The Merchandise GuideComics: Zack Comics
Compiled by Martin Willey
The Merchandise GuidePaperback-format comic compilations was another European publishing tradition, established in France by the monthly Super Pocket Pilote since 1969.
These were 12 x 19 cm with card covers and 228 colour pages, with around 15 different stories. They were numbered and undated, starting in 1973, and seem to have been bi-monthly (based on adverts in Zack comic). Price was 4 DM each.
Zack Parade 26 had a Mondbasis Alpha 1 artwork cover, and was the only one to carry an adaptation of an episode. The other 3 carried original stories, though one is based on parts of Space Warp.
"Verloren im All" in Zack Parade 29. Alan and a copilot go to an abandoned alien spaceship (obviously based on a Star Wars Y wing). A "space whirlpool" appears and transports Alpha light years away. On the spaceship, Alan finds a recorded message from the spaceship commander who had discovered the coordinates of the whirlpool, but no longer had fuel to get to it. Using the Eagle computer, he deciphers the co-ordinates and they travel through the hole in space, to find an Eagle waiting for them. The two Eagles return to Alpha.
Although the pages were smaller than the regular comic and the albums, Cardona could still fit in some good layouts (this from "Reise in die Steinzeit" in Zack Parade 27).
| Zack Parade 26 (December 1977) |  |
"Todliches Licht" ("Deadly Light"- 16 pages Force Of Life) | Mondstation | |
| Zack Parade 27 (January 1978) |  |
"Reise in die Steinzeit" ("Voyage In The Stone Age"- 20 pages) |  |
Mondstation |
| Zack Parade 28 (March 1978) |  |
"Planet Ohne Rettung" ("Planet Without Deliverance"- 20 pages) |  |
Mondstation |
| Zack Parade 29 (May 1978) |  |
"Verloren im All" ("Lost In The Universe"- 20 pages) |  |
Mondstation |
| Zack Parade 30 (August 1978) |  |
"Planet der Vernichtung" ("Planet Of Destruction"- 20 pages) |  |
Mondstation |
Copyright Martin Willey