Hatch, Match & Dispatch – April 2022

"Ah, sweet April, noble and gracious queen of the months of spring, approaches stealthily on delightful fluttering wings, bearing delectable news of British comics anniversaries." -- William Wordsworth (attr.)

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – Feb 2021

Our regular look at the British comics that are marking an important anniversary in the coming month...

Rusty’s Reviews Round-Up

To save you literally whiles of searching through this blog, here are all of Rusty's reviews in one place! Updated: 3 July 2021 Comics: The Bank Street Book of Science Fiction -- 7 Feb 2020 Batman Monthly -- 26 Jun 2020 Battle Picture Weekly -- 2 Jun 2019 Bea -- 15 Aug 2017 Boy's Cinema …

Oddities: Captain America fans

Mrs Rusty and I have been lucky enough to attend the famous San Diego Comic Con on three separate occasions -- in 2008, 2011 and 2014 -- and it's always been a great holiday, but mostly that's because one of my oldest friends lives just outside San Diego and getting to catch up with himself …

In-Shallow Profile: Foom #8

My first proper taste of comic-book fandom -- other than the atrocious comics I drew for myself -- came from Marvel with the December 1974 issue of their in-house fanzine Foom. Foom is an acronym for "Friends of Ol' Marvel" because, well, of course it is. Stan Lee, right? It was a quarterly publication that …

Marvel UK 70s & 80s Leftovers Timeline

A few weeks ago we looked at the Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly family trees, so here's a timeline of the remaining Marvel UK comics of the 70s and 80s. Why only the 70s & 80s? Why, that's simple! Beyond the 80s it's a scary nightmarish quagmire, that's why. Marvel UK was …

Branding: Spider-Man Comics Weekly

In the first part of this highly-acclaimed-by-me series, we looked at how the Doctor Who Weekly comic evolved into the Doctor Who Magazine magazine. This time, it's the turn of another staple of the Marvel UK publishing group, Spider-Man Comics Weekly. A spin-off from The Mighty World of Marvel -- launched four months earlier -- Spider-Man …

The MWOM & SMCW Timeline

"The what timeline?" I imagine that I hear you ask. Wonder no more, chum: those four-letter words that look a bit like they might be the names of Welsh TV stations are the commonly-used shortcuts for The Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly, the first two titles released by the British wing of …

Most Popular Posts of 2018!

Rusty Staples was launched only about eight months ago as the fly crows, but already it's in the top 100% of the most popular comic blogs ever! Amazing, I know, but there you go: you wonderful people know awesomeness when you see it! Now, to welcome in the year 2019, I'd like to take you …

Captain America: The Great Gold Steal

A follow-up to The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker, which was the first novel based on a Marvel comic, Captain America: The Great Gold Steal was published by Bantam Books in July 1968. Clunky title aside, it's actually a rather good adventure. It's better written than the Avengers novel, but the plot's a little more …