The fine chap Lew Stringer has started a new occasional post on his blog over the weekend, This Week in… sees Lew casting his eye over some strips from a classic comic relating to the week ahead. He kicks off with a look at the Illustrated Chips from March 1947, noting that the issue has two numbers (2805 and 2806), a side effect of the paper rationing which still afflicted the shattered post-war British economy. As well as the difference in some strips (for instance, smoking being allowed, unthinkable today) Lew adds that there were a couple of adverts, including one which extolled to the youth of Britain just how nutritious a Mars bar was! As Lew observes, modern advertising rules on selling to children would make that kind of thing less likely. Lew is always great on comics, especially classic British comics, so I reckon this will be a fun series to watch out for

(Pic borrowed from Lew Stringer’s excellent Blimey! blog)

The news came in in the last few weeks of the rather depressing state of the circulation figures for newsstand comics. The real shocker being the plummet of The Dandy, with reported sales dropping from 15,000 a week to nearer 7,500 in just a year. The Beano and Toxic seem to be holing up better, with sales of 40,00o on Toxic looking very good.

I’m no expert at all on these things. But thankfully I can point you to a couple of people who are. Lew Stringer writes excellently (as always) on first the circulation figures, and then, more recently, with a brilliant and informative piece on the history of British childrens comics and some of the possible reasons for their decline.

He’s spot on with so many of his thoughts, with the second piece being especially informed. I’m definitely in agreement with his thoughts that children simply have more entertainment choices today. In the recent school holidays, I tried to explain to Molly what my school holidays were like years ago, and she couldn’t get over how empty and boring they seemed. And she couldn’t understand the fact they weren’t, but the smaller number of outlets for fun did seem to mean something as wonderfully escapist as a comic was a special event, something to look forward to, something to pore over and devour, to pass round, to swap, to read and reread. Or as Lew says:

“….. comics were pretty much the only provider of their escapism. Today, kids have a multitude of distractions; TV, DVD’s, games, mobile phones, the Internet, sports centres, and, very often, solvent parents who can afford to take them on trips at weekends. Flat pictures on paper must seem very primitive in comparison. The more distractions kids have had, the more sales of comics have fallen. Coincidence?”

Whilst over at Down The Tubes, John Freeman writes equally well on the same subject, and comes to similar conclusions:

“For me, the problems lie not in content per se -  you would expect some people to like one comic and not another – but one of trying to reach an audience already swamped with a much higher brand awareness for other things that will attract their purchasing power. Our main problem, I feel, is that many people simply aren’t aware of the range of comics out there on the news stand, because publishers cannot afford to promote them in the same way as can, for example, Microsoft when it comes to the XBox or Nike when it comes to shoes.”

Difficult times for certain, but things still aren’t so dismal – get out there and support the comics you love. Buy a Dandy or Beano or Toxic (or the Strip Magazine in October, or Phoenix Comic in January), and try giving it to children to see what they think. Give the gift of comics – you’d be amazed that the kids do really love them!

(Comic Fan Special 1968 promoting the first ever UK Comic Convention organised by Phil Clarke (later to set up Nostalgia & Comics) and Steve Moore.)

Dez Skinn is one of the most colourful and interesting players in the history of UK comics. A huge body of work, whether it’s as a comics editor at Marvel, IPC, Quality or many others – but on his website he’s recently started covering the very earliest parts of his long and ridiculously interesting career.

Dez Skinn’s website is exhaustive, but a little lacking on the navigation front, so you’ll be wanting these links: First Efforts in fanzines, Fanzines pt 1, Fanzines pt 2 (and early version of Warrior), Fantasy Adventiser comic zine, early days of UK Comic Conventions.

It includes an awful lot of background and quite a bit of vintage art from the liks of Kev O’Neill, Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons – well worth a read.

(via Lew Stringer)

(World Cup Willy in a 1966 issue of TV Comic , art by Bill Mevin as featured on Lew Stringer’s blog)

Meanwhile, Lew Stringer has been covering the football in his own wonderful way. He’s already covered the Roy Of The Rovers world cup special and the comic coverage of the 1966 World Cup already. Hopefully, fingers crossed, pray to the heavens, England will be in the competition for long enough for Lew to run out of things to talk about.

(Artist Phil Winslade swaps brushes for guitar, Charlie Adlard hits the skins, Richard Starkings (in the hat) signs copies of Elephantmen and Mike Ploog sketches; pic borrowed from and (c) Lew ‘Snapshot’ Stringer)

And, while it may be the end of Brickman, Lew intends to publish a collected Brickman Returns later in the year:

“I’ve revived Brickman several times over the past three decades but perhaps now it’s time to finally conclude the strip. After 30 years, I have no plans to produce any more new Brickman stories but my intention is to collect all 20 pages of the Brickman strips from Elephantmen into a comic I hope to self-publish sometime this year. Stay tuned for more info on the one-shot compilation comic Brickman Returns in the months to come. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in the earlier adventures of Brickman, copies of the 152 page digest softback Brickman Begins can be bought from my website.“

Fortunately for those like me who have never heard of the Purple Hood or Michael Jay Terry also points us to an earlier blog post by the excellent Lew Stringer who recalls first buying it when he spotted it on childhood holidays in breezy Blackpool and wondering what it was. He does describe Jay’s artwork as “quite crude and derivative, yet it had a simplicity and energy that propelled the story along”, but has a fondness for this 60s British comic and the artist who he doesn’t recall seeing elsewhere. There you go, I’ve just learned something about a comic I’d never come across before.

Lew Stringer’s excellent blog; Blimey! It’s Another Blog About Comics always has something special and Christmassy for the holidays. Having run out of classic Christmas comic covers last year Lew’s decided to concentrate on just 4 comics in depth for 2009.

First up is the Christmas 1971 edition of Valiant, which Lew gives us a nice, detailed run through, including various scans of the strips. Best of all, there’s a couple of Leo Baxendale’s “The Swots And The Blots” pages…. always a joy:

The Cartoon Museum in London will host an exhibition to celebrate the anniversary starting November 4th and running through to January 24th and Viz itself has a bumper-sized birthday edition out now, which includes a special version of the classic Pathetic Sharks strip by the always excellent Lew Stringer, who also discusses the comic on his blog. (via Bloghorn)