What were all the back-up strips in TF UK?

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:57 am

Sorry if wrong forum, this isn't actually about anything TF so didn't want to drop in G1...

I'm trying to mind them all, but think I've missed a few. So far I got

Machine Man
Spitfire and the Trouble Shooters
Rocket Raccoon
GI Joe
Iron Man of 2020
Iron Man
Inhumanoids
Visionaries
Hercules

Help?

Also, can anyone remember any other notable back-ups or reprints from any other European/non-US 80s comics? There's a few stories I've read that I can't remember where they came from, or much about them. Was there one called Starman or Nova or something? About a blonde bloke who got superpowers off some dying alien? Was that in TF UK or something like Spiderman and the Zoids?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:20 am

I've got a cracking chart somewhere wot I made that details all the back up everything ever... but it's at home on my old pc.

Bugger it.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:30 am

My collection starts at issue 28, so I couldn't tell you for sure what came before that, though I know there was Machine Man and Planet Terry at that time.

Afterwards (going by memory) in order:

Machine Man (of 2020)
Iron Man (Night of the Octopus - was this from a graphic novel?)
Robotix
Rocket Racoon
Hercules
Spitfire and the Troubleshooters
Action Force (one-off)
Inhumanoids (wicked!)
Iron Man of 2020 (wicked!)
Iron Man (reprints from Iron Man comic this time)
Headmasters
Iron Man
Action Force
Visionaries
Action Force
Visionaries (origin story that was in their comic)
Action Force (which eventually becomes, in UK terms, G.I.Joe The Action Force)
Machine Man (of 2020) (reprinting the old story from before, stupidest idea ever)

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:47 am

iron man of 2020 was bloody amazing

++amazing++

++bloody++

Dead Head · Post by **Dead Head** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:18 pm

I liked Action Force and Visionaries the most as backup strips.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:31 pm

Inhumanoids was the best back-up strip ever.

I always wondered how it ended...

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 1:54 pm

There's a Marvel comic guide over at TFArchive made by Cliffy. You can check which back-up strip was in which UK issue there.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:22 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Inhumanoids was the best back-up strip ever.

I always wondered how it ended...

The animated movie was on Sky a few times. Can't remember how it ended off-hand. I'll have to attempt to find out my recording and let you know. I do remember that it wasn't exactly astounding.

And Machine Man 2020 was one of the best stories I've ever read; brilliant art and a clever continuation/end to the original version.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:14 pm

Not a lot of people know this, but the Iron Man 2020 story was actually a Spider-man story, with Arno as guest star, Marvel having wanted to flesh out the history of the character who was beaten so soundly in Machine Man 2020.

spiderfrommars wrote:My collection starts at issue 28, so I couldn't tell you for sure what came before that, though I know there was Machine Man and Planet Terry at that time.

Planet Terry, I believe, was the first backup strip, and Machine Man 2020 directly followed it.

KingMob wrote:Also, can anyone remember any other notable back-ups or reprints from any other European/non-US 80s comics? There's a few stories I've read that I can't remember where they came from, or much about them. Was there one called Starman or Nova or something? About a blonde bloke who got superpowers off some dying alien? Was that in TF UK or something like Spiderman and the Zoids?

You're thinking of Star Brand, which was a backup story in Spider-man and Zoids. It was one of a series of New Universe titles that also included Spitfire and the Troubleshooters.

Spider-Man and Zoids' backup strips were a bit hit-and-miss IIRC, where they'd have a Fantastic Four story, then Secret Wars 2, Star Brand, and I think Strikeforce: Morituri was one of them too.

Power Pack got the bummest deal, though, as they started off in Star Wars:Return of the Jedi comics, then got reprinted (again!) in Thundercats, I think it was.

Btw, not to sound too fanboyish, but... Oh, how I've longed for the day when I can talk about all these obscure titles with people who know what I'm on about!

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:20 pm

Wasn't the original Machine Man story the first backup?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:26 pm

Autobloke wrote:Wasn't the original Machine Man story the first backup?

It may have been. Perhaps they went into thirds or something?

