Strip Magazine - New UK High Street Title

[BPP]

Fxxked if I can remember anything I did when I was 6.

[M.I.K.]

I was right into the subtexty stuff when I was seven. One of my favourite stories around that time was Howard The Duck. A more meaningful and poignant strip involving out of place ducks, frog creatures and vampire cows will never be found, and I realised that at the time.

Can also remember getting a Judge Dredd annual at my seventh birthday party and thinking it was the best present I'd got that year.

Didn't buy 2000ad regularly 'til I was twelve, but that was mainly due to already reading too many other things.

[TordelBack]

I was right into the subtexty stuff when I was seven. One of my favourite stories around that time was Howard The Duck. A more meaningful and poignant strip involving out of place ducks, frog creatures and vampire cows will never be found, and I realised that at the time.

Howard recently made an appearance in this summer's crossover event Fear Itself... I fear something was lost in translation.

And chaps, while I love B&W more than aught else I would remind Squaxx that the colour bits in Ye Olde Tooth were a huge treat at the time, cover, centrespread, back page posters... and we all lament their absence from the the casefiles, no?  Also, the bog paper, while of nostalgic value and indisputably host to genius, was shite.  The horror when the new Eagle descended into using it was something to behold. 

Rose tinted specs, maybe?

[Eric Plumrose]

But then I'm someone who'd happily see 2000AD in black pen and ink on bog paper again - does that paper even exist anymore?

IIRC, PVS looked into having SOLAR WIND printed on it but the idea would've proved cost-prohibitive. When it comes to comics (these days, at least), Triple Velvet actually works out cheaper than Sainsbury's Basics.

[mattb]

My kids happily read colour and B&W comics.  My son (age 7) is just getting into reprints of Battle, and I he has read the odd 2000ad reprint (I need to push these more...).  My daughter (10) reads Asterix, the excellent 'Glister' books by Andi watson and tyhery both love Mr. Pleebus by Nick Abadzis.  As well as a big ol' pile of old Beanos we got in an antique shop for free when we bought a table...  They have never expressed a preference in anyway.

[SmallBlueThing]

Mattb: that's brilliant, and it literally warms my heart when i hear stuff like that. And, again, it does throw up the interesting point about the Beano- namely that it's STILL catnip for kids after all these years, they still absolutely love and respond to the characters without heavy cross-media marketing (by which i mean that yes, there's a dennis and gnasher cartoon, but it hardly gets watched around here, and the other strips are equally loved without such tie-ins) and it doesnt have plastic tat sellotaped to the cover every week.

But there it is; the number one guaranteed child-pacifier and child-cheerer-upper. There's magic in them there pages.

SBT

[Richmond Clements]

And, again, it does throw up the interesting point about the Beano- namely that it's STILL catnip for kids after all these years,

See also: Our Wullie.
I was reading some really old ones to my youngest and he loved them. He later described them to his older brother as being "fifty years old, but they're still funny."

[Peter Wolf]

Obviously there is no problem with some liking B+W and others liking color but i dont go along with the idea that colored artwork is simply better because its more up to date than B+W and all that rubbish about having to move with the times as that attitude or outlook really is an irritation.

Having said that its really too late as comic art has already moved with the times to the point that B+W art is passe to a certain extent as the vast majority of comic artists seem to prefer working in color.B+W artwork also seems to be something that was unique to the UK as US comics have been colored for decades.

[SmallBlueThing]

And yet, 99% of the manga on the shelf of my local waterstones, which is apparently obscenely popular for reasons i dont understand, is in black and white. So i dont really know. </ mavis>
SBT

[TordelBack]

Having said that its really too late as comic art has already moved with the times to the point that B+W art is passe to a certain extent as the vast majority of comic artists seem to prefer working in color.

Is this the case, though? I'm all for B&W by preference, but it's pretty clear that the main reason for not having all-colour comics when we were kids (and before that)was production costs, rather than artistic choice. 

Even then pride of place was always the few colour pages that there were, be it Dan Dare in the original Eagle, Strontium Dog in Starlord, Dennis in The Beano etc.  Where that was a cover slot alone, it could he argued that it was coincidence: most popular character + catchy colour cover = sales.  But when it was inside stories or back covers, it was more likely a case of rewarding or building on popularity - certainly that's how 2000AD used their centre pages.  Just look at those incredible ABC Warriors spreads.  For kids more colours has always meant better. 

Looking at 2000AD today, it's been noted that quite frequently 3 out of its 5 strips are B&W, with I imagine relatively little reduction in production costs, even if the artist/colourer payment is less.  That is (probably) largely an artistic decision, and one I applaud.  As Peter says, the US market has always been colour, bar the small independents and self-publishers (cost again in that case), as has most of the European output, but almost all Manga is B&W/greytone, and as one of very few professional British comics producing consistently great art, 2000AD seems to indicate that B&W isn't much more passe than it ever was.

[Peter Wolf]

Having said that its really too late as comic art has already moved with the times to the point that B+W art is passe to a certain extent as the vast majority of comic artists seem to prefer working in color.

Is this the case, though? I'm all for B&W by preference, but it's pretty clear that the main reason for not having all-colour comics when we were kids (and before that)was production costs, rather than artistic choice. 

For that i am very grateful.

I find that B+W art like Belardinelli and Cam Kennedy is as dynamic and interesting as colored art and in those two examples[amongst others] in particular more so.I like the simplicity of it as well as i do my own artwork as all i need is white board and black ink but i do think that you have to work harder to make it as interesting as colored art as you have to create effects and it relies more on creating varying degrees of light and shade etc.

[M.I.K.]

See also: Our Wullie.
I was reading some really old ones to my youngest and he loved them. He later described them to his older brother as being "fifty years old, but they're still funny."

Oor Wullie and The Broons are a bit of an odd case. The art style hasn't altered in seventy years, they've never appeared in colour and the stories always follow a familiar pattern, (albeit with the odd reference to things like X Factor and "Grand Ram-Raid Auchenshoogle") -  and yet if there was even the slightest hint that The Sunday Post was going to stop publishing them within its pages, there'd be a public outcry, rioting in the streets and a Dundonian lynch mob baying for the blood of the editor.

[Peter Wolf]

Is it my fault you were a late developer? :p

SBT

Not at all but presently i am 20 odd years latein some respects and counting and at that rate i might be a fully mature adult when i am 50.

[starscape]

See also: Our Wullie.
I was reading some really old ones to my youngest and he loved them. He later described them to his older brother as being "fifty years old, but they're still funny."

My niece is a big fan of Laurel & Hardy. Her jaw dropped when we told her the film was about 80 years old.
Having grown up on Marvel UK (and Fleetway), I even find the colour on the US comics cheapens the art. I am just so used to B&W, colour just looks a bit, um, flashy. In fact, I spend most of my time (well, not most of my time...) reformatting comics so I can read them on my kindle.
I would prefer comics to go back to poorer quality. I don't want a masterpiece that I can barely touch in case it detracts from NM. I want a bit of throwaway thrills, with great stories. Colour optional. 1 colour glossy comic for £2 or 4 newsprint B&W's for 50p each.  As long as the stories are great, give me quantity.

[mattb]

I'll second that Starscape.  We always trawl the charity shops with half an eye for comics.  They are just too expensive in the shops, especially given what little strip content there is in most.  Currently the dandy is the best for my kids!  (But I'm looking to Strip and Phoenix to change that when they arrive!)

Oh and sorry for all the appalling typos in the last post.