Golden Age Of The British Small Press

This 2008 posting from the old Word Press CBO should have been saved here but I can't find it so let's do another reposting shall we?
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Well,you will have to excuse me and the fact that this is going to be a lengthy text/illo item.  The article was written a year ago for someone but never used.  As I looked through my boxes of Small Press items I realised that there were some publications I missed out -unintentionally.

In reality,the article I wrote would make a hefty little book!

The joys back then were getting the latests from Hawarden,Cheshire -from Rich Holden’s Caged Comics -A5 and mini comics.  They were a riot of fun.

The same can be said of the great Merv Grist and his Gristavision comics.  I still have the classic cassette tape he sold at the time -”The Slugs That Ate Manhattan” -WHERE are you,Merv?!

And Cosmic Comics produced by Steve Lines between running his band Stormclouds [I still have the cassette tapes from back then and they are still a great listen];Blake The Egg was the oddest lines character -and Steve’s music zine,The Marden Beat,was a source of much interest if you were into Indie music at the time.

Fran Ashcroft.  What can one possibly say about Fran Ashcroft -or creation Spoonsy?!

So,to all of those I’ve missed out:my apologies.  You made the 1980s great!

Above:brother Mike,publisher of Zine Ager,to the rear Doc N,scribe of Vigilante Vulture,

the superb John Erasmus and some bearded maniac;Tom “lovely” Elmes. Westminster,c.1987

 

above:a rare newspaper photo c.1988 from the Bath mart:Jerry Holliday of KYO Comics,brother Mike,Sally & David Johnson and Dave’s dad.

And now -the article!

 

British Small Press –The Golden Age

Terry Hooper-Scharf

 

It can truly be said that the 1980s to early 1990s was the Golden Age of the Small Press,or Zines as they were known.

The term “Zine” was derived from “magazine”,basically because the fan press was mainly text and illoes only at one time –and later we saw “strip zines” added to these. But Zines was an all-encompassing term.

One of our [UK] first,if not the first fanzine was Heroes Unlimited in 1967.  This was a gestetner copied publication and the major contributing illustrator was none other than Paul Neary –a memorable Justice Society of America cover amongst his contributions.   Fantasy Domain in 1973 was a kind of “what comics are out now” and reviews along with “for sale” ads.   Blitzine was Phil Elliott and Paul Chester’s gestetner [look it up on the internet,kids!] magazine from 1975.  Paul E. Schofield came along in 1979 with the A5 [Digest] sized New Aeon.

 

It has to be remembered that the gestetner printer was,for many years,the only way of producing your fan magazine.  Basically you typed cutting into the stencil sheet which eventually went onto the roller of the hand cranked copier.  Any typoes had to be corrected using such stuff as nail polish!  My own school magazine from 1972 was produced by using the gestetner –don’t try looking for copies because the magazine was banned while being printed.  Starkers –The Magazine That Tells The Naked Truth would,I am sure,have lived on in infamy!

 

 

In the mid-1970s I well recall that fantastic new machine the photocopier.  You could walk into a printers or stationary shop and they would copy off your pages!  Copies became cheaper and so more and more would-be publishers decided to leap into the future!

 

Our mainUK news,reviews and articles publication would have been BEM and then Fantasy Advertiser,published by Martin Lock [the Harrier Comics publisher] and later Martin Skidmore. And for those looking for style and distinction there was Paul Gravett’s Escape magazine –now an online site.   

 

 

Strip-wise,we had the superb Super Adventure Stories published by Michael Gibas –which gave us classics such as Johnny Kurzman’s “Red Dragon”,whose saga was great fun and pre-dated both my own and Grant Morrison’s [Zenith]Red Dragon.  

 But it was in the 1983-84 period that things really went crazy.  We had great zines from Shane Oakley [ofAlbion fame] and Andrew Yoxall in the form of Hardware –which featured the very early work of Matt [D’Israeli] Brooker,Art Wetherell and the “where is he now??” Iskander Islam;and I must mention the inimitable John Erasmus. But there were other contributors –including the Oakster and Yoxies  own mad-cap work.

