Celebrating 75 years of Marvel with a thud!

As mentioned in previous posts I was chuffed to be asked to contribute something towards Taschen's latest table-hogging XXL deluxe book: 75 Years of Marvel. The super-sized cover to Captain Britain #1 from 1976, and a smaller reproduction of The Mighty World of Marvel #1 from 1972, that appears in its pages come from my personal collection.

Admittedly, I was expecting to be asked to supply something more unusual as well, but I'm more than happy that the UK side of things has a presence within the book as well as in Roy Thomas' essay, unlike in earlier works such as the otherwise very enjoyable Les Daniels' book from some years' back now, which only seemed to mention Captain Britain due to his Excalibur connections. I was also pleased to see that a few of the UK-specific suggestions for the timeline (put together in a hurry at the last moment) have also been included in the multiple sheet fold-out timeline tucked into the back of the book - you'll probably guess which they were :)

All the double page chapter pages are printed using a metallic film process!

It's now shipping and retailing online around the £87 mark, it carries a full rrp of £135.

Meanwhile, for any US readers, it's just been announced there is to be a special signing on 5th December at: 354 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California CA 90210. Taschen are stressing that Stan and Roy will only be signing that book!

In the meantime, work on From Cents... to Pence! has resumed, with a third of the 33 chapters now ready for final proofing... even with new discoveries still coming to light all the time!

When one Bullpen simply wasn't enough...

As you've seen below, Taschen are set to launch a celebration in print of 75 years of the America-born Marvel Comics company this October.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/01133/facts.75_years_of_marvel_from_the_golden_age_to_the_silver_screen.htm

However, over on this side of the 'big pond', October also holds great significance for fans of their UK comics. It was on the very last day of September 1972 that the first (October 7th dated) edition of The Mighty World of Marvel came into being, and it's still with us today, albeit in its umpteenth volume through current keepers of the flame Panini, having just been re-launched again last week to tie-in with the up-coming Guardians of the Galaxy movie in August.

In launching a UK division, Marvel effectively ended up with three Bullpens out of their original US one. When Sol Brodsky was enticed back to Marvel by Stan after he'd left to form Skywald to manage a new Special projects division incorporating the UK comics line, that necessitated the creation of a new Bullpen-within-a-Bullpen to manage the new comics and produce new cover and poster artwork, but their London office then also developed a small Bullpen over time to handle final production work, such as editorial pages, adverts, competitions and promotions.

Whereas we previously knew very little about the interaction between New York and London - and there was a lot - I'm pleased to say that various leads have blown the whole story wide open, and its wilder than you've probably ever imagined. If thought the early years of British Marvel were all about reprints and more reprints until the release of Captain Britain in 1977, well, you might need to sit down! There's more than a few shocks in store...

So yes, work on From Cents... to Pence! (one mock-up front cover shown herein) is nearing resolution at last, and I hope to be in a position to release the first tranche of completed chapters to the editor within the next month or so. At 33 chapters and counting, and clocking in over 250,000 words, because the writing and research of this isn't my day job, this has not been a quick task, but ensuring accuracy (as far as possible) and consistency (easy to lose when working on something piecemeal) will make it all worth it in the end... or so I keep telling myself.

More news soon, I hope.

Marvel gets the Taschen treatment!

Taschen have just announced 75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen.

This large format, 720 page coffee table hogging work will be released in October, and joins previous volumes on DC Comics, such as 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking and its smaller companion volume The Golden Age of DC Comics.

Containing over 2000 images corralled by editor and art director John Baker (including a handful of UK images that I was kindly approached to provide) this mighty XL format tome also more than 300 individual biographies and is appropriately authored by Roy Thomas with input from various fans and collectors.

The book also features what is described as "a four-foot accordion-fold timeline, suitable for framing" - the mind boggles!!

Could make a very suitable birthday present for someone, perhaps... if you have $200 to spare, at any rate ;-)

re:VOX #19 - revealing revelatory revelry in the excitable, eclectic and exuberant Eighties!

Okay, so the new issue of re:VOX didn’t come out in the summer as suggested here previously, that much you’ll have gathered. In truth I was very reluctant to pull myself away from work on From Cents to Pence, especially after being invited to meet former British Marvel editor Peta Skingley. A very enjoyable lunchtime chinwag was had by all, enhanced by the presence of Alan Murray, whom Peta had actually employed as their studio manager shortly after her arrival at Marvel HQ in 1973 (then located in a small part of the Transworld UK Ltd. offices down at High Holborn). This single meeting alone generated some significant new information that then needed further research and clarification, the result being that I couldn't start serious work on re:VOX until a suitable breathing space made itself apparent, which didn’t happen until late October.

Our stunning cover was actually gifted to us at the very last minute by Lowri-Ann Richards, a David Levine photo currently used by special permission on all the material promoting LA’s new show Whatever Happened to La La Shockette, which will soon to be staged again at the Sanctum Soho Hotel off Regent Street on January 23-25th and 30th, concluding on February 1st and 2nd (tickets will soon be made available via wegottickets.com). As the final element of the issue to be completed, this final design superseded the last of several, quite different earlier versions of the cover. At some point we’ll have to share with you some of these previously unseen alternate, might-have-been covers that were dropped from editions over the past decade.

