Comics UK

The Alan Moore photo story 'Profits of Doom' appeared in the issue of Eagle dated 12th June 1982. As long as your computer is a bit more up to date than mine you should be able to read it here:

http://cobwebbedroom.blogspot.co.uk/200 ... strip.html

- Phil R.

That's a great story, Phil. Wasn't the concept also used in the first series of Heroes, with the Japanese guy Hiro Nakamura, who was a comics enthusiast?

philcom55 wrote:The Alan Moore photo story 'Profits of Doom' appeared in the issue of Eagle dated 12th June 1982. As long as your computer is a bit more up to date than mine you should be able to read it here:

http://cobwebbedroom.blogspot.co.uk/200 ... strip.html

- Phil R.

I like it! Thanks for posting!

Misty also had a story about a horror comic used to punish wrongdoers. It was called 'A Picture of Horror'. Bullies pick on a girl, calling her teacher's pet because the teacher always seems to let her off punishment. She also likes to read horror comics. She learns magic and uses it to imprison the bullies in a panel in her comic.

Eagle had some photo stories set in other countries and time periods too. I remember somebody hunting for Doomlord travelled to "Washington DC" and "New York", which looked suspiciously like a bunch of alleyways in central London (or pictures from holiday brochures - these were always blurry and had a harsh, high resolution, being effectively a photo of a photo).
There was also a couple of World War 2 stories, one was about the French Resistance, and just about acceptable (because it had only a few characters, and they were usually creeping around at night). But one was about a platoon that gets lost during D-Day, for one of the biggest battles of the 20th century, the countryside looks incredibly empty (they've not even added distant smoke). On occasion they encounter tanks or aircraft, which look very pasted-on.
New Eagle dropped the photo stories at the same time as it switched to cheaper paper. While the stories that had been photos were "improved" (by switching to illustrations - one of them actually switched in the middle of a story, while others, such as Doomlord, started a new serial), the painted Dan Dare was reduced to murky spot colours.

felneymike wrote:Eagle had some photo stories set in other countries and time periods too. I remember somebody hunting for Doomlord travelled to "Washington DC" and "New York", which looked suspiciously like a bunch of alleyways in central London (or pictures from holiday brochures - these were always blurry and had a harsh, high resolution, being effectively a photo of a photo).
There was also a couple of World War 2 stories, one was about the French Resistance, and just about acceptable (because it had only a few characters, and they were usually creeping around at night). But one was about a platoon that gets lost during D-Day, for one of the biggest battles of the 20th century, the countryside looks incredibly empty (they've not even added distant smoke). On occasion they encounter tanks or aircraft, which look very pasted-on.
New Eagle dropped the photo stories at the same time as it switched to cheaper paper. While the stories that had been photos were "improved" (by switching to illustrations - one of them actually switched in the middle of a story, while others, such as Doomlord, started a new serial), the painted Dan Dare was reduced to murky spot colours.

Yes, it certainly shows that you couldn't do as much as a photostory as you could with a picture story, especially if it was produced on the cheap. And these stories you describe were produced in the days before computer graphics and digital manipulation. Surely those must be capable of doing a more eye-catching job of a photostory.

Tammyfan wrote: Yes, it certainly shows that you couldn't do as much as a photostory as you could with a picture story, especially if it was produced on the cheap. And these stories you describe were produced in the days before computer graphics and digital manipulation. Surely those must be capable of doing a more eye-catching job of a photostory.

You certainly could. But by that point you are not just taking a bunch of posed photos to replace the work of an artist, so much as taking a bunch of posed photos and then paying for an artist as well.

Marionette wrote:

Tammyfan wrote: Yes, it certainly shows that you couldn't do as much as a photostory as you could with a picture story, especially if it was produced on the cheap. And these stories you describe were produced in the days before computer graphics and digital manipulation. Surely those must be capable of doing a more eye-catching job of a photostory.

You certainly could. But by that point you are not just taking a bunch of posed photos to replace the work of an artist, so much as taking a bunch of posed photos and then paying for an artist as well.

Might as well just go back to picture strips then.

...You might also have to pay for the hire of party entertainments and animals!

IPC's 1983 revival of Princess was another comic that dropped its photo-strips when it switched to poorer quality paper. Before that happened, however, it did manage to feature one of the weirdest photo-series ever: Mr Evans, The Talking Rabbit!



- Phil Rushton

I have a few episodes of Mr Evans the Talking Rabbit, including the final one. Princess also ran another photostory, about a ghost ballerina, before she switched to poorer quality paper. You know, I kind of like the colour photostrips in Princess. It makes her a bit different to the black-and-white photostrips in Girl and the traditional picture stories in Tammy.