addenda: The conversation I referred to with Stransky over at CBO on this subject is in the comments following the Gary Stainsby art posting. It was brief but my reply was longer -please see comments to this post.
I have had a disagreement with a couple of people who feel Gifford not referring to Acromaid means that it never existed and that this is a fake. It is not. I do not think I've alluded to anything other than this in the post title as it covers the question and point of the post itself.
And...I have just checked Super Duper Supermen, published in 1991, and Gifford lists Acromaid as being created and drawn by Reader for Cartoon Art Productions (Glasgow) so years on from the Gifford catalogue he mentions the book. Solved. THS
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Mr Stransky, over at CBO comments, had a few questions about Dennis M. Reader's character/comic Acromaid and I thought I'd answer them more fully here!
1) that it was an "insert in another comic" -NO.
Paper was rationed and you did not give away a free comic and it is priced at 5c (or 3d in reality) and you did NOT do that with a give-away because the tax man might wonder what was going on., There were LOTS of one-off comics back then because of the regulations. The fact that "3d" was included on the cover makes it clear that the book was for sale.
2) it is a fake and not by the real D. M. Reader.
To which I respond ****** off. That is pure Reader.
Denis does mention Acromaid in, I think International Encyclopedia Of Comics and also in Super Duper Supermen of the Forties and Fifties.
Acromaid suddenly appearing in action with no origin? Odd you might think. But it worked this way. You had a character, in this case an attractive looking woman and Reader LOVED to draw "hot gals", and you knew boys reading wanted to see action...I could have phrased that better.
BUT you had only enough paper quota for 8 pages and including an origin with the story might take 9-10 pages., Out goes the origin. After all, we only hear about Electro Maid's origin vaguely.
Later, after paper rationing restrictions went, weekly comics could split an origin into 2-3 parts each of 2 pages But Reader and the others, even if they loved comics, were there to make money. It was business. So get to the gal. The fight.
nuff said.
I have had a disagreement with a couple of people who feel Gifford not referring to Acromaid means that it never existed and that this is a fake. It is not. I do not think I've alluded to anything other than this in the post title as it covers the question and point of the post itself.
And...I have just checked Super Duper Supermen, published in 1991, and Gifford lists Acromaid as being created and drawn by Reader for Cartoon Art Productions (Glasgow) so years on from the Gifford catalogue he mentions the book. Solved. THS
**************************************************************************************************
Mr Stransky, over at CBO comments, had a few questions about Dennis M. Reader's character/comic Acromaid and I thought I'd answer them more fully here!
Acromaid: well, it was not listed in Denis Giffords The Complete Catalogue Of British Comics (1985) so it led to odd rumours.
1) that it was an "insert in another comic" -NO.
Paper was rationed and you did not give away a free comic and it is priced at 5c (or 3d in reality) and you did NOT do that with a give-away because the tax man might wonder what was going on., There were LOTS of one-off comics back then because of the regulations. The fact that "3d" was included on the cover makes it clear that the book was for sale.
2) it is a fake and not by the real D. M. Reader.
To which I respond ****** off. That is pure Reader.
I think it clear that either Denis got a copy after the book was compiled or he missed it. The man had a HUGE collection and I have no idea HOW he found anything (even stored in a never used cooker!).
Denis does mention Acromaid in, I think International Encyclopedia Of Comics and also in Super Duper Supermen of the Forties and Fifties.
I think it was just an omission. There are books he had that he missed out referencing in other works. It happens. Are you missing something?
BUT you had only enough paper quota for 8 pages and including an origin with the story might take 9-10 pages., Out goes the origin. After all, we only hear about Electro Maid's origin vaguely.
Later, after paper rationing restrictions went, weekly comics could split an origin into 2-3 parts each of 2 pages But Reader and the others, even if they loved comics, were there to make money. It was business. So get to the gal. The fight.
nuff said.
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