History of the British comic
Encyclopedia
A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper.
British comics are usually comics anthologies
which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The top three longest-running comics in the world, The Dandy
, The Beano
and Comic Cuts
are all British, although in modern times British comics have been largely superseded by American comic book
s and Japanese manga
.
The description comics derived from the names of popular titles such as Comic Cuts, and from the fact that in the beginning all the titles presented only comic (humorous) content.
British comics typically differ from the American comic book
. Although historically they shared the same format size, based on a sheet of imperial paper folded in half, British comics have moved away from this size, with The Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt a standard magazine size in the late 1980s. Until that point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all-colour format in 1993.
Originally aimed at the semi-literate working class, the comic eventually came to be seen as childish, and hence was marketed towards children. In today's market in the UK, comics intended for teenagers or adults are considered to be stretching the medium beyond its primary audience.
Historically, strips were of one or two pages in length, with a single issue of a comic containing upwards of a dozen separate strips, featuring different characters, although strips now last longer and tend to continue over a number of issues and period of time.
Whilst some comics contained only strips, other publications have had a slightly different focus, providing readers with articles about, and photographs of, pop stars and television
/film
actor
s, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure.
Since the 1930s, it has been traditional that the most popular comics have annuals, 150 or more pages bound in hardback, usually published just in time for Christmas
, and summer special editions of 96 pages or more in softback.
In British comics history, there are some extremely long-running publications such as The Beano
and The Dandy
published by D. C. Thomson & Co., a newspaper company based in Dundee
, Scotland
. The Dandy began in 1937 and The Beano in 1938. They are both still going today. The Boys' Own Paper lasted from 1879 to 1967.
The intellectual span of British comics over the years has stretched all the way from the cheerfully moronic obscenities of Viz (adult) to the political awareness of Crisis (adolescent to adult) and the sound educational values of Look and Learn
(children's). There has also been a continuous tradition of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles like Air Ace inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army
, navy
and Royal Air Force
mainly in the two world war
s, also some romance
titles and some western
s in this format.
In the 19th century, story paper
s (containing illustrated text stories), known as "penny dreadful
s" from their cover price, served as entertainment for British children. Full of close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from a book, except that they were somewhat shorter and that typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales.
These serial stories could run to hundreds of instalments if they were popular. And to pad out a successful series, writers would insert quite extraneous material such as the geography of the country in which the action was occurring, so that the story would extend into more issues. Plagiarism was rife, with magazines pirating competitors' successes under a few cosmetic name changes. Apart from action and historical stories, there was also a fashion for horror and the supernatural, with epics like Varney the Vampire
running for years. Horror, in particular, contributed to the epithet "penny dreadful". Stories featuring criminals such as 'Spring-Heeled Jack', pirates, highwaymen (especially Dick Turpin), and detectives (including Sexton Blake
) dominated decades of the Victorian and early 20th-century weeklies.
Comic strips—stories told primarily in strip cartoon form, rather than as a written narrative with illustrations—emerged only slowly. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
(1884) is reputed to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character, and the first British comic that would be recognised as such today. This strip cost one penny and was designed for adults. Ally, the recurring character, was a working class fellow who got up to various forms of mischief and often suffered for it.
In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted before the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips, both published by Amalgamated Press
. These magazines notoriously reprinted British and American material, previously published in newspapers and magazines, without permission. The success of these comics was such that Amalgamated's owner, Alfred Harmsworth, was able to launch The Daily Mirror
and The Daily Mail newspapers on the profits.
The period between the two wars is notable mainly for the publication of annuals by Amalgamated Press, and also the emergence of DC Thomson
, launching both The Beano
and The Dandy
in the late 1930s, as previously noted. During the Second World War the Beano and Dandy thrived, due to the wartime paper shortage which forced many rival comics to close. It is these two titles, more than any other, that have come to define a comic in the British public's mind. Their successful mix of irreverence and slapstick led to many similar titles, notably Topper
and Beezer. However the originators of this format have outlasted all rivals, and are still published today.
In the early 1950s, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain", prompting what in retrospect has been characterised as a moral panic
. Copies of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, which arrived as ballast
in ships from the United States, were first only available in the "environs of the great ports of Liverpool
, Manchester
, Belfast
and London", but by "using blocks made from imported American matrices
", British versions of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror were printed in London and Leicester
and sold in "small back-street newsagents." The ensuing outcry was heard in Parliament
, and at the urging of the Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
, Major Gwilym Lloyd George
, the Home Secretary
and Minister of Welsh Affairs, and the National Union of Teachers
, Parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955
; it prohibited "any book, magazine or other like work which is of a kind likely to fall into the hands of children or young persons and consists wholly or mainly of stories told in pictures (with or without the addition of written matter), being stories portraying (a) the commission of crimes; or (b) acts of violence or cruelty; or (c) incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature; in such a way that the work as a whole would tend to corrupt a child or young person into whose hands it might fall." Although the act had a sunset clause, in 1969 the Act was made permanent, and continues to be in force today, represented, for example, in the Royal Mail
prohibition against mailing horror comics and the matrices
used to print them.
During the 1950s and 1960s the most popular comic magazine
for older age-group boys was the Eagle
published by Hulton Press. The Eagle was published in a more expensive format, and was a gravure-printed weekly. This format was one used originally by Mickey Mouse Weekly during the 1930s. The Eagle's success saw a number of comics launched in a similar format, TV Century 21
, Look and Learn
and TV Comic
being notable examples. Comics published in this format were known in the trade as "slicks". At the end of the 1960s these comics moved away from gravure printing, preferring offset litho due to cost considerations arising from decreasing readership.
However, the boys adventure comic was still popular, and titles such as Valiant
and Tiger
published by IPC saw new adventure heroes become stars, including Roy of the Rovers
who would eventually gain his own title. Odhams Press
was a company which mainly printed new material that was adventure oriented, although it also reprinted American Marvel Comics
material in its Power Comics
titles including Smash!
and Fantastic
.
By 1970 the British comics market was in a long term decline, as comics lost popularity in the face of the rise of other popular pastimes for children. Initially the challenge was the rising popularity of television, a trend which the introduction of colour television to Britain during 1969 set in stone. In an effort to counter the trend, many publishers switched the focus of their comics towards television-related characters. The television shows of Gerry Anderson
such as Thunderbirds
and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
had begun this in 1966 with the launch of tie-in comics such as TV21 and Lady Penelope that included only strips related to Anderson's TV shows. Polystyle Publications already published a TV-related comic for young children called TV Comic, and in 1971 moved into the older market with Countdown (later retitled TV Action). The teenage market saw Look-In magazine feature strips solely based on popular television programmes. Another strand of the reaction to television was the launch of comics focused entirely on football (soccer being as popular as television amongst boys), with titles such as Shoot and Scorcher and Score. Those comics which didn't address the issue of television began to close, merging with the few survivors.
In the 1970s very few boys' comics in the "slick" format were launched, although Countdown was one exception, launching in 1971 with content similar to TV 21 (which had closed by then) and TV Comic. Vulcan, a reprint title, was another, in 1976. Girls' titles which had launched in the "slick" format in the 1960s continued in that format into the 1970s; and others, such as Diana and Judy, changed to become slicks. They found themselves in the same market as teenage titles for girls such as Boyfriend and Blue Jeans, which had changed their content and were featuring mainly product-related articles and photo-strips.
In 1972
, Marvel
set up a publishing arm in the UK, Marvel UK
, reprinting American superhero strips. These proved extremely popular, and a range of weekly titles were being published by 1975. So much so that in 1976 the company briefly published a minimal amount of new material; The Daredevils
and Captain Britain
were the two most notable. But the American reprint material proved to be more successful, and continued to appear into the 1980s, at which stage Marvel UK began diversifying into television-based material, initially with Dr Who Weekly, launched in 1979.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the underground comics movement inspired two new comics in the UK: Oz
and Nasty Tales were launched with the Underground premise of counter-culture rebellion. Oz notoriously featured the children's character Rupert the Bear performing sexual acts. Both magazines were tried at the Old Bailey
under the Obscene Publications Act
because of their content. The Oz defendants were convicted, although the conviction was overturned on appeal. The Nasty Tales defendants were cautioned. However, both these comics ceased publication soon after their trial, as much due to the social changes at the end of the counter-culture movement as any effect of the court cases. These were always adult magazines, not titles aimed at the mainstream children's market.
In the mid 1970s, comics became more action oriented. The first such title to be launched was Warlord in 1974
. Published by DC Thomson, it proved to be a success, and led to its then rival, IPC Magazines Ltd
, producing Battle Picture Weekly
, a comic notably grimmer in style than its competitor. Battle's success led to IPC launching another, similarly styled title, Action, which became a success too, but also became controversial, due to its content. Complaints about its tone eventually led to questions being asked in the House of Commons
. Although an extremely popular title, IPC decided nonetheless to change the content, which neutered the comic's appeal, whereupon the title quickly declined and merged with Battle.
