Wolfy & Jack

Well, both of the Hey 4 Eyes prints have sold, pretty quickly too, but the actual zine is available from the States - let me know and I'll pass on Robyn's email address to you rather than put it up here. As Christmas draws nearer I'll see if I can dig anything else out of the back of the plan chest.

in other news, yesterday was spent at Manchester Art Gallery with Steve, Mike and Dan attending the second day of my Create Comics weekend. following in the great tradition of Lumberjack and Mountie comics in Manchester -



- we created the following Connect the plots comic -

Merry-Go-Round, October 1949

A recent very cheap eBay find, in my quest to explore the history of comics in Manchester. Published by JB Allen ("1180a Chester Road, Stretford, Lancs, and printed by BIBBY & BARON LTD London & Bury"), with a mix of adventure, funnies and non-comic stories, including 'Dick and Doris' written by Bunter creator Frank Richards. around the same time, John Bevan Allen also published a couple of other Richards (non-comic) titles. Further (lazy internet) investigation reveals previous titles Comet (1946 to 59)- succesful, and eventually bought by Amalgamated Press, Fitness and Sun (becoming simply Sun), and a handful of very shortlived titles.
Seems there were only 4 issues of Merry-Go-Round ever produced before it was incorporated into the brand new exciting Eagle (published by Hulton), in order to boost their post-war paper quota.

Comet incidentally featured the debut of Thunderbolt Jaxon, apparently still superheroing somewhere, drawn by Mancunian Hugh McNeill (who drew Pansy Potter in the first issue of the Beano, then worked on LOADS of other comics including many tots titles like Playhour and Jack & Jill)

I could go on, but at the moment, I won't.

Range Riders Western

Hurrah for Scriveners - found this Pembertons of Manchester story paper for £1. Seems to be 1950, though that might be the date for the original and earlier US edition. I must find out who else (if anyone) was reprinting this kind of American stuff at the time. Did it have the same kind of escapist exotic appeal that manga has now? - a glimpse into an alien and exciting other world, far from the stifling dreariness of 1950's Britain. Saying that, the stories are rubbish.

I'm getting quite excited about this research stuff now, as new information is emerging and various artists and publishers are starting to be approached. Need to make sure I don't spend too much time and effort on it at the expense of cat drawing at the moment, though once a clearer picture of what we've got has taken shape, I'll be able to start thinking about approaching exhibition venues and costing the project up. Also I've got Mr Mike Noon on board as a fellow enthusiast, and he's cleverer than me so it will all turn out better.

Streamline no.4, Cardal Publishing, Manchester

This arrived in the post today - £5 off eBay - a new lead in my Manchester and Comics detective work -
The back cover gives me an address for Cardal, so next time I'm in town I'll try to make time to wander up there. Inside also mentions a printers I've not come across yet - The Assurance Agents Press, 132-4 Great Ancoats St - just around the corner from Ducie St. Could even be the same building, on the corner of both streets.
The comic itself is from 1947, a flimsy 20 pages, B&W throughout, and at first glance really looks like it was drawn over a weekend - I might grow to like it when I get a chance to actually read it.
Denis Gifford's Complete Catalogue of British Comics lists just the 4 issues of Streamline, and nothing else from Cardal. This contradicts the inside back cover advert which mentions 'the amazing adventures of Ken Pentard and "The Amphibastra" in the All-colour feature entitled "THE TEST OF THE AMPHIBASTRA" in our Reprint Issue of New Worlds Comic - 3d'.
Coincidentally, Denis Gifford's artwork also features in the comic - a single page of Inky the imp of the inkpot.

Manchester and Comics

This is what I do when I've got too much work on - start something else as well. And while this has no deadline (and certainly no financial reward), it already has me hooked like an excited detective.
It seems unbeknown to me at least, Manchester was a significant 'player' in British comics of the 20th Century, in terms of artists and publishers. Having spotted a couple of passing mentions in a number of books (Alan Clark's The Children's Annual and Wright and Ashford's Masters of Fun and Thrills being the key initial references), I was keen to learn more.

The artists I've got on my list so far, very briefly and carelessly summed up-
Hugh McNeill (1910-1979) - drew funnies and adventure strips for many titles incuding Beano and Knockout (Dick Turpin being one of the best known serials), and spent years on nursery strips for Playhour and other tots comics. Born in Moss Side.
Harry Hargreaves (1922-2004) - Assisted McNeill on Pansy Potter for a while. Key member of Gaumont Animation, and best known for Harold the Hare.
Ken Reid (1919-1987) - of Pendlebury. Started young with Fudge the Elf (exclusive to Manchester Evening News), before working for DC Thomson on Jonah, Roger the Dodger and Grandpa, then Frankie Stein and Faceache for Odhams.
Denis McLoughlin -(1918-2002) - I'm stretching my Manchester border as far as Bolton so as to include this amazing hardboiled pulp thriller cover artist (over 700 covers, mainly for Boardman Books), which looked more American than the original American artwork. Well known for his Buffalo Bill Annuals, as well as his Flash Gordon 'tribute' Swift Morgan.

As for publishers-
JB Allen of Sale (Fitness and Sun, Sun and Comet)
Hotspur Press / Percy Brothers, still a printers - various one-off flimsy titles in the 40's and 50's
Cardal, who put out a comic called Streamline 1947 to 53 - not much known about them it seems.
Pembertons (pictured above) - realised that it was easier to import US comic printing plates than pallets full of titles. Put out loads of reprints. Not found out if they originated anything.
World International, London Editions and a couple of others who put out TV annuals, Disney and suchlike up until relatively recent.

A lot of these seem to overlap in various ways, for example many artists worked for a Kayebon Studios art agency in Manchester. I've not even touched on Savoy, who as well as running a small chain of shops also put out the banned Lord Horror and reprinted Reid's Fudge the Elf collections. And of course DC Thomson have been printing here since the 30's (not that we have any creative claim over that).

Anyway, at the moment I'm not sure where this research is going, as I don't really know what I want to actually find out about all this activity - maybe an exhibition, an article or a small local history-type publication. I'm really enjoying the research, but anything presentable is a long way off.