Richard Ashford, who has died at the age of 70, was one of the unsung heroes of the British comics industry. Emerging from a background in comics fanzines in the 70s, in 1979 he founded and ran the Eagle Award-winning Speakeasy magazine, which became the leading source of news about the British comics industry in the 1980s.
On the back of that, he started up a comics mail order service, Acme Comics, in 1984 and then teamed up with Speakeasy contributors Cefn Ridout, Bambos Georgiou and Richard “Dick” Hansom in 1986, to set up Acme Press, a ramshackle publishing co-operative run on a shoestring. (At one point, although Dick was earning money as manager of the Old Red Lion Theatre Company, Cefn and Bambos were on the government-funded Enterprise Allowance Scheme).
Acme turned out a number of interesting comics projects, including licensed properties such as James Bond (in a deal brokered by Bambos) and The Avengers (based on the eponymous action-adventure TV series, and republished as Steed and Mrs Peel by Eclipse Comics, and, later, Boom! Studios, in 2012). They also republished early works by the likes of Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, the company lasting until 1995.
The Acme empire also expanded to include a comic shop in Brixton (1987), the Basement Gallery (under the shop) and Acme Video. Yet despite fizzing with good ideas and attracting interest, publicity and more recruits to the cause (including me), Acme somehow never made much money. In 1989, in a sign of the times, after ten years and 104 issues, Acme sold Speakeasy to a rival publisher (which, sadly, ran it into the ground in under 18 months).
At the same time Ashford moved on: a staunch South Londoner born and raised in Eltham, he produced a TV documentary about Millwall Football Club called No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care, with a crew from Goldsmiths.
Shortly afterwards, never one to stand still, Richard moved to New York City to join his American wife Carol and signed up with both Marvel and DC Comics as a freelance editorial assistant. Turned down as an editor for Topps Comics in 1991, he went on to write Excalibur for Marvel and became a staff editor there in 1993.
An ardent Robert E Howard fan, he formed a strong bond with Roy Thomas, long time Conan writer and former Marvel editor-in-chief, who explained: “Richard was editor of Savage Sword of Conan and Conan the Adventurer (and, I think, the latter days of Conan the Barbarian) when I was writing them in the 1990s, and we got along basically pretty well.”
He also edited a number of other titles there and, true to form, many are the tales of support and work he gave to would-be creators during his tenure there. Sadly, he fell victim to a major editorial cull at the publisher in January 1996.
Ashford then went on to found, publish, and edit the Cross Plains Comics line, mostly devoted to the non-Conan pulp heroes of Robert E. Howard, with Thomas as writer of all the REH-related material. “Cross Plains got good notices from comics shops and readers alike, but was never financed well enough to survive, alas,” said Thomas, who also described himself as Richard’s “silent partner” in the enterprise. “Cross Plains Comics won an award for best new company. It was the only time I got to work with Richard Corben,” Thomas noted. “I got to do Wolfshead and one issue of Red Sonja.”
“I wanted to help Richard make a go of it, and have a nice sinecure for myself as well. I was truly sorry when it went over.” Cross Plains ceased publishing in 2001.
However fate had one further unkind twist for Ashford, when he was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, a hereditary degenerative disease of the brain. When I last met him in 2013, on a visit to South London for his 60th birthday party, he was still the same man who had given me my first job in comics, but the disease had taken a serious toll. But true to his never-say-die ethos, he devoted his last years to fundraising for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, aided by Carol and his family.
So how to sum up Richard Ashford? Editor, publisher, pioneer, writer, entrepreneur, producer, fundraiser – the list is pretty long and his achievements pretty impressive. I mourn his passing.
Alan Woollcombe
Richard Ashford, comics editor, writer and publisher: born Eltham, London, 21st May 1953; married Carol Baird (two sons: Grant and Geoffrey); died New York City, New York, USA 17th January 2024.
• Cefn Ridout pays tribute to Richard Ashford here on downthetubes
• Issues of Speakeasy are archived on FANSCENE
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, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries
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