More examples of comic art from annuals of the 1950s:
The Texas Killer: A superb opening for an 8 page story in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual (1956), the cover of which was shown on yesterday's blog. These 144 page annuals were entirely illustrated by Denis McLoughlin (1918-2002), showing some of the most respected work of his long career. Note also how the influence of American comics benefits this strip: McLoughlin has the logo floating over the art (rather than in a separate banner) and he kicks off with a big intro splash. More info on this renowned artist can be found here.
Radio Fun Annual 1951 frontispiece: This full colour Lordy Lion illustration is from the Radio Fun Annual shown yesterday. Drawn by Roy Wilson, whose style had been the major influence in British humour comics throughout the Thirties and Forties. A few years after this, Leo Baxendale would become the new "house style" of comics, but Wilson's influence would still be visible in the styles of Robert Nixon, myself, and others. I'm not sure who drew the Wilfred Pickles strip facing it; perhaps Wilson, but more likely one of his imitators. (Update 1/2/2007: On the Comics UK forum, Ray Moore kindly informs us "By the way the the Wilfred Pickles page from the 1951 Radio Fun annual is actually the work of John Jukes. Jukes was one of the titles most prolific artists and was drawing Norman Wisdom for the paper right up until the final issue in 1961. He then dropped out of sight for a decade until in 1971, the year before he died, he began to contribute a strip to Whizzer and Chips titled Belle Tent which in itself was a revival of the old Buster strip Dinah Mite.")
1950 Slick Fun Album : One of the many books published by Gerald G. Swan. Much of Swan's output was relatively inferior compared to the giants such as Amalgamated Press or D.C. Thomson, but he was an enterprising publisher. (He had stockpiled paper prior to World War 2 and so was able to publish during wartime paper restrictions.) The cover strip of this annual shows a racial stereotype that thankfully wouldn't be allowed in a comic today.
Boys of Coughdrop College is one of the interior strips from that annual. Drawn by "Hep" but heavily influenced by Roy Wilson it's a typical example of comics of fifty plus years ago: teacher in mortar board (and spats); coal fire; inkwells; blackboard; and a firework prank (something totally forbidden in children's comics now). Notice also that the shop owner has no ethical dilemma about wanting to sell fireworks to kids! Naive times.
If you'd like to see more covers of old British annuals, visit www.tonystrading.co.uk
and a great source for British comics strips is the Comics UK website, which is currently running pages from a 1960 issue of Film Fun.
Not exactly a comics item, but of interest to the comics/cult tv multimedia fans, the film & tv magazine Dreamwatch ends with the current issue, No.150 (actually No.280 including its previous incarnations). The full colour glossy mag began as the black and white fanzine DWB (the unofficial Doctor Who Bulletin) back in 1983 so its journey from subscription-only amateur mag to 84 page high-profile, High Street monthly has been a long and eventful one.
Titan Magazines acquired Dreamwatch a few years ago and immediately tinkered with the title to change it to DW, no doubt to rival SFX. The change lasted just two issues, perhaps due to the fact that "DW" was more of a mouthful than "Dreamwatch"!
Now Dreamwatch has evolved again. It'll no longer be published as a magazine but instead has become the website Dreamwatch presents Total Sci Fi with the latter part of that title dominant to obviously compensate for what an inappropriate name "Dreamwatch" has been for a tv sf mag. (Better hold onto the rights though Titan, just in case New Labour's Thought Police want to use it. ;-))
Ending today's blog on some comics news, it's been confirmed that Titan's new Superman monthly will be titled Superman Legends. It'll reprint the Grant Morrison/ Frank Quietly All Star Superman series, the Brian Azzarello/ Jim Lee For Tomorrow 12 parter, and another strip in a 76 page package for £2.60. Due March 2007.
Tomorrow on this blog: Enough of the present. Let's go back a few decades...
Image Comics has come a long way since the creation of the company by a group of ex-Marvel freelancers. Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Eric Larsen's Savage Dragon proved to the comics industry that independent comics could be hugely successful. Those two titles are still going strong today, and I thoroughly recommend both. Spawn is now ably written by David Hine, (who always produces good work), and the Dragon is still in the capable hands of its creator Eric Larsen, having written and drawn over 130 issues now.
Image also have a lot of other titles under their banner, including Elephantmen. I'll declare my vested interest in this title as my Brickman Returns strip appears as a back up in there every month. More on that later.
