People ask why I bother mentioning the creators of these characters and series and the answer is simple: they deserve to be remembered. They created and enjoyed the comics they were doing and they deserve to be remembered because of that. Comics are fun and ....it's my blog :-)
I have to say that I have never heard of the book The British Superhero By Christopher Murray. Pity really as a friend just sent me a screen shot of a paragraph from the book:
Now I'll thank Christopher for the mention and it repeats something I have heard over and over again -Yahoo groups, old Google Plus and so on: even comic enthusiasts are often taken aback by some of my finds. Comic strips in boys' papers when the 'experts' claim these never existed (my thanks to Bob for that discovery -I only published and added to it); masked and costumed and even super powered characters -ahem- 'before' super heroes were created in the United States and going back to the mid 1800s and possibly earlier. We never called them "super heroes" but "masked/costumed crime fighters" or even what we would later term anti-heroes.
Men dressed in theatrical costumes. Men spitting fire, taking huge leaps, deflecting gun-fire, wearing devil masks, domino masks, hoods or even real horns. Or characters like The Iron Man dating back to the turn of the 20th century. My greatest discovery -please, as a Nation ensure that this is engraved upon my monument- that there were so many flying, gliding bat-winged costumed villains, heroes, anti-heroes in British pulps, boys papers and comics between the late 1800s to early 1940s that Bob Kane would faint -yes, the UK had Bat-men long before the United States had a Bat-Man! I am not showing off my incredible talents here but...I found another one last week!!
Oh, despite all the problems there is one thing that I cannot be shaken from -a love of comics as well as weird and bizarre characters (I first started research Spring-Heeled Jack -all of them- in 1980). I refer to a certain character and someone invariably asks "Who??" because I get too engrossed in the work and assume that everyone with an interest in the subject knows everything I do.
Before my old PC and all of its programs went I began work on compiling all of the characters into a Who's Who. Those bloody bat-men took some work!
Think of Slicksure the detective come spy and super spy tackling not just clever villains but a mole machine, werewolf and, uh, flying bat-man, Yet Harry Banger (pron. as in "Ranger") renowned for his humour strips pulled it all off. Glenn Protheroe was known for his "Brain's Trust" strip and the "puppet-like characters" yet he drew a few action strips in a serious style. Believe me when I say that when I find an obscure character -very old or from pre-1990- that I have never seen or heard mention of before I smile widely. I've been told I do by someone who saw my face light up when I did.
It is nice to get credit occasionally and I would like to thank those who have either corrected the source of some scans to me and have appreciated the (fun) hard work that goes into this.
Firstly, apologies for any slightly "off" scans but I am working with an aging A3 scanner and small press comics that were often not well aligned before stapling.
"The Small Press???" you may ask and I say thee YES!
Just because it is not Marvel or DC Comics does not mean it is of no interest or significance. Someone had an idea and wanted to bring it to life on paper and either drew or wrote or got a friend to draw it and then published it. Maybe in the dozens of copies rather than thousands but they took that step.
As "just a bit of fun" or because they thought that the idea could "go places".
As legitimate as any big company comic.
I have boxes full of Small Press prose, illustrated prose, poetry, or just plain comics from the 1980's on -the rarer 1960's and 1970's ones I keep safe in a folder. But our task (mine actually) is to give a brief look at a few of these and add a few comments.
I would like to do more of these but no funding means they have to be rare posts.
Sugar Glider and Sugar Glider Comics (the latter being an anthology and hidden somewhere in a box)was the brainchild of Gary Bainbridge (artist) and Daniel Clifford (writer) under the Unterwelt and Cottage Industry Comics banner. I believe they were based in the NE (South Shields) and, as is traditional in these small press comics -no address was featured).
It was pretty crude art but never bothered me. I loved the idea of the character and I know I did have Clifford's address as I drew a spur-of-the-moment 3 pager and sent it to him. Never heard back and I think the 3 pages were amongst those I burnt a few weeks back.
The synopsis for the series -it was published in 2011 and I do not recall an issue 2 appearing:
Surrounded by friends and family with it all figured out, Susie Sullivan is desperately unsure of her purpose in life. Casting ordinary pursuits aside, Susie takes to the Newcastle skyline as the crime-fighting…SUGAR GLIDER!
Above Gary Bainbridge art
I am assuming that "Hyper Geek" had not read or seen any small press comics before! Whoever that was wrote:
"Sugar Glider #1 is a fantastic debut issue of a new all-ages superhero/masked avenger series, which is of a high quality rarely seen in small press comics. I would highly recommend picking this comic up" - Hyper Geek
Sugar Glider Comics was the anthology and featured other artists including Martin Newman (art above). I remember thinking this was a good comic and I know I gave a good review on CBO.
Did either comic go beyond issue 1 -if you know let me know.
Windrush was an A4 stitched (yes, stitched) comic with a cover that caught my eye straight away. I think this came out in 2012 -again, no real address or date given in the comic itself. Synopsis: – Helen Mu, aka Windrush, once the greatest protector of the Lambeth borough, has been assassinated. Now Lauren is forced to take up the Windrush mantle to prevent Lambeth and Southwark from going to war.
Created, written and drawn by T’sao Wei with front and back cover art by T’sao Wei and colours by Stuart Atholl Gordon.
Questions like "was there ever a second issue?" go unanswered. But this was a lovely comic and there should have been more!
Nik Morton (?) wrote and drew Vengeance of Vulcan in the A5 (Digest) Vulcan. This is again undated and there is no contact address. If I remember rightly I got this around 1995
but even the back-up strip Witch Finder written by John A. Short and drawn by Gurchain Singh is undated.