Dan Rickwood and Adam Thomas brought us the insane and often near legally prosecutable Bum Comic!  The often ‘saner’ contributions came from Matt Brooker and Ben Dilworth.  There was even an experimental Landscape format one off REQUIEM with a Dilworth dash of water colour added for colour.

 

Mark E. Ford produced,before being told to stop by DC,Eat The Magic Batzine which was a fan mag with covers and illoes by…Ben Dilworth!  Steve Lines produced his spooky,pop art orientated Fantastic Stories and Creepy Crawlies –again,Ben contributed and so did I with a Christmas tale featuring my sorcerers Kotar,Sabuta and Lady Silvana along with the “Keeper Of Tales”,The Creeper himself!

 

Of course,Ben produced his own publications under the Penguinflight banner.  A Letter From Siberia was A3 [larger than US B3] in size and in the middle was stapled the Digest sized Picasso’s Café.  This publication was produced using colour washes,ink washes and even colour pens.

 

Later,Ben and I designed acetate covers for my Preview Comic wherein we used stencilled images and car spray paint!  Ben was probably one of the group of ground-breaking creators responsible for the “Golden Age” of British Small Press and when he moved toJapan things were never the same.

But we also had Help Shark! And titles such as “Love Given Lightly” and “Splendid”,

both by Steven Martin.  Cally Stapleton produced wonderful art using linoleum cutting and Myra Hancock was…well,fab!

 

 

Cover designs and even art style techniques were experimented with and there was a huge interest in British zines from the US,Europe and beyond.  Ed Pinsent ran Fast Fiction but in 1985 I joined up with Jerry Holliday,Paul Brown and Darron Northall [on copying] to create the news,reviews,previews and interviews mag Zine Zone,which also became a mail order and mart service.

 

 

Zine Zone and the “Zine Zone Zoot Suit Crew” actually started out-selling Fast Fiction and promoting creators such as Rich Holden and his Caged zines and Fran Ashcroft’s Fenlock,Paul Grist’s Dancing Elephant Press and other new creators that were emerging kept the scene fresh.  I used to have “open house” in the apartment I was living in and anyone involved in the Small Press passing through or near Bristol popped in –the door bell ringing at anytime [including 3am in the morning thanks to my legendary insomnia!].  I could get 30-60 packages of publications or art samples a week

 

 

Bristol tended to be the place to be and 1984 had seen school kid Jerry Holliday and pal Joe Leigh produce Knock Yaself Out Comix –this developed into one of the best mixed-bag publications around and spawned some spin-offs such as Jerry and Joe’s Doxi The Dog [something Jerry is still working on over 20 years later].  How the magazine ever got published between the drinking bouts seems incredible!

The legendary anthropomorphic series Vigilante Vulture was written by Darron Northall and drawn by Paul Brown –based in the urban war zone known as Kowle West!  Even today,after so many years,it’s still a good read!  Interestingly,at one of the UK Comic Art Conventions,Shane Oakley and Andrew Yoxall were overjoyed to meet Brown and Northall –apparently,VV had been Oakley’s favourite “pick-me-up” read during his college years!  Sadly,the plans of Seattle based MU Press to publish the series in the US came to nothing. 

Tom Elmes,last heard of heading for France,produced the often gorey Post War Funnies,Post War Casualties and even the wickedly named [nothing to do with the contents] shocker titled Incest!  The Worm sticks in my mind.  However,the most cringable was without doubt “The Man Who At Himself To Death” –and he did! These days Tom is back in the UK and working on some award winning animation projects.

Another creator who liked to shock to see the reaction was Stephen Harrison and he drew the Andrew Yoxall written “The Little Git With The Chainsaw” –inspired by the Daily Mirror newspaper strip Andy Capp and the film ”The Evil Dead”!!!

