For years The Amazing Spider-Man had been Marvels flagship title, closely followed by The Fantastic Four. However neither of those titles would reach those heights for Newton - Planet Of The Apes would claim that crown, but that didn't stop Newton from keeping Spider-Man firmly on the books. Other than the January/February 1976 shutdown, the book was issued on a regular basis for all of it's 17 issues. However, as with other titles, there were some serious continuity problems. Incredibly the book didn't have an annual, instead relying on a one-shot, the Newton Spectactular, that was issued towards the end of the life of Newton that merely reprinted material that had come before. Now the comics. #1 Date: May 1975 Contents: Spider-Man by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Amazing Spider-Man #1) The Terrible Tinkerer by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Amazing Spider-Man #2) Duel To The Death With The Vulture by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Amazing Spider-Man #2) The first issue was

According to the Wikipedia the following people all share the same birthday. 1530 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. 1584) 1819 - Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884) 1909 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993) 1913 - Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (d. 1973) 1916 - Van Johnson, American actor 1917 - Mel Ferrer, American actor 1918 - Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, composer, educator and pianist (d. 1990) 1930 - Sir Sean Connery, British actor 1933 - Tom Skerritt, American actor 1938 - Frederick Forsyth, English author 1939 - John Badham, American film director 1947 - Anne Archer, American actress 1949 - Martin Amis, English novelist 1949 - John Savage, American actor 1949 - Gene Simmons, Israeli-born bassist and singer (KISS) 1951 - Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest) 1952 - Geoff Downes, English keyboardist (Buggles, Yes, Asia) 1954 - Elvis Costello, English musician 1958 - Tim Burton, American film director, producer, and screenwriter 1964 -

These early Silver Age Marvel's were produced by Horwitz Publications. Too little is known about Horwitz and Bramley and some of the people who do know tend to keep such information to themselves for fear that someone might actually spread the word and attempt to education people. Shock! Horror!! John Ryan's excellent (and criminally out of print) book, Panel By Panel (pgs 209-210), tells us this about Horwitz. Horwitz Publications had reprinted US comics from the early 'fifties but produced very little in the way of local comics until late in the decade. Following similar moves in the US and, perhaps, sensing the Queensland problem, Horwitz issued a Code of Publishing Ethics to all their editors, artists and authors in March 1954. The Code had a particular reference to comics and spelled out the details of what could not be done. Plots were to be told simply in a way not to confuse even the youngest reader as to motive; sex was out in any shape or form; grammar had to be

Not much in today's post, but what it might lack in content it surely will make up in interest as we look at two classic examples of Marvel UK's landscape issues. Again, scans and additional information courtesy of David Johnson. SUPER SPIDER-MAN #173 Cover dated: June 5, 1976. These landscape issues are amongst the most interesting, art wise. The stories were chopped to pieces to fit into the new format, although the covers have a lot of potential, acting almost as a widescreen projection would. You can compare this cover with the original by clicking this link . SUPER SPIDER-MAN #173 Splash page. Here's a classic example of how the art was chopped and changed to suit the landscape format. Of note, this issue was edited by future Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant. THE TITANS #1 Cover dated: October 25, 1975. A lot of those figures scream Romita to me. The Nick Fury is a decent Steranko swipe, the Sub-Mariner looks almost Kirbyish with the blocky fingers and the Black Bo

More great stuff. Now I'm going to go out on a limb and attempt to guess the artists, but after my last dismal failure don't quote me on anything. These scans are courtesy of David Johnson. David and myself will be launching another blog, eventually, that'll focus on the UK Marvels exclusively, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime I've started a blog that has the information of the Australian comics . This new blog will basically reprint the core material that's already been on this site, possibly with some new material down the line. I guess at the end of the day I have to wonder if I just want to keep the Australian stuff here and run with the UK version on a separate site. All in good time. THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #67 Cover dated: January 12, 1974. My guess? Jim Starlin. The Hulk figure and, oddly enough, the backgrounds look very much like Starlin to me. THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #72 Cover dated: February 16, 1974. Whoever it is it's no

Get in - you can now pre-order the book here . I guess I'll have to pull my finger out now and actually finish the last interview and get it submitted. Fret not, it's virtually done, not much left to do now. Still it's a thrill to see this listed on Amazon! Now, back to work for me!

You just have to love this stuff. I was looking through a box of comics and discovering gems I wasn't aware I had (it appears I buy stuff in Melbourne, place it all in boxes and then forget about it all when I get home - can anyone say Daredevil #158 and X-Men #100?) and found a large volume of UK Marvels. The first ten comics you see here today were all part of a bound volume title The Marvel Collection. As my copy was falling apart I decided to tear the whole thing apart and scan the covers. Fret not, I only ruined an otherwise ruined book to begin with. As usual, let's look at seeing if we can't identify some of the cover artists. THE SUPER-HEROES #30 Cover dated September 27, 1975. This looks exactly the same as the USA Silver Surfer #15 by John Buscema only recoloured. Gifford tells us that this comic lasted from March 8, 1975 through to February 14, 1976 for a total of 50 issues. It then was re-titled Spider-Man . THE AVENGERS STARRING SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG