- Marvel Comics Super Special
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Marvel Comics Super Special was a 41-issue series of one-shot comic-magazines published by Marvel Comics from 1977 to 1986. They were cover-priced $1.50 to $2.50, while regular color comics were priced 30 cents to 60 cents, Beginning with issue #5, the series' title in the its postal indicia was shortened to Marvel Super Special. Covers featured the title or a variation, including Marvel Super Special, Marvel Super Special magazine, and Marvel Weirdworld Super Special in small type, accompanied by large logos of its respective features.
These included, primarily, film and TV series adaptations, but also original and licensed Marvel characters, and music-related biographies and fictional adventures.
Issue #7 was withdrawn after completion, and never published. Issue #8 was published in two editorially identical editions, one magazine-sized, one tabloid-sized.
Contents
Publication history
The premiere issue, dated simply 1977, featured the rock band Kiss in a 40-page fictional adventure written by Steve Gerber, penciled by Alan Weiss, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, and Sal Buscema, which saw the quartet battling Marvel supervillains Mephisto and Doctor Doom. Kiss reappeared in an occult adventure in issue #5 (1978). That issue, the series' title in the its postal indicia was shortened to Marvel Super Special.[1]
Marvel's licensed pulp fiction character, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, which was concurrently appearing in a long-running color comic book, starred in issues #2 (1977) and #9 (1978), with adaptations of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer published as issues #21 (1982) and #35 (Dec. 1984), respectively. An adaptation of the movie starring Marvel's original spin-off character, Red Sonja, appeared as issue #38 (1985). The other Marvel properties to be featured were the character Star-Lord in #10 (Winter 1979), the feature Weirdworld in #11-13 (Spring - Fall 1979), and Howard the Duck in #41 (Nov. 1986), the final issue.[1]
Except for a biography of The Beatles in issue #4 (1978), the remainder adapted fantasy, science-fiction, and adventure films of the day, including Blade Runner, Dragonslayer, and two Star Wars, two Indiana Jones, and two James Bond movies, and such other films as Jaws 2 and the children's musical comedy The Muppets Take Manhattan.
The sole TV series adaptation was of Battlestar Galactica in issue #8 (1978), which was published in two editorially identical editions, one magazine-sized, one tabloid-sized.[1] This special was partially redrawn and expanded into three issues when Battlestar Galactica became a monthly comic book.
Each issue also included text features and other additional material.
Missing issue
Marvel Super Special #7, an adaptation of the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was never published in the U.S. "because the book was late and the movie proved to be a commercial failure," according to a contemporaneous news account, which added, without substantiation, that, "Reportedly, Marvel's adaptation was published in Japan"[2]. A French translation was published by Arédit-Artima under two covers, one for the French market and one for the French-speaking Canadian market[3]. A Dutch version with yet another different cover was published and for many years afterwards would pop up in bargain bins. It can still easily be found at collector's conventions.
Penciler George Pérez, who with inker Jim Mooney supplied art for that issue, recalled that Marvel had
"...nearly zero cooperation from the Robert Stigwood company [which produced the film] and we didn't realize that the [movie] script was still in so much flux that things we were putting in the comic were not going to appear in the movie and things we didn't know about were going to be added to the movie. The plot was so convoluted and cheesy — even on the printed page — and after a while we realized it was not really going anywhere. They said they were going to have all these superstars appear at the end of the film and, of course, in the end they couldn't get them — not that we could have used them anyway, because we didn't have the licenses to use their likenesses. Also, I was paired with a very incompatible inker because the book was running so late. I was doing a terrible job on it, Jim Mooney was a terrible fit for me — though he did the best he could — [and] it was just one disaster after another. It was one of the nadirs of my career. I was so grateful that the book never got an American release. I've yet to see a copy of Sgt. Pepper."[4]Pérez said Bob Larkin had done the cover art.[5]
Issues
Issue
NumberName Year Issue
NumberName Year 1 Kiss 1977 22 Blade Runner 1982 2 Conan 1977 23 Annie 1982 3 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1978 24 The Dark Crystal 1982 4 The Beatles' Story 1978 25 Rock & Rule 1983 5 Kiss 1978 26 Octopussy 1983 6 Jaws 2 1978 27 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi 1983 7 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (unpublished) 1978 28 Krull 1983 8 Battlestar Galactica 1978 29 Tarzan of the Apes 1983 9 Savage Sword of Conan 1978 30 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 10 Star-Lord 1978 31 The Last Starfighter 1984 11 Weirdworld: "Warriors of the Shadow Realm" 1979 32 The Muppets Take Manhattan 1984 12 Weirdworld: "Warriors of the Shadow Realm" 1979 33 Buckaroo Banzai 1984 13 Weirdworld: "Warriors of the Shadow Realm" 1979 34 Sheena 1984 14 Meteor 1979 35 Conan the Destroyer 1984 15 Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 36 Dune 1985 16 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 1980 37 2010: The Year We Make Contact 1985 17 Xanadu 1980 38 Red Sonja 1985 18 Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 39 Santa Claus: The Movie 1985 19 For Your Eyes Only 1981 40 Labyrinth 1986 20 Dragonslayer 1981 41 Howard the Duck 1986 21 Conan the Barbarian 1982 References
- ^ a b c Marvel Comics Super Special at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ "The Sgt. Pepper Snafu", The Comics Journal, January 1979, p. 12
- ^ Covers of the French and French-Canadian editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on ComicsVF (French)
- ^ Perez in Nolen-Weathington, Eric, ed., Modern Masters Volume 2: George Pérez (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003), pp-. 23-30. ISBN 978-1893905252
- ^ Perez in Nolen-Weathington, p. 30
External links
Categories:- Marvel Comics titles
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