It seemed that everyone knew everyone else in the Small Press back then,if they didn’t then either Ben Dilworth or myself quickly introduced them.

 

 

By the early 1990s most of the creators were either working in other media or had gone on to professional comics.  Zine Zone had become Zine Zone International covering the Small Press from around the world.  The UK Small Press,however,was deteriorating fast. 

Probably the most successful,or best publicised,Small Press comic of recent years has been the O-Men,seemingly inspired by the great Silver Age comic series’ such as Doom Patrol –for those who missed out,the early issues have been compiled in “trade book” style.

Magic Malcolm is a US sized comic of superb quality which,from issue 10 onward will only be appearing in graphic novel style books.  Blink Twice Publications are Robin Etherington [creator and writer] and Lawrence Etherington [co-creator and artist].  This is a superb series that looks like a combination of Little Nemo,Alice In Wonderland and much more –but even that doesn’t do it justice.  You can check out more at www.studioblinktwice.com and learn not just about Magic Malcolm but also Tusk and Moon!

Dutch born,Bristol resident,Willie Hewes,has even featured in the local press with her stylish Amaranth comic;the story of a young woman living in Bristol who discovers she is a demon trapped in a human body and gets whisked off to meet the Lord of Hell.  A book that has achieved a cult following.  Learn more at Willie’s site  www.amaranthcomic.tk

My personal favourite,not just because it has Goth chicks,but because of some superb black and white artwork is Marcus Jones’ ZELTA.  Not for the faint hearted,this is definitely an adults only comic under Jones’ Screaming Demon Comics banner.  The story is about unhappy tattooist,Alex,who meets the girl of his dreams [or is that nightmares?],Zelta.  However,Alex starts getting strange dreams and visions….is Zelta really the Devil’s daughter??  Check out www.zeltacomic.co.uk

 

The big problem is that,with easier access to photocopiers and,of course,computers and printers,creativity has given  way to the more boring and mundane.  More and more Small Press items appear with “biographical” on the cover and high prices for just a few pages.  At one time,I can recall there being so many zines of quality that it was hard to select which to buy!  Talking to others who have been buying Small Press since the 1980s,I’ve heard the same thing “99.9% of what’s out there is crap” and “There is nothing out there these days”.

Well,there are a few,as I’ve noted,but where has all that creativity gone?  Staff at one comic shop that stocks Small Press items came up with the comment “we keep getting sent all this rubbish”!

When I had the chance to promote Small Pressers in the UK on the internet and via printed publications I put the word around –to publishers and even a service selling the publications.  It was now I learned just how much had changed.

 

The service promised to forward the information to publishers via its newsletter.  It never did.  Publishers who did respond [and that was unbelievably few] said that,yes,they would like their zines reviewed and publicised…..and I could buy those review copies direct!  Buy review copies?!! 

Unbelievably,the opportunity to let,potentially,thousands more comic buyers know about their publications was not good enough.  The attitude was “why should I give away a copy of my comic  –you want to review it then buy a copy” 

And the mail order zine service I’ve had no explanation from.  Theirs was the “purchase from” address I was going to give. 

In all my years reviewing Small Press publications,from Zine Zone to Comic World,Comic Collector and Comics FX,I have never come across such negativity and lack of support to publicise zines.  It may be controversial but I think it safe to say that over-priced,uncreative publications are the norm in the UK these days with few exceptions.  A pity considering the

UK once led the way.

I am still interested in the Small Press!  It would be interesting to know what is being published in the US,Canada and elsewhere so,if you are out there and publishing,email me or send me a copy of what you’re publishing.  But don’t give up –if you want to produce your own zine:do it!

Email:hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com

Terry Hooper-Scharf

The Improbability Of The British Super Hero

AND I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT ANY MASKED CRIME-FIGHTERS I PERSONALLY KNOW. JUST SAYING.

 

I was asked if I still had the link to this article (from March,2012) by a number of people.  Here is a re-posting with more art!

