Marshal Law Hero Hunter's blog

Marshal Law is a comic book character, a hero hunter living in an uchronic world, where superheroes has been created by genetic improvements.

For the time being, you can navigate though this blog from here, following the links bellow. No active links means the article has not yet been published (sorry, this blog is at a very early stage of development comparing to the finished French version listed in the links ).

News and work in progress

News

It has been announced that Kevin O'Neill will retire from comics as soon as he has finished Vol 4 of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sad face :(

Latest news here.

Work in progress

The link for Fear and Loathing collected editions article, as well as Toxic! publication are now active below.

Stories in chronological order of publication

Fear and Loathing
Marshal Law Takes Manhattan
Kingdom of the Blind
The Hateful Dead
Rites of Passage
Super Babylon
Pinhead vs Marshal Law: Law in Hell
Secret Tribunal
The Savage Dragon/Marshal Law (aka Ten)
The Mask/Marshal Law
The Day of the Dead
Cloak of Evil

Collected editions and other publishing support

Fear and Loathing
Toxic!
Blood, Sweat, and Fears
Fear Asylum
Cool Beans World
Marshal Law: Origins
Marshal Law The Deluxe Edition

Press, additional material and goodies

Additional material (1987)
Additional material (1988)

Additional material (1989)
Additional material (1990)
Additional material (1991-1999)
Additional material (2000-2017)
Goodies (official) Posters, T-Shirts & Miscellaneous
Goodies (unofficial)

Toxic! Magazine

All illustrations are © Kevin O'Neill & Pat Mills

History

Toxic! was a fortnightly full-colour British magazine launched by Apocalypse Ltd in 1991. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28 to October 24 1991 before Apocalypse went bankrupt*.

From Toxic! wiki page: Toxic! was the idea of Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, John Wagner and Alan Grant. The aim was to provide creators an outlet for their work to be published with them retaining the rights and control of their work.

The first title released by Apocalypse was the UK version of Kingdom of the Blind published in October 1990 (as Toxic! Present #1).

This was followed by the UK version of Marshal Law Takes Manhattan published concomitantly with the first issue of Toxic! in March 1991 (as Marshal Law #2 which probably refers to being Apocalypse Present # 2). Both title were printed at larger size format magazine (the downside being the newspaper quality paper generating some yellowing with time).

The Hateful Dead story (titled Part one: Rise of The Zombies) was then pre-published in Toxic! #1 (9 pages of ML material), #2 (8 pages), #3 (7 pages), #4 (6 pages), #5 (4 pages), #6 (4 pages), #7 (4 pages), and #8 (6 pages).

This magazine was using the Marshal Law story as headliner. The logo of the magazine appears in the story (and other strips like Accident Man)

In 1991, Apocalypse Ltd, immediately released the collected edition of The Hateful Dead both in the UK and the USA, in comics format (softcover), featuring Toxic! #5 cover (the cover for Toxic! #1 being used as back cover). It comes with a very good glossy paper and printing quality.

During the weeks that followed the end The Hateful Dead pre-publication, many readers have wondered if ultimately Mills and O'Neill had not killed their character. To fill the magazine with Marshal Law material before the next installment (that eventually never came as the magazine ceases to exist), the 8 pages prologue first published in the US Fear and Loathing paperback were reused in issue #14 and 15 of Toxic!.

Two unpublished pages were added to this prologue the whole being titled Rites of Passage (these two pages are visible on the corresponding article).

After issue #15, no Marshal Law material was ever published in the magazine until its demise.

The picture below is reproduced here courtesy (and with my thanks) of David Birdsall from the KissMyAxe All Things Pat Mills Facebook Page.

* some insight about the end of the magazine can be read through a Pat Mills short The Artists' Debt Collection Party, given freely on his website.

Fear And Loathing Collected Editions

All illustrations are © Kevin O'Neill & Pat Mills

Introduction

The goal of this article is to identify additional editorial elements included in the Fear and Loathing collected editions, i.e. paperbacks or hardbacks published in the US, UK, and Italy. The Marshal Law Deluxe Edition published more recently (2016) that includes the Fear and Loathing mini series is featured in its own article. The French edition collects the 6 issues in 3 volumes and is described in this article.

Both Fear and Loathing US and UK paperbacks, and the Italian version collect the 6 issues published initially by Epic Comics. The US Graphitti Designs edition also includes Marshal Law Takes Manhattan.

1990 U.S. Marshal Law TPB (softcover, Epic Comics)

A new cover was produced for this first collected edition.