The title strip concerns the "elephantmen", - a slang term for the animal/human hybrids genetically created by the sinister Mappo corporation. Bred to be suprahuman weapons of mass destruction but now liberated to live amongst us, the series deals with the prejudice and ethics of their situation.
The concept began as the Unnatural Selection and Hip Flask comics from Active Images, written by Richard Starkings and stunningly illustrated by Ladronn. Elephantmen continues to be written by Starkings, and Ladronn provides the covers, whilst the interior strips are drawn by Moritat and various guest artists (such as Henry Flint and Tom Scioli). There are also variant covers or flip covers to every issue by the likes of Brian Bolland and Chris Weston.
In addition to all that, the comics also contain back up features and interviews. An excellent feature Richard (who also edits) has instigated is a monthly spotlight on old British comics artists. So far Frank Bellamy and Don Lawrence have been covered, with Mike Noble coming up in issue 6.
And then there's Brickman Returns, rounding off the issue with a humourous counterbalance to the heavy stuff in the lead strip.
Richard Starkings had been my editor at Marvel UK back in the 1980's. When he offered me the chance to revive my old fanzine/ stripzine character Brickman for a book collection (Brickman Begins!) in 2005 I was overjoyed, but it's even more of a privilege to create brand new full colour Brickman strips for Elephantmen every month, given what a fantastic package the rest of the comic is.
Issue 6 of Elephantmen (Image Comics, $2.99) is out next Wednesday (Jan 31st) in US comic book stores, and hits the UK comic shops the day after on February 1st. The flip covers and a panel from the Brickman strip can be seen at the top of this posting, but click here for more details on the issue and visit my official Brickman website here for more info on the character.
My favourite comic strip of the 1980s is without a doubt the 2000AD series Nemesis the Warlock. Specifically the material illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. Now those early stories, including all of Kevin's work plus the sagas drawn by Jesus Redondo and Bryan Talbot's first Nemesis series have been collected in a telephone-directory sized softback from Rebellion, The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 1. Within its lime and black covers, the reproduction of the strips is superb, with none of the jagged pixelation of the finer lines which sometimes mars reprint books of this type.
Nemesis the Warlock was a development of ideas first seen in the one-off strip Terror Tube, and its follow-up Killer Watt. Terror Tube was a huge success, Killer Watt less so, but Kevin O'Neill and writer Pat Mills stuck to their guns and the series that followed won over the majority of readers. That said, some of the more conventional readers must have felt uneasy about the concept of the strip (some editors at IPC certainly didn't approve): the hero (Nemesis) is a demon who fights against an Earth-dominated galactic empire run by Torquemada and his religious zealots intent on wiping out all non-human life. Yes, in this strip, the humans are the villains and religion is evil, thus turning the usual "morality" of British comics on its head.
Highly praised for his anti-war strip Charley's War (in Battle comic) Pat Mills was known as a writer who'd go for the jugular in any subject that stirred his passions. In Nemesis Pat's target was oppressive religion. In the foreword to the book, Pat says "Torquemada was based on a monk at my school who rejoiced in the dubious title 'Prefect of Discipline'." A monk who enjoyed thrashing boys. In his afterword to the book, Kevin O'Neill says "As we shared a similar warped vision - and Catholic background - the world of Torquemada grew and grew. (Perhaps the ultimate compliment was his slogan "Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!" painted on the Berlin Wall back in the 80s.)"
That said, under Mills and O'Neill, Nemesis never became too downbeat. Kevin's ability to illustrate black comedy, adding grotesquely amusing detail and background gags to his pages ascended his work to equal the best comic-horror work of Ken Reid.
Years later, when working for DC Comics, Kevin would bizarrely become the only artist to have his entire style banned by the Comics Code Authority, thus preventing him from drawing any comics carrying the CCA seal! Not that O'Neill had drawn anything remotely offensive to most eyes, (no gore, no nudity, etc) but it seemed that the CCA felt Americans couldn't handle such an art style that was so far removed from what they were used to. (Even though Kevin's work had been enjoyed by several hundred thousand kids in the UK!)
Working for comics outside of the archaic (and nowadays mostly ignored CCA) O'Neill is now the highly acclaimed artist of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with writer Alan Moore. However those early Nemesis strips remain respected classics and, with their miscellany of dark humour, rebelliousness, satire and social comment the Mills and O'Neill version has all the ingredients of the best of British comics.
The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 1 (rrp £13.99) is available from comic shops, bookshops, and online shops such as Amazon.co.uk
