A few Marvel UK Tidbits from Yesteryear

Hello everyone.

Many apologies for my recent disappearances from the interwebs. I heard talk of search parties. It's okay. I am alive a well. :)

Long term followers of this Blog will know that it's been a difficult few years for me. 2011 and 2012 were both years of stepping back and being treated, 2013 proved to be the year of recovery and that has led to 2014 - the year of getting back on track. Over the past few years I've had to put a lot of things on the back burner, I've had to take a less proactive role in a lot of areas of my life. With this having changed somewhat in the past couple of months, as you can see, regular updates to this blog have suffered. Do not worry. It's not been abandoned.

I feel greatly frustrated that it has impacted on my coverage of the final issues of Revolutionary War, because the Motormouth, Warheads and the final Omega issue were something very special indeed. The new status quo set up for several characters over those issues are things which I dearly hope get carried over into future projects.

Oh! And while it's coming a little late for the warning, Dark Angel fans? If you've not been picking up Kieron Gillen's Iron Man series, then you most certainly should be. Shevaun Haldane has now joined that title's supporting cast, starting with the Issue #23.NOW - as the curious Marvel Now numbering has named it. A good new platform for the character.

Revolutionary War has served to remind both readers and creators as to just what a buzz of creativity the early 90s were at Marvel UK. Over on the Make Mine Marvel UK Facebook group recently, one half of Revolutionary War's writing combo - Alan Cowsill - posted up a couple of images from what would have been Roid Rage #1. Roid Rage and Red Mist 20-20 were both advertised in Marvel UK titles in the latter days of the imprint. Two page painted adverts if I recall correctly. Sadly it never made it into print before the sell-off, but it was definitely intended to be a big story. If I understand correctly, from what I've managed to pick up over the years, the Super Soldiers title was going to play a large part in that and I believe there was even a set of painted artwork destined to be promotional trading cards for the event.

Beyond that? Well, we've not really known very much.

I hope Alan doesn't mind me posting these up, here. I've tweaked the contrast a little for clarity, but the artwork comes from Andrew Currie on pencils and Bryan Hitch on inks.

Interestingly, from that second image, Cowsill posted that "Rw trivia, it's also the first time Agent Keller appeared...he didn't last long though...". So he was always a planned character, even all those years ago...

Marvel UK artwork from this period is of course somewhat hard to come by. A lot of it, tragically, ended up being trashed when the Marvel UK offices closed. It has been lost forever. However, in the same category of unpublished artwork John Freeman also recently posted up these couple of images from an unpublished Warheads story.

The artwork comes courtesy of 2000 AD's SMS (Smuzz). Freeman notes that "Just to note, we're now thinking that these two 'pages' are amalgams of incomplete art from the strip, now everyone has had sight of the script. Neither 'page' matches the script exactly. I've been pushing Smuzz's excellent work for years and at some point he sent me these two pages as samplers". 

A third and final page of artwork was later added, with a name for the story as "Target Practice".

"There are amendments on the script that asked that the alien on this final page be Vorin, the leader of the Shadow Riders," says Freeman, "I suspect that, as I have never seen this page before today, this would have been a matter of me asking for the change when I'd seen the art!"

It would have been great to have SMS doing art for Marvel UK. He's probably best known for his work on 2000 AD's ABC Warriors. I definitely think he'd have been a good fit for the tone of the series.

But perhaps the most interesting thing to have come from this stroll back through Marvel UK documents is that John Freeman has shared up some internal notes from 1993, on future plans for Overkill magazine. 

US readers - For those of you unaware Overkill magazine was a UK market anthology series which printed choice sections of what was printed in the US market books (along with the odd bit of exclusive material) in a fashion not entirely dissimilar to, say, that of 2000 AD. 

"(The document)outlines some of the unpublished comic strips planned for Overkill," says Freeman, "and my thoughts on the future of some of the company’s title such as Motormouth and Warheads, in January 1993, when I was in the process of leaving the company to take up life as a freelancer. The company was absorbed by Panini UK in 1995 and is no longer in business.

The hand-written notes re...fer to “Paul” – Paul Neary, Marvel UK’s Editorial Director; and editors Tim Quinn, Jacqui Papp and Bambos Georgiou."

And there are a number of interesting details within. Such as this, for example. Highlighted below:

How interesting is that? A US market book fronted by DH II, to collect the strips which the US market missed.

Now I can recall in the Marvel UK 'Bodycount' freebie from around that time that there was definitely some painted dinosaur artwork from a future project showcased there. I wonder if that was from the same piece?

But one of the most interesting parts of the document refers to two creators who would certainly play a role in shaping British characters for mainstream US Marvel at a later point.

Warren Ellis would later take the reins of Excalibur at Marvel and go on to create the character of Pete Wisdom - who is now among the most prominent British characters out there and active in Marvel Comics. Paul Cornell of course would also go on to write Pete Wisdom, as in integral part of his Captain Britain & MI13 series. Small world.

