I don't get asked to speak at many conferences, so I was delighted to be asked to talk yesterday at the Wiltshire Schools Boys Writing Conference. 150 teachers from schools in that county were addressing the problem of literacy and boys, why they struggle in comparison to girls and what approaches can be taken to tackle this.
I was very pleased to find a couple of the speakers, one of whom was presenting the results of a government funded survey on the subject, had made very similar observations to my own, but delivered them in far more impressive academic terms than I can. One key point is the visually-oriented learning that a lot of pupils have, and that I had and still have, which means that the marriage of words and pictures presented in the comic strip is a vital and incomparable learning tool. The speech bubble was what led to me having the best reading age of my school year at primary school. Because, from the age of 5 or 6, I was reading Marvel comics, and seeing overlong words emanating directly from the mouths of these colourful characters. So I could read the visuals and, by association, work out the written words.
That, and many other of the things I pointed out in an overview of my Comic Art Masterclass and comics in general, seemed to chime with a lot of the teachers there, and I hope to be working with one or two of them to develop projects in schools to utilise comics in education in a more structured fashion.
I was left with one task I'd set myself, and that is to come up with a recommended list of comics or graphic novels for libraries. What would I suggest schools get in? It's hard. I can think of one or two classics - Persepolis, Maus - and a couple of failsafes - Asterix, Simpsons comics. But is that really enough?
Here is the list of recommended reading I've doodled, as suggestions for what primary and high schools could get in as graphic literature that would interest someone who has either never read a comic before or who needs encouraging into reading. What would you add?
Manga (Naruto? What else?)
Asterix
Fables (but beware language, poss not for primary school)
Watchmen (but is it interesting to non genre fan?)
V For Vendetta
Batman - Killing Joke? Year One? Dark Knight Returns? Arkham Asylum?
Simpsons comics
Spiderman (can't name a book myself?)
Ultimates (genre fans only?)
Preacher (poss not for any school, but would try for high school)
Lucky Luke (vanilla, but safe)
The Spirit (or too archaic?)
Alice In Sunderland (poss too academic for kids?)
When The Wind Blows
Maus
Persepolis
Ghost Town (too boring for kids?)
American Splendor (ditto?)
Tin Tin
Nemi
Dilbert
Doonesbury (though I've never met anyone else who likes it)
Sandman (too dated?)
Surely there must be more out there, that requires no prior knowledge of comics and isn't just about superheroes or other comics. Suggestions please.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Colston Hall gig, a Bristol thing
Last night (Monday) I had the pleasure of appearing (in the guise of the Socks) at a comedy gig, launching the revamped Colston Hall in Bristol, organised by the man who has, for the last half dozen years, been Bristol's comedy curator, Mark Olver.
I have long had a cultural cringe when working with comedians. A feeling that I may not be either as famous or, more importantly, as funny as them. There is a pecking order in comedy, regularly refreshed and competed for, and one I've frequently felt out of place in. Especially in Bristol where, from 1994, I was the compere of the Comedy Box and the man who had the privilege of, firstly, being introduced for the first time by Simon Pegg, then having the pleasure of being the first person to welcome to the stage such would-be luminaries as Marcus Brigstocke, Stephen Merchant and the line-up of tonight's show.
Tonight was to be a celebration of Bristol comedy, and Mark had drawn together the best of the last decade's comics to have sprung from this city. Having felt like the Godfather of many of these artists comedy careers I should feel okay in being there, but I'd be the first to say that, on merit, I as a solo artist wouldn't have deserved a place on the bill. But two things won me a slot. My Michael Jackson routine, which anyone who's seen me solo has seen, and the Scottish Falsetto Socks who have not only eclipsed any of my prior work as a comic, but who have also appropriated the aforementioned MJ routine, so Mark knew he could happily have them on the bill, knowing they brought with them my good comedy guise and my one good banker of a routine. That said, we merited 5 minutes on the bill, a brevity of slot matched only by the headliner. (As David Brent would point out, as we were being paid irrelevant of the length of the slot.. well, you do the maths).
What a bill. First act, after a blinding warm up by Mark, was Russell Howard. No one would dare to deny Russell (of whom I was first to say "ladies and gentlemen" etc) is the most successful of our generation. Okay, Russell and Marcus, but actually two critical years separate them. Marcus won the BBC New Comedian Award in 1996, two years before both Russell and Mark emerged, so he's really Bristol pre-history, along with Pegg, Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
Russell opening a night's stand up is a rare thing and by god a hard act to follow. The Colston Hall is also not the easiest room to play. 2000 punters and an indomitable echo stand in comedy's path, but Russell trumped it and rocked the house valiantly.
And that was the start of the night. And no one but no one let the side down from then on. Tom Craine, Sally Ann Hayward, James Dowdeswell, Wil Hodgson, John Robins, Dan Atkinson, the brilliant band Bucky, Ian Cognito, Jared Hardy (and I'm bound to have forgotten someone totally marvellous, sorry) so many acts so good I forgot they even had a Bristol connection. For me the funniest most laugh out loud act was Richard Herring, who I also had the chance to talk comedy with backstage, which very sadly I counted as a much greater privilege than I'm sure he did.
The Socks got away with their set, introduced via video by Mark Watson (who, I didn't hear, but I'm pretty sure didn't mention that the last time I MC'ed for him in Bristol I introduced as Dave Watson). And there was another video piece by another CPF (close personal friend) Stephen Merchant.
The show was closed by a very special appearance by VIP Justin Lee Collins, who was the first to admit his stand-up was not his best feature. Instead of trying comedy he gave us a brilliant karaoke rendition of It's Not Unusual. So, after 4 hours (and 8 costume changes by Mark Olver) an audience went home very happy.
I came away feeling I, and the Socks, had just about held our own with the big boys. Funny that I should feel so much more famous outside of the town where my comedy first flourished. Bristol has a fantastic comedy heritage, heaven knows what the new wave holds.
I have long had a cultural cringe when working with comedians. A feeling that I may not be either as famous or, more importantly, as funny as them. There is a pecking order in comedy, regularly refreshed and competed for, and one I've frequently felt out of place in. Especially in Bristol where, from 1994, I was the compere of the Comedy Box and the man who had the privilege of, firstly, being introduced for the first time by Simon Pegg, then having the pleasure of being the first person to welcome to the stage such would-be luminaries as Marcus Brigstocke, Stephen Merchant and the line-up of tonight's show.
