Just a quick plug for this week's Dandy which will be in shops on Wednesday 7th March, priced £1.99.
It's not easy being impartial about it as I'm one of the contributors but I genuinely feel it's on a high now with some very funny material from Nigel Auchterlounie, Jamie Smart, Wilbur Dawburn, Andy Fanton, Nigel Parkinson, Wayne Thompson and more.
Humour does of course depend on state of mind and whatever tickles your funny bone, but I think it's fresh, inventive, witty, lively, and it works for me (and thousands of readers). Britain's oldest comic has a spring in its step these days. Check it out and see for yourself.
Cover of the latest issue by Wayne Thompson.
Tim Pilcher has been working in comics for a long time now and his enthusiasm for the medium has led him to write books such as The Essential Guide to World Comics (with Brad Brooks) and the two volumes of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History. He's been an assistant editor at DC Comics' London office for Vertigo comics, is now a consulting editor at Ilex Press, and is the current chair of The Comic Book Alliance, and gives regular talks on the subject of comics.
Basically, Tim likes comics. All comics. And he likes to promote them however he can. His latest venture for Ilex Press is a great way to bring some classic comics to the attention of fans and public alike in a cheap accessible format.
The Little Books of Vintage... series is a set of six full colour softback books covering a specific subject of 1950s American comics. Horror, Crime, Combat, Romance, Sci-Fi, and Sauciness are the topics, with each 112 page book priced at £3.99 and stuffed with extracts from those old comics. The small 112mm x 82mm format doesn't really allow for any full length stories to be reprinted, but the books offer a marvelous showcase of covers, panels, vintage ads and so on.
The focus is mainly on the art as these are really intended to give people a cheap sampler of the look and atmosphere of those bygone comics. In the case of the Sauciness book, a couple of the out-of-context panels provide unintended humour or make the stories seem, well, saucier, than they actually were, but that's all part of the fun of these items.
The majority of the material in the books comes from pre-Comics Code sources so it's good to see a British publisher getting these once-forbidden comics back on the shelves. Each book comes with a short introduction where Tim Pilcher has provided a brief history lesson about the genres he covers. Naturally, the damaging anti-comics crusade and how horror comics were "effectively neutered", and how the "thriving genre collapsed in 1954" is mentioned in the Horror and Crime books. Likewise, the jingoistic aspects of war comics, and how Harvey Kurtzman's strips for EC took an anti-war stance is also covered in the Combat collection.
If there's a negative to the books it's that the binding is a bit too tight to show off the few double-page spreads that are represented, but thankfully most pages stand alone.
At the back of each book is a free fridge magnet of a classic 1950s comic cover. Great comic art reduced to fridge magnets? Well, it's a way to start a conversation about comics if guests notice them on your fridge door, and that can't be a bad thing.
Fridge magnets become the main focus of another collection, the Lovelorn box set, which features 16 covers of romance comics from titles such as Exotic Romances and GI Sweethearts. The set is accompanied with a 48 page book which gives a brief history of the genre and then a story synopsis for each of the 16 covers.
Got enough fridge magnets by now? How about postcards? Ilex have two books in that regard too. Tales of Terror and Lovelorn each feature 30 full postcards of vintage horror and romance comic covers. There's some excellent stuff here and the 165mm x 120mm size shows off the artwork nicely.
I'm very enthusiastic about comics of the 1950s. Perhaps partly because I was born at the end of that decade and just missed them, but also because they often have such high quality artwork. Mainly though, the fascination for me is that marvelous juxtaposition of clean cut characters and white picket-fence environments being invaded by the most gruesome horrors. In that respect they betray the paranoia of the times, where conservative "normality" was ever fearful of the latest bogey man "corrupting" their society. From Communism to rock and roll, it seems that everything was a target of suspicion - and even comics themselves became a perceived threat to the status quo. The fact that these comics caused such "moral" outrage that they were banned is the true horror.
These format of these books may not appeal to the serious collector who wants his archive collections reproduced as closely to the original size and presentation as possible, but really these are meant to be fun items for the wider audience. Presented as gift books or bought as an impulse purchase, the Little Book of Vintage... collections act as a nice primer and fast history lesson about comics long gone. If they broaden people's minds beyond the current comics they know, then that's great. It's even better if they encourage some to delve a bit deeper into the subject and buy Ilex's more in-depth books on comics such as Fredrik Strömberg's Comic Art Propaganda or Mike Conroy's War Comics: A Graphic History or the numerous archive books such as those published by PS Publishing or Yoe Books.
Apparently pre-order sales on the Little Vintage books have already done spectacularly well so snap up your copies now while you can! The books will be released soon and can be ordered from Amazon.