Action's position as the most popular title was taken over by 2000 AD, launched in 1977
by IPC. Created as a comic for older boys and girls, it also held appeal for teenage and even adult readers. In the 1960s IPC began to source comic art from Spain, mainly for financial reasons. This trend was continued through to the launch of 2000AD
. Carlos Ezquerra
is the most notable Spanish artist to have worked in British comics, having worked on both Battle and 2000 AD, and is credited with the creation of the look of Judge Dredd
. Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles have been published in a tabloid form known as a "programme", or "prog" for short.
The Star Wars
magazine lasted into the late 1980s, although it changed its name in line with each movie release. In 1982
The Eagle was relaunched, this time including photo-strips, but still with Dan Dare as the lead story. The comic moved him from the front page to the centre pages to allow a more magazine-style cover.
Dez Skinn
launched Warrior, possibly the most notable comic of the period, as it contained both the Marvelman
and V for Vendetta
strips, by Alan Moore
. Warrior was a British equivalent of Heavy Metal
magazine. Marvelman was a Captain Marvel
clone that Skinn acquired, although the legality of that acquisition has been questioned. In Moore's hands the strip became an "adult" style superhero
, and was later reprinted, with the story continued, in an American full-colour comic, with the name changed from "Marvelman" to "Miracleman" to avoid any lawsuits that Marvel Comics
may have considered.
Adult comics also witnessed a slight resurgence first with psst!, an attempt to market a French style monthly bande dessinée
, and then with Escape Magazine
, published by Paul Gravett
, former psst! promotions man. Escape is the other notable comic from this period, featuring early work from Eddie Campbell
and Paul Grist
, amongst others. Neither comic managed to survive in the vagaries of the comics market, Warrior beset by copyright issues and Escape by lack of publisher interest. During this period a number of smaller publishers were formed to provide inventive publications appealing to niche markets. Congress Press was one of these companies, providing titles such as Birthrite, Heaven & Hell and a graphic novel, Spookhouse.
Most of the surviving titles published by IPC, Fleetway and DC Thompson were merged into each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the popularity of comics waned further in response to a surge in the popularity of television (with the introduction in the UK of the domestic video cassette recorder, a ubiquitous feature of every home by the mid-1980s) and of video games (due to the arrival of early home computers, particularly the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum and the Atari). Although new titles were launched in this period, none seemed to find any sustainable audience. Notable comics from this period included Deadline
, Toxic!
, Crisis, and Revolver.
Deadline was conceived by Steve Dillon
and Brett Ewins
, and mixed original strips with reprints of U.S. strips, notably Love & Rockets
, and articles and interviews on the British independent music scene of the time. Tank Girl
was its most notable strip. Crisis was published by Fleetway Publications
, a company formed from IPC's
comics holdings. It was aimed at readers who had outgrown 2000 AD, and featured first works by Garth Ennis
and Sean Phillips
amongst others.
One publication of that period did, however, find an audience. Viz began life in 1979
as a fanzine
style publication, before, in 1989, becoming the biggest selling magazine in the country. Based upon bad taste, crude language, crude sexual innuendo, and the parodying of strips from The Dandy
(among them Black Bag – the Faithful Border Bin Liner
, a parody of The Dandy's Black Bob
series about a Border Collie
), the popularity of Viz depended entirely upon a variant of Sixties counter-culture; and it promptly inspired similarly themed titles, including Oink!
, Smut
, Poot!
and Zit, all of which failed to achieve Vizs longevity and folded. Whilst Viz no longer sells as well as it did at the height of its popularity, it is still one of the United Kingdom's top selling magazines.
and fanzine
titles are being produced, such as Solar Wind
or FutureQuake
, aided by the cheapness and increasingly professional appearance of desktop publishing
programs. It is from this scene that the UK's new talents now tend to emerge (e.g. Al Ewing
, Henry Flint
or Simon Spurrier
).
After they were purchased by Rebellion
, both 2000 AD
and the Judge Dredd Megazine
have seen rises in circulation and the release of more adaptations and trade paperbacks
, including complete reprint collections of the entire runs of Judge Dredd
, Strontium Dog
and Nemesis the Warlock
. Starting in 2006 the Megazine began a regular small press section which usually features an article on a title by Matthew Badham or David Baillie and a small press story.
There have also been changes in comics market with a growth in home-grown graphic novels and manga
.
While British companies and creators have helped create the market for collected volumes
there have, with a few exceptions like Raymond Briggs
, been very few British original graphic novels published. Briggs himself has said "On the Continent, graphic novels have been as accepted as films or books for many years, but England has had a snobby attitude towards them. They've always been seen as something just for children". However, thanks to the strong sales for Briggs' Ethel and Ernest
, and Jimmy Corrigan winning The Guardian
s best first novel award, publishers have started expanding into this area. Random House
UK's imprint Jonathan Cape
has tripled its graphic novel output and Random House has also established Tanoshimi
to publish manga. Other publishers have also been increasing their output, which, as well as producing original works like Alice in Sunderland
, have also been included adaptations of works of literature. There are a number of new publishers who are specifically targeting this area, including Insomnia Publications
, Classical Comics
and Self Made Hero
, the latter having an imprint focused on manga
adaptations of the works of Shakespeare.
This highlights another recent change, as there has been an increase in British original English-language manga
. Self Made Hero's 'Manga Shakespeare' imprint draws on talent discovered in Tokyopop
's UK/Irish version of Rising Stars of Manga
, including members of the UK collective Sweatdrop Studios
, who have also contributed to other British-based efforts like ILYA's Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and MangaQuake.
The DFC
launched at the end of May 2008
drawing together creators from the small press and manga, as well as well as figures from mainstream British comics and other fields, including author Philip Pullman
. Unfortunately, it didn't make it to its first birthday, ending with issue 43.
comic book
s and yet have always enjoyed the different approach to comics writing from the other side of the Atlantic. So the lack of reliable supplies was supplemented by a variety of black and white reprints of Marvel
's 1950s monster comics, Fawcett's
Captain Marvel
, and some other characters such as Sheena
, Mandrake the Magician
, The Phantom
etc. Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market, notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter.
Thorpe & Porter published similar formatted titles under various names. They were also re-publishing Dell's
Four Color series and Classics Illustrated
in the UK. Their material also included some work never before published in the US. Thorpe & Porter published many black & white reprints of American comics in the 1950s. Thorpe & Porter/Stratos published a long-running Marvel series, Kid Colt Outlaw, which contained black-and-white reprints from both Atlas and DC. They also published Two-Gun Kid
and Rawhide Kid
in a smaller black-and-white format, though these were usually the entire contents of various American issues reprinted.
Alan Class is another notable name in this market: his company Alan Class & Co. Ltd published b/w reprint anthologies of U.S. comics stories from the 1940s – 1960s from 1958. The company purchased L. Miller & Son's holdings in 1963, and continued to produce black & white reprints until 1989.
When Captain Marvel ceased publication in the United States
because of a lawsuit
, the British reprint company, L. Miller & Son, copied the entire Captain Marvel idea in every detail, and began publishing their own knock-off under the names Marvelman
and Young Marvelman, taking advantage of different copyright laws. These clone versions continued for a few years and, as seen above, were revived years later in Warrior. L. Miller also reprinted many other American series including the early 1950s Eerie
and Black Magic
in black and white format. These usually contain the American stories which relate to the cover but also contain other additional gems toward the back of the comic to fill-up the 64 pages.
An oddity of the trans-atlantic comics trade is Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
. This female version of Tarzan
(with an element of H. Rider Haggard
's "She who must be obeyed" – She... Na!) was licensed from Will Eisner
's Eisner-Iger studio for a British and Australasian tabloid, Wags, in 1937. The success of this character led to the Wags artwork being repackaged for publication by Fiction House magazines in the United States
, thus exporting the character back to her country of origin.
The reprint market really took off in the 1980s with Titan Books
releasing collections of British material, as well as signing deals with DC Comics
to release American comic books in the UK. Igor Goldkind
was Titan's, and Forbidden Planet
's, marketing consultant at the time and helped popularise the term "graphic novel
" for the softcover trade paperbacks
they were releasing, which generated a lot of attention from the mainstream press.
