After delays outside the publisher's control the first issue of the new British adventure comic Strip Magazine has finally arrived in comic shops.
It's an impressive debut. Kicking off with an eye-catching cover by PJ Holden we're treated to 68 glossy pages for a mere £2.99. Considering that most US comics now cost around £2.20 for 20 story pages Strip Magazine is a definite bargain. (There's also a free gift in the form of an A2 sized Mirabilis poster.)
The comic is packed with brand new comic strips and a few features about UK comics, plus, by arrangement with Egmont, the return of Hook Jaw (from the notorious Action weekly of 1976) in colourised reprints with new lettering by Jim Campbell (replacing the flat typeface used on the original).
Intended for an all-ages readership Strip Magazine features an emphasis on action-adventure rather than a reliance of talking heads or gore. The strips move at a fast pace but still cram a lot in to establish the characters and plots. Subsequently that can lead to a bit of overload in places, somewhat like being introduced to loads of new people at a party and expecting to remember everyone's names while the music's blaring out. This is particularly evident in the lead strip Black Ops Extreme, which is a brilliantly lively opening for a new comic but might need a couple of re-reads to remember who's who.
Every strip in the new comic has good things going for it, from the aforementioned fast moving Black Ops Extreme and Recovery Incorporated, to the humourous touches of the alternate-Earth complete story On Her Majesty's Hush-Hush Service. There's an interesting supernatural element to Warpaint (and a great cliffhanger), and some very nice John Ridgway artwork in Age of Heroes.
Above: A panel from Hush-Hush by Keith Page.
The articles in the first issue include an interview with Black Ops' artist PJ Holden, a feature on the history of Action by Moose Harris, and items about Print Media's graphic novels. There's also a couple of humour strips; Cosmic Patrol by Mauricet and Janssens, and Autospy & Ape by Toxic's John Rushby.
If I have any criticism it's that, as yet, there's not really one strong standout character that could be the next Dan Dare, Judge Dredd, or Steel Claw. However it's possible that Mia Raven of Recovery Incorporated might prove me wrong after a few issues. (Personally I'd have simply called the strip Raven. Strips with the names of the hero tend to be more memorable than the organizations they work for. I doubt Roy of the Rovers would have had the same impact had it been titled Melchester Rovers for example.)
It's early days yet though and Strip Magazine is off to a great start. There's not a dud strip in the comic and all the stories contain action and intrigue. What more could you ask for? Comparisons to 2000AD and CLiNT will be inevitable, but perhaps unfair. 2000AD has had over 30 years to build up its fanbase and its characters, whilst CLiNT is deliberately post-watershed and ultra-violent. Strip Magazine has its own approach and is closer in spirit to all-ages traditional UK comics such as Lion but uses contemporary storytelling techniques and attitudes. Let's hope this is the beginning of a long and successful new era for UK comics. Issue 2 is scheduled to be published on December 1st.
Strip Magazine No.1 is available from comic specialist shops such as Forbidden Planet (not newsagents). It's also available to download on the iPad, and postal subscriptions will also soon be available. See the official website for more details:
http://stripcomicmagazineuk.blogspot.com/
Many full moons ago a mixture of people who ranged from the well meaning to the pious, from the twisted to the sinister, decided that horror comics were corrupting the youth of the Western world and, for all intents and purposes, either neutered the comics with the Comics Code or forced them out of business.
Who would have guessed that one day those forbidden treasures would be reprinted in luxurious hardback and paperback collections on quality paper? That those classics would be unearthed from the grave for future generations to decide for themselves whether the stories would "deprave or corrupt"?
Yes, over the past several years those gruesome, garish horror comics that were hounded to their death in the 1950s have returned in force. In fact there are so many collections of pre-code horror comics available now, and more are coming, that it's a struggle to keep up. Here's just a few...
Several Marvel Masterworks reprint the Atlas Era of horror, with volumes of Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, and the done-in-one volume of Menace.
After a recent glitch and change of company, the EC Archives are soon set to return from new publisher GC Press, beginning with Haunt of Fear Volume 1 and Vault of Horror Volume 2, carrying on the line from Gladstone.
British publisher PS Publishing has recently begun reprinting Harvey horror comics in quality hardbacks. Volume 1 of both Chamber of Chills and Witches Tales are out now, with Tomb of Terror and Black Cat Mystery to follow.
Craig Yoe (http://yoebooks.com) who has produced some beautifully designed books on comics, spotlights individual creators, with his book on Dick Briefer's Frankenstein already out and Bob Powell's Terror lurching through mailboxes soon.
There are some great anthology collections available too. Two I would definitely recommend are Four Colour Fear from Fantagraphics and The Horror, The Horror: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read.