Tonight was to be a celebration of Bristol comedy, and Mark had drawn together the best of the last decade's comics to have sprung from this city. Having felt like the Godfather of many of these artists comedy careers I should feel okay in being there, but I'd be the first to say that, on merit, I as a solo artist wouldn't have deserved a place on the bill. But two things won me a slot. My Michael Jackson routine, which anyone who's seen me solo has seen, and the Scottish Falsetto Socks who have not only eclipsed any of my prior work as a comic, but who have also appropriated the aforementioned MJ routine, so Mark knew he could happily have them on the bill, knowing they brought with them my good comedy guise and my one good banker of a routine. That said, we merited 5 minutes on the bill, a brevity of slot matched only by the headliner. (As David Brent would point out, as we were being paid irrelevant of the length of the slot.. well, you do the maths).
What a bill. First act, after a blinding warm up by Mark, was Russell Howard. No one would dare to deny Russell (of whom I was first to say "ladies and gentlemen" etc) is the most successful of our generation. Okay, Russell and Marcus, but actually two critical years separate them. Marcus won the BBC New Comedian Award in 1996, two years before both Russell and Mark emerged, so he's really Bristol pre-history, along with Pegg, Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
Russell opening a night's stand up is a rare thing and by god a hard act to follow. The Colston Hall is also not the easiest room to play. 2000 punters and an indomitable echo stand in comedy's path, but Russell trumped it and rocked the house valiantly.
And that was the start of the night. And no one but no one let the side down from then on. Tom Craine, Sally Ann Hayward, James Dowdeswell, Wil Hodgson, John Robins, Dan Atkinson, the brilliant band Bucky, Ian Cognito, Jared Hardy (and I'm bound to have forgotten someone totally marvellous, sorry) so many acts so good I forgot they even had a Bristol connection. For me the funniest most laugh out loud act was Richard Herring, who I also had the chance to talk comedy with backstage, which very sadly I counted as a much greater privilege than I'm sure he did.
The Socks got away with their set, introduced via video by Mark Watson (who, I didn't hear, but I'm pretty sure didn't mention that the last time I MC'ed for him in Bristol I introduced as Dave Watson). And there was another video piece by another CPF (close personal friend) Stephen Merchant.
The show was closed by a very special appearance by VIP Justin Lee Collins, who was the first to admit his stand-up was not his best feature. Instead of trying comedy he gave us a brilliant karaoke rendition of It's Not Unusual. So, after 4 hours (and 8 costume changes by Mark Olver) an audience went home very happy.
I came away feeling I, and the Socks, had just about held our own with the big boys. Funny that I should feel so much more famous outside of the town where my comedy first flourished. Bristol has a fantastic comedy heritage, heaven knows what the new wave holds.
Monday, 21 September 2009
PRESS RELEASE + LISTING (COMEDY) - SITCOM TRIALS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
PRESS RELEASE + LISTING (COMEDY) - SITCOM TRIALS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
Finalists chosen for The Sitcom Trials 10th Anniversary Season
Hundreds of budding sitcom writers have entered scripts into the new season of The Sitcom Trials, hoping for the chance to compete head to head on the London stage to win the title of Best New Sitcom.
The script readers, led by producer James Parker, have selected the 20 scripts that will appear in the shows, beginning October 19th at London's prestigious Leicester Square Theatre. (full list below)
The shows will be judged both by the audience and by a panel of TV industry experts. Last season's winner Dean Hardman went on as a result to be commissioned by the BBC and this new batch of writers are hoping to prove equally successful.
The Sitcom Trials is celebrating its 10th Anniversary, having begun on stage in Bristol in 1999 with a show that featured a very young comedy legend-to-be, Russell Howard. The show has run in the West End since 1999, enjoyed an 8 week series on ITV, three years at the Edinburgh Fringe and a version staged in Hollywood, with a 2010 Hollywood Sitcom Trials in the pipeline. The Sitcom Trials was created by Kev F Sutherland, who returns to host the new season.
The Sitcom Trials runs at the Leicester Square Theatre every Monday from October 19th 2009, with the Grand Final on December 1st.
LISTING DETAILS, COMEDY (please print)
TITLE: The Sitcom Trials
VENUE: Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX
DATES: Oct 19, 26, Nov 2, 9, 16, 23, Dec 1
TIMES: 6pm & 8.30pm (2 shows per night)
PRICES: £5 (6pm) £10 (8.30pm)
BOOKING: http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/events.asp?eventid=220&categoryid=3
BOX OFFICE: 0844 847 2475
PROMO SITCOM TRIALS LOGO 09: http://i33.tinypic.com/5vyour.jpg
PROMO SITCOM TRIALS POSTER: http://i34.tinypic.com/2n6goqh.jpg
PRESS CONTACT: Kev F Sutherland 07931 810858
Series Producer James Parker
WEBSITE: sitcomtrials.co.uk
FULL LIST OF FINALIST SCRIPTS:
* "Alan Pob - Writing Wrongs" by Saul Wordsworth
* "Assemblage of Evil" by Joe Deacon
* "Baby, it's cold outside" by Peter Higgins
* "Bumboy" by Andy Crick
* "Don't Murder the Messenger" by Allan Payne
* "End to End" by Matt Holt, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
* "Future Proof" by Elise Bramich
* "Life as a foreign language" by John Barron and Olly Allsopp
* "Long Term Sick" by Mark Brotherhood
* "Lovely Rocks" by John Seymour
* "My Sister" by Robin Bailes
* "PR a History" by Graeme and Nicky Knowles
* "Prodigies" by Alex Kirk and Simon Messingham
* "The Bar Boys" by Ben Glassman
* "The Johns" by Hugh Travers
* "The Not Gots" by Malcolm Duffy
* "Therapy" by Tom Carter
* "The Second Best Job in the World" by Chris Gilgallon
* "The Spy who Wrapped up Warm" by Jim Speirs & Simon Bristoll
* "Weathermen" by Ken Cheng
Finalists chosen for The Sitcom Trials 10th Anniversary Season
Hundreds of budding sitcom writers have entered scripts into the new season of The Sitcom Trials, hoping for the chance to compete head to head on the London stage to win the title of Best New Sitcom.
The script readers, led by producer James Parker, have selected the 20 scripts that will appear in the shows, beginning October 19th at London's prestigious Leicester Square Theatre. (full list below)
The shows will be judged both by the audience and by a panel of TV industry experts. Last season's winner Dean Hardman went on as a result to be commissioned by the BBC and this new batch of writers are hoping to prove equally successful.