“Hmm. Don’t you understand?  Think about it –we have no skyscrapers!  How can you have American style super heroes in England?”

Those were the words of a Marvel UK editor (Dave White) back in the 1980s as I sat across from him having travelled from Bristol to London at his suggestion to discuss new projects.  About a month later a very senior Marvel UK editor responded in the same words but adding “That is why UK comics have never had super heroes.”

Firstly, as I pointed out to Dave White, we are the UK. Britain. You think of characters for a comic as being English you are excluding Wales, Scotland and Ireland.  Why?

My response to the senior editor is probably why things went a little “odd” work-wise.  My first response was “So, what exactly is Marvel UK publishing? And Power Comics (Odhams) before it? And…” I went on to rattle off a very, very long list of British super characters going back to the 1940s.  I think I ticked him off.  Really, he should have known better though, in one respect, he was right.

 

 

British comics never had super heroes.

Before you start thinking that I’m on new medications and answering “Yes” and “No” at the same time allow me to explain.

Tim (Kelly’s Eye) Kelly travelled the world and even in time and space at one point and was totally indestructible.  He was not a super hero.

Clem Macy, television news reporter had a costumed archer alter ego…The Black Archer.  He was not a super hero.

Cathy had amazing cat-like abilities and wore a costume.  She was not a super heroine.

William and Kathleen Grange were incredible acrobats and wore costumes as Billy the Cat and Katie The Cat.  They were not super heroes.

In fact, for my graphic novel featuring many old IPC and Fleetway costumed characters, The Looking Glass, I noted several times that the characters were not super heroes.  In the UK we tended to call them “costumed adventurers” or even “masked crime fighters” but not super heroes.

Some, of course, were…uh..”revived” for the Wildstorm Studios Albion mini series which had great art but, sadly, showed a lack of any real knowledge of the characters by the writers –which they admitted to.  In comics you get paying work you take it!

Characters such as Adam Eterno, the focal point in the Looking Glass story had no choice and were at times almost anti-heroes.  Whereas The Spider had a choice of being a master crook and then changing sides (basically all ego driven), Eterno did not.  He was cursed to be taken by the mists of time from one period to another where he encountered Spanish Conquistadores, pirates, sorcerers and even modern day (well, 1970s) crooks.

Olaf (“Loopy”) Larsen a rather meek school teacher found the Viking helmet of one of his ancestors and, donning it (that’s putting it on his head) became a super strong, flying Viking hero…The Phantom Viking.  There are stories of The Phantom Viking rescuing ships and much more and not a skyscraper in sight.

The great exponents of British roof-top crime-busting were, first, Billy The Cat and later Katie The Cat.  Running across the rooftops and leaping the often not so great gaps between one row of terraced houses and another, the duo were the fictional ancestors of today’s urban free-style runners/jumpers –examples found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ0YDF9bpZ8&feature=player_embedded#!

To most people who never get to see the rooves of terraced houses they assume they are all steep and sloping.  However, having on two occasions chased someone across terraced root-tops I can tell you there is plenty of room to move about (though at my age I now look back and get nauseous over that memory!).

Later, in the 1970s, William Farmer became the costumed crime-fighter known as The Leopard From Lime Street.  As one Fleetway boss told me (later confirmed by artist Mike Western) “Thomson had a schoolboy who fights crooks in a costume and if Billy the Cat was popular I was sure we could do better!”

Interestingly, in the Billy The Cat series he was later to be hunted as a vigilante by authorities who did not like what he was doing.  Likewise, The Leopard was also hunted down at one point.  In fact, a number of British comic crime-fighters found themselves not just ducking the crooks out for revenge but also the very side they were fighting for!

Towns, cities, villages, countryside, coastal locations –all featured in some very fun stories that endure in the memory to this day.  And not a bloody skyscraper in sight!

