First off, I'll declare my interest in this title as I write/draw/colour/letter the Brickman back up strip for the comic. Any bias aside, this is still one of the best comic books out there.
Elephantmen: War Toys is a three-issue mini series replacing the regular Elephantmen comic for a few months. (Elephantmen returns in 2008, with No.12.) This mini-series gives writer/editor Richard Starkings and artist Moritat the opportunity to step outside the regular continuity and tell the back story of the "Elephantmen", the genetically created human-animal hybrids. The "War Toys" being the footsoldiers created by the Mappo organization purely for the purpose of war. A sobering reminder that war serves corporate interests. This is a war story for mature sensibilities, thankfully leagues above the juvenile gung-ho antics that besmirched British boy's comics for so long.
If the 22 page lead story wasn't value for money in itself, which it surely is (the comic costs no more than the standard 32 page Marvel or DC title), the rest of the 44 page comic features a package of bonus features:
* Previews of upcoming covers.
* Sketches and convention photos from Elephantmen's first year. (4 pages)
* Feature on cover artist Boo Cook. (3 pages)
* Richard Starkings' recollections of John Burns' Countdown strip, illustrated with plenty of artwork from that 1971 sf series. (4 pages)
* Sketchbook feature on the artwork of Ladronn. (5 pages)
* The latest Brickman strip, co-featuring Combat Colin. (1 page)
As you can see, being an ex-pat, Richard Starkings ensures that the comic has a degree of "Britishness" about it, with his regular features on British artists (Gerry Haylock scheduled for issue 2), my humour back up strip, and now Boo Cook on covers. The whole package with its "extras" feels like a special-release DVD, or perhaps more like the British comics of the past which relied on more than one story to fill the pages. Mention should also be made of John 'JG' Roshell, who gives the comic its distinct design and who always produces top class work.
Elephantmen: War Toys No.1 costs $2.99 and is published by Image Comics. As you can see from the top of this article, there's a choice of two covers: one by Ladronn, one by Boo Cook. Both are excellent.
The comic is available only in comic speciality shops (not newsagents). Sadly, some shops seem to under-order on this title, but they should be able to order you a copy from the distributors if requested.
Busy with work on the run-up to Christmas so here's just a brief glimpse at three more Christmas issues on sale now...
The Beano No.3411:
A 48 page bumper issue on sale for two weeks. Features a 19 page reprint by Bob Nixon but 20 pages of new strips too, including the first Christmas Johnny Green strip by Laura Howell, a brand new Riot Squad back cover by Ken Harrison, Ratz by Hunt Emerson, and my first work for the Beano, - a Fred's Bed fill in! (Shown below.) I'm dead chuffed to be in the Christmas Beano!
2000 AD Prog 2008:
The festive 100 page triple-issue that replaces the old annuals. Bold new masthead, eight new strips including Stickleback by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli, Shakara by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint, and (below) Kingdom by Dan Abnett and Richard Elson.
Doctor Who Magazine No.390:
Okay, not exactly a comic, but it does contain a brand new Doctor Who strip every month. (The longest running licensed strip in the world I believe, which started in TV Comic back in 1964. Correct me if I'm wrong.) This month, the nine page strip is written by Jonathan Morris and drawn by the brilliant Roger Langridge (below). The rest of the 76 page mag isn't bad either!
As the media has made all aware, Dan Dare is "back" (if you ignore the fact he's already been back for five years in Spaceship Away). However, it's worth pointing out that the new Dan Dare comic from Virgin Comics is an American comic, not a British title. I mention this not out of xenophobia (for I have no time for such childish "my country is better than yours" foot stamping) but because none of the publicity seems to have mentioned that Dan Dare isn't available in the UK outside of specialist comic shops.
I'm sure that readers of the Daily Mail are probably scouring the newsagents for Dan Dare No.1 even as I type these words. Rumour has it that someone is trying to secure newsagent distribution for the comic in the UK, but at present it's only available in comic shops or via mail order. (Try eBay for example. That's how I acquired mine when my local Forbidden Planet sold out.)
Anyway, question is; after all the hype is it any good?
