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Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher which has published Doctor Who comic books, magazines and graphic novels, both in the United States and in Britain. Marvel's connection with Doctor Who began in 1979, when the BBC transferred the license to print Doctor Who comics from Polystyle to Marvel's British imprint, Marvel UK.
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Though Marvel UK initially enjoyed exclusive rights to Doctor Who in comics form, their rights have gradually contracted since 1996, when the Eighth Doctor debuted in a series of strips that ran in Radio Times. Since the second series of the BBC Wales production, they have been one of several companies to enjoy publishing rights to the comics adventures of the Tenth Doctor. Nevertheless, their strip in Doctor Who Magazine is generally considered by most fans to be the "main" Doctor Who comic strip, with other comics, like those found in the BBC-produced Doctor Who Adventures, construed as "niche" comics for a specific audience.
At the height of their influence, Marvel UK began to publish directly in the US market during the mid-1990s. Though they enjoyed initial success, they soon found themselves up against the wall of the general downturn in the US comics industry that decade. Having committed much of their resources to success in America, they were quickly reduced to a company that mainly reprinted Marvel US comics in Britain. By the turn of the 21st century, almost the only original work they were still doing was in Doctor Who and the Transformers. Badly cash-strapped, they were saved from extinction by the intervention of Panini Comics, a European publisher who had the Marvel reprint license for the continent. Panini's acquisition of Marvel UK had the net effect of Marvel Europe extending its territory to encompass the United Kingdom. Hence, from one perspective, the BBC's license to print Doctor Who comics and news didn't change hands, so much as the British license to print Marvel Comics. In other words, Marvel UK still technically exists as of 2008, with its licenses intact, but they are now owned by Panini, which also owns Marvel Europe. For this reason, it's within Panini's rights to now reprint a Doctor Who comic from a 1985 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, whereas special permission must be sought for Panini to reprint something from the Polystyle era.
Initially Marvel UK exercised the BBC's license in Doctor Who Weekly, a publication that was a fairly even mix between comics and Doctor Who news. In the very earliest days of that magazine, it served not only as a location for a regular comic strip featuring the then-current Doctor, but also for a variety of other sequential art. These non-Doctor stories included some tales that were set in the Whoniverse, but featured original characters, along with irregular reprints of material from The Dalek Chronicles.
It also featured 1970s Marvel adaptations of classic science fiction stories, and reprints from American Marvel Comics published from the of the 1950s and 1960s. For these stories, tenuous connection was established to the Fourth Doctor in that he appeared in the first and last panels as a sort of "Greek chorus-cum-narrator". Consequently some major American Marvel artists like Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont and Steve Ditko have credits in DWM.
Over the years, the title of the publication, its page count, and its target audience changed. Whereas it had started with a significant number of pages devoted to a variety of comic strips, it gradually became more of a news and reviews magazine with a single comic strip featuring the Doctor. It began as a child-oriented magazine and gradually became more interested in attempting to be something closer to a journalistic exercise that happened to have some comic content. Its name changed over the years until finally settling on Doctor Who Magazine, by which it is most commonly known today.
Soon after the launch of Doctor Who Weekly, Marvel UK also began publication of a seasonal, sister publication initially called Doctor Who Special. It was a biannual publication, which in many ways was like an American comics "annual". Although it could be purchased separately from the main magazine, it was also a subscriber bonus. Like DWM, it began as primarily a repository of fiction and gradually became heavily oriented towards non-fiction, journalistic articles. These specials became increasingly thematic as the run continued. Whereas reprinted comics were common early on, later issues featured exclusively original comic material, or, in one case, the complete reprinting of TV Century 21's The Dalek Chronicles. It was a significant source of comic material featuring past Doctors and companions. In fact, a number of different companions, whose TV runs had been previously ignored by both Marvel and Polystyle, made their first comic appearances in DWS, including: Vicki, Steven, Benny, and Mel. Others, such as Romana I had their first Marvel treatment in the pages of DWS, rather than the parent publication.
