FAQ
Please read this page before contributing! (Also, this site was once going to be HTML pages entirely created by me, and some of these questions have been copied from there, hence why they sound a bit strange for a user-created site).
What comics does this site cover, in a broad sense?
Ones that were produced primarily for sale in Britain, by British publishers (or the British arm of international publishers). So whilst Warrior counts, the DC V for Vendetta series does not. Whilst British editions of US Spider-Man comics don’t count, Marvel Heroes does. Commando counts, despite most of the artists hailing from South America. Watchmen doesn't, as it was made for DC.
As well as comics, Penny Dreadfuls, Story Papers and selected Children’s Books (such as the Nelson Reward series) can be covered. The larger small-press and self-published titles like Solar Wind and Spaceship Away! may also be covered.
For simplicity, in this FAQ and on the general pages of the website, I will be referring to penny dreadfuls and story papers as “comics” too. They are, however, different things entirely (though towards the end of the story paper era there was some crossover. Early “comics” often had text stories too, even the Beano did!)
I have some useful information on [title], do you want it?
Certainly, nobody has a complete collection of British comics and story-papers*, so all useful (remember that word!) information will be put to good use. That’s info on writers, artists, editors, story content/reviews (that’s the important one! Not just lists of dry facts here) or other interesting bits and pieces.
* - Not even the British Library! Many “one off” comics got published during the war, for instance, and were never registered or deposited for copyright.
I have some corrections…
Write those in too! Anything than can be done to clarify or improve the site will be useful. Please make sure your corrections are actually correct before adding them, mind. Somebody who wrote them in may have been using an inaccurate source or simply working from memory, if you have an accurate source or first-hand memories (for instance, you worked on a certian comic!) then use those.
I have an issue of a comic and want to write in information about it, but i don't know who the editor was, or other such nerdy information
Send in what you have anyway! leave information you don't know out, or in tables put XXXX in it's place. This signifies that the information needs to be found and added by people who are in the know.
A page is full of swearing/gibberish/socio-genderpolitical commentary/links to cheap viagra etc
It's just a spam-bot or some joker trying to be clever. Simply edit the page and remove the rubbish. If people repeatedly mess around with articles then alert the admin (me!) and they will get banned.
Why are some pages un-editable?
Those are locked pages for the access of the site owner only. Mainly the FAQ page, style guide, front page, sidebar etc. If you have improvements / additions to make to those pages, create a new page with some random name and make your improvements in there. Then post a message in the forum giving a link to the new page and, if accepted, the code will be moved over to the relevant place. (For modifications to existing pages, the source can still be viewed and copied from un-editable pages).
Editing an un-editable page is a bit of an involved process (it's not just “available” to admins, i have to alter the permissions in my hosts file manager), so don't demand minor little corrections as they won't get done. Suggest them, though, and they will all get done at once, at some point.
No, i won't remove the flippant / nasty sections from the FAQ / guide. You must be new to the internet, or else you haven't encountered some of the proper idiots on it (just view the comments on pretty much any youtube video!). They really do need every little thing spelled out to them in nasty, insulting language.
I notice you are including pages about every single issue of some comics. What about Newspaper strips? do you want reviews of every single issue of the Daily Mirror?
No, for Newspaper “gag a day” strips, a simple overview of the strip will suffice (for instance only one page about Andy Capp. For newspaper adventure/sport strips with various stories in serial form, a page per story will do. No need to describe each strip seperatley, just give a general overview (for instance ”Modesty Blaise is caught up in a revolution and overthrows the new dictator etc etc”
Marvel's Spider-Man does count as a British comic! i bought it in Woolies when i was young!
Wrong. You bought surplus packing material that was used in ships and then sold for a few extra coppers. The publisher, comics etc were still American.
Marvel's Spider-Man does count as a British comic! i bought copies of it in the newsagent when i was young! and they did have prices in pennies and not cents, and had a British address to write to on the letters page!
The comics were still not produced primarly for sale in Britain though were they? There are plenty of sites about superheroes and US comics, if you want to read about them, go there!
What about the Marvel strips in the Odhams Power Comics then?
