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Underground > Comic Books >

Deadline and the UK anthology boom

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Haus of Mystery

20:45 / 03.02.05

Ahhh the swinging 90's. Judge Planet indeed! Hewligan's haircut, Time Flies & Bix Barton. all in time for my discovery of hallucinogenics....

21:24 / 03.02.05

Skaky Kane is alive and well and living in Exeter - the last I saw of him he had a little studio above the Cavern club there... - he worked on another Newstand comic a few years back From a company called Black Star Library... about two years ago he republished his A-men strips...

Haus of Mystery

08:58 / 04.02.05

'Soul Gun Warrior' anyone? - the man's a freak.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:22 / 04.02.05

What was the series that serialised 'Marshall Law' and 'Deaths Head: The Body in Question', circa '93? I think it only lasted about 15 issues but it had odd ephemera like 'The Chronicle of Genghis Grimtoad' and some lushly painted translated Euro-skiffy weirdness that I can't remember any details of at all...

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

11:49 / 04.02.05

Shaky Kane's Blackstar Fiction Library is discussed in this thread.

Liam Sharp's Mamtor is publishing a new anthology entitled Event Horizon.

And it was Strip that published Marshal Law, Genghis Grimtoad, Man from CANCER, Storm et al.

22:18 / 05.02.05

I also seem to remember a couple of good DC reprint comics, Shockwave or something, that had Morrison's Animal Man and his Hellblazer story along with Gaiman's Black Orchid.

Yeah, Shockwave, though I think it only lasted a few issues. And it was trying to serialise things 5 pages at a time. So it got to about page 15 of Black Orchid. Got them, too.

Haus of Mystery

23:13 / 05.02.05

Wasn't there also something called 'Zones' with Swamp Thing and that Catwoman mini-series...maybe Hellblazer reprinted? Think they were published by London editions, who also reprinted Batman and Superman stories. Actually they exposed me to my all time favourite Batman story, one featuring Calender Man with art by Walt Simonson. I think it was 'A Crime for all Seasons' or something - pure 70's Batman ace-ness. Again, available in my poxy village newsagents, but an extremely formative moment for young MacGyver.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

08:40 / 08.02.05

Yeah, 'DC Action' and 'Zones' £1.75 card covers, reprinting Teen Titans/Animal Man/Secret Origins and Swamp Thing/Wasteland/The Shadow respectively, lasted 6 and 4 bimonthly issues.

Both then folded into 48 page monthly 'Shockwaves' (I think, there was a name advertised that was changed for publication), with Animal Man/Catwoman/Hellblazer/Black Orchid. Only lasted 4 issues, but led me introduced a lot of people to McKean/Morrison, etc.

These accompanied the long-running 'Superman' (featuring Superman/Justice League/Green Lantern and 'Batman' titles, as well as 'Batman Presents:'. Another comic from the same publishers was 'Heroes' featuring the 'best' of pre-crisis stories, which lasted 8 weekly issues, serializing 2 issues each of LSH/Metal Men/Blue Devil/Etc

All this assuming my memory still works, of course.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

08:42 / 08.02.05

Should read '...Only lasted 4 issues, but introduced a lot of people to McKean/Morrison, etc...'. Obviously changed my mind mid-sentence.

09:44 / 08.02.05

I guess things like PlayStation, multichannel TV and the Internet really seriously eroded this booming market. Also comics appreciation by the general public yoyos from "ohh cool, comics!" to "sadgeekyleperville".

I wonder if even one title would survive launching into this market today, even if it was the best comic magazine ever.

I doubt it. Ah well.

Haus of Mystery

10:15 / 08.02.05

I think the Batman movie had a tremendous effect on comics in general, added to the general interest in comics around the end of the eighties/beginning of the nineties.

10:35 / 08.02.05

Interesting how the likes of Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Daredevil (and now Batman Beyond) now don't have the same effect on the public consciousness. Perhaps because the successful Hollywoodisation of superheroes is now the norm rather than the exception.

11:04 / 08.02.05

But the thing is that the publishing industry doesn't make money from content - it doesn't make it from cover price either - it makes it from advertising. This is why magazines such as Vice - an ostensibly free magazine can make money. It might be almost heretical t say this, but I'd like to see a smarter hungrier ad-sales team brought in to Marvel and DC to help grow the revenue stream on key titles that appeal to the all important key cool , tech savvy demographics.

But yes, given the cost of gaining market a presence I'm not surprized there are not many new launches... launching a magazine is a huge and costly enterprise.

14:26 / 08.02.05

the marvel and dc reprints the kiddies can get in the newsagent now piss over the ones we back in my day. including zones etc. above. kids who buy essential spidey-man every month in the cornershop in shittington, bucks have a better ditko collection than me and all my long tearful hours at the back-issue bins.

22:35 / 08.02.05

A vaguely interesting, tangentally related thought - I was recently listening to a round table discussion of the state of the British film industry involving critics directors producers and members of the British Film Council.

Two interesting things that came up was the general consensus that there had never been a golden age of British Cinema when British films were universally loved by domestic audiences above those originating from beyond these shores and that this was not necessarily a bad thing because good films have been and continue to be made in Britain. The other interesting thing was the general consensus that film is not considered an art form in Britain

I can see certain parallels to the British comics scene. Good comics have been and continue to be made in Britain. There are fewer comics made here than in the US, and some are not as good as others (but then this also holds equally true for US comics) but good comics are still being made here...

22:27 / 09.02.05

And from the looks of an old DarkHorse Insider I was looking at today Dark Horse repackaged the best deadline strips into a US version called 'Deadline USA'...

Haus of Mystery

10:27 / 10.02.05

I believe they also put in some american work, but I have no idea who fit the bill. Although I forgot to mention in the Deadline-love stakes, I always adored Dorkin's Milk & Cheese which was my first exposure to his particular brand of mysanthropy. Shame it didn't hold up in later yearsn - I think Dorkin's work appeals to teenagers, angst-ridden as it is, although i have a soft spot for my battered old copy of Pirate Corp$...

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