In-Shallow Profile: Marvel Super Specials

The Marvel Super Specials series was a collection of one-shot comics published from September 1977 to November 1986, most of them featuring adaptations of then-current movies. I have no doubts that the series was inspired by the tremendous success of Marvel's Star Wars specials: their six-issue comic-book adaptation of the movie was repackaged as a …

Oddities: Daniel Rand IS Shang-Chi: Master of Kung-Fu!

Marvel's mysterious martial artist Danny Rand -- AKA The Immortal Iron Fist -- premiered in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974)... The cover was pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Dick Giordano (with alterations by John Romita). It's a great image and a fantastic way to introduce a new character. Later that same year, this …

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 …

From the Archives: Favourite Comic Series — The New Warriors

(This article was first published on the Enniskillen Comic Fest Facebook page, 18 April 2017 -- reprinted here with a few corrections and tweaks! I've previously listed The New Warriors as one of my favourite superhero series in Desert Island Comics.) Howdy there, Festians! Another week, another Favourite Story! This week's choice comes from none …

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 …

The Eagle Timeline

The Eagle Family Tree was one of the first major posts on this blog, back in May 2018, but it's always bothered me a little that I did it the lazy way, showing only the hierarchical relationships between the comics and not a proper time-line. Plus, unlike some of the later timelines on this blog …

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 …

Oddities #20191025

Another piece of comics promotional material today. Generally, such things tend towards posters, badges and stickers and the like. You know? Stuff that has a fairly clear link back to comics. But in 2011, in order to promote their new ongoing titles Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men, Marvel decided that cardboard drinks coasters …

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 …