It is not bragging. I've had one quote after another -not even directly sent to me but in books and magazines as well as on decent comics forums- stating that I have an "encyclopedic knowledge" of comics, comic characters not just from the UK but from around the world. Fair enough but that is because I READ and talk to creators and have been around a long time doing UK and even American comics (no, not Marvel or DC so to many it does not count).
I love art. So far never met anyone wanting to discuss Salvador Dali -just a lot of eye-rolling. I recall talking to a Marvel UK editor in the late 1980s and he was showing me art samples sent in and I pointed out a couple that showed the artist had seriously studied human anatomy: "This one has definitely studied Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy work" I said only to receive the response "Oh. Him. Vastly over rated he'd never get work past me". Yes, this was the editor I (allegedly) held out of the window and he would have deserved that (if, of course it were true 😇) because I had no idea whether he knew who Leonardo was or was just so dumb that he thought I was referring to a modern comic artist!
I love how, back in the day (pick any from the 1980s to early 1990s) people produced their own comics not imagining that they would be the next comic super star or their character the next movie super star, but for fun and enjoyment. The fun and creativity of using lino print to create zines -Myra Hancock being the star there. How we all tried different techniques to add to art or create the books -use auto spray on images printed onto acetate for covers. Photocopied onto card stock or even brown wrapping paper. How you could send out three letters to three different zine makers saying you were short of a few pages for the next issue and within a week have a pile of work to choose from.
There are no more Merv Grist's producing Bus Pass Army or Melons. No more Steve Lines Creepy Crawlies or Fantastic stories; No more Blast Bomb Testing Co or Third Kind producing Super Adventure Stories. No more Hardware. No more Cally Stapletons. Penguin Flight -gone. No more Rich Holden or Caged or Un-Caged.
Now it's all "slice of my life", just self importance/pitying while demanding that people buy badly drawn and badly written "O woe is me!" -I remind myself that the best published review of a zine (in Comics World) was for as very badly drawn comic. Why did I give it a glowing review? As I said in print; it wreaked of FUN. I cannot remember the title or the person's name but from page 1 on it was clear they wrote and drew it for fun. That is something I rarely see these days. Self importance and ego are the seeming norm.
till pe
e where the food is!!
I may well have what more than a couple of people have described as "an Alexandrian Library (look it up) of comics, zines and graphic novels and, yes, I remember what is in each and it may well be a big enough collection to keep someone reading for a decade but most people I knew in comics are gone. My grand always told me that "as you get older you'll lose more friends" but there are comics and comic albums, creators and companies I could talk and bore for the UK on but who to?
No more huddle creators in a corner at Westminster Comic Marts checking out the paper types we were using or what effect a certain pen or supposedly non art gadget gave. No more Bath, Bristol or Swindon comic marts for creator meet ups and chats. Now it is all semi anonymous and "slagging off" someone anonymously on a comic forum.
The Originals are gone or will soon be gone and all that will be left are the "We are the first generation to make our own comics".
It's 0930 and I've been up since 0450hrs so time for coffee and toast.
Comics SHOULD be FUN!
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