from the ’50s to the ’70s boys had the choice of up to twenty-such titles to choose from. The third major format had its roots in the story library tradition of the detective series Sexton Blake; 64-page digest-sized booklets with painted covers. In the late ’40s, Fleetway editor Leonard Matthews was contacted by a New Zealand firm to produce western strips. These proved to be so successful, Matthews reprinted them in Britain, adopting the story library format simply because there was spare capacity on the presses. The resulting title, Cowboy Comics, proved as successful in Britain as it had in New Zealand and Fleetways’ line soon expanded to include Super Detective, Thriller, True Life, Love Story, Air Ace, War and countless other titles. Rival D.C. Thomson responded with Commando, which is still being published today, well into its 3,000th issue! At 64 pages, the picture library format encouraged more considered, literate writing, and it was generally aimed at an older readership. Where most British comics were published weekly, these were initially published twice a month (though this gradually increased to eight issues a month for Battle and Commando and a staggering 12 a month for War). For every boys’ comic there was an equivalent (or two) for girls, for the under 10-year-olds and even those under five. Nursery comics like Playhour, Jack and Jill, and Pippin were intended to be read aloud by mothers to their children and is one of few areas of the industry still healthy today. The pre-war humor tradition is still very much alive as well and D.C. Thomson’s Beano and Dandy comics are both well into their seventh decades. American comics have always been reprinted in various formats and, in the ’50s and ’60s, a flood of repackaged strips appeared. Dell, Fawcett, Prize, Charlton, and Marvel were all extensively reprinted and even the most obscure titles (Silver Kid Western or Captain Flash anyone?) could have a British equivalent. For a country the size of Britain to support an industry that big is astonishing, but largely explained by the postwar baby boom that conveniently supplied an ever-expanding audience. For a nation only just emerging from a decade of rationing, and with television still a relatively scarce and expensive commodity, comics represented a cheap and exciting form of escapism. The problem facing publishers wasn’t finding an audience for their comics—it was finding the talent to draw them. Homegrown artists were assiduously sought out and cultivated but they were never going to be enough to cope with the demand so the industry turned to Europe. The first foreign artist to appear in Britain was Giorgio Bellavitis in Swift, soon Spring 1999
COMIC BOOK ARTIST
followed by Jesus Blasco in Comet. The year was 1954. Soon after they were joined by Francisco Cueto, Ruggero Giovanni, Ferdinando Tacconi, and an avalanche of others. These first artists were invariably represented by the Belgian art agency A.L.I. and one of the peculiar features of British comics is the ubiquity of these agencies. In fact, until the appearance of 2000 A.D. in the late ’70s, almost all comic artists worked through agents or agencies, and this was particularly true of foreign talent. In 1955, Gino D’Antonio started drawing for Junior Express through Rinaldo D’Ami’s Creazioni Agency in Milan, and soon others entered the fray. One of A.L.I.’s artists, Jorge Macabich, suggested to Fleetway editor Barry Coker that they set up an agency together and Bardon Arts was created, with offices in London and Barcelona. A.L.I. soon faded from the scene but D’Ami and Barden were soon joined by Studio Giolitti of Rome, Luis Llorentés Creationes Editoriales of Barcelona, V.V. Arts, the Solano Lopez Studio and Selecciones Ilustrada (S.I.). Agencies such as Bardon, or the British Temple Arts, often paid the artist on completion of a strip, and then passed the work onto the publisher for payment. Knowing that they would get paid irrespective of the job’s quality (or the vagaries of the editor) must have given the artists a strong sense of security. Nevertheless, their lineup of artists was far from stable with artists swapping agencies in the pursuit of ever-more-favorable terms and agencies constantly stealing the top talent from each other. Events had grown so serious by the late ’70s, that the top three Spanish agencies—S.I., Bardon, and Creationes—held a summit meeting to calm things down and eventually traded off artists between them-
Above: An unpublished promo piece done to create interest in a Vampirella movie. Half the panels are José Gonzales reprints, half originals. Vampirella ©1972 Warren Publications.
Above: Jesus Blasco page from the series “Invasion” as seen in 2000 A.D. #2, March 5, 1977. Panels two and three depict U.K.’s then-Prime Minister Jim Calaghan being hanged! ©1977 IPC Magazines Ltd.. 65