I'd have loved to have seen this. The MYS-TECH board were always intriguing characters, to me. There were so many possibilities in expanding their history and individual character. An organisation capable of rivaling The Hellfire Club with their clandestine operations around the world (and for a much larger chunk of history, at that).

For those who are interested in reading more, John has shared the document up here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/217618955/Marvel-UK-Comics-Pending-01-1993

I'd also recommend looking over the ongoing list which John has been keeping of all Marvel UK projects, past and new, over at his own site. It really is a comprehensive list, both of published titles and the many projects with never saw the light of day.

Well, that's it for now folks. Hope that's proven to be of interest to you.

Until we meet again... (and hopefully it won't take as long next time)

Mark (Sword)

Infinity: The Hunt and a few Bits & Bobs.

Hi folks,

Sorry that it's been a while since my last posts. Life has been getting in the way a bit.

But I thought I'd pop on this evening to tell you about a book that's coming out today (Wednesday 11th September) which may be of interest to long term Captain Britain and Marvel UK fans.

Marvel is back into Event Season again, right now. 'Infinity' kicked off a few weeks back, and while Captain Britain himself doesn't sound likely to be playing any part in it somebody close too him certainly seems to be.

This is the cover to Infinity: The Hunt #1, which came out today.

 

 

Take note of the blond at top left, wearing a suspiciously familiar green bodysuit...

 

Yes. That's Meggan Braddock (who does keep on getting booted back to that costume, doesn't she?). And if any further confirmation of it actually being Meggan were required you'll find it on page 1 of the Preview currently up at CBR.

 

 

 

 

 

And it's called the 'CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS'. Inspired by the 80s series of the same name.

 

Meggan's appearance here, alongside Wolverine (the Jean Grey School), Hank Pym (Avengers Academy) and She-Hulk (Future Foundation), is as a representative of Braddock Academy - the school for British teen heroes, which her and Captain Britain have been running of late.

 

Braddock Academy was first mentioned in the pages of Avengers Arena, in which several of its students have been kidnapped and pitted against each other by Arcade, in his new version of Murderworld. Another student, Magic Boots Mel, turned up the pages of an Age of Ultron tie-in issue of Avengers Assemble. This third appearance will no doubt showcase even more of the Academy's student body. Has to make you wonder if Marvel doesn't have some kind of long term plan for them.

 

Infinity: The Hunt is going to be a limited series of four issues. And while the Contest of Champions aspect is going to be the main focus it will apparently be disrupted by Thanos' grand plans for Earth, as detailed in the main Infinity series. The Solicit is as follows:

 

 

Written by Matt Kindt, art by Steven Sanders, cover by Slava Pasarin.

 

* Hank Pym, Wolverine, and She-Hulk bring the students of the Marvel Universe together to announce a new Contest of Champions!

* This Contest of Champions pits the super students of schools all over the Marvel U (including some you've never seen before) against each other.

* However, the Contest is interrupted when Thanos' forces descend on Earth. What do they have to do with the young heroes?

 

 

Matt Kindt I'm not so familiar with, but Steve Sanders you may remember from Kieron Gillen's S.W.O.R.D. ongoing series, a few years back. While it seems a little bit of an odd premise for a tie-in series (and I find myself trying to remember if Wolverine is still supposed to be on Earth in Infinity proper) it may prove quite interesting.

 

Infinity: The Hunt #1 is out today.

 

 

In other news I just thought that some of you might like to take a look over the following...

 

I'm often asked by readers of this blog, and visitors to the Captain Britain & MI13 thread on CBR's forums, as to where people might find a full list of books from the Marvel UK 90s imprint. Well over at Down the Tubes former Marvel UK editor John Freeman has been putting together a list of all the Imprint Years projects from Marvel UK - including a number of those which never quite made it put into print before the closure.

 

You can find the list here. It's pretty extensive, and includes a few interesting hints towards where Marvel UK might have gone had it not closed. For those of you looking to fill holes in your collection, but not knowing what you should be looking for, this may also come in very handy.



 

And finally, I've had another Blog post up over Weekly Geek Speak's website. This time a lengthy post on the subject of Crossovers. You can find that article here. So if you're inclined, drop in over there too.

 

Until next time.

 

Mark

(Sword)

Missed Marvel UK creators at Cons this year? This may help.

Two things that I have regretted this year, whilst moving house and working ridiculous hours, is that I haven't been able to get out to as many Cons as I'd initially planned. Especially this year, when I knew that in at least two instances there was going to be appearances made by certain Marvel UK creators whom I have not yet had a chance to meet. Firstly, I'd seen fliers stating that Captain Britain creator Chris Claremont was going to be at Bristol Comics Expo. Now even in this day and age, that was a pretty big deal. How often does he come to the UK, these days? I had to make that. It was in May. I could do that...

Yeah. I failed to make Bristol...

