1982: LOOK-IN MAGNUM P.I. STRIP

From 5 June 1982: the MAGNUM P.I. strip from LOOK-IN.

Watersports - Check!
Verdant facial hair - Check!
Luxurious chest hair - Check!
The car - Check!
Short shorts - Check!
Mild violence - Check!
Palm trees - Check!

Approved!

1982: THE FALL GUY COMIC STRIP IN LOOK-IN

From June 1982: He's the unknown stuntman... LOOK-IN publishes the first episode of the new ongoing THE FALL GUY double-page strip, based on the Glen Larson TV show starring Lee Majors and NOT starring Heather Locklear.

There's a fun game you can play either whilst watching reruns of TFG or - indeed - any action film made before the 1980s: spotting/ guessing the source of the stock footage stunts, lifted from assorted movies (oft from the Fox library), peppered throughout the series to make Majors look good and the show look more expensive than it was.

FALL GUY trivia:  There is a 1993 TV movie called THE COVERGIRL MURDERS starring Majors (along with Adrian Paul and an island full of the sort of beaties beloved by telly execs) and written by Douglas Barr...co-star on TFG.

The Adam Ant cover was obligatory.LOOK-IN's arch rival (at least for a little while) TV TOPS also obsessed with the campy rocker.  Even going as far as creating a time-travelling comic strip to ensure he appeared in every issue.

1982: E.T THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL STICKER ALBUM

From 1982: Another piece of playground crack: the E.T THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL STICKER ALBUM.  

Some albums get traction some don't. This one did.  Pictures of the E.Tster were in the highest demand and commanded a swaps premium in the playground.  

I think, like many of the albums, this one was a freebie with one of the weeklies.  I have a hunch it was a copy of LOOK-IN but I can't recall for sure.  Book and stickers were also available to buy in the usual fashion.  This copy, which I picked up for a quid, is empty.  Sadly.

Great film as well.  

Here's a question to ponder as well... What was the first sticker album to be given away with a comic?  And which comic?  It was probably a football one.  But within our genre I think it might have been something like the MUPPETS ALBUM (although I'm not sure it was stickers or cards) that came free with a copy of LOOK-IN.  Or the Marvel-published INCREDIBLE HULK album with the first issue of HULK WEEKLY... albeit again cards rather than stickers...

1982: BATTLE RELAUNCH ISSUE

From 1982: You've seen the previous week's preview... now here's the first relaunched, now-an-adventure-comic issue of BATTLE.

None of the three new strips fit the existing BATTLE formula and it's obvious that IPC had realised the finite appeal of the all-war format of old.  The three newcomers all feel like they could all have been lifted from a particularly exciting night's viewing on ITV... although the martial arts might have made the IBA a little nervous.

Maybe the management were already thinking about a future without BATTLE and were introducing adventure strips that were better suited to being shifted into another title... possibly the new EAGLE, launching around this time.

By the following year, the rumours of an impending closure had grown louder and were now being reported in the fanzines... but then ACTION FORCE entered the circulation warzone and - much to the grumblings of the old guard - took over half the page count.  Were they really any worse than Truck Turpin?  IPC and Palitoy formed an alliance because the publisher needed the business and the toy company needed a comics partner after their early plans, announced to the toy trade, to launch a new weekly with MARVEL UK somehow collapsed.

1982: TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY STORYBOOK

From 1982: A fairly rare (at least in the UK) piece of TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY merchandise: The storybook adaptation of the feature-length pilot episode.

I really liked this show back when it aired on BBC ONE and I still think it is one of the better shows to emerge out of the Universal Action Factory of the 1980s.  A great premise (not really just an Indiana Jones knock-off... although the network was trying to push it in that direction), good cast and characters and - of course - the Goose.  Plus one of the all-time great theme tunes.

Despite the exotic locale, only this pilot episode included any principle photography shot somewhere tropical: Hawaii.  The rest of the series used the Universal backlot, carefully disguised with clever camera angles.  Occasional off-lot filming took the cast to locations like the Queen Mary.  

The really surprising thing is that the show latest only a single season before it was axed.  It had the look and feel of a long-runner. It aired on primetime BBC ONE here which - I think - always magnifies our perceptions of success because an imported show always seemed like a much bigger deal.  Look at the UK vs. US success of the POTA weekly series a decade earlier.  Or the relative high profiles of MANIMAL, AUTOMAN and STREETHAWK over here.  Although no-one other than me seems to remember the weekly series version of FREEBIE AND THE BEAN.  Sigh.