The latter book even contains a DVD of the American TV programme Confidential File which "exposed" the evils of horror comic books... except it was made after the Comics Code had been put in place. The programme is a disturbing propaganda piece that attempts to manipulate the viewer into believing its wild claims. What's most outlandish about it is a filmed scene which shows a gang of children in the woods about to torture another child, suggesting that comics are to blame when in fact the whole thing is staged for the camera under the instruction of the programme makers themselves.
Some horror comics were trashy rush jobs, some were true quality created by masters of the form. A few were gorier than others, but mild in comparison to modern standards. Mostly they were fun, and kids have always loved monsters and creepy stuff, as evidenced from the growing popularity of Halloween. They know it's not real. It's very satisfying to know that those simple comic books that were considered so harmful without actual proof can now be seen again, and in formats that will endure the years. Finally, the horror comics won! The downside is that many of the artists from that era are no longer with us and never knew that their work would finally receive the respect it deserved.
Happy Halloween!
Most of you may have already have seen this on the BBC News website, but last week journalists made the connection that many protesters currently occupying Wall Street and other areas around the globe were wearing V for Vendetta masks.
V for Vendetta, created in 1981 by Alan Moore and David Lloyd for the launch of Dez Skinn's Warrior comic, told of a proactive anarchist in a fascist Britain of the near future. Clad in black and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, he was known simply as 'V'. Later collected into a graphic novel it was adapted into a movie in 2006 which, although it had it moments, never equaled the starkness and intellectual layers of the graphic novel. When the movie was released, plastic V masks became available as part of the merchandising, and have proven to be highly popular ever since.
In one of those instances where life imitates art, the mask has now become associated with real-life protesters and the BBC contacted David Lloyd for his opinions on the matter: "The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny - and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way".
You can read the full story here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15359735
Below: David Lloyd's original character design sketch and notes for V.
Today is the 81st birthday of the great Leo Baxendale, the original artist and creator of The Bash Street Kids, Little Plum, and Minnie the Minx for The Beano back in the 1950s, and many characters for other comics such as Grimly Feendish and Willy the Kid.
It's no hyperbole to say that Leo is the most influential artist in British humour comics over the past 60 years. Even today, long after Leo retired from traditional children's comics, his style is still evident in the pages of The Beano and other comics. His strips were certainly a big influence on my work and that of artists such as David Sutherland, Tom Paterson and Nigel Parkinson.
It's hard to imagine how British comics would have developed without Leo's massive input. Admittedly the style of comics was already changing in the 1950s, away from the wonderful Roy Wilson style and towards an equally wonderful and more mischievous Davy Law style but Leo pushed comics even further into a more modern and anti-authoritarian direction. (Davy's radically energetic work on Dennis the Menace was the key that inspired Leo to submit work to The Beano in 1953.) The combination of Davy Law, Leo Baxendale, and Ken Reid changed the face of The Beano in the Fifties, and when Leo was invited by Odhams to create a "Super Beano" in the form of Wham! in 1964 his style influenced a generation of new artists such as Mike Lacey and Graham Allen.
Leo left traditional comics in 1975, moving on to create books such as Willy the Kid and Thrrp!, and to write his autobiography It's a Very Funny Business and books such as The Encroachment and On Comedy. He also created a new strip, I Love You Baby Basil for The Guardian in 1990.
Today he still maintains a website for his Reaper Books imprint which you can find here:
http://www.reaper.co.uk/
Happy Birthday to Leo, the king of comics.
Illustrations on this item all by Leo Baxendale: A title page from The Beano Book 1960; an early Eagle-Eye strip from Wham! No.3 (July 4th 1964); cover to Smash! No.4 (1966); Willy the Kid Book 1 covers (1976), and an unusual one-off strip, Whodunnit, from The Beano Book 1960. Here's the solution below...
Yes it's the special Halloween issue of The Dandy this week! 32 pages crammed with comedy-horror and not a single reprint in sight. A fangtastic cover by Nigel Parkinson and three pages by him inside too, including Harry Hill, or Harry Chill as the strip's titled this issue. Plus Korky the Witch's Cat, My Little Zombie, and much more including Postman Prat visiting Crackpot Castle.
Sadly, in some areas copies of The Dandy are a rarer sight than ghosts these days. It was a struggle finding an issue this week, although it wasn't helped by my local newsagent receiving his copies soaking wet from the supplier! (Perhaps some religious nut had doused them in Holy Water to exorcise the supernatural elements of the Halloween theme?)
If you're having problems finding shops that stock The Dandy why not do as I've just done and subscribe? It's only £15 for 15 issues at present; a pound an issue! A substantial saving on buying it off the shelf.
http://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/Group-Dandy.aspx
Next issue: firework fun! (What? Firework strips in a comic in 2011? Yep! Wait and see.)
