{"id":1361,"date":"2025-04-21T21:54:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/?p=1361"},"modified":"2025-04-21T21:54:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T21:54:04","slug":"tales-from-storage-comics-upon-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/?p=1361","title":{"rendered":"Tales from storage: comics upon comics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel like I owe people an apology on behalf of my Turok column…! Firstly, for leaving it dormant for so long; COVID kind of threw the world for a loop, plus my own iffy health, other responsibilities, procrastination, any number of excuses. You know how it is.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I feel like it led people to believe I’m a comics person. I’m really not! I respect comics in so many ways, and I do hope that comes across in my write-ups, but the total number of comic series I’ve read can probably be counted on my fingers and my toes.<\/p>\n

It’s been so long I sincerely can’t recall what my local newsagents carried…! I collected Sonic the Comic<\/i> for its entire run from around issue #50 onwards, and I did read The Beano<\/i> for longer than was healthy; whatever I owned was donated to the children of parent friends years ago, and I’ve nothing to show for them in my collection. Aside from those, I’m drawing a blank! Obviously kiddies football magazines were on shelves, but I don’t believe newsagents dealt in traditional American comics, not unless they were published in a different format.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m sure it’s changed throughout the different ‘ages’, but UK comics are seemingly characterised by being more magazine-like — typically multiple, shorter stories instead of just one; more in-depth letters pages and correspondence with readers; and more often found in kids stuff, competitions or pack-in gifts.<\/p>\n

ONM Remembered addressed fare like pack-in guidebooks<\/a> or playing cards, but kids’ comics would often bung in some stickers, a packet of sweets, or cheap plastic crap. This has since escalated to the point where the children’s magazine rack is practically activity sets with a thin little magazine buried beneath the tat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I bring this up because a lot of stuff I owned was just American comics in a UK magazine package. The Simpsons Comic<\/i> retained its Bongo branding in the UK, despite being published by Titan, and upsized to magazine scale and paper stock. It would seemingly pluck stories from the various Simpsons<\/i> off-shoots — Radioactive Man, Bartman, Bart Simpson<\/i> — and give you a nice mixed bag of content, along with a robust letters page with queries and comments from UK readers.<\/p>\n

I’d argue efforts like this almost alleviate the material! The quality of paper stock means this holds up really well; you can tell by the covers these things were read and re-read constantly, they were well-loved, but are still no worse for wear. And as mundane as a letters section might seem, it’s a nice way of showing you’re not alone in your interests, and hearing other people’s points of view.<\/p>\n

It is admittedly proving that even before the internet, Simpsons fans were using whatever channels they could to argue over minutiae, but it was pleasing to know you’re not the only one tuning in to BBC2 at 6pm every weekday!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(the letter above has always stuck out to me — I don’t believe the show was ever as controversial in the UK as it was in the USA in its heyday, but that’s not to say there weren’t isolated incidents across British households. The term was “pisher”, for the record.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Repackaging imports seems to be the bread and butter of a lot of UK publishers, some better than others. I’ve no idea where, when or why I got Batman Adventures<\/i> issue #4, having zero familiarity with its Justice League<\/i> and Teen Titans<\/i> animated adaptations at the time… and seeing how both<\/b> stories in it are the concluding portion of two-part stories, it perhaps didn’t do its job in ensnaring a new reader. So it goes!<\/p>\n

(I do personally believe that jumping into comics at a random issue is part of the appeal, especially as a young’un — the allure of adventures and events alluded to you have not seen, and relying on guidebooks or word of mouth to fill in the gaps…! Obviously that effect is lost in this age of accessibility, and one’s patience for such things wanes when you’re older and already invested in too much media as it is. I’ve only room for one superhero team in my life, and a magazine with two of them is too much to handle!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fleetway were already getting my money courtesy of their Sonic comics, so it’s a surprise to look at their import publications and realise they look so… cheap<\/i>. Their Garfield<\/i> comic is exactly what you’d think it is, reprints of both the strip and full-page editions of Garfield, and yet the presentation is slightly diabolical.<\/p>\n

The same bog-standard font used throughout, random usage of clipart in an attempt to supply a theme to the next few pages… I will commend the jokes pages for trying to get kids to read, but I’m blown away at how slapdash it looks. Clearly younger me did not care a wit, and if you’re selling directly to kids who only read the funny pages in the newspaper, you probably shouldn’t expect an audience with class.<\/p>\n

(another curiosity is that alongside Jim Davis’ U.S. Acres<\/i>, it would also reprint material from… The Grizzwells<\/i> by Bill Schorr? I guess both it and Garfy-boy were under United Features at the time, but it’s an unusual pairing…!)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That said, I can’t be bad to Fleetway for their Disney and Tom & Jerry<\/i> comics, which compiled sterling material from various European publications, notably Oscar Martin’s work on Semic’s Tom & Jerry<\/i> strips. I assumed by the “GB9515” signature on some of the pages that new material was made for this comic by uncredited artists. The style is all over the place, but it really is a feature-packed mag and one I had a lot of fondness for.<\/p>\n