The character of Dan Dare presents such a problem for any publisher willing to revive him that I'm wondering why they bother. Who is Virgin's Dan Dare pitched at? The 50 or 60 somethings who get misty eyed over Dan's original home in Eagle, but who probably rarely if ever set foot in a comic shop? The 30 somethings who remember the versions from 2000AD and the new Eagle in the 1970s and 1980s? Or the comic fan who has never heard of the character before?
As it turns out, the new version (written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Gary Erskine) seems to be striking a balance between all of those choices but leaning towards the original Dan Dare albeit with a degree of cynicism replacing the gung ho optimism of the 1950s. While this is kind of appealing for readers like myself (a 40 something who missed the original version first time round but has read reprints of it from an adults perspective) I can't help thinking I'm in the minority.
Usually I really like Garth Ennis' writing. (His Punisher series for Marvel is excellent, taking a title I always considered quite idiotic before and turning it into a high voltage ultra-violent adult gangster comic.) On Dan Dare the script is as professional as anything Garth has done but I'm wondering if the slow "decompressed" pacing will suit the tastes of the readers it's aimed at. Admittedly even the Fifties Dan Dare stories could drag on a bit but Virgin's 22 pages of conversation and little action might be a bit too quiet for its intended audience.
No doubt the pace will pick up as the series progresses but I'm getting increasingly bored with comics that are deliberately slow burners so they'll work better in the graphic novel collection. Yes, the decompressed techniques set up characterization and provide background to Dan's world, but it takes Dan three pages to walk to the pub! Fortunately there's a plot development later, or otherwise we'd be treated to six pages of Dan going for a curry on the way home.
Bryan Talbot provides a striking cover, which is beneficial considering the editor's chosen a blue logo over a blue background. Gary Erskine's artwork on the strip itself shows a little jarring awkwardness with the perspective of some figures but that's a minor quibble. Overall he's produced a tremendous job and maintained this reader's interest throughout a rather quiet opening issue. I'm looking forward to his version of the Mekon and the Treens in coming issues. (Yes the Mekon is coming back too.)
Will Dan Dare be a hit? I'm guessing that sales on issue one will be respectable (if its audience know where to find it) but I can't see the average fan of American comics putting it on what they call their "pull list". (That's a list of must-buy comics apparently, not a reference guide for misogynists.) Personally I was intrigued enough by issue one to continue buying it for another issue or two but whether I'll stick with it through the entire seven issue series is uncertain.
Panini UK have just published Captain Britain: A Hero Reborn, the second trade paperback collection of the early Marvel UK strips. As with the first volume (Captain Britain:The Birth of a Legend) this material is from the original Captain Britain weekly, long before Alan Davis, Alan Moore, Dave Thorpe and others revamped the character.
Captain Britain: A Hero Reborn isn't Marvel's greatest hour by any means but the short seven page weekly episodes crackle with energy. It's fast paced, manic (and often slapdash) superhero nonsense that reminds us how much fun Marvel comics were before they ventured into "decompressed" storytelling. Back in 1977, when these strips first appeared, no one had any idea that one day they'd be collected into a "graphic novel" so there's no pacing for that format and no slow build up to an explosive climax. Subsequently it provides more bang for your buck with a relentless pace that's in overdrive throughout the book.
This volume begins with Captain Britain No.24, which was the first "new look" issue and the first budget-cut to black and white strips. The stories haven't been colourised for this book, which means that although the covers are reprinted in full colour the rest of the book is entirely monochrome. This isn't a bad thing as the colour was irrelevant to such simple superhero action stories.
The scripts are by Gary Friedrich, Larry Leiber, Bob Budiansky and Jim Lawrence, whilst the artwork is handled by John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos. Not a Brit amongst them, as back then Marvel UK's comics were mostly put together in New York. This goes some way to explaining the errors in British police uniform or London's landscape, - but it all adds to the fun, particularly when Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and The Queen herself get involved in Cap's adventures.
Rounding out the 206 page book is a short article by Mike Conroy on The Unseen Captain Britain; namely an aborted 1973 IPC weekly preceding Marvel's version that failed to get past the dummy issue stage. Most interestingly a couple of covers to this project are shown, drawn by Eric Bradbury (then artist on The House of Dolmann for Valiant). As Mike says in his article, Captain Britain was an odd comic for IPC to contemplate given that superheroes were never big sellers in the UK. (Although in 1973 Marvel UK were just getting off the ground of course and maybe IPC felt threatened by this young upstart and their plans of expansion.) Funny how things turned out. IPC's Captain Britain project never materialized and Marvel UK's Captain Britain weekly was canceled after just 39 issues. Yet today, Panini's Marvel reprints dominate the boy's comic market in the UK and IPC no longer publish comics.
