Convention Programmes

[Peter Gray]

They are all just great.

Ian Knox weird monsters are wonderful..
What great adverts..

[Raven]

Again, the Robert Nixon, Brian Walker and Ian Knox ones are just wonderful (I always especially liked Major Jump, Horror Hunter).

Yes, Comics 101 was, so I believe, dedicated to 101 years of British comics, as opposed to other UK conventions of the period which were pretty much 100% supporting US comics.

I've never, ever, understood this UK vs USA comics thing. Why fans can't appreciate the merits of both equally is beyond me.

It was always the way though, wasn't it? You got the feeling that you couldn't give away UK comics at a mart. I mentioned an interview from circa 1979 with Dez Skinn in BEM fanzine in another thread and another thing I recall him saying in this was how he couldn't understand why there was absolutely no interest amongst British fans in a title like Look-In which had some of the most impressive comic art and illustrated covers you could hope for every week for 10p, but if it wasn't American ... (and specifically Marvel or DC ... )

Kev Sutherland had the right idea in the early 2000's by gearing the Bristol Expos towards British and American comics. It was great to see DC Thomson represented alongside Marvel Comics for example. Since then, UK cons have tended to give British comics more exposure than they did before 2000, but they're still leaning towards American comics somewhat.

Your typical comic mart still seems to be 99% old American comics. I find you're lucky to find maybe one or two tables with a small pile of old British weeklies, usually receiving barely any attention.

[Lew Stringer]

Your typical comic mart still seems to be 99% old American comics. I find you're lucky to find maybe one or two tables with a small pile of old British weeklies, usually receiving barely any attention.

Yes, very blinkered. Over 20 years ago that worked in my favour because at a London comic mart I spied a boxful of Odhams comics (in great condition) under a dealer's table. (I'd had those comics originally as a child but thrown most away and only had 20 or so.) He said he only bought them along because they were already in his van, and didn't actually think anyone would be interested at an American-biased event. I snapped up the whole lot, buying all the ones I could carry on that day and asked him to send the rest via mail. In one day I managed to get a near-complete run of Smash, Wham, and Pow for a bargain price, mostly all near-mint (or close) condition. Nostalgia overload.

There were other collectors of British comics who attended those London marts, - Denis Gifford and his mates for example, but they were mainly interested in comics prior to the 1950s. Mostly though, the hundreds of fans who attended those events were only interested in US comics. Their loss!

Lew

[STARBOY]

Not sue that's the same now , certainly in Central Scotland UK comics sell very well(although not many crop up now) especailly the older titles from 60s - early '70s and titles like Odhams and of course Beano, Dandy, Lion Valliant etc. Personally at the time of the 70s conventions (from '74 onwards) I had little/ no interest in UK comics, to me they were bland , printed on cheap paper and for kids there was no scene US comics (and uUK reprints) has a fan following you made pen pal mates and followed your fave writers artists , whereas (it seemed) the option was the Beano or Roy of The Rovers , squarely aimed at 10 -12 year old kids with no seeming fan scence - US comics may have been aime dat similar age but there was a large older vocal older fan base that intrigued (MHO) many UK readers - US had some rubbish but also some classics like Silver Surfer, Dracuila, Daredevil , Conan etc compared to Bash Street Kids there was no competition for most folk my age- perhaps not a true reflection, but I think that's how I (and most comic fans - not comic buyers) felt then - and yeah in hindsight perhaps not a grat decison in some cases to ignore so many UK comics.

[Raven]

I think it's true that this bias was narrowminded. One could argue that the quality of, say, a 1974 Look-In's artwork from Mike Noble, Martin Asbury (those colour Kung Fu double-pagers), John Burns and the painted covers by Arnaldo Putzu blew away most of what was going on in Marvel comics. Rather than bland we also had a much wider variety of subject matter and styles and often much more literate story telling.

I was very much into Marvel and DC, as well as UK titles like 2000 AD and Starlord as a young teen, but looking back at a lot of 70s Marvel and DC now, much of the scripting is excruciatingly bad and cornball. I find most of the Essentials and Showcases I've tried - with the exception of a few, like Jonah Hex - to be almost unreadable.

But I suppose the grass always seems greener on the other side - perhaps it's natural for people not to appreciate their own so much because they take it for granted.

[philcom55]

Actually US comics did have a minor presence at Comics 101, as can seen with the two Marvel-themed pages below. From what I remember the American Herb Trimpe was actually based in the UK for a time (and of course he was the first artist to draw the Captain Britain strip when it debuted later in 1976). By contrast the Marvel UK ad looks dreadfully lackluster to me with its hastily photocopied piece of Buscema artwork:



- Phil R.

[philcom55]

...Then again Britain already had it's own superhero franchise, as can be seen with these three Marvelman veterans:




Superstar artist Don Lawrence was much better known by then for his work on 'The Trigan Empire' - both here and throughout Europe - but does anyone have any idea where the seemingly pregnant Carrie appeared?

Of course Marvelman was revived soon after this by Alan Moore, causing Marvel to insist on a name change to Miracleman before it could be reprinted in the States (in spite of the fact that Marvelman predated the American company by several years! ). Ironically the original name is only now due to be reinstated following the character's recent acquisition... by the selfsame Marvel Comics!

