The first issue of which British children’s comic was published in April 1950?
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Eagle (British comics) British comics
Eagle was a seminal British children's British comics periodical, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994.  It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire.  Morris edited a Southport parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating its message effectively.  Simultaneously disillusioned with contemporary children's literature, he and Anvil artist Frank Hampson created a dummy comic based on Christian values.  Morris solicited the idea to several Fleet Street publishers, with little success, until Hulton Press took it on.

Following a huge publicity campaign, the first issue of Eagle was released in April 1950.  Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies.  Featured in colour on the front cover was its most recognisable story, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, created by Hampson with meticulous attention to detail.  Other popular stories included Riders of the Range and P.C. 49.  Eagle also contained news and sport sections, and educational cutaway diagrams of sophisticated machinery.  A members club was created, and a range of related merchandise was licensed for sale.

Amidst a takeover of the periodical's publisher and a series of acrimonious disputes, Morris left in 1959; Hampson followed shortly thereafter.  Although Eagle continued in various forms, a perceived lowering of editorial standards preceded plummeting sales, and it was eventually subsumed by its rival, Lion, in 1969.  Eagle was relaunched in 1982 and ran for over 500 issues before being dropped by its publisher in 1994.

History

Background

Eagle was founded by John Marcus Harston Morris (1915–1989).  Morris was born in the Lancashire town of Preston, and in 1918 moved to Southport.  He graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford with a second-class degree in Literae Humaniores, and at Wycliffe Hall gained a second in theology in 1939.  He became a priest the following year, and served as a chaplain in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1941 to 1943. 

In 1945 he became vicar of St. James' Church in Birkdale. Morris had long felt that the Anglican church was not publicising its message effectively enough; four years earlier he had written an unpublished article, intended for the Yarmouth Mercury and entitled Christian Hypocrisy, in which he questioned the difference that the Christian church had made to society in general.  Morris also felt that the church was completely out of touch with the people whom it was supposed to represent.   He gradually expanded the parish magazine—printed on four pages of cheap paper—  into The Anvil, a widely circulated Christian magazine based on Lilliput. Morris managed to employ several notable contributors on Anvil, such as C. S. Lewis, and Harold Macmillan.  In 1948 he employed young artist Frank Hampson,  a war veteran who had enrolled at the Southport School of Arts and Crafts, where he was described by his tutor as an "outstanding draughtsman 'prepared to go to endless trouble to get a thing right.   He worked as the illustrator on Anvil, and later became the full-time artist for Interim, a Christian publicity society formed during a conference of diocesan editors, with ambitions to produce a strip cartoon magazine aimed at children. 

Children's comics such as The Rover, The Hotspur, Schoolgirls' Own, The Magnet and Adventure usually contained a mixture of adventure stories, presented as text rather than strip cartoons,  and some British boys were buying American horror comics produced for G.I.s. Morris was impressed by the high standard of artwork in the US magazines, but disgusted by their content, which he described as "deplorable, nastily over-violent and obscene, often with undue emphasis on the supernatural and magical as a way of solving problems." He realised that a market existed for a children's comics periodical which featured action stories in cartoon form, but which also would convey to children the standards and morals he advocated. Morris was instrumental in launching the short-lived Society for Christian Publicity, formed to take control of The Anvil and to perhaps produce further Christian publications,  and in January 1949 the Daily Mirror published an optimistic piece about the rumoured publication by the Society of a "new children's comic". This intrigued local journalist Norman Price, and the following month he met Morris, and helped him express his desire to see such a magazine by co-writing with him "Comics that bring horror to the nursery", published in the Sunday Despatch.   Morris's article provoked a strong reaction from its readers; letters of support flooded into his home. 

Morris envisioned a character called Lex Christian, "a tough, fighting parson in the slums of the East End of London", whose adventures would be told in strip cartoon form, illustrated by Hampson. The idea gained the support of Terence Horsley, editor of the Sunday Empire News, but Horsley was killed in a gliding accident shortly thereafter. Morris met Hampson and proposed instead an entirely new children's publication. Hampson was enthusiastic about the idea, and in May that year the two began work on a dummy of it.  Lex Christian became Chaplain Dan Dare of the Inter-Planet Patrol, and featured on the cover. On the inside, two pages of Secret City featured a character named Jimmy Swift, and on the back page was a religious story about Saint Paul. Short strips included Joe from Strawberry Farm, and Ernie, Always Unlucky. Other features included Morris's Editor's Letter, as well as a range of news articles. Three photocopies of the dummy were made, each hand-coloured by Hampson.  

