British Newspaper Strips – A Contextual History by Adam Twycross, the latest release in the series, Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels, is available now.
An academic publication – and with that comes a high cover price, physical and digital – this new work is a welcome complement to the The A to Z of British Newspaper Strips by Paul Hudson, published in 2022 by Book Palace Books.
While Paul’s book, reviewed here on downthetubes, is an excellent guide to newspaper strips published down the decades, Adam’s work explores more of the history and development of the British daily newspaper strip. Usefully, Adam puts the strips in context, his research not only looking at the strips themselves, but how they were presented, and contemporary events that in some cases, helped shape their content.
He also notes how strips were syndicated abroad, such as the Daily Mirror’s “Garth”, giving them international reach and appeal.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, British Newspaper Strips – A Contextual History considers such strips within their political, commercial and societal contexts, and fills in a crucial section of publishing history that has been largely overlooked by both comics and newspaper studies to date.
Beginning with an examination of the role of the image within British publishing in the final decades of the nineteenth century, the book moves on to explore the arrival and development of the first daily strips.
The work considers the links that bound these strips to surrounding cultural forms, their relationship to their host newspapers, and their position within the wider structures of the emerging popular press. Subsequent chapters cover a range of topics including the impact of the world wars, the anti-comics campaigns of the 1940s and 50s, and how changes to British publishing and wider society shaped the newspaper strips of the final decades of the twentieth century.
The book rounds off with a discussion of the way in which strips became established within the broadsheet press from the 1960s, and, overall, provides a detailed overview of the twentieth century development of this most neglected cultural form.
Adam Twycross is a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, UK and has taught extensively in the fields of animation, comics studies, VFX and computer games. His research focuses on newspaper strips, comics for non-juvenile audiences and the lost histories of British comics creators. British Newspaper Strips is his first book.
As mentioned above, this 252-page book is an academic work, and the cover price reflects a low print run, but for newspaper strip aficionados, you may well want to track it dow.
• British Newspaper Strips – A Contextual History is available now | ISBN 978-3031612121 | 252 Pages | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
• Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels – Catalogue
• The A to Z of British Newspaper Strips by Paul Hudson is available from Book Palace Books now, price £55 | ISBN: 978-1913548247 | Artists and Writers: Numerous | 320 Pages | Read John Freeman’s Review
• Head to the Illustration Art Gallery web site to check out their catalogue of newspaper strip art, which currently includes examples of Andy Capp, Bristow, The Flutters, George & Lynne, The Greens, Jane, Jeff Hawke, Modesty Blaise, Mr Midge’s Bodyguard, The Perishers, Pop, Terry and Son, and many more
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Books, Comics, Comics Education News, Comics Studies, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News
Outrageous. 145 euro for a book that would have cost 30 pounds if it were not an “academic publication”. I understand the print run must be low, but ever since Brexit, UK books have become out of reach for most non-Brits interested in the country’s output.
Regards,
Ramon
There’s been discussion about the cost of academic publications and subscriptions to academic journals for at least 30 years now, and it’s not easy to locate definitive answers as to the high cost. Ironically, some answers I found were academic papers, behind pay walls! However, this American article, “Why is Your Book So Expensive?“, by Jospeh Dutko, published in 2023, sets out a lot of the reasons for the high cost. It makes for an interesting read in itself!