Sunday, June 30, 2019

The Avengers #14: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' The Avengers #14 is cover-dated February 1976:


The cover was originally published on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #18:


The story contents are as follows:

When The Commissar Commands!, originally published in The Avengers #18, July 1965

If I Fail, A World Is Lost! [Part 1], originally published in Tales of Suspense #66, June 1965

The splash page to When The Commissar Commands! is modified:


In order to incorporate the indicia it is cropped at the top, deleting The Mighty Avengers! banner, and cropped at the bottom, erasing a small portion of the credits. Compare to a scan of the original page, as reprinted in my copy of Marvel Masterworks Vol. 9 The Avengers Nos 11-20, 1989 [First Printing]:


It is otherwise reprinted without any significant modifications.

Only the first six pages of If I Fail, A World Is Lost! are reprinted in this issue, and given previous Iron Man backup features had previously been subjected to all manner of butchery, it is pleasing to be able to say that although it is incomplete, the portion reprinted is unadulterated, apart from a minor intrusion on the final panel advising it is Continued Next Issue.

This issue contains a Dracula poster:


This was originally published as the cover on Marvel Comics' The Tomb of Dracula #14:


Unfortunately the colouring on the poster makes the ghostly transitional bat figure virtually indistinguishable from Dracula's cape, as it was on the cover of Newton Comics' Dracula #9:


This issue includes two in-house advertisements:

The Invincible Iron Man #1

Doctor Strange #10
This is a pre-production image.

The Avengers #14 was advertised  in other Newton comics:


This ad is scanned from Newton Team-Up #2.

The contest expiry date is 21 February 1976. Contest dates could be unreliable in this period, but if we take the contest expiry date and cover date at face value, the likely publication date of this issue is 7 February 1976.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

The Avengers #12: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' The Avengers #12 was published 13 December 1975:


The cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #16:


The story contents are as follows:

The Old Order Changeth!, originally published in The Avengers #16, May 1965 

[When Titans Clash!], originally published in Tales of Suspense #65, May 1965

The splash page to The Old Order Changeth! has been modified:


The top of the page gas been cropped, omitting The Mighty Avengers! banner, and there is cropping beneath the text boxes on the bottom of the page. Compare this to the original page as reprinted in my copy of Marvel Masterworks Vol. 9 The Avengers Nos. 11-20, 1989 [First Printing]:


[When Titans Clash] is another Newton hatchet job. This is the splash page from Tales of Suspense #65, as reprinted in Essential Iron Man Vol. 1, Third edition Second printing, 2010:


This is the splash page as it appears in the Newton Comics edition:


Hmph. Doesn't even look like the same story, right? Except that the Newton splash page hails from the very same story - it is modified from a panel on the sixth page: 


The title of the story wasn't integrated into the newly contrived splash page.

Newton Comics' The Avengers #11 reprinted Marvel Comics' The Avengers #12. By reprinting The Avengers #16 in this issue a few US issues were skipped. The 'missing' issues had migrated to the backup feature slot in The X-Men and The Avengers.

The poster in this issue is Doctor Strange:


This image originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' Doctor Strange #9, and had recently been on the cover of Newton Comics' Doctor Strange #7:


This issue includes the following in-house advertisements for other comics:



This issue was advertised in-house:

This ad is scanned from The Silver Surfer #4.
This issue was also advertised in the Sunday Observer 30 November 1975 alongside other comics:


The contest expiry date is 26 January 1976. 

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

The Avengers #11: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' The Avengers #11 was published 29 November 1975:


This cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #12:


The story contents are as follows:

This Hostage Earth!, originally published in The Avengers #12, January 1965 

[Somewhere Lurks The Phantom!] Somewhere Lurks:-Phantom!, originally published in Tales of Suspense #63, March 1965 

The splash page to This Hostage Earth! has been cropped at the top:


This is a scan of the same page from my copy of Marvel Masterworks Vol. 9 The Avengers Nos.11-20, 1989 [First Printing]:


The Mighty Avengers title banner at the top of the page is omitted in the Newton edition in order to accommodate the indicia. The story is otherwise reprinted without any undue editorial modification.