Comics I bought in Spain, mainly Donald Duck<\/i> and Looney Tunes<\/i> fare, were clearly printed for international markets, the latter seemingly cobbled together from various issues of the DC Comic publication; no one issue matches the listings on Comics.org 1:1. Mark Evanier talks on his blog<\/a> about writing English-language material that simply wouldn’t be published or broadcast in the United States, I figure there’s bigger markets for this stuff abroad than at home.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because I’ve nowhere else to put it, one of the few Beano<\/i> strips I can halfway remember was, of all things, a Thunderpants<\/i> tie-in. I am by no means an expert on the comic’s history (i’d nominate the likes of Ludicrously Niche<\/a> if you’ll accept a reference)<\/span>, but it seemed awfully out of the ordinary for a strip to be an explicit movie promotion like this, if very in-line with its sense of humour.<\/p>\n

I’ve never seen the film, and the window of opportunity to be entertained by a feature-length fart joke has long since passed, but I can’t blame them for choosing the right place to advertise. For the three Thunderpants<\/i> diehards who may or may not exist, there’s a whole two pages of additional material out there!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Seemingly the last comics I picked up while on family holidays were by Burghley Publishing: The All New Tom & Jerry<\/i>, and Looney Tunes Presents<\/i>. Both comics are notable for their bold-lined art styles, needlessly robust paper stock, and frequent use of puzzles or activity pages interspersed throughout the stories. I do admire a comic getting kids into basic crafting, even if I hate the thought of cutting out pages — at least leave the other side blank!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Tom & Jerry<\/i> one is distinctive for its double-sided format — flip it upside-down for a cover where the tables have turned, and a series of stories ostensibly more in that character’s favour. It does faithfully represent the cartoon in how the action is largely speechless (minus the alien who speaks nonsense Hiragana in one strip)<\/span>, but the excessive wordart-ass sound effects are more than a little distracting. Seeing how issue #14 of Looney Tunes Presents<\/i> is entirely reprints, I have to imagine these ventures didn’t last long.<\/p>\n

My dad was very much a collector of ‘traditional’ comics, visiting specialist shops in Belfast and beyond to get his fix — Dark Horizons and Talisman, to name a few identified by their decades-old price tags. My brother and I were mostly interested in the one in Smithfield, Belfast for stocking import toys, which is where we procured a half-dozen Final Fantasy VII<\/i> figures.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The parents’ garage used to be dedicated to his collection of books and comics, and we’ve been helping him downside over the past couple of decades. It is amusing seeing the recurring themes in the collections we’re still unearthing — first issues of various limited series that evidently didn’t whet his whistle; a whole lot of caveman and dinosaur malarkey…<\/p>\n

… and if it was remotely cheesecake-y, you could guarantee it being the most complete collection in the lot. Razor, Cavewoman, Tigra<\/i>…! Far be it from me to police someone on where they get their jollies, I just have to wonder if Razor truly had writing and storytelling gripping enough to sustain sixty freakin’ issues. Stay tuned for Razor Recapped in fifteen years when I have run out of better things to do in my spare time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don’t read as much as I like, and I do feel I just plain don’t appreciate comics as much as I did as a kid, reading and re-reading to absorb every panel in as much detail as I could. Still, I love the ephemera surrounding them; the way people are drawn to used books for the sense of ‘history’ embedded in them, I want to feel that way about comics, assuming each one has an interpersonal story to it a bit more complex than just “it sat in a longbox for years hoping its value would increase.”<\/p>\n

(you can probably also tell that regional quirks are a personal interest, between this and my glimpse at Turok across the pond. these Fleetway and Burghley publications are largely undocumented on Comics.org it seems, and will unfortunately remain that way — my copies have since been sold…!)<\/p>\n

It might also be telling that the comics I consumed were more bite-sized than your standard American comics — shorter stories that were more self-contained, less overtly impacted by long-running continuity or ongoing sagas. It’s perhaps why I’m more inclined to reading limited series or whatever, though it might just be another hobby where I love hearing people talk about<\/i> it moreso than experiencing it for myself.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if I’d have it in me to keep up with a Superman run (though if there’s one on the same wavelength as Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman<\/i>, I’d like to be told!)<\/span>, but I love hearing the insight from those passionate about it. I’m happy dabbling in oddballs like Double Dragon<\/i> or Trencher<\/i> once a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel like I owe people an apology on behalf of my Turok column…! Firstly, for leaving it dormant for so long; COVID kind of threw the world for a loop, plus my own iffy health, other responsibilities, procrastination, any number of excuses. You know how it is. Secondly, I feel like it led people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,98],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics","tag-tales-from-storage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}