Moderator: AndyB
Apparently not. I've just reread Ken's own account of the strip's creation and it seems that the name was suggested to him by Alf Wallace (Managing Editor of the Odhams Group) upon being told of his liking for comic horror.I wrote:Could it be that he intended to offer the character to Thomson's up until that point...? )
Purely out of interest - which Ken's own account are you referring to? Is it the interview in Golden Fun fanzine or some other source? Ken Reid wasn't interviewed very often in his day (probably same as all the other British artists). I am aware of two interviews - one printed in Savoy book of Fudge, and the other one in Golden Fun. Are there any others?philcom55 wrote:I wrote:I've just reread Ken's own account of the strip's creation...
£24 is still £24 even after decimalization. However £30 (the amount Ken was offered) was an impressive amount for 1964, when an average weekly wage would be about £12 or so. For Thomsons to raise his rate from £18 to £24 would have been a hell of a jump. It seems nothing now, but back then it was huge, believe me.Digifiend wrote:What's so unreasonable about £24 a page? Don't know what that would be worth now mind, considering inflation and decimalisation. Anyway, Thomson's loss was Odhams gain.
There was a time, around then, when Kev O'Neill and myself had briefly discussed going up to Manchester to interview Ken for a fanzine I was publishing at the time. We never did contact him unfortunately. My fault for not following up on Kev's suggestion. I suppose I assumed Ken would be around for much longer.philcom55 wrote:It's from the Golden Fun one. The sad thing is that in 1984 it seemed there would be plenty of time for many more interviews in the years to come...
- Phil R.
How much were a couple of INdecent comics though?ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:[... you could buy two decent comics for this amount].
That average wage means £24 would have been more than a week's wages just for one strip - and Ken drew Roger and Jinx for Beano, plus whatever he was doing for the other comics at the time. So I see now that even at £18 per strip, he was already on a good deal. Odhams must've been desperate to capture him to offer what must be the equivalent of about £300 now!ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:regarding the value of money in the 1960s: I recently looked through some newspaper archives from 1969, and the average UK wage was 22 quid a week!----and no paid holidays until you worked a full year! Even in the early 70s, I remember someone from school 'blowing' 2 quid on a night out on the town with a girl, and this was a small fortune then........the value of money has been completely warped since decimilization and inflation [there used to be twelve pennies in a shilling ---the old equivalent of todays' 'five pee' in the 60s, and you could buy two decent comics for this amount].
KEN'S wages were actually pretty good for the time-period.
Basically, it's a x10 modifier for inflation, as a weekly wage full time would now be nearly £200. Before tax admittedly, so don't complain at me if your take home pay is less than that! 
Comic prices have increased disproportionately though, as Beano and Dandy were 3d at the time - just over 1p (1p = 2 1/2p, so the x10 modifier I used should only make it about 12p, so the Beano's price has gone up x100, and Dandy x200 (based on current prices of £1.25 and £2.50).