The first page to [Somewhere Lurks The Phantom] is the second instalment of this story - it continues from Newton's The Avengers #10 - and has not only been retitled, but the bottom tier has been cropped:


Compare the page to the original as per the reprint in my copy of Essential Iron Man Vol. 1, Third edition Second printing 2010:


This issue contains a Conan the Barbarian poster:


This originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian #11, and was published by Newton Comics a couple of months earlier as the cover of Conan the Barbarian #2:


This issue contains two in-house advertisements for other comics: The Fantastic Four Giant Size 84 Page Annual #1;


and The Silver Surfer #3:


As you can see this advertisement was printed backwards.

This issue also included the following advertisement for a Tarzan book:


Newton Comics did not publish Tarzan comics. K.G. Murray would pick up the licence for Tarzan comics in Australia few years later.

The contest expiry date in this issue is 12 January 1976.

This issue was advertised in-house:

This is scanned from The Silver Surfer #3.

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

The Avengers #10: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' The Avengers #10 was published 15 November 1975:


The cover was originally published on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #11:



Newton also printed this cover as a poster:


The story contents are as follows:

[The Mighty Avengers Meet] Spider-Man!, originally published in The Avengers #11, December 1964 

Somewhere Lurks The Phantom!, originally published in Tales of Suspense #63, March 1965 

The title to the first story was shortened due to the cropping at the top of the splash page. This was done to accommodate the indicia at the bottom of the page. Here's a scan of the splash page in the Newton edition:


This is a scan of the original page as it appears in my copy of Marvel Masterworks Vol. 9 The Avengers Nos. 11-20, 1989 [First Printing]: 


Only the first six pages of Somewhere Lurks the Phantom! are reprinted in this issue. It continues next issue. It is otherwise unmodified.

Newton Comics' The Avengers #10 skipped Marvel Comics' The Avengers #10 so they were once again out of sync.

The poster in this issue is The Avengers:


This previously appeared on the cover of The Avengers #6.

This issue contains in-house advertisements for The X-Men and The Avengers #2:


and Giant Team-Up Annual #1:


The subscription page has The Silver Surfer and The X-Men added to the roster.

The contest expires 29 December 1975.

Monday, June 10, 2019

The Avengers #9: The Newton edition


Newton Comics' The Avengers #9 was published 1 November 1975:


This cover first appeared on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #9:


The story contents are as follows:

The Coming of the... Wonder Man!, originally published in The Avengers #9, October 1964

Iron Man Faces Hawkeye The Marksman [In Mortal Combat with Captain America!], originally published in Tales of Suspense #57, September 1964

The Coming of the...Wonder Man! does not suffer any substantial modification. 

As for Iron Man Faces Hawkeye The Marksman... 

You will recall the bizarre situation in the previous two issues - The Avengers # 7 and #8 - in which pages from the two Iron Man stories originally appearing in Tales of Suspense #57 and #58 were combined in Frankensteinian fashion.

Well, the sorry saga continues in this issue.

This is the splash page to the third instalment of Iron Man Faces Hawkeye The Marksman:


The bottom tier is cropped to accommodate the inserted title at the top of the page. Compare it to a scan of the original comics as reprinted in my copy of Essential Iron Man Vol. 1, Third edition Second printing 2010:


The cropping aside, at least the title once again matches the material.

However, for some reason, the rest of the pages do not conform to this course correction. Once again, the pages in the rest of the story come from In Mortal Combat with Captain America! from Tales of Suspense #58, rather than Tales of Suspense #57.

The final panel is also modified by the editor:


This is the original panel as it appears in Essential Iron Man Vol. 1:


The poster in this issue was Captain Marvel and The Sub-Mariner:


This was originally published as the cover on Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel #4, and was later on the cover of Newton Comics' one-off Captain Marvel issue:


The Avengers #9 includes an in-house advertisement for The Silver Surfer #2:


As per the previous two issues this issue advertises the Mail Order Only Origins Of Marvel Comics.

There were no more Swap Cards in this series

The contest expiry date is 15 December 1975.