Confusion over the title is both common and understandable in fandom. Later issues which place the word Magazine on the cover, suggest that one possible title for the publication is Doctor Who Magazine Special. Also, the common inclusion of these issues with subscriptions of DWM force some to include that it's not really a separate title from DWM. In fact, though, no issue of the run has the word "Magazine" in the indicia title. And it was called Doctor Who Special for at least its first five issues. Thereafter, the publication dropped its legal promise to be "published twice yearly", and was technically published as a series of one-shots bearing the name of the season. In effect, Doctor Who Special morphed into Doctor Who Summer Special and Doctor Who Winter Special, along with the odd unique special, like the Doctor Who 30th Anniversary Special or Dalek Chronicles - A Doctor Who Summer Special'.
Practically, the need for these specials was eclipsed somewhat by Marvel's decision in 1990 to switch DWM from a monthly to a 4-weekly publication. This increased the annual output of DWM itself to 13 issues. Marvel would go on publishing the specials, however, for a few more years, eventually stopping them altogether after Marvel UK faltered in the US market in 1996.
Marvel also briefly produced another series, called the Doctor Who Yearbook, from 1992-1996. Sometimes considered "annuals", they are perhaps most accurately thought of as hardbound issues of Doctor Who Special. Whereas a true British "annual" is a collection of prose and comics stories featuring the then-current stars of a property — it marks that year in television, film, or sport — the Yearbook appeared at a time when Doctor Who was firmly off the air. Thus it became a retrospective look at the program as a whole, and featured a variety of different companions and Doctors. Like Doctor Who Specials, it occasionally reprinted material from Doctor Who Magazine, but was largely used to feature new stories. Its comics featured Marvel's first non-parodic attempt at Ian and Barbara, along with the first Marvel usage of Jo, Leela and Nyssa,
Marvel UK was briefly involved in a project to reprint material not generally available to Doctor Who fans in the 1990s. In a series that lasted less than 30 issues, Doctor Who Magazine's resident comic experts attempted to reprint important stories from both the Polystyle and Marvel UK runs'. Where necessary, they also colorized stories that had originally been in black and white. The magazine ended long before it had gotten anywhere close to being a comprehensive collection of the Polystyle era, but it nevertheless offered the only taste of that time that most fans had experienced.
The publication also had significant text articles which gave details as to the story names and artists that worked on every known Doctor Who comic adventure. Because of this, it is today still considered the de facto definitive guide to early Doctor Who comics. Many reference websites, including the Doctor Who Reference Guide, use this Marvel UK title as their primary reference for the comics of the first seven Doctors. Though in many ways just a reprinting of the "Stripped for Action" column that had begun appearing in DWM a couple of years before, DWCC offered expanded coverage of the subject.
Marvel also occasionally printed some single-issue Doctor Who comics, marketed as "graphic novels". Of these, only The Age of Chaos was both wholly graphic and a single, novel-length story. The others — Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer and Voyager — would be considered by North Americans to be trade paperbacks or "collected editions".
Marvel UK's parent company, Marvel Comics, had some minor involvement with Doctor Who during the height of US Doctor Who fandom in the 1980s, consisting of colorized reprints of DWM comic strips, beginning with a Fourth Doctor story arc that appeared as part of an anthology series entitled Marvel Premiere. This was followed by a monthly comic in 1984 entitled, simply, Doctor Who which featured additional DWM reprints featuring the Fourth and, later, Fifth Doctor. About two-dozen issues were published. Marvel also issued a North American edition of the Sixth Doctor DWM story arc, Voyager in an omnibus graphic novel edition. Marvel US created no significant original Doctor Who material, other than covers, pinups, and the odd prose feature in the Doctor Who comic.
In addition to the above, Marvel US also distributed Doctor Who Magazine along with the UK reprint title Doctor Who Classic Comics, the Doctor Who Yearbook, and the Who-related title, Death's Head, before Panini took over the license. Since 2007 another US publisher, IDW, has issued new reprints of the DWM stories previously issued by Marvel US in Marvel Premiere and Doctor Who.
