The Beano and Dandy threw out the formula that made the comic a must read back in the day -the titles started fading out in the 1980s and at the same time a top Thomson executive announced that "comics will be dead in ten years or less" (that was around 1983/1984) so by 1994 they were all gone? No but the problem is that if the bosses get an idea in their heads like that the comics are doomed.
On one of my regular visits to see former Fleetway Managing Editor Gil Page he showed me a huge stack of letters. I'd guess around 60. I was shown these after mentioning that there were no longer any comics for girls: "We get this many letters every week" he told me "but they don't understand there is no intertest in girls comics". Now, statistically only about 1-2% of people with an interest in something would take time to write about it. I explained this to him and the response? "I wish you were one of the people in the boardroom!"
Why? Well, there had been a number of projects put forward including ones using the old action heroes but the board had vetoed them all. Even 2000 AD was regularly checked by "The Board" -it could be as violent as it liked but when it came time for a copy to go to the board it was all toned down. Gil even liked some of the horror stuff I had done for Bastei in Germany -"I would love to publish a proper horror comic" he told me.
You see, members of a boardroom are there to count the pennies and not take chances on losing the odd 0.5p. They have no idea about comics or the people buying them and I was told how one board member at Fleetway was presented with a comic and "looked as though someone dropped dog poop on his plate" and he asked "What? Do I have to actually look at it and read it?"
The formula for a successful anthology series is not a difficult one. Obviously weekly comics can no longer be a thing but a monthly? Why not?
The point Gil made was valid because as he put it "You eat, sleep and breathe comics daily" and that was why he tried to put me forward to do editing work -it was a suggestion certain people did not like but in the end the fact that I would need to be paid was the board's deciding factor 😂😂😂
Of course that led into the famous Robert Maxwell meeting. I think I would have had a better chance with Rupert Murdoch.
At the moment the fictional UK "comics community" spends 97% of its time arguing, lying about each other, back-stabbing and so on. Look at what work these 'celebrities' produce in a year. Not a lot. I've published 32 books this year with 10 others "in the works" and by the end of 2020 there should be over 140 books on the online store -in an earlier post I wrote that there were 141 books spread over 14 pages at the online store: my mistake as the actual number is 131 books.
I mention all of this as it seems certain people are trying to goad me into online bitch-fighting over former British comics. I really do not care. Call me all the names they like -my work speaks for me and, after all, in this "strong, thriving comics industry" shouldn't they be working flat out? Just saying.
Comics should be fun and that is fun for creators and readers,
What? Do I have to actually look at it and read it? That's what he actually said? I have quite a few pointed implements in my studio. Is there a law against digging up old Fleetway board members and staking them with a 6H pencil? What an arrogant sod. With all the work that goes into comics creation. If I had been in that room, I'd have forgotten all principles and had that idiot for breakfast. Don't doubt it. That's bread and butter stuff and mortgages/rent pay, not to mention an interdisciplinary art form, that's one of the hardest to master properly on the planet, employing elements ranging from stagecraft, anatomy, design, through to psychology, storytelling, calligraphy, etc, and he treats it like s***! No doubt, mate. He'd have been lucky just to get the full lecture.
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