The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

As Crikey! heads for double figures (this June) I thought it worthwhile taking a retrospective look at how the The Great British Comics Magazine has moved on over the (almost) two years of publication. It seems so long ago now that myself, Brian Clarke and Tom Sweetman sat down and discussed what we wanted to achieve and how we were going to achieve it. We set off merely to get this magazine off the ground and see what happened. Our hopes were high, but we knew we could do it. But would anybody else like it? Would anybody want to buy it?

We needn’t have worried. You all know what happened next. As Crikey! moved to greater heights with each issue, more and more people came along to write for us thus lifting the pressure somewhat off the editorial team. Those people helped us spend more time doing what we do best – create a nice looking, well-written, fun and affordable magazine about all those comics from our collective pasts. The full colour issue was published at the end of last year to some acclaim. I found myself producing the whole thing. Not a problem with the likes of Tony Ingram on board, with his vision, superb articles and trusty collection and scanner. Although issue 8 looked great in colour, I had to revert to the previous format of 52 pages with 48 in black and white. No problem – most of British comics had appeared in black and white anyway, so the appearance didn’t suffer too much.

(the cover to issue 9 of Crikey! with art by Enrique Romero, out this March)

I’ve always wanted to speak to artists and writers throughout my comics reading ‘life’. I always thought Crikey! would benefit with interviews with the greats (should we be able to get them to speak with us!) and that has become part of my mission for Crikey! – more interviews with the people who brought/bring us our beautiful stories and artwork. Issue 9 showed us Romero of Modesty Blaise fame (see the previous Crikey post – Joe) and also featured none other than David ‘V for Vendetta’ Lloyd. More interviews are lined up for future issues – but I won’t tell you who they are! Keep reading comics. Keep reading Crikey!. This is only the beginning…