Comics UK

There?s an item in ?Down the Tubes? that reads...

?Who says British comics are dead? Certainly not the staff of Titan Magazines and Panini UK, who are filling the newsagents shelves with their publications.

True, a lot of the material is reprinted from US comics, but the strips are lovingly repackaged for a British audience in beautifully printed collector's editions, in full colour with quality card covers -- and now, a third Titan DC Comics-inspired title is in the pipeline.?

I may be stupid, but to me the statements: ?Who says British comics are dead? and ?True, a lot of the material is reprinted from US comics,? are contradictory. Had the qualifying statement said, ?Although there?s a small amount of material from America, the bulk is British? I?d have had no complaint. And then we come to the pacifier, ?...but the strips are lovingly repackaged for a British audience...? As though that will make us feel better. It might make some people feel better, but not me.

Don?t get me wrong. I don?t want to seem anti-American. But neither do I want to give the impression that my proboscis is firmly inserted in Uncle Sam?s fundamental orifice. So what about the state of British comics? Of course, there are those who?ll argue that the independent comics market is healthy, thank you very much. But that?s based on a value judgement. For me the term ?healthy? needs to be qualified. Personally, I won?t consider the British independent comics industry to be truly healthy until it dominates the market. Unlike Titan and Panini they?re certainly not filling the newsagents shelves. Maybe they never will, but there?s no harm in hoping. I?m also sure that some of you will defend Titan and Panini. But that?s not the real point I?m trying to make. I recommend you to read Michael Bywater?s book, ?Big Babies.? His argument is that we?re being treated like babies. And he gives some good examples. The notice at Paddington station that tells you, ?Please be ready to move away with your luggage when you reach the top of the escalator.? Think about it. What else are you going to do when you reach the top? Or the CEO of Barclays who advised his kids not to borrow on credit cards ? in direct contravention to the adverts put out by the banks. Or the statement, ?If you give respect you?ll get respect.? As though respect had a magical quality and if you treat someone with respect they?re unable to do anything but return the compliment. I?m sorry, but at school we were taught that respect was earned. No, I think we should tell the patronising staff at Titan and Panini just where to stick their American material and concentrate on the home grown stuff.

Corporal Clott wrote:No, I think we should tell the patronising staff at Titan and Panini just where to stick their American material and concentrate on the home grown stuff.

Titan and Panini ARE producing home grown stuff. The profits from the US reprints have made this possible. Check out Wallace & Gromit Comic, Shaun the Sheep, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Action Man ATOM, Spectacular Spider-Man, Doctor Who Magazine.

Corporal Clott wrote:Personally, I won?t consider the British independent comics industry to be truly healthy until it dominates the market. Unlike Titan and Panini they?re certainly not filling the newsagents shelves. Maybe they never will, but there?s no harm in hoping.

The age of the newsagent comic may be dying, thanks to greedy retail giants, so the comics that are seeking new ways of reaching their audiences are being forward-thinking. Many indie comics can be found on the shelves of comics speciality shops across the UK, - or don't those shelves count?

Lew

Have to agree with Lew re his comments on specialist shops there are lots of good (non superhero and superhero) books out there being written, draw and published by UK people (as well as traditional US books being dominated by UK artists as well) I m not sure if folk are only interested in Buster and Lion type comics on sale in WH Smiths but UK comics have moved on so much (and I reckon the days of an adventure type UK comic book in WH Smiths has sadly gone the way of a good Scottish football striker ie dead never to return!) Lots of stuff out there and it seems pretty healthy to me - also books like Spaceships Away (for UK style comic enthusiasts) - I agree tho' that the UK newsagent market seems to have been taken over by (fantastic) US reprints but there are also some good UK artist writers doing strips in these comics (fair enuff they involve US characters-Rampage etc)the UK market (like the US) has just evolved.

I think the us reprints are a fantastic idea,especially now as you can not buy Us comics in sweetshops for the last few years.do you not remember years ago you could walk into any british news agent and there would be a pile of US marvel with a rubber band round em and then a week or so later a big pile of US DC comics with band would appear usually on the bottom sheves i think,until the next months batch.although sometimes they were spoilt by what seemed to be huge comag stickers onthe front cover.I think they came out a month or two after the comic shops like eternal or krypton got them in on import and you could always pick up stuff that the speciality shops sold out of.I seem to recall going around a number of shops and ended up with about 8 copies of xfactor 1 because i thought it would be worth something.
big bad bri

I remember the big T&P stamp that used to be put on the US imports which annoyed me no end (altho the OMAG stickers were worse) before there were any real specialist comic shops - then again there wasn't a big need for them in the late 60s - mid 70s as you could pick up tons of tiltes every months (Charlton, Atlas (70s version), DC, Marvel, Skywald, Archie, Harvey etc) saying that it was not always possible to get every issue of your fav comics so the specialist helped in that way - I read somewhere that the reason so many US comics initially came to the UK was that old copies were were used as ballast for ships and dumped / sold cheap when the ship docked - not sure if thats true -

Sorry about that. It just didn?t sound right. ?Who says British Comics are dead? and ?True, a lot of the material...? just sounded contradictory to me. But then I?m motivated by the Lure of the Pedant, (lest the Old Bill are monitoring this, the term refers to someone who can?t see the wood for the trees.) Perhaps Titan and Panini are planning on ?lovingly repackaging" some British work. And yes, I know there are those who love American comics, me included. My point had to do with semantics. The way the British language has been debased. I saw a sign in a restaurant that said, ?Chef wanted ? no experience needed.? Imagine what Gordon Ramsey would say to that. And all the other chefs who worked their b*lls off to win that title. Just what sort of person would write something like that? Don't they think first? And I also fear there?s a danger British comics may suffer the same fate as English restaurants. When did you last see a genuine English restaurant? True, our local chippy sells the traditional dish. But they also sell a large variety of Chinese meals. And when asked to do fish?n chips you get the impression they?re doing it reluctantly. I just tell them that if I wanted a Chinese meal I?d go to Peking.

