Fantastic
Mar 1, 2024
When sales began to decline Odhams Terrific finished and “combined” with Fantastic. What this actually meant was that kids who had Terrific delivered weekly by their local newsagents would now receive Fantastic instead. This would slightly increase Fantastic’s circulation. But of course only a small percentage were delivered. So to boost sales of the “new” “relaunched” Fantastic, for three weeks free gifts were included. Recently I rediscovered the tin badge that came with this issue.
I wonder why this disclaimer was included in the small print? Had something happened previously to warrant the inclusion?
For the final page of the final issue of Fantastic the cover from Fantastic Four Annual 3 was reused. Why did they remove Two Gun Kid and Sgt Fury from the top of the image?
The Magic Robot 
Mar 1, 2024 at 2:38 pm
I can think of 3 possible explanations but only one of them works: (1) They hadn’t been reprinted so UK audiences wouldn’t know who they were….but this is not true – SF had been reprinted in POW and TGK had had his own T&P reprints, also both had been imported in the original comics with PV’s….also characters unknown to UK audiences, including Daredevil, were kept in. So that doesn’t work. (2) They don’t appear in the story….but then there are loads of characters depicted that don’t appear (Hulk, Subby, Red Skull, Dragon Man, Medusa, Loki….), so that leaves us with the third option…..they were characters who couldn’t appear alongside the rest because they’re outside the MU and in a different time. Nick Fury actually appears twice in this picture. This might seem a little too well-thought-out for Odhams, but can it be a coincidence that the only 2 characters chopped out are the two who don’t belong in 1965?