Merchandise related to the show is limited.  There is an excellent UK DVD release which is well worth getting and finally allowed me to dump my long-held bootleg copies.  It's worth getting not least for the very good new documentary, although the relationship between Stephen Collins and Faye ('V') Grant has - ahem - taken a turn for the worse since it was made.  Revelations about Collins may also mean this show is even less likely to get any TV exposure in future.

There was also supposed to be a UK annual but - to be honest - I have never seena copy 'in the wild' so i can't be 100% sure it was ever published.  But I will keep looking.  UK comics rights went to TV COMIC, which is always hard to find.

1982: THE 'LAST' BATTLE

From February 1982: Relaunch alert!  BATTLE is about to get a bold new mission!

It's generally agreed that IPC's BATTLE (created by Pat Mills and John Wagner and launched in March 1975) was a cracker of a comic... not least because it gave us Johnny Red and Charley's War, two strips that outlived (albeit by reprints) the comic itself.  And still in print today.

The critics are quick to claim the at the rot really set it when IPC signed a deal with the 'devil' and gave over half the page count to strips promoting the ACTION FORCE toys.  I have to disagree with that... I'm a big fan of the Action Force era and recently aquired an almost-complete run of that period in Battle's history.

I'd argue that the last true issue of BATTLE is this one.  The last to pretty much (mergers allowing) to follow the 'total war' formula as concieved back in '75.

As you can see by this two-page teaser before... BATTLE was about to become an 'adventure' comic, throwing in new strips that tapped into the popular trends of the time... action TV shows, martial arts and - ahem - CB radio.

'The Hunters' were two special agents of the sort that can be assigned to any mission, anywhere, at the whim of the writer.  The comparisons to LWT's THE PROFESSIONALS were numerous.  'The Fists of Jimmy Chang' channeled the martial arts boom... probably about a decade too late.  Marvel London had been serving up Masters of Kung Fu across a variety of titles since the Seventies (and would continue to do so.. a strip even made it into their version of ACTION FORCE).  Indeed, so tired was the franchise looking in 1979 that Dez Skinn reworked the reprints, in MARVEL COMIC, to create his own Professionals inspired knock off.  'Truck Turpin' was Battle's trucker movie, and quite possibly hoping to excite fans of BJ AND THE BEAR.

The reboot did at least hang onto some of the older strips... a tradition that would continue even after the Action Force takeover.

The changes must have worked... at least for the moment.  The new formula continued right through 1982 and most of the following year.  The first Action Force strip, initially a four week booking, appeared in July 1983.  The powers-that-be must have been chuffed because - just in time for the Christmas sales season - Battle became BATTLE ACTION FORCE in October.  The licensing deal ran through to late 1986, at which point the comic reverted to being BATTLE and slipped into a holding pattern until it could introduce Storm Force (basically a great idea for a toy line... without the toys) in 1987.  That move kept Battle in business a bit longer... but those last issues were pretty scrappy (despite better print quality) and it was clear that, under the ownership of Robert Maxwell, everyone was just managing decline.  It was cancelled, after 673 issues, in January 1988.

1982: UK FANZINE FANTASY ADVERTISER ISSUE 71

From January 1982: FANTASY ADVERTISER issue 71.

1982: MARVEL'S ANNIE MOVIE ADAPTATION

From late 1982: The sun will come out tomorrow... the two-part Marvel adaptation of the ANNIE musical movie, another long-forgotten outing from the celluloid-obsessed publisher prone to adapting any film which looked like it might be a hit.  And another musical... despite the obvious problems with trying to translate music onto the printed page.

Annie, of course, started life as a comic strip... so you can almost see the logic.  And maybe Marvel hoped that it would breakout beyond their core readership of teenage boys.  I doubt this run - and the Superspecial magazine which published the same material - registered very highly on the Marvel sales charts.  Which probably makes them some of the rarer Marvel Comics of the period.  I picked them up from a 50p box.

1982: THE DC COMICS SWAMP THING MOVIE ADAPTATION

From 1982: the first US SWAMP THING ANNUAL, actually an adaptation of the slightly-campy cult classic man-in-a-rubber-suit movie.

It's hard to believe this minor entry on Wes Craven's credit list, starring the lovely Adrienne Barbeau (career highpoints: THE CANNONBALL RUN, acting opposite the Hoff in TERROR AT LONDON BRIDGE/ BRIDGE ACROSS TIME and - of course - THE FOG), spawned a whole industry of not-very-faithful-to-the-comics screen tie-ins.

The Swamp Thing industry spawned a Craven-less sequel, a TV show (apparently spawned because the movies had been a bankable hit on cable... and Universal had a new studio attraction in Florida which needed some shows to fill the stages and keep the staff busy) and even an animated series/ excuse for a Kenner toyline which boasted a really annoying theme tune.

