UK Comics -What Might Have Been: Maxwell Pergamon Publishing Vs News International

I have already written how, after late businessman Robert Maxwell had purchased Fleetway and made it part of Maxwell Pergamon Publishing, I met up with Maxwell.  He saw that comics could make money and I put a lot of proposals together.

Robert Maxwell


Very nice, genial and joking man but I recall as I left I WAS counting my fingers. There was something too "off" but if he had the money to back UK comics and re-establish the UK as a comic publishing nation who was I to complain?

But talking to an assistant, later, I learnt that, basically, Maxwell wanted his fingers in as many pies as News International boss Rupert Murdoch.  If Murdoch was involved in an industry -whether newspaper, media or sport then Maxwell had to try to outdo him.  And Murdoch vice versa.

I was told that if any representative of News International or Murdoch approached me regarding comic publishing I was to consider myself "being loyal to Mr. Maxwell -and let us know " -which had me imaging brown envelopes full of cash being handed to me in " special deals"  (I was in comics -come on, let me fantasize! )

I did discuss the matter with a couple of the higher ranking Fleetway people who were still at the company.  The advice was to go ahead -" it can't do any more harm can it?"

You see, only afterwards did I realise what was said: "It can't do any more harm..."

Well, we all know what happened to Robert Maxwell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell

Oddly, even after Egmont took over Fleetway, things were shaky and I was left unpaid for work to the tune of £5,000.  And I was given the excuse that it was all "Maxwell's fault!"  But Maxwell had died years before and had nothing to do with Egmont-Fleetway!

But I digress.

Maxwell was paranoid about Murdoch who he said he knew -others confirmed it later- was going to jump into comic book publishing.  I even signed an agreement that I was committed to Maxwell Pergamon and would not discuss or advise on publishing comics in the UK (specifically) with News International representatives.


 Rupert Murdoch

To be fair, at one point, while in London, I was approached by someone who said he was from News International but despite all his smooth talking I told him I was "under contract" -those magic words shut him up completely but he gave me a number to call "in case".

The interesting thing is that Maxwell had said that he knew Science Fiction (2000 AD) and super heroes were the best genres to jump in to.  He also wanted "the best" creators -"big names if possible but very talented if not".

How different the 1980s-1990s might have been with two battling media giants controlling rival comic publishing houses.  We might even have a comics industry today like any other in Europe. Of course, it would all  have depended on whether this was merely a one-upmanship deal or a serious business project. We'll never know.

This was all brought back to me as I looked through old papers.  I have a rule, based on my "other work", that any correspondence is strictly confidential for thirty years -unless it is needed to provide evidence in a legal case some how.  In fact, I have enough dirt on people in UK comics (letters, faxes etc) that I could quite easily cause them real problems!  The old joke of my body being pulled out of the River Avon and in my hand a note reading "Comic scandal if----" springs to mind.

But I have ethics.  And that makes me wonder how long I might have lasted in a Maxwell controlled comic industry.  Would have been interesting though.