Pow! (comics)

''Pow!'' was a weekly British comic book published by Odhams Press' Power Comics imprint in 1967 and 1968. Like other Power Comics, ''Pow!'' featured a mixture of British strips with reprints from American Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and the Fantastic Four.

It is unrelated to ''POW! Entertainment'', an American media production company.

Publication history

The Power Comics imprint was led by a three-man editorial team, known as Alf, Bart, and Cos. Alfred Wallace ("Alf") was the Managing Editor at Odhams, and supervised the entire Power Comics line. Under his direction, Bart and Cos were the staff editors who handled the individual titles. Bart (a pen-name for ''Eagle'''s Bob Bartholemew) was the editor directly responsible for ''Pow!''.

''Pow!'' first appeared on 21 January 1967. It was printed on newsprint stock, in black-and-white except for its colour front and back covers, and initially comprised 28 pages.

After 12 months, with its 53rd issue, cover-dated 13 January 1968, it absorbed its sister title ''Wham!'' to form ''Pow! and Wham!''.

The 86th and final issue appeared on 7 September 1968, after which it merged into '' Smash!'', another of the Power Comics line of five titles.

Strips and characters

Like the other ''Power Comics'', ''Pow!'' supplemented its British content with reprints from American Marvel Comics, all written by Stan Lee. '' Spider-Man'' (drawn by Steve Ditko) and '' Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD'' (drawn by Jack Kirby), began in issue #1. After the merger with ''Wham!'' in issue #53, the '' Fantastic Four'' (also drawn by Kirby) joined the ''Pow!'' lineup.

Other than the American superheroes, ''Pow!'' principally featured British humour strips. These included ''Kicks'', ''Wee Willie Haggis: The Spy from Skye'', Ken Reid's ''Dare-a-Day Davy''Coates, Alan and David. "Smash!" British Comic World #3 (A. & D. Coates, June 1984), p. 7. (in colour, for the back page), Ron Spencer's ''The Dolls of St Dominic's'', Mike Brown's ''The Group'' and ''Wiz War'', and (from issue #18) Mike Higgs' ''The Cloak''. It also featured some adventure strips, including ''The Python'' and ''Jack Magic''.

The premise of Reid's ''Dare-a-Day Davy'' was that he was a character who could not resist dares set for him by readers. In one episode, Davy was dared to dig up Frankenstein's monster and bring him back to life — for which Reid decided to employ the " kiss of life". The episode, which included the desecration of a grave, the re-assembling of a shattered skeleton, and a young boy kissing a corpse, was too gruesome for the editors of ''Pow!'' and it was pulled from publication.Peter Hansen, The episode eventually saw print in the UK small press magazine ''Weird Fantasy'', published by David Britton, in 1969.

Higgs' ''The Cloak'' was about a secret agent, the top agent for Britain's Special Squad, nominally a part of Scotland Yard. He usually operated from his personal headquarters, known as the Secret Sanctum. The Cloak's ingenuity and never-ending supply of gadgets and secret weapons gave him the edge over his somewhat odd enemies (some are ''very'' odd, including Deathshead and various other agents of G.H.O.U.L.). He had some equally odd colleagues. Assisted initially by Mole (the tall one with the bald head, big nose, and spectacles) and Shortstuff (the short squirt with the hairy nut and big eyeballs), he began having adventures in which he found himself also alongside the sexy and flirtatious Lady Shady, the shady lady. The strip benefited from the unusual, idiosyncratic drawing style of Higgs, whose overt inclusion of pop culture imagery made the strip seem extremely modern.

Brown's ''Wiz War'' was about a feud between two wizards, Wizard Prang and his enemy Demon Druid. Other than the fact that Prang was robed entirely in white, befitting his status as the good guy, and Demon Druid was always in black, being the villain of the piece, their costumes were quite similar — a flowing wizard's robe with stars on it, and a pointed hat. They flew around on broomsticks, zapping each other with spells which turned the other into a toad or something equally amusing. Wizard Prang was alternately helped and hindered by Englebert, his pet bird. The best feature of the strip was the sign above Wizard Prang's front door. This usually read "Wizard Prang is... In" (if he was at home) or "Wizard Prang is... Out" (if he was out and about); but if he'd had a bad time in the story, the sign would often make a humorous remark in the final panel, such as "Wizard Prang is... All at Sea". Brown seems to have been unaware of the Odhams house rule banning artists from signing their work, as the strip often bore his name.

Upon ''Pow!'''s absorption of ''Wham!'', Spencer's ''The Dolls of St Dominics'' was merged with Leo Baxendale's strip ''The Tiddlers'' to become ''The Tiddlers and The Dolls''.

Upon ''Pow!s merger with '' Smash!'' a few strips continued into the merged publication ''Smash! and Pow!'', including ''Spider-Man'', ''Fantastic Four'', ''The Cloak'', and ''Wiz War''.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

History of Marvel UK




published in ''Weird Fantasy'' #1 in 1969, Savoy Pictures website

1967 comics debuts
1968 comics endings
Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom
British humour comics
Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Defunct British comics
Fleetway and IPC Comics titles
Magazines published in London
Magazines established in 1967
Magazines disestablished in 1968
Odhams Press titles
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