Altered Images: American Gotham

Grant Wood's American Gothic is one of my favourite paintings, but I can't stop myself from tinkering with it...  

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Eaglution of British Comics, part 3

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 …

Can You Help Me Track Down My Guy?

“My guy’s mad at me,” sang Tracey Ullman in her gender-swapped version of the classic 1979 hit “My Girl” by Madness. I’m guessing, however, that no matter how mad Tracey’s guy was at her, I’m even madder at My Guy. That’s My Guy the magazine, of course. But why am I mad at it, I …

Eaglution of British Comics, part 2

Buster was a monster. Buster the comic, that is, not Buster the character, who was a nice kid. His father, on the other hand, was the monster: the alcoholic, gambling-addicted, spouse-abusing Andy Capp from the same-titled cartoon strip that's been running in the British tabloid newspapers The Mirror and The Sunday Mirror since 1957. Buster …

Pocket Money Comics: Jet

Jet Publisher: IPC Issues: 22 First issue: 1 May 1971 Last issue: 25 September 1971 Merged into: Buster Absorbed: None Jet was one of those IPC comics with a life so brief that it almost didn't exist at all. Its first issue was cover-dated 1 May 1971 and its last was a mere twenty-two weeks …

Eaglution of British Comics, part 1

As I mentioned before (in Deciphering the Logo), in 1969 the legendary British comic Eagle ended its nineteen-year run when it was absorbed into Lion, which was then absorbed into Valiant in 1974, which was in turn gobbled up by Battle in 1976, and then in 1988 it all came full-circle when Battle was consumed …

Pocket-Money Comics: Debbie

Debbie Publisher: DC Thomson Issues: 518 First issue: 17 February 1973 Last issue: 15 January 1983 Merged into: Mandy Absorbed: Spellbound As mentioned before on this blog, the first rule of British girls' comics was that the title had to be a girl's name (the only exceptions I can think of at the moment are …