Cap Haggis wrote:I read somewhere that the reason so many US comics initially came to the UK was that old copies were were used as ballast for ships and dumped / sold cheap when the ship docked - not sure if thats true -

Yes that's true. I don't know when the practice changed though, and US comics started to be imported as stock. Late sixties perhaps? (Distribution suddenly improved around 1969, I seem to recall.)

Regarding US reprints in UK comics: let's not forget it's hardly a new thing. Alan Class and Top Sellers were prolific with such comics in the sixties/seventies (Creepy Worlds, Korak, Tarzan, etc). And unlike today's publishers, they never used the profits from them to help finance brand new material.

Lew

Corporal Clott wrote:I recommend you to read Michael Bywater?s book, ?Big Babies.? His argument is that we?re being treated like babies. And he gives some good examples. The notice at Paddington station that tells you, ?Please be ready to move away with your luggage when you reach the top of the escalator.? Think about it. What else are you going to do when you reach the top?

As more people of all ages seem to be increasingly losing their spacial awareness they often stop at the top of escalators to see where they have to go next. I've lost count of the times I've asked people to move because they've been so stupid as to halt at the top of escalators in Birmingham station.

Also, Paddington probably put that notice there to cover themselves for H&S reasons.

(I know you only used the escalator anecdote as an example, but sadly some people do need an idiot's guide to life unfortunately.)

Lew

I?d put myself into that category. For example, when doing a Commando story depicting Germans, I?d have the Hun saying things like, ?Himmel! What was that?? or ?Teufel! It?s the Englanders.? It never occurred to me that the reader would recognise the Germans by their uniforms. So why did I use a mixture of German and English? On the other hand, ?Heavens! What was that?? and ?Devil! It?s the Englishmen,? loses some of its dramatic effect. Actually, I suspect real German soldiers would have used somewhat stronger terms. In fact, I?ve been tempted to insert a few Scheisses and a Ficken or two. But Bywater has a point. Politicians and corporations often treat us like children. Take that advert for the new chocolate covered digestives. Do Cadbury honestly expect us to believe that these things are so exciting they can make adults scream with joy? Would people actually leap out of a tube train to grab a bar of chocolate? And what about those presenters on BBC children?s programs who act and talk like their audience. Waving their arms about and squealing. I can imagine the producer saying, ?Okay, I know you think that animated cartoon is a load of crap, but just pretend it?s the greatest thing since sliced bread.? It?s all rather sad. I know these people are young, but they?re not that young. If they talked and acted like that in real life they?d be told to grow up. Yet they seem to think kids expect it. I?d find it rather patronising. Why should they have to pretend they?re like them? They?re not and the kids know it. So how about comics? Are the staff who work on them guilty of the same thing?

Corporal Clott wrote:If they talked and acted like that in real life they?d be told to grow up. Yet they seem to think kids expect it. I?d find it rather patronising. Why should they have to pretend they?re like them? They?re not and the kids know it. So how about comics? Are the staff who work on them guilty of the same thing?

The comment you quoted as "patronizing" at the top of this thread wasn't made by a comics editor. Click on the full article and you'll see it's Ian Wheeler (an articulate and intelligent comics fan) interviewing Titan editor Ned Hartley. It's an enthusiastic piece, but hardly as dumbed down as the words of a kids' tv presenter.

http://www.downthetubes.net/features/in ... 80407.html

The interview only covers Titan's British editions of US comics because that's what this particular person edits! It doesn't mean Titan aren't producing new material for their other titles, which they are. As well as the titles I've already mentioned they're also doing a new Tank Girl series with artwork by Mike McMahon.

And, to balance the American reprint which seems to be so objectionable for some reason, they also have very nice reprint volumes of British strips James Bond, Modesty Blaise, Steel Claw, Charley's War, The Spider (as King of Crooks), and (next year) Jeff Hawke. October will also see a collection of the Norwegian strip Nemi.

So all in all Titan are a bit more than just a packager of three American reprint comics.

Lew

British indie comics. On shelves. In a shop.

[IMG:500:333]http://i4.tinypic.com/4v3lahc.jpg[/img]

Online: http://www.smallzone.co.uk/

Lew

Where is that shop?

As regards to kids' TV, I think maybe it's your attitude that's a little jaded, Corp. Not being rude, I think that just because you can't muster up any enthusiasm for a thing doesn't mean that anyone displaying enthusiasm must be faking it. I've been lucky enough to meet a few kids' tv presenters and their normal personalities are bigger than they seem on screen. The camera sucks charisma out of people.

Just an idea. And I know a few comics workers, and they're as mixed a bunch as you'll find in any other workplace. Some are keen, some see it as a job, others you wonder why they don't go and find another career if they're so miserable.

colcool007 wrote:Where is that shop?

Doesn't anyone follow the links I give?

It's in Shrewsbury. But as I said earlier, some other comic shops also sell indie comics now.

Lew

The Fact that there is a NEWSTAND market for Marvel and DC reprints means that if British comics are dead they shouldnt be.

I have said this before the nursery market is booming, the reprint market aimed at teenagers is dooing very well, the semi-comics like toxic and Beano Max are doing well. I think its only a matter of time before Titan or DCT bite the bullet and fill the gap in the market between the 2000ad family, Commando and the nursery market and produce am Adventure comic of some sorts aimed at teenagers.

David