The Sitcom Trials is celebrating its 10th Anniversary, having begun on stage in Bristol in 1999 with a show that featured a very young comedy legend-to-be, Russell Howard. The show has run in the West End since 1999, enjoyed an 8 week series on ITV, three years at the Edinburgh Fringe and a version staged in Hollywood, with a 2010 Hollywood Sitcom Trials in the pipeline. The Sitcom Trials was created by Kev F Sutherland, who returns to host the new season.
The Sitcom Trials runs at the Leicester Square Theatre every Monday from October 19th 2009, with the Grand Final on December 1st.
LISTING DETAILS, COMEDY (please print)
TITLE: The Sitcom Trials
VENUE: Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX
DATES: Oct 19, 26, Nov 2, 9, 16, 23, Dec 1
TIMES: 6pm & 8.30pm (2 shows per night)
PRICES: £5 (6pm) £10 (8.30pm)
BOOKING: http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/events.asp?eventid=220&categoryid=3
BOX OFFICE: 0844 847 2475
PROMO SITCOM TRIALS LOGO 09: http://i33.tinypic.com/5vyour.jpg
PROMO SITCOM TRIALS POSTER: http://i34.tinypic.com/2n6goqh.jpg
PRESS CONTACT: Kev F Sutherland 07931 810858
Series Producer James Parker
WEBSITE: sitcomtrials.co.uk
FULL LIST OF FINALIST SCRIPTS:
* "Alan Pob - Writing Wrongs" by Saul Wordsworth
* "Assemblage of Evil" by Joe Deacon
* "Baby, it's cold outside" by Peter Higgins
* "Bumboy" by Andy Crick
* "Don't Murder the Messenger" by Allan Payne
* "End to End" by Matt Holt, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
* "Future Proof" by Elise Bramich
* "Life as a foreign language" by John Barron and Olly Allsopp
* "Long Term Sick" by Mark Brotherhood
* "Lovely Rocks" by John Seymour
* "My Sister" by Robin Bailes
* "PR a History" by Graeme and Nicky Knowles
* "Prodigies" by Alex Kirk and Simon Messingham
* "The Bar Boys" by Ben Glassman
* "The Johns" by Hugh Travers
* "The Not Gots" by Malcolm Duffy
* "Therapy" by Tom Carter
* "The Second Best Job in the World" by Chris Gilgallon
* "The Spy who Wrapped up Warm" by Jim Speirs & Simon Bristoll
* "Weathermen" by Ken Cheng
Sitcom Trials finalists announced
The 20 finalists of The Sitcom Trials 10th Anniverary Season have been announced.
380 budding sitcom writers entered sitcom scripts, hoping to be chosen to head to head in competition in the Sitcom Trials shows which begin at the Leicester Square Theatre on October 19th, 20 have made the cut.
I'd like to congratulate James and his readers on their script selection. I didn't read any of them until James emailed me the finalists yesterday, and I spent last night reading them all while the entrants were on tenterhooks waiting for the results. There are some very good scripts in there and I look forward to some entertaining shows with some very tight voting decisions to be made.
One thing you might have noticed, and I'm not sure James has mentioned, is that there are 20 finalists, not the 16 you were expecting. Because the Sitcom Trials format has been adhered to closely by the writers we've got entries short enough that we can fit five scripts into every 90 minute show, and we've moved the start times to 6pm and 8.30 to give us extra time if necessary. So that'll be 4 heats showcasing 20 sitcoms, 10 scripts should then go through to the semi finals, and 5 should appear in the final (this is again subject to James leaping in and shouting "No you've got it wrong again you idiot, do you never listen?").
Of course this is scant consolation for the 360 out of 380 entrants whose scripts didn't make the cut, but the good news there is that Sitcom Saturday takes place on a regular basis in London, and Declan & Simon (producers of the last 2 Sitcom Trials competitions) will be looking for entries for their new Sitcommission project very very soon.
Tickets for the Sitcom Trials 10th Anniversary season, beginning October 19th, are now on sale at:
http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/events.asp?eventid=220&categoryid=3
The BSG Forum or sitcomtrials.co.uk will be the places to catch the running order every week, and the results, which will be announced at the end of the second performance of the show every week (as part of the show), and be Twittered afterwards.
Those 20 finalists scripts are, in alphabetical order:
* "Alan Pob - Writing Wrongs" by Saul Wordsworth
* "Assemblage of Evil" by Joe Deacon
* "Baby, it's cold outside" by Peter Higgins
* "Bumboy" by Andy Crick
* "Don't Murder the Messenger" by Allan Payne
* "End to End" by Matt Holt, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
* "Future Proof" by Elise Bramich
* "Life as a foreign language" by John Barron and Olly Allsopp
* "Long Term Sick" by Mark Brotherhood
* "Lovely Rocks" by John Seymour
* "My Sister" by Robin Bailes
* "PR a History" by Graeme and Nicky Knowles
* "Prodigies" by Alex Kirk and Simon Messingham
* "The Bar Boys" by Ben Glassman
* "The Johns" by Hugh Travers
* "The Not Gots" by Malcolm Duffy
* "Therapy" by Tom Carter
* "The Second Best Job in the World" by Chris Gilgallon
* "The Spy who Wrapped up Warm" by Jim Speirs & Simon Bristoll
* "Weathermen" by Ken Cheng
380 budding sitcom writers entered sitcom scripts, hoping to be chosen to head to head in competition in the Sitcom Trials shows which begin at the Leicester Square Theatre on October 19th, 20 have made the cut.
I'd like to congratulate James and his readers on their script selection. I didn't read any of them until James emailed me the finalists yesterday, and I spent last night reading them all while the entrants were on tenterhooks waiting for the results. There are some very good scripts in there and I look forward to some entertaining shows with some very tight voting decisions to be made.
One thing you might have noticed, and I'm not sure James has mentioned, is that there are 20 finalists, not the 16 you were expecting. Because the Sitcom Trials format has been adhered to closely by the writers we've got entries short enough that we can fit five scripts into every 90 minute show, and we've moved the start times to 6pm and 8.30 to give us extra time if necessary. So that'll be 4 heats showcasing 20 sitcoms, 10 scripts should then go through to the semi finals, and 5 should appear in the final (this is again subject to James leaping in and shouting "No you've got it wrong again you idiot, do you never listen?").
Of course this is scant consolation for the 360 out of 380 entrants whose scripts didn't make the cut, but the good news there is that Sitcom Saturday takes place on a regular basis in London, and Declan & Simon (producers of the last 2 Sitcom Trials competitions) will be looking for entries for their new Sitcommission project very very soon.