Thanks to LA’s generosity, we’ve been blessed with the pick of photos from 1979 through to the late 1980s, and we're proud to present manyamazing, previously unseen images. It was an absorbing and exciting honour leafing working out how best to compile them in a way that we hope does them full justice. And what a fascinating snapshot into a time when Lemmy from Motorhead could be seen rubbing shoulders with other leading lights of the club scene from Spandau Ballet to LA’s own group, Shock. The sheer scope of this incredible archive has made this feature the longest single interview we’ve ever run, once again pushing the issue to a whopping 44 pages!

But although #19 centres around the life and career of LA Richards to date, there are other treats be savoured too. Australian-based designer Toni Hearn presents two complementary reviews of Midge Ure’s tour over there back in the spring (along with some of her own photos), while our other guest writers Anna Butkiewicz, Darren Hackett and Andrew Watson review three more dates from last year’s Brilliant tour. P/S inaugurates a new, possibly irregular feature looking at some of the more unusual or rarely seen covers that have graced records connected to Ultravox over the years. A stand-alone album of Brilliant tour photos will now appear in one of next year's issues, forming part of a year-long celebration of 40 years of Ultravox(!).

You can purchase copies of re:VOX from #1 to this latest edition (now being mailed out), so do check-out the cover gallery on Facebook via the link below, and then contact us direct at: a_distant_beacon@ymail.com stating the issues that you’re interested in (payments can be made via Paypal now).

I look forward to hearing from you soon - you won’t regret it!

Fine-tuning 'From Cents to Pence!'

My thanks to everyone who has been asking after the progress of the Marvel UK book.

'From Cents to Pence' is basically divided into three sections. An in-depth history, an index to most of the stories (originated and reprinted alike) published since 1972 (and a few from Annuals before then) and various additional indices listing free gifts, an outline of the contents, formats and precise names of all the comics/Annuals/Specials, plus an creators index to all the originated material... among other items of interest!

One of several, variant potential cover designs

At a 1/4 million words, checking/amending/correcting the 30 chapters that form the history part of it alone is not a quick task on top of the day job etc., but it's coming together very nicely. Right now I'm over half the way through, and with the help of some frequent contributors tidying up some of the loose ends.

My aim has always been to complete this process by the end of the year, if not before, but I have an extra incentive to do so now (and it's a doozy!), which I'll obviously tell you about in due course should our plans come together as envisaged.

As things move along, I'll try to post an occasional update or three, but when an update doesn't surface for a while at least you'll know I'm either completely immersed in the text or prepping material for re:VOX.

More news soon.

A day in the life of LA (Richards)!

A few months after the Blitz Club reunion night in 2011 I had the great pleasure of interviewing the charming Lowri-Ann Richards - one of the members of the early 1980s group Shock - about her wonderfully diverse career. Although I'd expected to run the interview later that year, when she offered me the chance to scan some photos from her personal photo albums it then took rather longer than expected until we could work out the best way of doing it, with five very heavy, very full albums involved.

Thanks to LA for very kindly loaning me the albums for a few weeks earlier this year, I'm now preparing an issue of re:VOX based around that interview (taking advantage of a small gap that's opened up in work on the Marvel UK book, while waiting for some additional information from various folk), and there's some amazing unpublished pictures from that era... plus a few faces you might not expect to see in a magazine about the many worlds of Ultravox!


LA Richards with Tik and Tok (Le Kilt, 1980) - courtesy LA Richards

Expect to see such delights as an early Depeche Mode concert; some back stage photos from the legendary People's Palace Valentines Day Ball; Shock with Gary Numan at Wembley; the launch party for Spandau's Ballet debut LP, plus a whole host of stars from Johnny Ball to Lemmy!

In the meantime, LA has a new show at the end of this month at the Studio in St. James Theatre, London. "Whatever Happened to La La Shockette" is loosely based on her own life and experiences, incorporating music and video clips. Directed by Stuart Saint, you'll only be able to see the show on Saturday 27th July, although LA hopes to be able to restage it at other venues in the near future.

More news on re:VOX #19 in the next month or so.

Keep Calm and Carry on Digging!

For those of you following this blog since my recent feature on Marvel UK in Back Issue, I thought a small update might be in order. I've had some very kind feedback already, and it's great to hear from people with an equal thirst to learn more about this often under-appreciated part of Marvel.

Right now I'm in the sixth month of reading, re-reading, revising and fact-checking the history part of the book which that the BI article was extracted from. At some 250,000 words in total this is no small task. If I was just proofing a novel this would perhaps be less time-consuming, but when you're dealing with such a complicated web of historical events it can be like pulling the thread from a large tapestry and seeing it all unravel.

Even worse, every answer nearly always then leads to another question, and in trying to close off avenues, sometimes new boulevards open up in their place - whether it's looking into London cable companies (check out The Greenwich Phantom for the scoop on this one), Irish V.A.T. rates or the lime-lag between reprints of US stories and their initial US publication. Sigh!

Still, the great thing is I'm half way through and it's really pulling together nicely after the piecemeal additions that have been made to the text over the past few years due to other distractions like re:VOX magazine. That means that I can finally start passing text over to my editor, although hopefully I won't be passing on a headache or two to him as well :)

Oh, and having recently spoken to Maureen Softley, I'm about to receive some information direct from her predecessor Peta Skingley, Marvel UK's second London-based editor... although some of you might know her better as Peter Skingley... or Peter Allen or...

I'll try to bring you another update soon. For now, wherever you are, take care and enjoy the overdue arrival of summer.