Men — began to be published in the UK in Odhams' Power Comics line of titles. Titles such as ''Wham!'', '' Smash!'', and '' Pow!'' featured a mix of Marvel reprints and original UK comics; while the titles ''Fantastic'' and '' Terrific'' were dominated by Marvel superhero stories. This arrangement lasted till March 1969, when the last Marvel strip was removed from ''Smash!''.

Beginning about a year and a half later, from late November 1970 to late September 1971, reprints of Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer appeared in '' TV21'', published by City Magazines (a company closely associated with IPC). From that point, no Marvel titles were being regularly reprinted in the UKMurray, Chris. "Mergers and Marvels (1962–1980)," ''The British Superhero'' (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2017), p. 173. (although IPC released a ''Marvel Annual'', featuring Marvel superhero reprints, in autumn 1972).

Origins: ''MWOM'' and ''Spider-Man Comics Weekly''

In 1972, seeing a gap in the popular weekly comics market of the UK, Marvel Comics formed their own British publishing arm, Marvel UK (under the corporate name of Magazine Management London Ltd.). Though publishing comics in the UK for a British audience, Marvel UK was under the editorial direction of Marvel's New York offices, overseen by the then 21-year-old American writer/editor Tony Isabella. Pippa Melling (née King), a British former staffer at Odhams who was familiar with the adjustments needed to transform stories from the monthly American comics to the weekly British ones, was employed on a six-month contract to help set the whole thing up.

Marvel UK started with '' The Mighty World of Marvel'', which featured mainly black-and-white art with spot colouring (except for the front and back pages which were in full colour). Originally the weekly comic was created by slicing up storylines from the monthly American versions of ''The Incredible Hulk'', ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', and the ''Fantastic Four''.

A few months later ''Spider-Man Comics Weekly'' was released. Again this carried on reprinted American ''Spider-Man'' material originally started in ''MWOM'', with the adventures of Thor starting as a back-up feature. The new title allowed an entire issue of the US ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' to be reprinted every week in the UK publication. Both of these initial series were huge successes and became the mainstays of the Marvel UK lineup; ''The Mighty World Of Marvel'', in one form or another, was published continuously until 1984, while the Spider-Man weekly comic (under many different name changes) would continue until 1985.

Expansion: Skingley and Softly era

In 1973, the US-based editor Isabella was replaced by the UK-based Petra Skingley (credited in the comics as "Peter L. Skingley" and "Peter Allan.") That year, Marvel UK launched '' The Avengers'' — starting with material from issue #4 of the US series which reintroduced Captain America (issues #1-3 had been reprinted in ''The Mighty World of Marvel''). The new title introduced glossy covers around a smaller 36-page comic, down from the previous 40-page format of ''MWOM'' and ''Spider-Man Comics Weekly''. Doctor Strange was the back-up feature. Glossy covers were to be a distinctive feature of Marvel UK weeklies until the "Marvel Revolution" in 1979. The other two titles also changed to this new format. In ''Spider-Man'' the decrease to 36 pages marked the reduction of Spider-Man material so that now only half a US issue was reproduced in the UK weekly, and Iron Man was added to the lineup. (''MWOM'' and ''SMCW'' had started at 40 pages but dropped to 32 before the launch of ''The Avengers''.)

In 1974 two new weeklies were added that departed from the usual superhero fare. These were ''Dracula Lives!'' and ''Planet of the Apes'', the latter reprinting material from the American black & white Marvel Monster Group brand. In 1976 ''Dracula Lives!'' was canceled and merged with ''Planet of the Apes'' as of issue #88. The Apes adventures lasted until 1977, the final months as a co-feature with the Hulk, in ''MWOM'' from issue #231. The non-superhero launches continued in early 1975 as ''Savage Sword of Conan'' was added as a weekly title.

In March 1975, Marvel UK launched a new weekly title called ''The Super-Heroes'' (simultaneously with ''Savage Sword of Conan''). Although it originally starred popular characters like the Silver Surfer and the X-Men, ''The Super-Heroes'' eventually began reprinting stories starring such obscure characters as Doc Savage, Ant-Man, The Cat, Scarecrow, and Bloodstone. Maureen Softly (using her son's name Matt in the credits). replaced Skingley as editor in late 1975.

Marvel UK's fifth superhero title, also debuting in 1975 (October), was ''The Titans'', which was notable for its use of a "landscape" orientation. Although this format allowed two pages of Marvel U.S. artwork to fit onto one (magazine-sized) Marvel UK page, reader reaction was mixed, as it made the text small and often difficult to read. ''The Titans'' featured well-known characters like Captain America, Captain Marvel, the Sub-Mariner, the Inhumans, and Nick Fury.

''The Super-Heroes'' lasted fifty issues before being canceled in early 1976, at which point it was merged into ''Spider-Man Comics Weekly'' (which changed its title to ''Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes''). At this point, the book also changed orientation to become a landscape-format comic like ''The Titans''. The aforementioned ''Titans'' title ran 58 issues until late 1976, when it too was canceled. Towards the end of its run, the Avengers were moved over from ''The Mighty World of Marvel'' to be ''The Titans'' lead strip. As with ''The Super-Heroes'', with ''The Titans'' cancellation it was merged with the weekly Spider-Man comic (which changed its title again, to ''Super Spider-Man and the Titans'').

Tennant and Laing era

Marvel UK began to establish itself as a major publisher of weekly comic titles (along with D.C Thomson and IPC) under the direction of editor-in-chief Neil Tennant (later one of the Pet Shop Boys). Tennant was responsible for anglicising the dialogue of the comics to suit British readers, and for indicating where women needed to be redrawn "more decently" for the British editions.

