The much-missed Comics International should be returning to our shelves soon, courtesy of a new publisher, and new editor Mike Conroy. The comics news-zine, published since its inception 15 years ago by Dez Skinn was recently sold. Unfortunately, such procedures cause their own complications as Mike explains in an interview over on the Forbidden Planet International blog.
Dez did a tremendous job on the magazine, giving the UK its own regular comic news source. I have no doubt that Mike Conroy (news editor on CI for years) will swiftly prove to be the perfect replacement and that Comics International will be back on everyone's "must buy" list when it returns.
Today marks the centenary of the birth of Dudley D. Watkins, the original artist of Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty, The Broons, Oor Wullie, Ginger, Mickey the Monkey, Biffo the Bear, and many more. The Nottingham-born artist also illustrated numerous adventure stories for the comics and many would consider him the best artist D.C. Thomson ever had. (Certainly the company respected him enough to allow him to sign his work for several years; a rare privilege for British comic artists at that time.)
Dudley passed away in 1969 and such was the strength of his style that reprints of Desperate Dan continued in The Dandy for many years afterwards. Even today, newer artists on The Broons and Oor Wullie "ghost" Dudley's style rather than be allowed to forge their own; Watkins' look being definitive.
The artwork of Dudley Watkins was always a pleasure to behold. A mixture of realism, natural humour, and a gift to portray slapstick, his strips delighted generations of children and will never be forgotten.
Above: Two pages by Dudley Watkins from The Dandy No.325, dated August 17th 1946.
This week, 2000 AD celebrates its 30th anniversary. The official birthday being yesterday, 26th February. Even the comic's fictitious alien editor "Tharg" stated in the current issue "...on 26th February 1977, I first launched this blistering publication onto Thrill-merchants' shelves".Unfortunately Mighty Tharg and the celebratory UK media are a tad off. February 26th was only the cover date of issue one, and it actually went on sale a week before that, on February 19th. (Or, officially, as seen in the ad above, Feb 21st).No matter. It's the longevity of the comic that's important, and 2000 AD has beaten the predictions of its original management (who expected it to fail) and seen off every other adventure weekly published since. By my reckoning it's one of the longest-running UK adventure weeklies. (Tiger managed 31 years, but even the respected Eagle only ran to 19 years first time around.) That's an achievement that every one of its many contributors and editors should be proud of.Actually, Feb 26th is a birthday for the comic because it marks the 30th anniversary of Judge Dredd, who didn't arrive until issue two. Dredd has remained in the comic throughout, featuring in constantly strong and entertaining stories. Strange that many readers still consider the character to be a hero when the writer himself (John Wagner) has called him a "bastard". Whilst it's true that Dredd does do heroic things sometimes, and believes he's doing everything for the greater good, the true appeal of the strip is the social and political satire of its harsh police state presented in a darkly comic way.I won't harp on here about 2000 AD's highs and lows as countless articles have already been written on the comic. What I have managed to find though is the original four page advert for the launch, which appeared in Battle comic in early February 1977. Notice how frantic the hype on that ad is, really making the comic sound exciting (as indeed it was). Note also how although the ad pages are busy they're not cluttered like the design of today's children's comics. Whatever happened to design that's lively but has clarity? Also shown here are a selection of early issues, the Dan Dare centrespread by Belladinelli from issue one, and Dredd's first dynamic appearance from issue two.2000 AD was a very different comic thirty years ago, and aimed at a younger readership back then, but it's the evolution the comic has undergone that's kept it going. That said, it's still retained the same mixture of black comedy, satire, and imaginative plotting it's always had. Or to call the ingredients by what they've always been known: Thrill Power!
The official 2000 AD website can be found here. The 30th anniversary issue is published tomorrow (Wednesday 28th Feb) priced £2.
UPDATE: The original tv ad for 2000 AD can be viewed on YouTube here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2-iebBjKcf8
Apologies for the lack of blogs this past week. I've been laid up with the flu' and using the computer soon gives me a migraine. Normal service should be resumed next week.
In the meantime, here's a classic Leo Baxendale cover for the 1965 Firework Issue of Wham! The colours are printed slightly off register (this is how they were on the comic, not a fault of the scan) but you may notice a Dalek amongst the crowd of schoolkids. Leo often added a Dalek or two in the background of his Odhams strips during this period. I'll dig a few more samples out and add them here soon, but this was one I had to hand.
All that fuss the media made recently about a Dalek appearing in The Bash Street Kids in the new BeanoMAX comic eh? Old news for some of us. ;-)
What's most noteworthy about that cover though is that it shows kids armed to the teeth (literally in one case) with fireworks in school of all places. In 1965 such anarchic humour was commonplace in British comics. In the hyper-panic age of today that page would inspire a media outcry, the comic would be withdrawn, and the editor probably sacked! But 40 years ago we knew it was only a drawing.
