Hammer Horror was a short-lived title published by Marvel UK during the mid-nineties. It launched with a one-shot “Collectors’ Special” in 1994 which was an overview of Hammer’s entire horror output.
Editor Marcus Hearn launched the regular monthly publication the following year. It was a quality publication, treating the Hammer back-catalogue with respect and filling a gap in the market for serious coverage. Hearn would later write several books on “the studio that dripped blood”.
Things were looking promising and it seemed like Marvel had a niche hit on its hands. However, following restructuring within the bigger Marvel empire, they moved the title to another of their subsidiaries – Panini Stickers.
Panini had no interest in Marvel UK’s ambitions to expand outside children’s comics and swiftly ceased all of Marvel UK’s “older readers” titles including the entire magazines department except Doctor Who Monthly.
Marcus Hearn did at least get to sign-off in the seventh (and final) issue. He expressed the hope that another publisher would take over the magazine… but that never happened.