The signature is tiny but I am quite sure that it does say Nik Morton. PLEASE if you are an artist you really MUST make it clear you did the work and date it "Morton '95" would at least have given us a clear name and date.
There is another super hero in this comic....but it is a bit confusing. Again, unsigned Shadowfax featuring Kaleidoscope does not tell us much except some super powered goon is after, I assume Kaleidoscope? I write assume as at no point is the female character ever identified but as part 2 is credited as "Choir" I guess Shadowfax is a group and Kaleidoscope and Choir are members?
I have no idea why I keep think John Short had something to do with this strip?
David A. Johnson was the creator of The Blue Saviour as well as Madam Mystery, Enigma and others. A4 comic and text zines that were generally on sale at the Bath Comic Marts he organised. Dated 1985 and with clear creator credit AND an address. Bliss.
I did hear that David went on to work at BBC local radio -but that is not confirmed. I did draw an Enigma and Blue Saviour comic for David and I think (thank goodness) I have one of the very few copies remaining!
Lee Davis produced Mondo to no particular schedule as I remember and despite having an address for North London Comics nothing is dated here and...even the comic has no number on it! But we find inside part 3 of Lord Thunder -created by Lee Davis and Glyn Davies and written by Lee and drawn by John Woolley.
This particular issue also featured another female heropine -Vixen. One day I am going to have to dig this lot out and read through them again!
This "Fall" 2000 issue of Mondo had a very praising ad for Black Tower comics. Good taste. Anyway, the hero featured in this issue was Darkness -written by Tim James and drawn by Dek Baker and is a rather dark story
Lee appeared to be having great fun with producing Mondo and when I later tried to find out what happened to him I was told that "the word" (unfounded rumour) was that he had put this all together while at school.
Lee...if you, or anyone knowing Lee, can fill me in (oo-er) please get in touch.
Once more -I sent in some Darkness art pages but heard nothing back. Oh my genius will be recognised one day!
Willyprods/Small Time Ink really out to give you a clue that there was something gay about this comic. Matt Black, Charcoal was first published in 1986 and this issue, #4, was published in February, 1987. Created and written by Lionel Gracey-Whitman and drawn by Don Melia the duo also produced (?) Splashdown and planned Justice Force Europe. Sadly, Melia died in 1992 so how much was published I have no idea and most people remember BLAAM!, and anti homophobic comic.
The story intro reads:
"Born white to black parents, Matt Black's ability to control carbonized matter led to his becoming Britain's leading graphic artist. But the brutal murder of his loiver made him turn his powers to fighting crime. Matt Black is Charcoal."
So there you have it. This has taken me far too long to write and I need to get back to other things. There are many, many more British costumed/non-costumed heroes in comics and the Small Press and maybe one day I'll put them all into a book that no one will buy!
If any of the creators mentioned here read this please get in touch.
If YOU want to see more original content like this that you will NOT find anywhere else please consider supporting CBO by either buying books or the PayPal button to the right.
Yes, I forgot a couple of books.
The first comes from Accent Comics and Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? involved no costume. No mask. In fine British tradition....some times.
It really was great to read but it was a while ago so my review was on the old CBO and I never saved it!
According to the Forbidden Planet blog:
“With a sigh he put his half-empty pint glass on it’s beer mat …. and stopped time”
Yep, that’s it. Bobby Doyle can stop time. He’s the mysterious “World’s Fastest Man” that all of the papers have been talking about ever since he carried all of those people from that train crash. But he’s not fast, not in the way they think. He just has this strange power where he can stop time for the world and carry on with his life inside his own time-zone. Bobby’s no hero, not in the way people think of them. He’s just an average 25 year old bloke who wants a normal life. But that’s not his fate. He may have saved people before, may have been the hero before, but never on this scale. And he knows what’s coming, he knows the end result.
The first comes from Accent Comics and Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? involved no costume. No mask. In fine British tradition....some times.
It really was great to read but it was a while ago so my review was on the old CBO and I never saved it!
According to the Forbidden Planet blog:
“With a sigh he put his half-empty pint glass on it’s beer mat …. and stopped time”
Yep, that’s it. Bobby Doyle can stop time. He’s the mysterious “World’s Fastest Man” that all of the papers have been talking about ever since he carried all of those people from that train crash. But he’s not fast, not in the way they think. He just has this strange power where he can stop time for the world and carry on with his life inside his own time-zone. Bobby’s no hero, not in the way people think of them. He’s just an average 25 year old bloke who wants a normal life. But that’s not his fate. He may have saved people before, may have been the hero before, but never on this scale. And he knows what’s coming, he knows the end result.
So Bobby sets off to the future ground zero – Prometheus Tower in London, where the bomb proves to be just as big, just as deadly and just as impossible to turn off as he feared. Which means he knows for certain now – he has 59 minutes to rescue everyone he can, 59 minutes to get as many people to safety as he can.
But he knows how his powers work – everything’s frozen when he stops time – so no transport works, doors remain shut unless he temporarily unfreezes time and opens them and the only way he can get people to safety outside the 2 mile blast radius is by the slow, physical, back-breaking way – he has to carry them. And he knows that even though time may be stopped for them, for him it carries on as normal, saving all of these people, carrying them all to safety will be no more than a blink of an eye for them, but for him it will take 50+ years of his life – possibly even all of his life – it’s the ultimate sacrifice and what makes him a true hero – no gaudy spandex, no incredible powers of flight and adulation, his is a special power that no one will ever know about.
I mentioned Brit Force in my previous posting
http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/some-of-these-super-heroes-may-not-have.html and that I was sure that I had met Andrew Radbourne at a Bristol Comic Expo. Yes, I did. Moonface Comics -Brit Force, Sceptic Isle.