By then deeply in debt from the publication of The Anvil and the production costs of the dummy, Morris formed Anvil Productions Ltd.  Its prospectus declared "The Company proposes to publish a new children's coloured 'comic' paper, which will be of a much higher and more mature quality than anything published in England and in appearance and format will be modelled more on the American comic papers which are so far in advance of our own."  Initially he sought to keep the project under his control, but his escalating debts forced him to try to sell the idea.   To that end, he made several trips to London, where—armed with the dummy—he pitched his idea to several Fleet Street publishers.  He met John Myers at Hulton Press, who referred him to Montague Haydon at Amalgamated Press.  He then met Neville Pearson at George Newnes, Ltd., whose executives claimed that the publication was "not an economic proposition". The US comics reprinter Boardmans was next, followed by Mike Wardell of the Sporting Record.  Neither The Times nor The Daily Telegraph were interested, and at The Sunday Times the personal assistant to Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, presumed that Morris was asking for a charitable donation. In autumn 1949 however, Hulton Press contacted Morris with the instruction "definitely interested do not approach any other publisher". 

1950–1969

In October that year Morris sold The Anvil—by then selling about 3,560 copies monthly—for £1,250, plus a £200 annual contract to continue as editor.   Morris wanted to produce a comic the pages of which would be filled with role models whose behaviour and moral outlook he felt was socially desirable.  Foreigners would not be depicted as either enemies or villains, and at least one child in any group of children would be from an ethnic minority.  Religious values would not be imposed upon the reader, although their underlying moral tones would be made obvious on each page.   These were innovative but somewhat risky ideas, as nothing similar existed in the market,  and Hulton therefore commissioned extensive research into the new comic, which by then, inspired by the design of her church lectern, had been christened Eagle by Hampson's wife.    Layout and typography were designed by Morris's friend, Ruari McLean, assisted by Charles Green,  and faced with an initial print run of 1 million copies, Aintree printer Eric Bemrose designed and built a new ten-unit rotogravure machine in about twelve weeks.   The comic was heavily publicised before its release; copies were mailed direct to several hundred thousand people who worked with children, and a "Hunt the Eagle" scheme was launched, whereby large papier-mâché golden eagles were set on top of several Humber Hawk cars, and toured across the UK.  Those who spotted an eagle were offered tokens worth 3d, which could be exchanged at newsagents for a free copy of Eagle.  

Despite its relatively high price, the comic was an immediate success; released on 14 April 1950, and despite government paper quotas, the first issue sold about 900,000 copies.   Eight of its twenty pages were presented in four-colour rotogravure.  Eagle was designed to entertain and educate its readers; although a typical issue might contain such characters as Cavendish Brown, Harris Tweed, Jack O'Lantern, Storm Nelson and Luck of the Legion, it also included a special news section, a sports page, and school stories.  Each issue also featured a centre-spread full-colour cutaway illustration of a piece of machinery—the first detailed the inner workings of the British Rail 18000 locomotive.     Such high quality strips as Riders of the Range and P.C. 49 helped ensure a weekly circulation of almost a million copies, but it was the adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, which most captivated readers.  Created by Hampson—now a full-time staff artist with his own team—Dan Dare was the UK's first science-fiction comic strip of any significance.  Readers were thrilled by the square-jawed British spaceman's weekly exploits, and his struggles with The Mekon. 

While Morris (who by now had resigned from St James)  edited the magazine from Hulton's premises at Shoe Lane in London, the comic was created in a converted bakery in the Churchtown district of Southport.  The building was described by Eagle artist Greta Tomlinson as "very basic, a flagstone floor and a tin roof; there was cold running water in the corner.  It was freezing cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer".  Working to a tight schedule, Hampson created each Dan Dare episode first in pencil, and then in ink and colour.  He and his team of artists posed for photographs, in the positions drawn in his pencil sketches (Hampson usually posed for Dan Dare).  These photographs were combined with the rough sketches, and his colleagues then worked on the strip while he tackled the opening frame of each week's story.  His drawings of the technology Dan Dare employed were meticulous, and were based on a large body of research and reference material, as well as space ship models, plaster heads, mocked-up space suits, and a complete model of a space station.  He also wrote the dialogue for several of the comic's pages.   Hampson was assisted in his work by expert consultants, among them Arthur C. Clarke (then an aspiring young science fiction writer).   Scriptwriters included Anglican priest Chad Varah (founder of Samaritans).  Varah also accompanied Morris on tours of Cathedrals often filled with Eagle readers keen to meet the comic's creators.   Peter Ling and Macdonald Hastings were contributors,  as was Harris Tweed's creator John Ryan, who was also responsible for Captain Pugwash, printed in the first 19 issues. 