Tickets for the Sitcom Trials 10th Anniversary season, beginning October 19th, are now on sale at:
http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/events.asp?eventid=220&categoryid=3
The BSG Forum or sitcomtrials.co.uk will be the places to catch the running order every week, and the results, which will be announced at the end of the second performance of the show every week (as part of the show), and be Twittered afterwards.
Those 20 finalists scripts are, in alphabetical order:
* "Alan Pob - Writing Wrongs" by Saul Wordsworth
* "Assemblage of Evil" by Joe Deacon
* "Baby, it's cold outside" by Peter Higgins
* "Bumboy" by Andy Crick
* "Don't Murder the Messenger" by Allan Payne
* "End to End" by Matt Holt, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
* "Future Proof" by Elise Bramich
* "Life as a foreign language" by John Barron and Olly Allsopp
* "Long Term Sick" by Mark Brotherhood
* "Lovely Rocks" by John Seymour
* "My Sister" by Robin Bailes
* "PR a History" by Graeme and Nicky Knowles
* "Prodigies" by Alex Kirk and Simon Messingham
* "The Bar Boys" by Ben Glassman
* "The Johns" by Hugh Travers
* "The Not Gots" by Malcolm Duffy
* "Therapy" by Tom Carter
* "The Second Best Job in the World" by Chris Gilgallon
* "The Spy who Wrapped up Warm" by Jim Speirs & Simon Bristoll
* "Weathermen" by Ken Cheng
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Next Big British Comic, continued
The Guardian's comic reprints last week exercised a lot of discussion on the comic groups I read, and I threw in my two penn'orth. Here were some thoughts I shared:
Lew Stringer wrote:
> Here's a question: I know a lot of comic fans would rather eat their
> own eyeballs than read a British comic, and didn't even read them as
> children. What was it that put you off them and what would encourage
> you to buy a new type of comic for your kids?
I wrote: This is the hard question. I can answer for myself, what I'd buy. But that's
pointless, cos I'm a 47 year old man (so old that I just had to work out how old
I am on my fingers, I genuinely didn't immediately know!) and I'm not the
market.
I get positive responses from the kids I teach to new comics that actually
exist. They respond to Marvel superhero comics (which I get randomly from the
£1-for-5 box at FP), they like things like IDW's Transformers comic, based on
the cartoon, and anything with string dazzlingly imagery like that. That draws
them into the stories and they would read more (but not, I think, at £2.50 a
pop, and since they have no comic shop near them they don't get to browse). Some
older ones react the same to Manga, and in the case of Manga they do buy it. If
I find a manga reader they're most often female, they usually have one friend
who also reads manga, and they've usually started collecting lots of books and
have got the school library to get them in. (Naruto is very big in a good few
high school libraries).
So, from my anecdotal research, I'd say stuff as exciting as that would capture
8 to 12 year olds, and Beano already captures 6 to 10 year olds. I feel I can
envisage the content that would grab the audience, and I think I know where to
find the creators who can deliver it.
So could the DFC.
As for what puts people off comics. I'd say limitations put people off comics.
Strips that are restricted to a narrow genre, eg superheroes. That puts me off
and must put most people off.
It's like turning on your TV and getting a choice of Daredevil, The League Of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman & Robin, Tank Girl and Elektra. You'd soon start
to think TV was a crap invention.
Ditto comics just for kids. The Beano and Dandy have, to their credit, let some
literate writers sneak some tolerable and challenging work under the wire in the
last decade, but it's still the exception that proves the rule. If all the
writing aspired to be as good as Asterix, I could defend it without question.
But when the average strip is Ball Boy or Pirates Of The Caribeano, it deserves
the scorn it gets.
Bryan Talbot wrote:
> Just a thought - seeing as the DFC sold in tiny numbers, if a widely
> distributed free comic was published, it could keep initial costs down by
> picking up the quality strips from there at a fraction of the cost of new
> ones and reprint them, along with new material.
I wrote: Okay, here's a guesstimate at the maths. A comic, distributed around the country
so we get it into the hands of half a million kids. That's going to cost about
50,000 pounds a week. It's a rough guesstimate but it's not far off.
Someone tell me how realistic that is, and we could build the model from there.
Lew Stringer wrote:
> ...I've always felt that kids
> drop comics like a stone once they feel they're too old for them. No
> child wants to be seen reading something they consider is "too babyish".
I wrote: I find many kids, especially teenage boys, do this with all reading material.
Reading any book is uncool for many 13 year old boys, whether it's a comic,
graphic novel, Philip Pullman or Dostoyevsky.
But you can still excite the young (7 to 12) and engage the engage-able (12+
smart kid, also reads novels and still watches Doctor Who), while gaining the
respect of the old. I really believe it's do-able. It's just the "getting out
there" (which covers more than just "marketing") and the devil in the detail of
the content (ie it has to be something that someone of my age probably can't
conceive of).
John Ridgway" wrote:
> Take a look at www.eppostripblad.nl to see what they are doing. It is still
early days for them and they are limiting themselves to Dutch and Belgium
contributors, but it seems to me they have a decent balance for the content. 36
pages per issue, fortnightly, 4 euroes.
I wrote: Just flipped through Eppo Stripblad (they have a nifty flash-animated flip
through version on screen). It looks very trad European, I've bought similar
comics in Spain, Norway and France. It's great, and in a long established
tradition. But some of those strips are so old, boring and starchy (there's a
reprint of Beetle Bailey which si not the oldest looking thing in there) that
they'd only have a market if the habit of reading comics had remained unbroken
for the last 50 years.
So our equivalent of Eppo Blad is The Broons & Oor Wullie Section in The Sunday
Post.
I don't think that's the model I'd use to relaunch comics in the 21st century,
but it's a good reminder that our artform lives, just not over here.
chebbo@ wrote:
> I do think it would need to be in newsagents though to have any hope of
> finding a large readership or at the very least in comic shops.
I wrote: Newsagents are prohibitively expensive to get into. That is why most comics are
now a plastic bag containing a toy and a comic that looks like it was put in as
an afterthought.
And most people don't have a comic shop.
beeemcee@... wrote:
>
> I've been looking at ideas for launching a British comic for the past year
> or so. I set up the distribution and print deal for Crikey! Magazine ...
I wrote: I said I'd seen Crikey in our Borders, and I'm delighted that it seems so
relatively inexpensive. Is it approaching break even? And are you going to be
able to do it bi-monthly, or even monthly?