I'm basing most of my pre-UK #49 info on what I've read from other people/sites, although I know for certain the Iron Man: Night of the Octopus lasted from #43 to #49 as I had both those issues.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:57 pm

Okay, just had a look in my UKTF issue 3 (1 and 2 are gone somewhere

) and the backup strip is Machine Man (an amusing bloke in a beetle suit called 'Rambo' is trying to attack fat-man Khan. MM grabs an activated grenade - tw*t).
There's no Planet Terry - or any cartoon strip, although that issue's factfile was for Hound.

Wow! The comic feels like tissue paper.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:31 am

Awesome, info, cheers guys!

I've been wanting to 'rediscover' these strips in their original form, but I don't know the original issue information for a lot of them. And some of the things I think I remember I may be making up, so this is great, cheers again.

I liked the first (black and white) Machine-Man, it was silly but kinda fun. I remember he had very stupid villains...some contortionist guy and a bloke who strapped bricks to the back of his hands!
But MM of 2020 rocked. Very clever and pacy, very hardcore. Iron-Man of 2020 was great too, something different. And the big pointy cogs added to the IM armour make such a difference to the visual impact of the character. Wicked.
Machine Man is one of the main characters in the new Warren Ellis comic, Nextwave, btw.

That Iron Man story was great, the art was superb...there's an image of Tony Stark crashed out in his chair, the armour chestplate lying to one side, maybe with a drink in his hand (or I could just be imagining the whole image), that's been stuck in my head for ages. I think it comes from that strip, but I've never went and checked.

Robotix. Would've liked to have seen more of that.
I recall Hercules being hit and miss. Sometimes it was funny, other times boring. The Recorder was cool, tho.

Inhumanoids was well cool, someone recently told me how that situation was resolved in the cartoon, so I am guessing the comic would have dealt with it in the same way. Sunlight is an antidote to D-Compose's powers, apparently.

Rocket Raccoon...I loved it. I know it was utterly stone-bonkers and most people who remember it have told me that it was pure crap, but the concept and art just totally grabbed me. Found out recently that RR was Mike Mignola's (Hellboy) first sequential pencils.

Spiderman and Zoids was a good comic, but I didn't manage to keep many, maybe about 8 or so random ones. So my recall of that comic is poor, which is a pity.
Cheers totally for the Star Brand info - I've been curious about just what the hell that was called for a while now. And Power Pack! Heh, yeah, I had some ROTJ comics too.

Was Strikeforce: Morituri that strip with the 3(?) kinda salvagers/junkers/travellers/space pirates thing? That wore different coloured kinda samurai-ish spacesuits? They had to collect loads of weaponry for some reason? That's another strip I'd like to know more about, I seem to recall it as quite a downbeat strip.

There's a Power-Man and Iron Fist story I read in a reprint where they basically have to babysit the Beyonder...who does not go down well in Harlem. I wasn't sure if that was a back-up or a Special...I think there was a Spidey special where the Daily Bugle building gets turned into gold? That was a great comic, however I read it.

In the first TFs, there was another weird little strip before Matt and the Cat, can't remember what it was called. About a kid and a couple of alien robots...one was kinda toy sized and the others were adult-sized, I think. B+W little thing.

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:35 am

KingMob wrote:In the first TFs, there was another weird little strip before Matt and the Cat, can't remember what it was called. About a kid and a couple of alien robots...one was kinda toy sized and the others were adult-sized, I think. B+W little thing.

I think it was called the 'Chromobots' or something like that. Was that the one with the cat and his smock?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:39 am

The 2020 versions of Iron Man and Machine Man were utterly excellent stories with fantastic conclusions. I'm still annoyed that Marvel UK saw fit to reprint MM at the end of the run tho, especially as we were in the middle of a brilliant G I Joe arc. You can tell these back up strips really influence Furman in his last issue of Death's Head.

Looking at the layout of the future Iron Man story, it too looked like it might be from some sort of graphic novel - it was several parts long but only had one story title. I remember this being the closest the back up came to being better than the lead strip (a delicate balance I think, to find something that serves as back up).

The present day Iron Man story was brill... probably not entirely suited to serialisation tho.

