Which decade should this blog visit next? Do you have a favourite comic, artist, or memory of a strip you'd like to see covered? Or any comic over the last 100 years you're curious to see? Let me know by clicking on the comment option below and leaving a note and I'll see if I can plunge into the Comics Time Vortex (located in my spare room) and drag it through the time barrier into the cyber-age! Any year, any comic, any country considered!
24 comments:
Could you do something on more recent decades? The eighties??
N. Gillam
Yes. Any comic in particular?
Lew
Hi Lew You could zipfile all the issue of Wham?
Keith Burdon
Sorry Keith. I can't do that as it'd be an illegal infringement of copyright. I wouldn't want anyone to do that to my work so I won't do it to anyone else's.
Lew
Well Oink comic springs to mind...the background to the comic...did you have any say in your characters...etc..
loved the Pow comic overview..so more 60's comics...love Leo Baxendales work...
also the Roy Wilson mention was interesting could you feature more please...
I'll have to wait for Nov 5th to see the feature on fireworks...but maybe more themes on the seasons..e.g pancake day...valentine day..etc..
great blog....nice to see varity of British comics...
Oink! is a definite, as are more blogs on sixties comics. I'll be covering FANTASTIC on Feb 11th, - its 40th anniversary.
A spotlight on Mike Noble is likely to appear here in a few days.
Lew
I'd like to see your Suburban Satanists and learn about other Norse comix! Is it true Nemi in Metro is a reprint from Norway?
Martyn G.
I'd like to see more about your early career and small press work.
Matthew B
Hi Lew
Looking forward to your piece on Mike. He's a REAL English gentleman. I count myself lucky to have met him. A gentle spirited guy.
Anyway, which era and which comics? I always wondered about Frank Langford and those wonderful adverts he did in comics in the 60s (often confused with Bellamy - signatures similar!). Did HE ever do a regular strip?
Norman
Thanks for all your responses so far. Just to answer briefly: Frank Langford drew some Lady Penelope and Doctor Who strips so I'll feature those at some date.
Yes, Nemi (in the free Metro newspaper) is a Norwegian strip by the luvly Lise Myhre. I'll feature an item on the Norwegian comics scene soon.
I'll feature scans of some of my early material when I dig it out. I don't want to focus too much on my own stuff here as I don't want it to be one of those egotistical blogs, but if enough people are interested I'll spotlight some of it occasionally.
Lew
Yes more about theme comics like Peter suggested please. Easter issues, Charles and Diana wedding, summer specials sort of thing.
regardez Ian
Hi Lew
I'd like to see you blog more 1980s comics, maybe some behind-the-scenes factoids from the UK branch of the House of Ideas.
Also - how about some pieces on comics that were planned or piloted but never published. I'm still waiting for 'Splat' (there was another comic with the same name which consisted of US newspaper strips like Flash Gordon but it's not the one I'm thinking of) and 'Zoids Monthly', both from Marvel UK. Were dummy issues produced? What happened to them? Why did they get as far as announcing them but not publishing them?
Jon
Hi Jon,
I don't know why those comics never appeared. Possibly they felt the demand wouldn't be strong enough? I don't have dummy issues of those but I do have dummies of a couple of other comics that I'll feature here soon. Thanks for the suggestion, - good one.
Lew
Hi Lew,
I posted a comics related query on my blog a while back, any idea on the answer to this one please?
http://ianabrahams.blogspot.com/2006/04/false-memory-syndrome-or.html
Hi Ian,
Illustrations from sci-fi book covers were part of a large format title called SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE in the 1970s. The mag was tabloid sized and unstapled, with full colour posters taking up the spreads. Could this have been the one you're thinking of?
Lew
Anything about SPARKY comic please! Especially interested in the included self referential strips about the Sparky team - the editor, his cat, the printer etc...
Also - The Beano spinoff PLUG comic and KRAZY (which spun off CHEEKY WEEKLY)
Thanks. Great blog, Lew.
I'm afraid I know very little about KRAZY or PLUG. (Only have the first issues of each.) I do plan to run an item on Sparky though.
Lew
Lew
I have this abiding memory of 1970s? comic strip about the crew of a Scorpion tank surviving the invasion of the UK by an Asiatic enemy called "The Yellow Moon" or "Yellow Crescent" or some such. The premise was ridiculous. They wandered round the country for months in their light tank hiding under bridges etc and raiding old battlefields for new ammo. Have I gone completely bad or did such a strip exist? If so did it ever come to any sort of ending?
Peter
I don't remember it Peter but then I very rarely read the war strips in comics. I'll post your question up on the Comics UK forum and see what those experts remember.
Lew
My late uncle was Frank Langford and he did a daily strip cartoon called Jack & Jill which was published in a couple of newspapers over the years I believe.
Hi Karen,
Myself and others were wondering if Frank Langford was still with us. Very sorry to hear he has passed away. I never had pre-school comics so didn't see his Jack and Jill strip but I remember the work he did for Countdown comic, (and Lady Penelope) and some billboard artwork for the launch of Yorkie bars he did many years ago!
Lew
That.... and so much more Lew. He also did the artwork for The Persuaders and many other boys mags and teen love magazines. Advertising work also for McDonalds, Allisons bread (you remember the picture of the old man with white hair on the wrapper ?), Courage Beer (the cockeral was his original mould ), Rice Crispies, Barclays ...... way too many to remember.
He started life as a sculptor and he worked for Disney for a time.
He was an amazing illustrator and I am just so proud of his work. Unfortunately he died about 10 years ago.
Karen
Thanks for sharing that info Karen. I'd like to run a small tribute to him on this blog at some point. (Not quite yet though as I'm busy drawing comic strips myself.) When I do get around to it, would it be ok to contact you for a little more information if possible? E-mail me at lew.stringer@BTinternet.com if this is ok.
Best,
Lew
A-Ha It took me 3 and a half years but I have found the answer to my post about my "abiding memory of 1970s? comic strip about the crew of a Scorpion tank surviving the invasion of the UK by an Asiatic enemy called "The Yellow Moon".
It's a strip called "Frontline UK" from Bullet in 1978 and does indeed involve a Scorpion tank crew fighting a guerilla war againat Asian invaders called "The Yellow Moon" - I might even have to track down a copy now!
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