Before Marvel UK

So, what about all those British comics that reprinted Marvel strips *before* Marvel UK was established?

Comics That Never Were #9

2000AD went missing for five weeks at the end of 1978 and to be honest, I'm still not completely over it.

Comics That Never Were #4 – #8

The archives have been plundered once again, readers, in order to bring you yet more comic-book gems from another reality! Before I go on (and on, and on) I would like to answer a question that I imagine at least one reader has possibly considered asking... The comics in this series have not all been …

Comics That Never Were #3

Welcome, readers, to the long-unawaited third episode in our sporadic and unreliable series in which your Uncle Rusty takes a look at comics that didn't actually exist in this universe but should have... In the 1970s (a sort of prototype version of the 1980s, but with wider ties, longer hair, and orange and brown wallpaper) …

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!

Comics on TV: Life on Mars

In the 2006 TV show Life on Mars (named after the David Bowie song that was released on the 1971 album Hunky Dory) Manchester-based police officer Sam Tyler is struck by a car and wakes up in the year 1973. He doesn't know whether he's going crazy, in a coma, or has travelled back in …

Enfari’s Syndrome: Thunder

IPC's Thunder started strong and finished strong, albeit rather abruptly and far too quickly. A couple of minor exceptions aside, its initial line-up of strips remained constant throughout its twenty-two-issue run. Thunder was launched in Autumn 1970 (the cover-date of issue #1 is 17 October), and it maintained the same price right through to the …

In-Shallow Profile: Look Alive magazine

In the early 1980s the Powers That Be in IPC decided to test the water with a "lifestyle" magazine aimed at boys in their early-to-mid teens. There was already one-and-a-half plethoras of mags for girls in that age-range, and some of them were selling very well indeed, but there was nothing comparable for boys. So …

Oddities #20191011

Occasionally whilst hunting down obscure comics I encounter an oddity, anomaly or rarity that piques my interest but doesn't really have a place to go. Well, just for fun I thought I'd make a place for such things... For the very first one, here's an ad for issue #2 of Cheeky Weekly, a comic I …

Branding: Battle Picture Weekly

Prepare yourself for a shock, comic fans: We are now further away from the last issue of Battle Picture Weekly than its first issue was from the end of World War II. Battle, to use its street name, is arguably one of the most important and influential British comics of all time. Of course, that's …