Ilex Press website: http://www.ilex-press.com/bookshop/
Tim Pilcher's blog (mature readers only): http://sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com/
Waverley Books have officially announced on Twitter that this summer they will be publishing a book to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Dandy.
The Art and History of The Dandy will be published in August, showcasing pages from the comic from 1937 to the present day. Waverley Books also published The History of The Beano a few years ago, written by Morris Heggie. It's thought that Morris, who had a lengthy run as editor of The Dandy himself, will also be authoring this one and will once again be digging through the DC Thomson archive to bring long-unseen artwork to the readers.
More news on this exciting project as it develops but for now here's a couple of classic pages from my own Dandy archive, - a Korky the Cat cover by his original artist James Crichton and a Desperate Dan page by DC Thomson's greatest, Dudley Watkins. Both pages are from issue No. 956, dated March 19th 1960.
Waverley Books on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/WaverleyBooks
Back in 1985 sales of the British Spider-Man weekly were in need of a boost. The solution, Marvel UK decided, was to pitch it at a younger readership as sales of other comics were strong in that area.
The result was The Spider-Man Comic, a 32 page weekly with half its pages in full colour, featuring reprints of Spider-Man stories from Spidey Super Stories, an early-learner comic that Marvel US had been publishing. Other reprints included Fraggle Rock and Willy the Wizard (which had been called Wally the Wizard in the USA, but Marvel UK changed it to 'Willy' avoid unexpected laughter. Yes, quite.) Reprints of The Dukes of Hazard from TV Comic also started running a few weeks later.
The editor was Sheila Cranna, whom I'd worked for on my very first regular strip, Robo-Capers, for Transformers. Sheila asked me to come up with some ideas for the comic's revamp and I submitted two superhero-spoof characters, Captain Wally and Snail-Man. Happily Sheila liked both and I was commissioned to produce a full page Captain Wally every week along with a half page Snail-Man.
Here's the first Captain Wally...
...and the first Snail-Man...
As you can see, both characters were set in a very English suburban environment. This formula had worked well for children's comics for years, usually with Dennis the Menace style strips, so I thought it'd make superheroes look even more ludicrous than they are by placing them in that setting. Adding to that, neither characters had any independence in their lives. Wally lived with his parents whilst Snail-Man lived with his brutally domineering Aunt Maim, thus further emasculating the concept of the strong super-hero.
With the third Captain Wally strip I had Cap meet the Hulk. As far as I was concerned, this titanic meeting of Captain Wally and The Incredible Hulk is firmly set in continuity... even though I'm sure Marvel never saw it that way.
Sheila Cranna was a pleasure to work for and I thoroughly enjoyed producing these strips every week. I was still fairly new to the business and certainly learning the ropes (some of the artwork here is a considerably rough and wonky) but I was very pleased to be working on a comic that I used to buy as a kid. (Even though it had changed considerably they retained the numbering so it was still the same comic that had launched as Spider-Man Comics Weekly in 1973.)
During its run Captain Wally included some two and three part serials, which I'll show at a later date. It also introduced Macho-Man, who I'd later revamp a bit for his own series in Marvel UK's Secret War comic. Here's his first appearance from The Spider-Man Comic No.649...
For issue 650 I wanted to do something a bit different and, somehow, mention the comic's impressive long run. Sheila was happy to allow me two pages that week and I had Captain Wally and Snail-Man having a Marvel team-up...
Sadly, all things come to an end, some earlier than expected. With issue 651 the comic was tweaked again, becoming Spidey Comic. Jenny O'Connor became the editor and was instructed to make cuts in the budget, meaning that Captain Wally and Snail-Man made their final appearances in issue 653. This was quite a blow at the time as it was my first experience of losing work. (Fortunately things soon picked up thanks to other Marvel UK strips and IPC's Oink!)
Although the strips only ran for 20 weeks they were very important to me as they were amongst my first regular professionally-published strips and helped me gain more confidence in my work. Sheila Cranna pretty much allowed me to do what I wanted with the pages, and as what Marvel UK were looking for were traditional UK kids strips with a daft edge I was more than happy to oblige.
Most of the covers of The Spider-Man Comic featured composites of panels although I think the cover shown at the top of this post is a very early Barry Kitson job. (Apologies to Barry if I'm mistaken.) The two covers that stood out to me though were by Jerry Paris, (and he also lettered them I think). Here they are...
More from Captain Wally and Snail-Man at a later date!
Four more issues of Commando are in the shops today, and now the comic's in its 51st year it's been given a little makeover.
