Magazines

I think it was a Saturday morning, after getting my pocket money, that I would be straight down to the newsagent to get the latest issue of my favourite comics. I can’t remember there being a time when this didn’t happen. Indeed, the habit has continued to the present day even if the content of the magazines has changed from being strip cartoons to the mostly written word. And they are delivered to my house. And I don’t get pocket money.

There were comics before the 50s and 60s but I would say that this period was the highpoint of their popularity. The Dandy and The Beano had actually started in 1937 together with other children’s comics but paper and ink shortages during the War put paid to most of the others. So they were my introduction to this world. Both were published by DC Thomson in Dundee who went on to become the major player in the industry. At the height of their popularity the Dandy and Beano had sales of two million copies a week.

Characters from these comics became, and have remained, part of the British landscape. Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Beryl the Peril, Desperate Dan and his cow pie (I believe there is a statue to Dan in Dundee). And, of course, The Bash Street Kids.

I have to relate this story:

Leo Baxendale was born near Preston, his first job was as an artist for the Lancashire Evening Post. After reading a Dennis the Menace strip, Baxendale submitted a portfolio to the Beano and in 1953 he created Minnie the Minx. DC Thomson then wanted him to create a new strip based on a crowd of children pouring out of school.

Baxendale remembered walking along Fishergate in Preston and by the time he had arrived at his bus stop he had it all worked out. Yes, The Bash Street Kids were born just round the corner from me.

the Bash Street Kids pouring out of school

Incidentally, when he was persuaded to move to Dundee he imagined a life behind a desk in the offices of D C Thomson. The reality was that the staff would move all the desks to one side and play keepie uppie whilst ideas for the strip were literally kicked around and the Chief Sub-Editor took notes.

I should mention that the other big seller at the time was The Eagle but I never did find that to my taste and I can’t even remember reading it other than once or twice.

I should also mention that there was a flourishing market for girl’s comics at the same time. Titles such as Bunty and Judy. I used to enjoy reading my sister’s copies if they had stories about ponies.

As time passed I moved on to titles that I believe had a more formative role in my later reading tastes. All published by DC Thomson. Those Saturday mornings waiting for the latest issues of the Victor and the Hotspur and rushing home to find out what adventures Wilson the Wonder Athlete, Bernard Briggs, Gorgeous Gus, Sergeant Matt Braddock and of course Alf Tupper, Tough of the Track.

Whatever his job and wherever it was located, Alf was the eternal underdog. Regarded as a guttersnipe by the posh blokes from the Amateur Athletic Association, he was at his best the day after a night on late shift, lifting heavy objects and getting little sleep. His journey to the track (often White City) almost invariably involved falling asleep on the train and missing his stop.

Sometimes this was caused by skullduggery of the worst kind by stuck-up rich boys from a university somewhere, but usually it was because he could not stop himself from rescuing people in distress or just generally being a selfless chap. Regardless of this, he always got there in the nick of time and, having just finished his fish and chips, went on to win the championships or even break the world record for the mile and utter his famous catchphrase ‘I ran 'em all!’

Alf Tupper, tough of the track

Which brings me to the following poem by Adrian Hogan:

Heroes

The splat of The Rover on lino
- Thursday’s breakfast serials.
Eccentric, rebellious, lone
fighters of lost causes. Alf Tupper,
my favourite. All week I’d wonder,
had he run, plimmyless, belly full
of chips, toes in tatters, been spiked
in sight of glory by Chinless Charles
double-barrelled born to win?
Or had Alf run in hobnailed boots
after a rivetting forty hours straight
thrashing metal into shape
saving the gasworks, welding
machines to life with the flame
of his oxy-acetylene torch?
My dad was an Alf lacking
the gift of Bannister legs
and lungs. But would Tupper
have coped with a wife, six kids
and every day the same cliff-hanger?

Smiths Knoll Issue 10. 1995

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Ahem, Sequential Art.

I LOVE comic books. Or sequential art, as it should be known. The term ‘comic’ evokes an expectation of humour, so I’m not keen on it. Many ‘comic books’ can have very grave narratives. I dabble in cartooning, I like to invent little characters and I have illustrated in this style for the Dead Good Poets Anthology. It’s a form I’m very fond of. Comics as a child started me off I suppose, the usual, Beano, Dandy etc. I would copy the characters. Then I discovered comic books, or graphic novels in some cases. One of my favourite author/illustrators is Raymond Briggs, and his book When the Wind Blows, I thoroughly enjoyed but didn’t quite understand as a child. I had previously read and loved Fungus the Bogeyman and just assumed that When the Wind Blows was for children. Well I suppose it can be read by children, I read it. But it’s an adult book with themes of Nuclear war. An old couple Hilda and Jim appear to be completely oblivious to the nuclear war, and although they follow the instructions given to them by the government it is a love story which is tragic. They are unaware that they are dying from radiation poisoning. It’s poignant, humorous in parts but tragic. It was a reflection of the fears people had in the cold war when it was published in the 80’s. I’m sure book shops never knew where to shelve it years ago, but in recent times the comic book market has boomed, partly because of online stores such as Amazon.

Maus is another book which is far from funny. It outlines the author/artist Art Spiegelman. He interviewed his father and created a book based on his father’s experiences in and after Auchwitz. It is a must read, how he handles the subject matter using the different animal characters is genius, even referring to his own use of ‘masks’ towards the end of the text. His choice of animals for different characters is also telling, the Jews are mice, and the Nazis are cats.

I adored and re-read Asterix when I find them at car boot sales. Asterix was a Gaulic warrior from the Roman era who resisted the Romans in an isolated village with the aid of their village’s home brewed magic potion. But I always preferred Obelix his massive friend who would casually carry menhirs (giant rocks) around nonchalantly and batter Romans. Plus anyone who could make eating a whole roasted wild boar look delicious in a comic book has to be a favourite.

I’m not a fan of Manga. I dislike the prescriptive nature of the illustrations. They seem to all have the same style and I’m not sure that reflects creativity much. Although there is a strict comic book style in the works of Stan Lee’s creations I understand why these are kept alike, to maintain the characters created. Manga just seems too prescriptive, and devalues it for me somehow. I’m not a fan of superhero comic books either though.

The costs of printing comic books in the past has always been prohibitive, and stopped many author/illustrators from sharing their work. But the internet has changed this. There are a huge amount of online comics, available, for free. Access to graphic novels has never been easier. But I do feel that they are considerably undervalued. The amount of talent it takes to not only write but illustrate these books is considerable. They offer another medium in which to enjoy a story, we have film, television and animation, the majority of which are taken seriously nowadays. Comic books still get a hard time though. Scott McCloud, comic book author and academic stated in his comic book text “Reinventing Comics”;

“Comics, like other minority forms, are vital to diversifying our perceptions of the world.”

I’ve had mine changed by several. They don’t have to be satirical or amusing to leave an impact. I could rattle on all day about comic books and the many that I love, but I will spare you and share this one with you. The marriage of image and words is perfect;

His Face all Red

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