AND I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT ANY MASKED CRIME-FIGHTERS I PERSONALLY KNOW. JUST SAYING.
“Hmm. Don’t you understand? Think about it –we have no skyscrapers! How can you have American style super heroes in England?”
Those were the words of a Marvel UK editor (Dave White) back in the
1980s as I sat across from him having travelled from Bristol to London
at his suggestion to discuss new projects. About a month later a very
senior Marvel UK editor responded in the same words but adding “That is
why UK comics have never had super heroes.”
Firstly, as I pointed out to Dave White, we are the UK. Britain. You
think of characters for a comic as being English you are excluding
Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Why?
My response to the senior editor is probably why things went a little
“odd” work-wise. My first response was “So, what exactly is Marvel UK
publishing? And Power Comics (Odhams) before it? And…” I went on to
rattle off a very, very long list of British super characters going back
to the 1940s. I think I ticked him off. Really, he should have known better though, in one respect, he was right.
British comics never had super heroes.
Before you start thinking that I’m on new medications and answering “Yes” and “No” at the same time allow me to explain.
Tim (Kelly’s Eye) Kelly travelled the world and even in time and space at one point and was totally indestructible. He was not a
super hero. Yes, he was what some called a "supernatural character" or
"magic character" because of the mystic amulet. And later on science
fiction as he travelled in time.
Clem Macy, television news reporter had a costumed archer alter ego…The Black Archer. He was not a super hero.
Cathy had amazing cat-like abilities and wore a costume. She was not a super heroine.
William and Kathleen Grange were incredible acrobats and wore costumes as Billy the Cat and Katie The Cat. They were not super heroes.
Robots were big
in the 1950s-1960s and Robot Archie was merely a remote controlled
robot, from The Green Peril (The Jungle Robot) to travelling the world
and, later on via tower-like device, travelling in time and space. Yes,
he foiled bank robberies and other criminal masterminds but he was not a super hero just a sci fi robot.
Likewise, the
British secret weapon known as The Steel Commando was nothing more than
that -though he answered only to Lance Corporal Ernie Bates' voice and
seemed at times to make his own decisions -sometimes with very odd and
funny consequences.
In fact, for my graphic novel featuring many old IPC and Fleetway costumed characters, The Looking Glass,
I noted several times that the characters were not super heroes. In
the UK we tended to call them “costumed adventurers” or even “masked
crime fighters” but not super heroes.
Some, of course, were…uh..”revived” for the Wildstorm Studios Albion
mini series which had great art but, sadly, showed a lack of any real
knowledge of the characters by the writers –which they admitted to. In
comics you get paying work you take it!
Below: Tri-Man. He wears a costume. Has super powers. Fights crime. Obviously 'not' a super hero!
Characters such as Adam Eterno, the focal point in the Looking Glass
story had no choice and were at times almost anti-heroes.
Whereas The
Spider had a choice of being a master crook and then changing sides
(basically all ego driven), Eterno did not. He was cursed to be taken
by the mists of time from one period to another where he encountered
Spanish Conquistadores, pirates, sorcerers and even modern day (well,
1970s) crooks.
Olaf (“Loopy”) Larsen a rather meek school teacher found the Viking
helmet of one of his ancestors and, donning it (that’s putting it on his
head) became a super strong, flying Viking hero…The Phantom Viking. There are stories of The Phantom Viking rescuing ships and much more and not a skyscraper in sight.
The great exponents of British roof-top crime-busting were, first,
Billy The Cat and later Katie The Cat. Running across the rooftops and
leaping the often not so great gaps between one row of terraced houses
and another, the duo were the fictional ancestors of today’s urban
free-style runners/jumpers –examples found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ0YDF9bpZ8&feature=player_embedded#!
To most people who never get to see the rooves of terraced houses
they assume they are all steep and sloping. However, having on two
occasions chased someone across terraced root-tops I can tell you there
is plenty of room to move about (though at my age I now look back and
get nauseous over that memory!).
Later, in the 1970s, William Farmer became the costumed crime-fighter
known as The Leopard From Lime Street. As one Fleetway boss told me
(later confirmed by artist Mike Western) “Thomson had a schoolboy who
fights crooks in a costume and if Billy the Cat was popular I was sure
we could do better!”