This first annual, which uses the movie poster key art as the cover, is often overlooked by collectors of movie adaptations because, unless you know otherwise, you would just assume it was the first in a run of annuals spun-off the comic at the height of its print popularity.  Now you know...

1982: STARLOG MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES THE DEAL TO SHOW STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE ON US NETWORK TV

From February 1982: STARLOG MAGAZINE reports on the CBS deal to show STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE on free-to-air network TV in the States.

It's hard to appreciate now quite what a big deal it was to see the Star Wars films on the small screen.

I suspect that Lucasfilm had a plan to follow the old - and well-established - Disney release plan of rolling out the same classics for theatrical re-release every generation or so.  A proven pre-VHS/ multi-channel TV method of getting maximum bang for their buck and topping up the company coffers for a fraction of the expense and risk of actually making a new movie.

From May 1982: a STARLOG MAGAZINE photo-retrospective (including a rogues gallery snap from the Universal Tour attraction) remembering BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

1982: CYGNUS ALPHA ISSUE 6

From February 1982: a random issue of A5 British media fanzine CYGNUS ALPHA which somehow, at some time, snuck into my collection.

Its actually a jolly good little read with a stunning cover.

1982: CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL (MARVEL UK)

From 1982 (presumably: there is no copyright date inside): the MARVEL UK CONAN THE BARBARIAN ANNUAL, published in association with Grandreams, and featuring Marvel's adaptation of that year's Arnie movie.

The barbarian had appeared as a supporting feature in several of the previous decade's British hardback (notably THE AVENGERS, reflecting the odd line-up of strips in the weekly) but this was the first dedicated annual.

In addition to the colour adaptation (reprinted from the US Super Special magazine), it also features several pages of colour features dedicated to the making of the movie.

A second annual, dedicated to the sequel, appeared later.

1982: STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN POSTER MAGAZINE

From 1982: the official STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN POSTER MAGAZINE.

Merchandising from THE MOTION PICTURE tended to clutter the clearance aisles of stores well into the early Eighties (I remember picking up the whole crew, as action figures, reduced to clear in a branch of Debenhams... how I wish I'd kept hold of them) so manufacturers were a lot less eager to sign up for the sequel (heck: they didn't even manage to muster a comic book adaptation... although Marvel had announced early plans to do so). But print was relatively risk free which probably explains this one-shot.

It follows the usual big picture on one side/ text on the reverse formula.

1982: BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE 9 (MARVEL UK)

From February 1982: the ninth and final issue of MARVEL UK's less-than-memorable BLOCKBUSTER. The blink-and-you-missed-it monthly featured a stable line-up of Omega, Iron Fist and the Inhumans throughout the brief run. It merged with RAMPAGE the following month.

1982: BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE 8 (MARVEL UK)

From January 1982: a pretty beat up copy of the penultimate issue of Marvel UK's decidedly brief BLOCKBUSTER.

The line-up was, as per usual, Iron Fist, the Inhumans and Omega the Unknown. 

1982: CINEMA MAGAZINE ISSUE 8 (MARVEL UK)

From December 1982: the 8th issue of Marvel UK's long forgotten venture into movie magazines: the short-lived CINEMA.

1982: TRON ON THE COVER OF CINEMA ISSUE 7 (MARVEL UK)

From November 1982: CINEMA stumbles into the territory traditionally reserved for its sci-fi sister title, Starburst, with TRON gracing the cover of the eye-catching seventh issue.

Published, of course, by Marvel UK.

1982: DAN DARE by LOOSE TALK: THE VIDEO

From 1982: The DAN DARE video by Loose Talk in all its low-fi glory.

1982: THE DAN DARE RECORD IN EAGLE

From 1982: Dan Dare in the Top 20?

Errr... Probably not. Although they must have shifted at least a thousand copies courtesy of this massive EAGLE giveaway.

Top marks to pop chancers Loose Talk (not in the same league as Queen, apparently) for spotting a marketing opportunity (the article basically admits as much) and going for hit. Hitching themselves to the EAGLE relaunch and the publicity around the return of Dan Dare.

This apparently did get some national TV and radio airplay although I don't recall seeing or hearing it at the time. The song is OK but the cheap as chips video suggests the minimum of record company commitment. The band, decked out in MOONRAKER and SPACE: 1999 castoffs, prance about accompanied by some of the excellent artwork from the revival itself. Things get really exciting when the blue screen is deployed, 

When the producers of the curiously forgotten DD animated series were looking for a track to accompany the show's end credits they opted for Elton John over Loose Talk. Imagine.