With plenty of interest in Marvel UK right now from sites such as It Came From Darkmoor, regular readers not already checking out Lew Stringer’s brilliant Blimey! blog might want to head over there now and read his three part history of early appearances of Marvel superheroes in Britain.

As most people reading this know, Marvel Comics established a British arm in the 1970s to handle reprints and some distribution, but there were plenty of other companies that had already licensed various strips, some even running in the same titles that also featured DC Comics characters, and Lew details them in his three-part guide.

The overview includes details of ghastly colouring mistakes and re-writes of the original material that see the Silver Surfer murdering the Inhumans, and Spider-Man’s retirement!

• Part One charts the earliest Marvel UK reprints including Smash! and Pow!
• Part Two covers the colouring madness that was the Fantastic Annuals and more
• Part Three covers the TV21 Marvel reprints and more

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics

Tags: Marvel UK