When UK creators were recruited to save the ailing US comic companies such as DC in the 1980s (I was at those UK comic art conventions watching how desperate they were to recruit British talent –and in some cases introduced both parties to each other) the idea of outlawing super heroes and tracking them down so they could be arrested was a new concept.  In the UK we’d been doing that since the 1940s ( thanks to the creators who churned out material for publishers such as Gerald Swan)!

The mistake in the minds of publishers is that they equate costumed crime-fighters with skyscrapers and the United States.  Despite the long history of such characters in the UK going back to the Boys Papers of the 1900-1930s.

What it says, really, is “This is just a job.  I don’t care about comics history.”

D. C. Thomson (may they be forever cursed in the hallowed halls of British Comics Hell) have enough characters to produce good costumed-crime-fighter comics.  The same applied to IPC who appear to have now taken the stance (a letter to me from senior management dated 19^th July, 2011) “We were once publishing comics but that was over 30 years ago and have no further interest in comics.” Of course, had a rich stable of characters.

I have no doubt at all that a good “super hero” comics could work in the UK but so few Independent Comics writers/publishers seem to be able to produce an obscenities free scriptthat does not also include over the top violence and rape –the “Millar-Ennis-Morrison Legacy (MEML).”

But let’s mention, I really must, two shining examples of British “Super Heroes” by British creators that have excellent plotting, story and action without having to resort to the MEML.

The first is, naturally, Paul Grist’s Jack Staff.  Okay, he’s never accepted my offer to interview him in the last decade but I’ll not hold that against him!  When I first saw Jack Staff I thought “**** that anatomy is really off!”  I bought a copy.  I’m a comics bitch, I just can’t help it.

I read through issue 1 and do you know what? I..I..deep breath…I enjoyed it!  There it’s out now!  The anatomy did not put me off and, as the manager of Forbidden Planet (Bristol) said “It doesn’t make a blind bit of difference –it’s so enjoyable!” With references to old British TV comedy series and so much more each issue of Jack Staff was a must read. There was, I must point out here, a major flaw in each issue. There were not enough pages!

And while Grist takes a break from Jack Staff he came up with a new series –Mud-Man (which should not be confused with my German character Schlamm Mann –mud-man!).  Lovely stuff but, again, the major fault of not enough pages but maybe that is why this works: it is almost episodic like old British weekly strips…but with more pages…okay. Grist wins.

Then we have, and I have to say this on bended knees and in very humble tone…Nigel Dobbyn. When someone told me that he was drawing Billy The Cat I remember thinking to myself “I wonder whether his art style is any different than when he was drawing for Super Adventure Stories?”  (a 1980s comic zine).  I opened up the comic and a big thought balloon appeared above my head in which was written in bold Comic Sans “WOW!”

The style and colouring I had not seen outside of European comics (say Cyrus Tota’s work on Photonik).  After that I never missed an issue and I made a point of grabbing The Beano Annual as soon as it appeared in shops. But with this incredible talent working for them did Thomson take advantage?  No, they did something ensuring he would not work on new strips for them.  The story can be found here:

http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2010/12/12/nigel-dobbynbilly-the-cat-and-d-c-thomson/

You want to see how good Dobbyn is?  Visit his website which has great art on show including Billy The Cat colour pages:

http://www.nigeldobbyn.com/

Dobbyn even re-introduced (with help from scripter Kev F. Sutherland, of course) General Jumbo but as The General.  In fact, you go over those issues and I can see why so many people were telling me that they only bought copies for Billy The Cat. I could drool on and wax lyrical for hours about Dobbyn’s style and colouring.

Now here is the real kicker.  Two talents such as Grist and Dobbyn whom any UK publisher (I know –“Who??”) should be fighting, spitting and kicking to get their hands on but are they?  Nope.  And while Grist publishes his books via Image Comics you have to wonder why Marvel or DC have not tried to get him on a title?  Could it be his style is just not understandable by people in US Comics such as Joe “I’ll sell that for a Dollar” Quesada or Dan “I’ve had another brilliant idea on how to destroy DC” Didio?  What of Dobbyn, then?

