On This Day, 30th September 1972, Marvel UK’s very first issue of the weekly The Mighty World of Marvel arrived in newsagents, accompanied by its “iron on” Hulk transfer, very much a collectable today.
For those ready to quibble, citing the “7th October” on the cover, that’s the “off sale” date newsagents in the UK used to remove an edition from their shelves, although not all cover dating is consistent, as cartoonist and comic archivist Lew Stringer, who reminded us of MWOM’s debut earlier today, has previously explained on downthetubes.
Marvel Marketing with Stan Lee
We’ve previously featured items on the arrival of The Mighty World of Marvel, too in 2022 from Lew, too (“Fifty Year Flashback: The Mighty World of Marvel No.1”), and here, in this feature by Marvel UK historian Rob Kirby (“From Cents to Pence: Marketing Mighty World of Marvel, the first British Marvel weekly, back in 1972”), Stan Lee himself coming to the UK to help promote the new title.
While he was in the UK toured the country, visiting Newcastle, where his wife Joan was born, on his way to Carlisle, where The Mighty World of Marvel was printed, the first issue print run cited as 300,000 copies in an item for the Newcastle Journal published on Friday 6th October 1972. (Interviewed, Stan invents “The Scarlet Avenger”, alter ego dance teacher, Biddy Pinchard, on the spot).
As Lew previously noted, The Mighty World of Marvel was printed Web Offset on matt paper (like Fleetway’s Tiger and Cor!! of the time) so it resembled the familiar British format. MWOM also imitated the style of its Odhams predecessor, Fantastic, in that it was a 40-page comic comprised of an anthology of three strips, reprinting half of each of the original comics.
“Therefore, in the first issue we were given the opening 10 pages of The Incredible Hulk No.1, the first half of Fantastic Four No.1, and the Spider-Man origin story from Amazing Fantasy No.15. (Subsequent weeks would continue this serialised approach, so issue 2 presented the second halves of Hulk and FF and the first half of Amazing Spider-Man No.1, and so on.)
“Having 40 pages, The Mighty World of Marvel (or MWOM, as it was often referred to) was a bit more substantial than the average 32-page UK comic, and its 5p cover price reflected that. Most UK adventure comics of the time, such as Valiant, were around 3p in 1972.”
A Momentous Marvel Event
The arrival of The Mighty World of Marvel on our newsstands was certainly a landmark event I well remember myself, racing back to read my copy from the newsagent on Fore Street, St. Ives (now location of The Painted Bird gift shop, directly opposite the bookshop, still there today as St. Ives Bookseller, where I would bought my first Target Doctor Who books in 1973, and plenty of Corgi Books and Panther published science fiction too).
There were two newsagents on Fore Street then, Jacobs the other, but this one, then, if I recall correctly, owned by the Brown family, who also owned the bookshop, also had not one but two spinner racks of American comics, my first experience of DC and Marvel Comics, erratically distributed then, some issues never reaching this part of Britain. This was part of the appeal of MWOM – I’d actually get to read those scintillating superhero stories in a proper order, even if they were in black and white, or other weird colour choices, as opposed to the four colour originals).
I can still remember my Mum’s astonishment as I got out the ironing board myself, and carefully ironed that Hulk transfer to a t-shirt, which I still had for years, until it was accidentally dyed pink in a laundry faux pas in my student days.
And I can still remember the excitement of reading those early Marvel stories, retold and represented many times since, of course, but never in the unique way that Marvel did it for their British fans back in 1972, capturing my imagination and, eventually, setting me on my way to my own humble comics career, which included working at the very company that brought us MWOM.
Thank you, then, to all those who were involved in this particular Marvel UK endeavour. You very much did help shape my life…
Head downthetubes for…
• Fifty Year Flashback: The Mighty World of Marvel No.1 by Lew Stringer
• From Cents to Pence: Marketing Mighty World of Marvel, the first British Marvel weekly, back in 1972 by Rob Kirby
• Check out his online blog here: Lew Stringer Comics | Follow Lew on Twitter | Facebook
• If you want to read more about the comics published by the predecessors to Marvel UK, read these blog posts by Lew on his blog – Part One | Part Two | Part Three
• Check out and follow A Distant Beacon, Rob Kirby’s web journal
• Check out and subscribe to Steve Cook’s “Secret Oranges” Substack
• Wikipedia: The Mighty World of Marvel
• Jon Carpenter covers Stan Lee’s 1975 visit to London here on his Starlogged blog
• Stan Lee’s papers, held by the American Heritage Center, are among its most popular collections. American Heritage Center is at the University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3924 Laramie, WY 82071
Comprised of nearly 200 boxes, Stan Lee’s papers, donated by Lee himself at various times between 1981 and 2011, give insights into the personality of the man behind many of Marvel’s best loved comic book heroes and villains, and help researchers learn more about the life of the writer who, along with others at Marvel, “humanised” superheroes.
• Excelsior! – Honoring a Lifetime of Stan Lee’s Work
• How British comic cover dates have (largely) lied to you for decades by Lew Stringer
A fan made not for profit webcomic available to read for free on Facebook
Special thanks to Steve Cook for previously giving permission of the use of his images of an early Mighty World of Marvel dummy
Mighty World of Marvel and Marvel Comics characters © and trademark Marvel Comics
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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, Events, US Comics
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A small correction, John: Stan appeared at the Roundhouse in London three years after the launch of MWOM, on October 20th 1975, along with Herb Trimpe. I was fortunate to be there.
A No Prize to you, sir! Fixed.