The Fleetway Projects That Could Have Been

 Someone commented that:

“There was always a persistent rumour that you and Gil Page were involved in secret projects but no one gives out details -Gil Page told someone to ask you but that was years back”

Gil Page was Managing Editor at Fleetway and started with the company when it was the Amalgamated Press -his career spanned over 40 years. Egmont bought up Fleetway and Page was booted out. It was a bit of a blow but he joked that it meant he now had more time for golf!

I first met him in the 1980s after a lot of correspondence. As a Artist/writers agent and trying to sell ccmic projects (Steve MacManus introduced me to someone as “a carpet-bagger of comics in the nicest sense”). Gil filled me in on quite a few things when we met -such as thefact that 2000 AD had a very low readership but that meant that they could call it a “cult following”.

He loved the old characters and we discussed a number of projects. As he said “We have a warehouse full of art and stories we could reprint as ‘classics’ if a new project took off. His greatest enemy -in fact Fleetway’s greatest enemy- was it’s own board room.

I was looking through a copy of 2000 AD while we were talking and mentioned that the last issue was rather bloody but the one I was reading was tame. I was told that every-so-often the “boardroom boys” wanted to see what was being published and for that occasion blood and gore was lessened.

Talking to him about the comic Scream while going over project art Gil told me: “We should be doing a proper hooror comic but the board would not allow that. Scream is the compromise.”

When The Supernaturals (a comic based on the Tonka toys -I have a full set of figures) was abruptly culled I was asked about putting something together to replace it. That project became The Paranormals. The story was finally printed (self published) in Tales of Terror a few years back. It might seem somewhat tame but the idea was to get the board to approve the project then let rip -the super natural child killer staring in at sleeping children in part 2 would have set the tone.

“Can’t afford it” was the board response.

So with Gil helping as much as he could I wrote and drew the 111pp Looking Glass story featuring the classic heroes which would have been re-drawn and coloured and published in parts. Gil loved it. I put together the notes for later stories that pulled in a lot of 1920s/1930s AP characters. I was told that the project would be presented at an upcoming board meeting.

It was rejected.

The board had absolutely no idea about comics and quite honestly were hanging on to whatever salary they were getting until the company died or was sold off. Which is why 2000 AD was sold off cheaply.

So there were a good few projects and along the way, to amuse myself, I doodled whatever came into my head. Getting a rough feel for a character(s). As pointed out in a previous post, nothing sensational or detailed just doodling along.

My blue doodle pad has many images but these are a few. The full extent of what was discussed and planned -at meetings where no one else was present so cannot comment– I’m not about to go into as it would be pointless.

But, yes, a lot was discussed and had Fleetway’s boardroom been of any use the company might still be around.