Report and Photographs by James Bacon
The destination was Colchester, the hosts were the 12th Colchester Sea Scout Group, in the Colchester Baptist Church hall, and on a chilly but clear Saturday morning following what was a windy night, dozens of fans made their way to the 18th Commando and British Weekly Comic Swap Meet.
A Willys Jeep greeted fans outside, and there was a warm welcome from the Scouts serving bacon sandwiches, sausage rolls, and a selection of fabulous cakes, with tea and coffee to sharpen the senses. The tables of comics were the attraction of course, and there was no shortage this year, at what this third, busy Swap Meet in Colchester.
Artist Keith Burns, who has well over forty Commando covers to his name was also there, and was very popular. His “Quick Sketches” are detailed pieces of aeronautical artistic mastery, and his passion for portraying aircraft was apparent.
It was nice to be able to get both Commando 5779 – “Pressure Point” and Commando 5297 – “Fog of War” signed by James and Keith.
The interest in the recent Battle comics from Rebellion was quite clear, with fans getting them signed by Keith, who at this stage, has contributed to quite a number of issues, and it was great to see the pleasure fans got at the chance to see the original “Johnny Red” artwork up close. The unusual is always nice, and there was some original comic art available to purchase, which garnered considerable interest, and some recent pages were sold.
Actors Chris Bunn and Ross Sambridge were present. Chris was a Stormtrooper in the original Star Wars film, rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary, as well as The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, and has a varied and fascinating history in the industry. Ross has also a Star Wars history and recently performing as Snoke from the most recent trilogy, and a Wookie in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Both were a pleasure to meet.
A cornucopia of British comics available
There were a wide variety of comics available, and most dealers had comics on the ground as well as on their tables. Pricing is everything, and while all the comics were without doubt very affordable, especially compared to somewhere like Ebay, here it is easy to find comics for a pound or less. One could see dealers happy to do very great deals for larger amounts so getting comics at 50p each was eminently achievable, and one could see this was a way to sell larger quantities and also make fans very happy.
I was impressed to see a Solo No. 1, quite a rare comic from City Editions , a short lived companion to TV21, on sale , as well as a very decent selection of Misty’s and TV21’s. There were a few hundred Eagle comics available, and the artwork in these is astounding, and beautiful to see.
Often at such events, in terms of this publisher, it can be feast or famine, but on this occasion, unlike some previous similar events, there were no shortage of Marvel UK comics, including some really nice Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man Weekly, The Avengers, Superheroes were all available, at affordable prices. I picked up some Doctor Who and and had a long conversation about the brilliance, as I saw it, of Hulk Weekly, which contained so much indigenous work, from artists and writers I really like, especially Steve Dillon and Steve Moore.
I was impressed to see two sets of Vulcan comics, too, one including the free gift, as well as TV Tornado, and a full set of the original run of Scream. Unfortunately I am seeking issue No. 8, so no luck there.
Summer Specials are always a nice comic to have, the stand alone stories are satisfying in their completeness, and there is usually more colour, and earlier Warlord and Victor Summer Specials were quite large, and there were among some of those available. It was impressive to see Lion, Battle, Action, Scream Holiday Specials and Misty summer specials available to purchase.
Comic Art on Display
The original Art exhibition had expanded into a new room, dedicated to comic art, and Stuart Steel and Edward Walker, who effectively curated the exhibition, had arranged for quite a lot of art to be brought by other fans. Swap meet organiser Karl Kennedy had brought along some Carlos Ezquerra “Strontium Dog” pages, and some Barry Kitson Marvel work, while Karl Seaman and Steve Holland had brought some superb British art, including some “Johnny Cougar” pages from Tiger, which were lovely to see. There was an emphasis on 2000AD and there was quite the selection to be seen, while there were also beautiful painted work on display: Commando covers and incredible aircraft portrayals.
Steve Holland of Bear Alley Press was present and had his three volumes of Mytek the Mighty available, as well as Longbow, which such a fascinating history, amongst the selection available to purchase. It was also good to see all the Comic Indexes, which is something I especially like.