Sadly, nothing from Moonface nor Andrew.
According to Moonface Comics and the intro to Brit Force:
“Moonface Press is proud to announce a new ongoing series called Brit Force. It’s written and drawn by Andy Radbourne, lettered and script edited by me and the cover to issue #1 is by Glenn Fabry (above). Look for it later in the year and in the meantime find out more at www.britforce.com.”
"Hi my name is Andy (and honestly this is what I look like!!!) and I am in the process of revitalising and re-imagining BritForce, the UK’s own superhero group both based and created in the UK!"
"I worked on the original BritForce comic over 10 years ago and was always unsatisfied with its unfair demise, knowing there was so much scope and untapped potential with the characters. So after all these years of grumbling into my beard and thinking what could have been, I thought bugger it, I am going to do something about this. So I set about redesigning the characters, fleshing them out and adding new twists and back-stories. I want to present a contemporary comic book which was also a homage to the days when I started reading comics…all those years ago…Oh so many years!!! So plenty of KaPows! and Thunks!"
Pity really, but in comics -especially the UK, you need a game plan and I'm sorry to say this title never got the support it needed.
Forgotten anything else? I probably have!
Part 1 here, baby: http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/british-heroes-occasional-series-part-1.html
For obscure British super heroes you could do no better the The Green Cross Code Man...I don't think he thought any super villains but he bigged up road safety! The character was played in TV ads and shorts by Dave Prowse from 1975 into the 1980s by Darth Vader (body not voice!).
Above: If only!!
Below in one of his comic strip appearances drawn by Dave Gibbon
Below: I am positive I had one of these badges but either another home move or, uh, 'borrowing', saw it vanish!
I think the below is Ian Kennedy art.
For obscure British super heroes you could do no better the The Green Cross Code Man...I don't think he thought any super villains but he bigged up road safety! The character was played in TV ads and shorts by Dave Prowse from 1975 into the 1980s by Darth Vader (body not voice!).
Above: If only!!
Below in one of his comic strip appearances drawn by Dave Gibbon
Below: Prowse is a very relaxed person and easy-going so not surprisingly kids liked him -hey, he was a real super hero after all!
I think the below is Ian Kennedy art.
40 years on...time ain't good to us. 79 years old and still primed and ready -Dave Prowse!
.jpg)
However, let us not forget that It's been estimated that the original Green Cross Code campaign saved as many as 250,000 children from being injured or killed on our roads. That is heroic!
See, I see myself as 1970s Dave Prowse whereas I'm more 2023's version....
Many of the following do not have a single visual reference online! That's why I am here.
I think many people have this idea that only I have published super hero books in the UK. Well, yes, I've been doing that over thirty years so I'm the longest lasting! But there are and were others going back to the early 1980s.
There are those out there, at a ripe old age who are about to see these covers and say one of two things:
"OH MY GOD!!"
or if you are in comics:
" Hell! I forgot about this!"
Yes, Dave Hornsby's Apocalypse -it became a four issue (A4) comic after, forgive me if I get this wrong but we are talking 1977, Ad Astra an astronomy/science magazine. Apocalypse's epic battle with Warlord for the fate of the Earth had a very explosive, and completely unexpected, ending!
I have no idea what Dave is doing these days but if he is out there -PLEASE reprint this as a one off book! I loved this. I have mentioned I'm a sad old man -?
Now, Apocalypse is near mythical. In thirty plus years I have met no one else who admits to having ever read the comic. I guess I just never met the right people yet!
The other 1970s British legendary comic was, again, A4, had lovely printing and good paper and I still have my A3 D-Riders poster!
Super Adventure Stories appeared in 1978 (issues 1 and 2 had no date but no. 3 is 1978) was from Third Kind Magazines, based in Hertfordshire.
D-Riders. Oh, man, if you loved weird stuff in comics -mystical, cosmic hippy trippy with a rather grubby little panda then D-Riders was for you. Clive Boyd wrote the script and Michael-Jan Gibas took to the drawing board with this joint creation. I really do need to get a nice frame for my D-Riders poster!
These comics obviously had their Marvel/DC influences to a degree but Underground Comix were also, I'm guessing, an influence. Nudity and very definitely not Comics Code Authority approved language. I still take these out every-so-often because they are still enjoyable.
The cover above features Sons Of The Phoenix written by Michael-Jan Gibas (publisher of Third Kind Mags) and art by Stephen O'Leary and there are some good story twists. These guys were well ahead of Moore, Ellis and Morrison. And here's a kicker of a next issue tag line: "Some of you...are going to die!"
Omicron was Jason Harris who was out on his motorbike, got involved in a UFO incident, grabbed an alien suit and became...oh. I've already written it. Script was by Stephen O'Leary and the art by Andrew Dyrdzinski though the character was created by Dyrdzinski and Gibas.
And, of course, there was the legendary, near mythical Red Dragon -the creation of one Jonathan "Jonny" Kurzman -the original publisher, based in Plymouth at the time. To my knowledge this was the first British comic character to have the name Red Dragon. And the story was an epic one.ending in a full issue story in SAS no. 5 (I think).
These creators were true inspirations because they took super heroes and put a British slant on them, made them grittier than any US company did. I've tried tracking down the various creators in the past but failed -not even any photographs!
If there is one reason I want to maintain an archive and want to see it continue on when I snuff it then it is to make sure people like Dave Hornsby and the SAS crew get their rightful place in British comics history.
Into the 1980s Bath or Bristol Comic marts were not complete unless David A. Johnson had a new Blue Saviour comic out -or Enigma. Okay, they were not the greatest drawn comics but there is one thing that actually shines through -even more so reading them decades on - FUN.