I know that if as a publisher I had the money I’d be employing both full time!!

I need to stop mentioning Dobbyn now as my knees hurt (a lot) and it’s hard typing from this position.

What both creators have shown is that there really do not have to be skyscrapers for a “super hero.”  There is enough car crime, drug crime…violent crime of most types going on in the UK and believe it or not none involve a single skyscraper.  Incredible, isn’t it?

Also, the UK is rich in legends, myths, fairy tales and much more that are just crying out to be included in storylines.  The reason the Americans and other comic readers world-wide like UK strips is because they are uniquely British.  In India, particularly in Southern India, The Steel Claw, Robot Archie, The Spider and many others are still very popular in reprint form over 35 years since they last appeared in print here.

Of course, now that the Evil Empire (Disney) has extended its stranglehold on Marvel (Panini) UK nothing new from the UK is allowed –though why doesn’t Panini with all its international branches pull in some new characters/books of their own?  Oh. Its cheaper tp publish reprint material, isn’t it? I can be so silly!

Black Tower Comics has published a wide range of comics and the costumed crime-fighters (or even non-costumed in the case of Krakos) are the most popular.

So the market is there but where are the moneymen, the backers needed to help revive the corpse that is British comics so that it can proudly boast an industry once more that takes advantage of talents such as Grist, Dobbyn and Jon Haward?

However improbable British super heroes might seem to sum I can tell you they are not.  There is a history going back 80 years and even longer if you include the Penny Dreadfuls of the Victorian era.

Here endeth the sermon.

BOOKED!

After co-producing the SCARDIFF Horror Convention last year and the aniManga POP! show in Plymouth last month, time to add yet another COMIC EXPO style Convention and where better than Bristol to do so....


 

FANTASY EVENTS are delighted to announce the

NEW CONVENTION we are working along side

BACK COVER PROMOTIONS

BOOKED!   a book festival  ...in a day

Which is what it says, special guests, authors, publishers, panels, book launches , Q&A sessions, workshops and much more!

A multi channel showcase covering Sci Fi, Fantasy, Romance,

Children’s and

    .... beyond!

Expect Novels, Graphics and Live Music!

And where else to host the Convention than the old COMIC EXPO

stomping ground of the Ramada  Hotel in Bristol, well the nifty refurbished Double Tree by Hilton ( to use the new name! )

Saturday 29th November  is the date to Book BOOKED!

Website in now live with 1st wave of  guests, sponsor packages and

exhibitor details and the contact info!

http://bookedcon.blogspot.co.uk/

PETER DAVID signing X-FACTOR at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore

PETER DAVID SIGNING

X-FACTOR THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL. 1

Join PETER DAVID signing X-FACTOR THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOLUME 1, at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Monday 17^th March from 6 – 7pm!

Relive the gripping, noir-esque launch of Peter David's most memorable concept: X-Factor Investigations!

Jamie Madrox sets up shop in the heart of Mutant Town but with so many duplicates out in the world, who is the real Madrox? Does he even know anymore? Then, when the fallout from the House Of M depowers most of the world's mutants, X-Factor must find answers fast! With Guido, Wolfsbane, Siryn, M and Rictor by his side as well as the stuff-knowing Layla Miller Madrox must take on the manipulative prescient Mr. Tryp's rival group Singularity Investigations, navigate a superhuman Civil War, learn why the X-Men lied to his team, deal with the unbalanced Quicksilver's new ability to reboot mutant powers for a price and discover the deadly traitor in X-Factor's midst! Collecting Madrox #1-5 and X-Factor (2006) #1-12.

PETER DAVID is a prolific author whose career spans nearly two decades. He’s worked in every conceivable media: television, film, books (fiction, non-fiction and audio), short stores, and comic books, and acquired followings in all of them.