Steve had also brought along a proof copy of his book about Air Ace Picture Library, and it is a stunning piece of work, very beautifully done. This, as well as Mytek the Mighty Volume 4, are due out in November.
Imported Comics
There was some discussion about how comics made their way from the US to Britain at the event, before, during and following World War Two. The time after the war into the 1950’s is especially of interest to me. Grasping what is colloquially known as “ballast” and putting a clear understanding that is historically accurate onto by what means US comics were exported across the Atlantic is not as straightforward as I thought. There were a number of routes for comics, meaning that while many people know an element, which may be true, figuring out a clearer picture was an interesting discussion.
I have recently chatted to collector Dave Dustin about this, and Steve Holland generously gave me some time to chat about it, too. His knowledge of the transportation of pulp magazines and their distribution back then in the UK was helpful. Starting with magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, there was brisk trade in what originally was considered “ballast”, but which were soon seen as a profitable commodity, desired in the UK – and so a more structured approach occured, and magazines were even sold in Woolworths as “Yank Mags”.
There was then a financial aspect with the application of Import Duties, too. The term used for this is one we in the world today has come to hear of late – tariffs. The Import Duties Act 1932 was brought in by the UK government and Steve noted that “A tariff of 1s. per pound on foreign out-of-date periodicals was subsequently imposed by the Treasury on the advice of the Import Duties Advisory Committee in March 1934.” which the act allowed, but which did not have an impact. The “Imperial preference system” was also facilitated by the 1932 Act and this allowed for better deals for goods from the Empire and later commonwealth, giving insight into how later comics might have travelled to and from Australia. It is unclear if “ballast” was a term used to evade tariffs after 1932.
Hearing that the desire for comics was strong, and that pre-war comics made their way across the Atlantic, it was subsequently mentioned that some have been found with the title cut off the cover, indicating clearly they were returns. Publisher TV Boardman may have been getting reprinted material from Canada, and covers would be stripped, and new covers produced wrapped around batches of comics. In consequence, no one TV Boardman title might have the same content. It would be fantastic to know more here, specifically which comics came in from Canada.
Dave Dustin, a Canadian expert on this matter noted that he had spoken to Matthew Gore who is related to the TV Boardman company family, sadly not in person, who said:
“In the late 1940s, Boardman bound together unsold copies of their rotogravure comics as annuals. I’m fairly sure there were three of those volumes, one each in 1948, 1949, and 1950. After that, they reprinted material in both the Buffalo Bill series and the variously titled adventure series, but that’s all reprints. I don’t know of them recycling any physical Canadian or US comics but if they did, I would have thought US comics would be more likely given TV’s American connections.”
“Now, I have heard of US and Canadian comics ending up in England as ballast in the holds of ships sailing at less than capacity. The idea was supposed to be that the material, generally unsold stripped newsstand comics, would be pulped when they were no longer needed as ballast. Remember, England had a paper shortage both during and after the war so it makes sense. But, a lot of those remainders, comics and magazines, ended up in magazine stalls at 3d or 6d.”
During the war, they also travelled with and were being supplied to US Service personnel, but there seems to have been an incredible variety of routes for US comics to get to British readers. Gerald Swan, Len Miller and his son Arnold, Arthur Graham, of Streamline, were all publishing comics and reprinting under licence in the 1940s. Meanwhile, comics were coming in and being rebound, with or without covers. There were also companies that imported Sunday newspapers from Canada, but only for the comic colour supplements.
It is becoming clear that they were a very saleable commodity that brought a decent return.
Publisher Cartoon Art appears to have published original UK work initially from 1946 but then included reprints and went to mostly US reprints as time went on. Cartoon Art also had their comics printed in Ireland at this time.
