If I recall correctly, that was none other than Dr. Hugo Strange. I still own the Batman pocketbook that collected the brilliant Englehart-Rogers run on "Detective Comics". What a bargain!

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That's the fellow, and indeed the digest comic you have sounds like the one I used to own. Thanks for the name-check, John M.

I wonder if anybody remembers a certain Superman story reprinted in a UK Superman annual (or maybe a joint Superman-Batman annual)? All I can remember is that Superman is tricked into visiting an office block, and then attacked by a group or robots/cyborgs? Did the story have something to do with telecommunications? Does anybody know which USA Superman comic this story originated in? TIA.

It's a shame, but DC have never had as much success here in the UK.

In 1988, London Editions Magazines (owned by Egmont) published SUPERMAN which was fortnightly and reprinted Mr. Byrne's MOS series (and later issues after that); BATMAN MONTHLY came out the same year and featured two reprints per issue. At first it was 70s Batman stories, but they eventually moved to late 80s.

In 1990, LEM (now Fleetway - I think) published DC ACTION and ZONES. DC ACTION ran for about 6 or 7 issues and reprinted The New Teen Titans and Animal Man. ZONES printed mature stuff such as SWAMP THING. That didn't run long, either. I'd guess it lasted less than 5 or 6 issues.

Fleetway's SUPERMAN and BATMAN titles ended around 1994. They went through revamp after revamp. At one point, SUPERMAN MONTLY became bi-monthly and BATMAN was relaunched. All in all, those 2 titles lasted about six years.

Last year, Titan UK started publishing JUSTICE LEAGUE LEGENDS and DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS, reprints of fairly recent US DC comics such as JLA, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, etc. Both titles flopped after less than ten issues.

It's a shame, but DC just can't seem to make a dent in our shores. Most of you probably know about old 70s Marvel titles such as MWOM, THE AVENGERS, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY, etc. On a more recent note, Panini UK's Marvel titles (all reprints) have had much more luck.

ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN has been running since 1995 (albeit, it was relaunched with a new no. 1 last year). ESSENTIAL X-MEN has been running since 1995. WOLVERINE & DEADPOOL (previously WOLVERINE & GAMBIT and WOLVERINE UNLEASHED before that) has been going since 1996. MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL VOL. 2 has been going for 5 years. FANTASTIC FOUR ADVENTURES has been going for 3+years. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN AND X-MEN has been around since 2001. AVENGERS UNITED has been going since 2001.

The only recent Marvel UK title that didn't do too well was MARVEL HEROES REBORN which ran from 1997 until 2000 when it was cancelled due to low sales.

I'd like to see DC do well on our shores as far as reprints go. Compared to Marvel's UK output, DC hasn't done well at all and that's a shame - it'd be nice to see a UK DC title run for at least a decade.

QUOTE: I wonder if anybody remembers a certain Superman story reprinted in a UK Superman annual (or maybe a joint Superman-Batman annual)?

Yep, I remember that one. It was a joint Superman/Batman annual with both text and strip stories. One of the strip stories featured Batman VS The Joker. The Superman story was titled something like "Jimmy Olsen, Super-Spy" (I think - don't quote me on that). There were about 3 text stories and a couple of quizzes in the annual.

Doesn't ring a bell, John...but at one point in the 80s, DC published original stories for the UK and Europe (translated as necessary), which were never sold in the US. Could you be describing one of those?

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I have no idea, Bob. It was definately featured in a hardcover annual, and appeared formatted in a US style? Gah, it's so annoying I can't locate that story! I had this bother trying to trace a Batman story featuring the Joker from another UK annual; I located the US source earlier this year, and it's still a cracking read.

On the subject of local DC/Marvel distribution, my mum used to buy me comics off the local market in the late 1970s. They were priced at around 10p each, and usually were defaced in some fashion, either having been stamped, or with an outer cover corner cut off. There were far more Marvel than DC; the latter was a holy grail, and Batman/Superman titles were like gold to me. I do remember there was quite a lot of Uncanny X-Men issues (John Byrne issues in particular).

Robbie,Spider-Man has new material, i own some art from it

ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN has new material? I didn't know that, I thought they were currently reprinting JMS' run and SPIDER-MAN 2099. A recent issue certainly was.

EDIT - Hang on, there is another UK Spider-Man issue (for the very young readers) which publishes original material. Is that where the art is from, Gerry?

It's interesting to read this thread.  US comics were all over the place in little newsagents in the UK when I was a kid (3 months late as they were used as ballast in ships) but were mainly DC as MARVEL didn't want US sales interfering with their reprint progam.  THE SUPER HEROES was a brilliant B&W magazine where I first saw ADAMS BATMAN stuff.  BATMAN POCKETBOOK #2 reprinted all of the Englehart.Rogers/Austin stuff (my 12 year old son has that now).  The SUPERMAN and BATMAN annuals featured some great stories ('Joker's Rumpus Room Revenge' was in one, Jim Starlins' DC Comics presents run in another and, my favourite, SUPERMAN ANNUAL 1978 featured a number of 50's stories with his origin and a Red Kryptonite story).

My local market also had comics and I used to pick up TEEN TITANS, BATMAN, DETECTIVE and STAR TREK from there.  In the early 80's, US MARVEL's became easier to get, although mostly titles not reprinted in the UK, and I used to buy CAP, FF, ALPHA FLIGHT & MARVEL TALES.

As mentioned already, Marvel has a number of titles currently on the stands (I can't remember the ever not being a Spider-Man comic of some sorts here in the UK) but DC is down to Superman Legends and Batman Legends.  UK Marvel just has a better programme I guess.

Andy