FORBIDDEN PLANET

Forbidden Planet is the largest store of its kind in the world. Some of the biggest names in SF, Fantasy and Cult Entertainment have come to our London Megastore for events, including Jonathan Ross, Kevin Smith, Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro, John Landis, Terry Gilliam, Christopher Lee, Simon Pegg, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and Stephen King.

For more about our signings please go to: http://forbiddenplanet.com/events/

WWW.FORBIDDENPLANET.COM

D-Gruppe And The Inspiration For A Story

I think that I actually told Subzero (Tales From The Kryptonian -which you really MUST check out via the blog list or - http://talesfromthekryptonian.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/like-book-out-of-hell.html) that there was plenty of material for D-Gruppe storylines.  One involved the alleged crash of a UFO into the Black Forest in 1935(?), another concerned a robot Bismarck ordered built and then there were the supposed robots Ally soldiers had to fight in 1944/45.

This 1968 comic cover shows what I mean. I LOVE this cover!!

Robots fighting the Allies, Santiago.  Robots. Beats big breasted women every time!  No, seriously, they do!!

您好！

数量最多的命中为CBO来自中国。事实上，更多的中国人参观CBO比来自美国。现在，我希望中国的文字是不够好，认为这是我的私人讯息给中国漫画迷！

如果你能阅读和书写英语，想留言请。我想听听你的想法CBO的，还什么你可能会喜欢在这里看到 - 或者甚至从你听到你最喜欢的中国语文漫画（如果有一个网站，那么请通过在URL）。

在此期间，有乐趣！

AP 10th May Take-Over

Introducing MAY 10 TAKEOVER   In collaboration with the London Radical Bookfair and the Alliance of Radical Booksellers, Alternative Press will be taking over the Bishopsgate Institute. In the first event of its kind, we will be bringing the small press to a new audience – championing zine-making and DIY alongside radical publishing and bookselling - across three floors. To take part as an exhibitor please apply for a table here   We welcome applications from all – from zinesters, comic folk, book artists, or illustrators; whether you use a photocopier or a printing house; have been doing it for years or just starting out.     Spaces are limited and deadline is 5pm on 19th March.   We also welcome your flyer designs! Those received by 10th April will be printed as A3 posters and displayed around London town! Download the template here   And in support of the above, we would welcome ideas for talks and/or workshops - get in touch enquiries@alternativepress.org.uk.   Also email us if you have a few hours to spare and you would like to join the AP Team! We're all about collaboration and would really appreciate more hands on deck!   Till next time,   AP xx   MAY 10 TAKEOVER... JOIN US...

Alternative Press / London / alternativepress.org.uk         

She Makes comics

Firstly, Happy Women’s History Month!

We at Respect Films and Sequart would like to give a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us in our goal to tell the history of women in comics! Our She Makes Comics Kickstarter campaign is in its final days, and we’d love to continue our campaign’s success, so we’ve come up with what we think is a very worthy stretch goal:

If we reach the $50,000 mark, we’ll create a 10- to 15-minute mini-documentary focusing on Jackie Ormes, the first African-American Woman cartoonist!

She Makes Comics busts up the “boys’ club” of the comic book world, telling the story of women in the comics industry and in fan culture since the Golden Age of the medium. This film will trace the history of women in comics from its early days, when the majority of readers were, in fact, women. It will explore the early contributions female artists made to superhero comics in the ‘50s and ‘60s; the explosion of underground feminist comics in the ‘70s; the maturation of comics in the ‘80s overseen by several key female editors and executives; and the modern age of indie comics and fandom, where artists and fans thrive in ever-growing communities. For the first time on film, female creators, fans, retailers, and scholars will tell their stories in a celebration of creative passion and barrier-breaking storytelling.

The film will be produced by the same Sequart / Respect Films team behind the critically-acclaimed documentaries The Image Revolution, Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods, Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, and Comics in Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men.

We have turned to Kickstarter to help fund She Makes Comics. This is your chance to support discussion about the merits of comics and to help document the story of the women who’ve had a part in shaping comics history.