I'd also been hearing really good things about Sci-Fi London. I'd been hearing names like Gary Erskine (Artist on Knights of Pendragon and Warheads), Dez Skinn (Former Head Editor of Marvel UK, in the 70s), John Freeman (Former Group Editor of Marvel UK, editor on Doctor Who Weekly, and writer on the Real Ghostbusters comic), Simon Furman (Creator of Death's Head and UK Transformers legend),  and Dan Abnett (Death's Head II and Knights of Pendragon). There was word of a proper Marvel UK Panel! How could I miss that?

Yeah. That was in May, too. Didn't make that either...

Luckily for me (And if you missed them, for you also) there is some consolation here. Alex Fitch presents a weekly radio show about comics, on London's Resonance 104.4 FM, by the name of Panel Borders. Not being a London resident I can't pick it up live, but Alex does also put out his shows as Podcasts. And in recent times there have actually been several of those which will probably be of quite a bit of interest to regular readers.

For one, Alex managed to get an interview with Chris Claremont at Bristol. You can find that one HERE.
It's quite an interesting interview. A little guarded from Claremont, but it does touch on his British roots, Captain Britain, and also his continuing want to work with Alan Davis. Well worth a listen. Many of you might have read interviews with Claremont before, but hearing him actually speaking, certainly for me, adds a different dimension to some of his past interview comments. Take a listen.

Alex also chaired the Marvel UK panel at Sci-Fi London! And therefore the whole panel has been recorded, split into two Podcasts, available HERE and HERE. It's a really good panel, which discusses Marvel UK right across the three decades of its existence. One very interesting dimension discussed here though, and which I don't tend to cover as much on this Blog, is Marvel UK's licensed titles from the 1980s. I don't tend to cover those as much, because their characters are not so transferable into the present, and aren't strictly speaking the property of Marvel UK. But it cannot be denied that titles like Transformers, Thundercats and even The Real Ghostbusters, were huge sellers. Certainly larger sellers than the vast majority of titles in the modern American market, that's for sure. I cannot recommend listening to this panel enough.

Other Podcasts available from the Archive, which you might be interested in from a Marvel UK standpoint, include, a great spotlight on Captain Britain, from last year, which includes interviews with both Paul Cornell and Alan Davis, interviews with David Lloyd (Artist on V for Vendetta, ad Night Raven),  Mark Buckingham (Mortigan Goth: Immortalis, Marvelman and Fables) and another interview with Paul Cornell and David Hine which technicaly is rooted in their work for DC, but is also worth a listen.

So, that's three days and four Blogs. I'm getting there guys, but please bear with me... :)

What a difference a week makes...

What a difference, indeed. Regular visitors will no doubt have noticed that the hit counter has been jumping up a bit these past few days. I've been lucky enough that a few people have started to find out about this place, and been kind enough to spread the word. From your comments on here and from the emails Ive been receiving from some of you we seem to be developing a bit of community here, and that's really good. The more people who remember Marvel UK, and the British Marvel characters, the better.

I had hoped to have a couple of blog pieces up this weekend, but a housing emergency has got in the way (I can't physically get to my comics boxes right now, to do some scanning...). So I though, instead I'd take the time to thank a few people for being part of this.

Firstly a big thank you to Paul Cornell. Those of you who are Doctor Who fans will probably already know who Paul is, but for those who don't he's also been doing a bit of work for Marvel Comics, writing the brilliant Wisdom mini-series from last year (Which showcased to British Marvel characters who really had been away too long) and a Young Avengers one-shot with the Vision which will be coming out soon.

He's a bloody nice bloke, and you can find his blog over here: http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/

I'd also like to thank John Freeman for sticking a link up on his site this week (http://www.downthetubes.net/) and Richard Starkings for posting up that Dragon's Claws artwork. These two guys were key to so many Marvel UK titles, and it's been really great to hear their perspective on some of these characters and the way that things used work back in the day. Thanks, guys.

While the comments are always welcome on site, I'd also like to thank all you guys who've emailed me over the past few weeks, with thanks and discussion. I received a very nice email from former Marvel UK artist Liam Sharp the other day, who's been nice enough to put a link to this blog up on his DeviantART and MySpace page. Thanks Liam, I really appreciate that. Anybody who loves Liam's art should really take a look at that art page, and look out for his work on DC's Lord Havoc and the Extremists and Testament.

http://liamsharp.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.myspace.com/liamrsharp

Since the blog went up I've had several request from people as to where they can find copies of the Mortigan Goth: Immortalis series, and other Marvel UK imprint titles. Your best bet is eBay, these days, or rooting around at your local comic book store. I picked up a lot of my gaps in runs through eBay a few years back. I had to (Somewhat ironically, get a lot of them shipped from the States) but I did find what I was looking for.

And finally a quick word of thanks to Thomas Wood - Your emails about Knights of Pendragon have got my mind brewing on a piece for them, as well. Thank you.

Hopefully, house problems sorted, I'll have a couple of updates up in the week. Until then thanks for your support, and don't be afraid to post a comment ;)

Mark

The Sword is Drawn.