Boardman Books

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T.V. Boardman, Ltd. (Boardman Books) was a London publishing houses that turned out both paperback and hardcover books,

Boardman pioneered British reprinting of American comics. During the week of 16 October 1937, the first issue of a Boardman tabloid comic in the traditional British format, Okay Comics Weekly, arrived at newsagent's all over England. The content was mostly American newspaper strips and the first issue sported a cover strip by Will Eisner. Okay lasted only until 26 February 1938, or a total of twenty issues. At about this same time, other British publishers experimented with reprinting American comics and imports of the real thing began to land on British shores. It rapidly became apparent that a significant British market for American comic books existed.

However, the British declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939, immediately halted the official importation of American comics into the United Kingdom although masses of American comics intended for G.I.s began arriving in 1942. Already with a taste for American comics, Thomas Volney Boardman, Sr., made an arrangement with

After World War II, Boardman continued comic book production with a series of monthly comics produced by rotogravure and priced at a modest 3 pence. In the late-1940s, they introduced a number of children's annuals under their Popular Press line, intended primarily for the Christmas market and sold almost exclusively through the Woolworth's department store chain. These annuals contained a mixture of text and comic strip stories. Some were original British creations while others were reprinted from Quality Comics. In the late 1950s, increased competition with now legal American comic book imports caused Boardman to drop their comics annual line. The last, Buffalo Bill True West Annual saw print in 1961.

The firm ceased operations entirely in 1967, although the Bloodhound Mystery line continued for several years from other publishers. The Bloodhound Mystery authors included

• She Modelled Her Coffin
• The New Shining White Murder
• A Corpse in Camera
• Death and Still Life
• The Two Way Mirror
• The Scream

Comic book titles

Original titles

• Annuals (mixture of original stories and reprints of Quality Comics material):
  • Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual (12 issues, Christmas 1949–1960)
  • Super Coloured Comic Annual (3 issues, 1949–1951)
  • Ajax Adventure Annual (1 issue, Christmas 1952) — 192 pp.
  • Adventure Annual (1 issue, Christmas 1953) — 192 pp.
  • New Spaceways Comic Annual (1 issue, Christmas 1954) — 192 pp.
  • Okay Adventure Annual (3 issues, 1955–1957)
  • Okay Annual of Adventure Stories (2 issues, 1958–1959)
  • First Book of Heroes (1960) — no comics content
• Buffalo Bill (17 issues, 1948–1954)
• Buffalo Bill True West Annual (1 issue, 1961)
• The Lone Rider (1 issue, 1950)
• Mystery Comics (5 issues, 1940–1941)
• Roy Carson (8 issues, February 1948 – February 1951)
• Roy Carson Comic (2 issues, January 1953 – 1954)
• Spaceways Comic (1 issue, November 1953)
• Super Funnies (5 issues, 1940–1941)
• Swift Morgan (7 issues, March 1948 – April 1951)
• Swift Morgan Space Comic (2 issues, March–November 1953)

Reprint titles

from Quality Comics, unless otherwise noted

• Blackhawk (16 issues, Jan. 1949–1951)
• Buccaneers (1 issue, May 1951)
• Captain Midnight (1 issue, 1946) — reprinted from Dell Comics
• Crack Western (3 issues, 1948–1954)
• Doll Man (1 issue, 1951)
• Feature Comics (5 issues, 1940–1941)
• Okay Comics Weekly (20 issues, 16 October 1937 – 16 February 1938)
• Plastic Man (4 issues, 1954)
• Smash Comics (6 issues, 1940–1941)
• The Spirit
  (2 issues, February–July 1949)

Sources

• Gore, Matthew H. "Collector's Corner: Denis McLoughlin," Goldenage Treasury Volume One. AC Comics: Longwood, Florida, 2003. Unpaginated.
• Hertzberg, Francis. Denis McLoughlin: The Master of Light & Shade. Gryphon Books: Brooklyn, New York, 1995.
• Holland, Steve. "The Lancashire Cowboy and the Bloodhound: The Art of Denis McLoughlin," Paperback Parade #24 (June 1991), 60–62.
• Holland, Steve. The Mushroom Jungle. Zeon Books: Dilton Marsh, England, 1993.
• Lesser, Thomas M. "The Boardman Hardcovers," Paperback Parade #38 (April 1994), 21–44.

External links

• T. V. Boardman at the Grand Comics Database
• T. V. Boardman Ltd. at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)