Batman Guardian of the Night Panini Comic

Panini Comics UK began publishing Batman comics in 2003 with Batman Legends which would feature three US issues in one, bound in a cardboard cover like Paninis Marvel Collectors Editions. They eventually lost the license to Titan Comics but in 2020 regained it and released the one and only issue of Batman: Tales of the Dark Knight. Unfortunately the global pandemic quickly put an end to what was to be a new series. This one issue still had the cardboard cover but now only included two US comic issues rather than three to reduce costs, coming in at £4.50

 Panini made a second attempt to return Batman to UK comic stands with Batman Guardian of the Night. Featuring two US comic issues but without the cardboard cover the Collectors Editions are known for. This change knocked the cover price down to £2.99. It was sad to see the cardboard covers go but £4.50+ per issue was getting a little high for many readers. Especially if they bought multiple titles from Paninis Marvel and now DC range every month.

Unfortunately Batman Guardian of the Night was cancelled after issue 22 in 2023. Not quite lasting two years. It's sad to be without a UK Batman comic on shelves again like the late 1990s. 

H.P Lovecraft Cool Air Comic Adaptations

Cool Air is a short story written by H.P Lovecraft in 1926, originally published in the March 1928 issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery. It tells the tale of a man who moves into a New York apartment block and meets a fellow tenant who is obsessed with defying death and preserves himself though increasingly low temperatures. Though his efforts come gruesomely unstuck when the power goes out....

                                      

Berni Wrightson adapted H.P Lovecraft's Cool Air into a comic strip eventually collected by Pacific Comics in issue 2 of Berni Wrightson, Master of the Macabre. Wrightsons art work brings the story to beautiful and gruesome life. Invoking the style of Ghastly Graham Ingels of EC fame.

EC had themselves adapted the story in Vault of Horror issue 17, renaming it Baby It's Cold Inside and giving it a more contemporary setting.

 

Jurassic Park Comics UK

 Dark Horse International published 16 issues of Jurassic Park in the early 90s, reprinting Topps comics movie adaptation, prequel and sequel stories. Much like their Alien and Terminator comics which would feature supporting strips from relevant franchises such as Predator for Alien and Robocop for Terminator, Dark Horse International included Xenozoic Tales and Age of Reptiles in their Jurassic Park comic.

After 13 issues however, the title rights changed to Manga who sold the comic direct to consumers rather than it appearing in newsagents. This only lasted three issues and the comic was cancelled at issue 16. The comic rights then changed hands to Titan Publishing who also acquired the rights to Alien and Terminator from Dark Horse International. Titan would release their own Jurassic Park comic to tie in with Lost World. This was a four issue series reprinting the Topps Lost World comic adaptation from the US. As with Titans Alien Resurrection and Terminator Salvation movie tie in comics, after four issues it was cancelled,

Weird Science visits Alien Worlds as Mars Attacks

 

The cover of Weird Science issue 17 was homaged by Eclipse Comics Alien Encounters issue 8 with a touch of the Mars Attacks trading cards style added.

 

Mars Attacks itself would homage the same EC cover in issue 3 of the First Born series published by IDW.

 

Batman Returns to Panini Comics UK

Batman returns to Panini Comics UK 17 years after they published the first issue of  Batman Legends.

In 2003, Panini comics in the UK published the first issue of Batman Legends. The first DC comic to copy the ''collectors edition'' style comics Panini had been publishing since 1995 starting with Essential X-Men and Astonishing Spider-man. These comics collected three or four issues of the American comics, wrapped in a cardboard cover. 

The title lasted 41 issues until Panini lost the DC license to Titan Comics UK in 2006 who promptly published their own Batman Legends Volume 2. This would  later be rebranded as simply ''Batman'' and then again as Rebirth: Batman. 

The Titan DC comics always struggled with sales and poor marketing leading to Titan cancelling all their DC titles, including Batman in December 2018. Luckily now Panini have regained the rights to publish DC comics in the UK and have started with Batman: Tales of the Dark Knight. Now however the Collected Editions only contain two issues of the American comics rather than the previous three due to cost restraints. The title has also been prematurely put on hold due to the global pandemic interfering with production of the comic. DC titles just don't seem to have much luck in the UK!

Tales From The Crypt British Edition

In 1954 the UK saw it's own short lived run of EC comic reprints. Two issues of Tales From The Crypt, one issue of The Haunt of Fear and supposedly one issue of The Vault of Horror though I have yet to find any images of Vault. Much like in american, horror comics in the UK were used as an easy target to blame for children behaving badly so that parents didn't have to face any hard truths about their own parenting ability. As always the government were quick to jump on the bandwagon so that they could appear to be fixing a complex problem but not having to actually do anything other than censoring harmless comic books with no evidence to back up any of the accusations against such material. EC comics were quickly banned in the UK and the few issues that were produced have become rather rare and almost forgotten.

Mars Attacks Toys and Action Figures

Over the years Mars Attacks has had a few different action figure lines based on the property. The most well known being the Trendmasters line from 1996 that tied in to the Tim Burton movie and was based on the films designs. The was followed up by a wave of Martians based on the 90s Topps comic book designs which were far more EXTREME!!!! with viscious looking fang filled faces, overly muscular bodies and dynamic yet hard to stand poses.
Mezco produced a figure based on the original Topps trading card art work which is at a more adult collector standard to fit in with the likes of NECA toys.

Mars Attacks has also had multiple comic books published over the years. The 90s Topps comic which featured far different designs to try to appeal more to a 90s audience. The in the 2010s IDW picked up the license and gave us comics based far more on the original art and concept. Most recently Dynamite comics has launched their Mars Attacks comic book also using the iconic original designs. 

Masters of the Universe Adventure Magazine

                     Masters of the Universe issue 8 from 1988 published by London Editions.