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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 11, 2019 11:54:55 GMT -5
And here's Rupert (for a change, the gift wasn't a badge or sticker, but Plasticine): This was fun: I remember ads for the Who reprints comic in the text Doctor Who fan magazines. Those and a Dalek comic special seemed to be very hard to find very quickly, or at least at a reasonable price so never managed to get any of them. Rupert we had re-runs of a puppet version on tv, it seemed very nicey-nicey and bland except for the blue beet-headed one whoever he was. Here he is with Rupert and his father... Noddy was also on with stop-motion or puppetry and there was bear character in it. Rupert first appeared in newspapers in the 1920s. I personally think Paddington is more beloved myself, though of course I wear a Sooty badge!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2019 12:18:47 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2019 19:23:22 GMT -5
Okay, in 1993, you got a James Bond Jr. comic with a free water-squirting spy camera: A Sesame Street comic no-one asked for (probably): A superhero Spring special 1994 saw more licensed stuff: Marvel UK started publishing an X-Men comic: I can't recall if this title was weekly or fortnightly. It may have been fortnightly. A monthly X-Men title, Essential X-Men, would begin a year later in 1995. We'll cover that and other titles soon.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2019 11:14:28 GMT -5
..... WCW started a comic (I never saw it on the shelves, although the US originals often showed up). Look at the cover gift: You are not going to sell anything with PN News on the cover! Fun fact, News was hated by his colleagues, as he was a locker room thief and nothing was considered lower, in wrestling circles. He also badly injured another wrestler with a botched splash and ended up in the doghouse; thief and sloppy wrestler were a bad combo and he was back to wrestling in Germany, for Catch Wrestling, as Cannonball Grizzly. His cousin was the infamous Mantaur, in the WWF.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2019 11:49:06 GMT -5
I had no idea he was Mantaur's cousin. What a bizarre (but fun) gimmick that was. I do miss gimmicks. Okay, the likes of TL Hopper and Duke Droese never worked for me. But I liked Doink. And the likes of Repo Man, Big Boss Man, etc. I also liked non-gimmicked wrestlers. I liked the variety. Wrestling took itself less seriously then. Okay, 1995... Panini Comics currently have the licence to reprint Marvel titles in the UK. I think that process began in 1995. I'm sure Marvel UK, as a brand, continued until the late 90s, but, unless someone can clarify, I'm pretty sure the Panini era began in '95. There were titles released under the Marvel brand: Astonishing Spider-Man and Essential X-Men began in '95 and continue to this day, each issue reprinting three US issues:
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 12, 2019 13:01:07 GMT -5
Maybe if there'd been a free Mantaur mask?
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2019 20:15:58 GMT -5
Maybe if there'd been a free Mantaur mask? Rival company but, yeah! In Mexico, where the lucha libre style of pro wrestling is king, they actually sell souvenir masks to fans, at the arenas. Kids will wear the masks of their favorite wrestlers, when sitting in the crowd. The US prefers to soak kids for more money for the "free" item. Just buy 72 products and mail in coupons, plus way more postage than necessary, for your "free gift." Or, they hit you with unrealistic advertising (drawn by Russ Heath) until you send away for the toy set, and find out all of the pieces are smaller and more brittle than a toothpick. otherwise, you have to buy indigestible or sugary nuggets, with trace amounts of grain, to get free stuff.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2019 20:35:15 GMT -5
I had no idea he was Mantaur's cousin. What a bizarre (but fun) gimmick that was. I do miss gimmicks. Okay, the likes of TL Hopper and Duke Droese never worked for me. But I liked Doink. And the likes of Repo Man, Big Boss Man, etc. I also liked non-gimmicked wrestlers. I liked the variety. Wrestling took itself less seriously then. Okay, 1995... Panini Comics currently have the licence to reprint Marvel titles in the UK. I think that process began in 1995. I'm sure Marvel UK, as a brand, continued until the late 90s, but, unless someone can clarify, I'm pretty sure the Panini era began in '95. There were titles released under the Marvel brand: Astonishing Spider-Man and Essential X-Men began in '95 and continue to this day, each issue reprinting three US issues: Gimmick wrestlers are fine, when there is a logic behind the gimmick. Wrestling plumbers and man-beasts are just stupid. Doink was an evil clown and clowns are scary. That's perfect; scare the Hawaiian Punch out of the kiddies! Mantaur was just dumb. He's supposed to be a minotaur or something? See, there was an old Midwest wrestler, by the name of Moose Cholack, who came to the rig wearing and elk head and hide, like a live version of Herne the Hunter or something. Thing was, he was supposed to be a super rough and tough outdoorsman who killed the thing and wore it as a trophy. He was a huge guy and legitimately tough, as he ran his own bar, in Chicago, and was known for handling troublemakers in rather painful manner. Big Bossman (aka Ray Traylor aka Big Bubba Rogers) had been an actual prison guard; so, it had a certain logic to it. TL Hopper was "Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony, who had a redneck, abuser gimmick, in the South and was seriously hated by crowds. WWF turns him into a cartoon plumber? Why? Because Vince McMahon won't use outside gimmicks because it wasn't "his idea". So, Terry Taylor, who already had a fairly strong name in wrestling, is made the Red Rooster, because it amused Vince McMahon. Now, I've always said they could have made that work; but, Taylor hated it and refused to invest himself in it to get it over anyway. Dusty Rhodes was made to look like an idiot in skits, and given polka dot trunks (though I have heard it was his idea) and still got over, because he knew how to play to crowds, no matter how stupid they tried to make him look. he had "it" and could talk a crowd into coming to see him return the favor on some evil heel. For the Red Rooster, I thought the perfect way to play the gimmick was to be a human Foghorn Leghorn (which was stolen from radio's Sen. Claghorn) and be a cocky, fast-talking, arrogant heel, who struts around and boasts all of the time, and then give him a couple of beautiful valets to be his "hens.", Have his hair slicked back like in a 50s DA or something and use Link Wray's "Run Chicken Run" instrumental as the entrance music... The perfect wrestler for the gimmick was Robert Fuller, aka Col Rob Parker, aka Tennessee Lee, as that was already sort of his gimmick (his very beautiful wife used to act as his valet in Alabama and Tennessee), as he had the patter, was cocky, was also a tall guy who could work, was a fast talker and a rockabilly gimmick fit him to a tee!
