Comics UK

Great thread, guys-n-gals: I remember seeing a 'GUMS' IPC strip in around 1983, and this was when I first found out John [K] Geering's moniker , well over a decade after when his work first impressed me.

I do think that in the case of the ultra-conservative DCT, the decision to suppress the signatures of so many great artists was probably a shrewd , less-than-liberating policy from 'those upstairs' in the Dundee offices: to avoid creating a 'star system' at all [especially financial!] cost...


I do concede however, that when I was a very young comics-reader, I naturally assumed that all those lucky enough---and indeed gifted enough-----to be able to sell work regularly to publishing houses---were fabulously wealthy, or at least, earning a few hundred quid a week, in the days when I recieved 2/6 per week pocket-money.


Later on, of course, the penny dropped that in many cases, the artists and writers of these great comics were more often than not working in this field as a means to escape the rat-race offered elsewhere, for a pretty modest premium, and were happy enough to earn a living doing something they loved.

I had my name whited out by D C Thomson when I started in 1980 but not at IPC (I began working for both companies the same week). It became a bit of a game, trying to smuggle my name in. I only did a handful of things for IPC in 1980-3 but they allowed my signature. I then worked for The Dandy a lot during the 1980s, where I was always anonymous and frankly gave up signing pages even 'secretly'. By 1988 I was also working for other publishers, all of whom allowed signatures. I spent a few years in the 1990s not working for D C Thomson, and when I started again in 1997, I'd forgotten the rule and inadvertantly signed my name but this time it WASN'T whited out. Since then I've always signed (unless I forgot) and once signed an Owen Goal page twice (long story).
I'm in favour of the practice, but I don't want a system where the Artist's Name takes precedence over the quality of the product which should always be paramount.

I once read somewhere that an artist smuggled in the name of the writer of a story, as the name of a shop in a Starblazer.

Oddly, back in the Amalgamated Press text story days credits were commonplace. A story would be "By R. Smyth, author of The Sixth Form at Calcroft, Hounded to Death!, Island of Rubies &c &c". Mind you, some authors worked under more than one name - not, perhaps, by choice!
Artists would sign their illustrations, though would not be specifically credited under the title of the story. Some annuals at the time, especially those published by book publishers (for instance Blackie) would credit authors and illustrators on the contents pages.
As for "superstars", Herbert Strang (actually two people, their names combined in the manner of Grant Naylor or, er, Muto Ashirogi) was able to sell annuals through the twenties and thirties.

I'd be curious to know if any of the pro artists who've responded to this thread have ever landed any extra commissions as a result of signing their work - if it's not too personal a question?

Of course back in the pulp days it was quite the opposite. Pulps like Doc Savage were credited, but to house names, rather than the actual people. Thus, The Avenger was promoted as by the same writer as Doc Savage, because they used the same house name, Kenneth Robeson, when in fact it was written by Paul Ernst, who never did any Doc Savage.

Of course Odhams allowed some artists to sign their names in the 60s in Smash, Wham & Pow -particularly Ken Ried, Leo Baxendale - as noted elsewhere DCT allowed Dudley Watkins and others to sign their newspaper strips (Oor Wullie etc)

Anorak783 wrote:I'd be curious to know if any of the pro artists who've responded to this thread have ever landed any extra commissions as a result of signing their work...?

Oh yes! Why else sign it?

Sign it for pride!

I can pinpoint when DCT relaxed the rules on signatures. It was Bob Nixon's return to the fold to draw Roger and Ivy in 1985, followed of course by Tom Paterson, Sid Burgon, Terry Bave, and Trevor Metcalfe, all of whom had been signing their IPC work since the 1970s.

Of those drawing for the five comics at the time, only Steve Bright, Ken Harrison and Dave Sutherland now sign their work. Barrie Appleby still doesn't, while none of Bob McGrath, George Martin, Jimmy Glen, Charlie Grigg, Keith Reynolds and Ron Spencer ever seemed to sign their work before they retired, and I only remember Jim Petrie ever signing his last Minnie strip.

There are lots of names of Editors and writers in the shop-signs, or on the sides of buses, etc, in many 1960s BEANO comics: I find this especially intruiging, as I read these actual stories as a kid, not noticing or giving a second thought to the shop-signs etc in the stories, and years later I actually met a couple of these guys! Picking up vintage copies of the same 60s comics decades later, it was a real frission recognizing a couple of these names so far ahead in time later.

felneymike wrote:As for "superstars", Herbert Strang (actually two people, their names combined in the manner of Grant Naylor or, er, Muto Ashirogi) was able to sell annuals through the twenties and thirties.

As a matter of interest I just picked up The Purple Book for Boys, edited by Herbert Strang, and The Violet Book for Girls, edited by Mrs Herbert Strang! Both contain some fantastic illustrations. Pretty good for 50p each at a local boot sale; the former was published in 1910 and opens with a thrilling naval yarn set in "the coming war"!

Incidentally, one thing that puzzles me is why so many illustrators who were allowed to sign their work chose to do so with stylized signatures that are virtually indecipherable.

- Phil Rushton

It was always easy to tell a Tom Paterson strip by looking for the smelly sock... Did any other artist have similar "trademarks"?

John Geering sometimes put in a shark's fin cutting through a concrete road!

TwoHeadedBoy wrote:It was always easy to tell a Tom Paterson strip by looking for the smelly sock... Did any other artist have similar "trademarks"?

Good thing Barry Glennard signs his Numskulls strips, because they often feature the smelly sock too (due to Tom being the previous artist, apparently).

One of the best artists for 'bits of business' was undoubtedly Bill Hill [L Cars/ Black Bun, etc]-----his sideline characters usually got up to their own independent acts, apart from the main narrative---often this stuff was funnier than the main story. I guess this approach was his 'trademark'.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:One of the best artists for 'bits of business' was undoubtedly Bill Hill [L Cars/ Black Bun, etc]-----his sideline characters usually got up to their own independent acts, apart from the main narrative---often this stuff was funnier than the main story. I guess this approach was his 'trademark'.

Bill also did lots of strips for the women's papers where his signature was regularly included.

- Phil R.