Manta Force - Marvel UK, new Eagle & Ian Kennedy

A recent, and much sought-after title, finally arrives at blog towers...yes it's the very scarce Manta Force Winter special from Marvel UK - published in 1989

Page two brings everyone up to date on what's going on here...

Page 3 - but first page (of 8) the first strip in the comic 

Page 4 - but second page (of 8) the first strip in the comic

Gary Frank has confirmed (see below) that he was the artist on the (above) strip...

The 2nd strip in the comic is a 4 page strip by Ian Kennedy... 

...which had previously appeared in this 8 page comic from 1987/88...

...which was the era when Manta Force started appearing in New Eagle (it ran from issue 285-305, so 21 issues dated 05/09/87-23/01/88) where the art in issues 286-305 was illustrated by Mike Dorey, but Ian Kennedy drew the first episode...

...and this was his only Manta Force cover, #294 (07/11/87)...

...Mike Dorey drew just the one Manta Force cover - #303, dated 09/01/88

So, in conclusion, you had a comic tie-in series in 1987/88 in new Eagle (presumably when the marketing push for Manta Force was at its peak) and then a year later Marvel UK produce a one-off comic which features a reprint comic from a year ago in it. Odd. I can only assume that the hey-day of Manta Force had passed and Marvel UK could see that sales were poor (maybe why the comic is so hard to find these days) and an ongoing series wasn't warranted.