As well as Marvel UK
reprints, Panini Comics
reprint many of Marvel's
titles. These include Ultimate Spider-Man
(originally holding two issues of either Ultimate Spider-Man or Ultimate Marvel Team-Up
, now existing as a double feature with Ultimate X-Men
) and also produce a Collector's Edition
line of comics, featuring a cardboard cover, three stories and a letters page on the inside back cover. Titles printed include many Marvel comics, including Astonishing Spider-Man
, Essential X-Men
and Mighty World of Marvel which reprints a variety of Marvel Comics. They also printed one DC comic, Batman Legends
, reprinting various Batman
adventures (e.g. two parts of a multi-title crossover and an issue of Batman: Year One
), though currently this title is published by Titan Magazines
Since 2005, a small selection of American translations of the most popular Japanese comics
have been reprinted in the UK by major publishers such as Random House
, through their Tanoshimi
imprint, and the Orion Publishing Group
. Unfortunately both no longer publish Japanese comics in British versions, for Orion, the reprints they were handling have been switched to having the original American versions imported, however all Japanese comic publishings by Random House were abandoned in early 2009. Simultaneously, the very small press Fanfare has published a few UK-exclusive English-language editions of alternative Japanese manga and French bande dessinée
, both sublicenced from the Spanish publisher Ponent Mon.
#1, Amazing Fantasy #15, The Amazing Spider-Man
#1, and countless others, appeared in the UK.
Thorpe & Porter was purchased by the distribution arm of DC Comics
, then known as IND., in 1964, going on to publish an official Superman/Batman reprint book, DC Special.
British comics are usually comics anthologies
Comics anthology
Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...
which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The top three longest-running comics in the world, The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
, The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and Comic Cuts
Comic Cuts
Comic Cuts was a British comic book. It was created by the reporter, Alfred Harmsworth through his company Amalgamated Press . It was published from 1890 to 1953, lasting 3006 issues, and in its early days inspired other publishers to produce rival comics. It's first issue was an assortment of...
are all British, although in modern times British comics have been largely superseded by American comic book
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
s and Japanese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
.
Overview
British comics typically differ from the American comic book
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
. Although historically they shared the same format size, based on a sheet of imperial paper folded in half, British comics have moved away from this size, with The Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt a standard magazine size in the late 1980s. Until that point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all-colour format in 1993.
Originally aimed at the semi-literate working class, the comic eventually came to be seen as childish, and hence was marketed towards children. In today's market in the UK, comics intended for teenagers or adults are considered to be stretching the medium beyond its primary audience.
Historically, strips were of one or two pages in length, with a single issue of a comic containing upwards of a dozen separate strips, featuring different characters, although strips now last longer and tend to continue over a number of issues and period of time.
Whilst some comics contained only strips, other publications have had a slightly different focus, providing readers with articles about, and photographs of, pop stars and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
/film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure.
Since the 1930s, it has been traditional that the most popular comics have annuals, 150 or more pages bound in hardback, usually published just in time for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, and summer special editions of 96 pages or more in softback.
In British comics history, there are some extremely long-running publications such as The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
published by D. C. Thomson & Co., a newspaper company based in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The Dandy began in 1937 and The Beano in 1938. They are both still going today. The Boys' Own Paper lasted from 1879 to 1967.
The intellectual span of British comics over the years has stretched all the way from the cheerfully moronic obscenities of Viz (adult) to the political awareness of Crisis (adolescent to adult) and the sound educational values of Look and Learn
Look and Learn
Look and Learn was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness Monster; a long running science fiction comic strip, The...
(children's). There has also been a continuous tradition of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles like Air Ace inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
and Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
mainly in the two world war
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
s, also some romance
Romance comics
Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...
titles and some western
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
s in this format.
19th century
Story paper
*This article is about British Story papers. For the U.S. version, see Dime novel.A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers...
s (containing illustrated text stories), known as "penny dreadful
Penny Dreadful
A penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...
s" from their cover price, served as entertainment for British children. Full of close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from a book, except that they were somewhat shorter and that typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales.
These serial stories could run to hundreds of instalments if they were popular. And to pad out a successful series, writers would insert quite extraneous material such as the geography of the country in which the action was occurring, so that the story would extend into more issues. Plagiarism was rife, with magazines pirating competitors' successes under a few cosmetic name changes. Apart from action and historical stories, there was also a fashion for horror and the supernatural, with epics like Varney the Vampire
Varney the Vampire
Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood was a Victorian era serialized gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer . It first appeared in 1845–47 as a series of cheap pamphlets of the kind then known as "penny dreadfuls". The story was published in book form in 1847...
running for years. Horror, in particular, contributed to the epithet "penny dreadful". Stories featuring criminals such as 'Spring-Heeled Jack', pirates, highwaymen (especially Dick Turpin), and detectives (including Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who appeared in many British comic strips and novels throughout the 20th century. He was described by Professor Jeffrey Richards on the BBC in The Radio Detectives in 2003 as "the poor man's Sherlock Holmes"...
) dominated decades of the Victorian and early 20th-century weeklies.
Comic strips—stories told primarily in strip cartoon form, rather than as a written narrative with illustrations—emerged only slowly. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday was a British comic, first published on 3 May 1884. It has a legitimate claim to being the first comic magazine named after and featuring a regular character...
(1884) is reputed to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character, and the first British comic that would be recognised as such today. This strip cost one penny and was designed for adults. Ally, the recurring character, was a working class fellow who got up to various forms of mischief and often suffered for it.
In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted before the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips, both published by Amalgamated Press
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....
. These magazines notoriously reprinted British and American material, previously published in newspapers and magazines, without permission. The success of these comics was such that Amalgamated's owner, Alfred Harmsworth, was able to launch The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
and The Daily Mail newspapers on the profits.
20th century
Over the next thirty years or so, comic publishers saw the juvenile market as the most profitable, and thus geared their publications accordingly, so that by 1914 most comics were aimed at eight to twelve year olds.The period between the two wars is notable mainly for the publication of annuals by Amalgamated Press, and also the emergence of DC Thomson
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, is a publishing company based in Dundee, Scotland, best known for producing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando comics...
, launching both The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
in the late 1930s, as previously noted. During the Second World War the Beano and Dandy thrived, due to the wartime paper shortage which forced many rival comics to close. It is these two titles, more than any other, that have come to define a comic in the British public's mind. Their successful mix of irreverence and slapstick led to many similar titles, notably Topper
Topper (comic book)
The Topper was a UK comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from 7 February 1953 to 15 September 1990, when it merged with The Beezer....
and Beezer. However the originators of this format have outlasted all rivals, and are still published today.
In the early 1950s, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain", prompting what in retrospect has been characterised as a moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
. Copies of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, which arrived as ballast
Sailing ballast
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...
in ships from the United States, were first only available in the "environs of the great ports of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
and London", but by "using blocks made from imported American matrices
Matrix (printing)
In hot metal typesetting, a matrix is a mold for casting a letter, known as a sort, used in letterpress printing....
", British versions of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror were printed in London and Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
and sold in "small back-street newsagents." The ensuing outcry was heard in Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, and at the urging of the Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.-Background:...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Major Gwilym Lloyd George
Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby
Major Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby PC TD was a British politician and cabinet minister. A younger son of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, he served as Home Secretary from 1954 to 1957....
, the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
and Minister of Welsh Affairs, and the National Union of Teachers
National Union of Teachers
The National Union of Teachers is a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is a member of the Trades Union Congress...
, Parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955
Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955
The Children and Young Persons Act 1955 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that prohibited comics that were thought to be harmful to children...
; it prohibited "any book, magazine or other like work which is of a kind likely to fall into the hands of children or young persons and consists wholly or mainly of stories told in pictures (with or without the addition of written matter), being stories portraying (a) the commission of crimes; or (b) acts of violence or cruelty; or (c) incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature; in such a way that the work as a whole would tend to corrupt a child or young person into whose hands it might fall." Although the act had a sunset clause, in 1969 the Act was made permanent, and continues to be in force today, represented, for example, in the Royal Mail
Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
prohibition against mailing horror comics and the matrices
Matrix (printing)
In hot metal typesetting, a matrix is a mold for casting a letter, known as a sort, used in letterpress printing....
used to print them.
During the 1950s and 1960s the most popular comic magazine
Comic magazine
Comic magazine may refer to:*A periodical containing comic strips, in the UK referred to as comic.*In the U.S., more commonly referred to as a comic book.*In Japan comic magazines are called manga.*See also Franco-Belgian comics magazines....
for older age-group boys was the Eagle
Eagle (comic)
Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...
published by Hulton Press. The Eagle was published in a more expensive format, and was a gravure-printed weekly. This format was one used originally by Mickey Mouse Weekly during the 1930s. The Eagle's success saw a number of comics launched in a similar format, TV Century 21
TV Century 21
TV Century 21, also known as TV 21, was a weekly British children's comic of the 1960s and early 1970s. It promoted the many television science-fiction puppet series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions...
, Look and Learn
Look and Learn
Look and Learn was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness Monster; a long running science fiction comic strip, The...
and TV Comic
TV Comic
TV Comic was a British comic book published weekly between November 9, 1951 and June 29, 1984 for 1,697 issues. With its bright, eye-catching covers, it featured stories based on television shows running at the time of publication. The first issue had 8 pages and had Muffin the Mule on the cover....
being notable examples. Comics published in this format were known in the trade as "slicks". At the end of the 1960s these comics moved away from gravure printing, preferring offset litho due to cost considerations arising from decreasing readership.
