The Forbidden Planet International Blog

Dear readers, did you know that the fine summer month of July (we can tell it is summer in Scotland – the rain is warmer) is officially British Comics Month? No, you hadn’t heard? Ah well, that may be because we just decided it the other day! Wouldn’t it be good to celebrate British comics? And use it a springboard to try and represent more on our webstore and blog, especially the Indy titles? Much as we love our big titles (and we really do) we’ve always tried to make sure interesting independent press titles are there for our readers, from writer-artist-publishers like Abby Denson to respected Indy publishing houses like Fantagraphics. Of course it makes good business sense for us to try and offer as diverse a range as we can, but truth be told it is also because we love them; I can’t resist Fanta’s Ignatz range and more than one FPI staffer was dancing round their keyboard with joy at the announcement of new titles from Gilbert Hernandez.

Now obviously we do have British comics goodness on the webstore. Rebellion gave a fine home to 2000AD and the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic found itself in the hands of folks who loved it, never a bad thing. Rebellion has been publishing their own graphic novels of 2000AD material which we love (check out the Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 5 review on the second FPI podcast) and are now moving into prose novels – result. Publisher-writer-artist Gary Spencer Millidge’s Strangehaven has not only had a home on our webstore, Gary has shared his experiences as a solo British publisher for the FPI catalogue (Strangehaven is now published in several languages, another great success). And at the other end of the publishing scale the list of British talent involved in the major comics publishers DC and Marvel is huge, with more than a few of those writers and artists being alumni of 2000AD.

So what exactly are we going to be doing for British Comics Month in July? Well, we beg a little indulgence because we’re still throwing ideas around here! But basically we want to celebrate British comics on the blog throughout the month. We’re hoping to bring you some pieces by people involved in the British comics industry and some articles discussing Brit comics current and past, from Korky the Cat to Judge Dredd (now there would be a team-up for the books! Forget Judge Dredd and Batman, JD and Korky! JD and Desperate Dan! JD sends the Bash Street Kids to the juve cubes!). And with the collected Albion coming this autumn from Alan Moore, Leah Moore and John Reppion and reprints of classic material like the Steel Claw and Dan Dare it seems a good time to celebrate our home-grown talent.

Then as we’re discussing it what do we find is coming out but a book called Great British Comics by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury, who brought us the excellent reference books on Graphic Novels to change your life and a history of Manga. That’s got to be a sign from the old comics god of Albion, right? Can’t ignore that.

We’re also making an effort to talk to independent British comics creators to see if we can work with them, list their titles on our webstore, help them promote their work. If you went into many comics stores – including Forbidden Planet International you could be forgiven for thinking the British comics scene is a pretty narrow affair. There is a world we hope to open up to you consisting of small marts and conventions, people making and swapping comics, those producing webcomics – some searching for stardom some just scratching an itch. For many of these creators money isn’t the main reason for their work and so they often fall below the commercial radar of books and comics sellers. We hope to develop strong ties with this world and give you an insight into some unique comics visions – and you might just spot a new star in the making. As we start to add more titles to the site of course we’ll tell you about it right here on the blog it will be as much an adventure for us as yourselves.

So here’s to Dennis the Menace (our spiky-haired version, not Hank Ketcham’s). Here’s to Biffo the Bear. Here’s to Lord Peter Flint, codename Warlord. Here’s to Dave Gibbons in tights and cape as Big E in Starlord (we remember that, Dave!). Here’s to Dan Dare and Digby. Here’s to the bizarre world of Strangehaven. Here’s to the brilliant cartoons of Hunt Emerson (oh the things a young lad could learn from Firkin the Cat that he maybe shouldn’t have!). Here’s to Commando Books, the VCs and Bad Company. Here’s to Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws and Mek-Quake’s ‘big jobs’. Here’s to John Wagner, Alan Grant, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and more. Here’s to the first comics I read as a very young boy which got me and you hooked for life (seriously guys, share some of those memories with us, we’d love to hear them). Here’s to British Comics Month.