Children were encouraged to submit their good deeds to the comic; those that had their stories printed were called MUGs, a not-so-subtle dig at the "spivs" who made fun of them.  The best of these stories were awarded the title of "MUG of the Month", or "MUG of the Year".   Readers were also invited to join an Eagle club.  Upon payment of a subscription, members would be given a gilt Eagle badge, a rulebook, and a list of privileges.  The club proved extremely popular, attracting within months a membership of about 100,000, but it also served as a research tool for Hulton; questionnaires were sent to a random selection of members, asking each to rate certain aspects of the comic.  Eagles production costs were funded partly by advertising revenue, although advertisers were required to integrate their designs so as to match the comic's high standards.  Another of Hampson's strips, Tommy Walls, was the first commercial cartoon in any comic, and an obvious advertisement for Wall's ice cream.   Eagle also spawned a large range of merchandise, which included toothpaste, pyjamas, and toy ray guns.  Several annuals were printed; the first was announced in a September 1951 issue, in Morris's regular letter to his readers. 

Eagle became immensely popular with people of all ages and walks of life.  Copies brought into school regularly found their way into the hands of staff, who enjoyed them almost as much as the children they taught.  The Lancet reported on one doctor who read Eagle on his rounds.  It was sent to soldiers in Korea, to refugee camps, and was praised by Geoffrey Grigson on the BBC Home Service.  Wolf Mankowitz proclaimed Dan Dare a "Hero of Our Time", and the Earl of Jellicoe was reported to have read the comic in the library of Westminster Palace.  Lord Mountbatten supposedly placed a subscription order for his nephew, Prince Charles, and on one occasion rang Hulton to complain that the comic had not arrived; a replacement was quickly despatched.  Years later Morris sent the prince a copy of The Best of Eagle (1977); Charles replied and thanked him for the "fond memories".  The comic was not universally popular, however, as it was quickly banned in South Africa. 

Despite settling some of his debts, Morris once again found himself in financial trouble, with unexpected tax bills and arguments with Hulton over payments.  In 1955 he sold the copyright of his signature to Hulton for £7,250 (a portion of which was a loan).  45% of his £5,000 per annum salary was paid to the taxman.  With only one other profit-making magazine (Farmers Weekly), Hulton sought to curb Eagles costs, complaining about the use of taxis, expensive stationery, electricity and telephone bills, restaurant bills, and staff expenses.   At their 1957 AGM Hulton's Chairman reported a fall in profits, from £298,000 to £36,000, blaming reduced revenue from another of their magazines, Picture Post, and increased production costs.   Several of Morris's friends later left the company, and following a short period of internal turmoil Morris gave up the editor's chair in 1959.   The following year Eagle was taken over by Odhams Press.  Hampson's studio (by then in Epsom) was disbanded, and following creative differences he retired from the comic.  His duties on Dan Dare were taken up by Frank Bellamy, described by Morris as "a most fastidious artist and scrupulous draftsman, and like Hampson at his best, often consumed with anxiety."   With Keith Watson and Don Harley, the three worked from a studio in Fleet Street.   The front cover was redesigned, the Eagle name appearing across the top of the page rather than in one corner, coinciding with a new-look Dare.  Many readers found Bellamy's changes to Dare (made at the behest of Eagles publisher) objectionable.  Bellamy was succeeded by Harley, who in 1962 was followed by Watson, who had returned from a short stint working on Eagles rival, Lion.  Watson stopped drawing Dan Dare in 1967, and was succeeded by Bruce Cornwell.    Following Hampson's departure, the emphasis on Dan Dare's exploration of the Solar System had changed instead to include interstellar travel.  Continuity became strained, and production on Dan Dare ceased in 1967, when it was replaced by reprints from earlier editions. 

Eagle continued to be published through the 1960s, under a succession of editors (Morris was succeeded by his deputy, Clifford Makins).  Regular changes in emphasis, including an increasing number of features on contemporary music and sport, were not enough to ensure the comic's continued survival.  Although in 1961 its circulation was still about 500,000, under IPC, then Eagles owners, the comic suffered a drastic fall in quality.  The centre spreads were replaced with the historically inaccurate Last of The Saxon Kings, and letters of complaint poured in to the comic.  Within months the comic's circulation fell to 150,000, and continued to drop.   By 1966 it was in decline.  IPC continued production until the comic's last issue, on 26 April 1969.  Nine issues short of its 1,000th edition, the comic was merged with its rival, IPC's Lion.

