Sunday 22 September 2013

A bit of Early 90s Nostalgia...

Following on from all this recent talk about Revolutionary War, and a mini Marvel UK revival, I thought I'd post up this video which former Marvel UK editor Tim Quinn recently linked to on the Make Mine Marvel UK Facebook page.

Back in 1993, while Marvel UK was flourishing in that boom of the Imprint Years, they took part in that year's London Lord Mayor's Show.

For the benefit of readers from outside of the UK, the Lord Mayor's Show is annual street parade - pageantry, procession and floats, mostly with a very British theme. You know how Marvel usually have a float or blimp for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade? Kind of like that. Only here in the UK we had a big truck with St Paul's Cathedral on it's side, explosions, Killpower and Spidey on the front.

Not only that, but a good number of Marvel UK staffers dressed up to cosplay marvel characters on it's roof! They even posed for this photo. Can you work out who is playing who? Really, because I'd love to know :) :




And yes. That's even a Death's Head II costume. It came complete with a gun arm, which sadly isn't visible in this picture. Quinn describes how that came about:


Once upon a time there was tons of money sloshing around at Marvel UK so we pushed the boat out and had one of the guys who created the Batman movie costume in the Eighties put this magnificent beast together. I used to take him walks round London.

It really is quite impressive.

The float itself can be seen in the YouTube clip below. Granted, it's not *the* most graceful of vehicles, but there really is something quite impressive about seeing Marvel UK shown on this kind of stage:





The other side of the float, featuring Motormouth, Nelson's Column and what appears to be a sly dig at Westminster, can be seen here:




This is the era of Marvel UK I probably most identify with. Just as I was hitting the point in my teens where I was able to form more discerning tastes about my reading habits. I bought into the Imprint Years, and Marvel UK's running absolutely parallel with the US comics, absolutely. Wholesale. So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this. It's timing, with the buzz starting to build about Revolutionary War, seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

In other news this week, some of you might like to check out this Death's Head article over at Newsarama. They seem to posting what I was posting up about earlier in the year, that Death's Head seems to be turning up in so many places recently that it all should be building up towards something.

I certainly hope so.

But you know me. :) After the past couple of years I try not to hope *too* much.

It does all seem quite promising, though.

I will leave you with the final line from that article, courtesy of DH supremo Simon Furman:

“Who knows… maybe he'd warrant a little mini-series of his own?” Furman asks. “Deadpool vs Death's Head, anyone?”

To which (in a Death's Head fashion which cannot be ignored) the only answer should be "Yes". ;)

Until next time

Mark
(Sword)

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