In June 2023, the team at Spider-Man 1967 began running their history of Spider-Man comic appearances in the UK. Following a number of trailers, their “potted history” begins here. Because it wasn’t published as a thread, I asked if we could re-run their guide here on downthetubes, with some additional notes. So here’s the first part of this “Potted History”, with some additional material and links, this “chapter” starting with Spidey’s earliest British appearances, up to his early appearances in the first Marvel UK titles in the early 1970s.
Imagery was sourced from a variety of places, including, with permission to use the images here, cartoonist Lew Stringer‘s much-valued if no longer updated Blimey! blog, and the Spider-Man 1967 Twitter. (The overall © remains, of course, with Marvel).
Please note, this article covers the titles published in the UK, for the British market. We’re aware some Marvel US titles were imported with “pence” prices, but they were printed overseas.
Spider-Man made his first regular British comics appearance in the weekly comic POW!, published by Odhams Press. The first issue is cover dated 21st January 1967, actually making its debut a week earlier, on Saturday 14th January, with black-and-white interior pages on newsprint stock, with ‘colour’ front and back covers. (Lew Stringer explains the intricacies of British comic dates here).
It wasn’t Spider-Man’s first UK appearance, however. Marvel’s Amazing Fantasy #15, featuring Spider-Man’s first appearance, was reprinted by Alan Class, in the first series of Out of this World No. 17, a “slabbed” copy sold by Heritage Auctions in 2021 for $312, although prices vary depending on condition.
Because no Alan Class titles feature cover dates, or information on publication within, while some sites suggest this issue of Out of this World, a series that ran for 23 issues, a second series published later, was published in June 1964, it might be later than this. But it’s generally regarded as the first published appearance of Spider-Man in the UK. Good luck finding a copy!
• The Magic Robot site has a quick guide to the first series of Out of this World here
The reprints of Spider-Man in POW! commenced with The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #1, excluding his complete origin story as depicted in Amazing Fantasy Issue #15.
The first issue came with a free ‘Web-Centre Spider-Matic’, which was a cardboard gun with cardboard spider bullets, a weapon, of course, never used by the character! The second issue of POW! came with a free iron-on transfer of Spider-Man.
Intriguingly, the early French publisher of Marvel Comics, éditions Lug, also skipped the story from Amazing Fantasy and started its reprints with the first story from Amazing Spider-Man 1 in Fantask 4 (May 1969). Just like Out of this World No. 17, this seems to command a premium price, too, although Spider-Man doesn’t feature on the cover.
Each issue of POW! printed approximately half an issue’s worth of the US Amazing Spider-Man comic book and Spider-Man was often featured on the cover. Apart from Issue 4, the Spider-Man cover artwork on POW! was generally the same as the US originals.
The weekly comic featured a mix of British comic strips alongside reprints from American Marvel Comics, featuring Spider-Man, Nick Fury, and the Fantastic Four. The colour printing technique employed had significant limitations, sometimes leading to covers with a distinctly muddy and blurred appearance, although this was varied, and collector copies suggest that as with other British comics, the quality of your copy depended very much at which point in the print run it rolled off the presses!
Spider-Man also appeared on the cover of FANTASTIC Issue 67, another ‘Power Comics’ publication from Odhams Press. Spidey was a guest star in the X-Men comic strip.
POW! lasted for 86 issues before merging with SMASH! another publication under Odhams Press’ Power Comics line. The “Spider-Man” strip continued in the merged comic for a few months but was eventually discontinued in November 1968.
But Spider-Man wasn’t absent from the world of UK comics for long. In late November 1970, ‘The Spider-Man’ made his debut in the “New Series” Issue 62 of TV21, the weekly title substantially revamped following the loss of its license to publish Gerry Anderson series strips such as “Thunderbirds” and “Captain Scarlet” over a year before in favour of “Star Trek” and “Land of the Giants”, which had first launched in the UK in the short-lived Joe 90: Top Secret. Spidey didn’t even get a mention on the cover.
“The Spider-Man” started out at three pages per week in TV21, two in colour and one in black and white.
The lettering in the strips was often revised, and scripts were altered, sometimes removing the best and funniest lines from the original US edition – and no attempt was made to explain Spider-Man’s background.
The first story to feature in TV21 was “The Coming of the Kangaroo”, from Issue #81 of The Amazing Spider-Man. Hardly the most exciting place to start! The story ran from Issue 62-66.
Following “The Coming of the Kangaroo,” TV21 proceeded with a reprint of “And Then Came Electro”, from The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #82. The artwork was substantially altered in places – and this happened more than once, producing some strange crossover appearances!
TV21 continued their adaptations with “The Schemer” from Issue #83 of The Amazing Spider-Man. The splash page was dispensed with due to the limited page count, and artwork and text was modified to avoid ending on a cliffhanger and to provide a sense of closure for Spidey.
There were some strange art changes during the character’s run in TV21. Twitter user Doctor Roo notes how, for example, in one panel, Land of the Giants Gary Conway, swiped from a “Land of the Giants” strip that appeared in an earlier issue, replaced the face of Peter Parker; and Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk inexplicably appears in another episode!
‘The Spider-Man’ had a 10-month run in TV21. The concluding instalment adapted Issue #91 of The Amazing Spider-Man. The artwork and text was modified to avoid ending on a cliffhanger and to provide a sense of closure for Spidey.
Marvel Comics founded Marvel UK in 1972 to fill a gap in the British weekly comics market. Although targeting British readers and publishing in the UK, Marvel UK operated under the editorial direction of Marvel’s New York headquarters.
Marvel UK’s first publication was The Mighty World of Marvel (MWOM) which featured reprints of 1960s Marvel stories, showcasing Spider-Man, The Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. This image shows the initial cover mock-up.
A mock-up unearthed by former Marvel UK designer Steve Cook included an advertisement for the first issue of MWOM with editor’s corrections. This suggests the title of the publication was initially The Wonderful World of Marvel.
The American monthly format was adjusted to suit the British weekly schedule, with stories serialised over multiple weeks. MWOM Issue 1 featured a Spider-Man pin-up which, interestingly, turned out to be Steve Ditko’s rejected cover design for Spider-Man’s US debut in Amazing Fantasy Issue #15.
For MWOM Issue 1, the back cover featured the final page of Spider-Man’s origin story. MWOM Issue 2 included a free ‘Amazing Spider-Man T-Shirt Transfer’. MWOM Issue 3 featured exclusive cover artwork by Jim Starlin.
Despite being predominantly black-and-white (with green ‘spot’ colour), MWOM included colour pages, notably on the back cover.
As with other early issues, MWOM Issue 8 featured another striking original cover, by Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott, and featured a’dot-to-dot’ Spider-Man game which was drawn by Al Milgrom.
MWOM Issue 18 unveiled the exciting news of Spider-Man’s forthcoming weekly publication, aptly titled Spider-Man Comics Weekly, featuring a co-starring role for The Mighty Thor. Daredevil took Spider-Man’s place in Mighty World of Marvel.
To Be Continued…
WEB LINKS
• Follow Spider-Man 1967 on Twitter
• Magic Robot: Out of This World
• 50 Year Flashback: POW! No.1 – By Lew Stringer
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, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics
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