I think Borders, though there's not one in every town, could be a perfect way to
start. I remember how Viz had to grow in the late 80s despite being shut out of
Smiths. So I soon learnt the newsagents where Viz could be found, usually dodgy
ones full of porn mags, then it found its way into Virgin record stores, and
finally WH Smith saw how strong the sales were and let it in, then it sold a
million.
So great oaks from small acorns. Nice work Brian.
***************************************
I wrote: We've talked a lot about the Guardian comics facsimiles this week (today's
Whizzer & Chips is brilliant by the way, and yesterday's Tammy included a strip
by Jim Baikie), but has anyone suggested the obvious thing?
If the money can be found to print an old facsimile, why can't we run new
comics? I mean a comic edition of the Dandy or Toxic or 2000AD in Saturday's
paper, with clear instructions that if you liked that you should go to the
newsagents and get it every week, or subscribe, or "place an order" as we used
to say.
I know the DFC sort of did that, but then they sort of didn't. They ran small
serialised samples of their strips in the Guardian and took months before the
"DFC" teaser was explained. Then, if the readers were hooked by then, they told
them to fork out 30 quid or forget it. Whereas other existing comics are easier
to get.
Maybe it's too obvious and there's some problem, just saying.
Lew wrote:
> Exactly. Also, Beetle Bailey and other newspaper strips are actually
> quite popular in some countries and quite often turn up in weekly/
> monthly comics. Different tastes and all that. I mean, even the
> bloomin' Phantom is massive in Norway and Australia but it's never
> really worked here in the UK.
I wrote: That's the strength and the curse of British comics. We love the new and get
easily bored of the old. So while your Europeans will still endlessly devour
Carl Barks Donald Duck, Beetle Bailey, and stuff that looks a lot like it did in
the 1960s, we've always wanted to move on.
That's where the 2000AD creators came from, and the waves that followed them,
but that's why we grew tired of Tammy, Jackie, Bunty, Tiger, Eagle et al as soon
as they grew unfashionable.
You can see a parallel in music. France and Norway have a vibrant folk music
scene, far outselling their new modern music. In this country anyone who dons a
woolly jumper and whips out an accordion is rightly frowned upon.
In the country comics have to be the new rock & roll, we have no room for old
folk.
John Freeman wrote:
Do you set out to be offensive when you put to paper, Kev, or are you simply
ignorant? Because you just managed it. There's a massively popular folk scene in
the UK - I'm not a fan, personally, but there is. As for your comment about old
people, you're not exactly a spring chicken.
I've read your posts over the past couple of years here with increasing
irritation: you drop in with some comment as if you're the only person who know
about it, ignoring the huge amount of work the Forbidden Planet International
team, Lew Stringer, Baz Renshaw and myself - and many others - have been doing
to promote British comics, even though you tell me you're aware of it. Now
you've labelled anything presumably not being drawn by anyone under the age of
25 (or 12, perhaps) as 'old' and by implication, outdated. By that logic, we
shouldn't be reading Grandville, anything by Alan Moore and much of 200AD.
British comics has always been a wider church than you appear to think it is,
with a huge number of vibrant creators of all ages.
It wasn't the fault of the creators that the comics you cite went out of
fashion, it was the editors and publishers behind them who got stuck in their
ways.
If I've misinterpreted your comments, my apologies, but your latest post finally
made me lose my rag.
I replied:
> Do you set out to be offensive when you put to paper, Kev, or are you simply
ignorant?
Ignorant, that'd be me.
No, of course I regularly try and boil my comments down to simplistic soundbites
to stimulate the debate, and often play devil's advocate.
Comparing old fashioned looking comics to folk music I thought illustrated the
point I was trying to make, while inevitably being rude to people who like old
fashioned looking comics and/or folk music (and as anyone who reads my Facebook
posts knows, I like some execrable 1970s music and seem to read nothing but old
comics, so who am I to talk).
To the future. I am inspired by the talk here of working towards a new
mainstream comic (which is, I think, what people are talking up). May I throw my
ignorant and annoying hat in the ring?
+
Before I cast myself as some sort of ageist, I want to make it clear I'm not.
The new wave of Beano creators are Laura, Gary, Lew and Hunt, whose average age
is, well my age (two are older two are younger). It's not their age that marks
them out as vital and innovative, it's their attitude.
Some of the comic creators whose work I most admire, Lee+Kirby, Carl Giles,
Uderzo+Goscinny, did their best stuff in their 40s and 50s. And Bryan is a fine
example of someone whose work simply gets better with every piece, as happens
with so many film directors and novelists.
So when I characterised comics that fell from popularity when they fell from
fashion I was bemoaning their lack of originality, not the age of their
contributors. Just thought I'd spell that out in an irony-free post.
Kev F
Lew Stringer wrote:
> Here's a question: I know a lot of comic fans would rather eat their
> own eyeballs than read a British comic, and didn't even read them as
> children. What was it that put you off them and what would encourage
> you to buy a new type of comic for your kids?
I wrote: This is the hard question. I can answer for myself, what I'd buy. But that's
pointless, cos I'm a 47 year old man (so old that I just had to work out how old
I am on my fingers, I genuinely didn't immediately know!) and I'm not the
market.
I get positive responses from the kids I teach to new comics that actually
exist. They respond to Marvel superhero comics (which I get randomly from the
£1-for-5 box at FP), they like things like IDW's Transformers comic, based on
the cartoon, and anything with string dazzlingly imagery like that. That draws
them into the stories and they would read more (but not, I think, at £2.50 a
pop, and since they have no comic shop near them they don't get to browse). Some
older ones react the same to Manga, and in the case of Manga they do buy it. If
I find a manga reader they're most often female, they usually have one friend
who also reads manga, and they've usually started collecting lots of books and
have got the school library to get them in. (Naruto is very big in a good few
high school libraries).
So, from my anecdotal research, I'd say stuff as exciting as that would capture
8 to 12 year olds, and Beano already captures 6 to 10 year olds. I feel I can
envisage the content that would grab the audience, and I think I know where to
find the creators who can deliver it.
So could the DFC.
As for what puts people off comics. I'd say limitations put people off comics.
Strips that are restricted to a narrow genre, eg superheroes. That puts me off
and must put most people off.
It's like turning on your TV and getting a choice of Daredevil, The League Of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman & Robin, Tank Girl and Elektra. You'd soon start
to think TV was a crap invention.
