The Mammoth/Gigantic Love Stories #7

Similarly to Young Love Romances, Heart to Heart Annual and Twin Hearts Annual, Love Stories is a series of rebound coverless romance comics published by K.G. Murray in bumper editions. Here's the cover to my copy of Love Stories #7:

This copy contains Man and Woman #10, Love Song Romances #64, and an unidentified issue.

I'm not sure when this was published - it appears to be c.1972-73, but will await further information before making a call.

Strange Tales #1: The Yaffa edition

Strange Tales #1, c. June 1978

Page Publications' Strange Tales #1 is a bit different to most Page Marvel issues of the era because it doesn't reprint sequential issues of the parent series.

The cover originally appeared on Strange Tales #107, and the main features of that comic are duly contained within the Page Publications issue, but those stories are found in the middle portion of the book. Strange Tales #1 actually begins on the inside front cover with a black and white reprint of the cover to Strange Tales #100:

All the main features of Strange Tales #100 are reprinted in Strange Tales #1. The features from Strange Tales #107 follow. And then, the cover and main features of Strange Tales #108 are reprinted - all except the 5-page The Silent Giant.

I don't know why there are 6 issues of Strange Tales missing in the Yaffa series. It's possible they were reprinted in another series. It's also possible that the licence was for the Human Torch series as part of the super hero package, and Strange Tales #100 was surplus which was put to use. Whatever the reason, it is an exception to the rule to find Yaffa Marvel editions not reprinting sequential issues between their covers. Some rejigging of the formula has been identified in issues late in a series, but this is the only issue that comes to mind to begin a series in this unorthodox fashion.

Strange Tales #1 was later reissued in digest form as Weird Tales #NN.

Strange Tales #4: The Yaffa edition

Strange Tales #4, c. April 1981

The front cover to Strange Tales #4 originally appeared on the US Strange Tales #115. 

Strange Tales #4 reprints the Human Torch and Doctor Strange stories from US Strange Tales #'s 115, 116 and 117. It even reprints the other two covers in black and white.

This means that this issue also carries The Origin of Dr. Strange. Which means this splash page is included:

Now that would have made for a cool cover on a digest-sized Page Publications comic! Alas...

Fear #3 = Fear #4 - almost...

Fear #3, 1981

Fear #3 is the first digest-sized issue in the Page Publications series - the previous two were covered some ten years ago when I knew very little about Page Publications comics, and there was a lot of speculation and second-guessing on my part.

This issue reprints the cover and main contents of Marvel's Fear #4.And wouldn't you know it - the only feature from Fear #4 not to be included in the Yaffa edition is the second story featured on the cover: I Turned Into A Martian! Of course, this is due to the differing page counts of the respective issues, but one would think a 5-page story featured on the cover could be swapped for another 5-page story which would not be so conspicuously absent.

Tales of Terror Picture Library #6: White Heat

White Heat was originally published in Famepress' S.A.T.A.N. Picture Library #5:

It was reprinted by Page Publications under a Keith Chatto cover in Tales of Terror Picture Library #6:

The cover is based on interior art:

Previous issues of Tales of Terror Picture Library carried bone fide horror stories as per the title, but this is an example of Yaffa mixing their material up for the sake of getting 'new' product onto the newsagency stands. I expect White Heat was previously published by Page Publications in one of their spy titles, and most likely featured a Chatto swipe of the Famepress issue above. TBC. 

Batman: The Official Comic Adaptation of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture - The Australian edition

This rather battered specimen of a Batman comic found its way into the Junkyard last week. It's "The Official Comic Adaptation of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture", published in 1989. This is the deluxe, prestige format edition. There was also a regular edition.

The interesting thing about this issue from the perspective of the Junkyard is that it's an Australian edition, published by Budget Books in Melbourne, under the Adventure Book imprint. I don't know anything about this mob, other than what the GCD entry tells me, which is that they published some comics-related books in the mid-1980's/early 1990's.

I don't see a price on the cover so I don't know whether it was significantly cheaper than the US edition. It's also possible that it had alternative distribution to the regular comics network - say in bookstores or cinemas.

Federal Comics ceased publication of DC superhero comics in 1986. If they had run another few years more this edition may have had a Federal Comics logo on the top left hand corner.

Chatto's Inferno

Inferno was originally published in MV Features' Secret Service Picture Library #4:

This story was reprinted in the following digest-sized Page Publication issues:

 War Adventure Series #3

 War Stories #4

Wartime Library #7

All three Page Publications issues feature cover art by Keith Chatto. I expect there is an earlier edition which carries a Chatto swipe of the MV Features cover art. 

And given the Australian content of this issue, I wouldn't be surprised to find a few more editions of this issue spread over various spy and war titles. The titles above are all war titles, but given the Yaffa stable included spy titles such as Spy Action Library, Spy Adventure Picture Library and Spy Stories Picture Library... well, I'd be placing a bet on those odds.

Update 6 January 2023: Inferno was also published in Wartime Library #9: