First up, The Book and Magazine Collector 275 (Dec. 2006) has '50 Great British Comics' by David Ashford and Norman Wright. The choices are maybe what you would expect from David and Norman and I'm sure everyone will have their nit-pick at the choices: What? No Air Ace? No Smash? No Starlord? Four girls' papers out of fifty? I know someone who will argue that, pound for pound, the early issues of Famous Romance Library was the best illustrated British comic ever. No Adventures of Luther Arkwright? No small press stuff at all?But, then, it's 50 Great British comics, not the 50 Greatest British comics.
Overall it's a reasonable list, sticking with the mainstream of British comics of the 1940s through 1970s, although I'd argue some of the facts: e.g. that Comet "was doing so well that the mighty Amalgamated Press bought it up" (they bought it because they weren't allowed to launch any new titles of their own and they needed the associated paper ration); the notion that "one artist stands out" on Commando Library, Denis McLoughlin, when Jose Jorge was, and is, the finest Commando artist to many fans; and Steve Larrabee (the cowboy star of Lone Star) was, as far as I know, not Australian but from Enfield, Middx. But these are minor points in a feature that runs to 28 pages. Lots of nice cover pictures with the very occasional internal spread. Two of the titles, Ranger and Swift, I'm now intimately involved with through LLM.
I mentioned Eagle Times fairly recently and I've now had a chance to read the latest issue, Vol. 19 No. 3 (Autumn 2006). The best pieces to my mind this issue were the opening episode of a new series about Frank Hampson's early career as an artist; not much in the way of new information but some nice photographs of the house Frank lived with for the first couple of years of his life (now celebrated with a blue plaque) and some early drawings from Meccano Magazine; Steve Winders' piece on the 'Smokeman' strip and the old articles that readers of Eagle Times continue to find that the magazine archives. The addition of colour has really lifted Eagle Times in recent years -- the last (summer) issue was 50% colour -- and clocking in at 56 pages an issue means there's plenty of room for a wide range of articles, centred on, but not exclusively about, the old Eagle comic.
Eagle Flies Again... well, how can you note that this is the last issue without some sort of joke about crash-landing. Issue 14 (Oct. 2006) is the grand finale. Articles include 'The Best of British', a top 10 of characters that's definitely up for debate [and it probably is at the EFA Yahoo group], an interview with John Wagner about the new 'Origins' story in 2000AD, features on Psi-Judge Anderson and the short-lived Scream!! comic from 1985, a lost 'Joe Soap' script from Alan Grant (Joe Soap was a photo story from the early days of the New Eagle) and a farewell from former Eagle editor Barrie Tomlinson who gets to say goodbye all over again. The writing is lively and editor Ian Wheeler has every reason to feel proud with the magazine he has been putting out for the past few years.The reason for the magazine folding, stated bluntly, is that the licensing agents for the Dan Dare Corporation were asking for a license fee which made publishing EFA economically unfeasible. I've had no dealings with DDC so I can't really comment specifically on this. My general view on this kind of thing is that fanzines like EFA, with a few tens or (if they're lucky) a few hundred readers, costs the copyright holders nothing and, indeed, can prove quite useful in the long run. They fly the flag and keep interest alive, albeit in their small way, in characters who have been moribund for twenty, thirty or forty years. They're a great source of information: Titan, for instance, have been reprinting articles from Eagle Times in the introductory matter of their Dan Dare books. Interviews with old staff, artists and writers are invaluable: again, Titan have drawn on material from Comic Media for their Modesty Blaise books.
Comic fans aren't the audience these books are aimed at because that audience isn't big enough in the UK to support a commercially published book. Judge Dredd is being published by Rebellion, who own the copyright and don't have to pay a license fee, and D. C. Thomson recycle their old strips successfully because, again, they own all the rights. Dan Dare is the only series currently being licensed out to another publisher (Titan) and that deal has only just been resurrected after an eighteen month hiatus.
Major publishers (the Random Houses and Penguins of this world) aren't beating a path to the doors of the copyright holders to publish The Complete Roy of the Rovers or reprints of any other strip. Hawk Books spun off a few Eagle reprints whilst they were doing Dan Dare but the only other single character books published have been from Titan (Charley's War, Steel Claw, Spider) or from small press publishers (DLC's Trigan Empire, Hibernia's Doomlord).
So, far from pricing fanzines off the market, the owners of all this material should be nurturing fanzines and making material available to them. Perhaps Dan Dare Corporation have plans we know nothing of but, once The Best of Eagle is published and remaindered, where will that leave DDC and its properties except back at square one? Who will be talking up 'Heros the Spartan' (mentioned in Eagle Flies Again) or 'Doomlord' (inexplicably at #3 in the Top 10 Characters)? Who will they turn to when the next publisher asks "Is there a market for this stuff?" and they can't even point to even a current fanzine showing any interest? Believe me, publishers are very wary these days and losing that hardcore support is, I think, shortsighted.
Let me emphasise this: I'm not knocking DDC. Ian, of EFA has, and he has no axe to grind with them and it's not my intention to take up the axe on his behalf.
Rod Barzilay does deal with DDC and has continued to publish Spaceship Away, with issue 10 just out (Autumn 2006). Spaceship Away has grown into a fabulous magazine over the last couple of years but even with a cover price of £6.99, Rod is still subsidising the cost of the magazine out of his own pocket. In the summer he mentioned this situation and said "There is a limit to how much I can subsidise each issue, and how long I can continue to do so... it is becoming more and more important that I solve the shortfall soon." He mentions this issue that "we are making good progress between closing the gap between production costs and income" but clearly he is still subbing the price of the mag.So, go away and subscribe. Go to the website and find out how you can send him some money. This latest issue has a number of continuing strips, mostly based around the exploits of Dan Dare and including the latest episodes of 'Green Nemesis' (or Nemisis as episode 14 is called), with Tim Booth filling in for an indisposed Don Harley, ' Booth's 'The Gates of Eden' and Keith Page's 'Rocket Pilot'. The magazine is also running reprints of 'Journey Into Space' (by Charles Chilton and Ferdinando Tacconi) and the all-new Sydney Jordan strip 'Hal Starr' (although he's used the name Hal Starr before, fifty years ago, these are brand new strips, beautifully coloured by John Ridgway). Pin-ups by Chris Weston and John Burns plus some fun strips by Ray Aspden and Andy Boyce, articles by Mick Baker, Jeremy Briggs (who was also a mainstay of EFA) and Joan Porter... it's a good mix of material and Rod is promising to add more in the future if the money can be found. So subscribe. Go on. Subscribe.
Random news notes...
- Talking of small press, I hear that a reprint of Hook Jaw is heading into the shops shortly. Spitfire Comics (an imprint of Chris Smilie who also runs the web comic Starscape) are about to publish Collected Hood Jaw Vol.1, priced £12.99 but with a pre-publication price of £10. A first batch of the book is appearing shortly to cover pre-orders and reviews but the title will then be listed in Previews in December, so you can order copies through your local comic shop. I'll let you know what it's like as I've just ordered a copy.