British comics

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

British comics
Earliest publications1828[1]
Publishers
Publications
Creators
Characters
LanguagesBritish English
Comics
Speech balloon
Comics studies
Methods
Media formats
Comics by country and culture
Community
icon Comics portal
Part of a series on the
Culture of the United Kingdom
History
People
Historic peoples

Modern ethnicities

Languages
folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music and performing arts
Media
Sport
Monuments
Symbols

A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British.[2]

British comics are usually

Cartoon Museum, states: "When comics like The Beano and Dandy were invented back in the 1930s – and through really to the 1950s and 60s – these comics were almost the only entertainment available to children."[3]

In 1954,

Escape Magazine. While the bestselling comics in the UK have historically been native products,[citation needed] American comic books and Japanese manga are also popular.[quantify
]

Overview

Cover to 27 December 1884 edition of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday.

The description comics derived from the names of popular titles such as Comic Cuts, and from the fact that in the beginning all the titles presented only comical (i.e. humorous) content.

British comics typically differ from the American comic book. Although historically they shared the same format size, based on a sheet of 30 x 22 inch imperial paper, folded, British comics have moved away from this size, adopting a standard magazine size. Until that point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all-colour format in 1993.

Originally aimed at the semi-literate working class (in that it replaced the text-based stories of the

story papers
with picture-based stories, which were less challenging for a poorly educated readership), the comic gradually came to be seen as childish (in part because, due to gradual improvements in public education, children were eventually the only remaining market for a format designed to be unchallenging for the reader). Hence by the mid 20th Century it was being marketed exclusively towards children.

Historically, strips were of one or two pages in length, with a single issue of a comic containing upwards of a dozen separate strips, featuring different characters. In more recent times, strips have become longer and have tended to continue over a number of issues and periods of time.

Whilst some comics contained only strips, other publications such as

pop stars and television/film actors, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure. For boys there were, historically, similar publications based upon soccer, such as Shoot!
, which featured non-fiction picture articles about popular footballers, league clubs, and general football news, accompanied by a limited range of football-based comic strips.

In British comics history, there are some extremely long-running publications such as

Boys' Own Paper
, another long-running publication which was aimed at boys in a slightly older age group, lasted from 1879 to 1967.

There has been a continuous tradition, since the 1950s, of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles such as Air Ace, inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army, navy and Royal Air Force, mainly in the two world wars. There have also been some romance titles and some westerns in this format.

On 19 March 2012, the British postal service, the Royal Mail, released a set of stamps depicting characters and series from British comics.[6] The collection featured The Beano, The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD.

History

19th century

In the 19th century, story papers (containing illustrated text stories), known as "penny dreadfuls" from their cover price, served as entertainment for British children. Full of close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from a book, except that they were somewhat shorter and that typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales.

These serial stories could run to hundreds of instalments if they were popular. And to pad out a successful series, writers would insert quite extraneous material such as the geography of the country in which the action was occurring, so that the story would extend into more issues. Plagiarism was rife, with magazines profiting from competitors' successes under a few cosmetic name changes. Apart from action and historical stories, there was also a fashion for horror and the supernatural, with epics like Varney the Vampire running for years. Horror, in particular, contributed to the epithet "penny dreadful". Stories featuring criminals such as 'Spring-Heeled Jack', pirates, highwaymen (especially Dick Turpin), and detectives (including Sexton Blake) dominated decades of the Victorian and early 20th-century weeklies.

Cover of Illustrated Chips in 1896 featuring the first appearance of the long-running comic strip of the tramps Weary Willie and Tired Tim.

Comic strips—stories told primarily in strip cartoon form, rather than as a written narrative with illustrations—emerged only slowly. Scottish-born newspaper proprietor

comic,[7] though at first it tackled topical and political subjects along the same lines as Punch. The magazine was heavily illustrated, with cartoons by John Proctor, known as Puck, among others,[8] and benefitted from innovations in the use of cheap paper and photographic printing.[9][10] Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884) is regarded as the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character (Ally Sloper).[11]
This strip cost one penny and was designed for adults. Ally, the recurring character, was a working-class fellow who got up to various forms of mischief and often suffered for it.

