British comics 1 1

[1webslinger]

I somehow acquired these two pieces back in 70's and totally forgot about them. The Captain marvel piece is marked the titans #14 on the front in pen and the back with a copyright vol 1 issue 14.  The fantastic four has a stamp filled in with Spidey 174 and the copyright just has a 1976 date vol 1 number 174 British issue. Which doesn't make any sense  I'm guessing these were never used, but I figured someone here might have some knowledge , thanks

[Ted_L]

Very cool!  It looks like those were penciled by Steve Stiles and inked by Frank Giacoia.  The FF splash was published in Super Spider-Man #174: https://www.comics.org/issue/536511/  

That series reprinted American Spider-Man stories with some occasional new art, such as this piece.  You can see a picture of the published splash on this website: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/11237574@N07/sets/72157642901275784/

The Captain Marvel art was most likely published in The Titans #14, another British reprint comic: https://www.comics.org/issue/537074/

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a scan of the centerspread, so I can't confirm for sure that it was published, but it seems very likely.

Edited February 27, 2019 by tlatner

[1webslinger]

Thanks for the information, all I found was pics of the 58 issues of the titans. I didn't find anything thing on Spidey. 

[cesium_7]

I can confirm both these centerspreads were published in the UK.  You can see both of them via tlatner’s link to Andy’s site.  I didn’t know the identity of the artist to the FF one until now, so it’s great to finally find out (after 40 years)! 

 

 

[Ted_L]

4 minutes ago, cesium_7 said:

I can confirm both these centerspreads were published in the UK.  You can see both of them via tlatner’s link to Andy’s site.  I didn’t know the identity of the artist to the FF one until now, so it’s great to finally find out (after 40 years)! 

 

 

You're right -- I missed the Titans link the first time around: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/11237574@N07/sets/72157642895409823/

These are really cool!  I've only ever seen the original art for about 2-3 of them.  Hopefully more will turn up.

[The Voord]

These British reprints would carry several different titles per issue in serialized format, which is why you see things like F.F marked up for a Spidey book.  I haven't seen any of these books since the 1970s, but from what I recall an American issue would be broken-up over several British reprints (anthology books), which is why you see new pages of art created to help bridge the serializations.  You also get lots of new cover re-workings that showcase the multi-content interior stories.

Edited February 27, 2019 by The Voord

[cesium_7]

New pages for the British reprints were produced by Marvel's British Department in New York, between 1973-1979, before they moved operations to London (and became known as Marvel UK). In addition to the new covers and splash pages mentioned above, they produced new pinups/centrespreads, for use in their landscape format comics (which these are both examples of).

In total, about 2,300 new pieces of artwork came out of the British Department.  It is where you will find the first published work of John Romita Jr, Marshall Rogers, Mike Nasser, Bob Budiansky, and many others (including Steve Stiles :)).

I spent a few years working on a project to catalogue and identify the artists for these pages.  If anybody has any British pages they want help identifying, send me a PM, I might be able to help!

Jason