However, with the exception of some new covers drawn by Marvel Comics' American staff, no original material had yet been produced by Marvel UK. This changed in 1976 when ''Captain Britain Weekly'' was launched, featuring a hero created for the British market. ''Captain Britain Weekly'' featured new stories in colour as well as reprints of ''Nick Fury'' and ''Fantastic Four'' strips as backup. It was initially a success but eventually combined with Marvel UK's ''Spider-Man'' reprint title from #39.

It was Neil Tennant's suggestion to create an original British Marvel war comic to compete with titles such as ''Warlord'' and ''Battle Picture Weekly''. While no original material was commissioned the concept of a war comic found fruition as ''Fury'' which ran from March to August 1977 before merging with ''MWOM''. It reprinted ''Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos'' and ''Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders''.

Tenant left in 1977 and was replaced by Nick Laing. In early 1978, Laing oversaw the launch of Marvel UK's '' Star Wars Weekly'' title, soon after the film was released in the UK. The weekly issues split the stories from the US monthly issues into smaller installments, and it usually took three weekly issues to complete a US monthly issue. In May 1980 the title became known as ''The Empire Strikes Back Weekly'', and in November 1980 it transformed into a monthly publication. Marvel UK's ''Star Wars'' comic also published original ''Star Wars'' stories by British creators as well as reprinting the US comics material. Many, but not all, of these original British stories were reprinted in the 1990s by Dark Horse Comics. The format changed back to a weekly in June 1983 with the adaptation of ''Return of the Jedi'' (which also became the new name of the publication), and remained so until its last issue in 1986. Prior to the ''Return of the Jedi'' comic, the strips in the UK ''Star Wars'' comics were printed in black and white, even those taken from the American color versions. The UK comics also reprinted several other supporting strips in each issue from other Marvel properties (such as '' The Micronauts'', ''Tales of the Watcher'', ''Star-Lord'', etc.). While the comic was in a weekly format, the supporting strips often made up the bulk of each issue.

Skinn era ("The Marvel Revolution")

By the late 1970s, sales of Marvel UK titles had begun to fall and it was on a visit to the UK that Stan Lee headhunted Dez Skinn to revamp the ailing company.Dakin, John. "'Marvel Revolution' in England," ''The Comics Journal'' #45 (Mar. 1979), p. 14. Knowing Skinn had significant experience in British comic publishing, Lee gave him the freedom to do what he felt best. Skinn had his own catchphrase in "Dez Sez," which was inspired by Lee's catchphrases from the 1960s. Skinn set out to change Marvel UK as he saw fit, dubbing the changes "The Marvel Revolution". Taking over in late 1978, the first major change he brought was to have original material produced by British creators. Many of these creators had already worked with Skinn on his title '' The House of Hammer'' a few years earlier, plus some new young talent.

Skinn wrote: " aditional British comics were at the time selling 150,000+ a week, firm sale, no returns. If Marvel and Spider-Man could look British enough for some of that to rub off, everybody would be happy ... But fixing the covers to resemble the non-glossy generic look of weekly anthology titles was one thing ... Having "splash" pages and then five or six frames a page just didn't stack up against ''Warlord'', ''Action'', ''Battle'', and the rest with their nine to 12 a page." So the US artwork was re-sized to fit several pages onto one and emulate the look of the more established UK boys' weeklies."Phase Two: the weeklies – Star Wars, Spidey and Mighty World of Marvel,"
DezSkinn.com. Accessed June 20, 2011.

Skinn reasoned that Marvel superhero weeklies had been effectively competing with each other in an already crowded market. So while the '' Spider-Man Comic'' was to be the flagship superhero comic (with Thor, Iron Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Nova), ''The Mighty World of Marvel'' was re-launched as ''Marvel Comic'', in the tradition of UK boys' adventure titles. Dracula, Conan the Barbarian, and Skull the Slayer joined (or re-joined) established strips Daredevil and Hulk (although the Hulk was replaced three issues after the re-launch by Godzilla, as the Hulk left for his own title).

The Hulk was a popular character – ''Rampage Weekly'' which starred The Defenders had been added to Marvel's list of publications under Tennant's editorship as a second vehicle for the green giant – and now with his own TV series Skinn saw the Hulk as the lead feature of another adventure style comic. ''Hulk Comic'' started out with originally produced Hulk stories by Steve Dillon, Paul Neary, and John Stokes, among others, which reflected the green-skinned behemoth as depicted on the TV. Skinn explained: "As with ''Marvel Comic'', I was wanting an adventure anthology title more than a superhero one. Super-heroes had never been big sellers in the UK, we had plenty of legends of the past to spin fantasies about. So I went that route, picking existing Marvel characters who weren't really cut from the super-hero cloth.""Marvel UK,"
DezSkinn.com. Accessed June 20, 2011. Originally produced stories were included, such as Nick Fury drawn by Steve Dillon, and Night Raven by Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd. Also included was the Black Knight, a Marvel character revamped to take in Arthurian concepts, as well as feature the return of Captain Britain from comic book limbo. As well there was the usual US reprint material, such as Ant-Man and in later issues the Beast from ''Amazing Adventures'', and even The Defenders were moved in from ''Rampage Monthly'' to increase the dose of Hulk action (a house ad showed a stern doctor holding out a handful of pills and saying, "Boredom is a sickness... and there's only one cure. More Hulk action!!!").

Arguably Skinn's most important decision was to launch '' Doctor Who Weekly'' in 1979. Based on the BBC
...