Over time, Marvel UK began publishing a number of original stories featuring a variety of mainstream Marvel US characters, such as the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Eventually, these British versions of mainstream Marvel characters, combined with a few characters that were wholly original to Marvel UK, began to create a continuity that diverged somewhat from the mainstream American Marvel Universe. Thus, comic observers began to posit the notion of a "Marvel UK Universe". The Doctor Who comic strips came to be viewed as a part of that universe, and, indeed, a number of characters that originated in Doctor Who Weekly and its successor titles crossed over into other titles within the Marvel UK Universe. Even the Doctor, in his Seventh persona, could be said to be a part of the Marvel UK universe. Indeed, because of subsequent appearances of Marvel UK characters in the mainstream Marvel US Universe — in particular Death's Head — it is possible to consider the Doctor a minor part of the Marvel Universe, generally.[1] The specific part of the Marvel megaverse that the Doctor possibly inhabits is called Earth-5556.[2]
Marvel were the second publisher to print Star Trek comics. They produced a small number of comics in the Motion Picture movie era from 1979 until 1982.
In 1996 Marvel reaquired the Star Trek license and published numerous comics spanning the Star Trek saga and even started two original comic series of their own and ran a cross-series story the Telepathy War.
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Marvel's first Star Trek comic series began in 1980 with a three part adaptation of the recently released movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the series continued to a total of eighteen issues, finishing in 1982.
The series had a number of writers, starting with Marv Wolfman and followed by Mike Barr, Tom DeFalco, Martin Pasko, Michael Fleisher, Allan Brennart and J.M. DeMatteis.
Early Voyages began in 1997 and ran for seventeen issues until 1998. The series was set on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) under Captain Christopher Pike. The series began before the events of the TOS pilot episode, The Cage, presented that story from the point of view of Mia Colt and then continued on after. The series also featured a multipart story arc depicting an alternate future in the TOS movie era in which Captain Pike remained in command of the Enterprise and Enterprise-A.
The entire series was written by Dan Abnett and Ian Edgington.
Untold Voyages was a five part Star Trek: The Original Series miniseries set between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. All five issues were written by Glenn Greenberg.
Starfleet Academy was a series which began in 1996 and ran for nineteen issues until 1997. It told the story of a group of Starfleet Academy cadets; Omega Squad and there various exciting exploits.
The entire series was written by Chris Cooper
Deep Space Nine was a comic series of the eponymous TV series. Marvel's series ran for fifteen issues between 1996 and 1998.
Issues 1, 2, 6 and 7 were written by Howard Weinstein, 3-5, 8 and 9 were by Mariano Nicieza and 10-15 were by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels.
Voyager was a comic series of the eponymous TV series. Marvel's series ran for fifteen issues between 1996 and 1998.
The majority of the series was written by Laurie Sutton who was joined by Gwen Sutton for the last two issues. Issues 3 and 4 were written by Howard Weinstein, followed by a three part story by Ben Raab and single issue by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton.
Following the series Marvel also released a four part Voyager miniseries also by Laurie Sutton, called Splashdown.
Unlimited was a ten part comic series which ran from 1996 until 1998. The series largely concentrated on stories set in The Original Series or The Next Generation.
The first five issues each contained two stories, one TOS, one TNG. Issue 6 was part of the Telepathy War crossover event. Issue 7 was a TOS/TNG crossover story and issue 8 told three stories, one of which was a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine story. The final issues each told a single extended story, issue 9 a TOS story, issue 10 TNG.
Issues 1-9 were written by Dan Abnett and Ian Edgington, the final issue was by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels.
