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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 15 August 2017 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

This is worth a read:


So, as you can see, we have our issues/challenges, too.

I miss being a kid. I discovered a Spider-Man comic in a railway station store. Little shops often stocked Superman and Batman titles. Grocery stores didn't tend to have comics here, but all sorts of other shops, such as mini-supermarkets, did.

With the exception of 2000 AD and THE BEANO, there aren't really many original comics here. A lot of licensed comics (i.e. MY LITTLE PONY) consist more of puzzles, wordsearches, etc. And we don't have original superhero titles, just reprints. Panini UK are currently the licensee for Marvel reprints.

It surely is a different world now.


Edited by Robbie Parry on 15 August 2017 at 5:45pm
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11245
Posted: 15 August 2017 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I only see comics in supermarkets,a great big mass of
licensed and very young children`s comics all looking
the same,gaudy covers and `free` gifts.I haven`t seen
2000AD for sale in a supermarket,as far as i know only
WHSmith sells it,but i rarely visit the local towns,plus
the Wolverhampton store has closed.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

The covers are gaudy. The 'free' gifts are a joke, tat such as water pistols and frisbees (which will no doubt break within a short time).

Utterly, utterly depressing. 
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Matthew Wilkie
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 09 March 2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1139
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

The covers are gaudy. The 'free' gifts are a joke, tat such as water pistols and frisbees (which will no doubt break within a short time).

Utterly, utterly depressing. 

***

As someone with two young sons I concur with all of the above. They are inevitably drawn to the comics with the free gifts, always of a poor quality, and the comics themselves have very little content. My wife noted how size of the typeface used is always massive too in a cynical attempt to fill pages with very little content.

The so-called free gifts also tend to push the price up too. The Beano, for example, despite being content-rich compared to others occasionally includes such gifts with these issues seeing a price-hike of around £2.

If one ignores all the comics with gifts, the Beano and the Phoenix seem to be the original material titles aimed at the 8-10 year old. Depressing indeed.


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Bill Collins
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Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11245
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Yes,i got the first few issues of the recent
Thunderbirds comic,the `stories` were just the episodes
of the series using screen grabs,the typeface was indeed
large(Sure didn`t need my reading glasses!) and the rest
was filler.
As for The Beano...y remember when it was 2p and a good
read! ;-)
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

The Thunderbirds comic was woeful. Using screengrabs and telling 'new' stories strikes me as incredibly lazy. Why not commission new strips from a writer who may want to write Thunderbirds tales?

If we put aside licensed titles (i.e. MY LITTLE PONY) and the reprints of Marvel and DC, the only original UK comics available widely are COMMANDO, THE BEANO, 2000 AD and the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE. That depresses me further.

As a kid, there were the following UK comics, all featuring original strips and features:

EAGLE
VICTOR
WARLORD
BUNTY
MISTY
THE BEANO
THE DANDY
WHIZZER & CHIPS
BUSTER 
SPARKY 
ROY OF THE ROVERS

And many, many more! 
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Andrew Saxon
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 19 June 2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 337
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Heart-breaking how we've let our home-grown comics die. I used to thrill to the adventures of characters like Adam Eterno, Robot Archie, the Spellbinder and the Steel Claw in comics such as The Lion and Thunder. Also the more light-hearted antics you'd find in comics like Whizzer & Chips. Even television tie-in comics were fantastic - remember TV Comic, TV21, Countdown or Joe 90 Special Agent back in the 1960 and '70s? (Joe 90 gave British viewers their first look at some US TV shows like Land of the Giants and...er, something called Star Trek). I could list many more, all of them long gone and forgotten now.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I don't recall some of those (no offense, my friend, it could just be that I probably younger). But I've Googled some - and, wow, they look great. THUNDER caught my eye.

I know the US is bigger than the UK, but imagine if they had the same issues: for all the faults within the industry, there are countless original US comics from big and small publishers; but imagine if the US industry consisted of 90% reprints/licensed comics - and 10% original comics.

I do feel a lot of licensed UK comics are lame/lazy. Someone who worked within the UK industry told me that the "accountants" and the like just went for magazine-style, licensed comics because it was easier to fill a comic with wordsearches/crosswords than to commission original strips. 

I wish there was a thriving UK industry!
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11245
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I remember Lion and Thunder,Thunder was eventually
`Incorporated` (Great news!) into Lion! I regularly got
TV Comic,if i remember correctly it had Doctor Who and
Avengers(Steed and Mrs Peel version)
strips.Topper,Whizzer and Chips,The
Beezer,Cor!,Whoopie,Sparky,Cheeky,Bullet,Shiver and
Shake,Monster Fun Comic,Beano,Dandy,Warlord,Battle etc
that`s without the Marvel reprint titles! But the thing
was,they stood out on the racks,not like todays blur of
samey covers merging into one big Day-Glo eyesore!
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Robbie Moubert
Byrne Robotics Member

Evertonian

Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1484
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Thunder was an odd one, only lasting 22 issues. There's some speculation that it was launched purely to be merged with Lion and give that comic a boost. Interestingly, the post-merger Lion and Thunder contained more Thunder strips than Lion ones but the older title got top-billing. Jet was another short-lived title from the same period that also lasted a mere 22 issues before merging with Buster
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 16 August 2017 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

There were a hell of a lot of mergers in my time.

The 80s seemed to have a few. Didn't EAGLE "absorb" BATTLE? EAGLE and MASK combined in 1988. And then EAGLE and WILDCAT merged, too.

Even during those mergers, though, there were more than double the amount of original UK comics there are now.
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Karl Wiebe
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 06 December 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 172
Posted: 17 August 2017 at 2:28am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I was at my local comics shop this past weekend and a guy asked the owner if he was buying any comics.  The owner said "no way, we are scaling back as is!"  That is rough, I remember buying monthly Spider-Man and Alpha Flight every month.

Here is a question, and I am honestly asking so I hope no one thinks I am being snarky.  With online comic book stores (or reprints, hardcover editions, etc) we now have access to thousands and thousands of back issues.  So like for example, I buy old Curt Swan Superman or Action Comics, and I can read a "new" one every week until I die of old age.  What is the appeal of specifically buying a NEW Spider-Man or Batman comic?  Again I am honestly asking, like is it a shared connection to other readers that you are consuming the same thing in the same month as other people?  For me personally, if DC and Marvel decided tomorrow to blow it all up, I still have 40,000 comics from 1940 to 1980 to get through.

Truly interested in opinions.
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