Interestingly, in the Billy The Cat series he was later to be hunted
as a vigilante by authorities who did not like what he was doing.
Likewise, The Leopard was also hunted down at one point. In fact, a
number of British comic crime-fighters found themselves not just ducking
the crooks out for revenge but also the very side they were fighting
for!
Towns, cities, villages, countryside, coastal locations –all featured
in some very fun stories that endure in the memory to this day. And
not a bloody skyscraper in sight!
Now look at the
UK again (or any country in Europe since this applies there, also
-though Hexagon and Wanga comics are doing great work in France):
seaside resorts and coastal towns -in some of these areas larger "sea
front tower blocks" have been built but even without those you have
piers, amusement arcades/parks, sea forts, oil rigs out to sea -there is
so much.
Towns and cities
speak for themselves and Bristol has a mix of Medieval right through to
ultra modern buildings and water fronts (our European colleagues in
Germany did a lot of landscaping work for us between 1941-1944). But
there are underground caverns, cliffs, caves, old mine workings run many
many miles from one end of the city to another and most are 'lost' or
forgotten about. And Pen Park Hole -wow.
Did I mention forestry and woodland?
And our ancient
sites -everyone knows Stone Henge- but The Severn Sisters, Callanish,
Avebury and even ancient woodland mazes -in Wales there are said to be
ancient forests areas of which no one has probably ever seen.
Below:Callanish stones
There are the Green Man legends....
And then there are mountains and moors, ancient cave complexes and even underground lakes.
Just why would you need skyscrapers if you have all that -unless you lack imagination!
I used to love to
watch the Narri Narro Festival in Germany where regional teams took
part dressed as legends or myths from those areas. In the UK there are
the Green Children of Woolpit, Suffolk (12th Century)...
And there are
many others to which we had the very well known ones. King Arthur has
been, perhaps, "over exposed" and we could say the same of Merlyn, but
Merlyn is the British character intertwined in so many myths and legends that to ignore him would be rude!
When UK creators were recruited to save the ailing US comic companies
such as DC in the 1980s (I was at those UK comic art conventions
watching how desperate they were to recruit British talent –and in some
cases introduced both parties to each other) the idea of outlawing super
heroes and tracking them down so they could be arrested was a new
concept....to Americans.
In the UK we’d been doing that since the 1940s ( thanks to the
creators who churned out material for publishers such as Gerald Swan)!
The mistake in the minds of publishers is that they equate costumed
crime-fighters with skyscrapers and the United States. Despite the long
history of such characters in the UK going back to the Boys Papers of
the 1900-1930s.
What it says, really, is “This is just a job. I don’t care about comics history.”
The Scottish company whose name must ne'er be spoke (may they be forever cursed in the hallowed halls of
British Comics Hell) have enough characters to produce good
costumed-crime-fighter comics. The same applied to IPC who appear to
have now taken the stance (a letter to me from senior management dated
19th July, 2011) “We were once publishing comics but that was
over 30 years ago and have no further interest in comics.” Of course,
had a rich stable of characters.
I have no doubt at all that a good “super hero” comics could work in
the UK but so few Independent Comics writers/publishers seem to be able
to produce an obscenities free script that does not also include over the
top violence and rape –the “Millar-Ennis-Morrison Legacy (MEML).”
But let’s mention, I really must,
two shining examples of British “Super Heroes” by British creators that
have excellent plotting, story and action without having to resort to
the MEML.
The first is, naturally, Paul Grist’s Jack Staff.
Okay, he’s never accepted my offer to interview him in the last decade
but I’ll not hold that against him! When I first saw Jack Staff I
thought “**** that anatomy is really off!” I bought a copy. I’m a
comics bitch, I just can’t help it.
I read through issue 1 and do you know what? I..I..deep breath…I
enjoyed it! There it’s out now! The anatomy did not put me off and, as
the manager of Forbidden Planet (Bristol) said “It doesn’t make a blind
bit of difference –it’s so enjoyable!” With references to old British
TV comedy series and so much more each issue of Jack Staff was a must read. There was, I must point out here, a major flaw in each issue. There were not enough pages!
And while Grist takes a break from Jack Staff he came up with a new series –Mud-Man (which should not be confused with my German character Schlamm Mann
–mud-man!). Lovely stuff but, again, the major fault of not enough
pages but maybe that is why this works: it is almost episodic like old
British weekly strips…but with more pages…okay. Grist wins.