In addition to their ongoing series Marvel produced a number of one shot stories, two of which were crossovers with their X-men franchise.
| Issue | Title | Writter | Artist | Cover Artist | Published | Image |
| - | Star Trek: First Contact | John Vornholt | Terry Pallot, Philip Moy & Rod Whigham | Jeff Pittarelli | November 1996 | |
| - | Operation Assimilation | Paul Jenkins | Steve Erwin & Terry Pallot | Hajime Sorayama | April 1997 | |
| - | Fragile Glass | Tom DeFalco | Mark Bagley & Larry Mahlstedt | Mark Bagley & Larry Mahlstedt | February 1997 | |
| - | Telepathy War Reality's End |
Chris Cooper | Patrick Zircher & Steve Moncuse | - | November 1997 | |
| - | Riker - The Enemy of my Enemy | Dan Abnett & Ian Edginton | Andrew Currie & Art Nichols | - | July 1998 | |
| X-Men | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Star TreX | Scott Lobdell | Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Anthony Winn, David Finch, Brian Ching, Batt, D-Tron, Aaron Sowd, Joe Weems, Victor Llamas, Team Tron, Jose "Jag" Guillen, Viet Troung & Mike Manczarek |
Marc Silvestri & Batt | December 1996 | |
| - | Second Contact | Dan Abnett & Ian Edginton | Cary Nord & Scott Koblish | Cary Nord & Scott Koblish or Vince Evans |
May 1998 | |
| Star Trek comics | ||
|---|---|---|
| By series | EV • TOS • TNG • DS9 • Voyager • SA | |
| By publisher | Gold Key • Marvel • DC • Malibu • Wildstorm • TokyoPop • IDW | |

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The marvelous competition. Marvel Comics is a comic book publishing house famous for creating notable characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Squirrel Girl and the X-Men. Marvel Comics and DC Comics have collaborated on several crossover projects together and also co-founded the short-lived Amalgam Comics comics imprint (Information Needed).
| Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man | Superman and Spider-Man | Batman vs The Incredible Hulk | Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans | Batman / Punisher: Lake of Fire |
| Punisher / Batman: Deadly Knights | Darkseid vs Galactus: The Hunger | Spider-Man and Batman | Green Lantern / Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances | DC Versus Marvel |
| All Access | Silver Surfer / Superman | Batman and Captain America | Daredevil / Batman | Batman and Spider-Man |
| Unlimited Access | Superman / Fantastic Four | The Incredible Hulk vs Superman | Batman / Daredevil: King of New York | JLA/Avengers |
Marvel Comics is one of the major publishing companies producing comic book properties today, rivaled primarily by DC Comics. Founded by Martin Goodman in 1939, five years after the establishment of DC, the company was initially known as Timely Comics, and later Atlas. By 1961, however, following experimentations with science fiction and funny animal characters, the line was relaunched as Marvel (taking its name from one of their earliest comic titles), and re-focused on superheroes. The company soon became DC's most notable rival, with such properties as Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, all of which, like their DC counterparts, have been adapted into animation, films, television, and video games.
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In 1974, following the debut of Spider-Man on The Electric Company, Marvel Comics teamed up with the Children's Televisions Workshop to launch Spidey Super Stories. Aimed at younger readers, the series featured Spider-Man, his friends and foes, as well as guest appearances by other heroes, all mingling with Electric Company characters such as Rita the director, Easy Reader, and Fargo North, Decoder. Sam the Robot from Sesame Street appeared (referred to as "Sam the Sesame Street Robot") in Spidey Super Stories #31,[1], in a Star Wars parody titled "Star Jaws." Filling the functions of R2-D2 and C-3PO, Sam seeks Spider-Man's help to rescue a Jedi-like character and save the Earth.
Between 1982 and 1986, Marvel Comics published three adaptations of Jim Henson feature films, The Dark Crystal, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Labyrinth. All three debuted as 68 page adaptations in Marvel Super Special, an anthology series which specialized in adapting movie and TV properties, and were later re-printed in individual issues. All three utilized the talents of Marvel's regular artist roster, including John Buscema (veteran of Conan the Barbarian and The Avengers) on Labyrinth.
