The British Comics Top-10 Longevity Chart!

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 …

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Pocket-Money Comics: Countdown

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 …

DC Thomson Comics Timeline

[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 …

Pocket-Money Comics: Captain America

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 …

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 …