The Mighty World Of Marvel

[steelcity]

Back in 1972 Stan Lee headed for the UK to launch a new weekly comic book, called "The Mighty World Of Marvel." On sale every Saturday, it reprinted Silver Age stories from a range of titles, including Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Journey Into Mystery and Tales To Astonish.

Each comic had twenty plus pages, with dimensions 8 1/4" by 11 1/2" and was printed on paper stock of incredibly poor quality. The comics often had a dirty look to them caused by less than precise black printers ink and the spines could be stiff and wrinkled by the glueing process. Later on staples were used, though they tended to discolor. Also, the comics themselves were very prone to becoming brown, despite careful storage.

The stories themselves were printed either in full color, partial color or black and white, usually splitting the original issues into two parts so as to be able to include more stories per issue. US spellings were often changed into UK, being easy to spot as they were often poorly written - nothing like the original lettering quality.

Sales were high, allowing spin-off titles to emerge, the most successful being "Spider-Man Comics Weekly," launched in 1973.

The run of titles lasted until the late seventies. During this time, the comics changed size and shape, even acquiring glossy covers. They introduced a lot of UK readers to the world of Marvel comics.

Here are front and back cover scans of the first twenty five issues. They show how exciting and dynamic these comics were. Stan himself used to write a column and later on he ran a letters page. Stan also founded a UK branch of FOOM. His own enthusiasm radiated from the pages!

[steelcity]

#1

 

[steelcity]

#2

 

[steelcity]

#3

 

[steelcity]

#4

 

[steelcity]

#5

 

[steelcity]

#6

 

[steelcity]

#7

 

[steelcity]

#8

 

[steelcity]

#9

 

[boomtown]

Very nice. Were the covers of #2-9 early Starlin work? #1 looks like it might be paste-ups of Buscema art, but the others all look like a young Starlin may have gotten the assignment. Also, any reason why they would take the "4" off the uniforms of the Fantastic Four?

[steelcity]

#10

 

[dc360]

Very cool!

[Juswuh]

Interesting to see the rejected AF 15 cover being used as a pinup.

 

Does anyone here collect the "Power Comics" (WHAM! POW! FANTASTIC etc.), which were the first to reprint Marvel in the UK? They ran from about 1966 to 69, and I think were very successful for a while (enough to sustain a line of five weekly comics) but then quickly ran out of steam. I'd love to read a full account of their rise and fall.

[steelcity]

#11

 

[steelcity]

#12

 

[steelcity]

#13

 

[steelcity]

#14

 

[steelcity]

#15

 

[steelcity]

#16