Overkill - covers gallery, part 2

I've long been curious about Marvel UK's Overkill title - how long did it run for? Cover artists? Contents? All that sort of stuff. As ever, the only way to satisfy my curiosity was to start with a covers gallery. 

Part 1 (issues 1-7) was here

Part 2 is below

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #8, 31st July 1992, 55p, cover art by Paul Johnson

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #9, 14th August 1992, 55p, cover art by Gary Frank

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #10, 28th August 1992, 55p, cover art by Mark Harrison

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #11, 11th September 1992, 55p, cover art by Steve Sampson

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #12, 25th September 1992, 60p, cover art by Carl Critchlow

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #13, 9th October 1992, 60p, cover art by Steve Sampson

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #14, 23rd October 1992, 60p, cover art by Steve Sampson

Overkill - covers gallery, part 1

I've long been curious about Marvel UK's Overkill title - how long did it run for? Cover artists? Contents? All that sort of stuff. As ever, the only way to satisfy my curiosity was to start with a covers gallery. Here's part 1 (issues 1-7). Any help with the cover artists would be much appreciated.

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #1, 24th April 1992, 55p, cover art by Dermot Power

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #2, 8th May 1992, 55p, cover art by Dermot Power

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #3, 22nd May 1992, 55p, cover art by Gary Erskine

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #4, 5th June 1992, 55p, cover art by Carl Critchlow with Gary Frank

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #5, 19th June 1992, 55p, cover art by Simon Coleby

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #6, 3rd July 1992, 55p, cover art by Steve Sampson

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #7, 17th July 1992, 55p, cover art by Steve Sampson

Heroquest - Marvel winter special

From 1991 here's a couple of pages from the obscure Heroquest - Marvel Winter special. A slim 36 page publication (edited by John Freeman) I picked this up originally because I knew there was a comic strip in it.

You also get pages on painting miniatures, a guide to merchandise, hazards, a new Heroquest scenario and more besides. I loved Heroquest back in the day but didn't see this magazine and it took a long time to track down a copy that wasn't too outrageously expensive.

Here's page 1 of the comic strip... 

and the final (8th) page...

Some cool hazards that came with the magazine - the magazine covers are card rather than paper so I'm guessing that the first thing plenty of people did with this magazine when they got it home was to cut the cover to shreds and that's why it's hard to come by these days.

Manta Force - Marvel UK, new Eagle & Ian Kennedy

A recent, and much sought-after title, finally arrives at blog towers...yes it's the very scarce Manta Force Winter special from Marvel UK - published in 1989

Page two brings everyone up to date on what's going on here...

Page 3 - but first page (of 8) the first strip in the comic 

Page 4 - but second page (of 8) the first strip in the comic

Gary Frank has confirmed (see below) that he was the artist on the (above) strip...

The 2nd strip in the comic is a 4 page strip by Ian Kennedy... 

...which had previously appeared in this 8 page comic from 1987/88...

...which was the era when Manta Force started appearing in New Eagle (it ran from issue 285-305, so 21 issues dated 05/09/87-23/01/88) where the art in issues 286-305 was illustrated by Mike Dorey, but Ian Kennedy drew the first episode...

...and this was his only Manta Force cover, #294 (07/11/87)...

...Mike Dorey drew just the one Manta Force cover - #303, dated 09/01/88

So, in conclusion, you had a comic tie-in series in 1987/88 in new Eagle (presumably when the marketing push for Manta Force was at its peak) and then a year later Marvel UK produce a one-off comic which features a reprint comic from a year ago in it. Odd. I can only assume that the hey-day of Manta Force had passed and Marvel UK could see that sales were poor (maybe why the comic is so hard to find these days) and an ongoing series wasn't warranted.

Heroquest - Marvel winter special

From 1991 here's a couple of pages from the obscure Heroquest - Marvel Winter special. A slim 36 page publication (edited by John Freeman) I picked this up originally because I knew there was a comic strip in it.

You also get pages on painting miniatures, a guide to merchandise, hazards, a new Heroquest scenario and more besides. I loved Heroquest back in the day but didn't see this magazine and it took a long time to track down a copy that wasn't too outrageously expensive.

Here's page 1 of the comic strip... 

and the final (8th) page...

Some cool hazards that came with the magazine - the magazine covers are card rather than paper so I'm guessing that the first thing plenty of people did with this magazine when they got it home was to cut the cover to shreds and that's why it's hard to come by these days.