Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon, and Grant Morrison.

Thorpe & Porter, however, went bankrupt in 1966[3] and was purchased by Independent News Distributors (IND), the distribution arm of National Periodical Publications (DC Comics).

Originally the weekly comic was created by slicing up storylines from the monthly American versions of The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four.

Marvel UK began to establish itself as a major publisher of weekly comic titles (along with D.C Thomson and IPC) under the direction of editor-in-chief Neil Tennant (later one of the Pet Shop Boys).

It was Neil Tennant's suggestion to create an original British Marvel war comic to compete with titles such as Warlord and Battle Picture Weekly.

While no original material was commissioned the concept of a war comic found fruition as Fury which ran from March to August 1977 before merging with MWOM.

The format changed back to a weekly in June 1983 with the adaptation of Return of the Jedi (which also became the new name of the publication), and remained so until its last issue in 1986.

The UK comics also reprinted several other supporting strips in each issue from other Marvel properties (such as The Micronauts, Tales of the Watcher, Star-Lord, etc.).

Also included was the Black Knight, a Marvel character revamped to take in Arthurian concepts, as well as feature the return of Captain Britain from comic book limbo.

As well there was the usual US reprint material, such as Ant-Man and in later issues the Beast from Amazing Adventures, and even The Defenders were moved in from Rampage Monthly to increase the dose of Hulk action (a house ad showed a stern doctor holding out a handful of pills and saying, "Boredom is a sickness... and there's only one cure.

It proved a huge success, and by now Skinn had transformed Marvel UK back to being a major publisher of not just weekly comics but monthly titles such as Starburst.

Following Skinn's belief that much of Marvel's strongest material was that published in the 1960s and early 70s,[citation needed] many of these titles showcased strips from that period.

Skinn wrote that they "emulated the look in their Combat Picture Library covers ... that was the look I wanted, to pull the line of pocket books together visually and make them different to any of our other titles ..."[14] The first four titles were later joined by Hulk, The Titans (reprinting the 1960s stories of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man), Marvel Classics Comics (featuring comic book adaptations of classic literature), Conan, and Young Romance.

In September 1981 Captain Britain got his own strip in the pages of Marvel Superheroes (the by-then firmly established monthly version of The Mighty World Of Marvel/Marvel Comic), as written by Dave Thorpe and drawn by Alan Davis.

In January 1985 the first issue of Captain Britain Monthly appeared with its titular strip written by Jamie Delano and drawn by Alan Davis.

From 1988, it was The Real Ghostbusters that became the top seller; it ran for 193 issues, four annuals, and a Slimer spinoff, and its characters were used to anchor several other titles like Wicked!

It was Steve White who launched the first critically acclaimed volume of Knights of Pendragon (1990–1991), written by Dan Abnett and John Tomlinson with art by Gary Erskine, which mixed superheroes and Arthurian myth.

It ran for 20 issues (February - November 1990) and featured work by many British comics creators, including Alan Grant, Ian Gibson, Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, Si Spencer and John Wagner.

The titles were set in the existing Marvel Universe but with more of a focus on cyberpunky science fiction and magic than the traditional superhero fare.

They requested an emergency meeting with Marvel Entertainment executives Bill Bevin and Terry Stewart to approve a £1m last-ditch strategy.

While they got the money, writer Sean Howe would later be told that Bevin was livid about being called to London for a mere one million, asking "why are you wasting my time?

This policy was dropped after market research showed people expected to see superheroes in Marvel ("that included watching a group of teenagers rip Overkill apart from behind a two-way mirror", according to Freeman).

[26] Despite a lineup that included Liam Sharp, Simon Coleby, Bryan Hitch, Carlos Pacheco, Graham Marks, Salvador Larroca, Dan Abnett, and many others, too many titles were launched too quickly in a market which was already swamped by the early 1990s comics boom.

[28] Dark Guard, Cyberspace 3000, Wild Thing, Black Axe, Super Soldiers,[28] and the entire Frontier imprint were cancelled.

[29] Paul Neary told Comic World that this was a "trimming of fat" to allow Marvel UK to focus its marketing efforts on "our strongest characters" and claimed the canceled projects would see the light of day in 1994.

[28] Two titles that did still run were spinoffs of Death's Head II in November, with house ads brashly comparing them to other popular comics[30] as part of a marketing strategy to portray the new Marvel UK as a lean, hungry company that could hold its own against the larger (and implicitly duller) competition.

[33] Neary planned a four-title relaunch of their US format line, including Nocturne (an updated Night Raven), The Golden Grenadier,[20] and new titles for Captain Britain and Death's Head.

(David Leach's proposal for Death's Head started as a Third Doctor joke, "that we should completely overhaul him, reduce his power, lose the time travel aspect and set it in present-day England".

Eventually, Nocturne and ClanDestine saw print in America, while Wild Angels (a Dark Angel/Wild Thing team-up) was published in Italy in black-and-white format.

[20] Loose Cannons, a canceled Warheads spin-off about the all-female Virago Troop, and painted by Mark Harrison, was released online in 2005 by its own creator.