Inhumanoids was lots of fun, though I wonder if the fact that we were left hanging was a reason why it was regarded in such high esteem.

Rocket Racoon was bonkers fun, Hercules had its moment (pretty sure Furman later nicked Recorder's speech patterns for Shockwave) and Spitfire was mostly ordinary IMO.

Not many others made an impression, though the Visionaries story in Space Pirates was an ok diversion.

(I remember the present-day Iron Man story when he goes down and sees the Titanic, which was in one piece - oops!)

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:52 am

KingMob wrote:There's a Power-Man and Iron Fist story I read in a reprint where they basically have to babysit the Beyonder...who does not go down well in Harlem. I wasn't sure if that was a back-up or a Special...I think there was a Spidey special where the Daily Bugle building gets turned into gold?

In UK, or originally in US? If the latter, they were both part of Secret Wars II cross-over. Usually, various threads revolving around Beyonder were started in the issues of SW mini, and then carried over to different regular series.

I've been meaning to read Machine Man. Might be sooner than later, then.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:26 pm

KingMob wrote:Awesome, info, cheers guys!

Rocket Raccoon...I loved it. I know it was utterly stone-bonkers and most people who remember it have told me that it was pure crap, but the concept and art just totally grabbed me. Found out recently that RR was Mike Mignola's (Hellboy) first sequential pencils.

I'm with you there 'Mob. I love RR too - thats why he's currently my avatar.

I've been told it was originally published as a mini-series and then as a TPB, but I've never found it anywhere......

I had a picture of RR published in the letters page of TF UK - somewhere around issue 70, I think.......I'll have to go and dig it out for a look.....

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:48 pm

Ozz wrote:I've been meaning to read Machine Man. Might be sooner than later, then.

The original MM story was actually quite cheesy - he loses his arm to the bad guys and fashions a fake one out of a tubular chair (as an arm in a sling). The thing where his face keeps getting destroyed is kinds cool though. And then his face/head thing is a faceplate in the 2020 version!?

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:24 pm

Scraplet wrote:
I had a picture of RR published in the letters page of TF UK - somewhere around issue 70, I think.......I'll have to go and dig it out for a look.....

This?

http://www.transfans.net/popup.php?id=612

Nice one.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:40 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:
Scraplet wrote:
I had a picture of RR published in the letters page of TF UK - somewhere around issue 70, I think.......I'll have to go and dig it out for a look.....
This?

http://www.transfans.net/popup.php?id=612

Nice one.

Thats the one!! Cheers Spidy, that saved me a job

. It's a millitary operation for me to get my comics out from under my bed these days!!! Which issue was it?

I got Outback as a reward for my efforts, as I remember.....
I sent dozens of TF pictures in, but none of those ever made it to the heady hights of 'Soundwaves' like RR....

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:14 am

^That's really cool, Scrap. I remember looking at that pic. Heh, good stuff.

The Beyonder/SWII stories I mentioned I read in UK reprints of US material. They are def Secret Wars II stuff, but I dunno where they came from. Cheers for info again.
I'd like to track down as many original versions (probably scans, but some of them might be knocking about for dirt cheap in this back-issue centric comic warehouse place that's up here) of a lot of those reprints and back-up strips, basically.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:50 am

Scraplet wrote:Which issue was it?

Issue 71 mate. The one where Omega aces 6 Decepticons!

Autobloke · Post by **Autobloke** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:52 pm

Well, if we're doing letters we had printed in the comic, here's mine - it's the one from Christopher Caudery (all you old UK Marvel TF readers had already met me - you just didn't know it at the time

):
http://transfans.tfarchive3.com/popup.php?id=2184
Man, it's rather cringeworthy, and I still write more than I need to. And I was dumb enough to start trying to unpick all that Gavlatron alternate universe/time travelling stuff - which has never been properly solved to this day.
My TF collection is a lot bigger and worth way more now and my general annoyingness is already fully developed back then - as is my continued hatred of Action Farce.
And, coincedentally, I'm asking about Transformers: The Movie 2!

Anyone else have a letter or drawing etc. printed?

See? I STILL write too much.