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 12, 2019 22:22:11 GMT -5
Maybe if there'd been a free Mantaur mask? Rival company but, yeah! In Mexico, where the lucha libre style of pro wrestling is king, they actually sell souvenir masks to fans, at the arenas. Kids will wear the masks of their favorite wrestlers, when sitting in the crowd. The US prefers to soak kids for more money for the "free" item. Just buy 72 products and mail in coupons, plus way more postage than necessary, for your "free gift." Or, they hit you with unrealistic advertising (drawn by Russ Heath) until you send away for the toy set, and find out all of the pieces are smaller and more brittle than a toothpick. otherwise, you have to buy indigestible or sugary nuggets, with trace amounts of grain, to get free stuff. * Sea Monkeys not exactly as shown. All I know about British wrestling is that Shirley 'Big Daddy' Crabtree fought 'Giant Haystacks'. My brother got the Revolutionary soldiers set when he was little and they were all tiny cheap plastic and stuck together on the stamped out form so he had to cut them off that. The box for them was cheap card paper printed with wood grain design that it was mailed in. I never knew anybody else to buy anything advertised in comics unless it was me buying more comics by mail directly from Archie a couple of times, or some Marvel subscriptions (and hey one of those you could cut out a Zabu, glue and fold to make a toy sabre-tooth cat, free).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2019 6:31:54 GMT -5
Arriving in 1996, Marvel Action Hour gave you Marvel action - and a free chew bar: Given the popularity of the X-Men in the UK, Panini put out a solo Wolverine title called Wolverine Unleashed, reprinting contemporary and vintage Wolvie action:
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 13, 2019 6:43:12 GMT -5
Given the popularity of the X-Men in the UK, Panini put out a solo Wolverine title called Wolverine Unleashed, reprinting contemporary and vintage Wolvie action:
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2019 9:43:52 GMT -5
Let's look at some of the reprint titles that Panini introduced between 1997 and 2005. First up, Marvel Heroes Reborn, printing post-Onslaught tales of Iron Man and Fantastic Four (the title ran from 1997 to 2001): In 2001, Avengers United (still on sale today as Avengers Universe) debuted, reprinting 2 modern Avengers tales and a classic one in each issue: Mighty World of Marvel, still going today, returned in 2003, reprinting vintage action, including Hulk and Daredevil: In 2003, Panini acquired the licence to reprint DC adventures in the UK. So they published Batman Legends. Each issue had 2 modern tales and a classic tale. The title began by reprinting "Hush": And in 2005, Panini began publishing Fantastic Four Adventures. Like a lot of other titles, each issue reprinted 2 modern tales, 1 classic tale: Panini's Batman title lasted 3 years because they lost the licence to the woeful Titan (who ran the licence into the ground years later). Fantastic Four Adventures ended in 2012.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 14, 2019 14:02:13 GMT -5
Hmmm, Avengers United #1 could've come with footballer scarf, maybe a choice of Avengers United or Avengers City? It looks like some of these (Heroes Reborn) had new cover art?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2019 14:09:21 GMT -5
Yep, it does sound football-related. I believe Panini has designers and uses original covers a lot. Or "recreates" them somehow.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2019 9:35:17 GMT -5
So, what has Panini introduced over the last 10+ years? In 2006, they began publishing Marvel Legends, each issue reprinting a Captain America, Iron Man and Thor story: 2012 saw the debut of The Incredible Hulks, which ran until 2017, reprinting a wide variety of Hulk tales (including some classic ones): And in 2017, Deadpool Unleashed debuted, reprinting various Deadpool tales from many eras: And that's the end of the topic... ...not! I think it'd be a good idea, having reached the chronological end, to revisit a thing or two, including the various reboots of the UK Star Wars title and the numerous changes that Spidey's comic had over its 666-issue run. So watch this space!
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