However, the boys adventure comic was still popular, and titles such as Valiant
Valiant (comic)
Valiant was the title of a British boys adventure comics anthology which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.-Publication history:...
and Tiger
Tiger (comic)
Tiger was a British comic magazine published from 1954 to 1985. The comic was launched under the editorship of Derek Birnage on 11 September 1954, under the name Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly, and featured predominantly sporting strips...
published by IPC saw new adventure heroes become stars, including Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
who would eventually gain his own title. Odhams Press
Odhams Press
Odhams Press was a British publishing firm. Originally a newspaper group, founded in 1890, it took the name Odham's Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine. By 1937 it had founded the first colour weekly, Woman, for which it set up and operated a dedicated high-speed print works...
was a company which mainly printed new material that was adventure oriented, although it also reprinted American Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
material in its Power Comics
Power Comics
Power Comics was an imprint of the British comics publisher Odhams Press that was particularly notable for its use of material reprinted from American Marvel Comics. Appearing chiefly during the years 1967 and 1968, the Power Comics line consisted of five weekly titles: Wham!, Smash!, Pow!,...
titles including Smash!
Smash! (comic)
Smash! was a weekly British comic, published in London by Odhams Press Ltd from 64 Long Acre and subsequently by IPC Magazines Ltd from 189 High Holborn and Fleetway House in nearby Farringdon Street....
and Fantastic
Fantastic (comic)
Fantastic was a weekly British comic published by Odhams Press under the Power Comics imprint. It first appeared on 18 February 1967, and with its 52nd issue on 10 February 1968 it merged with its sister title Terrific...
.
By 1970 the British comics market was in a long term decline, as comics lost popularity in the face of the rise of other popular pastimes for children. Initially the challenge was the rising popularity of television, a trend which the introduction of colour television to Britain during 1969 set in stone. In an effort to counter the trend, many publishers switched the focus of their comics towards television-related characters. The television shows of Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
such as Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
had begun this in 1966 with the launch of tie-in comics such as TV21 and Lady Penelope that included only strips related to Anderson's TV shows. Polystyle Publications already published a TV-related comic for young children called TV Comic, and in 1971 moved into the older market with Countdown (later retitled TV Action). The teenage market saw Look-In magazine feature strips solely based on popular television programmes. Another strand of the reaction to television was the launch of comics focused entirely on football (soccer being as popular as television amongst boys), with titles such as Shoot and Scorcher and Score. Those comics which didn't address the issue of television began to close, merging with the few survivors.
In the 1970s very few boys' comics in the "slick" format were launched, although Countdown was one exception, launching in 1971 with content similar to TV 21 (which had closed by then) and TV Comic. Vulcan, a reprint title, was another, in 1976. Girls' titles which had launched in the "slick" format in the 1960s continued in that format into the 1970s; and others, such as Diana and Judy, changed to become slicks. They found themselves in the same market as teenage titles for girls such as Boyfriend and Blue Jeans, which had changed their content and were featuring mainly product-related articles and photo-strips.
In 1972
1972 in comics
-Events:* Marvel Comics forms their British publishing arm, Marvel UK .* Phil Seuling founds East Coast Seagate Distribution, developing the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the established newspaper/magazine...
, Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
set up a publishing arm in the UK, Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
, reprinting American superhero strips. These proved extremely popular, and a range of weekly titles were being published by 1975. So much so that in 1976 the company briefly published a minimal amount of new material; The Daredevils
The Daredevils
The Daredevils was a comics magazine and anthology published by Marvel UK in 1983.Aimed for a more sophisticated audience than typical light superhero adventures, The Daredevils featured Captain Britain stories by Alan Moore and Alan Davis, as well as new Night Raven text stories, and reprints of...
and Captain Britain
Captain Britain
Captain Britain , briefly known as Britannic, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, he first appeared in Captain Britain Weekly, #1...
were the two most notable. But the American reprint material proved to be more successful, and continued to appear into the 1980s, at which stage Marvel UK began diversifying into television-based material, initially with Dr Who Weekly, launched in 1979.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the underground comics movement inspired two new comics in the UK: Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
and Nasty Tales were launched with the Underground premise of counter-culture rebellion. Oz notoriously featured the children's character Rupert the Bear performing sexual acts. Both magazines were tried at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
under the Obscene Publications Act
Obscene Publications Act
Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge.There have been...
because of their content. The Oz defendants were convicted, although the conviction was overturned on appeal. The Nasty Tales defendants were cautioned. However, both these comics ceased publication soon after their trial, as much due to the social changes at the end of the counter-culture movement as any effect of the court cases. These were always adult magazines, not titles aimed at the mainstream children's market.
1974 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1974.-Year overall:* From May to September, Marvel debuts their Giant-Size series, mostly double- or triple-length comics featuring their most popular characters...
. Published by DC Thomson, it proved to be a success, and led to its then rival, IPC Magazines Ltd
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
, producing Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle...
, a comic notably grimmer in style than its competitor. Battle's success led to IPC launching another, similarly styled title, Action, which became a success too, but also became controversial, due to its content. Complaints about its tone eventually led to questions being asked in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. Although an extremely popular title, IPC decided nonetheless to change the content, which neutered the comic's appeal, whereupon the title quickly declined and merged with Battle.
Action's position as the most popular title was taken over by 2000 AD, launched in 1977
1977 in comics
- Year overall :* Wendy and Richard Pini establish WaRP Graphics.* Jan and Dean Mullaney establish Eclipse Comics.* The United Kingdom's Eagle Awards are established.* Bob Brown dies at age 62.* Ciao magazine is launched.-January:...
by IPC. Created as a comic for older boys and girls, it also held appeal for teenage and even adult readers. In the 1960s IPC began to source comic art from Spain, mainly for financial reasons. This trend was continued through to the launch of 2000AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
. Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
is the most notable Spanish artist to have worked in British comics, having worked on both Battle and 2000 AD, and is credited with the creation of the look of Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
. Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles have been published in a tabloid form known as a "programme", or "prog" for short.
The Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
magazine lasted into the late 1980s, although it changed its name in line with each movie release. In 1982
1982 in comics
-Year overall:* San Diego-based independent publisher Pacific Comics makes a strong push in the marketplace, following Jack Kirby's Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers with four new ongoing titles, Starslayer, Ms...
The Eagle was relaunched, this time including photo-strips, but still with Dan Dare as the lead story. The comic moved him from the front page to the centre pages to allow a more magazine-style cover.
Dez Skinn
Dez Skinn
Derek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly...
launched Warrior, possibly the most notable comic of the period, as it contained both the Marvelman
Miracleman
Marvelman, also known as Miracleman for trademark reasons in his American reprints and story continuation, is a fictional comic book superhero created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & Son. Originally intended as a United Kingdom home-grown substitute for the American...
and V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
strips, by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
. Warrior was a British equivalent of Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (magazine)
Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...
magazine. Marvelman was a Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
clone that Skinn acquired, although the legality of that acquisition has been questioned. In Moore's hands the strip became an "adult" style superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
, and was later reprinted, with the story continued, in an American full-colour comic, with the name changed from "Marvelman" to "Miracleman" to avoid any lawsuits that Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
may have considered.
Adult comics also witnessed a slight resurgence first with psst!, an attempt to market a French style monthly bande dessinée
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
, and then with Escape Magazine
Escape Magazine
Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 to 1989...
, published by Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....
, former psst! promotions man. Escape is the other notable comic from this period, featuring early work from Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
and Paul Grist
Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.-Biography:...
, amongst others. Neither comic managed to survive in the vagaries of the comics market, Warrior beset by copyright issues and Escape by lack of publisher interest. During this period a number of smaller publishers were formed to provide inventive publications appealing to niche markets. Congress Press was one of these companies, providing titles such as Birthrite, Heaven & Hell and a graphic novel, Spookhouse.
Most of the surviving titles published by IPC, Fleetway and DC Thompson were merged into each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the popularity of comics waned further in response to a surge in the popularity of television (with the introduction in the UK of the domestic video cassette recorder, a ubiquitous feature of every home by the mid-1980s) and of video games (due to the arrival of early home computers, particularly the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum and the Atari). Although new titles were launched in this period, none seemed to find any sustainable audience. Notable comics from this period included Deadline
Deadline magazine
Deadline was a British comic magazine published between 1988 and 1995.Created by 2000 AD stalwarts Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, Deadline featured a mix of comic strips and written articles targeted at older readers...
, Toxic!
Toxic!
Toxic! was a British weekly comic book published by Apocalypse Ltd. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28-October 24, 1991.-History:...
, Crisis, and Revolver.
