Cap in the UK: Captain Britain Guest Appearance

The year is 1977. Marvel UK, known for reprinting Marvel's USA stories in Britain, tries a new weekly series in 1976 featuring new material directly designed for the UK market in Captain Britain. Well, that sounds a lot like another patriotic hero and, sure enough, the two team up after the cliche battle.

Since it is a weekly series, this storyline rather many issues with the two battling the Red Skull. If I recall since I haven't read this one in years, eventually Cap fades out of the story and we just get Captain Britain vs. the Red Skull. I'm missing a couple of the issues but most of the covers are presented here.

Cap in the UK: The Titans Pocket Books

More Captain America as seen in the United Kingdom. This series was from 1980 and 1981 and featured not just Cap but Iron Man and Thor in glorious black and white, digest sized, and reprints from the 1960s with the TALES OF SUSPENSE & JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY/THOR books.

The "Titans" title is interesting and looks very much like the New Teen Titans logo that DC started to use for the return of that book in 1980. Marvel was actually using that title and logo in the 1970s for a weekly larger Marvel UK title that did sometimes have Cap in it as well. I guess, because it was a different country, they could get away with the title, even though at this point with DC it was still the TEEN Titans, and perhaps the title "The Avengers" would still be confused with the John Steed television show in the UK.

Cap in the UK: 1980s Weeklies

Marvel UK had been doing the weekly comics format since the 1970s with the pattern of black and white interiors, a magazine format, and breaking up the story over two issues with back up stories from other American comics. By 1981, Captain America finally got his own title in the same format. Dazzler, the Defenders, and Iron Man were the back up features in the beginning.

Like with other weeklies, new cover art and splash pages would have to be drawn to cover two issues like the one above.

John Byrne and Roger Stern's great Cap runs finally gets reprinted but it is lacking without the nicer glossy covers. Still, for art lovers who sometimes think the color distracts from enjoying the inking, these books are great to look at until the Essential line catches up.

Confusing matters was the introduction of "Marvel Action" to the title. I think this was done to showcase more than just the Cap issue on the cover.

Finally, glossy covers were used with color interiors as we see below. And that just might be some very early Alan Davis art below.

It looks like Cap had to start sharing his covers with the back up stories from this cover below.

I believe the weekly Cap issues only lasted to issue #58 (below). It seems like a decent run but, in the scope of 52 issues a year, that is a run just over a year from 1981 to 1982.

Cap also did some double duty in some other titles like  a guest appearance in MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE.

Cap in the UK: Pence Editions

Besides some of the reprint runs from Alan Class, L. Miller, and the Marvel UK Weeklies, you could get the standard American comic in the United Kingdom. It is exactly the same with color interiors and all except for the price and any word like "color" on the cover had to be changed to "colour". The "d" after the price is the pre-decimalization abbreviation for the the English penny.

By 1971, the UK had switched to their new decimal system for money and the Pence (their Penny) was used. 100 pences equals a Pound. You can see below that this early 1970s issue of Cap sold for 6p or 6 Pence. I think this was a 20¢ issue in the U.S.A.

By 1976, UK comics are now 10 pence. This was a 25¢ issue in the U.S.A.

By 1980, UK comics are now 15 pence. This was 50¢ in the U.S.A.

The Pence issues lasted up to the mid-1980s when Marvel just put a smaller Canadian and United Kingdom price under the larger American price. Today's American comics no longer do that and I'm curious how the UK Comics are priced. Panini is the brand that handles many of Marvel's European markets but they tend to re-package the works, I think.

Cap in the UK: 1970s Avengers Weeklies

In the 1970s, Marvel UK tried reprinting the American books on a weekly format. Interiors would be in black and white and the size would be larger than the American standard (more like a magazine format). You can see here that they started with the 1960s stories.

Note the cover above, which wasn't used in the American books, and the one below, which was the art used for the American Avengers book. With the weekly format, they would have burned through the inventory fairly quickly. So the original story would be cut in half two cover two issues and the rest of each issue would be filled out with a back up story by another American comic.

The cover above should look familiar to long time Avengers fans. The cover below, similar to the one above, should not. This is another example of one American issue covering two UK weekly issues. But to do this, a new cover and splash page would have to be drawn up. This makes for some interesting gems to be uncovered.

One of the earliest editors of the Marvel UK line in the 1970s was a chap named Neil Tennant. In the 1980s, he became one half of the English group The Pet Shop Boys. And even later, Doctor Who actor David Tennant took his stage name from the same editor turned musician.