Hatch, Match & Dispatch – July 2020

It's that time again, "Rusty Staples" readers! It's the last Monday of the month, and that means we get to look ahead to see which British comics are celebrating (or commiserating) a major anniversary in the coming month. This time around the list includes a couple of Judge Dredd titles, a couple of Conans, some …

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 …

Star Wars Day!

For the past few years the fourth day of May has been pushed as "Star Wars Day" because "May the 4th" sounds like "May the Force" (this is something that young Rusty spotted back in 1978, but tragically failed to trademark), even though it means everyone is quietly ignoring the fact that none of the …

Pocket-Money Comics: Star Wars Weekly

More Star Wars = Better. That was the simple formula by which we Star Wars fans lived back in the 1970s, hence our excitement when we learned that Marvel UK would be releasing a weekly Star Wars comic. But as it turned out, we didn't even have to wait until Star Wars Weekly had finished …

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 …

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 …

Most Popular Posts of 2019!

I'm happy to announce that Rusty Staples' sophomore year ("sophomore" is American high-school slang for "second") was even more successful than its first, even despite the four-month drought in the summer when I was too busy to post anything (due to a heavy workload, a week's holiday in London, the World Science Fiction Convention in …

Rusty Staples: Year One

Hello there (or indeed anywhere) Rusty Staples fans! Can you believe that it's been a whole year already since this blog was launched? Amazing! And what a year's it's been: absolutely packed from beginning to end with days, weeks and even months -- who says I don't give you value for money? It all began …

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 …