I wrote this [post back on 7th September 2012. It took a while to figure out what was going on but I put together a "trash can edition" of a story featuring this character and changing the name for obvious reasons.
That trash can edition was sent to IPC, who had sent me the material and after a couple of months I asked about it. I was told that IPCF has not dealt with comics in decades and that "the material sent to you was from archives and of no interest to us".
Which sort of made me wonder just why the heck it was sent to me. A month ago I got a Google chat message from a fella who works for a digital publishing magazine (I think he said based in Bath). He had been working on an article on IPC Media and how it had adapted to the new medium. At one point he asked the CEO if there was any regret about leaving behind kids comics; he was told that a great deal had been sold off (I assume Rebellion Studios?) while other material was passed along to someone who had been in touch with the company about developing characters for animation., He was then told (I am quoting him here) "A certain amount of material was bequeathed to an editor in Bristol".
Now, he asked who this was and it took until the end of the interview for someone to come up with a name and contact details. Me. Firstly, "bequeathed" is an odd word to use but its meaning is clear. I was asked whether he was sure about this and was told everything had been sent in a package in 2011 (it was actually 2012) and that was why he wanted to know what had happened with the material and had it been developed for use in digital publishing?
I actually got him to repeat what he had been told and explained that I did not work in digital publishing. That was an end to his interest. It does actually make sense based on my correspondence and phone calls at the time with IPC and discussion about my wanting to develop characters for publication. However, I just never bothered other than with the trash can edition featuring the characters. It seems that what I thought I had misunderstood was in fact correct.
In the new year I am contacting IPC Media to double check as, apparently, they had double checked and that is how the man got my details. As a matter of course, as I noted in a separate 2012 post, I did check and confirm the situation with H. M. Copyright Office (the final word in such matters) and just read through all the correspondence from back then.
Putting all of this here as a remind me in 2023 before I forget again.
A snippet of good news. Apparently, as they stated in writing previously, IPC Media has “No interest in comics. We have been out of the comic business for over thirty years now.”
So long as anything such as characters are “(c) IPC Media” I can go ahead with the much delayed project.
Today, I also got a package from IPC that contained pages of Captain Britain. NOT the Marvel UK character created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe and later redeveloped by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. This was an IPC character that was drawn by Tom Kerr and Mike Western and also, I believe, John Cooper who did a rough concept sketch for me..
It was part of an idea to launch a super hero to challenge the Marvel UK publications -though one senior member of IPC once told me that the idea originally went back to the late 1960s -something Denis Gifford once confirmed to me.
The confusing part is this: I saw some pages back in the 1980s when I was talking to Managing Editor Gil Page at Fleetway about a super hero book or set of strips (“Looking Glass” and “The Ultimate Game”). According to Page this was “a Fleetway character that was going to be launched and there were about three fully drawn stories -these are sitting in our warehouse.”
The pages I’ve been sent I have never seen before. “The Avenger Cometh” is a little shakily written. No art credit but there is a big stain on the bottom right of the first page and through that I can see faintly “Bradbury” -from the art style I don’t think there is any doubt it’s Eric Bradbury. Interestingly, for the printed Comic Bits I did a preliminary interview with Eric just before his death and he mentioned a “super hero that Fleetway made a big fuss about but nothing came of it.” I had assumed that was another particular strip but I’m wondering if it was this one.
My question to IPC was “(I’m very greatful but) Why was this sent to me?” The actual package had no covering letter. I spoke to a very nice lady who was very giggly on talking about comics and told me “We do not do comics.” I was then passed on to some man (“Phillip”?) who explained to me that IPC had nothing to do with comics for “about 40 years now” (no, I never corrected him) and that it was even moving away from print to “electronic publications and an online presence -that’s where the future is.”
Now, I just do not want to get in the poo over this and he was a little annoyed when I told him I really wanted to find out why the pages were sent to me and I really want to know my position regarding them. He gave a big sigh and told me to hang on.
Ten minutes later I’m thinking that he’s buggered off and hopes I’ll put the phone down. I was actually about to do so when someone else spoke. I was told -AGAIN!- that IPC had nothing to do with comics and he (whoever) could not find out who sent the pages but if they were sent to me they must be intended for my use. I again asked if I could talk to someone who might know because I did not want to get into trouble over this.
“Then just stick ‘by permission IPC Media’ on it and you’ll be covered. Bye.”
Rude, but I really do think they thought only morons are involved in comics.
However, I did check with a couple of former management men from Fleetway who saw through the various company changes and on to the Egmont sell off. According to them IPC was probably just getting rid of “dust catchers” and that the character was Fleetway owned but “a dead end project” (as one put it) “which never got anywhere, rather like that ‘Ultimate Game’ idea!” Now, as “The Ultimate Game” was something I worked on really hard and pushed I felt a little insulted, though I do not think the gent in question remembered I was behind it based on what he said!
I have to give this a lot of consideration now and sort out just what I am going to do. Sadly, Mike Western is no longer with us and I’m trying to recall whether he said his pages had been returned and were in amongst some Leopard From Lime Street pages -and I’ve no idea how to contact his family to find out.
So, not unusually, tonight I’ll be awake again going over all this…and worrying about today’s phone bill!
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