In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted before the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips, both published by Amalgamated Press. These magazines notoriously reprinted British and American material, previously published in newspapers and magazines, without permission. The success of these comics was such that Amalgamated's owner, Alfred Harmsworth, was able to launch the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail newspapers on the profits.[12]

Comics were also published as accompaniments to women's magazines at the end of the century. Jungle Jinks, which held the honor of being the longest running British comic until 1954, first appeared in 1898 as a supplement to Home Chat; drawn by Mabel F. Taylor, it was the first anthropomorphic animal British comic.[13][14]

20th century

Cover to The Beano,
January 6, 1940 edition.

Over the next thirty years or so, comic publishers saw the juvenile market as the most profitable, and thus geared their publications accordingly, so that by 1914 most comics were standalone booklets aimed at eight- to twelve-year-olds.

The

Topper and Beezer
. However, the originators of this format have outlasted all rivals, and The Beano is still published today.

The problem which now faces society in the trade that has sprung up of presenting sadism, crime, lust, physical monstrosity, and horror to the young is an urgent and a grave one.

— The Times, 12 November 1954[15]

In the early 1950s, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain", prompting what in retrospect has been characterised as a

sunset clause, in 1969 the Act was made permanent,[19] and continues to be in force today, represented, for example, in the Royal Mail prohibition against mailing horror comics and the matrices used to print them.[20]

Cover of Eagle,
12 October 1963.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the most popular comic for older age-group boys was

Hulton Press. Eagle was published in a more expensive format, and was a gravure-printed weekly, with regular sales of nearly one million.[21] (This format was used originally by Mickey Mouse Weekly during the 1930s.) Eagle's success saw a number of comics launched in a similar format — TV Century 21, Look and Learn and TV Comic being notable examples. Comics published in this format were known in the trade as "slicks." At the end of the 1960s, these comics moved away from gravure printing, preferring offset litho
due to cost considerations arising from decreasing readership.

However, the boys' adventure comic was still popular, and titles such as

Fantastic
.

By 1970 the British comics market was in a long-term decline, as comics lost popularity in the face of the rise of other popular pastimes for children. Initially, the challenge was the rising popularity of television, a trend which the introduction of colour television to Britain during 1969 set in stone. In an effort to counter the trend, many publishers switched the focus of their comics to television-related characters. The television shows of Gerry Anderson, such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, had begun this in the mid-1960s with the launch of tie-in comics such as TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope, which included strips related to Anderson's TV shows (as well as other popular programs of the era). Polystyle Publications already published a TV-related comic for young children called TV Comic, and in 1971 moved into the older market with Countdown (later retitled TV Action). The teenage market saw Look-in magazine feature strips solely based on popular television programs.

Another strand of the reaction to television was the launch of comics focused entirely on association football (a sport as popular as television amongst boys), with titles such as Shoot and Scorcher and Score. Those comics that didn't compete with the popularity of television began to close down, merging with the few survivors.

In the 1970s very few boys' comics in the "slick" format were launched, although Polystyle's Countdown was one exception, launching in 1971 with content similar to

Boyfriend and Blue Jeans, which had changed their content and were featuring mainly product-related articles and photo comics
.

In

Doctor Who Weekly
, launched in 1979.

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the

Obscene Publications Act because of their content. The Oz defendants were convicted,[23] although the conviction was overturned on appeal.[22] The Nasty Tales defendants were cautioned.[citation needed
] However, both these comics ceased publication soon after their trial, as much due to the social changes at the end of the counter-culture movement as any effect of the court cases. These were always adult magazines, not aimed at the mainstream children's market.

In the mid-1970s, British comics became more action-oriented. The first such title to be launched was

House of Commons. As a result, and despite the comics' popularity, IPC decided to drastically tone down the content after 36 issues, and issue 37 was pulped. When it returned to newsstands it was far less violent, which neutered the comic's appeal. The title quickly declined and was merged with Battle.[24]

Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD,
26 February 1977.

Action's position as the UK's most popular title was taken over by 2000 AD, a science-fiction comic launched in 1977 by IPC. Created as a comic for older boys, it also held appeal for teenage and even adult readers. In the 1960s IPC began to source comic art from Spain, mainly for financial reasons. This trend was continued through to the launch of 2000 AD. Carlos Ezquerra is the most notable Spanish artist to have worked in British comics, having worked on both Battle and 2000 AD, and is credited with the creation of the look of Judge Dredd.[25]

Star Wars Weekly, published by Marvel UK, launched in 1977, lasted until 1986. In 1982 Eagle was relaunched, this time including photo comics, but still with Dan Dare
as the lead story. The comic moved it from the front page to the centre pages to allow a more magazine-style cover.