Deadline was conceived by Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon is a British comic book artist, from Luton, Bedfordshire, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and The Punisher.-Biography:...
and Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins is a British comic book artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper in the weekly comic book 2000 AD.-Biography:...
, and mixed original strips with reprints of U.S. strips, notably Love & Rockets
Love and Rockets (comics)
Love and Rockets is a black and white comic book series by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, sometimes cited jointly as Los Bros Hernandez. Their brother Mario Hernandez is an occasional contributor...
, and articles and interviews on the British independent music scene of the time. Tank Girl
Tank Girl
Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Mike McMahon.The eponymous character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home...
was its most notable strip. Crisis was published by Fleetway Publications
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....
, a company formed from IPC's
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
comics holdings. It was aimed at readers who had outgrown 2000 AD, and featured first works by Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
and Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips is a British comic book artist.He is best known in the American comic book industry for his work on DC Comics' Sleeper, WildC.A.T.s, Batman and Hellblazer.-Career:...
amongst others.
One publication of that period did, however, find an audience. Viz began life in 1979
1979 in comics
-Year overall:* The "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and John Romita, Jr., runs through Iron Man ....
as a fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
style publication, before, in 1989, becoming the biggest selling magazine in the country. Based upon bad taste, crude language, crude sexual innuendo, and the parodying of strips from The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
(among them Black Bag – the Faithful Border Bin Liner
Black Bag
"Black Bag - The Faithful Border Bin Liner" is an occasional character in the adult comic Viz.The original strip was a spoof of 1950s comic strips with an upper class boy and his "Lassie"-like dog, wandering around the country and generally messing up the lives of the people he meets. Instead of a...
, a parody of The Dandy's Black Bob
Black Bob
This article is about the fictional dog. For other meanings see Black Bob .Black Bob was the name of a fictional Border Collie from Selkirk in Southern Scotland. Black Bob originally appeared as a text story in The Dandy in issue 280, dated 25 November 1944...
series about a Border Collie
Border Collie
The Border Collie is a herding dog breed developed in the Anglo-Scottish border region for herding livestock, especially sheep. It is the most widespread of the collie breeds....
), the popularity of Viz depended entirely upon a variant of Sixties counter-culture; and it promptly inspired similarly themed titles, including Oink!
Oink! (comic)
Oink! was a British comic for children which was published from 3 May 1986-22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberately anarchic, reminiscent of Viz but for children....
, Smut
Smut (comics)
Smut was a British adult comic that was launched in the late 1980s."Smut" is a slang word - most common in Britain - for any form of media that is considered profane or offensive, particularly with regards to sexual content...
, Poot!
Poot! (comics)
Poot! is an adult British comic with the tagline "silly cartoons and smart-arse satire for grown ups". The first edition was published in 1985 with a run of 500 copies. The comic grew to around 50,000 per issue up until the time of its cessation in 1990, due to the publishers getting proper jobs...
and Zit, all of which failed to achieve Vizs longevity and folded. Whilst Viz no longer sells as well as it did at the height of its popularity, it is still one of the United Kingdom's top selling magazines.
21st century
Since the year 2000, the British market appears to have arrested its long decline. However, there is no sign of any great growth in circulation for the few remaining titles, and certainly no sign of any new launches from mainstream publishers into the comics arena. An ever-increasing number of small pressBritish small press comics
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
and fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
titles are being produced, such as Solar Wind
Solar Wind (comic)
Solar Wind is a British small press comics anthology. Edited by Cosmic Ray , the comic is devoted to gentle parodies of British boys' comics of the 1970s and 80s...
or FutureQuake
FutureQuake
FutureQuake is a British small press comic book founded by Arthur Wyatt, and edited from issue 5 onwards by Richmond Clements, David Evans, Mark Woodland and Edward Berridge. Issue 4 was edited by Clements, Evans and James Mackay...
, aided by the cheapness and increasingly professional appearance of desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
programs. It is from this scene that the UK's new talents now tend to emerge (e.g. Al Ewing
Al Ewing
Al Ewing is a British comics writer who has mainly worked in the small press and for 2000 AD.-Biography:Al Ewing began his career writing stories in the five-page Future Shocks format for 2000AD...
, Henry Flint
Henry Flint
Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...
or Simon Spurrier
Simon Spurrier
Simon Spurrier is a British comics writer, who has previously worked as a cook, a bookseller and an art director for the BBC.Getting his start in comics with the British small press, he went on to write his own series for 2000 AD, like Lobster Random, Bec & Kawl, The Simping Detective and Harry...
).
After they were purchased by Rebellion
Rebellion Developments
Rebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
, both 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
and the Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
have seen rises in circulation and the release of more adaptations and trade paperbacks
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
, including complete reprint collections of the entire runs of Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
, Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
and Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock is a story created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant...
. Starting in 2006 the Megazine began a regular small press section which usually features an article on a title by Matthew Badham or David Baillie and a small press story.
There have also been changes in comics market with a growth in home-grown graphic novels and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
.
While British companies and creators have helped create the market for collected volumes
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
there have, with a few exceptions like Raymond Briggs
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children...
, been very few British original graphic novels published. Briggs himself has said "On the Continent, graphic novels have been as accepted as films or books for many years, but England has had a snobby attitude towards them. They've always been seen as something just for children". However, thanks to the strong sales for Briggs' Ethel and Ernest
Ethel and Ernest
Ethel and Ernest is a graphic novel by English author and illustrator Raymond Briggs. It tells the story of the lives of Briggs' parents from their first meeting in 1928 to their deaths in 1971.-Story:...
, and Jimmy Corrigan winning The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s best first novel award, publishers have started expanding into this area. Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
UK's imprint Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
has tripled its graphic novel output and Random House has also established Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi is a part of Random House a US based publisher. Tanoshimi is an arm of the United Kingdom branch of the company and is used for the publication of new English Language Manga titles...
to publish manga. Other publishers have also been increasing their output, which, as well as producing original works like Alice in Sunderland
Alice in Sunderland
Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment is a graphic novel by comics writer and artist Bryan Talbot. It explores the links between Lewis Carroll and the Sunderland area, with wider themes of history, myth and storytelling — and the truth about what happened to Sid James on stage at the Sunderland...
, have also been included adaptations of works of literature. There are a number of new publishers who are specifically targeting this area, including Insomnia Publications
Insomnia Publications
Insomnia Publications Ltd was a British comic book publishing company.-History:Insomnia was an independent comics publisher founded by Managing Director Crawford Coutts in 2006 to publish his own work...
, Classical Comics
Classical Comics
Classical Comics is a British publisher of graphic novel adaptations of the great works of literature, including Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë and Dickens.-Overview:...
and Self Made Hero
Self Made Hero
SelfMadeHero is a British graphic novel and manga publishing company, and imprint of Metro Media Ltd, who specialise in adapting works of literature.They launched with two lines in 2007:...
, the latter having an imprint focused on manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaptations of the works of Shakespeare.
This highlights another recent change, as there has been an increase in British original English-language manga
Original English-language manga
Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English...
. Self Made Hero's 'Manga Shakespeare' imprint draws on talent discovered in Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
's UK/Irish version of Rising Stars of Manga
Rising Stars of Manga
Rising Stars of Manga was an English-language comic anthology published by TOKYOPOP from 2002 to 2008, and a contest held by the same company. It was originally semi-annual, but switched to annual beginning with the 6th volume....
, including members of the UK collective Sweatdrop Studios
Sweatdrop Studios
Sweatdrop Studios are a collective of UK Original English-language manga creators who publish British small press comics.-Overview:The UK's first home-based independent Original English-language manga publisher and distributor, Sweatdrop Studios publish and distribute manga produced solely by...
, who have also contributed to other British-based efforts like ILYA's Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and MangaQuake.
The DFC
The DFC
The DFC was a weekly British children's anthology comic, published by David Fickling Books . The first issue was published at the end of May 2008...
launched at the end of May 2008
2008 in comics
-January:*January 9: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual, delayed since 2003, is published.*January 23: Hellblazer #240, marking the 20th anniversary of the series, is released.-February:...
drawing together creators from the small press and manga, as well as well as figures from mainstream British comics and other fields, including author Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
. Unfortunately, it didn't make it to its first birthday, ending with issue 43.
Reprint market
The comics reading public in the UK were not always able to get reliable supplies of AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s and yet have always enjoyed the different approach to comics writing from the other side of the Atlantic. So the lack of reliable supplies was supplemented by a variety of black and white reprints of Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
's 1950s monster comics, Fawcett's
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
, and some other characters such as Sheena
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House. The female counterpart to Tarzan, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were...
, Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964,...
, The Phantom
The Phantom
The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.The Phantom is...
etc. Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market, notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter.
