Back in the late 1990s I had intended to set up an archive of British Platinum, Golden and Silver Ages comics. Some of you will know this was called the British Comic Books Archive -BCBA.
Many of today's British comic 'experts' were not doing British comic history back then. The two main historians were the late Denis Gifford and Alan Clarke -it is from the works of these two men that much has been, uh, 'borrowed' and declared as new work. I've even found this with my own work which is being used by others as their own.
The BCBA started falling apart when the internet kicked in. For some reason old comic fans no longer wanted to help. So I suggested scans of books rather than donated actual comics. I knew some members of my two main Yahoo groups -Britcomics and Britishcomicsarchives had (they bragged on other groups) scanned most of their collections to go onto disc. I asked for contributions. Nothing.
At least nothing from the UK, initially, most contributions came from US members like Denis Ray of Texas. From there it was a case of building up a collection myself so that I now have a good few Swan annuals and comics from various publishers. Another thing I learnt: never tell your group members if you find a Golden Age book for sale online. On three occasions it resulted in members putting in higher and private bids and getting the books which they bragged about. Never scanned or made available.
Britcomics was founded in 2004 and the Britcomicarchives group in 2007. There are hundreds of images over a couple pages (tip: you get to the bottom of, say, the Albums page, you will find a "next page notice its not all on just on one page).
With only scans to form an archive the Yahoo groups seemed the best places, though they are always imperiled by Yahoo's own "tell no one of changes made" policy.
The Golden Age books -the single volumes- and the Ultimate Golden Age Collection took a lot of work. Scanning and cleaning up heavily damaged, taped or even foxed pages. In some cases I do not just fiddle with contrast, brightness and resize but will zoom a page up by 800% to correct text and problems in panels.
These books are a work of love. They do not sell -I think the Ultimate Collection sold 2 copies in 5 years- and make me a load of money. That would be nice but the main point is to find rarities, the obscure and completely forgotten characters and comics. I was once made fun of on two well known UK comic groups (Yahoo! groups) for considering the books of Gerald Swan lost and important. Pfah! They were not old Beanos or Dandys so who cared? They were nothing. I kept those messages -which is good because some of those people a few years later denied ever having said any such thing.
In the United States comic book history is taken very seriously. In the UK it tends to be more "can I make money out of this or boost my ego?" We all know who those people are.
There is one thing I have learnt in over 30 years of doing this: collectors do not want others to see these comics. I refused to believe this myself for ten years but Denis Gifford explained it to me. Now, Denis would let no one get near his books -of course, he was a true comic lover and collector and never had access to scanning -and I doubt he would have risked ruining his comics by scanning!
So I plod along.
I get requests from families of creators -grandfathers and fathers- whose work they have no samples of. If I have examples of those strips I scan, or if they have no computer, will print off pages fort them. I don't charge. I do not help 'researchers' whether writers or students studying comics for a thesis or whatever. You are supposed to, according to strict academic guidelines, credit sources. After seeing my work used word-for-word in various papers and no credit to me I drew a line. £100 consultation fee for research. No one has bothered me since.
You learn things that go against what comic 'historians' state. In the case of Denis I was staggered when I found that the UK character, the Falcon, did not get his costume in the year everyone says (because they cribbed from Denis) but at least six years earlier.
And not one of the 'experts' ever mentions the biggest contribution Gerald Swan made to UK comics.
Here is something I found from a 1940 British comic -State Marshal V Killer!- this is a partially cleaned copy of the page. There was something very familiar about the art-style but I thought it would be a case of never know. Until I spotted the big give-away! It was not a big surprise because the artist involved did humour and some action strips but it was a find and previously uncredited to the artist.
The other reason for finding these gems is to not just reprint but, where possible, and without "rebooting", produce new strips featuring the characters. I've done a lot of that since 1984 but there is another creator who has, in my opinion, contributed far more quality strips featuring the likes of Slicksure, Iron Warrior, Acromaid and so on -Ben R. Dilworth. I think that without his contributions the whole idea might have sunk into nothing. He has made the biggest contribution to keeping these characters alive!