David obviously had a story to tell and comics inspired him and he had no big ideas of a mega deal with Marvel or DC. He was having fun and if his readers enjoyed the comics....what could be better?
Even inspired Messrs Brown and Dilworth to draw Blue Saviour in Death Disco! I still have a copy or two.
And, yes, I got involved in the Blue Saviour and Madame Mystery craze. How? Well check out the covers and ads below and you ought to see...unless you need very strong glasses!
Spot it? No??!! oy.
1987 and A. O. Potter's Alpha Omega Collection heroes.. I wrote about Alf back in 2011...
A. O. Potter had gotten himself an offset printer.
Yes, decades later I am still pissed I got a copy with a label on the cover!
Crude but fun!
Now, I ordered a copy of issue 2 of the Alpha Omega Collection (below) and before you think I’ve really treated the comic badly -that’s how it arrived. Same stick label used to address the envelope stuck on the cover and partly torn off. Oh, and a cigarette burn hole! I wrote back and got an apology and was told a new copy was on its way. I never got that copy.
That was it.
It was the last I, Dilworth or anyone else ever heard of Alpha Omega Potter. He vanished it seems.
Alright, the art was not great but it was fun -as were the stories- and I can only assume the grant ran out. Today we have print on demand so buying in printing ink, paper and the other printing odds and sods aren’t needed.
What happened to Potter? Has he continued to draw? Did he just decide that it was a pipe-dream and quit? I hope not. I’d like to think that somewhere in the West Midlands A. O. Potter is still drawing comic strips and developing his style but it has been over twenty years.
I take each Small Press or Independent comic that comes to me individually. I never say “this isn’t as slick as a Marvel or DC comic.” I try to look at each book as an individual item created by a writer and artist or writer-artist. I try to look past flaws, though I do note them and offer any suggestion to help overcome them.
There are many, many A. O. Potters out there all dreaming the dream. Very few, perhaps, 2% make it into published comics. Many work in the Small Press for fun. It doesn’t matter if they do not become big comic stars. What matters is that they enjoy what they are writing and drawing. If they say “Hey, I’m never gonna work for Marvel or DC but what the hey!” but continue because they love the medium then I say “Go for it, baby!”
Very, very few people in comics get rich -I had my days of no food for five days or just surviving on toast or boiled cabbage (!). I had my faqir share of “red letter bills” and trotting around to publishers in all sorts of weather. I’m not the only one.
I like to think that out there, in Cardiff, Newcastle, Birmingham, London, New York, Los Angeles, Topeka, Greenville, Berlin, Bonn, Paris, Brussels -all over the world, there are plenty of A. O. Potters working away and dreaming the dream.
Bless you all and I really hope that, even if you do not become a comic star,, you at least enjoy what you do.
Never lose the dream
Hugs
And Alf was back but publishing is on hiatus as he is busy studying. A link to his site:
http://www.alphaomegaeditions.co.uk/
Peter Phillips (I hope I remembered the name (it was a long time ago) did a zine called The Super Heroes. He was 18 years old in 1986, living in Leicester and...unemployed (unusual for the 1980s!). Aaaand, I just found the books which are A5 and, feck me I got it all right. I need to get a woman.
The comic featuring The Liberty Rangers, which was written by him and art was by Ian Douglas -who showed some promise! Only two issues that I know of as my letters never got replies but I hope Peter is still out there somewhere digging super heroes!
1986 was Atomic Comics of Scotland produce an A4 super hero comic -fastened inside a plastic folder (?) for some reason. This was Captain Scotland!
In fact it was a fantasy gaming special "You Are Captain Scotland!" The character was created and written by Tony Foster (another name I know!), Michael Duncan, Eggy Harding and Craig Conlan. Craig Conlan also did the art chores.
That was it. My question is: where is Captain Scotland when Scotland needs a hero, hmm??
I think many people have this idea that only I have published super hero books in the UK. Well, yes, I've been doing that over thirty years so I'm the longest lasting! But there are and were others going back to the early 1980s.
There are those out there, at a ripe old age who are about to see these covers and say one of two things:
"OH MY GOD!!"
or if you are in comics:
" Hell! I forgot about this!"
Yes, Dave Hornsby's Apocalypse -it became a four issue (A4) comic after, forgive me if I get this wrong but we are talking 1977, Ad Astra an astronomy/science magazine. Apocalypse's epic battle with Warlord for the fate of the Earth had a very explosive, and completely unexpected, ending!
I have no idea what Dave is doing these days but if he is out there -PLEASE reprint this as a one off book! I loved this. I have mentioned I'm a sad old man -?
Now, Apocalypse is near mythical. In thirty plus years I have met no one else who admits to having ever read the comic. I guess I just never met the right people yet!
The other 1970s British legendary comic was, again, A4, had lovely printing and good paper and I still have my A3 D-Riders poster!
Super Adventure Stories appeared in 1978 (issues 1 and 2 had no date but no. 3 is 1978) was from Third Kind Magazines, based in Hertfordshire.
D-Riders. Oh, man, if you loved weird stuff in comics -mystical, cosmic hippy trippy with a rather grubby little panda then D-Riders was for you. Clive Boyd wrote the script and Michael-Jan Gibas took to the drawing board with this joint creation. I really do need to get a nice frame for my D-Riders poster!
The cover above features Sons Of The Phoenix written by Michael-Jan Gibas (publisher of Third Kind Mags) and art by Stephen O'Leary and there are some good story twists. These guys were well ahead of Moore, Ellis and Morrison. And here's a kicker of a next issue tag line: "Some of you...are going to die!"