Ditto comics just for kids. The Beano and Dandy have, to their credit, let some
literate writers sneak some tolerable and challenging work under the wire in the
last decade, but it's still the exception that proves the rule. If all the
writing aspired to be as good as Asterix, I could defend it without question.
But when the average strip is Ball Boy or Pirates Of The Caribeano, it deserves
the scorn it gets.
Bryan Talbot wrote:
> Just a thought - seeing as the DFC sold in tiny numbers, if a widely
> distributed free comic was published, it could keep initial costs down by
> picking up the quality strips from there at a fraction of the cost of new
> ones and reprint them, along with new material.
I wrote: Okay, here's a guesstimate at the maths. A comic, distributed around the country
so we get it into the hands of half a million kids. That's going to cost about
50,000 pounds a week. It's a rough guesstimate but it's not far off.
Someone tell me how realistic that is, and we could build the model from there.
Lew Stringer wrote:
> ...I've always felt that kids
> drop comics like a stone once they feel they're too old for them. No
> child wants to be seen reading something they consider is "too babyish".
I wrote: I find many kids, especially teenage boys, do this with all reading material.
Reading any book is uncool for many 13 year old boys, whether it's a comic,
graphic novel, Philip Pullman or Dostoyevsky.
But you can still excite the young (7 to 12) and engage the engage-able (12+
smart kid, also reads novels and still watches Doctor Who), while gaining the
respect of the old. I really believe it's do-able. It's just the "getting out
there" (which covers more than just "marketing") and the devil in the detail of
the content (ie it has to be something that someone of my age probably can't
conceive of).
John Ridgway" wrote:
> Take a look at www.eppostripblad.nl to see what they are doing. It is still
early days for them and they are limiting themselves to Dutch and Belgium
contributors, but it seems to me they have a decent balance for the content. 36
pages per issue, fortnightly, 4 euroes.
I wrote: Just flipped through Eppo Stripblad (they have a nifty flash-animated flip
through version on screen). It looks very trad European, I've bought similar
comics in Spain, Norway and France. It's great, and in a long established
tradition. But some of those strips are so old, boring and starchy (there's a
reprint of Beetle Bailey which si not the oldest looking thing in there) that
they'd only have a market if the habit of reading comics had remained unbroken
for the last 50 years.
So our equivalent of Eppo Blad is The Broons & Oor Wullie Section in The Sunday
Post.
I don't think that's the model I'd use to relaunch comics in the 21st century,
but it's a good reminder that our artform lives, just not over here.
chebbo@ wrote:
> I do think it would need to be in newsagents though to have any hope of
> finding a large readership or at the very least in comic shops.
I wrote: Newsagents are prohibitively expensive to get into. That is why most comics are
now a plastic bag containing a toy and a comic that looks like it was put in as
an afterthought.
And most people don't have a comic shop.
beeemcee@... wrote:
>
> I've been looking at ideas for launching a British comic for the past year
> or so. I set up the distribution and print deal for Crikey! Magazine ...
I wrote: I said I'd seen Crikey in our Borders, and I'm delighted that it seems so
relatively inexpensive. Is it approaching break even? And are you going to be
able to do it bi-monthly, or even monthly?
I think Borders, though there's not one in every town, could be a perfect way to
start. I remember how Viz had to grow in the late 80s despite being shut out of
Smiths. So I soon learnt the newsagents where Viz could be found, usually dodgy
ones full of porn mags, then it found its way into Virgin record stores, and
finally WH Smith saw how strong the sales were and let it in, then it sold a
million.
So great oaks from small acorns. Nice work Brian.
***************************************
I wrote: We've talked a lot about the Guardian comics facsimiles this week (today's
Whizzer & Chips is brilliant by the way, and yesterday's Tammy included a strip
by Jim Baikie), but has anyone suggested the obvious thing?
If the money can be found to print an old facsimile, why can't we run new
comics? I mean a comic edition of the Dandy or Toxic or 2000AD in Saturday's
paper, with clear instructions that if you liked that you should go to the
newsagents and get it every week, or subscribe, or "place an order" as we used
to say.
I know the DFC sort of did that, but then they sort of didn't. They ran small
serialised samples of their strips in the Guardian and took months before the
"DFC" teaser was explained. Then, if the readers were hooked by then, they told
them to fork out 30 quid or forget it. Whereas other existing comics are easier
to get.
Maybe it's too obvious and there's some problem, just saying.
Lew wrote:
> Exactly. Also, Beetle Bailey and other newspaper strips are actually
> quite popular in some countries and quite often turn up in weekly/
> monthly comics. Different tastes and all that. I mean, even the
> bloomin' Phantom is massive in Norway and Australia but it's never
> really worked here in the UK.
I wrote: That's the strength and the curse of British comics. We love the new and get
easily bored of the old. So while your Europeans will still endlessly devour
Carl Barks Donald Duck, Beetle Bailey, and stuff that looks a lot like it did in
the 1960s, we've always wanted to move on.
That's where the 2000AD creators came from, and the waves that followed them,
but that's why we grew tired of Tammy, Jackie, Bunty, Tiger, Eagle et al as soon
as they grew unfashionable.
You can see a parallel in music. France and Norway have a vibrant folk music
scene, far outselling their new modern music. In this country anyone who dons a
woolly jumper and whips out an accordion is rightly frowned upon.
In the country comics have to be the new rock & roll, we have no room for old
folk.
John Freeman wrote:
Do you set out to be offensive when you put to paper, Kev, or are you simply
ignorant? Because you just managed it. There's a massively popular folk scene in
the UK - I'm not a fan, personally, but there is. As for your comment about old
people, you're not exactly a spring chicken.
I've read your posts over the past couple of years here with increasing
irritation: you drop in with some comment as if you're the only person who know
about it, ignoring the huge amount of work the Forbidden Planet International
team, Lew Stringer, Baz Renshaw and myself - and many others - have been doing
to promote British comics, even though you tell me you're aware of it. Now
you've labelled anything presumably not being drawn by anyone under the age of
25 (or 12, perhaps) as 'old' and by implication, outdated. By that logic, we
shouldn't be reading Grandville, anything by Alan Moore and much of 200AD.
British comics has always been a wider church than you appear to think it is,
with a huge number of vibrant creators of all ages.
It wasn't the fault of the creators that the comics you cite went out of
fashion, it was the editors and publishers behind them who got stuck in their
ways.
If I've misinterpreted your comments, my apologies, but your latest post finally
made me lose my rag.
I replied:
> Do you set out to be offensive when you put to paper, Kev, or are you simply
ignorant?
