Since I’ve been off enjoying the Edinburgh Festival I haven’t had time to keep up with the comics news, so I missed the BBC finally announcing the details and broadcast schedule for their Comics Britannia season, which I’ve been eagerly looking forward to since first hearing about it towards the end of last year, expectations fed in recent months by hints at some of the contributors in this mini-series celebrating British comics culture, with folks like David Lloyd, Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, Nick Park, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Alan Grant and Leo Baxendale taking part (among many others – how bloody great does this sound?!?!). Fortunately my friend and fellow comics geek Padraig did spot the press release from the Beeb, so thanks to him for the heads-up. We’ve got three 60 minute programmes on BBC4 to look forward to and that’s just the centrepiece of the Beeb’s comics season which will also include the Jonathan Ross special on Steve Ditko and more on the Adam West era Batman and Peter O’Donnell’s cracking Modesty Blaise – looks like we have a lot to look forward to! The Comics Britannia trio will air on BBC 4 on September 10th, 17th and 24th from 9pm to 10pm, with the details of each episode as follows:
The Fun Factory (Monday 10th September)
“From The Beano to Bunty, Commando to Viz, Eagle to 2000AD, British comics have captivated generations from the Thirties to the present day.
Now BBC Four delves into the world of the British comic, exploring the art and craft of the industry in a celebration of this British comics tradition.
The series features those who wrote and drew the original strips, comics experts and a range of fans whose lives have been shaped by reading “classic strips”.
Comics Britannia is a rich mix of interviews, strips and archive illuminated by a unique graphics style which allows viewers to step into the world of comics.
The Fun Factory explores the world of the children’s humour comic and the revolution which began with the first publication of The Dandy in 1937.
The series explains why colourful, cheap publications like The Dandy, and then The Beano, enchanted a generation living through the effects of the Depression, the Second World War and post-war austerity.
(a sample of Leo Baxendale’s classic Bash Street Kids from the Beano, borrowed from Peter Gray’s fine fansite)
Comics Britannia revisits the golden age of comics in the Fifties and early Sixties and looks at the work of great comic artists Dudley Watkins, Davey Law, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid, revealing how a new, subversive and anarchic humour emerged from the pages of The Beano and The Dandy.
Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, writer Jacqueline Wilson, Oscar-winning animator Nick Park and cartoonist Steve Bell discuss their passion for comics, with some surprising revelations.”
Boys and Girls (Monday September 17th)
“Following the Second World War boys and girls adventure comics emerged to capture the imaginations of the growing baby boomer generation.
Comics Britannia tells the extraordinary story of the bohemian vicar who founded the most ground-breaking comic to emerge in the immediate post- war era – The Eagle, complete with its very own super hero, Dan Dare.
The programme looks at attempts to create the equivalent for girls’ comics featuring ballet and boarding schools, such as School Friend, Girl and Bunty.
Meanwhile, the boys grew up with their comic book heroes achieving impossible feats of courage and endeavour on the fields of sport and battle, with the larger than life exploits of Captain Hurricane and Roy of the Rovers.
But comics would soon have to reinvent themselves and follow their readers as they grew older. Titles such as Mirabelle and Romeo were introduced to appeal to older girls who had once loved Bunty & Girl.
Into the Sixties and Seventies the industry responded to a changing Britain with a new generation of comics such as Jackie, Tammy and Battle aimed at meeting the new demands of teenage readers.
Fans of comics in this episode include comedian Frank Skinner, ex footballer and pundit Mark Lawrenson, cartoonists Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe, and writer Jacqueline Wilson, who all reveal their childhood favourites.”
X-Rated: Anarchy in the UK (Monday 24th September)
“COMICS BRITANNIA X –RATED reveals how during the Seventies and Eighties a generation grew up reading a new kind of comic. Directed at older, adult readers, these comics had strips with darker, more satirical and sexual material. There was a new sophistication in the writing and artwork which began to see comic books evolve into a new phenomenon – the graphic novel.
From the bedroom of brothers Chris and Simon Donald in Newcastle came the outrageous Viz which by the Eighties was selling a million copies nationwide and was responsible for inventing the Fat Slags, Roger Mellie, Johnny Fartpants and Sid the Sexist.
At the same time in the late Seventies, 2000 AD was published, sending Punks into Space and creating the iconic anti-hero Judge Dredd.
(frame from Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta)
Out of this comics ‘new wave’ emerged a major talent, writer Alan Moore. Working with leading artists, he created ground-breaking work such as V for Vendetta, Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The programme interviews Moore and the group of other writers and artists who spearheaded the adult-oriented revolution in British comics: Simon and Chris Donald, Dave Gibbons, Carlos Ezquerra, Kevin O’Neill, Alan Grant and David Lloyd.
Super comics fans Frank Skinner, Stewart Lee, Andrew Collins and Charles Shaar Murray are also on hand to offer their take.”
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