And, of course, there was the legendary, near mythical Red Dragon -the creation of one Jonathan "Jonny" Kurzman -the original publisher, based in Plymouth at the time. To my knowledge this was the first British comic character to have the name Red Dragon. And the story was an epic one.ending in a full issue story in SAS no. 5 (I think).
These creators were true inspirations because they took super heroes and put a British slant on them, made them grittier than any US company did. I've tried tracking down the various creators in the past but failed -not even any photographs!
If there is one reason I want to maintain an archive and want to see it continue on when I snuff it then it is to make sure people like Dave Hornsby and the SAS crew get their rightful place in British comics history.
Into the 1980s Bath or Bristol Comic marts were not complete unless David A. Johnson had a new Blue Saviour comic out -or Enigma. Okay, they were not the greatest drawn comics but there is one thing that actually shines through -even more so reading them decades on - FUN.
David obviously had a story to tell and comics inspired him and he had no big ideas of a mega deal with Marvel or DC. He was having fun and if his readers enjoyed the comics....what could be better?
Even inspired Messrs Brown and Dilworth to draw Blue Saviour in Death Disco! I still have a copy or two.
And, yes, I got involved in the Blue Saviour and Madame Mystery craze. How? Well check out the covers and ads below and you ought to see...unless you need very strong glasses!
1987 and A. O. Potter's Alpha Omega Collection heroes.. I wrote about Alf back in 2011...
A. O. POTTER AND LIVING THE COMICS DREAM!
Comics, as far as I am concerned, is a mixture of the good and the bad. The rough and the smooth. The- you get the point?
I remember that the best review I think I’ve given was published when I was working (and having to chase after payment) for the UKs Comics World magazine back in the nineties. Story wasn’t good. Art was lousy. but the actual fun the person had writing and drawing it just seeped off of the page and to the reader.
In 1988, Alpha Omega Potter (seriously, his real name) was based in a little place called Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands.
In The Alpha Omega Collection editorial (cover date August, 1988), Potter writes:
“I remember the day exactly when I discovered “Superheroes”. It was the last day of term in my Junior School. Those children who had a perfect track record for attending school, with few days off, were rewarded with the magnificent sum of 30p (in those days a lot of money, for me anyway). I walked into a newsagents not knowing exactly what to buy, and there he was. A big green man, who fascinated me. I picked up the comic and read his name. “The Incredible Hulk.” I was captivated with the monster, and my enthusiasm to learn more of the world of Superheroes grew. So you can see my childhood favourite was the Hulk. But, my true ultimate, mega-favourite has always been (ever since I was four years of age) the Dark Knight…Batman. I’ve had my set backs in building my collection of comics in the early days, especially by my sisters. They’d burn them out (sic) of revenge for arguments which they had lost.
“Then, in 1977, a friend of mine told me he’d made his own comic book. I asked to see. He showed me. It was in the line of the Beano, with his own characters. So I did the same. The thing is though, most of my stories ended with a cliff-hanger. I only did one issue: comedy back then was not my strong point. In comic book form that is. It wasn’t until a year later, 1978, that I started doing proper superhero material. The story goes, I had…er…borrowed some drawing paper from school and was sitting in my room wondering what to do with it all, then it hit me. Marvel Matchstick Heroes. Yep. I started drawing my favourite Marvel Superheroes in my own matchstick form. They started looking like the conventional form: I did over fifty different stories simply for my own pleasure. The stories were my own, and I gained one reader, mt former teacher, who found my work very interesting.
“Then one day I picked up my pencil in order to doodle, but what I drew was the front cover of The Ace, who back then was in his own comic magazine. It was not a matchstick form, but in a professional manner, or so I thought at the time. The story was crude and simple, nothing like it is today. The art work, well the word I used to describe it can’t be printed, so rubbish will have to do. I’d completed three issues plus one annual. Many of my main characters were created in the summer of that year, and their stories are still strong in my memory. It was then I started to dream about running my own comic magazine company. From this dream grew a determined and firm ambition to make this a reality.
“Over the years since leaving school, I have developed my talent. Often, I’d create and complete a full length adventure with a new Superhero on the spur of the moment. I’ve been on various Training Schemes and had spells of unemployment and this has made me more determined to see my dream through to reality. Even though at times I have met many people who have tried to discourage me from this.
“Over the years I have become my own worst critic: after I had sent one of my creations to 2000 AD’s Editor. He told me to study the figures more. Then I looked and saw I needed a lot of improvement. So off to college I went and studied the human body. There I started to develop my own style, which I’m still developing. But this depends on the mood of the character.
“Well the dream has become a reality. I have faith in the fact that my Superheroes will be to your liking. The collection will introduce all these Superheroes to you, and you will meet the characters again in future issues. But, for the time being, I’ll just stick with the four stories I’ve put in this comic. Now “You” will get to choose who you want to see in a regular series. ”
The introductory Alpha Omega Collection.
When you read that introductory editorial you are reading the story of countless others, not just in the UK, but around the world. And you are also reading how many of those youngsters set about making their dreams come true (Hey -my literary potential was noted and encouraged by my English teacher at Greenway Boys School).
But did A. O. Potter achieve what he hoped was a style of his own good enough to compete with other comics on retailers shelves? Judge yourself:
No. But, and it is a major “but”, the one thing Potter achieved was the spread his enthusiasm and fun from the printed page to the reader. One fan was the now vanished Lee Davies of the Mondo zine. Another fan was yours truly and via my collection one Benjamin R. Dilworth.
Ben was on one of his visits to Bristol when he pointed at my copy of the Alpha Omega Collection -”Ah-ha! You’ve bought it, too!” I think we bought copies of all three books and we even individually sent in designs for Potter’s “design a costume for Dragona competition”; not to win the competition but to show that maybe he needed two budding comic hacks to help him draw future issues!