One of Marvel's imprints, Star Comics, launched in 1984, specialized in cartoon characters and other children's properties. The Star line reprinted the Muppets Take Manhattan mini-series, and in 1985, launched regular Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies comic book series. In 1988, beginning with issue 17, Muppet Babies was published under the regular Marvel label, and the 8 Fraggle Rock issues were likewise reprinted under the label.
![]() Marvel Age issue 17 (1984) |
![]() Sledge Hammer #1 |
![]() Unlimited Access #1 |
![]() She-Hulk volume 1, #8 |
Many actors and other crew members have worked on both Muppet/Henson projects and Marvel Comics adaptations. For more connections, see Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Marvel Comics. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Halopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc., a division of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. Affectionately called "The House of Ideas" by the fan press, Marvel's best-known characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor and The Punisher. Most of Marvel's fictional characters are depicted as inhabiting a single shared world; this continuity is known as the Marvel Universe. — It was founded in the 1930s as a group of subsidiary companies under the name Timely Comics, and was generally known as Atlas Comics in the 1950s. However, Marvel's modern incarnation dates from the early 1960s, with the launching of Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Since the 1960s, Marvel has been one of the two largest American comics companies, along with DC Comics.
In 2006, Marvel partnered with Bungie Studios to create Halo's first official comic publication, the Halo Graphic Novel. One year later, it was announced that they would publish Halo's second comic adaptation, the Halo: Uprising series.
Outside references are deliberately inserted references to Lost from TV shows, movies, and other outside sources.
For cultural allusions in Lost, see Portal:Culture.
The Channel 4 (United Kingdom) program Bo! Selecta parodies Lost on a regular basis ("LOST interest"), using its usual format of grossly exaggerating physical characteristics (usually featuring the standard Bo! prosthetic chin device).
The usual targets are:

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Do you ever set your TiVo to record, like, Lost? And when you come home it recorded, like, Antique Roadshow for nine hours? I get so pissed off at my TiVo that I yell at my TiVo, I'm like, "what the f*ck are you doing? I asked you to record Lost. You have one job, and it's to record my sh*t!" |
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Dane later explains why he likes Lost:
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I just want to see Lost because I enjoy being that angry at a television show. Here's my impersonation of me watching Lost, every time it goes to commercial...I'm like this, ready? "What the f*ck is going on here?! I have 42 unanswered questions and now I have 30 more questions, I don't know what's happening here! This is the stupidest show in the history of TV -- oh, it's back! Oh, I like her now, I like her, I used to hate her but now she's my favorite." |
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He also references the Monster, calling it a "Smokey Dragon", and wonders why no one ever thinks about it when they go into the woods.
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Peter: Boy, that was a great episode of Lost, wasn't it fellas? Statler: Well at least the show's got the right name! Waldorf: Yeah, I couldn't follow any of it! Peter: Heheheheh... they don't care for most things. |
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Jack: (breathing heavily) Kate, you don't get it. We are the Island! Hand me that paper bag. Kate: Jack, that's got my poop in it. Jack: (still breathing heavily) "I know, I know. It's got a hint of coconut in it. And something else. But that's part of the mystery." |
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There are two known Easter eggs in the first person shooter video game Half-Life 2: Episode 2[5]
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Top Ten Signs You're Obsessed With Lost, presented by Jorge Garcia 10. After each episode, you do an all-kitty reenactment in your basement 9. You refer to your in-laws as "The Others" 8. While visiting New York, you stood over every manhole and screamed, "Good God—a secret hatch!" 7. You're halfway to your goal of licking every cast member 6. Your friend phoned during Lost. Next day you beat him to death with a hot poker 5. You pitched NBC a show about 12 people stranded backstage at Saturday Night Live 4. Co-workers affectionately refer to you as "That loser who's obsessed with Lost" 3. Renamed dental practice "Flost" 2. Your wife is getting sick of playing the bedroom game "Find the castaway" 1. You sat through all ten of these lame jokes |
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Mike: "Not if the smoke monster from Lost has anything to say about it." Kevin: "The smoke monster is the Silver Surfer?" Mike: "You know, in five years, if the truth is less retarded than that, I'll buy you a beer." Kevin: "Okay." |
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Man: Heroes is way better, because it actually answers stuff. On Lost, they don't know what they're doing. [Man is beaten up by two police officers] |
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"like the recap at the start of an episode of Lost!"
