#marvel u.k.

[frazerbrown-producer]

PUT ON 3-D GLASSES NOW!

Amongst the recent Marvel U.K. deep dive I found these cool OVERKILL cards.

I loved these things and thought they were long gone.

Work by Bryan Hitch, Gary Frank, Gary Erskine and many more.

John Freeman of DOWN THE TUBES wrote a great article about them:

“Back in the early 1990s, some fantastic trading cards were given away in three early issues of Marvel UK’s Overkill, which I edited, featuring art by Gary Frank, some of the cards inked by Cam Smith.

These cards feature Hell’s Angel (later, Dark Angel), The Guide, Algernon Crowe, Colonel Tigon Liger, Master Key, Misha, Motormouth, Killpower, Death’s Head, Tuck, Purge and Digitek.

Many Marvel UK fans will have no doubt come across these images in various places online before, conjuring up, perhaps, fond memories of the debut of Death’s Head II in Overkill #12 – 14 in 1992, his arrival further enhanced by fantastic covers by Mark Harrison and Steve Sampson.”

You can read the full thing here: https://downthetubes.net/1990s-marvel-uk-nostalgia-the-first-overkill-trading-cards/

The 3D cards by BRYAN HITCH are particularly cool.

I got the whole lot signed at UKCAC ‘92 as wee bairn. The reason I have so many DEATH’S HEAD 2 cards is he was my favourite, plus it was a ‘hot book’ in the speculator market, so I figured I’d retire on the money made from selling these in the future. We all know how that bubble turned out.

Fun times

[tomoleary]

Steve Stiles Titans #23 DPS Iron Man Marvel U.K. (1976) Source

[contentabnormal]

The fearful fortieth issue of We Belong Dead magazine featuring cover art by Content Abnormal contributor Josh Ryals is now available! This issue is a Dracula Special celebrating the centennial of Hamilton Deane's Dracula play being performed for the first time on stage in Derby, England. This issue is also dedicated to the late great David J. Skal.

Links to where you may order We Belong Dead #40 HERE

[comicwaren]

From Spider-Man Vol. 4 #007, “Spider-Genesis”

Art by Mark Bagley, John Dell, Andrew Hennessy and Edgar Delgado

Written by Dan Slott

[comicbooksaregood]

Marvel Super-Heroes (UK)

Volume: 1

Issue: 388

Graveyard Shift

Writer: Alan Moore

Penciler: Alan Davis

Inker: Alan Davis

Cover: Frank Miller, Bob McLeod

Marvel UK

[collapsedsquid]

In the U.K., the Health Security Agency recently raised its threat level to 4 out of 6, the stage immediately before large-scale human outbreaks. In Europe, countries are proactively vaccinating dairy and poultry workers against infection, with 15 nations already securing a total of 40 million doses through the European Commission. In the United States, despite having a stockpile of those vaccines, we are not distributing them, instead focusing on standing up voluntary supplies of seasonal flu vaccines to frontline workers. (The hope is that this will prevent animal infections of human flu that might aid in the further mutation of H5N1.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited the low number of cases to justify its inaction, but it has also moved remarkably slowly to promote the kind of widespread surveillance testing that could actually identify cases. Only recently has the agency begun to mobilize real funding for a testing push, after a period of months in which various federal groups batted around responsibility and ultimate authority like a hot potato. And as was the case early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the C.D.C.’s preferred test for bird flu “has issues.” Three months into the outbreak, only 45 people had even been tested; six weeks later, the total number of people tested had grown only to “230+.” [...] Most farms aren’t supplying N95 masks, goggles or aprons to protect workers, either, and when Amy Maxmen of KFF News surveyed farm workers to ask why they weren’t getting tested, “no one had heard of bird flu, never mind gotten P.P.E. or offers of tests,” she reported. “One said they don’t get much from their employers, not even water. If they call in sick, they worry about getting fired.” Last month, a crew was deployed to slow the spread of the disease by killing every last chicken of 1.78 million on a large Colorado farm where H5N1 had broken out and six of the workers contracted the virus, partly because the gear they’d been provided was hard to use in the punishing 104-degree heat. In June, Robert Redfield, former director of the C.D.C., echoed many epidemiologists in predicting that “it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic.” In July, Brown’s Jennifer Nuzzo warned that the steady beat of new cases “screams at us that this virus is not going away.” Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician who studies global disease surveillance, marveled that the American effort to track the spread of the disease was absolutely amateurish and the country’s apparent indifference “unbelievable.”

[soleminisanction]

@mzminola I saw your tags on this post:

#you all have so many names #is this because of DC eating Fawcett, or a tiff with Marvel Comics, or several reasons??? #everything I learn about the Shazam Fawcett City fam makes me more interested

And immediately got excited because I happen to know this story and I think it's fun. It's one of the more interesting nuances of comics industry skullduggery out there.

See, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, at least based on raw comic book sales; he even outsold Superman, and he was the first comic book superhero to get adapted into a film serial. And National Comics, the company that would eventually become DC, hated that, so they sued for copyright infringement on the grounds that the Cap was a blatant Superman rip-off, and they eventually won, forcing Fawcett to stop publishing Captain Marvel and his family in 1953.

Then in the 60s, when Marvel Comics came along, somebody there eventually noticed that the trademark to the name "Captain Marvel" was up for grabs, so they jumped on that with their Captain in 1967. Between Mar-Vell and his family, Monica Rambaeu, Noh-Varr and Carol Danvers, Marvel's never let that trademark slip out of their grasp in the decades since.

So when DC acquired the rights to use the original Captain Marvel and his crew, first through a license with Fawcett in 1972 and then essentially absorbing the smaller company entirety in 1992, they found themselves in the awkward legal position where they couldn't publish Cap's books under the name "Captain Marvel." They could call him that in the book, because they owned the rights to the character, but they couldn't use his name as the trademark for the series, or in any of their advertisements, and when they tried to edge around it by calling him, "Shazam! The Original Captain Marvel" they got a cease and desist.

Of course people who weren't familiar with any of this drama found it confusing that this was one of the only books in the line-up that wasn't named for its hero. So DC spent a long time through the 90s and early 00s going through different names for Captain Marvel (and to a lesser extent Mary and Junior) trying to find a name that would let people know that this was the same Very Popular Character as in the old days without tripping into Marvel's trademark lawyers.

---

Meanwhile!! Back in the 50s, over the the U.K., the small press that had been importing the Captain Marvel comics decided that, when their supply was suddenly cut off by the lawsuit, they'd recruit a local artist to just help them keep going by changing the name to a thinly veiled expy called Marvelman.

Marvelman was then revived in the 80s by Alan Moore as Miracleman, which was basically his first jaunt into the metatextual explorations of superhero comics that he'd become famous for. When he left that run it was taken over by Neil Gaiman, through whom a debate over the rights to Miracleman would eventually become central to a protracted lawsuit with Todd McFarlane over work Gaiman did on the Spawn comics.

You could probably write a pretty compelling history of the superhero comics industry just by following the trademark and copyright drama of Captain Marvel. I'm a little surprised somebody hasn't done it already tbh.

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Disney+ Not Going Forward With ‘Nautilus’ UK Series As Part Of Cost-Cutting Content Removal

EXCLUSIVE: Nautilus, the UK live-action Captain Nemo series commissioned by Disney+ two years ago, is no longer headed to the streamer, Deadline has learned.

The decision is part of Disney’s streaming content removal plan unveiled in May, for which the company is taking an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion. It followed the February announcement by Disney that it intends to cut $3 billion in non-sports content spend across the company.

As part of the cost-reduction strategy, Disney’s streaming platforms, particularly flagship Disney+, have been taking a closer look on their programming with a new emphasis on content curation.

As Deadline reported exclusively Saturday, Disney+ also is not going forward with another upcoming original series, the The Spiderwick Chronicles, a U.S. live-action series adaptation of the popular children’s fantasy books.

Over the past couple of months, dozens of original series and specials were taken off Disney+ as well as Hulu, and Disney CEO Bob Iger also announced a pullback in new Marvel and Star Wars shows and movies for Disney+.

Like The Spiderwick Chronicles, which is currently being shopped by lead studios Paramount Television Studios, Nautilus has been shot; it started filming in February 2022 in Australia. Disney+ is working with the production team to find a new home for Nautilus, with meetings and screenings underway.

Nautilus was announced during the 2021 Edinburgh TV Festival along with two other new original UK series for Disney+. No other UK local originals are understood to be impacted by the content cuts.

Disney+’s UK scripted and unscripted programming pipeline includes Culprits, from J Blakeson; Jilly Cooper’s Rivals; A Thousand Blows, from Stephen Graham; Coleen Rooney’s upcoming documentary, In Vogue, from Vogue Studios and Raw; and Shardlake, based on the novels by C. J. Sansom.

The streamer also recently greenlit two new U.K. drama series, Jeff Pope’s Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and thriller Playdate.

Based on the Jules Verne’s classic novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nautilus is a 10-part live-action adventure series about the origin story of Verne’s iconic character, Captain Nemo, and his famous submarine, The Nautilus.

In this retelling, Nemo (Shazad Latif) is an Indian Prince robbed of his birth right and family, a prisoner of the East India Company and a man bent on revenge against the forces which have taken everything from him. But once he sets sail with his ragtag crew on board the awe-inspiring Nautilus, he not only battles with his enemy, he also discovers a magical underwater world.

