Everything you ever needed to know about comics (limited to the stuff that I know and am willing to tell you)!
Stan Lee was the first comic-book creator whose name I knew. I was about six and a half years old when I was given my very first superhero comic... this one: That's The Mighty World of Marvel issue #5, dated November 4, 1972. So a little over forty-six years ago. By some miracle, my copy … Continue reading Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
The British Science Fiction anthology comic 2000AD has, as of this week, reached issue 2104, which means it has overtaken War Picture Library (Amalgamated Press / Fleetway / IPC, from 1 Sep 1958 to 3 Dec 1984) in the number-of-issues stakes and thus moved into tenth place in the longevity charts. (I've decided to keep … Continue reading The British Comics Top-10 Longevity Chart!
Countdown Publisher: Polystyle Publications First issue: 20 February 1971 Last issue: 25 August 1973 Issues: 132 Absorbed into: TV Comic In the beginning Countdown was, arguably, a science fiction comic, and as such it predated the seminal 2000AD by six whole years (and six days), but it's not often recognised as such because almost all … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Countdown
[Updated 20180907! Scroll all the way down to the end to see the update notes!] After three family trees focussing on IPC/Fleetway comics, it's time to take a look at their main rival, the noble Scottish house of DC Thomson, not to be confused with DC Comics (or even DC Thompson with a P as … Continue reading DC Thomson Comics Timeline
Captain America Publisher: Marvel UK Issues: 59 First issue: 25 February 1981 Last issue: 7 April 1982 Absorbed: Marvel Action, Marvel Super Adventure By February 1981, Marvel UK had been running for nine years and had published over thirty different titles, to varying degrees of success (for example, the 1975 weekly edition of The Savage … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Captain America
Grant Wood's American Gothic is one of my favourite paintings, but I can't stop myself from tinkering with it...
Amazingly, it turns out that comics aren't just for boys! No one saw that coming, right? Except, of course, for the countless millions of readers of non-boy-exclusive comics whose voices are still frequently being either ignored or silenced. Younger readers might find it hard to believe, but back in the day (that day being roughly … Continue reading Eaglution of British Comics, part 3
