Classic Covers Calendar

In 1989, as part of its blowout 200th issue, the Transformers comic by Marvel UK introduced the "Classic Covers Calendar". This feature would celebrate the history of the comic by printing the inks of a classic cover with new (uncredited) colours in a two-page spread, centrefold style, paired with a portion of that year's calendar. All the dumb stubbies had to do was print one instalment in the comic once a month. What could go wrong?

What went wrong

January's instalment didn't even spell "calender" correctly. An inauspicious start.

The main problem was that the Classic Covers Calendar was plagued with scheduling issues. With the understanding that contemporary cover dates reflected the seventh day after release, we can estimate each issue's publication date. The pattern emerges that over half of the calendars were published after their corresponding month was already underway, usually about four days late, with the January calendar dropping on the 7th. April's calendar was the first and only instalment to actually release on the first day of the month.

This was followed by calendar for June, published erroneously in place of May (and in what would have been good time, too!) before the May calendar arrived 27 days too late, far beyond its usefulness. July and August's calendars were released in advance of their months beginning, though by September things had once again started turning up slightly belated.

Readers were encouraged to remove their Classic Covers Calendars from their comics to display as posters; this would have been fine if they had kept being printed as regular centrefolds, but by halfway through the year the calendars weren't actually printed in the centre pages. This was because of rising production costs; from issue 225 onwards, the middle eight pages of the comic were printed on a cheaper paper and only in black ink, pushing the calendars outward. This necessitated the comic's editorial give instructions on how to remove and replace staples.<ref>On the Transformation page in both issue 224 and issue 229, fact fans!</ref> A non-zero amount of calendars were printed overleaf from the main strip; pulling them out for use would divorce the comic story from its closing page(s). The calendar would also push other features out of the book, with Dread Tidings getting the chop on five occasions, much to the consternation of its host.

More subjectively, the Classic Covers Calendars were just... not good? The calendars reused the original inks of each cover, paired with new colours by an uncredited artist. Due to the limitations of the printing process, this meant that the new colours were much flatter than the painted front covers that were the norm when they were originally published. Barry Kitson's March page and both of Robin Smith's contributions were particular casualties of the loss of painted details. Naturally, the calendars also removed the trade dress and speech bubbles present on the original covers, altering each image's composition – and even context in some cases, with Starscream's shouted defiance of the festive spirit in "Stargazing" being more of an angry shrug in a snowstorm. (Incidentally, December 31st is presented as being on the same Saturday as December 30th.) Additionally, the variety of covers was lacking, given it was an opportunity to revisit the book's history, with "Headhunt", "Enemy Action!", and "Grudge Match!" each represented twice.

The calendar did not return in 1990.

Gallery

	January	February	March	April	June	May
Calendar	Issue 200	Issue 204	Issue 208	Issue 212	Issue 216	Issue 220
Cover date	January 14, 1989	February 11, 1989	March 11, 1989	April 8, 1989	May 6, 1989	June 3, 1989
Approx. publication	January 7, 1989	February 4, 1989	March 4, 1989	April 1, 1989	April 29, 1989	May 27, 1989
Original cover	Issue 117, "Hunters"	Issue 134, "Headhunt"	Issue 138 "Ladies' Night"	Issue 152, "Enemy Action!"	Issue 133, "Headhunt"	Issue 136, "Grudge Match!"
Original artist	Geoff Senior	Lee Sullivan	Barry Kitson	Lee Sullivan	Dave Gibbons	Robin Smith

	July	August	September	October	November	December
Calendar	Issue 224	Issue 229	Issue 234	Issue 237	Issue 243	Issue 247
Cover date	July 1, 1989	August 5, 1989	September 9, 1989	September 30, 1989	November 11, 1989	December 9, 1989
Approx. publication	June 24, 1989	29 July, 1989	September 2, 1989	September 23, 1989	November 4, 1989	December 2, 1989
Original cover	Issue 129, "Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom"	Issue 142, "Child's Play"	Issue 130, "Worlds Apart!"	Issue 153, "Enemy Action!"	Issue 135, "Grudge Match!"	Issue 145, "Stargazing"
Original artist	Robin Smith	Dan Reed	Geoff Senior	Lee Sullivan	Jeff Anderson	Barry Kitson

Notes

• The Combat Colin strip in issue 220 'explains' the June/May gaffe by blaming the evil genius Professor Madprof, whose time machine had mixed up the seasons (riffing on the then-recent mild winter and cold spring weather in real life).
• Re-use your calendars! It might be too late for 2023, but set a reminder for 2034!

References

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