Popular Post Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 27, 2020 (edited) Bit bored during lockdown so thought I'd post some images some of you might not have seen (and probably not too interested in). In the UK there is a long tradition of first issues of comics giving away free gifts to entice buyers and this was the case with comics which contained Marvel reprints. When Oldhams obtained the rights to reprint Marvel stories they began with POW #1 which reprinted Spider-man and Nick Fury SHIELD from Strange Tales along with original UK stories; but of course the bigger attraction for kids was the free Spider-matic pistol which was a cardboard gun which with the aid of an elastic band fired cardboard disks; This was followed the following week by POW #2 which had a rather splendid Spider-man transfer which could be iron-on to a TeeShirt or other fabric by your mum; Edited May 27, 2020 by GARYSTAR update Kevin.J, Yorick, Larryw7 and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 Oldhams, or Power comics as they published their Marvel comics under, next gave us UK readers Fantastic. This was different to POW in that it contained little to no UK material but was nearly all Marvel reprints - Thor, X-Men and Iron-man. The free gift here was a plastic pennant/wallet. The comic provided several uses for the pennant/wallet and suggestions where you could put it. The power comics for that week all had a back-page of Marvel pennants you could cut out and store in your wallets; Buzzetta, Larryw7 and Ken Aldred 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 Terrific, similar to Fantastic, was also virtually all Marvel reprints - Sub-mariner, The Avengers and Doctor Strange; #1 included a free gift of an Iron-man transfer again to be ironed onto fabric (I need to get a better example but I did pay less than £1 for it); batmiesta and Ken Aldred 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 In 1972 Marvel decided to publish comics specifically for the UK in-house (by what became to be known as Marvel UK). First up was The Mighty World of Marvelwhich reprinted The Hulk, Spider-man and Fantastic Four with some new editorial along the lines of Stan's Soapbox and letters pages; Previous transfers must have been popular (or cheap) as MWOM #1 came with a free Green-skinned monster iron-on transfer. Presumably Marvel thought the Hulk would not be a house-hold name in the UK hence the transfer being touted as "Green-skinned monster" but it was in fact the Hulk; MWOM sold well (print run 325,000) so these transfers are not uncommon still in the UK and pop up for sale fairly regularly despite a lot ending up on t-shirts and being very fragile. #2 came with a Spider-man iron on transfer; After great transfers of two of it's features MWOM #3 free gift wasn't a fantastic Four transfer but a set of stickers, the art isn't great and we can only wonder what a Fantastic Four transfer would have been like; Ken Aldred, Nick H (UK), batmiesta and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 27, 2020 Mighty World Of Marvel was a big hit in the UK and after 19 issues Spider-man was replaced by Daredevil and Spider-man got his own comic. Initially Spider-man Comics Weekly comprised Spider-man and Thor reprints but later also included Iron-man. Included free in #1 was a real life Spider-man mask. In reality this was a paper bag with a spider web pattern and two eye holes cut out. I can remember having this as a kid and I believe in was in tatters within a day; Spiderman Comics Weekly #2 came with a Spider-man tracer plane which was a cardboard plane which could be projected by means of an elastic band. BlowUpTheMoon, Get Marwood & I, mikeyc67 and 5 others 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 This is the extent of my UK gifts, although I am on the look out for Avengers Weekly #1 which had a set of transfers (the type you could put on your skin) and #2 which had a gun similar to the Spider-man one in POW#1. There are plenty of gifts in later UK Marvels but after Avengers Weekly they tended to be a centrefold glossy poster or some stickers, if there's any interest perhaps others could post their comic free gifts, I recall Secret Wars had a cool rub-down transfer set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Wow, these are cool. I think I have a few of those some where. A Star Wars and Judge Dredd come to mind, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 50 minutes ago, GARYSTAR said: This is the extent of my UK gifts, although I am on the look out for Avengers Weekly #1 which had a set of transfers (the type you could put on your skin) and #2 which had a gun similar to the Spider-man one in POW#1. There are plenty of gifts in later UK Marvels but after Avengers Weekly they tended to be a centrefold glossy poster or some stickers, if there's any interest perhaps others could post their comic free gifts, I recall Secret Wars had a cool rub-down transfer set. Great trip down memory lane there Gary - it's nice to see some of these old favourites again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Robot Man said: Wow, these are cool. I think I have a few of those some where. A Star Wars and Judge Dredd come to mind, Stars Wars Weekly had a free cut out x wing fighter. 2000AD also had free gifts, Judge Dredd started in issue 2, I don’t think the early issues had any Dredd gifts but not sure if there were any later in series. Edited May 27, 2020 by GARYSTAR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 26 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said: Great trip down memory lane there Gary - it's nice to see some of these old favourites again I still remember my dad buying me Pow #1, although I could hardly be old enough to read, and the impact the Spider-man and SHIELD stories had on me - I’d never read anything like them before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunsicker Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Really cool stuff, Gary. Thanks for sharing. Kind of like the UK equivalent of Marvelmania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted May 27, 2020 Author Share Posted May 27, 2020 9 minutes ago, thunsicker said: Really cool stuff, Gary. Thanks for sharing. Kind of like the UK equivalent of Marvelmania. Marvelmania - now you are talking really cool. I’m constantly looking for more Marvelmania stuff, it costs a fortune to get it in UK with shipping and taxes but it really is great stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 2 hours ago, GARYSTAR said: I still remember my dad buying me Pow #1, although I could hardly be old enough to read, and the impact the Spider-man and SHIELD stories had on me - I’d never read anything like them before. It stays with you doesn't, reading some of those first comics. Good times. Ken Aldred 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Aldred Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 I agree. I still recall getting some copies of Pow and Fantastic from a little second hand shop down the road from where I lived, around the time of MWOM and when I'd started buying distributed American comics from the newsagent. No free gifts though. Get Marwood & I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffman_Comics Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Oh, the memories. The companion comics, "Wham" and "Smash" are not mentioned, but were available here. Those comics announced the arrival of "Pow" and I was all over it. Newsagent reserved a copy for me every week and when #8 "didn't arrive" I made my mother drive all over the place to other outlets to secure the missing issue. That's when my true CDO* presented. *OCD, but in the CORRECT order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyc67 Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Great memories. I never liked asking for anything as a kid but will always remember persuading my mum to buy me SMCW #1 my first comic! ADAMANTIUM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batmiesta Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 Don't know how I missed this thread, awesome stuff Gary, any chance of showing some more of your stuff UK or American? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garystar Posted December 26, 2020 Author Share Posted December 26, 2020 5 hours ago, batmiesta said: Don't know how I missed this thread, awesome stuff Gary, any chance of showing some more of your stuff UK or American? I think this is the extent of my UK comic give-always. I’ve posted a couple of MMMS items in a MMMS thread. My favourites are Marvelmania items - perhaps I’ll have a search see if there is already a thread or perhaps start one to show some stuff. batmiesta and Kevin.J 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Garystar Posted January 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2021 New one today, Terrific #2 from 1967, complete with free Iron Man missile launcher. Fires match sticks...... boomtown, mikeyc67, Kevin.J and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Garystar Posted March 12, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 12, 2021 (edited) Another new one Avengers weekly #2 comes with an Avengers Wonder Weapon (cardboard gun witch fires cardboard disks) similar to Spider-Man one in POW #1 Edited March 12, 2021 by Garystar thunsicker, boomtown, Nick H (UK) and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...