- Phil Rushton

[STARBOY]

Fair point but sorry I can't agree that the UK had a wider range of subject matter , the US market of the 60s / 70s was vast and covered everything from Vaughn Bode, Crumb,Kurtzman, Kirby to Superman (US comics are not just the big 2) and subjects as diverse as Kung fu, superhero, politics, sex, humour, race, relationships, mature, spys, SF, horror, sport, slice of life , teens, kids humour etc - I think your sentense says it all, you have found a lot of what you have read "to be almost unreadable" I can't argue with that opinion I realise a lot of folk don't get or like US comics but the Essentials /Showcase books are not a true picture of the entire US output, they're the commercial side of things and yeah a lot of its pretty "cornball" (as is Carsons Cubs, Genral Jumbo, Adam Eterno etc) but they're all also pretty darn good and fun to me. I'm was talking as a 12/13 yr old at the time faced with titles like Vaghn Bodes Deadbone Erotica, Cheech Wizard, early Mad comics, early Natioanl Lampoon, the very best Superheros stuff (Kirby, Neal Adams , Rodgers, Ditko, Colan, BWS etc) Crumbs (et al) slice of life strips and blues (music) stories they were amazing exciting and aimed at older kids / adults in full colour and vert diffirent from what we had . I'm certainly not going to/and wasn't "slagging" off UK comics only stating re fandom that to a then 12/13 yr old they (UK comics) seemed bland and old fashioned (they were never unreadable to me, they were created by wonderful artists Ken Reid and Baxendale are stil amongst my fav of all artists - and I hope that wasn't taken from my first message). Its not a case of THE "grass being greener" the reply was based on the context of the 70s conventions and why most comics fans (not readers) then in the UK, seemed preffered US comics (I liked both but preffered US comics in general)

[Raven]

Fair point but sorry I can't agree that the UK had a wider range of subject matter , the US market of the 60s / 70s was vast and covered everything from Vaughn Bode, Crumb,Kurtzman, Kirby to Superman (US comics are not just the big 2) and subjects as diverse as Kung fu, superhero, politics, sex, humour, race, relationships, mature, spys, SF, horror, sport, slice of life , teens, kids humour etc -

I mean a wider variety of subject matter in the sense that, say, a typical single issue of Valiant would feature war, humour, sport, western, horror, fantasy, adventure and crime. A very mixed menu.

It's true what you say about all the genres available from the States, but it seemed to me that the scene's 'fan boys' most typically seemed to go for Marvel and DC stuff above all, and mostly superheroes.

And also that a fair proportion of the commercial US non-superhero stuff, like Tomb of Dracula would be written by a superhero fanboy in a superhero style (i.e. Dracula battling the villain of the month with corny superhero dialogue, with the writer showing no awareness of the world - for example the modern UK would be like a foggy Victorian Hammer film with Victorian cops and everyone speaking like Dick Van Dyke.)

For me, as far as DC went, I most preferred the mystery comics as a boy - House of Mystery, Midnight ... the Witching Hour, etc. - but the big two's output seemed to narrow further and further towards superhero output as time went on.

[philcom55]

To be honest I think those of us who were kids in the 1960s were incredibly lucky to have a wealth of outstanding British and American comics at our disposal. In fact I'd argue that it's this very dual heritage that enabled people like Moore, Gibbons, Bolland, etc. to give American comics such a shot in the arm during the so-called 'British Invasion' as they were therefore able to draw on the best of both traditions.

- Phil Rushton

[Raven]

To be honest I think those of us who were kids in the 1960s were incredibly lucky to have a wealth of outstanding British and American comics at our disposal. In fact I'd argue that it's this very dual heritage that enabled people like Moore, Gibbons, Bolland, etc. to give American comics such a shot in the arm during the so-called 'British Invasion' as they were therefore able to draw on the best of both traditions.

- Phil Rushton

I think it's also very much that the British writers (of the 'Invasion') quite clearly read widely *outside* comics, too - so they had a literary tradition as well as a varied comic tradition to draw on.

[Robbie Moubert]

but does anyone have any idea where the seemingly pregnant Carrie appeared?

Carrie appeared in a two page colour strip in Mayfair magazine. There was no dialogue and each month would see her losing all her clothes in "hilarious" circumstances. Lawrence was the original artist from 1972 - 75, replaced by Mario Capaldi and Steve Kingston.

More details here: http://www.carriestrip.com (NOT safe for work!)

[dreamticket]

I loved the Embleton piece. The Don Lawrence piece sort of pre-figures what Alan Moore would later do with Mike Moran (or was he always a bit of a slob? Anglo's MM was well before my time).

[philcom55]

Ooops! - I'd forgotten about this thread. To make up for lost time here are three more classic action/adventure artists from the Comics 101 convention booklet:





- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

...As well as three more 'Funny' artists of the 1970s:





The Nick Baker page is interesting as it also seems to include credits for his scriptwriters on 'Save Our Stan' and 'Smiler' (writers being all-too-often the 'forgotten men' of British comics! ). Does anyone know any more about 'Hitch' or 'G. Volke' I wonder?

- Phil R.