Professor Chris Murray has written about Scottish comic book history, and about British Superheroes, and he noted regarding Cartoon Art that:
“The company that started life as International Comics and then became Transatlantic Comics, and then finally Cartoon Art Productions, seems to have operated out of several locations in Glasgow from the mid-1940s until at least 1950. Glasgow was a natural home for such an outfit as there was a significant American naval base nearby and American comics often found their way into the hands of children on the West coast of Scotland via that route. The company reprinted American material, but also produced some original material that attempted to mimic the American style.
“One of their first attempts was Dynamic Comics (1945) which featured a superhero called Mr Muscle by a young Denis Gifford. The influence of American wartime propaganda comics like Captain America is clear. By 1946 the company had changed its name to Cartoon Art Productions, and was sometimes referred to as CAP-toons. They were now ready to scale up their operation and to produce more American style comics. The result was Super-Duper Comics (1946-1950) which was an anthology featuring a mix of genres, comics and text stories.”
As for the printing of comics in Ireland, this was a contentious matter in 1954, when there was a complaint made about “Horror Comics” emanating from Ireland, made by Father Leo Walsh, who was confronted by the matter, in Bradford. His complaint saw much interest in this shameful situation, that an Irish Independent special investigation was reported, and a journalist uncovered that one address was being used by a Glasgow business man in Dublin for the shipment of matrices from the USA and occasionally of comics to the Britain, which were going to and from The Monument Press in Bray, which was visited by the Garda Siochana over the matter. The government authorities in Dublin and Northern Ireland did not actually feel that the comics were obscene or indecent, describing them as “spooky”.
Comments are welcome on further sources of accurate information and detailed recollections about Cartoon Art and all the fascinating routes that comics came to Britain and Ireland in the 1940’s and early 1950’s.
As if to prove the point that there are many reprints in the UK market, there was a Thorpe and Porter Justice League Double Double Comics, a British rebound of Justice League comics from the 1970 on one of the tables, as well as some American westerns which were reprints of western titles, published in the US and reprinted in the UK, with very little delay in the 1950s; and quite a lot of Alan Class reprints available to purchase. There is a lot to like about the Marvel covers on Alan Class comics in their rich colour.
Commando remains popular
DC Thomson still publish Commando, and there were thousands on sale at the event, fans clearly hunting different titles, completing lists, or following particular themes. Early Commando issues are popular, with issues under Number 1000 gradually increasing in price the earlier they are, from the 50p price of the majority are, becoming much more expensive the closer you get to Number One. Issue 478, marking the switch from one shilling to five pence in decimal currency, seems to be a kind of marker as regards the price you might expect to pay; although this is the venue for the best value, especially given some book shops in central London sell Commando comics for £3 and £4 regardless.
I noted the desire amongst fans for relatively recent specific titles, and, inevitably, James Swallow and Keith Burns were in demand, but there is also a particular following for Hayley Austin, Stephen Walsh, Colin Maxwell, Georgina Battle, Stephen Hume, Suresh, Ferg Handly and Rossa McPhillips, amongst others. I noted that McPhillips has definitely captured the imagination of some readers, and hope the organisers can get him over at some stage.
Overall a very successful event, and many thanks to Karl Kennedy for a really great day.
With the Lakes, Commando, and the October London Comic Mart over, I am looking forward now to Thought Bubble, and I hope to get to a Golden Orbit event. Next year there will be Swap Meets in Glasgow and Stoke-on-Trent and dates will be shared here.
Many thanks to Steve Holland and Dave Dustin for the engagement on the matter of reprints and to Karl for running such a warm and wonderful event, and the 12th Colchester Sea Scout group for giving such a warm welcome.
James Bacon
• For details of upcoming gatherings, visit the Commando and British Weekly Comics Facebook group
Head downthetubes for…
• Steve Holland’s report on the event on Bear Alley
- About the Author
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James Bacon (he/him) is an Irish fan, a train driver living in London. A Hugo Award-winning editor of the fanzine “Journey Planet”, he is a comic fan and enjoys comic art, war Comics, Star Wars, Irish aspects to comics and railways in comics or otherwise. He has been writing about comics for over thirty years.
Categories: British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions
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