One move after another and I’m sorry to say I no longer have half my Dilworth correspondence and not the Dragona costume design that was quite cool.
But, how exactly did Potter get the money to print a 60 pager in 1988? I knew how expensive printing was and Ben said “I think he’s got onto some Government scheme?” As it turned out, like one Paul Ashley Brown, Mr. Potter had gotten onto the Prince’s Trust which, in the 1980s, awarded grants.
In 1988, Alpha Omega Potter (seriously, his real name) was based in a little place called Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands.
In The Alpha Omega Collection editorial (cover date August, 1988), Potter writes:
“I remember the day exactly when I discovered “Superheroes”. It was the last day of term in my Junior School. Those children who had a perfect track record for attending school, with few days off, were rewarded with the magnificent sum of 30p (in those days a lot of money, for me anyway). I walked into a newsagents not knowing exactly what to buy, and there he was. A big green man, who fascinated me. I picked up the comic and read his name. “The Incredible Hulk.” I was captivated with the monster, and my enthusiasm to learn more of the world of Superheroes grew. So you can see my childhood favourite was the Hulk. But, my true ultimate, mega-favourite has always been (ever since I was four years of age) the Dark Knight…Batman. I’ve had my set backs in building my collection of comics in the early days, especially by my sisters. They’d burn them out (sic) of revenge for arguments which they had lost.
“Then, in 1977, a friend of mine told me he’d made his own comic book. I asked to see. He showed me. It was in the line of the Beano, with his own characters. So I did the same. The thing is though, most of my stories ended with a cliff-hanger. I only did one issue: comedy back then was not my strong point. In comic book form that is. It wasn’t until a year later, 1978, that I started doing proper superhero material. The story goes, I had…er…borrowed some drawing paper from school and was sitting in my room wondering what to do with it all, then it hit me. Marvel Matchstick Heroes. Yep. I started drawing my favourite Marvel Superheroes in my own matchstick form. They started looking like the conventional form: I did over fifty different stories simply for my own pleasure. The stories were my own, and I gained one reader, mt former teacher, who found my work very interesting.
“Then one day I picked up my pencil in order to doodle, but what I drew was the front cover of The Ace, who back then was in his own comic magazine. It was not a matchstick form, but in a professional manner, or so I thought at the time. The story was crude and simple, nothing like it is today. The art work, well the word I used to describe it can’t be printed, so rubbish will have to do. I’d completed three issues plus one annual. Many of my main characters were created in the summer of that year, and their stories are still strong in my memory. It was then I started to dream about running my own comic magazine company. From this dream grew a determined and firm ambition to make this a reality.
“Over the years since leaving school, I have developed my talent. Often, I’d create and complete a full length adventure with a new Superhero on the spur of the moment. I’ve been on various Training Schemes and had spells of unemployment and this has made me more determined to see my dream through to reality. Even though at times I have met many people who have tried to discourage me from this.
“Over the years I have become my own worst critic: after I had sent one of my creations to 2000 AD’s Editor. He told me to study the figures more. Then I looked and saw I needed a lot of improvement. So off to college I went and studied the human body. There I started to develop my own style, which I’m still developing. But this depends on the mood of the character.
“Well the dream has become a reality. I have faith in the fact that my Superheroes will be to your liking. The collection will introduce all these Superheroes to you, and you will meet the characters again in future issues. But, for the time being, I’ll just stick with the four stories I’ve put in this comic. Now “You” will get to choose who you want to see in a regular series. ”
The introductory Alpha Omega Collection.
When you read that introductory editorial you are reading the story of countless others, not just in the UK, but around the world. And you are also reading how many of those youngsters set about making their dreams come true (Hey -my literary potential was noted and encouraged by my English teacher at Greenway Boys School).
But did A. O. Potter achieve what he hoped was a style of his own good enough to compete with other comics on retailers shelves? Judge yourself:
No. But, and it is a major “but”, the one thing Potter achieved was the spread his enthusiasm and fun from the printed page to the reader. One fan was the now vanished Lee Davies of the Mondo zine. Another fan was yours truly and via my collection one Benjamin R. Dilworth.
Ben was on one of his visits to Bristol when he pointed at my copy of the Alpha Omega Collection -”Ah-ha! You’ve bought it, too!” I think we bought copies of all three books and we even individually sent in designs for Potter’s “design a costume for Dragona competition”; not to win the competition but to show that maybe he needed two budding comic hacks to help him draw future issues!
One move after another and I’m sorry to say I no longer have half my Dilworth correspondence and not the Dragona costume design that was quite cool.
But, how exactly did Potter get the money to print a 60 pager in 1988? I knew how expensive printing was and Ben said “I think he’s got onto some Government scheme?” As it turned out, like one Paul Ashley Brown, Mr. Potter had gotten onto the Prince’s Trust which, in the 1980s, awarded grants.
A. O. Potter had gotten himself an offset printer.
Yes, decades later I am still pissed I got a copy with a label on the cover!
Crude but fun!
Now, I ordered a copy of issue 2 of the Alpha Omega Collection (below) and before you think I’ve really treated the comic badly -that’s how it arrived. Same stick label used to address the envelope stuck on the cover and partly torn off. Oh, and a cigarette burn hole! I wrote back and got an apology and was told a new copy was on its way. I never got that copy.
That was it.
It was the last I, Dilworth or anyone else ever heard of Alpha Omega Potter. He vanished it seems.
Alright, the art was not great but it was fun -as were the stories- and I can only assume the grant ran out. Today we have print on demand so buying in printing ink, paper and the other printing odds and sods aren’t needed.