Also starring are Georgia Flood and Thierry Frémont, with Pacharo Mzembe, Arlo Green, Tyrone Ngatai, Ling Cooper Tang, Andrew Shaw, Ashan Kumar, Céline Menville and Kayden Price rounding out the cast. Nautilus is produced by Xavier Marchand’s Moonriver Studios and Anand Tucker’s Seven Stories.

Source: Deadline

Big thank you to @longlukearnolds for head up!

[racefortheironthrone]

Can you please explain Jessica Drew to me and how is she connected to Peter Parker and Miles Morales?

Jessica Drew is a very complicated character with a truly bizarre origin.

As I discuss here, the origin of Spider-Woman is about as nakedly commercial as you can get. In the late 1970s, Stan Lee had left Marvel Comics in favor of doing Marvel film and television development in Hollywood - and he got spooked when ABC did the Bionic Woman spinoff from the Six-Million-Dollar Man. He was afraid that Marvel didn't have the rights to the distaff equivalents of their most successful characters, so he sent word back to Marvel Comics that they had to come up with She-Hulk (because of the Lou Ferrigno show), Ms Marvel (because of the legal fight over Shazam), and indeed Spider-Woman (because of the cartoon) right away.

This rush job meant that Jessica Drew's early years are a bit...weird.

Unlike Peter Parker, Drew isn't bitten by a radioactive spider: rather, her mad scientist father decided to inject her with spider-blood in order to counter-act the radioactive poisoning his experiments had given her, and then shoved her inside the High Evolutionary's genetic accelerator at Mount Wundagore (because her dad was working there at the time).

Then Jessica was trained by HYDRA to be the perfect assassin and brain-washed her into thinking that she was an artificially-evolved spider rather than a human. Oh, and for a while Jessica's mom was HYDRA's chief assassin Viper:

Within the context of ATSV, Drew is interesting because like Miguel and Ben Reilly, she's a Spider who wasn't chosen to be bitten by a spider, but became a Spider anyway. She has some of Spidey's powers - wall-crawling, super-strength/speed/stamina/reflexes/etc., but also venom blasts like Miles, a healing factor like Wolverine, and mood-altering pheramone powers.

She doesn't usually have that much to do with Peter Parker or Miles Morales - she didn't know either of them growing up in the U.K, she doesn't have the same "canon events" as they do, the only thing they have in common is that they're all totemic avatars.

[movie-universe-org]

‘THE MARVELS’ actually has a budget of $274.8M.

However $55M of that budget was a subsidy from the U.K. meaning they only spent $219.8M.

[frazerbrown-producer]

I was sorting through some storage boxes recently and found some curios from the dark depths of UKCAC ‘92 including this item a ‘TOM DEFALCO’ autograph card.

I have such fond memories of that time. In fact when I started TALES FROM THE QUARANTINE I made sure to reach out to all of those folk from Marvel U.K. that were so inspiring and accommodating to 13 year old me at the con.

The passing of Paul Neary recently has sent me back down a MARVEL U.K. collection rabbit hole and I’ve unearthed some fun stuff like this card. Tom DEFALCO and Paul NEARY gave me some great portfolio advice that day, and LIAM SHARP, ANDY LANNING, GARY ERSKINE and all the other attendees signed a multitude of items. If I remember correctly they gave everything on the table away for free so I asked for multiple copies for my buddies. My poor old dad had to carry around bags of posters, badges, comics and trading cards all day. It would be our last con together before he passed. Great memories were made.

A couple of years back I considered relaunching / producing a large UKCAC revival and sought the blessing of its creators to use the name, out of respect . The original producers preferred it stay as a great memory and moment in time, and whilst it saddened me, I can absolutely see their point. It was a unique moment in time.

Spending tonight on the nostalgia Choo Choo train.

[tomoleary]

Kevin O'Neill - The Punisher #17 Marvel U.K. Original Cover Art (1989) Source

[alicianyblade]