A boy with a remote control Army, Navy and Air Force stopping bad guys. General Jumbo 0'not' a super hero!
Then we have, and I have to say this on bended knees and in very humble tone…Nigel Dobbyn.
When someone told me that he was drawing Billy The Cat I remember
thinking to myself “I wonder whether his art style is any different than
when he was drawing for Super Adventure Stories?” (a 1980s comic zine). I opened up the comic and a big thought balloon appeared above my head in which was written in bold Comic Sans “WOW!”
The style and colouring I had not seen outside of European comics
(say Cyrus Tota’s work on Photonik). After that I never missed an issue
and I made a point of grabbing The Beano Annual
as soon as it appeared in shops. But with this incredible talent
working for them did Thomson take advantage? No, they did something
ensuring he would not work on new strips for them. The story can be
found here:
http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2010/12/12/nigel-dobbynbilly-the-cat-and-d-c-thomson/
You want to see how good Dobbyn is? Visit his website which has great art on show including Billy The Cat colour pages:
http://www.nigeldobbyn.com/
Dobbyn even re-introduced (with help from scripter Kev F. Sutherland, of course) General Jumbo but as The General. In fact, you go over those issues and I can see why so many people were telling me that they only bought copies for Billy The Cat. I could drool on and wax lyrical for hours about Dobbyn’s style and colouring.
Now here is the real kicker. Two talents such as Grist and Dobbyn
whom any UK publisher (I know –“Who??”) should be fighting, spitting and
kicking to get their hands on but are they? Nope. And while Grist
publishes his books via Image Comics you have to wonder why Marvel or DC
have not tried to get him on a title? Could it be his style is just
not understandable by people in US Comics such as Joe “I’ll sell that
for a Dollar” Quesada or Dan “I’ve had another brilliant idea on how to
destroy DC” Didio? What of Dobbyn, then?
I know that if as a publisher I had the money I’d be employing both full time!!
I need to stop mentioning Dobbyn now as my knees hurt (a lot) and it’s hard typing from this position.
What both creators have shown is that there really do not have to be
skyscrapers for a “super hero.” There is enough car crime, drug
crime…violent crime of most types going on in the UK and believe it or
not none involve a single skyscraper. Incredible, isn’t it?
Also, the UK is rich in legends, myths, fairy tales and much more
that are just crying out to be included in storylines. The reason the
Americans and other comic readers world-wide like UK strips is because
they are
uniquely British. In India, particularly in Southern India, The Steel
Claw, Robot Archie, The Spider and many others are still very popular in
reprint form over 35 years since they last appeared in print here.
Above:
Black Tower specialises in two things when it comes to new characters
-super heroes and the supernatural/horror. Kotar & Sabuta by Ben R.
Dilworth.
Of course, now that the Evil Empire (Disney) has extended its
stranglehold on Marvel (Panini) UK nothing new from the UK is allowed
–though why doesn’t Panini with all its international branches pull in
some new characters/books of their own?
Oh. Its cheaper to publish
reprint material, isn’t it? I can be so silly!
Black Tower Comics has published a wide range of comics and the
costumed crime-fighters (or even non-costumed in the case of Krakos) are
the most popular.
No one is
challenging Disney since its policy seems to be "make all comics
American" and no one is challenging DC. It is NOT how you go into
this. I've seen babies clothed in Marvel/DC super hero clothing,
Avengers shoe laces, lunch boxes, Pez dispensers, t-shirts, socks,
action figures, toy cars sweets -basically on everything. Do you think
that kids look at something and say "I could not possibly look at that
comic. It may have super heroes and be colourful but, really, it isn't
Marvel, is it?"
Do my great nephews care if it's Marvel or DC or some other super hero? No. It's super heroes and that is that.
So the market is there but where are the money-men, the backers needed
to help revive the corpse that is British comics so that it can proudly
boast an industry once more that takes advantage of talents such as
Grist, Dobbyn and Jon Haward? And rake in some of that money!
However improbable British super heroes might seem to sum I can tell
you they are not. There is a history going back 80 years and even
longer if you include the Penny Dreadfuls of the Victorian era.
Here endeth the sermon.