In 1978 The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot began serialisation in Near Myths (and continued in other comics after that title folded). Luther Arkwright was later collected as a graphic novel, and has been called the first British graphic novel.[26]

In 1982 Dez Skinn launched Warrior, possibly the most notable comic of the period, as it contained both the Marvelman and V for Vendetta strips, by Alan Moore. Warrior was a British equivalent of Heavy Metal magazine. Marvelman was a Captain Marvel clone that Skinn acquired, although the legality of that acquisition has been questioned. In Moore's hands, the strip became an "adult" style superhero, and was later reprinted, with the story continued, in an American full-color comic, with the name changed from "Marvelman" to "Miracleman" to avoid any lawsuits that Marvel Comics may have considered. Eventually, Warrior succumbed to copyright issues.[27]

Adult comics also witnessed a slight resurgence with

bande dessinée, and Escape magazine, published by Paul Gravett, former Pssst! promotions man. Escape featured early work from Eddie Campbell and Paul Grist
, amongst others. Neither comic managed to survive in the vagaries of the comics market, Escape beset by lack of publisher interest.

During this period a number of smaller publishers were formed to provide inventive publications appealing to niche markets. Congress Press was one of these companies, releasing titles such as Birthrite, Heaven & Hell and a graphic novel, Spookhouse. Other small publishers of the era included Harrier Comics (1984–1989) and Acme Press (1986–1995).

Most of the surviving titles published by IPC, Fleetway, and DC Thomson were merged into each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the popularity of comics waned further in response to a surge in the popularity of television (a popularity which received another major boost from the late 1970s onward as domestic

video games (as inexpensive home computers such as the ZX Spectrum
, mainly used for gaming, became available from 1980). Although new comics titles were launched in this period, none seemed to find a sustainable audience.

Notable comics of the period included

IPC's comics holdings. It was aimed at readers who had outgrown 2000 AD, and featured first works by Garth Ennis and Sean Phillips
amongst others.

One publication of that period did find an audience.

Zit
, all of which failed to achieve Viz's longevity and folded, while Viz remained one of the United Kingdom's top-selling magazines.

21st century

Beginning in 2000, the British market arrested its long decline. However, there is no sign of any great growth in circulation for the few remaining titles, and no sign of any new launches from mainstream publishers into the comics arena.

Solar Wind or FutureQuake, aided by the cheapness and increasingly professional appearance of desktop publishing programs. It is from this scene that the UK's new talents now tend to emerge (e.g. Al Ewing, Henry Flint or Simon Spurrier
).

The English musician

The Story of OVO which was released in a CD-booklet-shaped comic book as part of the CD edition with the title "OVO The Millennium Show". The 2000 Millennium Dome Show based on it.[29]

After they were purchased by Rebellion Developments, both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine have seen the release of more adaptations and trade paperbacks, including complete reprint collections of the entire runs of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock. Starting in 2006 the Megazine began a regular small press section[30] which usually features an article on a title by Matthew Badham or David Baillie and a small press story.

While British companies and creators have helped create the market for

Self Made Hero, the latter having an imprint focused on manga adaptations of the works of Shakespeare.[36]

This highlights another recent change, as there has been an increase in British

MangaQuake
. Creators involved in those collections who have gone on to do several manga style graphic novels include British based Japanese creators such as Chie Kutsuwada and Michiru Morikawa, as well as, conversely, a British writer based in Japan, Sean Michael Wilson.

Released at the start of the 21st century was

BeanoMAX
(which also started in 2007) also borrowed some of Toxic's features. That title was then replaced by The 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine, which was later renamed Epic before ending in 2019.

The DFC launched at the end of May 2008 drawing together creators from the small press and manga, as well as figures from mainstream British comics and other fields,[39] including author Philip Pullman.[40] As it transpired, it didn't make it to its first birthday, ending with issue 43. A new more successful comic, however, The Phoenix, began in January 2012, a successor to The DFC[41] which has already reached 500 issues.[42]

Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of

Battle Action
, with each issue featuring two complete stories.

Reprint market for US comics

After

Atlantic
.

