Sunday 8 January 2012

Strip Magazine

 Johnny Red, D-Day Dawson, Joe Two-Beans, Wolfie Smith, Mind Wars, Darkie's Mob, Morgan The Mighty...
  If the above names mean anything to you then you probably grew up reading the British Comics of the 1970s and early 80s. According to legend, an exec from one of the US comics companies came over to visit and was astonished to find that some British titles sold more issues in a week than DC sold per month. But then, for reasons I've never quite understood and would almost certainly depress me, the UK comics industry collapsed in on itself leaving only 2000ad and The Beano standing.
 And I feel that that's a shame.
 The stiff-upper lip cliche spoofed by Viz was already fading away as British writers and artists took things in a grittier, darker direction. So gritty and dark in fact, that "Action" was memorably banned after too many adults got to see what was actually inside it.
 Still, things are looking up. Publishers have finally twigged that their might be a market for quality reprints and you can now get "Johnny Red" "Darkie's Mob" and enough Commando reprints to crack a teak shelf   from Amazon. You can even find more obscure strips online.
 But nostalgia will only get you so far. Step forward the latest attempt to create a UK comics anthology that doesn't have Judge Dredd in it.

I will admit to never having heard of this until I found it in Mega City Comics. I also didn't realise until 20 minutes ago that they are now on issue 3.
 Bravely, the only reprint is a colourised version of the infamous "Hook-Jaw" - one of the major reasons "Action" attracted so much flak and would probably be considered gruesome even by today's standards.
 Out of the new strips, "Age of Heroes" is the most immediately interesting as it's a rather elegantly drawn fantasy piece that would not look out of place in "Heavy Metal". A blind wanderer arrives in a new town and earns himself a meal by telling a tale of  a wandering magician. "Age of Heroes" doesn't immediately go for thud and blunder but takes a few pages to ease into the story and promises something more active next issue. I think if I were to buy this mag again, it would be to see how this story progresses.
Skipping past one-page funnies "Cosmic Patrol" and Autospy & "Ape" the first actual strip you come to is actioner "Black Ops Extreme" which is nothing special, frankly.
"On Her Majesty's Hush Hush Service" is a quirky Steampunk romp featuring adventuress Charlotte Corday. Interesting but it's a prequel to graphic novel "The Iron Moon"so I'd be curious to see if Charlotte makes any further appearances.
Given the prominent place "Recovery Incorporated" heroine Mia holds on the cover there are obvious hopes that it will be a flagship title. The tale of a young catburglar who apparently specialises in retrieving items for their rightful owner is suitably entertaining  although the artwork doesn't really do anything for me.
"Warpaint" has an interesting setup - a homeless, teenage girl encounters a bizarre ghost-coyote who is apaprently out to recruit her for something or other. The artwork would fit in to the more recent years of 2000ad  and does the job well enough.
And lastly we have Agent Syber:Ex-Agent. The only strip in black and white so could easily have been a reprint from "Starlord" although in actual fact the SF serial is the winner of a competition. Promising.
As well as the comics, there's essays on the notorious "Action", features on upcoming graphic novels and a visually striking poster for something called "Mirabilis" that looks worth reading.
 Somebody has put time, effort and treasure into Strip Magazine and although there's room for improvement there's also potential for bigger and better things.
 I wish them well.

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