Comics UK

I have noticed that the later versions have been easily available for years in trade paperback version but this is the first time I have seen the early stuff from the British weekly comic from the 70's available as a collected work. ?10.55 for 316 pages seems a fair price to pay as well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Britain ... F8&s=books

I'd love to see the Hulk Weekly Black Knight (with the return of CB) strip from the 80s reprinted too. Hopefully in glorious black and white? Marvel 'Essential' edition anyone?

crow wrote:I'd love to see the Hulk Weekly Black Knight (with the return of CB) strip from the 80s reprinted too. Hopefully in glorious black and white? Marvel 'Essential' edition anyone?

There is a possibility this might happen as a UK trade paperback.

Lew

I have the Alan Moore book, plus a book with material set afterwards y Jamie Delano and others, so does this have all of these, plus more?

Cheers

Paul

paulvonscott wrote:I have the Alan Moore book, plus a book with material set afterwards y Jamie Delano and others, so does this have all of these, plus more?

Cheers

Paul

No, it's all the earlier material. The original Captain Britain strips from the mid to late 1970's. All good daft, trashy fun! I'm definitely buying one.

Lew

paulvonscott wrote:
I have the Alan Moore book, plus a book with material set afterwards y Jamie Delano and others, so does this have all of these, plus more?

Cheers

Paul

If I remember rightly it is Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe

Re: "If I remember rightly it is Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe"

Also John Buscema (for a little while), Fred Kida (on inks), Jim Lawrence (writing later episodes), Pablo Marcos (I think) and John Byrne.

That's quite a smorgasbord of creators.

David Simpson wrote:Re: "If I remember rightly it is Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe"

Also John Buscema (for a little while), Fred Kida (on inks), Jim Lawrence (writing later episodes), Pablo Marcos (I think) and John Byrne.

That's quite a smorgasbord of creators.

It starts out as a run of the mill superhero yarn but after a while it turns into a farce, with typical American-creator's archaic ideas of what England is like, and Captain Britain rescuing the Queen and then-Prime Minister Jim Callaghan from the Red Skull if memory serves me correctly. Artwork looks rushed in places too, as if the creators saw it as a second division job.

BUT having said all that it's worth the money in the "so bad it's good" category and it's the sort of really fast paced story they tend not to do these days.

Some of you young whippersnappers might not realise it but back when Marvel launched the Captain Britain weekly it was a huge event for readers. The very first Marvel UK character! Unfortunately the Victor-reading mass market didn't like it so it only lasted about 37 weeks before merging into Super Spider-Man (where the new
stories continued for a while).

And personally I still think his original costume was the best.

Lew

It starts out as a run of the mill superhero yarn but after a while it turns into a farce, with typical American-creator's archaic ideas of what England is like

I loved the early issues. Hurricane, the Reaver, Dr Synne...classic Bronze Age Marvel.

Popular myth is that CB was created by Americans. Chris Claremont is British (as is his X-Men associate John Byrne), whilst Herb Trimpe lived in the UK at the time.

Conversely, British comic writer John Wagner is in fact American (and proud of it).

Chris

Hopefully the book will correct the mistake in pagination from the first issue. Back when working on Captain Britain No.1, Claremont & Trimpe were told the comic had 8 colour pages for the strip. But whoever told them that forgot one page was the cover! So the first issue had an 8 page chapter but only 7 pages to run it in. The solution: kick off with page 2 and run what should have been the splash page to the story in the back of the comic as a pin-up!

Lew

I used to enjoy Herb Trimpe drawing THE HULK. Is it true that he was sacked, laid off...by Marvel Comics a few years back and then told his story to The New York Times ? I think he went into teaching and was much happier?!

tonyodonnell wrote:I used to enjoy Herb Trimpe drawing THE HULK. Is it true that he was sacked, laid off...by Marvel Comics a few years back and then told his story to The New York Times ? I think he went into teaching and was much happier?!

Yeah that rings a bell Tony. I think his style fell out of favour with Marvel. Personally I always loved his work!

Lew

Thanks for the info Lew. Does the book lead up to the Alan Moore one then? I am certainly very tempted to give it a go!

Herb Trimpe was fired by Marvel as well as nearly all the old staff in 1996.

Read http://www.hulklibrary.com/hulk/info/ne ... efired.asp

It really does bring home the fragile existance of comic artists.Even if it is only from the artist side,it is hard not to get angry and sympathise at the same time.

Off topic I know but according to wikipedia worked as a chaplin at the 9/11 site.

So all round good egg.

I have to say that Herb Trimpes work was great when inked by the great John Severin,. When Severin left he was given a succession of lesser (or less sympathetic) inkers and his work looked very average (poor at times). Herb redefinded his style in the 90s and oit was pretty cool but he seems to have moved on to other pastures a pity really but by all accounts he is a very well liked guy. Re Captain Britain - Ron Wilson also did a stint on the character - I was never a big CB fan to be honest until Moore and Davis' version -the character never struck me as "British" more an American version of England/London (even under Moore etc) . Now Jack Staff gets it soooo British you want to eat Fish n Chips afterwards.