UK posters explain British comics to US posters and vice versa

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I don't know if this will turn out to be one of those intermittently useful threads or not, and I especially don't know if there's a significant amount of American comics that don't make it to the UK the way there is the other way around.

I realized today that most of what I know about 2000 AD I picked up not from the Stallone Dredd movie -- which I haven't seen -- but from a Judge Dredd board game that was one of my favorite games when I was a pre(I think)teen. My brother thought Judge Death was pretty badass.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

All I know about UK comics is from Judge Dredd covers.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, there's that thing with the British comics characters that DC just got the rights to and Alan Moore is overseeing the revival/(revamp?) of, so UK posters could tell us about that stuff, too.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

(And I just realized I have left Canada out entirely, whoops.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Captain Canuck is hardly worth mentioning.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys put too many of your resources into exporting your comedians instead of your comics, that's the problem.

(I think Infinite Kung Fu is Canadian, but I might be remembering wrong.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

There are lots of Canadian creators though, McFarlane/Byrne/Joe Shuster (nominally)/Ty Templeton (from top of mind)

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

(we've got the creative resources, but not the financial will, same as almost all other arts/creative fields)

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

How could I forget my hometown hero, Tom Grummett! I met him early on, and got to see advance photocopies of art from Batman Y3.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, TG had EVERY Superpowers figure, even Plastic Man. I think I was most impressed by that.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, carry on.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

You can have Byrne and McFarlane back! They can bring Alpha Flight to Image and make Spawn a member. (Tom Grummett's cool, though. And I forget what Ty Templeton's done.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember a couple of the characters Moore is to revive very fondly. The Steel Claw mostly for some gorgeous art, but the Spider for the stories - he started as an evil master villain, but gradually became ambiguous, something like Namor a while back, say, and would end up fighting on different sides at different times. There is potential in these.

Greatest British strand that you know NOTHING about: we had a bunch of really great humour comic cartoonists in the '50s and '60s particularly - Dudley Watkins, Davey Law, Ken Reid and especially the great Leo Baxendale, creator of the Bash Street Kids, an unruly bunch of schoolboys, and one of the great British comic achievements. I wouldn't rank him so far behind the likes of Barks, Kurtzman and Crumb, say. Ken Reid was nearly as good a cartoonist, but a less great creator of strips. Davey Law created a Dennis The Menace, which first appeared within days of the US one, but is a much more vicious and nasty character, who has become much cuter over the decades since.

I know a fair bit, but I need specific questions really.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 3 September 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I read the book by Leo Baxendale which talked about the Bash Street Kids once, it was great - I never read any more of his Marxist autobiographical stuff so I don't know how much there was.

The converse Unknown British Comics would be the DC Thomson OOR WULLIE and THE BROONS strips, made for Scottish consumption only: numbingly boring and stiffly drawn tales of family hilarity which have been running week in week out since the Neolithic era.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 4 September 2004 08:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd say for British superhero characters, US readers could do far worse than pick up Paul Grist's 'Jack Staff: Everything Used To Be In Black & White' TPB, and the 5 Image colour issues. Analogues of pretty much all the great British titles. There are a handful in Top 10 as well (Toybox springs immediately to mind, General Jumbo, unless I'm mistaken) and in M4rv3lm4n.

Humour comics - could go on for hours.

Like Martin, I know a fair bit (I think) but you ask about particular things. Otherwise it'll just be me, Martin and Tom banging on about the Leopard From Lime Street or Alf Tupper.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Saturday, 4 September 2004 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

(threadjack)

Martin,

Did you hear about Kev F? Mail me if this is too cryptic and you're interested.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Saturday, 4 September 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not heard anything of him in ages, no - we used to be pals, and he did regular work for my magazine. Nothing bad, I hope?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 4 September 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Erm... yes. This probably isn't the ideal place for dialogue on it. Best mail me offline.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Saturday, 4 September 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

What was the name of the Baxendale book?

― Vic Fluro, Saturday, 4 September 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://www.reaper.co.uk/images/chimera.gif

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 September 2004 17:12 (twenty years ago)

ha, that is much of what US comic fans need to know - that's a Leo Baxendale drawing.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 26 September 2004 20:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.snubdom.com/faceache.gif

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 26 September 2004 21:27 (twenty years ago)

http://www.reaper.co.uk/images/comix.gif

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 26 September 2004 21:29 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cummings.demon.co.uk/oorwull.gif

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 26 September 2004 21:30 (twenty years ago)

The Holy Trinity of British humour comics:

In order, Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale, Dudley D Watkins.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Sunday, 26 September 2004 21:31 (twenty years ago)

we shd say who they are also =
i. no idea (my baxendale pic) tho the jpg is called chimera
ii. face ache (?) (i think, tho all of reid's characters cd be called face ache!)
iii. some monocular aliens (aldo's baxendale pic)
iv. oor wullie sat on his upturned bucket!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 September 2004 09:38 (twenty years ago)

small mark s sexuality explained (pt one million):

beryl the peril
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/law_david/law_berylperil.jpg

and minnie the minx
http://www.rampantscotland.com/graphics/minnie1540a.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 September 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago)

pansy potter the strong man's daughter
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/mcneill_h/mcneill_pansypotter.jpg

(this is the one my mum liked best!!)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 September 2004 09:45 (twenty years ago)

I'd probably have Davy Law rather than Dudley Watkins in my great trinity, personally.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 27 September 2004 12:09 (twenty years ago)

I'll blame my Church Of Scotland upbringing for that one.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Monday, 27 September 2004 12:14 (twenty years ago)

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