LINKS
Here are a few sites that we either created or recommend for your perusal (not that we don’t recommend our own, mind)…
From 1960s counter-culture revolution to the latest in graphic art techniques…
Comix: The Underground Revolution. A Quality hardcover of the Chrysalis paperback charting the rise and fall of a swinging Sixties US phenomenon, plus its little brother in the UK and their contemporary legacy.
Comic Art Now. Large format hardcover from HarperCollins/Ilex showcasing the best in 21st century comic and graphic novel art, complete with artists’ contact details as a form of Creative Handbook-style comic artists directory.
Chrissie Harper is a very talented writer/artist/designer. I first knew her work through a 1990s small press title, Jack Kirby Quarterly. When she had time to spare after our working together on Comics International, I convinced her to put together a slick new 21st century edition for its 15th anniversary. She didn’t disappoint.
Highly recommended to all lovers and historians of American comicbook art, with contributions and insight from top comics creators and specialist journalists including Kevin Eastman, Mark Evanier, Paul Gambaccini, Peter Laird, Bob McLeod, John Morrow, Dez Skinn, William Stout and Marv Wolfman, plus 18 pages of rare interviews with Jack and Roz Kirby!
You can order it from here.
Anybody wanting to catch up on our old titles can now do so courtesy of Quality’s mail order maven Charlotte and dear old eBay!
For Warrior: check here.
For House of Hammer: here.
From either link you’ll also be able to view more of the line, including Dez’s early editions of Starburst, key issues of Comics International, Toy Max, the hardcover of Comix: The Underground Revolution, some US reprints (including the landmark Miracleman #1) et al.
Dez’s long-suffering second-in-command during the 1970s, on MAD, House of Hammer, Starburst and Doctor Who Weekly reminisces in wonderful detail on his Alan McKenzie StoryWorks website.
For an incredibly detailed Warrior checklist and related Dez Skinn interview visit Richard Arndt‘s amazing website.
Monster Magazines runs a lovely House of Hammer cover gallery plus a similarly visual gallery of House of Hammer‘s forerunner, the short-on-words but big-on-visuals Monster Mag.
For the UK MAD, one site which “extends MAD Magazine’s presence on the World Wide Web” is David Robinson’s MAD Mumblings at:http://www.madmumblings.com
For a complete MAD cover gallery (including US editions, specials, books and all), visit http://www.collectmad.com/englishcoversite/
To see how many foreign language editions of MAD have existed over the years (24 and counting!) complete with cover galleries of them all, go to http://www.collectmad.com/
There are quite a few websites out there discussing the ups and downs of Marvel’s British branch. Here’s one particularly insightful and well-researched entry which is highly recommended:
http://www.wymann.info/DoctorMarvel/Marvel-UK-1.html
Lew (“Brickman”) Stringer is a humour comics artist and writer with a soft spot for UK (and sometimes US) comics history. His wonderful and highly visual website “BLIMEY! It’s another blog about COMICS!” can be found at: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/
Down the Tubes is a comprehensive website featuring the latest news about British comics and creators plus interviews with artists, writers and editors and checklists galore. It also offers an extensive comics links section for titles such as The Eagle, Action and other fondly-remembered old British weeklies.
Pete Nash’s Striker is a football strip which leaped from The Sun newspaper to its own sadly short-lived weekly comic. It has now resurfaced as a website where you can catch up with every classic adventure since its 1985 launch – from the earliest black and white drawings to the newest stunning creations in 3D software.
Comics copyright has been a fascinating area to observe over the decades, as rival publishers and even creators have fought against perceived plagiarism and for the courts to uphold their alleged rights. Lawyers – usually American – started to earn from the industry almost from its inception.
While subsequent battles of words have seen Superman bring down his rival Captain Marvel and the labyrinthine path of Marvelman has confused many, in 1939 the Man of Steel was in his first of many court battles. Revered creator Will “The Spirit” Eisner has often been reported as losing a great deal of money owed by not backing the publisher of Wonder Comics. But one insightful web journalist has uncovered the truth through a fascinating transcript of Eisner’s actual testimony. It makes for a riveting read at: http://thecomicsdetective.blogspot.com