What happened to Potter? Has he continued to draw? Did he just decide that it was a pipe-dream and quit? I hope not. I’d like to think that somewhere in the West Midlands A. O. Potter is still drawing comic strips and developing his style but it has been over twenty years.
I take each Small Press or Independent comic that comes to me individually. I never say “this isn’t as slick as a Marvel or DC comic.” I try to look at each book as an individual item created by a writer and artist or writer-artist. I try to look past flaws, though I do note them and offer any suggestion to help overcome them.
There are many, many A. O. Potters out there all dreaming the dream. Very few, perhaps, 2% make it into published comics. Many work in the Small Press for fun. It doesn’t matter if they do not become big comic stars. What matters is that they enjoy what they are writing and drawing. If they say “Hey, I’m never gonna work for Marvel or DC but what the hey!” but continue because they love the medium then I say “Go for it, baby!”
Very, very few people in comics get rich -I had my days of no food for five days or just surviving on toast or boiled cabbage (!). I had my faqir share of “red letter bills” and trotting around to publishers in all sorts of weather. I’m not the only one.
I like to think that out there, in Cardiff, Newcastle, Birmingham, London, New York, Los Angeles, Topeka, Greenville, Berlin, Bonn, Paris, Brussels -all over the world, there are plenty of A. O. Potters working away and dreaming the dream.
Bless you all and I really hope that, even if you do not become a comic star,, you at least enjoy what you do.
Never lose the dream
Hugs
And Alf was back but publishing is on hiatus as he is busy studying. A link to his site:
http://www.alphaomegaeditions.co.uk/
Peter Phillips (I hope I remembered the name (it was a long time ago) did a zine called The Super Heroes. He was 18 years old in 1986, living in Leicester and...unemployed (unusual for the 1980s!). Aaaand, I just found the books which are A5 and, feck me I got it all right. I need to get a woman.
The comic featuring The Liberty Rangers, which was written by him and art was by Ian Douglas -who showed some promise! Only two issues that I know of as my letters never got replies but I hope Peter is still out there somewhere digging super heroes!
1986 was Atomic Comics of Scotland produce an A4 super hero comic -fastened inside a plastic folder (?) for some reason. This was Captain Scotland!
In fact it was a fantasy gaming special "You Are Captain Scotland!" The character was created and written by Tony Foster (another name I know!), Michael Duncan, Eggy Harding and Craig Conlan. Craig Conlan also did the art chores.
That was it. My question is: where is Captain Scotland when Scotland needs a hero, hmm??
A little addenda:
In the mid 1990s -to be exact 1994-1994- there was CM Comics. The owner of CM Comics was Southampton based Chris Morgan.
There seem to have been a number of titles all in the US comic format with glossy cover and pages. There was some great art by people such as Russ Leach, who I think is fair to say had a bit of an Erik Larsen style going on. Andrew Radbourne (I am positive I've met him at a Bristol Comic Expo) did some pencil work -inked by Chris Morgan and Kelvin Cox did some layouts for Brit Force.
Not really sure why CM Comics stopped publishing but I do recall about, perhaps five years ago(?), Chris Morgan emailing me and saying CM Comics was returning.
Anyone?
A new century dawns and we have...The O Men! created by Martin Eden -Doctor O gathers a new superteam to fight his nemesis, Anathema. But can they stop Anathema before she takes her revenge on their friends and family - and finally, on themselves?
Buy the book(s) and find out!
I have the Issue 0 from years ago but nothing else -though I have seen sample pages. Yes: not in my collection and never ever reviewed a copy. Someone just fainted at the back of the room again!
There is, of course, the rather fun...Spandex! And I do mean fun.
Then there was Sugar Glider appeared a few years ago but I think there were two books before it vanished? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Sugar Glider was created by writer Daniel Clifford and artist Gary Bainbridge.
Set in Newcastle upon Tyne, Sugar Glider tells the story of Susie Sullivan - an 18yr old with a habit for giving up on hobbies, jobs and potential careers at a moment’s notice. Having given up on so many ‘dreams’ already in her short life, Susie is poised to drop out of college and give her mother, Brenda, an ulcer.
But Susie has a secret more likely to give Brenda a mischief; she’s gotten hold of a high-tech gliding suit and is quickly becoming attached to it. Susie’s late night crime-fighting adventures are becoming more frequent and more successful. But there’s something else about that suit - it bears a striking resemblance to the ones worn by MI5’s Vigilance super-agents. The same super-agents who are about to be rolled-out all across the UK.
Ahh, no, I have a note and image for the final issue -number 3. Again, never saw a copy. I'm currently trying to sort that out!
As I wrote, there are others who have tried their hands at British super heroes. These are a few and, as stated at the start of the post, some of the important ones have no presence on the internet!
In the mid 1990s -to be exact 1994-1994- there was CM Comics. The owner of CM Comics was Southampton based Chris Morgan.
There seem to have been a number of titles all in the US comic format with glossy cover and pages. There was some great art by people such as Russ Leach, who I think is fair to say had a bit of an Erik Larsen style going on. Andrew Radbourne (I am positive I've met him at a Bristol Comic Expo) did some pencil work -inked by Chris Morgan and Kelvin Cox did some layouts for Brit Force.
Not really sure why CM Comics stopped publishing but I do recall about, perhaps five years ago(?), Chris Morgan emailing me and saying CM Comics was returning.
Anyone?
A new century dawns and we have...The O Men! created by Martin Eden -Doctor O gathers a new superteam to fight his nemesis, Anathema. But can they stop Anathema before she takes her revenge on their friends and family - and finally, on themselves?
Buy the book(s) and find out!