1982–1994

A modified Dan Dare was briefly featured in IPC Media's 2000 AD (1977–1979).  The public reaction to this, along with news of a planned television series, persuaded IPC's comic arm Fleetway to relaunch Eagle in 1982, as a weekly pulp comic.  The original Dan Dare was no longer a feature of the comic, his eponymous great-great grandson taking on the mantle of space explorer instead.  Drawn by Gerry Embleton, and later Ian Kennedy, and set 200 years after the original story, the first story-arc featured the return of Dan Dare's earliest nemesis, The Mekon.  IPC were unable to recreate the popularity of the original strip, and in 1989 the original Dan Dare returned to the comic, in a six-part story illustrated by original Eagle artist Keith Watson.

In an attempt to emulate the success that Fleetway had had with girls' magazines, the relaunched Eagle initially contained a large number of photo stories such as Doomlord, Sgt. Streetwise and Manix, but this style was soon replaced by the more traditional comic-strip format.  Along with IPC's entire comics line, Eagle was sold to Robert Maxwell in 1987.   Although not as successful as its predecessor, over 500 issues were published.  A change to a monthly anthology caused by falling sales was a portent of the comic's future.  Toward the end of its life issues contained reprints of earlier work, alongside new Dan Dare stories written by Tom Tully and illustrated by David Pugh.  The relaunched Eagle was dropped in 1994. 

Legacy

Eagle inspired several imitators, such as Valiant, Tiger,  and Lion (which featured a Dan Dare clone, "Captain Condor")  but such adventure tales were less palatable for girls.  Female characters like Dan Dare's Professor Peabody (one of only two female main characters in the strip),  were generally given less important roles than the men, and as a result a trend developed toward producing comics aimed specifically at either boys or girls.  Girl, a sister title to Eagle, appeared in November 1951, and featured youthful capers in boarding schools, and tales of equestrian adventure.  Later comics such as Jackie, descended from contemporary women's magazines, were more cosmopolitan in flavour.   Girl was followed in 1953 by Robin, which was aimed at younger children, and in March 1954 by Swift, for older readers.

Eagles previously unheard-of circulation figures helped define the content of most comics produced during the 1950s, including war.  In contrast to other, earlier publications, Eagle attempted to educate the reader with factual, text-based historical stories, such as the life of Winston Churchill, as presented in "The Happy Warrior."  A detailed account of the Second World War was given, while one strip lambasted German paratroopers, who on seeing British infantry below them, shouted "Donner und Blitzen!  Der Englander!"   During the mid-1950s however, comics began sensationalising their covers with war imagery, and Eagle followed suit in the 1960s. 

Morris went on to become editorial director of the National Magazine Company, and later its managing director and editor-in-chief.  He launched Cosmopolitan in the UK, and with Condé Nast he formed COMAG, one of the UK's largest media distribution companies.  He was appointed OBE in 1983, retired the following year, and died in March 1989.  Despite his later work however, he is best remembered as the founder of Eagle.  His memorial service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street was filled to overflowing.

Hampson was embittered by his departure from Eagle.  Although he created Dan Dare, he and Morris had signed contracts which made the space adventurer the copyright of its publisher.  This made it difficult for him to get hold of his original artwork, and excluded him from any profits Hulton made from the huge range of Dan Dare and Eagle merchandise it licensed.   He called Odhams, the comic's owner after 1960, "Treens".   Hampson later worked on various advertising commissions, and illustrated seven Ladybird books.  He recovered from cancer to become a graphics technician at Ewell Technical College, and in 1975 at the Lucca comics convention was declared as the best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since the end of the Second World War.  At the 1976 Comics 101 British comics convention he was given the Ally Sloper Award, as the best British strip cartoon artist.  He died at Epsom in July 1985.  His original Dan Dare drawings now command high prices, and have inspired a range of modern artists; 

Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney were first published in Eagle.  X-Men comic scriptwriter Chris Claremont read and enjoyed Eagle, and cites Hampson's work as influential on his career.   Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has also praised Hampson's work,  and the author Tim Rice, in his foreword to Living with Eagles (1998), cites the stories printed in Eagle as helping "me in my story-telling efforts through musicals many years on."   Professor Stephen Hawking, when asked about the influence Dan Dare had on him, replied: "Why am I in cosmology?", and the entertainer Kenny Everett chose an Eagle Annual as his book on Desert Island Discs. 

The comic industry's Eagle Awards, first presented in the late 1970s, are named after Eagle,  and a fan club, the Eagle Society, regularly publishes the quarterly Eagle Times. 

Related publications

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* A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper.

British comics are usually comics anthologies which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The top three longest-running comics in the world, The Dandy, The Beano, and Comic Cuts, are all British, although in modern times British comics have been largely superseded by American comic books and Japanese manga.

Overview

The description comics derived from the names of popular titles such as Comic Cuts, and from the fact that in the beginning all the titles presented only comic (humorous) content.

