The recent news that Marvel USA are producing a new Secret Wars comic series this summer reminded me that back in the 1980s I did some back up strips for Marvel UK's Secret Wars 2 weekly. In those days I was a frequent contributor to Marvel UK's comics, mainly due to editor Richard Starkings who gave me plenty of work.
For Secret Wars 2 I created and submitted a full page comedy superhero strip called Macho Man. There wasn't enough room in the comic's crammed 28 pages to accommodate a full page extra so it was decided the origin story would be split in two halves, and subsequent episodes would be created as half pagers. Macho Man began in Secret Wars 2 No.42 (dated 19th April 1986) accompanied by a warm editorial welcome message...
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| A printing error with the colour on this one unfortunately. |
That wasn't the end of the character though. I've always liked to incorporate the characters I've created into a shared universe so a couple of years later in 1989 Macho Man turned up during the six part Combat Colin story The Place of No Return in Transformers No.245. (Reprinted in 2005's Brickman Begins! as Village of the Doomed.) Here's a segment...
The battle in the village bonded Colin and the other characters as pals so Macho Man returned again in Transformers Nos.270 and 271 during Colin's fight against a mystery villain...
Macho Man returned one final time, in an episode of the Combat Colin serial The Invasion of Megabrain (Transformers No.296, November 17th, 1990) where he met his fate...
Yep, I killed off one of my characters. Permanently! In a Marvel comic! Never to return.
...and that was the short career of Norman Dribble AKA Macho Man. I hope you've enjoyed it.
...and that was the short career of Norman Dribble AKA Macho Man. I hope you've enjoyed it.
9 comments:
"Yep, I killed off one of my characters. Permanently! In a Marvel comic! Never to return." - Are you the first person to work for a Marvel comic to say that and keep to his word?!
Possibly. Even Uncle Ben has returned now! (Albeit a mirror universe version.) :)
"Nobody ever stays dead except for Macho Man."
Maybe that should be the new motto for this.
What? But he was the whole reason behind.... Really?!
Bloody hell! You got away with killing off a character in a humour strip? That was quite sudden too. Casualties of war did sum it up! He's never coe back from the dead?
I always love it when there is cross over between your characters. It adds that extra element of lampooning the concept of a self consistent universe which the geeks in all of us can't help adoring!
Of course Macho Mans first appearance, all be it in a slightly different form, was in The Spider-Man Comic No.649.
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/captain-wally-and-snail-man.html
I nearly included that strip, Tinebras, but then decided he was a completely different Macho Man. All part of the Lewniverse though. :)
Nope. And no time for mourning either. Poor Norman Dribble. His wife had cooked chips for tea too.
Latest Amazing Spider-Man (issue 13). To be honest it is enjoyable stuff. Crazy stuff. Loads of alternative universe Spider-Men in one huge battle before the big event happens this summer.
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