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Marvel Comics is a comic book publishing house famous for creating notable characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Squirrel Girl and the X-Men . Marvel Comics and DC Comics have collaborated on several crossover projects together and also co-founded the short-lived Amalgam Comics comics imprint.
Marvel Comics began life as "Timely Publications" in 1939, with comic books featuring Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner and an early version of the Human Torch. Legendary comics writer Stan Lee was hired as an office assistant in 1939. Within two years, the 19-year-old Lee was promoted to editor of the Marvel Comics line, a post that he would keep until 1972.
Everything changed in 1961, when Lee and artist Jack Kirby created The Fantastic Four -- a new style of superhero comic that focused on the characters' internal drama as well as their heroic adventures. The style was a huge success, and the Lee/Kirby team went on to create the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Mighty Thor and the X-Men. The prolific Lee worked with artist Steve Ditko to create Marvel's greatest success story, Spider-Man. Stan Lee's Marvel revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to the way in which comic books engaged the readership and built a sense of community between fans and creators.
Today, Marvel's heroes are blockbuster stars on the silver screen, with Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Hulk becoming regular features of the summer movie season.
Marvel Comics is one of the largest companies in the world of comic books. They were the company to first release comic books for the Star Wars saga, with the Marvel Star Wars series.
Marvel began in 1939, then known as Timely Comics, publishing popular superhero titles, but in the 1950s started publishing mainly other genres such as romance, crime, western, and war stories. By this time the company was known as Atlas Comics. By the 1960s, the superhero genre was becoming popular again, and the newly named Marvel Comics started creating a number of new superhero titles written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. During the 1970s Marvel's sales were declining and the company was in trouble caused, in part, by poor distribution.
In the late 1970s the company's fortunes were turning around with the smash success of the Star Wars film adaptation, which it began publishing in 1977 after prodding by Roy Thomas, as well as burgeoning successes like The Uncanny X-Men and Daredevil. Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief of Marvel from 1978 to 1987, would later say in an interview regarding the importance of Star Wars to the plight of the comic company, "Star Wars single-handedly saved Marvel... And that kept us alive." [1]
Marvel also published stories in Britain under their imprint, Marvel UK. In addition to reprinting the American comics, the UK series produced a number of original stories.
Marvel continued to publish Star Wars comics until 1986 and the Droids and Ewoks series until 1987. The comic book license for Star Wars would later be picked up by Dark Horse Comics who began producing Star Wars comics in 1991 with the publication of Dark Empire. Dark Horse would later reprint much of the Marvel-produced Star Wars material under the title Classic Star Wars.

Face front, True Believers! The merry mirthmakers at Marvel Comics brought you Marvel Zombies seven scintillating years (1984-1991) of fabulous funnybooks starring the ever-lovin' Transformers! A mere two years later, those argumentative appliances struck back (and struck out, natch!) in "Transformers: Generation 2". Eons later, in the far-flung future of 2007, Marvel published New Avengers/Transformers, teaming Cybertron's Mightiest Robots with Earth's Mightiest Heroes!
Most of these Marvel mags were penned by one of two brilliant Bullpenners:
Marvel published the following Transformers series, so hit those back-issue-bins and Make Yours Marvel!
Excelsior!
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Marvel Comics published the ridiculously terrible Robot-Master comic book series. It did not, however, publish a Potato Salad Man graphic novel entitled This Man, This Mayonnaise. I, Robot-Master!
The real Marvel never published a Robot-Master series, presumably due to the nonexistence of its creator, Donny Finkleberg.
Marvel characters are incorporated as part of the Crossovers franchise. Marvel Transformers? I think I have heard that before.
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