Lew Stringer notes that a number of British tabloid papers have put their archives online, including decades’ worth of newspaper comic strips such as Jane and Garth. After a browse Lew’s also spotted adverts for comics of yesteryear placed in the papers like the Daily Express and Daily Mail. But for my money the best bits are some strident and hysterical ‘ban devil comics’ articles in papers like the Mirror – its the mid 50s and they are going on about how those evil horror comics are corrupting the impressionable youth of Britain, but you could easily replace comics with Marilyn Manson, hip-hop or video games and see pretty much the same ridiculously pumped up article today. One particular article from 1954 reports on a local librarian fighting the attraction of horror comics by trying to offer kids ‘better’ books at a younger age (for some reason the library was off limits to under 11s, no wonder the poor souls had to turn to horror comics. Oh won’t someone, please, think of the children!!).
(horror comics hysteria based on very little real research or evidence from a 1954 Daily Mail. So, nothing like modern UK tabloids at all then… Pic borrowed from Lew’s blog).
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