Thorpe & Porter published similar formatted titles under various names. They were also re-publishing Dell's
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
Four Color series and Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
in the UK. Their material also included some work never before published in the US. Thorpe & Porter published many black & white reprints of American comics in the 1950s. Thorpe & Porter/Stratos published a long-running Marvel series, Kid Colt Outlaw, which contained black-and-white reprints from both Atlas and DC. They also published Two-Gun Kid
Two-Gun Kid
The Two-Gun Kid is a fictional character, a cowboy gunslinger in the Wild West of Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe.-Publication history:...
and Rawhide Kid
Rawhide Kid
The Rawhide Kid is a fictional Old West cowboy in comic books published by Marvel Comics. A heroic gunfighter of the 19th-century American West who was unjustly wanted as an outlaw, he is one of Marvel's most prolific Western characters...
in a smaller black-and-white format, though these were usually the entire contents of various American issues reprinted.
Alan Class is another notable name in this market: his company Alan Class & Co. Ltd published b/w reprint anthologies of U.S. comics stories from the 1940s – 1960s from 1958. The company purchased L. Miller & Son's holdings in 1963, and continued to produce black & white reprints until 1989.
When Captain Marvel ceased publication in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
because of a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
, the British reprint company, L. Miller & Son, copied the entire Captain Marvel idea in every detail, and began publishing their own knock-off under the names Marvelman
Marvelman
Marvelman, also known as Miracleman for trademark reasons in his American reprints and story continuation, is a fictional comic book superhero created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & Son. Originally intended as a United Kingdom home-grown substitute for the American...
and Young Marvelman, taking advantage of different copyright laws. These clone versions continued for a few years and, as seen above, were revived years later in Warrior. L. Miller also reprinted many other American series including the early 1950s Eerie
Eerie
Eerie was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. Each issue's stories were introduced by the host...
and Black Magic
Black Magic (comics)
Black Magic was a horror anthology comic book series published by Prize Comics from 1950-1961. The series was notable for being packaged by the celebrated creative duo Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and for its non-gory horror content....
in black and white format. These usually contain the American stories which relate to the cover but also contain other additional gems toward the back of the comic to fill-up the 64 pages.
An oddity of the trans-atlantic comics trade is Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House. The female counterpart to Tarzan, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were...
. This female version of Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
(with an element of H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
's "She who must be obeyed" – She... Na!) was licensed from Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
's Eisner-Iger studio for a British and Australasian tabloid, Wags, in 1937. The success of this character led to the Wags artwork being repackaged for publication by Fiction House magazines in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, thus exporting the character back to her country of origin.
The reprint market really took off in the 1980s with Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
releasing collections of British material, as well as signing deals with DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
to release American comic books in the UK. Igor Goldkind
Igor Goldkind
Igor Goldkind was a marketing consultant who worked for a number of publishers, before moving into writing comics. He currently works in semantic web development and web-based marketing.-Biography:...
was Titan's, and Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet (bookstore)
Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States of America, after the feature film of the same name....
's, marketing consultant at the time and helped popularise the term "graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
" for the softcover trade paperbacks
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
they were releasing, which generated a lot of attention from the mainstream press.
As well as Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
reprints, Panini Comics
Panini Comics
Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, best known for their collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy...
reprint many of Marvel's
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
titles. These include Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man was a superhero comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2009. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Spider-Man comic book franchise as part of its Ultimate Marvel imprint...
(originally holding two issues of either Ultimate Spider-Man or Ultimate Marvel Team-Up
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up is a comic book series, published by Marvel Comics which ran for 16 issues, including a concluding Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special. It is set in one of Marvel's shared universes, the Ultimate Universe. The whole series starred Spider-Man teaming up with another superhero...
, now existing as a double feature with Ultimate X-Men
Ultimate X-Men
Ultimate X-Men is a superhero comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from 2001 to 2009. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running X-Men comic book franchise as part of its Ultimate Marvel imprint...
) and also produce a Collector's Edition
Special edition
The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...
line of comics, featuring a cardboard cover, three stories and a letters page on the inside back cover. Titles printed include many Marvel comics, including Astonishing Spider-Man
Astonishing Spider-Man
The Astonishing Spider-Man is a comic book series being published by Panini Comics in the United Kingdom every fortnight as part of Marvel UK's 'Collectors Edition' line...
, Essential X-Men
Essential X-Men
Essential X-Men is a 76-page comic book published by Panini Comics UK, as part of their Collectors' Edition range. Beginning in 1995, the title reprints Marvel US's range of X-Men comics; three per issue. The comic is produced on higher quality paper than the US originals, and the covers are...
and Mighty World of Marvel which reprints a variety of Marvel Comics. They also printed one DC comic, Batman Legends
Batman Legends
Batman Legends is part of the UK's 'Collector's' Edition' line of comic books. The first volume was published by Panini Comics for 41 issues between October 2003 and November 2006. The second volume has been published since December 2006 by Titan Magazines...
, reprinting various Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
adventures (e.g. two parts of a multi-title crossover and an issue of Batman: Year One
Batman: Year One
"Year One", later referred to as "Batman: Year One", is an American comic book story arc written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, colored by Richmond Lewis, and lettered by Todd Klein...
), though currently this title is published by Titan Magazines
Titan Magazines
Titan Magazines is the magazine-publishing division of Nick Landau's Titan Publishing Group. Titan also owns several Forbidden Planet specialist comics and collector stores .Titan Magazines' publishing director is Chris Teather.TPG also owns Titan Books,...
Since 2005, a small selection of American translations of the most popular Japanese comics
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
have been reprinted in the UK by major publishers such as Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, through their Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi is a part of Random House a US based publisher. Tanoshimi is an arm of the United Kingdom branch of the company and is used for the publication of new English Language Manga titles...
imprint, and the Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
. Unfortunately both no longer publish Japanese comics in British versions, for Orion, the reprints they were handling have been switched to having the original American versions imported, however all Japanese comic publishings by Random House were abandoned in early 2009. Simultaneously, the very small press Fanfare has published a few UK-exclusive English-language editions of alternative Japanese manga and French bande dessinée
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
, both sublicenced from the Spanish publisher Ponent Mon.
Thorpe & Porter and American comics
In the 1950s and 1960s American comics typically arrived in the UK as ballast on ships. In 1959, Thorpe & Porter (widely known as 'T & P') became the sole UK distributor of Marvel comics. These were printed on Marvel's American printing presses, along with a special cover giving the British price instead of the price in cents, and shipped across the Atlantic. For years the standard UK price was 9d. Inside the front cover, with the indicia, a sentence mentioned Thorpe & Porter as sole distributor in the UK market. Thus it was that brand new American-printed copies of Fantastic FourFantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
#1, Amazing Fantasy #15, The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
#1, and countless others, appeared in the UK.
Thorpe & Porter was purchased by the distribution arm of DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, then known as IND., in 1964, going on to publish an official Superman/Batman reprint book, DC Special.
List of British comics
There have been hundreds of comics in the UK over the years, including:- 2000 AD2000 AD (comic)2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
(1977–current) - Action (1976–1977)
- Action ManAction Man (comics)Action Man was a UK comic series published by Panini Comics, based on the toy line of the same name. It ran for 138 issues between 1996 and 18 January 2006 before being surpassed by spin-off series Action Man: A.T.O.M.....
(1996-2006) - Adventure (1921–1961)
- Air Ace Picture Library (1960–1970)
- Andy CappAndy CappAndy Capp is a British comic strip created by cartoonist Reg Smythe , seen in The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror newspapers since 5 August 1957. Originally a single-panel cartoon, Smyth later expanded it to four panels....
(1957–current) - Battle Picture WeeklyBattle Picture WeeklyBattle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle...
(1975–1988) - The BeanoThe BeanoThe Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
(1938–current) - BeanoMAXBeanoMAXThe BeanoMAX is a monthly British comic published by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd It is a spin-off of the UK comic, The Beano. Each issue has 44 pages and costs £3.50.The first issue was published on February 15, 2007 and was a Comic Relief special.- Strips :...
(2007–current) - Bear
- The Beezer (1956–1993)
- Bella
- The Big One (1964–1965)
- Birthrite (1989–1990)
- The Boy's Own PaperBoy's Own PaperThe Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...
(1879–1967) - Boys' WorldBoys' WorldBoys' World was a boys' comic published in the UK. It ran for 89 issues in 1963 and 1964 before merging with the Eagle.-External links:*...
(1963–1964) - Bullet (1976–1978)
- BuntyBuntyBunty was a British comics anthology for girls published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, typically the stories themselves being three to five pages long. As well as the weekly comic, Christmas and summer annuals were published. Bunty...
(1958–2001) - BusterBuster (comic)Buster was a long-running British comic which carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips, although the former increasingly replaced the latter...
(1960–2000) - Buster Classics (1996)
- BuzzBuzz (comic)Buzz was an A3 British comic that ran from 20 January 1973 to 4 January 1975, when it merged with The Topper. Buzz ran for 103 Issues.-List of Buzz comic strips:...
