Spider-Man Comics Weekly
| Spider-Man Comics Weekly | |
|---|---|
Spider-Man Comics Weekly #1 published in 1973
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel UK |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date(s) | Feb. 10, 1973 - Dec. 1985 |
| No. of issues | 666 |
| Main character(s) | Spider-Man |
Spider-Man Comics Weekly was a Marvel UK publication which primarily published black-and-white reprints of American Marvel four-color Spider-Man stories. Marvel UK's second-ever title, Spider-Man Comics Weekly debuted in 1973, initially publishing "classic" 1960s Spider-Man stories (as well as Thor backup stories).
The title proved to be a great success. Along with Marvel UK's flagship title, The Mighty World of Marvel, Spider-Man Comics Weekly helped Marvel gain a foothold in the (at the time) vast UK weekly comic market, allowing the company to cross-market and later introduce non-superhero UK-reprint titles such as Planet of the Apes and Star Wars.
Although it changed its title name several times over the years (mostly due to other less successful Marvel UK comics merging with it), the Spider-Man weekly comic eventually became the longest-running Marvel UK publication, publishing 666 issues from 1973-1985.
During the course of its run, the book was successively known in the indicia as:
Due to the character's popularity in Marvel UK's first title, The Mighty World of Marvel, Spider-Man was made the star of his own weekly comic in early 1973. The monthly format of the American source material was adapted to fit the British weekly format, with stories being split up over several weeks. The backup strip featured Thor reprints, with Iron Man joining him from issue #50. The first issue also promoted the UK branch of Marvel's new in-house fan club, FOOM.
In early 1976 the short-lived Marvel UK title The Super-Heroes was merged into Spider-Man Comics Weekly, which at that point changed its title to Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes. The book also changed orientation to become a landscape-format comic, following the lead of another relatively new Marvel UK title, The Titans. Although this format allowed two pages of Marvel US artwork to fit onto one (magazine-sized) Marvel UK page, reader reaction was mixed, as it made the text small and often difficult to read.
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