Last night's Yule dinner: Homemade brisket, mashed potatoes, and Yorkshire puddings! The brisket I made for Yule last year. The recipe is from Binging with Babish and is inspired by the brisket featured on the TV show, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". It was just as yummy this year! The Yorkshire pudding recipe comes from John Kirkwood, a retired chef from the northeast of England in the U.K. If you haven't seen him, look him up on YouTube. His channel is like if Winne the Pooh had a cooking show and it's adorable. And these Yorkshire puddings were so easy to make, even for someone like me who'd never done so before and was nervous to try working with the hot fat. Traditionally, these are made with beef drippings, but you could use vegetable oil as a substitute, which is what I did and they were absolutely delicious! I hope everyone else who celebrated had a lovely Yule! Blessed winter solstice! The Brisket Recipe: https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/recipes/maisel-brisket The Yorkshire Puddings Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0QE23PB8LE #Yule #Yule2022 #WinterSolstice2022 #WiccanHolidays #PaganHolidays #WheelOfTheYear #KitchenWitch #YuleDinner #BrisketRecipe #TheMarvelousMrsMaisel #BingingWithBabishRecipes #YorkshirePuddingsRecipe #JohnKirkwood #JohnKirkwoodRecipes https://www.instagram.com/p/Cme7QayyCEk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tamlovesfashion]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: George's Marvelous Medicine Puffin 2016 Paperback Roald Dahl Juvenile Fiction.

[rsfannan6]

Ely, Cambridgeshire, U.K.

In the planning of our trip, we were looking for a couple of side trips from Cambridge.  One that caught our eye was the cathedral city and civil parish of Ely.  Only 15 miles north, it was a twenty minute train ride to this wonderful place.

Ely is built on a 23 mile island, surrounded by what is called The Fens, a marshy wetland.  Major rivers like the Great River Ouse feed into the Fens forming freshwater marshes within which peat was laid down.  In the eighteenth century, the Fens were drained and this peat created a rich and fertile soil ideal for farming.  As a result of this, Ely is no longer an island, but still is known as “The Isle of Ely”.

We decided to venture there on a Sunday, when they have their weekly market in Ely Market Square.  This has been going on since the 13th century.  The plan was to go to the market, stock up on picnic stuff, and have a lovely meal on the grounds next to the cathedral after which we would visit the cathedral itself.

The market was, to be truthful, underwhelming.  Most of the vendors were selling craft items, and there were just a few food stalls.  The bakery guy provided us with some bread and pastry goods, and the nearby supermarket filled out our lunch menu.  It was a gloriously sunny and cloudy day with just a little breeze, perfect for stuffing our faces on the lawn in the shadow of the enormous Cathedral.  We had fruits and cheese, pasties and sandwiches, cookies and cheesecake, all delicious.  A great start to a lovely day.

The actual name of the Ely Cathedral is The Anglican Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, but it is known as The Ship of the Fens, a name inspired by the distant view of its towers, which dominate the low lying wetlands.  Construction of the cathedral was begun in 1083 by William the Conqueror and finally opened in 1189 after 116 years of construction.  It collapsed in 1322 and was rebuilt, opening again in 1351.  Over the years, it has expanded many times.  Needless to say it is breathtaking.  

We ventured inside this marvelous structure exploring its cavernous interior with the help of the audio guide.  For history buffs like me, it was enchanting.  The story of St. Etheldreda, who founded the original monastery in 673, was fascinating.  This princess, daughter of the King of Anglia, married twice for political reasons, was evidently supremely devout and had a lifelong wish to be a nun.  She eventually was released from her marriage vows, spending the rest of her life as a nun in the service of the poor.  She died around 680 and, by her request was buried in a simple grave near the church.  Some 16 years later, her body was removed and placed in a stone coffin inside the church.  As the story goes, when they dug her up, her body was said to have been in the same condition as when it was buried, without decay.  This was seen to be a miracle, and eventually St. Etheldreda was canonized.  Her reputation as a saint grew and pilgrims started to visit the church at Ely seeking miracles and healing.  She became one of the most well-known and popular of the early English Saints with several churches across the country dedicated to her.  In 1539, the monastery was closed and her shrine destroyed, part of The Reformation.  She is still remembered on feast days commemorating her death and when her body was moved to the Abbey Church.

After exiting the church, we wandered across the grounds to see Oliver Cromwell’s House.  Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history.  He was probably most famous for his advocacy of the execution of King Charles I, and the establishment of The Protectorate, and his rule as Lord Protector from 1653 to his death in 1658. His house is an interesting look at what life was like during this period, even for a man of moderate means.  It also tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the English Civil War.  Perhaps nit for everyone, but I loved it.

There was, of course, a small gift shop in the Cromwell house, and we ended up talking to the cashier/host/proprietor for a bit.  I noticed that there were a number of books about eels, so I asked her if eels had anything to do with the name Ely.  Well, duh, Bob.  It turns out that eels have everything to do with it.  Before the Fens were drained, eels thrived in this marshy area.  Every year, the eels would migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, and return to Ely.  Eel fishing was big business, with the town’s economy centered around it.  Eel were even a popular item of barter.  Although eels are no longer an everyday thing, each year Ely hosts an Eel Festival, with a parade and other activities.  So check your calendars, first week of May!

I heartily endorse a trip to Ely.

No much more to come….one more stop….I promise….