I have the Issue 0 from years ago but nothing else -though I have seen sample pages. Yes: not in my collection and never ever reviewed a copy. Someone just fainted at the back of the room again!
There is, of course, the rather fun...Spandex! And I do mean fun.
Then there was Sugar Glider appeared a few years ago but I think there were two books before it vanished? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Sugar Glider was created by writer Daniel Clifford and artist Gary Bainbridge.
Set in Newcastle upon Tyne, Sugar Glider tells the story of Susie Sullivan - an 18yr old with a habit for giving up on hobbies, jobs and potential careers at a moment’s notice. Having given up on so many ‘dreams’ already in her short life, Susie is poised to drop out of college and give her mother, Brenda, an ulcer.
But Susie has a secret more likely to give Brenda a mischief; she’s gotten hold of a high-tech gliding suit and is quickly becoming attached to it. Susie’s late night crime-fighting adventures are becoming more frequent and more successful. But there’s something else about that suit - it bears a striking resemblance to the ones worn by MI5’s Vigilance super-agents. The same super-agents who are about to be rolled-out all across the UK.
Ahh, no, I have a note and image for the final issue -number 3. Again, never saw a copy. I'm currently trying to sort that out!
As I wrote, there are others who have tried their hands at British super heroes. These are a few and, as stated at the start of the post, some of the important ones have no presence on the internet!
Oh there is more!
There is something about an obscure or little known character that when you find him -or her- you get a "buzz" from. Not because you have just found a character that no one else appears to have mentioned online or in print but because it is a 'new' character. It might be 40, 50 or, in my case 90-100 years old, but it is because it is new to you.
You start asking questions about the creator of the strip -was it the artist or one of the anonymous army of writers from the period? Why did they think "Let uis have this fellow in a black outfit and wearing a cowl or domino mask!" Or even why they decided that a character needed "special abilities" (in some cases this was British for "super powers" a term not used in the olden days)?
In some cases we see a character such as Krakos or Robert Lovett quite literally swiped by creators in the 1960s at Fleetway/IPC -in the case of Lovett and Back From The Dead there was a "rival" at Thomson's -the full story along with art in Comic Bits no. 2. When it came to a character such as Mr Might or Streamline and Tiger Man I was far more than willing to take them on from Denis Gifford. However, at the time I thought he would be around for many more years and so I never asked him about his thought process in the creation of these characters. Gerald Swan had no real interest in the comic creations just his pulp books.
The fact that my own character (dating back to 1972) The Avenger was based on a real life incident/person has never been gone into. The character Maddie Bell from Crime Busters dates back to around the same time and is based on a girl renowned for the loudest and highest pitched scream (screaming competitions were a thing back then in school!!). The Third Level (recently promoted to Free) sorcerers Kotar and Sabuta were inspired by the Hanna Barbera Arabian Knights cartoon.
Was Varney the Vampire an anti-hero or villain? Have you read both of the voluminous books? I'd say he was anti-hero. There are so many of these characters from Penny Dreadfuls, Boys' Papers and early illustrated papers that you realise the United States came in fairly late (please NO jokes) to the genre. Even Germany had its pulp characters such as Sun-Koh and Captain Mors. If you were at a 1920s elegant dinner put on by the young fellow who had just "inherited" the estate and a title from his late father...you ought not to have been surprised if a horned fellow dressed all in black jumped into the room and onto the dining table (very un-British).
We had tough female characters such as Acro Maid, Cat Girl and so on who were created by Dennis M. Reader who was inspired by American comics and along with Gifford created the first new wave of UK Super heroes -as what we would today term "super heroes" existed before that time it cannot be said, as some claim, that the two men created British superheroes. It is odd that these tough young women who dealt out justice seemed to reflect the war time period when, as in WW 1, women were seen to be getting more liberated because of social changes and when the war was over...women returned to being the support character in mainstream comics. Oddly, in strips such as Halcon Lord of the Crater World. women often had an almost equal role -in one strip Halcon was doomed until his partner Karen saved him (Black Tower Super Heroes no. 8 reprints this strip).
Hey, in the 1940s a young British lad could rescue an alien visitor and receive super powers as a "thank you" (T.N.T. Tom -a name later "purloined" by a British shoe company). There were characters able to breathe underwater for long periods and even communicate with the denizens of the deep -one even exploring and making first contact with underwater cities (Under The Sea and The Boy Fish).
I would still love to see a copy of the Moon Man and Mars Man comics -I've only seen odd pages over the decades. And I would certainly love to see a copy of William A Ward's The Bat. But what else? Well, for one thing I'd like to track down and get information on some of the old creators. We know so ;little about some and others...nothing. I have never been able to track down photos of John or William McCail or William A. Ward and the same applies to Harry Banger and others. They should never be allowed to slip into obscurity.
And so I keep on looking. I keep finding. It's very self fulfilling at times...even if it makes me even poorer!
It's taken me all day of sorting through books, scanning and trying to remember half this stuff. I hope you think it was worthwhile!
Doing a super hero comic? I'll review it. Know of obscure ones I've not mentioned? Get in touch.
Everything is now so blurry I am calling myself....
Well, Blurry Man, enjoy a well earned rest ! Superheroes in zines and near pro comics were always fun - Brick Man springs to mind as does mine my own ( ahem ) The Mighty Apothem one off - playing with all that story potentially with body tight clothes ... how can it not be fun ? Wonderful to see Mr. Johnson's BLUE SAVIOUR, again... a Classic when it was first made and still a CLASSIC now ! ( It's the SAVIOUR, it has to be shouted ! ) A nice piece. Anyway. Have a nice day, Terry.
ReplyDelete