Don't worry. The old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't really apply as these are only slight tweaks. The format remains the same as it has since 1961 but now each one of the four issues falls into its own specific category with an appropriate masthead to suit.
Here's editor Calum Laird with the specifics:
Commando may now come in four distinct guises but our mission to bring our readers the best action and adventure stories remains unchanged.
Home Of Heroes:
No 4475 “Invasion Dawn” is a story from our brand-new Home Of Heroes Collection. These stories always revolve around a British hero, no matter where in the world you may find him. We rate these as The Best Of British
The Gold Collection:
Following the feedback we had from our readers last year — our 50th — we’ve decided to do what they wanted and go right back to Commando’s earliest years to dust off some classic tales. You’ll see from the cover of No 4477 “Lone Hero” that it is part of our Gold Collection, one that first saw the light of day 50 years ago — in 1962.
The Silver Collection:
Many readers asked to re-read stories from a later period so Lone Hero’s companion “Death From The Sky” (No 4478) is from a different era — 25 years ago — and is part of our Silver Collection.
For Action And Adventure:
Between the covers of this series, Commando will continue to be Britain’s premier title for adventure stories. In here you’ll find stories from the depths of the sea, the dizziest of heights and from the four corners of the globe. Just like the others, No 4476 “Murder In The Heights” carries on Commando’s tradition of Action And Adventure.
Here's the plot details of the four issues out today...
Commando No 4471 — Invasion Dawn
A minor military base in a remote corner of the British Isles would not be the place you’d expect to find a battle royal raging. And if you did, how could a group of the Home Guard’s old warriors stand up to an enemy attack.
They may have been put to the test in battles past, but that was a long time ago. And what of the Home Guard’s youngster, would he be up to the task? You can bet he would try.
Invaders beware!
Story: Mac MacDonald
Art: Carlos Pino
Cover: Carlos Pino
Commando No 4476 — Murder in The Heights
The history books of the First World War concentrate on events on the Western Front in France, the scene of the fiercest battles the world had ever seen. The fighting, though, was not confined to France, for all over Europe armies faced each other.
In Greece, Italians, Greeks, Austrians and Germans battled it out on the plains and in the mountains.
Into this cauldron rode British Army Lieutenant John Fielding, little guessing that some of his enemies were prepared to go beyond the normal rules of war…
Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Olivera
Cover: Janek Matysiak
Commando No 4477 — Lone Hero
“Let The Other Bloke Be The Mug”
While his 8th Army mates fought and died under the glaring desert sun of North Africa, Private Sam Deacon was content to drive a truck. Not for him the blood and guts of battle, the risk of stopping a German bullet: “Let the other bloke be the mug,” was his motto.
Then he met one of the ‘other blokes’ who wasn’t a mug — a hero who rammed those words down Deacon’s throat till he squealed for mercy — and found himself a hero too.
Introduction by Calum Laird, Commando Editor
Where would Commando have been without the combined talents of Ken Barr and Gordon Livingstone? If this story from our Gold Collection (from 50 years ago) is anything to go by, the title would have struggled. The cover, with its generous helping of yellows and oranges, leaves you in no doubt that you’re in the searing heat of the North Africa desert. Inside, the line of the art charges from the first page to the last, packed with movement and character.
We’d better not forget Eric Castle’s tale either, it’s another gold-plated cracker…which I think you should read for yourself!
Lone Hero, originally Commando No 18 (Feb 1962)
Story Eric Castle
Art Gordon Livingstone
Cover Ken Barr
Commando No 4478 — Death From The Sky
Stuck in a shore job, Sub-Lieutenant Mike Wilson was desperate to see action — so desperate he even volunteered to check out an unexploded Jap bomb lodged in the hold of a merchant ship.
After surviving that ordeal, he thought serving in a sub would be a piece of cake. But with bombs, depth-charges and enemy suicide planes to contend with, he couldn’t have been more wrong!
Commando Campaign Diary No 4478
Introduction by Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor
In this Pacific War tale we meet Sub-Lieutenant Mike Wilson. He’s a gutsy bloke for sure, but not the brightest. And he’s pretty impatient too — preferring to act before he thinks. Admirable, but very likely to get himself and his mates killed. Perhaps it’s ironic that a budding Navy officer could (literally) get out of his depth! Especially with the threat of Japanese Okha planes, with Kamikaze pilots at the controls, on the horizon. So Mike is a brave, flawed but intriguing character — but can he become a true Commando hero? Read on and find out!
Death From The Sky, originally Commando No 2129 (October 1987)
Story Allen Chalmers
Art Blasco
Cover Ian McIntosh
My thanks to Calum for supplying the information and cover images. For more details visit the Commando website: http://www.commandocomics.com
