Is Look-In a comic or a magazine?

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 08 Apr 2006, 07:57

Okay, perhaps officially it falls between the two stools - but why it isn't it included in the individual comic title's section? I know the Look-In Archive has it's own forum, which is now just a load of spam-filled threads, but why can't we have a thread here of its own?

Earl · Post by **Earl** » 08 Apr 2006, 14:26

I count anything with more than about 40% stips as a comic so Look-in makes it. Some fantastic work. I was well into the Bionic Woman strip when it originally ran.

Look and Learn, now that was a magazine IMHO.

Earl.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 08 Apr 2006, 16:52

I'd say the early years of Look-In would definitely put it in a "comic" category. After all, TV Century 21 had a lot of features in it too, and the pre-WW2 comics had 50% text stories, but they're still regarded as comics.

As time passed, Look-In had less strips so I'd say it became a magazine. But kids and newsagents tended to still consider it a comic.

Lew

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 09 Apr 2006, 09:39

But more to the point, does it warrant its own section in the individual titles thread? I think it should...

How about it, Al?

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 09 Apr 2006, 11:26

I would define my reading period of Look-In as the mid 70's to early 80's. So that would make it worthy of being given it's own thread/title as during that period, it was a comic with the odd article. But as on this board, we would mainly be discussing the artists and writers of Look-In, would it be really worthwhile giving it it's own title? I know that Arthur Ransom started on Look-In...

Post by Al » 09 Apr 2006, 12:02

Yep, it certainly does warrant its own section. It was just an oversight on my part - sorry.

Any publication that has/had over a quarter of its pages dedicated to comic strips should be included here. I used to love reading the Please Sir, Timeslip and Catweazle strips.

So, it has been done. Look-In now has its own entry in the Comic Titles section.

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 09 Apr 2006, 15:50

colcool007 wrote: I know that Arthur Ransom started on Look-In...

Arthur Ranson... (with an 'n')

Yep, most people tend to think he was a late addition, doing 'Sapphire & Steel' and the occasional cover but he was doing comic stuff quite early ('Ken Goodwin' and 'Michael Bentine's Potty Time'), and did a fair number of covers from 1972 onwards...

He also did 'Target' in the comic of the same name, before it merged into 'TV Comic'.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 09 Apr 2006, 16:56

I must admit that, apart from the fantastic Mike Noble artwork on Timeslip I thought Look-In was far inferior to Countdown when both titles were launched in 1971.

Obviously the rest of the country thought differently.

While Look-In went from strength to strength (becoming the UK's top selling comic at one stage I believe), Countdown had numerous revamps and tinkerings to improve its sales (the most drastic being a title change to Tv Action).

Obviously Look-In's editor (Allan Fennel?) was wiser to the needs of his readers than Countdown's Dennis Hooper. By 1971 the "space age" was past its sixties heyday, wheras kids' fascination with tv and pop stars was still an area to exploit.

After issue 100, TV Action tried to imitate Look-In by including pop star pin-ups. Bad move. Unlike Look-In's mixed sex readership, TV Action was clearly a boy's comic. I'm sure I wasn't the only reader put off by a TV Action centrespread poster of Donny Osmond's grinning mug, as the comic folded about six months later!

Lew

kevf · Post by **kevf** » 11 Apr 2006, 08:46

I was a Look-In junkie, but my collection shows just how irreverent I was as a collector. I used to cut the big shiny glossy pictures out and stick them in my daily illustrated diary. The better the splash picture, the more likely it is that it's been chopped out, leaving my Look-Ins looking like unreadable Swiss cheese.

My diaries look good though. Sadly, being aged 12 to 15 at the time, they read like nothing on earth. The most exciting thing are my twice weekly comic reviews, and my drawings of the logos of that night's telly. As soon as anything exciting happened in my life, I became too busy to keep a diary.

For the record my favourite strips in Look-In, ie the ones that saw the most scissors-and-Cow-gum action, were:

John Burns' Tomorrow People and Bionic Woman
Martin Asbury's Kung Fu & 6 Million Dollar Man
Mike Noble's Follyfoot and Space 1999
Harry North's On The Buses and Doctor At Large/At Sea etc
Arnaldo Putzu's front cover paintings (he was the guy who'd formerly painted the Carry On film posters, and here he was painting David Cassidy and the Bay City Rollers)

chrissmillie · Post by **chrissmillie** » 11 Apr 2006, 21:29

Be great if they could collect the Space 1999, Sapphire & Steel etc into graphic novels. But then again IPC owns it, so probebly won't happen. Still, worth dreaming about...

Chris

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 11 Apr 2006, 23:00

chrissmillie wrote:Be great if they could collect the Space 1999, Sapphire & Steel etc into graphic novels. But then again IPC owns it, so probebly won't happen. Still, worth dreaming about...

Chris

I don't think IPC would still own the licence to those tv strips now.

I believe that rights to tv strips belong to whoever gets the license from the copyright holders of the tv series. (Which is why Panini UK could reprint the Doctor Who strips previously published by Polystyle). This licence has to be renewed every few years, and the publisher has to convince the copyright owner they're still the right company to produce official magazines for their product.

So if, for some mad reason, some new publisher negotiated with Gerry Anderson to publish a new Space:1999 comic, that publisher could acquire the rights to reprint the old strips.

I may be mistaken but I think that is the case. Can anyone else confirm this?

Lew

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