The history of Marvel’s export to the United Kingdom is a complex and somewhat haphazard thing. While occasional copies of Marvel’s American comics might reach England shops carried as ballast, the earliest homegrown reprints of Marvel material were carried by a number of different publishers. One of these was Odhams Press, best remembered as the publishers of the classic British weekly the Eagle. Beginning in 1966, Odhams licensed the rights to reprint assorted Marvel strips in their assorted publications, including the Eagle itself. There were a number of titles entirely devoted to Marvel stories, such as POW!, TERRIFIC and FANTASTIC.
Another of Odhams titles was SMASH!, which had begun as a humor comic but which began to integrate adventure series and super heroes into it as the tastes of the public changed. Begiining in SMASH! #16 dated May 21, 1966, they began to serialize the adventures of the Incredible Hulk. As SMASH ! was published at larger proportions than American comic books, the pages and panels were cut up and rearranged to fill the space. All of which brings us to the oddity that we’re presenting here today.
For some unknown reason, SMASH! #38 and only SMASH! #38 included an entirely original Hulk story produced in the United Kingdom. Why this was done remains something of a mystery. Possibly, there had been some delay in getting further material to reprint. Regardless, SMASH! #38 ran the first Hulk story not produced in the United States.
While the writer of this story remains unknown, the artwork was provided by Jose Garcia Pizzaro. And it’s clear that the story had originally been created at proportions similar to that of American comic books and similarly cut up and rearranged for its debut in SMASH! Was this perhaps a sample story that Pizzaro had put together in an attempt to get work at Marvel, only to find it rejected?
Either way, this single story was presented as though it were just another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Hulk and not called out for its specialness in any way. And the next week, the strip was back to being reprints from America. It was a weird one-off that remained obscure for decades.
Eventually, this story did get a proper and official Marvel printing in the 2013 collected edition INCREDIBLE HULK: FROM THE MARVEL UK VAULTS, which reprinted a series of later Hulk stories produced by Marvel UK for the British market.
During the period when the line of Marvel reprints was doing well, Odhams developed an identity for them as Power Comics, and they channeled the Bullpen Bulletins style of Stan Lee in homegrown features communicating with the readers. Their version of the Bullpen page was From The Floor of Sixty-Four, referring to the firm’s address in London. By 1969, the Marvel strips had run their course and were gradually phased out by Odhams, bringing an end to the brief life of Power Comics.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Luis Bermejo drew Smash! #38.
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Nice art, in its way.
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Been trying to remember Marvel (U.S.) Hulk stories similar to this one ( No super-villains, aliens, hidden races or super-heroes ) and thought of the second story in The Incredible Hulk#147 ( January 1972 – “Heaven is a very Small Place!” — The Hulk lands in the desert and witnesses the formation of a small town, the result of an elaborate mirage ( the people are mirages too but the little girl is the only one who can see and talk to the Hulk — when she vanishes it breaks the big guy’s heart and his rage causes an earthquake that register’s at a seismology center ) There is an Atlas Age story with a guy waiting for a mirage town and the woman he loves to return ) and The Incredible Hulk#333 ( July 1987 ) — a local sheriff who abuses his power and his wife.
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Of course, the ’70s Hulk TV show specialized in this kind of “real-world” drama. And the (RAMPAGING) HULK magazine eventually started leaning towards that kind of tale as well.
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I wish someone would write a fully researched account of the rise and fall of Power Comics. They were a part of mid-60s British pop culture, as much as the Avengers TV show or singles by the Kinks or the Move.
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American Marvel comics were available in the UK from 1960 onwards, with copies specially printed with British prices distributed through newsagents. They weren’t random ballast from ships. DC came closer to that, with unsold US copies being shipped over and having UK prices stamped on them before being sent out to newsagents.
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