Pat Mills on mergers

[Phoenix]

In order to avoid any possibility of members thinking that you had ignored my request, Phil, I would like to acknowledge here, in addition to the thanks in my Private Message, my gratitude to you for emailing me the entire article.

[DavidKW]

Nice one Helsbels!

Mills makes a lot of saliant points there with interesting anecdotes.

Adds fuel to my question on another blog as to why men collect & have interest in girls' comics.

Also fuels blog I'm trying to put together on June's demise, ridden by poor decisions & politics & could've/should'ves. It suggests that Mavis Miller left June's sinking ship before its closure.

[Tammyfan]

Nice one Helsbels!

Mills makes a lot of saliant points there with interesting anecdotes.

Adds fuel to my question on another blog as to why men collect & have interest in girls' comics.

Also fuels blog I'm trying to put together on June's demise, ridden by poor decisions & politics & could've/should'ves. It suggests that Mavis Miller left June's sinking ship before its closure.

I shall be looking forward to reading that piece!

[Kid Robson]

If I remember right, Pat hated the merger policy known as, "hatch, match and dispatch". He called it "disgraceful".

I think Pat's overstating the case. Merging two comics increased the circulation of the main one (at least for a while) and ensured the continuation of some good strips. Janus Stark and Adam Eterno managed a good long run well past the demise of the comics that birthed them. If not for the policy of merging, they'd have ceased when their comics came to an end as separate weeklies.

[Tammyfan]

If I remember right, Pat hated the merger policy known as, "hatch, match and dispatch". He called it "disgraceful".

I think Pat's overstating the case. Merging two comics increased the circulation of the main one (at least for a while) and ensured the continuation of some good strips. Janus Stark and Adam Eterno managed a good long run well past the demise of the comics that birthed them. If not for the policy of merging, they'd have ceased when their comics came to an end as separate weeklies.

I wondered if Pat's view was a bit harsh. I guess a lot also depends on how the merger goes. Some mergers saw the merging comic disappear very quickly, to the outrage of their readers; Misty was one example. Other mergers were very beneficial, such as June's merge with Tammy. And I suspect the (never fulfilled) Tammy merger with Girl would have been incompatible because Tammy was a picture story comic and Girl a photo story comic.

[Bigwords]

Adds fuel to my question on another blog as to why men collect & have interest in girls' comics.

I can't speak to the motivations of anyone else, but the opportunity to bring to light the obscure is a magnificent push - being able to find something... some piece of information, or the missing link between two disparate works, or to show that a creator was active in a period previously undocumented - is all I need. It is mind-crushingly difficult to put some of the data in order (and to get the right credits, when so much is anonymous), but worth it.

And then there's the OCD you have to take into account...