TRUE BELIEVERS

The Marvel age of movies

US comics giant Marvel first explored tie-in publications with a monthly magazine for older teens, based on the hit Planet Of The Apes movies. The sometimes ponderously intelligent stories proved a smash hit when reprinted in a weekly for UK kiddies then going, erm, apeshit for 1974’s TV series. A top seller for Marvel UK, 123 issues ran until early 1977.

Marvel next adapted 1968’s classic Arthur C Clarke/Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Written and drawn by superhero legend Jack Kirby, 1976’s treasury edition adaptation was followed by a bizarre comicbook series telling fairly impenetrable tales of what the Monolith did next. Kirby’s next adaptation of 1960s subtextual TV spy series The Prisoner was aborted unpublished after just a few intriguing pages.

2001’s rights holders MGM offered Marvel a tie-in to their 1976 futuristic euthanasia picture, Logan’s Run. After a five-issue movie adaptation and just two issues featuring new tales, MGM pulled the plug, to avoid clashing with their forthcoming TV series. Marvel’s comic-book take on TV show The Man From Atlantis meanwhile felt far more like a continuation of their own similar Sub-Mariner and sank after just seven issues.

After the massive success of Star Wars (see p62), the Marvel Super Special series thoughtfully adapted Close Encounters Of The Third Kind in 1978, based on a shooting script and a viewing of one trailer.

Battlestar Galactica also begat a colourful Super Special adaptation, then a monthly comicbook. Marvel UK ran cheap ’n’ cheerful pocket Digest reprints in 1980.