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle — a female version of Tarzan (with an element of H. Rider Haggard's "She who must be obeyed" – She... Na!)[45] — was licensed from the Eisner & Iger studio for a British/Australasian tabloid, Wags, in 1937.[46] The success of this character led to the Sheena stories being repackaged for publication in the United States for Fiction House's Jumbo Comics, thus exporting the character back to her country of origin.[46]

Beginning in the 1940s, the available American comics were supplemented by a variety of black-and-white reprints of

L. Miller & Son, the Arnold Book Company, Alan Class Comics, and the importer/distributor/publisher Thorpe & Porter
.

Thorpe & Porter began by publishing Dell's Four Color series and Classics Illustrated in the UK. They also republished similar formatted titles under various names. Thorpe & Porter' Stratos imprint published a long-running Western comics series, Kid Colt, Outlaw, which contained black-and-white reprints from both Atlas Comics and DC. T & P also published some material never published in the US.

When

L. Miller & Son copied the entire Captain Marvel idea in every detail, and began publishing their own knock-off under the names Marvelman and Young Marvelman, taking advantage of different copyright laws.[47] These clone versions, created by British writer/artist Mick Anglo, continued for a few years and, as seen above, were revived years later in Warrior. The British publishers reprinted many other American series, including the early 1950s Eerie and Black Magic in black-and-white format. These usually contained the American stories related to the cover but also additional backup stories to fill up the 64 pages.[citation needed
]

In 1959, the UK ban on direct importation was lifted.[43] Thorpe & Porter became the sole UK distributor of both DC and Marvel comics. The comics were printed on American printing presses — along with a special cover giving the British price instead of the price in cents — and shipped across the Atlantic. Thus it was that brand-new American-printed copies of Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, and countless others appeared in the UK.

Thorpe & Porter went bankrupt in 1966 and was purchased by the distribution arm of

TV21 in 1970–1971. And in 1972 Marvel launched Marvel UK, cornering the market on Marvel reprints; key titles included The Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly. The importation of Marvel's American comics continued to be erratic due to Marvel UK's promotion of their own reprints, which meant some titles were not offered for periods — The Amazing Spider-Man being a prime example.[48]

The reprint market really took off in the 1980s with

Forbidden Planet's, which was owned by the same company) marketing consultant at the time; he helped popularise the term "graphic novel" for the trade paperbacks they were releasing, which generated a lot of attention from the mainstream press.[49]

Titan Magazines
.

Reprints of Japanese and European comics

Since 2005, a small selection of American translations of the most popular Japanese comics have been reprinted in the UK by major publishers such as Random House (through their Tanoshimi imprint) and the Orion Publishing Group. Both no longer publish British versions of Japanese comics; Random House abandoned all Japanese comics translations in early 2009, while Orion switched to publishing the original American versions.

Simultaneously, the very small press Fanfare/Ponent Man published a few UK-exclusive English-language editions of alternative Japanese manga and French bande dessinée.[50]