So, one day, when I am out of my current dire straights, the BCBA will need to be polished up somewhat and maybe one bigger online location found. So, no, the idea is far from dead.
Many of today's British comic 'experts' were not doing British comic history back then. The two main historians were the late Denis Gifford and Alan Clarke -it is from the works of these two men that much has been, uh, 'borrowed' and declared as new work. I've even found this with my own work which is being used by others as their own.
The BCBA started falling apart when the internet kicked in. For some reason old comic fans no longer wanted to help. So I suggested scans of books rather than donated actual comics. I knew some members of my two main Yahoo groups -Britcomics and Britishcomicsarchives had (they bragged on other groups) scanned most of their collections to go onto disc. I asked for contributions. Nothing.
At least nothing from the UK, initially, most contributions came from US members like Denis Ray of Texas. From there it was a case of building up a collection myself so that I now have a good few Swan annuals and comics from various publishers. Another thing I learnt: never tell your group members if you find a Golden Age book for sale online. On three occasions it resulted in members putting in higher and private bids and getting the books which they bragged about. Never scanned or made available.
Britcomics was founded in 2004 and the Britcomicarchives group in 2007. There are hundreds of images over a couple pages (tip: you get to the bottom of, say, the Albums page, you will find a "next page notice its not all on just on one page).
With only scans to form an archive the Yahoo groups seemed the best places, though they are always imperiled by Yahoo's own "tell no one of changes made" policy.
The Golden Age books -the single volumes- and the Ultimate Golden Age Collection took a lot of work. Scanning and cleaning up heavily damaged, taped or even foxed pages. In some cases I do not just fiddle with contrast, brightness and resize but will zoom a page up by 800% to correct text and problems in panels.
These books are a work of love. They do not sell -I think the Ultimate Collection sold 2 copies in 5 years- and make me a load of money. That would be nice but the main point is to find rarities, the obscure and completely forgotten characters and comics. I was once made fun of on two well known UK comic groups (Yahoo! groups) for considering the books of Gerald Swan lost and important. Pfah! They were not old Beanos or Dandys so who cared? They were nothing. I kept those messages -which is good because some of those people a few years later denied ever having said any such thing.
In the United States comic book history is taken very seriously. In the UK it tends to be more "can I make money out of this or boost my ego?" We all know who those people are.
There is one thing I have learnt in over 30 years of doing this: collectors do not want others to see these comics. I refused to believe this myself for ten years but Denis Gifford explained it to me. Now, Denis would let no one get near his books -of course, he was a true comic lover and collector and never had access to scanning -and I doubt he would have risked ruining his comics by scanning!
So I plod along.
I get requests from families of creators -grandfathers and fathers- whose work they have no samples of. If I have examples of those strips I scan, or if they have no computer, will print off pages fort them. I don't charge. I do not help 'researchers' whether writers or students studying comics for a thesis or whatever. You are supposed to, according to strict academic guidelines, credit sources. After seeing my work used word-for-word in various papers and no credit to me I drew a line. £100 consultation fee for research. No one has bothered me since.
You learn things that go against what comic 'historians' state. In the case of Denis I was staggered when I found that the UK character, the Falcon, did not get his costume in the year everyone says (because they cribbed from Denis) but at least six years earlier.
And not one of the 'experts' ever mentions the biggest contribution Gerald Swan made to UK comics.
Here is something I found from a 1940 British comic -State Marshal V Killer!- this is a partially cleaned copy of the page. There was something very familiar about the art-style but I thought it would be a case of never know. Until I spotted the big give-away! It was not a big surprise because the artist involved did humour and some action strips but it was a find and previously uncredited to the artist.
The other reason for finding these gems is to not just reprint but, where possible, and without "rebooting", produce new strips featuring the characters. I've done a lot of that since 1984 but there is another creator who has, in my opinion, contributed far more quality strips featuring the likes of Slicksure, Iron Warrior, Acromaid and so on -Ben R. Dilworth. I think that without his contributions the whole idea might have sunk into nothing. He has made the biggest contribution to keeping these characters alive!
So, one day, when I am out of my current dire straights, the BCBA will need to be polished up somewhat and maybe one bigger online location found. So, no, the idea is far from dead.
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