“We’re really excited to produce a film that will hopefully inspire a new generation of creators and fans and show women that there is a place for them in comics,” said director / producer Marisa Stotter.

Co-producing She Makes Comics is Karen Green, the comics / graphic novels librarian at Columbia University. “To bring all these women together – these smart, creative, powerful women – telling their stories, telling the history of women in comics, this stands as such an amazing example to women out there, to girls out there, that there are a lot of women in this club. And there’s always room for more.”

Rewards include the documentary as a DVD and / or digital download; original artwork created exclusively for the film by Courtney Wirth, Colleen Doran, and Jill Thompson; and a get-started comics art kit that is perfect for an aspiring artist. Rewards also include books and feature-length documentary films from Sequart's catalog.

REWARDS UPDATES:

·         For current pledgers: If you increase your pledge by $10, you’ll get a copy of The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff anthology!

·         Also for current pledgers: If you increase your pledge by $30, you’ll get an autographed copy of Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil: The Gathering graphic novel!

·         For $200, Miss Lasko-Gross (Escape from Special, A Mess of Everything) will draw a portrait of you (or anyone else) from a photo. This is your chance to get a custom portrait from a talented artist!

·        

 And finally, we have two poster prints of the poem Desert Wind, written by Neil Gaiman and beautifully illustrated by Molly Crabapple. For $400, you can own one! The posters are autographed by both Neil and Molly!

For more information, visit the project’s Kickstarter page.

Titan Books: The Simon and Kirby Library – Horror

The Simon and Kirby Library – Horror

Joe Simon & Jack Kirby

Hardback

 320pp

Dimensions: 282 x 190mm

Publication date: 7 March 2014

ISBN: 9781848569591

£35.00 UK   $49.95 US  $57.00 CAN


From the Golden Age of the comic book era comes an unrivalled collection of terrifying tales that thrilled readers and appalled a nation! For the first time, all of the stories written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby themselves, as well as a selection of rarely seen collaborations, are collected in one huge hardcover edition.

Now, I did review the other book from this series –Science Fiction- but for the life of me I cannot find the link! Not even sure how long ago that review was posted so you’ll either have to search or take my word on it!

Anyway, the reproduction for these Simon & Kirby library collections is superb. I’ve not seen the Crime volume but no doubt it is just as good.  Now, horror comics I love so when this arrived I got so excited I think I wet myself (at my age its hard to tell).

Now you may say “I can get these as scans online” but you will find some VERY hard to find and if you do the quality is blech. And look at the strip titles –“Lone Shark” (this is a weird one), “Slaughter House!”, the marvellous “The Head Of The Family”!  “The Cat People”, “Maniac!”  “A Beast In The Streets!” and, one of my favourites –“Hungry As A Wolf!” (and no DuranDuran in sight).

And Kirby drew really great looking “vamps” and women. Oy, and page 207 (“The Sting Of Scorpio”) –one blonde and one brunette in bed together (innocently of course): ”That night I was awakened by a persistent and violent motion that almost threw me to the floor! As I turned to investigate, Joan Brown suddenly sat up and screamed…”  Ahh, I could have made a lot of that in the old Eros Comix days!

The book is just a massive treat and pure nostalgia and fun.  And when you see some of the splash pages –“The Angel Of Death” is one in particular- you realise just how good Simon & Kirby were.

This really HAS to be a must buy for comickers and definitely for comic and horror fans.  There is so much in this book and a lot of it looks fresh and new and wannabe comic artists could learn a lot from this.

I’ll give the book 15 out of 10…because its my blog!

Savage Jungle Princess...Online!

John A. Short

Every weekend new pages of our free web comic go up on the SJP blog. Part 7 is now live! Here's a rare 'Savage! Jungle Princess' mock-cover! 

http://savagejungleprincess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/savage-jungle-princess-issue-1-part-7.html

And I would HIGHLY recommend your checking it out!