Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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philcom55
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by philcom55 »

I think a lot of boys' comics were influenced by classic 'monster' films. For example Valiant's long-running Mytek the Mighty strip was clearly based on King Kong.
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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philcom55 wrote:I think a lot of boys' comics were influenced by classic 'monster' films. For example Valiant's long-running Mytek the Mighty strip was clearly based on King Kong.
And of course the same in girls comics - Moonchild being based on Carrie, and Hush Hush Sweet Rachel being based on some other property (I forget). And others too of course, "Children of Edenford" is very Stepford! Those three are horror rather than monster films but same sort of principle.
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SID
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by SID »

I would classify The House of Daemon from the second Eagle to be a horror.

Mainstream comics sometimes did horror specials. 2000AD did a winter one only a few years ago.
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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Looking at the original post, aren't they really asking 'which strip gave you nightmares?' as horror would include so many strips but the likes of Mytek never gave me nightmares.

Or is that not what's being asked as it's not very clear?
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philcom55
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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As a genre I think a lot of people have come to associate 'Horror' with the traditional 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' - especially as represented by the old Aurora kits: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Wolfman, the Mummy, King Kong, Phantom of the Opera, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. But while spooky beings such as witches and ghosts featured quite regularly in girl's comics they were just as likely to be seen as humorous or benign; far more disturbing were the one-off tales of 'Mystery and Imagination' that ended with a sudden, unexpected twist. One example of this type of story is 'The Gift' which appeared in the Same Mandy Annual as 'I Am Margaret'.

In this strip young Gaye Small is initially worried when she discovers that her night-time dreams have started to predict events in the real world - but she is eventually reassured by her Gran who tells her that the gift of second sight runs in their family and is nothing to be frightened of.
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So far so good - until you turn the last page and discover that Gaye's final dream looks forward to the date of her own death...! :shock:

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by comixminx »

starscape wrote:Looking at the original post, aren't they really asking 'which strip gave you nightmares?' as horror would include so many strips but the likes of Mytek never gave me nightmares.

Or is that not what's being asked as it's not very clear?
Well Starscape, my question wasn't so much 'which strip gave you nightmares?' as 'does giving you nightmares mean the story counts as horror?' What is your opinion?
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philcom55
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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I must admit I really like the idea that disproportionate and unfair punishment is an important element in making a story seem truly horrific. What's more it seems to me that the feeling of moral outrage this provokes - either at the unfairness of the gods or the universe - would be equally applicable to Oedipus Rex or Cathy Come Home. By contrast there's something a bit too formulaic and predictable about tales in which an out-and-out villain meets his just deserts via supernatural means (for example the commandant of a concentration camp treats his prisoners like subhuman vermin, only to be transformed into a defenceless mouse and left at the mercy of his own pampered cat).
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philcom55
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

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Incidentally, you should be able to get an idea of Scream from the issues on this site (though I'm not wholly comfortable with advertising any resource that seems to stretch copyright so far beyond the normal boundaries of Fair Use).

http://mark1814.wix.com/mag-a-zone#!scr ... c-uk/c1kpe

While a lot of the contents are one-off tales of the EC variety it's noticeable that the two lead features seem to be firmly based on Dracula and Frankenstein.

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by Phoenix »

philcom55 wrote:an out-and-out villain meets his just deserts via supernatural means (for example the commandant of a concentration camp treats his prisoners like subhuman vermin, only to be transformed into a defenceless mouse and left at the mercy of his own pampered cat).
To my way of thinking, Phil, that is funny rather than horrific, although if I had been the commandant I would obviously not have felt as amused. Where did that tale appear? I don't recall having read it.

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philcom55
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by philcom55 »

I just made it up from the standard formula (though I wouldn't be surprised if something similar has appeared several times over the years).

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by geoff42 »

Funnily enough, I was actually thinking about past horror comics/ stories from yesteryear and, likewise from earlier posts regarding Spellbound, Misty, and Scream, there wasn't much out there - not as a wholesale genre. Dracula Lives from Marvel UK springs to mind but not much else. "2000 ad" camouflaged its horror tangent with its sci-fi tag very well but then, of course, it got away with much that Action couldn't in the end.

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by paw broon »

Whether these could be described as horror or humour, I'm not sure, as the art is at times laughable, imo. John Spencer published "Spectre Stories - The unknown and supernatural", in the mid '60's. these were the other part of his stable, which also included Mark Tyme and Purple Hood, both of which have been mentioned on comicsuk previously. You can see some covers if you scroll down a bit on this page:-
https://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/cat ... er-comics/

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by standby4action »

philcom55 wrote:I think a lot of boys' comics were influenced by classic 'monster' films. For example Valiant's long-running Mytek the Mighty strip was clearly based on King Kong.
Have you seen this extensive FRENCH review? Who knew Mytek was THAT popular???

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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by SID »

SID wrote:I wonder if the UK market is ripe for a horror themed comic.
Just found out about London Horror Comic which has been around since 2006. I must admit, it does look interesting and has had good reviews. Anyway, ordered issue 7.
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Re: Horror comics / horror stories in British weekly comics

Post by big bad bri »

SID wrote:
SID wrote:I wonder if the UK market is ripe for a horror themed comic.
Just found out about London Horror Comic which has been around since 2006. I must admit, it does look interesting and has had good reviews. Anyway, ordered issue 7.
it does look interesting but not at 8 quid a pop i've had to stop judge dredd and commando at the mo as cant afford them.

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