British comics typically differ from the American comic book.  Although historically they shared the same format size, based on a sheet of imperial paper folded in half, British comics have moved away from this size, adopting a standard magazine size. Until that point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all-colour format in 1993.

Originally aimed at the semi-literate working class, the comic eventually came to be seen as childish, and hence was marketed towards children.

Historically, strips were of one or two pages in length, with a single issue of a comic containing upwards of a dozen separate strips, featuring different characters, although strips now last longer and tend to continue over a number of issues and period of time.

Whilst some comics contained only strips, other publications have had a slightly different focus, providing readers with articles about, and photographs of, pop stars and television/film actors, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure.

In British comics history, there are some extremely long-running publications such as The Beano and The Dandy published by D. C. Thomson & Co., a newspaper company based in Dundee, Scotland. The Dandy began in 1937 and The Beano in 1938. The Beano is still going today while The Dandy ceased print publication in 2012. The Boys' Own Paper lasted from 1879 to 1967.

There has been a continuous tradition of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles like Air Ace inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army, navy and Royal Air Force mainly in the two world wars, also some romance titles and some westerns in this format.

On March 19, 2012, the British postal service, the Royal Mail, released a set of stamps depicting British comic-book characters and series.  The collection featured The Beano, The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD.

History

19th century

In the 19th century, story papers (containing illustrated text stories), known as "penny dreadfuls" from their cover price, served as entertainment for British children. Full of close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from a book, except that they were somewhat shorter and that typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales.

These serial stories could run to hundreds of instalments if they were popular. And to pad out a successful series, writers would insert quite extraneous material such as the geography of the country in which the action was occurring, so that the story would extend into more issues. Plagiarism was rife, with magazines profiting from competitors' successes under a few cosmetic name changes. Apart from action and historical stories, there was also a fashion for horror and the supernatural, with epics like Varney the Vampire running for years. Horror, in particular, contributed to the epithet "penny dreadful". Stories featuring criminals such as 'Spring-Heeled Jack', pirates, highwaymen (especially Dick Turpin), and detectives (including Sexton Blake) dominated decades of the Victorian and early 20th-century weeklies.

Comic strips—stories told primarily in strip cartoon form, rather than as a written narrative with illustrations—emerged only slowly. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884) is regarded to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character (Ally Sloper).  This strip cost one penny and was designed for adults. Ally, the recurring character, was a working class fellow who got up to various forms of mischief and often suffered for it.

In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted before the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips, both published by Amalgamated Press. These magazines notoriously reprinted British and American material, previously published in newspapers and magazines, without permission. The success of these comics was such that Amalgamated's owner, Alfred Harmsworth, was able to launch The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail newspapers on the profits.

20th century

Over the next thirty years or so, comic publishers saw the juvenile market as the most profitable, and thus geared their publications accordingly, so that by 1914 most comics were aimed at eight- to twelve-year-olds.

The period between the two wars is notable mainly for the publication of annuals by Amalgamated Press, and also the emergence of DC Thomson, launching both The Beano and The Dandy in the late 1930s, which thrived during the Second World War. Their successful mix of irreverence and slapstick led to many similar titles, notably Buster, Topper and Beezer. However the originators of this format have outlasted all rivals, and are still published today.

In the early 1950s, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain", prompting what in retrospect has been characterised as a moral panic.   Copies of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, which arrived as ballast in ships from the United States, were first only available in the "environs of the great ports of Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and London", but by "using blocks made from imported American matrices", British versions of Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror were printed in London and Leicester and sold in "small back-street newsagents."  The ensuing outcry was heard in Parliament, and at the urging of the Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, the Home Secretary and Minister of Welsh Affairs, and the National Union of Teachers, Parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955;  it prohibited "any book, magazine or other like work which is of a kind likely to fall into the hands of children or young persons and consists wholly or mainly of stories told in pictures (with or without the addition of written matter), being stories portraying (a) the commission of crimes; or (b) acts of violence or cruelty; or (c) incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature; in such a way that the work as a whole would tend to corrupt a child or young person into whose hands it might fall."  Although the act had a sunset clause, in 1969 the Act was made permanent,  and continues to be in force today, represented, for example, in the Royal Mail prohibition against mailing horror comics and the matrices used to print them. 

 
During the 1950s and 1960s the most popular comic magazine for older age-group boys was the Eagle published by Hulton Press. The Eagle was published in a more expensive format, and was a gravure-printed weekly.  This format was one used originally by Mickey Mouse Weekly during the 1930s. The Eagle's success saw a number of comics launched in a similar format, TV Century 21, Look and Learn and TV Comic being notable examples. Comics published in this format were known in the trade as "slicks". At the end of the 1960s these comics moved away from gravure printing, preferring offset litho due to cost considerations arising from decreasing readership.

