ROY THOMAS JOINS PS

PS, the UK’s multiple award-winning publishing company, today announced the appointment of legendary comics writer/editor Roy Thomas to the position of Series Consultant for the company’s specialist comicbook line, PS Artbooks. 

Although his Marvel Comics writing debut was the story “Whom Can I Turn To?” in the Millie the Model spin-off Modeling with Millie (1965), Roy Thomas soon established himself fully with stints on The X Men, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Sub-Mariner and Daredevil. But it was perhaps the groundbreaking, brave and even audacious idea of introducing Robert E. Howard’s Conan The Barbarian to four-color fandom that will forever cement Thomas firmly in the minds of comic-readers (and moviegoers!) the world over: certainly the first 24 issues of the Marvel comic with Barry Smith holding the artwork reins are widely considered as indispensible.

Since 1964 Thomas has edited and produced the much-loved and highly respected fanzine Alter Ego, the Bible of the comicbook field for new and old readers alike (picking up an Eisner Award for the magazine in 2007), and he became Stan Lee’s first successor to the post of Marvel Comics’ Editor-In-Chief. He is the recipient of the Alley Award (1969) and the Shazam Award (three times: 1971, 1973 and 1974) and he was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011.

“I was delighted to discover PS Artbooks’ ambitious reprint programme,” he says, “making available again some of the finest and most influential comicbooks of the pre-Comics Code years and after. And, following an extensive and excitable exchange of letters with Peter Crowther, PS head honcho, I was thrilled when he asked if I would serve as Series Consultant on the entire line.

“Peter and his business partner in the venture, Paul Stephenson have great plans for many titles in the months and years ahead and I’ll be working closely with them to facilitate various peripheral opportunities and developments along the way. Already I’m suggesting titles they may consider and they’re being very receptive. As they say, watch this space!”

PS Artbooks has already produced the first volumes of the old Harvey horror magazines Chamber Of Chills, Witches Tales and Tomb Of Terror and the influential ACG titles Adventures Into The Unknown (the very first horror story anthology comic) and Forbidden Worlds. Next up is volume one of Harvey’s Black Cat Mystery, the second volumes of the two ACG titles plus volume ones of Planet Comics and Black Magic.

A lifelong fan of comics, PS founder Peter Crowther is openly critical of the current fashion of ‘slabbing’, sealing comic magazines behind plastic and then selling them on at multiples of guide value. “I’m sick and tired of having to pay ridiculous amounts of money just so I can read stories that appeared before I was born,” he says. “All of Dickens’s work is readily available at easily affordable prices, as are Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad and, frankly, the great comicbooks of bygone years are of equal importance. Will Eisner’s Spirit tales (thankfully reprinted by DC Comics), the various Archie family of magazines (from Dark Horse and IDW) and DC’s Chronicles, Showcase and Archives series plus Marvel Masterworks are all showing the way forward for the industry . . . but, with the possible exception of Craig Yoe’s work for his Yoe! Books, the more obscure and esoteric titles are getting overlooked time after time. I’ve read and enjoyed Roy’s work in the field for many years and, with his help, we’re aiming to redress the balance. And then some!”

Over it’s fifteen-year life, PS has worked extensively with giants in the field of speculative fiction (Brian Aldiss, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke, Steven Erikson, Joe Hill, Stephen Jones, Stephen King and many others) producing more than two hundred titles in desirable and collectible volumes, many of them signed and slipcased/traycased. In spring 2010 the company launched Stanza Press, a new imprint dedicated to poetry, and the first PS Artbooks title–Tomorrow Revisited, a celebration of the life and work of Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson–appeared later that same year.

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