Marvel #13

History

Éditions Lug, a Lyon-based publisher founded in 1950 by Marcel Navarro and Auguste Vistel, had already seen its earlier Marvel title Fantask cancelled after only seven issues under pressure from French censors in August 1969. Navarro relaunched Marvel material in two concurrent magazines, Strange (from January 1970) and Marvel (from April 1970), both at first in a small near-pocket format that required drastic re-cropping of the original American pages; starting with issue #8 the Marvel title switched to a larger 17×24 cm full-colour format, reportedly in response to reader protests. When the supervisory commission renewed its ban on March 19, 1971, Lug chose to cease publication with issue #13 rather than fight the ruling; printing materials for a planned issue #14 — advertised on the back cover of #13 under the title 'Les Inhumains sont parmi nous!' — were reportedly already at the printer but the issue was never produced, and that story eventually appeared years later as a standalone album.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published 15 April 1971 by Éditions Lug (Lyon); cover-dated to correspond with the magazine's monthly schedule that ran from April 1970 through April 1971.
• Final issue of the 13-number run: the magazine was banned from sale to minors by the French censorship authority on 19 March 1971, with the commission citing persistent brutality and content deemed harmful to youth.
• The series served as the French first-publication venue for Spider-Man (L'Homme-Araignée) in a dedicated title, before the character was transferred to the longer-running Strange.
• Issues #1–7 were printed in bicolour (bichromie); from issue #8 onward — including #13 — the magazine expanded to a larger 17×24 cm format printed in full colour, a change driven by reader demand.
• The GCD records that issue #13 contains a French-language reprint of Fantastic Four Annual #3 (the Reed-Sue wedding issue, 1965), trimmed by three pages for the Lug format — an early French appearance of that landmark story.
• The character roster across the issue's strips spans the Fantastic Four (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm/l'Invisible, Johnny Storm/la Torche Humaine, Ben Grimm/la Chose), Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell, Yon-Rogg, Una, Carol Danvers), Spider-Man (Peter Parker, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, and supporting cast), Daredevil (Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page), the X-Men (Cyclops/Cyclope, Marvel Girl/Strange Girl, Angel, Iceman/Iceberg, Beast/la Bête), and various villains including Doctor Doom/Docteur Fatalis, Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin/le Bouffon Vert, Vulture/le Vautour, and others.
• A planned issue #14 ('Les Inhumains sont parmi nous!') was advertised on the back cover of #13 but never printed; that Inhumans story eventually reached French readers years later as a deluxe large-format album with a painted cover by Jean Frisano.
• After the series ended, fan-produced counterfeit issues numbered #14, #15, and possibly #16 began circulating, underlining the demand the censorship had cut short; the series was collected in four softcover compilation albums, with Album #4 (numéros 11–13) published in April 1971.

Cast · 40 characters

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