Tuesday, October 9, 2012

"Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation"

The Beatles and Marvel Comics are sort of linked inextricably. Beatlemania and the Marvel Age of Comics coincide so neatly that it's almost hard to believe. The Fab Four made an appearance in a Thing/Human Torch story in Strange Tales, and there were later some Marvel Beatles books after the success of the KISS comic.

However, I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw when I looked up the trailer for the film version of BEATLEMANIA (the stage show based on the Beatles):



Did you catch all the Marvel characters beginning at about the 43 second mark? What makes it so odd is that the film version didn't come until 1981, and yet the art used is clearly of 1970s vintage. I can definitely identify The Human Fly #1, What If? #4, Ms. Marvel #9, and Marvel Two-in-One #31 in the lineup.

Uh, what's the story here? I have the vaguest of recollections of BEATLEMANIA getting mentioned in a 1970s Bullpen Bulletins, but there were no Bullpen Bulletins pages for the majority of 1981. If anyone has any information on this online, it's well-hidden. I couldn't find a darn thing besides the IMDB noting the appearance of the Sub-Mariner in the film.

Anyone got any ideas? Or even better, some facts?

2 comments:

  1. 2 things I learned after reading this post and doing follow-up research:

    1. Marvel published an UNAUTHORIZED Beatles comic, which strikes me as uncharacteristic for a company that's all about licensing.

    2. Rocket Raccoon was based on the White Album.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not only that, but the Beatles also played a role in the missing issue of Marvel Comics Super Special. It was an adaptation of the Sgt. Pepper film!

    ReplyDelete