Content (extra material)

• an introduction by Clive Barker
• 8 pages prologue (new material)
• all six original virgin covers
• several new illustrations used as opening page, background for the credit page, and introduction page

opening page

credit page

illustration below the Clive Barker Illustration

Notice that the pictures used in the opening theatrical frames are not the same in this trade for issue #1 and #4 (original issues on the left, paperback reprints on the right):

1991 U.S. Marshal Law Limited Edition (hardcover, Graphitti Designs)

This signed limited edition has a numbered printing run of 1500 copies. It is signed by the two authors. It comes with a faux-leather hardcover and fully illustrated dust-jacket (front and back illustrations being newly produced for this edition).

front cover of the dust-jacket

back cover of the dust-jacket

It features an exclusive D. G. Chichester introduction printed on the flaps of the dust-jacket.

Here is the cover of the book without the dust-jacket (back cover being plain black with Graphitti Designs logo).

Second and third of covers illustrations have been taken from the French edition. Concerning the Fear and Loathing section, the main content of this book is similar to the US 1990 Epic TPB (opening pages, credit page, Clive Barker introduction, 8 pages prologue). At the end of the Fear and Loathing section, this new illustration has been added:

Content (extra material)

In term of extra material, this edition includes the D.G. Chichester introduction, an exclusive signature page illustration (see below), and 18 pages of bonus material commented by the authors (a few example below):

• page 1: cover used for volume one of the French edition
• page 2 to 5: O'Neill preparatory sketches and Mills plot proposal extracts
• page 6: cover for UK magazine Strip #1 plus a small Archie Goodwin sketch (manager at Epic Comics)
• page 7: frontispiece for volume one of the French edition plus early character notes on Marshal Law
• page 8: cover for US magazine ARK #25, early character notes on Gangreen gang, and Suicida T-Shirt design
• page 9: more rough designs and sketches, unused illustration for back cover of Epic TPB, and thumbnails from the original series
• page 10: cover used for volume two of the French edition, early character notes on The Sleepman, and a few sketches
• page 11: cover for UK magazine Strip #3
• page 12: B&W illustration of the cover of Fantasy Adverstiser #109, illustrations used for the 100th issue of Speakeasy and volume four of Maxwell The Magic Cat, and early character notes on Celeste
• page 13: illustration from the 1989 UK Comic Art Convention, early character notes on The Sleepman's Mother, and a small O'Neill drawing
• page 14: cover used for volume three of the French edition and its frontispiece, early character notes on The Public Spirit
• page 15: cover for UK magazine Strip #7
• page 16: illustration for a Marvel Poster
• page 17: O'Neill original pencils for some pages of Crime & Punishment
• page 18: back cover used for volume three of the French edition

For more details about this edition don't hesitate to visit this other blog.

1991 Italian Marshal Law TPB (softcover, Play Press)

Italian edition published by Play Press in 1991 as Paura e Odio, Play Book #10.

The has the same size than the US 1990 TPB, and is printed on thick glossy paper (but a very poor glue was used so that all the pages detach rapidly and fall out).

Apart the Clive Barker foreword replaced by an introduction by the translator, Adam Centerbba, the content is the same as the US paperback.

2002 UK Marshal Law TPB (softcover, Titan Books)

The cover of this trade was originally used for the first volume of the french edition.

Comparing to the 1990 US Epic edition, this edition features the 8 pages prologue and the original covers in virgin form, but not its opening and credit pages. It only has one opening page illustration, the one showing the eye of the Sleepman produced for the Graphitti Designs edition.

Content (extra material)

• two pages introduction written by Pat Mills dated 2002
• eight pages of unpublished designs for a 1995 (not 1990) aborted film project (with authors bio)

Marshal Law The Deluxe Collected Edition (2016)

ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Rites of Passage (Toxic! Magazine,1991)

All illustrations are © Kevin O'Neill & Pat Mills

Introduction

Between 28th March and 24th October 1991, Apocalypse Ltd had proposed a full color weekly magazine, Toxic!, with Pat Mills as editor, and Marshal Law as the leading story. The Hateful Dead story was indeed first published from #1 to #8.

During the weeks that followed the end The Hateful Dead pre-publication, many readers have wondered if ultimately Mills and O'Neill had not killed their character.

Doc Tox, who was in charge of the letter column never really contradicted them until the cancellation of the magazine with issue #31 (Apocalypse Limited went bankrupt).

Rites of Passage

To fill the magazine with marshal Law material before the next installment (that eventually never came as the magazine ceases to exist), the 8 page prologue first published in the Fear and Loathing paperback were reused in issue #14 and 15 of Toxic!.

Two unpublished pages were added to this prologue. The first new page published in Toxic! #14 is linked to the last panel of The Hateful Dead.

The last page of the prologue was originally designed to introduce the cover of the first issue of the original series.

The second new page published in Toxic! #15 provides a new sequence that turns back to the end of The Hateful Dead.

One could find these 2 new pages in the bonus section of the US Blood, Sweat, and Fears TPB published by Dark Horse in 1993 (note that the UK TPB of the same title, released by Titan Books in 2003, does not include these pages). The first of these two new pages (as well as a reprint of the cover of Toxic! #14) is also included in the bonus section of the UK TPB Fear Asylum (Titan Books, 2003).