Whilst throwing out a load of comics the other day I came across an old British fanzine that I'm definitely hanging on to. The Comicollector's Companion & Price Guide was published in late 1975 or very early 1976 and billed itself as "The first authoratitive (sic) British guide to American comics and their values".
Published by Fantasy Unlimited (in other words fanzine editor Alan Austin) the 100 page A5 booklet was black and white throughout, including the covers. Yet for its time, production values were high compared to stenciled fanzines of the day. Alan's introduction is interesting as it reveals just how small comics fandom was 32 years ago. "In numbers, comic collectors are still quite a small group: perhaps 20,000 in the USA, and a couple of thousand or so in Britain, with several thousand on the Continent."
Austin also points out that many comic collectors of the time may carefully save their comics but be unaware that there are other comic enthusiasts around. (This is true. I was 16 when this book was published and, like many at the time, had no idea that others my age and older were collecting comics. I was even too embarrassed to tell most people that I still read comics! Hard to believe that now, when the internet has made people more aware of the medium and celebrities such as Jonathan Ross regularly talk about comics.)
This proved to be an extremely useful book for collectors new to fandom such as myself. Alan Austin carefully explained the grading of comics (then just seven grades, from Poor to Near-Mint), how to store them, and where to buy them (comic marts and adzines mainly, as so few comic shops existed then). "There are growing numbers of shops selling comics for collectors, mainly in the London area".
There then followed a feature entitled The Most Influential Men in Comic Book History. (No women, you'll note, as so few women worked in the industry then. How things have changed for the better!) Austin listed 20 entries including Max C.Gaines, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby and Robert Crumb.
Personally I've never taken much notice of Price Guides; in reality comic "values" can vary wildly, especially today with online sources such as eBay. However, I've always found such books essential as a source of reference. Back in 1975 The Comicollector's Companion & Price Guide was a comic fan's Bible as it contained issue runs, dates, artist details, etc. And names of so many American comics I'd never even heard of before! Freedom Agent? Double Dare Adventures? Unusual Tales? I'd never seen those in our corner shop but the info was all there in this book of secret treasures. Fascinating stuff.
Thirty years on, the prices given to vintage comics back then just shows how supply and demand has affected collecting. Here's a few examples, all mint condition prices: Fantastic Four No.1 -£45. Batman No.164 - first new look (yellow bat symbol) 30p. Spider-Man No.1 - £32.50. Conan the Barbarian No.1 - £12.50 Creepy No.1 - Frank Frazetta - £3.50
...and the most valuable comic book in the world 32 years ago? Marvel Comics No.1 (1939, first Human Torch and Sub-Mariner) priced at £2,500. The first appearance of Batman (Detective Comics No.27, 1939) - £1,000. A fortune back then. (Consider that in 1975 I was an office filing clerk fresh out of school and earning £14 a week and you can imagine how out of reach those prices seemed.)
You'll have noted that this book was strictly about American comics. Not one British comic was listed, apart from the early British Marvel weeklies, and even those were stuck in a corner at the very last page of the book. Comics fandom in the UK practically ignored British comics until 2000 AD came along in 1977 and it took a while for fans to accept it as being on a par with their beloved American superhero comics. Even today there's still a leaning towards US product in magazines such as Comics International or at comic events, but the situation has improved drastically compared to 30 years ago.
Alan Austin, the author of TheComicollector's Companion & Price Guide, was a dealer in comics himself, so publishing a Price Guide may have seen a vested interest in some ways. However, I don't think we cared too much about that at the time. I remember buying some comics from him and his prices seemed fair to me and his Comics International fanzine was a welcoming entry point into comics fandom. I'm not sure if Alan is still dealing in comics today, but his Comicollector's Companion book was a very useful guide to the world of comics for myself and, I would guess, many others.
Click on the archive of this blog for January 2007 for more reflections on UK fanzines of the 1970s.
* Sketchbook feature on the artwork of Ladronn. (5 pages)