Ignorant, that'd be me.
No, of course I regularly try and boil my comments down to simplistic soundbites
to stimulate the debate, and often play devil's advocate.
Comparing old fashioned looking comics to folk music I thought illustrated the
point I was trying to make, while inevitably being rude to people who like old
fashioned looking comics and/or folk music (and as anyone who reads my Facebook
posts knows, I like some execrable 1970s music and seem to read nothing but old
comics, so who am I to talk).
To the future. I am inspired by the talk here of working towards a new
mainstream comic (which is, I think, what people are talking up). May I throw my
ignorant and annoying hat in the ring?
+
Before I cast myself as some sort of ageist, I want to make it clear I'm not.
The new wave of Beano creators are Laura, Gary, Lew and Hunt, whose average age
is, well my age (two are older two are younger). It's not their age that marks
them out as vital and innovative, it's their attitude.
Some of the comic creators whose work I most admire, Lee+Kirby, Carl Giles,
Uderzo+Goscinny, did their best stuff in their 40s and 50s. And Bryan is a fine
example of someone whose work simply gets better with every piece, as happens
with so many film directors and novelists.
So when I characterised comics that fell from popularity when they fell from
fashion I was bemoaning their lack of originality, not the age of their
contributors. Just thought I'd spell that out in an irony-free post.
Kev F
Friday, 18 September 2009
In praise of the Walnut Tree, Maidstone
Last night we returned to the Walnut Tree in Maidstone, having played there in 2007. It's a unique venue with a set up which suggests it shouldn't work, but which does work and has done for coming up to 20 years.
It's a stage in the corner of a pub, and nobody pays to get in. That is usually a recipe for disaster, for comedians being undervalued or ignored. Also, instead of the usual compere and 2 or 3 comics, you get one act doing 45 minutes solo. Who's going to sit through that you think. Especially since the act doesn't start till 9.30 at night, by which time your punters will be well merry and a nightmare to try and quieten down.
But no, not at the Walnut Tree. Because here they have a tradition, stretching back to 1990, whereby they have invited in up and coming comedians and given them a good hearing. Photos on the wall attest to early appearances by the likes of Bill Bailey, Ed Byrne, Jimmy Carr, Catherine Tate and many many more, all of whom have been warmly received by a faithful comedy-friendly crowd. And last night was no different.
If there's one factor that sometimes runs more smoothly in bigger venues, it is the technical back up. For sound cues, an act like the Socks has to rely on the CD player behind the bar being operated, in slightly subdued light, by Peter the owner. This can be entertaining in itself, as his clip from last night demonstrates:
I look forward to returning there sometime in the future, and urge all Maidstonians to make a bee-line there every Thursday. You won't regret it.
It's a stage in the corner of a pub, and nobody pays to get in. That is usually a recipe for disaster, for comedians being undervalued or ignored. Also, instead of the usual compere and 2 or 3 comics, you get one act doing 45 minutes solo. Who's going to sit through that you think. Especially since the act doesn't start till 9.30 at night, by which time your punters will be well merry and a nightmare to try and quieten down.
But no, not at the Walnut Tree. Because here they have a tradition, stretching back to 1990, whereby they have invited in up and coming comedians and given them a good hearing. Photos on the wall attest to early appearances by the likes of Bill Bailey, Ed Byrne, Jimmy Carr, Catherine Tate and many many more, all of whom have been warmly received by a faithful comedy-friendly crowd. And last night was no different.
If there's one factor that sometimes runs more smoothly in bigger venues, it is the technical back up. For sound cues, an act like the Socks has to rely on the CD player behind the bar being operated, in slightly subdued light, by Peter the owner. This can be entertaining in itself, as his clip from last night demonstrates:
I look forward to returning there sometime in the future, and urge all Maidstonians to make a bee-line there every Thursday. You won't regret it.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Will there be another British comic?
The nostalgic reprints of old comics in this week's Guardian has prompted a lot of reflection, with we old comics lovers remembering how great and influential the comics of our childhood were, and bemoaning their loss.
But what can the future of British comics possibly hold? I teach comic art to kids all over the country and find a few things to be universally true. Firstly that kids love comics. When they are shown a pile of comics they seize upon them and want to have more to look at. Aged 8 to 12 in particular they will pass them around saying "have you seen this?", marvelling at the artwork and getting engrossed in the stories.
Secondly they love producing comics. Once I've shown them how simple it is to tell a story in pictures, and the various tricks and techniques which mean you don't have to be the greatest artist yet to communicate clearly in our artform, I find stories regularly flow from kids who've had difficulty expressing themselves in words alone.
As an aside to this, the power of comic strip as a teaching tool for literature is undeniable, and quite a revelation to teachers I work with. I quote the example of my schooldays when, in primary school, I had the best reading age of my class because I'd read since the age of 5 Marvel comics. This meant I'd seen words like "thermonuclear device" and because the words came very clearly, in a voice bubble, from the mouth of say The Hulk or Spider-Man, I could easily work out their context and guess at what they meant. Kids picture books, where the words are over here and the pictures are over there and never the twain shall meet, simply do not teach kids to read as well as a comic strip with voice bubbles does.
To return to my point, the third thing I find in schools is that hardly any kids have read any comics. If anything they've read the Beano. Though that is predominately a middle class or Scottish thing. In England, and especially among more working class kids, if I ask them to name a comic or a comic strip they mostly likely name a cartoon off TV or a magazine. They are almost totally unfamiliar with the artform called the comic strip. And if they do read The Beano, what do they do when they've outgrown that? A lucky few go on to read Simpsons comics, and a small number of teenagers become readers of Japanese Manga. One in 100 reads US comics, most not even being aware that Spider-Man and Batman started life as comics. Where, they ask me, would you buy a Batman comic? And in most cases, unless they live in one of the few towns with a comic shop, I can't answer them.
So what could we do about comics? Is it worth reviving them, and if so how? Obviously I think it is. I think if we allow this artform to die, so that everyone in the UK will be as unable to read a comic strip as those idiots they got to review them on Radio 4's Front Row last week (2 out of 3 reviewers, of Bryan Talbot's Grandville & Ian Rankin's Constanine, professed some perverse pride in their ignorance of the comic strip artform and made me want to slap their posh bookish heads) then we are committing a cultural crime akin to never staging an opera ever again, just because they're too expensive to stage and hardly anyone goes to see them. Other artforms have their champions, from poetry and folk music to opera and dance, so why not comics?
