Last week's issue of Retail Newsagent, a magazine for the newstrade, ran a feature on the current state of British comics and found the market still had potential.
However, a sad sign of the times was that at no time did the article mention the word "comics", preferring to refer to them all as "children's magazines". Even The Beano wasn't exempt, with the 71 year old title being called a "children's publication".
The two page feature, by David Harris, covered how the titles were faring in the recession, with quotes from various publishers to say how resilient children's magazines are. Apparently there are an incredible 156 children's titles currently being published, with overall sales of 64.1 million. Whilst most of those titles do not feature comic strips (so cannot be classed as comics) it's obvious they are still considered by the trade to be of a similar ilk to comics, - all falling under the "children's publications" banner. The emphasis of the article was mainly on the younger end of the market; an area which retailers seem to consider to be the main arena for comics today.
Jaynie Bye, joint Managing Director of BBC children's titles, responded to retailer's "bugbear" over bulky cover mounts, explaining how they boost sales and that buyers now expect them. "We have now reached the stage where if there is not a covermount, parents think it must have fallen off."
The recent development of occasional higher cover prices for certain issues was also addressed (such as Spectacular Spider-Man and The Beano increasing their prices by 50p or more on some weeks). James Willmott, head of group advertising at Titan said "Retailers like this because if there is a larger margin to be made they want a piece of it."
Recent new laws restricting certain advertising in children's magazines seems to have benefited the titles. Alison David, commercial director of Egmont, relates in the article how, because the titles' incomes are now more dependent on cover price than advertising, any advertisers pulling out due to the recession shouldn't damage the magazines' profits too much.
The article concludes that "the magazine market might be struggling, but children's is definitely one of its strongest sectors" and that "this is one well-established sector upon which retailers can rely".
It's great that an influential trade magazine such as Retail Newsagent is giving out such a positive message about kids' comics, even though the message is solely about profit not content. Unfortunately it seems that bulky cover mounts, overcrowded shelves, a "younger" tone, tv-centric titles and price hikes are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
A few interesting revelations came to light in the advertising features surrounding the article; looks like Panini are launching a new GI Joe comic later this month, and are soon to revamp The Mighty World of Marvel, relaunching from issue one.
The biggest news however was mentioned in a sidebar to the main article: this September The Beano is being "restyled" to reflect the upcoming new Dennis and Gnasher tv series on CBeebies. No further details of the relaunch were forthcoming, except that it would feature "a series of free gifts" to coincide with the tv show. Watch this space for further developments.
Network DVD, a company dedicated to classic British tv series who have made many old favourites available on disc, are giving fans of Fireball XL5 a unique opportunity to own an exclusive new art print by veteran comic artist Mike Noble.
Although now aged 79 and retired from comics, Mike has clearly lost none of his talent for producing dynamic artwork in striking colour, as can be seen by the image above. One of the greatest comic artists the UK has ever produced, Mike had a long and distinguished career in British comics, drawing strips such as The Lone Ranger for TV Comic, Robin of Sherwood for Look-In, and of course Fireball XL5 for TV Century 21.
The brand new print taken from Mike's artwork will be limited to just 25 copies, and will be sold on a first come, first served basis at £39.99 each. Each print will be individually numbered and is a one-time only deal. The offer starts from next Friday, July 17th 2009, and no pre-orders will be taken.
Network recently released Fireball XL5 The Complete Series Special Edition as a DVD boxed set (see box art below) and its bonus features included an item on the comic strips with contributions from Mike Noble, Bill Mevin, and Colin Page.
For more info visit the Network DVD website here:
http://www.networkdvd.net/index.php
With his Brickmobile accidentally colliding with thought captions, Brickman plunged to his doom off a big cliff five months ago but his partner Tina Trowel seems to have moved on since she suddenly announced she was dating Superbloke in last month's issue of Elephantmen (issue 20).
However, already cracks seem to appearing in the relationship faster than a quick-baked brick. Can Tina really find true love with a man who loves his pecs more than her? Can Superbloke trust a woman who once dated arch-villain Mister Cheese?
Find out all the juicy goss in The Secret Diary of Tina Trowel, the latest page in the ongoing Brickman saga, in this month's special edition of Elephantmen, War Toys: Yvette on sale now from all discerning comic book stores. ($3.50).
The other 35 pages of the comic are pretty good too. More details of those here:
http://www.hipflask.com/issues/wartoys_yvette/index.html
After 40 years in the comics business, including an impressive 22 year stint as editor of The Beano, Euan Kerr has left D.C. Thomson.
The news came to light on the Comics UK forum, where it was erroneously reported that Euan had been sacked! Only when Euan himself posted a comment to put the record straight was the title of the thread corrected.
Euan took over as Editor of The Beano in 1984, at a time when the so-called "traditional" British comic was on its decline. Regardless of comics falling by the wayside, and a change in style for comics in general, Euan managed to keep The Beano forging on as a popular top-selling title. He also became the public face of the comic, appearing on tv programmes such as Blue Peter to promote the title.
In 2006 Euan handed The Beano over to his Chief sub-editor Alan Digby and moved on to become Deputy Manager of Children's Publishing, creating a new title, - BeanoMAX, - a monthly comic/magazine hybrid which included contemporary features and slightly longer stories of Beano favourites. (Alan Digby will be editing BeanoMAX from now on.)
Commenting on his departure on Comics UK Euan said "After 40 years in the business and with my health and sanity almost in tact, the lure of the golf course was too much! I've loved my time in comics and hope to do some part-time writing."
Best wishes to Euan on his retirement and here's looking forward to his future projects. The Beano Memoirs perhaps? ;-)
Read a 2006 interview with Euan Kerr on the FP website here:
http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2006/07/british-comics-month-%E2%80%93-the-beano-and-the-dandy/
As you may have already read on other blogs the second in the series of Egmont Classic Comics is out now, this time spotlighting Battle Picture Weekly.
Only available from branches of WH Smith, the 52 page £3.99 special contains a good selection of reprints from the old war comic. Characters such as Johnny Red, Major Eazy and The Sarge are represented, with artwork by Joe Colquhoun, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike Western and more.
Reproduction of the strips is great considering the pages are probably scanned from the comics rather than from original art. Paper quality is superb; a heavy matt stock, much better suited to such strips than light-reflecting glossy paper.
Unfortunately some of the strips end with cliffhangers which will never be resolved as this is a one-off edition. The conclusions saw print 30 years ago of course, in the original printings, but for new readers it's very much a case of "For you Tommy, the war is over". Particularly evident in the Day of the Eagle cliffhanger which has Hitler victorious over our apparently dead hero.
As stated above, this comic is only available from WH Smith. Sadly, my local store seems to be a slave to its system these days and as they shelve comics alphabetically this Battle special was crammed into an already stuffed top shelf, wedged behind Beano, Beano Max, and Ben 10. I only found it by accident when I pulled out The Beano. (As mentioned here before, unless publishers' sales reps get store managers to tidy up their act I foresee major sales slumps for UK comics.)
Egmont Classic Comics: Battle Picture Weekly is on sale until 15th September. Replacing that on the shelves, the next Classic Comic, Buster will be published, followed by Misty in December.
