Enfari’s Syndrome: Captain Britain

In 1976 an Irish kid living in the suburbs of Dublin was taking a bit of risk buying a comic called Captain Britain. Especially a kid like me: I was very small for my age, couldn't fight, and lacked the physical prowess to out-run a tree... and I possessed a self-defeating tendency to smart-mouth the …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – April 2020

Welcome back, folks, to the regular feature I like to think of as "The One That Seemed Like a Great Idea Until I Realised How Much Work it Would be for So Little Reward." (Did you know I don't even get paid to do this? In fact, just so that you don't have to wade …

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 …

Noncomics: Marvel Chillers – The Frightful Four

When the Fantastic Four's creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee were on top form -- specifically around the middle of their 102-issue run as a team -- the comic truly was spectacular stuff, with scenes and storylines that have rarely been surpassed since. Not that the rest of their time together was ever less than …

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 …

Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018

Stan Lee was the first comic-book creator whose name I knew. I was about six and a half years old when I was given my very first superhero comic... this one: That's The Mighty World of Marvel issue #5, dated November 4, 1972. So a little over forty-six years ago. By some miracle, my copy …

Film Threat magazine October 1993

Film Threat was an American magazine that focused primarily on independent movies: the sort of movies that might only barely get a mention in the more mainstream press. It began in 1985 as a self-published zine created by Chris Gore and André Seewood but it was so successful that it became a "proper" magazine from …