I've given it my stabs over the year, and I think I probably won't be bothering again in a hurry. My two best efforts to revive comics publishing were both overambitious and under-supported.
The first was The Big Comic.
In 1991, seeing the profusion of free papers that were coming through letterboxes nationwide, I re-envisioned the old American notion of the syndicated comic section. Essentially I took Will Eisner's Spirit section idea, and presented it to the free papers. Only one bit, the Weston Super Mare Admag, who ran a four page section with strips interspersed by ads, for one week, before being told by their head office that they weren't allowed to show such initiative. The syndication model, which meant the papers paid for the art based on the circulation figures that they published on their front cover, would have meant the strips costing next to nothing to each paper, while reaching potential millions of readers, and forming an attraction that set their free paper apart from the rival in their local market. Oh it was genius. But no publisher agreed with me, most of these papers being run by a small number of parent companies who had their marketing strategies all thought through. And of course now, with the development of the internet and the financial slump, free papers are history, and the Big Comic's entire premise a nice idea that could never work now.
My second concept was to avoid the newsagents and to sell a comic on the streets.
My starting point for Street Comic was "imagine if the Big Issue was good and you actually wanted to buy it for its content, not just out of middle class guilt". I still feel this idea has legs, and maybe someone will make a fortune selling comics in the streets of Britain. I researched it, and it's do-able. But if anything put me off, it was the DFC.
You see I assembled a dummy for Street Comic, and for all the world, it seems to me pretty much identical to what The DFC came up with. I mean to say the two comics were totally different, the DFC never saw my dummy or anything (we had one creator in common, the brilliant Laura Howell), but editorially we had the same idea. And that idea was quite old fasioned. We'd invented an anthology comic, like had existed in our childhood, with a mix of comedy and action, a little bit bandes-dessinee, a little bit Eagle. And of course the DFC bombed, despite being of the highest quality. And someone somewhere is 100s of thousands of pounds out of pocket over that noble experiment, which is not something I can afford to be.
So, if I've given up on creating the next great British comic, who's going to? I wait to be surprised.
But what can the future of British comics possibly hold? I teach comic art to kids all over the country and find a few things to be universally true. Firstly that kids love comics. When they are shown a pile of comics they seize upon them and want to have more to look at. Aged 8 to 12 in particular they will pass them around saying "have you seen this?", marvelling at the artwork and getting engrossed in the stories.
Secondly they love producing comics. Once I've shown them how simple it is to tell a story in pictures, and the various tricks and techniques which mean you don't have to be the greatest artist yet to communicate clearly in our artform, I find stories regularly flow from kids who've had difficulty expressing themselves in words alone.
As an aside to this, the power of comic strip as a teaching tool for literature is undeniable, and quite a revelation to teachers I work with. I quote the example of my schooldays when, in primary school, I had the best reading age of my class because I'd read since the age of 5 Marvel comics. This meant I'd seen words like "thermonuclear device" and because the words came very clearly, in a voice bubble, from the mouth of say The Hulk or Spider-Man, I could easily work out their context and guess at what they meant. Kids picture books, where the words are over here and the pictures are over there and never the twain shall meet, simply do not teach kids to read as well as a comic strip with voice bubbles does.
To return to my point, the third thing I find in schools is that hardly any kids have read any comics. If anything they've read the Beano. Though that is predominately a middle class or Scottish thing. In England, and especially among more working class kids, if I ask them to name a comic or a comic strip they mostly likely name a cartoon off TV or a magazine. They are almost totally unfamiliar with the artform called the comic strip. And if they do read The Beano, what do they do when they've outgrown that? A lucky few go on to read Simpsons comics, and a small number of teenagers become readers of Japanese Manga. One in 100 reads US comics, most not even being aware that Spider-Man and Batman started life as comics. Where, they ask me, would you buy a Batman comic? And in most cases, unless they live in one of the few towns with a comic shop, I can't answer them.
So what could we do about comics? Is it worth reviving them, and if so how? Obviously I think it is. I think if we allow this artform to die, so that everyone in the UK will be as unable to read a comic strip as those idiots they got to review them on Radio 4's Front Row last week (2 out of 3 reviewers, of Bryan Talbot's Grandville & Ian Rankin's Constanine, professed some perverse pride in their ignorance of the comic strip artform and made me want to slap their posh bookish heads) then we are committing a cultural crime akin to never staging an opera ever again, just because they're too expensive to stage and hardly anyone goes to see them. Other artforms have their champions, from poetry and folk music to opera and dance, so why not comics?
I've given it my stabs over the year, and I think I probably won't be bothering again in a hurry. My two best efforts to revive comics publishing were both overambitious and under-supported.
The first was The Big Comic.
In 1991, seeing the profusion of free papers that were coming through letterboxes nationwide, I re-envisioned the old American notion of the syndicated comic section. Essentially I took Will Eisner's Spirit section idea, and presented it to the free papers. Only one bit, the Weston Super Mare Admag, who ran a four page section with strips interspersed by ads, for one week, before being told by their head office that they weren't allowed to show such initiative. The syndication model, which meant the papers paid for the art based on the circulation figures that they published on their front cover, would have meant the strips costing next to nothing to each paper, while reaching potential millions of readers, and forming an attraction that set their free paper apart from the rival in their local market. Oh it was genius. But no publisher agreed with me, most of these papers being run by a small number of parent companies who had their marketing strategies all thought through. And of course now, with the development of the internet and the financial slump, free papers are history, and the Big Comic's entire premise a nice idea that could never work now.
My second concept was to avoid the newsagents and to sell a comic on the streets.
My starting point for Street Comic was "imagine if the Big Issue was good and you actually wanted to buy it for its content, not just out of middle class guilt". I still feel this idea has legs, and maybe someone will make a fortune selling comics in the streets of Britain. I researched it, and it's do-able. But if anything put me off, it was the DFC.
You see I assembled a dummy for Street Comic, and for all the world, it seems to me pretty much identical to what The DFC came up with. I mean to say the two comics were totally different, the DFC never saw my dummy or anything (we had one creator in common, the brilliant Laura Howell), but editorially we had the same idea. And that idea was quite old fasioned. We'd invented an anthology comic, like had existed in our childhood, with a mix of comedy and action, a little bit bandes-dessinee, a little bit Eagle. And of course the DFC bombed, despite being of the highest quality. And someone somewhere is 100s of thousands of pounds out of pocket over that noble experiment, which is not something I can afford to be.
So, if I've given up on creating the next great British comic, who's going to? I wait to be surprised.
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