However, the boys adventure comic was still popular, and titles such as Valiant and Tiger published by IPC saw new adventure heroes become stars, including Roy of the Rovers who would eventually gain his own title. Odhams Press was a company which mainly printed new material that was adventure oriented, although it also reprinted American Marvel Comics material in its Power Comics titles including Smash! and Fantastic.

By 1970 the British comics market was in a long-term decline, as comics lost popularity in the face of the rise of other popular pastimes for children. Initially the challenge was the rising popularity of television, a trend which the introduction of colour television to Britain during 1969 set in stone. In an effort to counter the trend, many publishers switched the focus of their comics towards television-related characters. The television shows of Gerry Anderson such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons had begun this in 1966 with the launch of tie-in comics such as TV21 and Lady Penelope that included only strips related to Anderson's TV shows. Polystyle Publications already published a TV-related comic for young children called TV Comic, and in 1971 moved into the older market with Countdown (later retitled TV Action). The teenage market saw Look-In magazine feature strips solely based on popular television programmes. Another strand of the reaction to television was the launch of comics focused entirely on football (soccer being as popular as television amongst boys), with titles such as Shoot and Scorcher and Score. Those comics which didn't address the issue of television began to close, merging with the few survivors.

In the 1970s very few boys' comics in the "slick" format were launched, although Countdown was one exception, launching in 1971 with content similar to TV 21 (which had closed by then) and TV Comic. Vulcan, a reprint title, was another, in 1976. Girls' titles which had launched in the "slick" format in the 1960s continued in that format into the 1970s; and others, such as Diana and Judy, changed to become slicks. They found themselves in the same market as teenage titles for girls such as Boyfriend and Blue Jeans, which had changed their content and were featuring mainly product-related articles and photo-strips.

In 1972, Marvel set up a publishing arm in the UK, Marvel UK, reprinting American superhero strips. These proved extremely popular, and a range of weekly titles were being published by 1975. So much so that in 1976 the parent company briefly published a minimal amount of new material specifically for the UK market in Captain Britain. The American reprint material proved to be more successful, and continued to appear into the 1980s, at which stage Marvel UK also began diversifying into home produced original material, both UK originated strips featuring American created characters such as Captain Britain, the Hulk and the Black Knight, and wholly original strips like Night Raven. They also began producing television-based material, initially with Dr Who Weekly, launched in 1979.

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the underground comics movement inspired two new comics in the UK: Oz and Nasty Tales were launched with the Underground premise of counter-culture rebellion. Oz notoriously featured the children's character Rupert the Bear performing sexual acts. Both magazines were tried at the Old Bailey under the Obscene Publications Act because of their content. The Oz defendants were convicted, although the conviction was overturned on appeal. The Nasty Tales defendants were cautioned. However, both these comics ceased publication soon after their trial, as much due to the social changes at the end of the counter-culture movement as any effect of the court cases. These were always adult magazines, not titles aimed at the mainstream children's market.

In the mid-1970s, comics became more action oriented. The first such title to be launched was Warlord in 1974. Published by DC Thomson, it proved to be a success, and led to its then rival, IPC Magazines Ltd, producing Battle Picture Weekly, a comic notably grimmer in style than its competitor. Battle's success led to IPC launching another, similarly styled title, Action, which became a success too, but also became controversial, due to its content. Complaints about its tone eventually led to questions being asked in the House of Commons. Although an extremely popular title, IPC decided nonetheless to change the content, which neutered the comic's appeal, whereupon the title quickly declined and merged with Battle.

Action's position as the most popular title was taken over by 2000 AD, launched in 1977 by IPC. Created as a comic for older boys and girls, it also held appeal for teenage and even adult readers. In the 1960s IPC began to source comic art from Spain, mainly for financial reasons. This trend was continued through to the launch of 2000AD. Carlos Ezquerra is the most notable Spanish artist to have worked in British comics, having worked on both Battle and 2000 AD, and is credited with the creation of the look of Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles have been published in a tabloid form known as a "programme", or "prog" for short.

The Star Wars magazine lasted into the late 1980s. In 1982 The Eagle was relaunched, this time including photo-strips, but still with Dan Dare as the lead story. The comic moved him from the front page to the centre pages to allow a more magazine-style cover.

Dez Skinn launched Warrior, possibly the most notable comic of the period, as it contained both the Marvelman and V for Vendetta strips, by Alan Moore. Warrior was a British equivalent of Heavy Metal magazine. Marvelman was a Captain Marvel clone that Skinn acquired, although the legality of that acquisition has been questioned. In Moore's hands the strip became an "adult" style superhero, and was later reprinted, with the story continued, in an American full-colour comic, with the name changed from "Marvelman" to "Miracleman" to avoid any lawsuits that Marvel Comics may have considered.

