Marvel UK Pocket Books

In March 1980, Marvel UK launched a line of digest sized monthly 'Pocket Books' each containing 50 pages of black & white US Marvel reprints. The line included Spider-Man (also featuring at the time in his own weekly title), the Fantastic Four, Hulk, The Titans (previously a weekly title which had been cancelled some years before, now starring Captain America, Thor and Iron Man), Conan (who also had a monthly magazine), Chiller (starring Dracula, the Man-Thing and occasionally Ghost Rider and others), Star Heroes (featuring TV tie-in Battlestar Galactica and also the Micronauts, who had transferred across from Star Wars Weekly and Young Romance (featuring reprints of teenage romance titles from the fifties and sixties). Some of the titles, however, were not a success in terms of sales and Hulk, Conan, The Titans and Young Romance were all cancelled after 13 issues, while Star Heroes (which had replaced Battlestar Galactica with the X-Men from issue #10) was renamed 'X-Men Pocket Book' from #14, and turned solely over to the mighty mutants. Spider-Man also underwent a revamp, with the more modern stories it had started out reprinting replaced by early sixties classics after a few issues. The Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Chiller and X-Men pocket books were all cancelled after their 28th issues in July or August 1982, with the Spider-Man strip being continued in new monthly magazine The Daredevils in January 1983 and the Fantastic Four resurfacing in their own weekly title in October 1982. Several 100 page double sized issues were produced during the various titles' runs, with the price bumped up from 25p to a then exorbitant 30p!!