List of British comics

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

There have been hundreds of comics in the UK over the years, including:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Bell's Life in London #330". Grand Comics Database.
  2. ^ https://artrepublic.com/blogs/news/471-british-comic-book-art-peter-blake-jamie-hewlett-html
  3. ^ a b Armstrong, Stephen. "Was Pixar's Inside Out inspired by The Beano?" The Telegraph. 27 July 2015
  4. ^ "Dandy owner DC Thomson to end comic's printed edition", BBC News, 16 August 2012, retrieved 16 August 2012
  5. ^ Tomlinson, Alan; Young, Christopher (2000), "Golden Boys and Golden Memories: Fiction, Ideology, and Reality in Roy of the Rovers and the Death of the Hero", in Jones, Dudley; Watkins, Tony, A Necessary Fantasy?: the Heroic Figure in Children's Popular Culture: Vol 18, Garland Publishing. pp. 190–191
  6. ^ "Beano's Dennis the Menace on Royal Mail comic stamps". BBC News. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  7. ^ James Chapman, British Comics: A Cultural History, Reaktion Books, 2011, p.
  8. ^ John Adcock, "Funny Folks", Yesterday's Papers, 29 September 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2020
  9. ^ Kimit Muston, "It's Just a Joke", The Public "I", November 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020
  10. ^ Nicholas Hiley, "Comic Periodicals", Gale.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020
  11. ^ Birch, Dinah (24 September 2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 240.
  12. ^ Sabin, p21
  13. OCLC 39778834
    .
  14. ^ Knudde, Kjell (12 February 2020). "Mabel F. Taylor". Lambiek. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  15. ^ a b c Sringhall, John (July 1994). "Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s". History Today. 44 (7). Archived from the original on 4 May 2012.
  16. ^ Fowler, William. "Miller, Arnold Louis (1922-) Biography". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  17. ^ "22 February 1955 → Commons Sitting → Orders of the Day". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 February 1955. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  18. ^ "Children And Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 (as Enacted)". The National Archives. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  19. ^ "Children And Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 (as Revised)". The National Archives. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  20. ^ "Country Conditions for Mailing — Great Britain and Northern Ireland". International Mail Manual Issue 37. United States Postal Service. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  21. Forbidden Planet International
    . Interviewed by Joe Gordon. July 2006 – via PaulGravett.com.
  22. ^ a b "Sex-crazed Rupert the Bear and other stories... The obscenity trial that brought down Oz magazine" by Mick Brown, The Daily Telegraph, London, 28 July 2017
  23. ^ Dennis, Felix (19 January 2009). "The OZ trial: John Mortimer's finest hour". The First Post.
  24. ISBN 1-85286-023-5
    ).
  25. ^ Molcher, Michael. "Interrogation: Carlos Ezquerra" part 3, Judge Dredd Megazine #302 (12 October 2010), pp. 16–23.
  26. ^ "Picture Books for Grown-Ups" by Harry Mount, The Spectator, 23 April 2016
  27. ^ Harvey, Allan (June 2009). "Blood and Sapphires: The Rise and Demise of Marvelman". Back Issue! (34). TwoMorrows Publishing: 69–76.
  28. ^ Life on the Island Archived 6 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine, Ninth Art, 15 November 2004
  29. ISBN 0-9520864-3-3
    .
  30. ^ "Megazine small press section". 2000adonline.com. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  31. ^ a b More than words: Britain embraces the graphic novel, International Herald Tribune, 22 August 2007
  32. ^ Strip lit is joining the literary elite, The Observer, 20 November 2005
  33. ^ Shakespeare gets comic treatment, BBC, 11 May 2007
  34. Times Educational Supplement
    , 17 August 2007
  35. ^ Clive Bryant on Classical Comics Archived 2009-02-24 at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama, 8 November 2007
  36. ^ Self Made Hero, Shakespeare & Manga Archived 2009-09-06 at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama, 1 November 2007
  37. ^ Manga Hamlet by The Bard?, BBC Radio Cambs, 9 March 2007
  38. ^ "The Dandy goes out of print on its 75th anniversary," The Times (3 December 2012).
  39. ^ Interview with David Fickling, saviour of the great British comic, The Times, 10 May 2008
  40. ^ Deep stuff, The Guardian, 24 May 2008
  41. ^ "Phoenix comic to launch with Waitrose". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  42. ^ "The Phoenix Comic Celebrates Issue 500, One Of Britain's Great Kids' Comics". Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  43. ^
    Box.com
    . Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  44. ^ Ross, Jonathan. "Jonathan Ross: The king of comics," Evening Standard (19 April 2012).
  45. ^ Archive of Heintjes, Tom. "Will Eisner's The Spirit: The Wildwood News, Chapter 2 – Setting Up Shop", AdventureStrips.com. Reprinted from The Spirit: The Origin Years #2 (Kitchen Sink Press, July 1992). Original page
  46. ^ a b Sheena, Queen of the Jungle at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original 10 November 2011.
  47. ^ (French) Depelley, Jean. "Miller & Son : première partie," BDZoom.com (11 March 2014).
  48. ^ "Amazing Spider-Man (1st Series) (The)". The Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain. Retrieved 28 December 2020. All issues of Amazing Spider-Man were distributed in the UK from 1963 until with #121 (Jun 1973) they suddenly went ND or Non Distributed for nearly eight years!
  49. ^ "2006 interview with Igor Goldkind". 2000adreview.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 April 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  50. ^ Griepp, Milton. "This Publisher Has Almost Half As Many Eisner Noms As Graphic Novel Releases," ICv2 (31 August 2016).

References

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_comics&oldid=1221427442"