Adult comics also witnessed a slight resurgence with psst!, an attempt to market a French style monthly bande dessinée, and Escape Magazine, published by Paul Gravett, former psst! promotions man.  Escape is the other notable comic from this period, featuring early work from Eddie Campbell and Paul Grist, amongst others.  Neither comic managed to survive in the vagaries of the comics market, Warrior beset by copyright issues and Escape by lack of publisher interest. During this period a number of smaller publishers were formed to provide inventive publications appealing to niche markets. Congress Press was one of these companies, providing titles such as Birthrite, Heaven & Hell and a graphic novel, Spookhouse.

Most of the surviving titles published by IPC, Fleetway and DC Thomson were merged into each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the popularity of comics waned further in response to a surge in the popularity of television and of video games. Although new titles were launched in this period, none seemed to find any sustainable audience. Notable comics from this period included Deadline, Toxic!, Crisis, and Revolver.

Deadline was conceived by Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins, and mixed original strips with reprints of U.S. strips, notably Love & Rockets, and articles and interviews on the British independent music scene of the time. Tank Girl was its most notable strip. Crisis was published by Fleetway Publications, a company formed from IPC's comics holdings. It was aimed at readers who had outgrown 2000 AD, and featured first works by Garth Ennis and Sean Phillips amongst others.

One publication of that period did find an audience. Viz began life in 1979 as a fanzine style publication, before, in 1989, becoming the biggest selling magazine in the country. Based upon bad taste, crude language, crude sexual innuendo, and the parodying of strips from The Dandy (among them Black Bag – the Faithful Border Bin Liner, a parody of The Dandy's Black Bob series about a Border Collie), the popularity of Viz depended entirely upon a variant of Sixties counter-culture; and it promptly inspired similarly themed titles, including Smut, Spit!, Talking Turkey, Elephant Parts, Gas, Brain Damage, Poot!, UT and Zit, all of which failed to achieve Vizs longevity and folded, while Viz remained one of the United Kingdom's top selling magazines.

21st century

Beginning in 2000, the British market arrested its long decline. However, there is no sign of any great growth in circulation for the few remaining titles, and no sign of any new launches from mainstream publishers into the comics arena.  An ever-increasing number of small press and fanzine titles are being produced, such as Solar Wind or FutureQuake, aided by the cheapness and increasingly professional appearance of desktop publishing programs.  It is from this scene that the UK's new talents now tend to emerge (e.g. Al Ewing, Henry Flint or Simon Spurrier).

After they were purchased by Rebellion, both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine have seen the release of more adaptations and trade paperbacks, including complete reprint collections of the entire runs of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock. Starting in 2006 the Megazine began a regular small press section  which usually features an article on a title by Matthew Badham or David Baillie and a small press story.

While British companies and creators have helped create the market for collected volumes there have, with a few exceptions like Raymond Briggs, been very few British original graphic novels published.[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/21/arts/gnovel.php More than words: Britain embraces the graphic novel], International Herald Tribune, August 22, 2007 Briggs himself has said "On the Continent, graphic novels have been as accepted as films or books for many years, but England has had a snobby attitude towards them. They've always been seen as something just for children".  However, thanks to the strong sales for Briggs' Ethel and Ernest, and Jimmy Corrigan winning The Guardians best first novel award, publishers have started expanding into this area. Random House UK's imprint Jonathan Cape has tripled its graphic novel output and Random House has also established Tanoshimi to publish manga. Other publishers have also been increasing their output, which, as well as producing original works like Alice in Sunderland, have also been included adaptations of works of literature. There are a number of new publishers who are specifically targeting this area,  including Insomnia Publications, Classical Comics   and Self Made Hero, the latter having an imprint focused on manga adaptations of the works of Shakespeare. 

This highlights another recent change, as there has been an increase in British original English-language manga. Self Made Hero's 'Manga Shakespeare' imprint draws on talent discovered in Tokyopop's UK/Irish version of Rising Stars of Manga, including members of the UK collective Sweatdrop Studios,  who have also contributed to other British-based efforts like ILYA's Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and MangaQuake.

Released at the start of the 21st century was Toxic, a comic which mixed comic strips alongside game reviews and other articles. This comic proved very successful and began in 2002 and is still running. Its influence can be felt on other comics as well most notably when The Dandy, Britain's longest running comic, became the Dandy Xtreme in August 2007 it borrowed many of the features prevalent in Toxic mixing articles alongside comic strips. However The Dandy eventually moved away with this Toxic strategy in October 2010 when the comic was revamped. The BeanoMAX (which also started in 2007) also borrowed some of Toxic's features. That title was then replaced by The 100% Official Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Megazine, which was later renamed Epic.