Yes, those are British Comics and so do count. BUT remember that any story information which is altered in the Power comics (altered character names, truncated stories, changed locations, different order of contiunity etc) is what must be written about in reviews of them. Don't try and “correct” reviews of stories to the way they appeared in the original Marvels.
I remember Eagle, didn’t it have Charlie’s War and Morgan The Mighty in it?
Wrong. This is not a place for half-remembered reminiscences.
I found some comics in the loft, and, after dancing around the house shouting “I’m rich!” wondered just how many millions they are worth
Wrong. This is a site for the appreciation of the art and the stories, and not for capitalism.
That said, British comics are largely unloved, and story-papers even more so. So you are, in fact, not rich at all. Unless you have first issues of some of the most sought-after comics (Gem, Magnet, Beano, Dandy, Eagle), large collections of a comic in amazing condition, or some rare issues from during the world wars, you’ll be struggling to get more than £2 an issue. Those tatty 70’s Victors and Hotspurs you have just found, for instance, are worth virtually nothing.
Price-fetching-wise, things on Ebay tend to be cheaper* than those in charity shops, which tend to be cheaper than those in specialist comic/book shops. For some strange reason issues bound in books fetch less than loose issues in general, despite the book-bound issues being far better preserved and easier to store and read. But then the people who ‘set the prices’ have probably never even looked at the stories.
One last point, don’t just bin them! There’s bound to be come collector out there who wants them. If you really don’t want any hassle and just want to be rid of them, give them to a charity shop. It won’t take a minute and might even go towards helping a good cause. Alternatively if the comics you want to be rid of are any of these titles email me and we’ll talk (sensible!) business.
*-Unless it’s from one of the stupid sellers who remain convinced their stuff is worth loads of money. Like the idiot still attempting to sell a 60’s Sexton Blake paperback for almost £30. When he first put it up he had priced it at £60! 60p would be nearer the mark.
Are you going to put up any information about how Boys’ Own stories served to maintain the jingoistic capitalo-sexist hegemegemegemegemony?
Wrong. This is a site for appreciation of such stories, not ridicule or hatred of them. Additionally:
1 – Grow up.
2 – The revolution is never going to happen. Sorry, it just isn’t.
3 – Everybody is laughing at you.
4 – If a large-scale system in which we were all equal and at one with nature worked, it would already exist.
Howdy, I didn’t know you had comicbooks in your lil’ ole country, jest goes to show how American culture catches on huh?
Wrong. Comics are not some “uniquely American” invention. America just happens to be the only country in the English-speaking world* in which comics are taken with any degree of seriousness. In fact, depending on your exact definition of comics, they arguably pre-date the human race itself. Well as long as you believe in evolution anyway, there’s always the chance that wrong people might visit this site now and again.
*-Several European countries take comics very seriously too. And Manga is huge in Japan, of course. Unfortunately in Britain comics, and their forerunners, have always been seen as a sort of worthless cultural ghetto with no real meaning.
I heard that Desperate Dan no longer eats cow pies in case it offends Muslims…
Quite apart from the fact that Muslims eat beef, you heard column-filling fiction written by a lazy journalist working for a paper that is barely a step up from a comic, reality-wise. In fact at the time this particular story first emerged the Desperate Dan stories appearing in the Dandy were 1940’s reprints, in one of which he rams an entire calf between two giant slices of bread for a snack.
I’m the new owner of the copyright of Dan Dare and I object to your use of low-resolution images of him for the purposes of criticism or review
It’s legal, and you are ill-bred, cowardly, bullying scum with nothing better to do. Go away.
I’m the legal representative of the new owner of the copyright of Dan Dare and he objects to your use of low-resolution images of him for the purposes of criticism or review
Get a real job you ambulance-chasing, sub-human filth. It’s your fault this country is the way it is.
Have you heard of Albion / Virgin’s Dan Dare / Garth Ennis’ Battler Britton / The 2000AD Action Special of 1992 / The new Sexton Blake radio series?
Yes, and such cynical, insulting “dark and twisted take on old favourites” re-make trash has no place here and is being wilfully ignored.
Aren’t they all racist and homoerotic?
OH WOW NOBODY MADE ALL OF THOSE JOKES OVER 20 YEARS AGO! YOU ARE REALLY FUNNY!