(1973–1975) - BVC (1995)
- The ChampionThe Champion (comics)The Champion was a British weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press, which ran from January 28, 1922 until March 19, 1955. Its original editor was F. Addington Symonds. From 1929 until 1940 it had a monthly, pocket-sized companion paper, The Champion Library, containing characters...
- The Chatterbox
- CheekyCheekyCheeky Weekly was a British comic published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd. It ran for 117 issues from 22 October 1977 to 2 February 1980, failing to be published for 3 weeks in December 1978 due to an industrial dispute. It merged with stable-mate Whoopee!, initially as a 16-page pull-out...
(1977–1980) - Classics from the ComicsClassics from the ComicsClassics from the Comics was a UK comic, published from March 1996 until October 2010. Published monthly, it was D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd's third all-reprint comic...
(1996–2010) - CometmanCometmanCometman was a superhero who appeared in the short-lived British comic, Invisible Avengers Comics in 1951.Cometman was an alien who fell to Earth and decided to use his powers for good. His only known foe is a gang called The Grog Racket....
(1951–1956) - Comic CutsComic CutsComic Cuts was a British comic book. It was created by the reporter, Alfred Harmsworth through his company Amalgamated Press . It was published from 1890 to 1953, lasting 3006 issues, and in its early days inspired other publishers to produce rival comics. It's first issue was an assortment of...
(1890–1953) - Commando ComicsCommando ComicsCommando For Action and Adventure, formerly known as Commando War Stories in Pictures, and colloquially known as Commando Comics, are a series of British comic books that primarily draw their themes and backdrops from the various incidents of the World Wars I and II...
(1961–current) - Cor!!Cor!!Cor!!, a British comic book Was launched in June 1970 by IPC , their sixth new comic in just over a year. Cor!! was edited by Bob Paynter....
(1970–1974) - Countdown (1971–1972)
- CrackerCracker (comic)Cracker was a British comic printed by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from the issues dated 18 January 1975 to 11 September 1976 , when it merged with The Beezer...
(1975–1976) - Crisis (1988–1991)
- The DandyThe DandyThe Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
(1937–current) - Deadline magazineDeadline magazineDeadline was a British comic magazine published between 1988 and 1995.Created by 2000 AD stalwarts Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, Deadline featured a mix of comic strips and written articles targeted at older readers...
(1988–1995) - The DFCThe DFCThe DFC was a weekly British children's anthology comic, published by David Fickling Books . The first issue was published at the end of May 2008...
(2008–2009) - Dice ManDice Man (comic)Dice Man was a short-lived British comic which ran for five issues in 1986. It was a spin-off from 2000 AD and was edited by Pat Mills, who also wrote almost all of the stories. The stories were designed to be played like gamebooks...
(1986) - The EagleEagle (comic)Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...
(1950–1969) and (1982–1994) - Fantastic (1967–1968)
- Film FunFilm FunFilm Fun was a British comic book that ran from 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with Buster, a total of 2225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fifties. It had been renamed Film Fun and Thrills in 1959...
(1920–1962) - Funny (1989-early 1990s)
- Fun Size BeanoFun Size ComicsThe Fun Size Beano and Fun Size Dandy were small-format, full-colour children's comics, originally published four times monthly by DC Thomson and Co. Ltd between 1997 and 2010. They replaced the Beano and Dandy Comic Libraries, originally printed in red, white and black and published from 1982 to...
(1997–2010) - Fun Size DandyFun Size ComicsThe Fun Size Beano and Fun Size Dandy were small-format, full-colour children's comics, originally published four times monthly by DC Thomson and Co. Ltd between 1997 and 2010. They replaced the Beano and Dandy Comic Libraries, originally printed in red, white and black and published from 1982 to...
(1997–2010) - The GemThe GemThe Gem was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton who was...
(1907–1939) - Girl (1951–1964) and (1981–1990)
- Giggle (1967–1968)
- Heven & Hell (1990)
- HootHoot (comic book)Hoot was a British comic that ran from 26 October 1985 to 25 October 1986, when it merged with The Dandy. Its cover price was 20p, represented by a stylized graphic depiction of a 20p coin. Throughout its run, it billed itself as "Britain's bubbling new comic!", a reference to the title masthead...
(1985–1986) - Hornet (1963–1976)
- Hotspur (1933–1981)
- Illustrated ChipsIllustrated ChipsIllustrated Chips was a British comic published between 26 July 1890 and 12 September 1953. It was produced by Alfred Harmsworth and his Amalgamated Press.After a brief initial run of six issues, Illustrated Chips was relaunched and ran for 2,997 issues...
(1890–1953) - JackpotJackpot (comic)Jackpot was a British comic book that ran from the issues dated 5 May 1979 to 30 January 1982, when it merged with Buster. Its strips included:*Jack Pott *Angel's Proper Charlies, a parody of Charlie's Angels*Adam and Eva*Class Wars...
(1979–1982) - Jack and JillJack and Jill (comic)Jack and Jill was a British children's comic published between 27 February 1954 and 29 June 1985, a run of approximately 1,640 issues.The title was derived from the nursery rhyme of the same title but the characters 'Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm' were otherwise unrelated...
(1885–1887) and (1954–1985) - JackieJackie (magazine)Jackie was a weekly British magazine for girls. The magazine was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee from 11 January 1964 until its closure on 3 July 1993—a total of 1534 issues....
(1964–1993) - Jeff HawkeJeff HawkeJeff Hawke was a British science fiction comic strip created by Sydney Jordan. It was published in the Daily Express from 15 February 1955 to 18 April 1974, by which point Jordan had "written or co-written and drawn 6,474 episodes." Despite its obscurity in English-speaking countries, it is often...
(1955-1974) - Jet (1971)
- Jinty (1974–1981)
- The Judge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
(1990–current) - Judy
- KnockoutKnockout (comic)-1939 series:The first ran from 4 March 1939 to 16 February 1963, 1251 issues, when it merged with Valiant. Magnet was discontinued in 1940; but its lead character, Billy Bunter, was thereafter granted his own cartoon strip in Knockout. Comic Cuts merged with it in 1953...
(1939–1963) and (1971–1973) - Krazy (1976–1978)
- Linzy & Charcol (2006)
- LionLion (comic)Lion was a weekly comic published by Fleetway from 23 February 1952 to 18 May 1974. It lasted for 1,156 issues.-Publishing history:...
(1952–1974) - Look and LearnLook and LearnLook and Learn was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness Monster; a long running science fiction comic strip, The...
(1962–1982) - The Magic ComicThe Magic ComicThe Magic Comic was the ill fated third comic to The Beano and The Dandy. It was aimed at a younger audience, with more emphasis on picture stories. The first issue was published on 22 July 1939. The comic ran for only 80 issues until 25 January 1941...
(1939–1941) - The MagnetThe MagnetThe Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional public school located somewhere in Kent, and were written...
(1908–1940) - Mandy (1967–1991)
- Mickey Mouse Weekly (1936–1955)
- Mirabelle (1956–1977)
- MistyMisty (comics)Misty was a British comic for girls published by Fleetway in London from 4th Feb 1978 until 1984, after merging with Tammy on 19 January 1980. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, with the stories themselves normally being three or four pages long...
(1978–1980) - Monster FunMonster FunMonster Fun was a British comic for young children . It ran for 72 issues from 14 June 1975 to 30 October 1976, when it merged with Buster to form Buster and Monster Fun. Its strips included Mummy's Boy and X-Ray Specs. Artists included Robert Nixon, Tom Williams and Trevor Metcalfe...
(1975–1976) - Night Warrior (2005–current)
- NikkiNikki (UK comic)Nikki was a DC Thomson girls comic which lasted for 237 issues between 02.03.1985 and 02.09.1988. It is most notable for the strip The Comp, which continued in Bunty after Nikki folded....
(1985–1988) - NipperNipper (comic)Nipper was a British comic book that ran from the issues dated 31 January to 12 September 1987, when it merged with Buster. Unlike most British comics by this time, which had A4 paper size, this was an A5 comic, which meant it was half the size of all the others, hence the name 'Nipper'. By the...
(1987) - NuttyNuttyNutty was a British comic that ran for 292 issues from 16 February 1980 to 14 September 1985, when it merged with The Dandy. Published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, Nutty was an attempt to create a more lively and chaotic comic compared to many on sale at the time. Its strips included:* Bananaman as...
(1980–1985) - Oink!Oink! (comic)Oink! was a British comic for children which was published from 3 May 1986-22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberately anarchic, reminiscent of Viz but for children....
(1986–1988) - Picture Politics (1894–1914)
- Picture Fun (1909–1920)
- PippinPippin (comics)Pippin was a UK children's comic, published by Polystyle Publications between 24.09.1966 and 26.09.1986, featuring characters from British pre-school television programmes...