The DFC launched at the end of May 2008 drawing together creators from the small press and manga, as well as figures from mainstream British comics and other fields,
[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article3896701.ece Interview with David Fickling, saviour of the great British comic], The Times, May 10, 2008 including author Philip Pullman.  As it transpired, it didn't make it to its first birthday, ending with issue 43. However a new comic The Phoenix began in January 2012 which is a successor to The DFC. 

Reprint market

The comics reading public in the UK were not always able to get reliable supplies of American comic books and yet have always enjoyed the different approach to comics writing from the other side of the Atlantic. So the lack of reliable supplies was supplemented by a variety of black and white reprints of Marvel's 1950s monster comics, Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and some other characters such as Sheena, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom etc.  Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market,  notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter.

Thorpe & Porter published similar formatted titles under various names. They were also re-publishing Dell's Four Color series and Classics Illustrated in the UK.  Their material also included some work never before published in the US. Thorpe & Porter published many black & white reprints of American comics in the 1950s. Thorpe & Porter/Stratos published a long-running Marvel series, Kid Colt Outlaw, which contained black-and-white reprints from both Atlas and DC. They also published Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid in a smaller black-and-white format, though these were usually the entire contents of various American issues reprinted.

When Captain Marvel ceased publication in the United States because of a lawsuit, the British reprint company, L. Miller & Son, copied the entire Captain Marvel idea in every detail, and began publishing their own knock-off under the names Marvelman and Young Marvelman, taking advantage of different copyright laws. These clone versions continued for a few years and, as seen above, were revived years later in Warrior.  L. Miller also reprinted many  other American series including the early 1950s Eerie and Black Magic in black and white format.  These usually contain the American stories which relate to the cover but also contain other additional gems toward the back of the comic to fill-up the 64 pages.

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a female version of Tarzan (with an element of H. Rider Haggard's "She who must be obeyed" – She... Na!), was licensed from Will Eisner's Eisner-Iger studio for a British and Australasian tabloid, Wags, in 1937.  The success of this character led to the Wags artwork being repackaged for publication by Fiction House magazines in the United States, thus exporting the character back to her country of origin.

The reprint market really took off in the 1980s with Titan Books releasing collections of British material, as well as signing deals with DC Comics to release American comic books in the UK. Igor Goldkind was Titan's, and Forbidden Planet's, marketing consultant at the time and helped popularise the term "graphic novel" for the softcover trade paperbacks they were releasing, which generated a lot of attention from the mainstream press. 

As well as Marvel UK reprints, Panini Comics reprint many of Marvel's titles. These include Ultimate Spider-Man (originally holding two issues of either Ultimate Spider-Man or Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, now existing as a double feature with Ultimate X-Men) and also produce a Collector's Edition line  of comics, featuring a cardboard cover, three stories and a letters page on the inside back cover. Titles printed include many Marvel comics, including Astonishing Spider-Man, Essential X-Men and Mighty World of Marvel which reprints a variety of Marvel Comics. They also printed one DC comic, Batman Legends, reprinting various Batman adventures (e.g. two parts of a multi-title crossover and an issue of Batman: Year One), though currently this title is published by Titan Magazines

Since 2005, a small selection of American translations of the most popular Japanese comics have been reprinted in the UK by major publishers such as Random House, through their Tanoshimi imprint, and the Orion Publishing Group. Both no longer publish Japanese comics in British versions, for Orion, the reprints they were handling have been switched to having the original American versions imported, however all Japanese comic publishings by Random House were abandoned in early 2009. Simultaneously, the very small press Fanfare has published a few UK-exclusive English-language editions of alternative Japanese manga and French bande dessinée, both sublicensed from the Spanish publisher Ponent Mon.

Thorpe & Porter and American comics

In the 1950s and 1960s American comics typically arrived in the UK as ballast on ships. In 1959, Thorpe & Porter (widely known as 'T & P') became the sole UK distributor of Marvel comics. These were printed on Marvel's American printing presses, along with a special cover giving the British price instead of the price in cents, and shipped across the Atlantic. Inside the front cover, with the indicia, a sentence mentioned Thorpe & Porter as sole distributor in the UK market. Thus it was that brand new American-printed copies of Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, The Amazing Spider-Man #1, and countless others, appeared in the UK.

Thorpe & Porter was purchased by the distribution arm of DC Comics, then known as IND., in 1964, going on to publish an official Superman/Batman reprint book, DC Special.

List of British comics

There have been hundreds of comics in the UK over the years, including:
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