Back-up strips

You are the editor of Marvel UK's brand new Transformers comic. You need to run the U.S. issues in smaller chunks, in order to keep a fortnightly (later weekly) frequency without running out of stuff. But... what are you going to run in the rest of the comic? Features alone won't grab the kiddies! You need more strip! You need...

Back-up strips!

Marvel UK back-up strips

A great way of padding out the comic while not taking the mick, back-up strips ran throughout the entire Marvel UK run. These would almost always be reprints of other Marvel titles.

In-house strips

The Chromobots

A light-hearted action strip by Matt and the Cat's Mychailo "Mike" Kazybrid, The Chromobots ran from issue 12 to issue 26. It told the story of Dudley, a young comic book reader just like you whose dreams of adventuring like his heroes came unexpectedly true when he fell in with a trio of alien Chromobots who were pursuing a criminal that had escaped from their homeworld.

• More information on The Chromobots at The Transformers UK Appendix

Combat Colin

Main article: Combat Colin

Ran from issue 153 all the way through to issue 332

A humor strip by Lew Stringer; for more information, see the Combat Colin article.

Matt and the Cat

Ran from issue 5 to issue 73

An in-house humor topic created by Mychailo "Mike" Kazybrid, featuring a man named Matt and a cat. Based on Kazybrid's characters in newspaper strips for the Bradford Telegraph & Argus and The Manchester Evening News.

Spider-Man

Bitten by a radioactive spider, geeky high school student Peter Parker acquires the proportionate strength and agility of a spider, becoming The Amazing Spider-Man

Appeared as a four page insert on "stranger danger" in issue 132.

Robo-Capers

Main article: Robo-Capers

Ran from issue 15 to issue 152

A humor strip by Lew Stringer; for more information, see the Robo-Capers article.

Reprints

Action Force

Main article: Action Force (team)

Action Force was the European equivalent of G.I. Joe. Initially, there was a separate Action Force comic but it was cancelled after fifty issues. As was standard in UK comics, it was merged with the more successful Transformers and the title was changed to Transformers and Action Force when Action Force strips were run. From 249 it was rebranded as G.I. Joe - The Action Force and the comic was rebranded as Transformers and G.I. Joe - The Action Force.

Treated as main stories (no backup strips), the Ancient Relics! UK cross over story ran in #125 continuing in Action Force #24–27 and the U.S. cross over series G.I. Joe and the Transformers ran in issues #265 to #281

Hercules

Hercules is a Demi-God. He is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, and eventually a member of the pantheon of Olympus.

Inhumanoids

Main article: Inhumanoids

Another Hasbro property with an obligatory Marvel Comics series, in this case just four issues reprinted in chunks in the UK. The Inhumanoids were a group of subterranean monsters who were sealed beneath the Earth until accidentally released by humans, and were opposed by the Earth Corps and a race of good mutants known as the Mutores. The series was cancelled after only four issues, ending on a cliffhanger.

Iron Man

Tony Stark is an industrialist playboy who fights crime in a powered suit as Iron Man.

"Man of the Year" was a Spider-Man story set in 2020; however it was rebranded as The Iron Man of 2020 after the more prominent guest star.

Machine Man

X-51 was born on an assembly line but raised like a son as an experiment by Dr Abel Stack. Forced to leave his father's care early, Aaron Stack now seeks to live among Johnny Average while contending with anti-robot persecution as his superhero alter ego, Machine Man.

After the reprints of the Machine Man ongoing series concluded, The Transformers transitioned to printing Machine Man's 1984 limited series. It saw Aaron revived in the far future year of 2020, after over thirty years in storage, where he had to contend with a technocratic megacorporation as well the mercenary Arno Stark, alias the Iron Man of 2020.

The impact of this seemingly innocuous reprint was huge for Marvel UK: in 1987, The Transformers would print the Spider-Man story "Man of the Year" off the back of it featuring the origin of Iron Man 2020. After Death's Head's solo series saw him relocated to 2020 for an anti-hero team-up (read: fight) with Arno, the setting would recur alongside many similar cyberpunk futures as part of the expansive "Genesis '92" line-up, an attempt for Marvel UK to really break into the U.S. market.

• More information on Machine Man at The Transformers UK Appendix

Planet Terry

In 1984, Marvel U.S. created the Star Comics imprint to fill the gap in the younger kids comic market recently vacated by Harvey Comics, including poaching some of its creative team. One of Star Comics' original titles was Planet Terry, which told the story of a young space traveller, also named Planet Terry, searching the universe after being accidentally separated from his parents at birth.

Planet Terry made its way into The Transformers UK under editor Sheila Cranna, who intended for the book to have a generalist approach with something for readers of all ages. (Cranna also brought Star's Wally the Wizard into The Spider-Man Comic around the same time.) This didn't quite work out, as Planet Terry got a drubbing in the letters pages from those slightly older readers, who branded it "babyish". When Ian Rimmer took the editorial chair, he decided to focus on Transformers, culling many of the comic's recurring strips and features. After two full adventures and a truncated abridgement of a third, Planet Terry, much like the infant Terry himself, was jettisoned.

• More information on Planet Terry at The Transformers UK Appendix

Robotix

Main article: Robotix

Robotix was a Hasbro toyline about two warring robotic races which had a tie in cartoon by Sunbow Productions and a single comic issue by Marvel Comics. As this is a completely ludicrous idea that could never catch on, it was short-lived.

Rocket Raccoon

Ranger Rocket Raccoon is a genetically-engineered raccoon who is a law enforcement officer on Halfworld.

Spitfire and the Troubleshooters!

One of Marvel Comics' New Universe titles. Professor Jenny Swenson dons the Man-Assisted eXperimental armor, she takes the codename Spitfire and a group of her college students did the same, becoming The Troubleshooters. They fought crime.

Visionaries

Main article: Visionaries

Set on the planet Prysmos, Visionaries depicted the struggle between the heroic Spectral Knights and the villainous Darkling Lords at the dawn of a quasi-feudal age of magic.

Visionaries was another Hasbro property, with a colorful hologram gimmick used on the figures chests and weaponry. A preview copy in #158 printed the first two and a half pages of the first story. When the comic was cancelled it merged into Transformers (changing the name to Transformers and Visionaries) and printed the remainder of the stories. Later Transformers reprinted the first issue in full.

Other Series

Panini's Armada and Titan's movie series comic have both used the same tactic, Panini with original Transformer strips, and Titan with IDW reprints and unused Transformers Animated strips (and one new one).