(1966–1986) - PlugPlug (comic)Plug was a British comic that ran for 76 issues from 14 September 1977 until 4 February 1979, when it merged with The Beezer.A spin-off from The Bash Street Kids comic strip in The Beano, the comic was based around the character Plug who was a distinctive character in the Bash Street Kids strip...
(1977–1979) - Poot!Poot! (comics)Poot! is an adult British comic with the tagline "silly cartoons and smart-arse satire for grown ups". The first edition was published in 1985 with a run of 500 copies. The comic grew to around 50,000 per issue up until the time of its cessation in 1990, due to the publishers getting proper jobs...
(2009–current, 1980s–1990s) - Pow!Pow!Pow! was a weekly British comic published by Odhams Press in 1967 and 1968 from their headquarters at 64 Long Acre, London. Part of their Power Comics imprint, it was printed on newsprint stock, in black-and-white except for its colour front and back covers, and initially comprised 28 pages.Pow!...
(1967–1968) - Prehistoric PeepsPrehistoric Peeps (cartoon)Prehistoric Peeps was a cartoon series written and drawn by Edward Tennyson Reed starting in the 1890s. The cartoon appeared in the Punch humor magazine. A collection of the cartoons was published under the title Mr. Punch's Prehistoric Peeps in 1894...
(1890s) - Puck (1904–1940)
- Radio FunRadio FunRadio Fun was a British comic paper that ran from 15 October 1938 to 18 February 1961, when it became the first out of twelve titles to merge with Buster. By this time it had been renamed to Radio Fun and Adventure...
(1938–1961) - Rainbow (1914–1956)
- RevolverRevolver Comic (UK)Revolver is the title of a British comic which was a spin off from 2000AD. It lasted for seven regular issues and two specials, and was published between July 1990 to January 1991.-History:...
(1990–1991) - Robin (1953–1969)
- Romeo (1957–1974)
- Roy of the RoversRoy of the RoversRoy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
(1976–1993) - Sandie (1972–1973)
- School FunSchool FunSchool Fun was a British comic book that ran from the issues dated 15 October 1983 to 26 May 1984, when it merged with Buster. As the name implies, the comic's "gimmick" was that every strip revolved around school.Its strips included:...
(1983–1984) - Scream!Scream!Scream! was a British weekly comic anthology with a horror theme, running from March 24, 1984 until 30 June 1984, published by IPC Magazines....
(1984) - Sgt. Mike Battle (2001–current)
- Shiver and ShakeShiver and ShakeShiver and Shake was a British comic published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd. It ran from 10 March 1973 to 5 October 1974, when it merged with Whoopee!. As in the tradition of British comics many names of strips were a play on popular television programmes and films of the time...
(1973–1974) - Smash! (1966–1971)
- SmutSmut (comics)Smut was a British adult comic that was launched in the late 1980s."Smut" is a slang word - most common in Britain - for any form of media that is considered profane or offensive, particularly with regards to sexual content...
(1989–current) - Sonic the ComicSonic the ComicSonic the Comic, known to its many readers as STC, was a UK children's comic published fortnightly by Fleetway Editions between 1993 and 2002...
(1993–2002) - SparkySparky (comic)Sparky was a British comic published weekly by DC Thomson, that ran from 23 January 1965 to 9 July 1977 when it merged with The Topper after 652 issues. From 1965-1980 the comic published an annual entitled The Sparky Book...
(1965–1977) - SpeedSpeedIn kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity ; it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance traveled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as...
(1980 when merged into TigerTigerThe tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
) - Spellbound (1976–1978)
- Spookhouse (1990)
- StarlordStarlordStarlord was a short-lived weekly British science fiction comic published by IPC in 1978 as a sister title to 2000 AD, which had been launched the previous year in anticipation of a science fiction boom surrounding Star Wars....
(1978) - Star Wars (Weekly) (1978–1986)
- SwiftSwift (comic)Swift was a weekly comic published by in the UK as a junior companion to the Eagle. It was founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris and launched by Hulton Press in 1954...
(1954–1963) - TammyTammy (comics)Tammy was a weekly British comic for girls published by Fleetway in London from 1971 to 1984, at which point it merged with Girl. Other titles which had merged with Tammy before then include June, Jinty, and Misty ....
- Tank GirlTank GirlTank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Mike McMahon.The eponymous character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home...
- TerrificTerrific (comic)Terrific was a weekly British comic published by Odhams Press under the Power Comics imprint. It ran for 43 issues from 15 April 1967 until 3 February 1968, when it was merged with its sister title Fantastic....
(1967–1968) - Thunder (1970–1971) and (to 1974 with Lion)
- TigerTiger (comic)Tiger was a British comic magazine published from 1954 to 1985. The comic was launched under the editorship of Derek Birnage on 11 September 1954, under the name Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly, and featured predominantly sporting strips...
(1954–1985 when merged into The Eagle) - Tiger Tim's Weekly (1920–1940)
- Tina (1967)
- The TopperTopper (comic book)The Topper was a UK comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from 7 February 1953 to 15 September 1990, when it merged with The Beezer....
(1953–1990) and (to 1993 with Beezer) - Tornado (1978–1979)
- Tottering by Gently
- Toxic!Toxic!Toxic! was a British weekly comic book published by Apocalypse Ltd. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28-October 24, 1991.-History:...
(1991) - Toxic 2002-current
- Trixton (2005–2007)
- Tube Productions (2005–Present)
- TV Action (1972–1973)
- TV Century 21TV Century 21TV Century 21, also known as TV 21, was a weekly British children's comic of the 1960s and early 1970s. It promoted the many television science-fiction puppet series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions...
(1965–1971) - TV ComicTV ComicTV Comic was a British comic book published weekly between November 9, 1951 and June 29, 1984 for 1,697 issues. With its bright, eye-catching covers, it featured stories based on television shows running at the time of publication. The first issue had 8 pages and had Muffin the Mule on the cover....
(1951–1984) - TwinkleTwinkle (comic)Twinkle, 'the picture paper especially for little girls' was a popular British comic, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd from 27 January 1968 to 1999...
(1968–1999) - Valentine (1957–1974)
- ValiantValiant (comic)Valiant was the title of a British boys adventure comics anthology which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.-Publication history:...
(1962–1976) - Victor (1961–1992)
- Viz (1979–current)
- Vulcan (1975 to 1976)
- War Picture LibraryWar Picture LibraryWar Picture Library was a British 64-page Pocket library war comic title published by Amalgamated Press/Fleetway for 2103 issues...
(1958–1984) - WarlordWarlord (British comics)Warlord was a comics anthology published weekly in the United Kingdom between 28 September 1974 and 27 September 1986.-Publication history:...
(1974–1986) - Wham!Wham! (comic)Wham! was a weekly British comic published by Odhams Press. It ran for 187 issues from 20 June 1964 to 13 January 1968, when it merged into its sister title Pow!...
(1964–1968) - Whizzer and ChipsWhizzer and ChipsWhizzer and Chips was a British comic magazine that ran from 18 October 1969 to 27 October 1990, when it merged with the comic Buster. As with most comics of the time, Whizzer and Chips was dated one week ahead....
(1969–1990) - Whoopee!Whoopee! (comic)Whoopee! was a British comic that ran from 9 March 1974 to 30 March 1985, when it merged with Whizzer and Chips. It was published by IPC Magazines Ltd....
(1974–1985) - Wonder (1942–1953)
- Wow!Wow! (comic)Wow! was a British comic that ran from 5 June 1982 to 25 June 1983, when it merged with Whoopee!. Its strips included:*Adam and his Ants, about a boy and his army of ants. Drawn by Sid Burgon...
(1982–1983) - ZitZit (comic)Zit was an adult British comic that was published by Humour Publications UK, beginning with a free sample issue in January 1991, and with issue 1 in February 1991....
(1991–2002)
See also
- List of DC Thomson publications
- List of comic creators in the UK
- British small press comicsBritish small press comicsBritish small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
- The British Invasion of American comics, that took pace during the late eighties
- Comics BritanniaComics BritanniaComics Britannia is a three part documentary series from BBC Four which started on 10 September 2007. It was then repeated on BBC Two starting on 19 July 2008....
, BBC FourBBC FourBBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
documentary series on the history of British comics presented by Jonathan RossJonathan RossJonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer... - Welsh comicsWelsh comicsIfor Owen's Hwyl was the first Welsh-language comic and ran from 1949 to 1989.Y Mabinogi is a graphic novel adaptation of the 2003 film, which is in turn based on the classic Welsh tales known as The Mabinogion. It is the first Welsh-language graphic novel, written by Wales-based writer/artist Mike...
External links
- Help for Researchers: British Comics Collection from the British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
- Comics UK
- History of British Comics from britishcomics.com
- downthetubes.net (British Comics News, Interviews and other features)
- IndieReview (UK Indie Comics News and Reviews)
- BBC Cult presents: 2000AD and British Comics from BBC Online (last updated September 2005)