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The Mighty One: My Life Inside the Nerve Centre by Steve MacManus

Started by sheridan, 02 September, 2016, 01:33:50 AM

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Funt Solo

Getting towards the end of the book, and the Crisis/Revolver bubble has just burst. It didn't surprise me that Crisis died - I'd managed to keep up with it for the first 48 issues, but The New Adventures of Hitler was the final nail in the coffin and I had to give up.

It seems like the central conceit for "adult comics" was wrong. As in, it's much more difficult to grow a new market than it is to tap into an existing one. 2000 AD only sold to adults because they'd started in on it when they were kids: so the market grew naturally. Trying to force a European sensibility (which seems to mean pretentious codswallop, given the content of much of Crisis & Revolver ... & Deadline) seems an odd thing to attempt.

There is some recognition in the text that the Megazine effectively ate into the market share of Crisis & Revolver.

I tried to keep up at the time, but I was a poor student and my wallet didn't stretch that far. (I'm guessing this was the problem - the market didn't grow, but the existing one got squeezed too tightly.)

Imagine trying to keep up with the cohort of UK comics at the time: 2000 AD, the Meg, Revolver, Crisis, Toxic!(or Strip!) & Deadline would set you back a tidy sum on a monthly spend (and those weren't the only ones on the market).
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