Marvel Masters: The British Invasion Volume 1

Marvel Masters:

Marvel

This is an odd collection.

There's quality material inside but its subtitle of The British Invasion lends it an identity that is not evident thematically within, other than that - as noted - it features material by British creators.

After The Beatles made it big in the USA a number of British beat groups soon had their own hit singles over there and thus was coined the phrase of a "British invasion" - Whereas the onslaught of longhaired rockers who'd break attendance records in amphitheatres during the early to mid 70s is possibly a truer reality of British music dominating America.

The historical facts are somewhat different for comics however. Marvel never truly caught onto British creators. Not in the way its publishing rival DC did.

DC came and headhunted British creators, and they had the good sense to send their then new managing editor, Dick Giordano, who the Brits knew and respected. A lot of the major players in the American comic book field at that time had either moved onto other creative mediums or were beginning to take up offers with the independent comics publishers coming into existence who were offering potentially greater creators' rights.

DC had looked abroad before, notably in The Phillipines during the seventies, and brilliant as the many artists that DC, Warren and to a lesser extent Marvel gave work to from there, shamefully, a large reason for doing so was because they could afford to pay them lower page rates. Britain had done a similar thing using Spanish art studios during the sixties. These days we're a global village and if you're good enough, or cheap enough, or email the right person, then there's the chance you could pick up work anywhere in the world.

But DC came because (a) Brian Bolland had been to see them and his Neal Adams/Gil Kane influenced work of the time secured him work there, and (b) they were aware through British fanzine connections with the likes of Richard Burton that there were other talented British artists working on 2000AD.

Marvel cottoned on late. To a large degree the company viewpoint was that creators were of secondary importance to Marvel's own characters. And that still, generally speaking, remains the case. It's a business and these realities have to be accepted.

However, Marvel's bestselling comic The Uncanny X-Men had been produced by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and both guys had a British heritage, so slowly, one way or another, Brits were making their presence felt.

Around the time DC courted British artists, John Bolton had snuck in through the side door and began doing a number of pieces for Marvel, primarily in Epic Illustrated.

Then, when Alan Davis moved from Batman and the Outsiders at DC to working across town - and co-created Excalibur - Marvel truly hit a homerun! Davis' style is quite possibly the quintessential Marvel look: capturing the power of Jack Kirby (who for want of a better description visually designed the whole Marvel universe) added with the dynamics of Neal Adams who'd given the characters a more angst-real world feel, but more so Davis was then constantly growing and blooming as his own creative force and capturing the genuine wonder that made super-heroics a life-affirming force. And many others have followed in his path.

But there's never really been an invasion. Sure writers Warren Ellis and Mark Millar do a lot of work at Marvel these days, and sell well. But for the most part creators have just done work there. Even if it's brilliant work.

I know I shouldn't harp on about the title, after all it's just a marketing gimmick, but I just wish a bit more had been done to justify its use.

There's a main feature introduction and individual pieces all written by Comics International publisher Mike Conroy outlining the various British creators who have worked for Marvel US, and for the most part it reads in Mike's busy-information packed style but there are a couple of things that don't feel right.

Either a sub-editor or the actual book editor's used his first draft by mistake or has changed things to suit themselves and actually put in the odd thing that I simply don't think Mike would have.

Mike rightly acknowledges the British invasion started back in the 1940s with artist Lee Elias who was primarily known for his work on The Black Cat for Harvey back then, and for work at Warren on characters like The Rook in his latter career during the 80s. Now Elias didn't do much work for Marvel but I'm sure he did a few pieces - There was a creator-owned strip done with Bill DuBay that appear in Epic Illustrated that Marvel most likely can't print but I'm sure he did bits during Marvel's early days under the name of Timely and it would have been a more than nice touch and suitable homage to at least stick in a panel to illustrate that by the collection's editor/designer.

Perhaps even worse is when Mike tells the now legendary story of Barry Smith and Steve Parkhouse coming over to America in the 70s. They scored work at Marvel while sleeping on park benches, Parkhouse ultimately deciding it wasn't for him, but Smith eventually stayed, his art leading to Conan the Barbarian becoming an international sales/franchise success, himself becoming a star, and an inspiration to a horde of British kids who would one day try to make their names as artists in America. But there are no strips by Smith in the book either? Dark Horse have reprinted Marvel's Conan strips in recent years so maybe they have the rights to that, but surely something like say the short Thing strip he did that appeared in Marvel Fanfare would have been perfect for this collection? It just does not make moral sense to have a British Invasion collection published by Marvel and not feature Barry Windsor-Smith.

There's no Claremont/Byrne X-Men material either.

Basically, it's pretty recent material: individual issues of series that have probably been collected on their own. Readers of the series or fans of the creators are likely to have them already. It's hardly like to hook any new Anglophile readers but the stories in and of them selves are not without their merits.

There are two Punisher tales in the collection. The first one was originally published as a graphic novel on its own and it was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. That Wagner and Grant, such prolifically creative workhorses who had long steered 2000AD onto success worked initially for Marvel rather than DC remains one of those curiosities - I think the fact that they were so prolific and Wagner had never been a fan of American superheroes meant that any previous waves that DC might have made to them were possibly deferred at the time. The story itself is suitably set in Scotland where all three the creators originated from and tends towards being an extended ghost story. The other is written by Garth Ennis and drawn masterfully by John Severin, and in part serves as a kind of prequel to the Punisher's origin.

The Ultimates story by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch hangs there waiting for its follow-on issue; the Neil Gaiman scripted 1602 would make more sense in its own collection; the Hellstorm story again begs for its next issue, but since its probably not been collected elsewhere, demonstrates a younger Warren Ellis' edgier more imperative scripting at work; the X-Men spin-off interesting but while its accompanying features mentions writer Peter Milligan it doesn't mention that the artist Phillip Bond was also British born, and the same goes for the Spider-Man tale written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Mark Buckingham - I know Paul did some big books for Marvel around the time this came out but Mark's had a longer career with more extended career highs - Actually, I was worried this story was going to be too sentimental for its own good but it really worked well, I'll not tell you what happened in case you want to check it out yourself.

It scores a point for its British Invasion title for the inclusion of Alan Davis's first solo flight on Excalibur as both writer and pencil artist of the series. It is both a valid historical reason and a more than proficient production worthy of collection.

Therein continues to be the problem, and perhaps only for me, the reading material itself is fine, it's just the marketing behind it as a collection that doesn't feel right. That, and the poor proofreading of the feature content.