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nto its place as 1 children s magazine in the uk the latest abc figures show that the magazine s circulation achieved 154 989 from july december 2007 this is up 44 1 compared to the same period in 2006 where the magazine s circulation was a respectable 107 577 so very similar numbers then except that the uk is a lot smaller than north america using un estimates the population of the uk is a little over 60 million that of the usa about 306 million with canada adding another 33 million taken together about five and a half times the size in addition doctor who adventures was published every two weeks in the period measured it has since gone up to weekly whereas buffy the vampire slayer was monthly with slippage and later issues sold fewer copies so relatively speaking the best selling media tie in comic in the uk last year sold at least eleven times better than the best selling media tie in comic in north america those sales were mostly to children through non specialist shops such as newsagents and supermarkets the market that north american publishers have largely given up in favour of notional adults like me who go to comics shops of course this isn t an entirely fair comparison doctor who is currently quite preposterously popular over here the christmas episode had the second largest audience of any television programme broadcast in the uk in 2007 while the series as a whole made the top ten for the year buffy on the other hand was always a marginal show on a minority network and there have been no new episodes since 2003 so its comic incarnation can hardly be expected to sell as well we need something that is about equally popular in both countries how about the simpsons comics the latest figures i have found for the uk edition are from 2006 and show it selling an average of 134 631 copies every four weeks does the american edition shift the 740 000 copies a month that it would need to match up update 9 march average circulation 133 086 copies in july december 2007 according to the abc audit bureau of circulations figures just posted by steve holland panels doctor who hot metal part 2 script by christopher cooper art by john ross colours by alan craddock letters by paul vyse doctor who adventures issue 49 bbc magazines 31 january 6 february 2008 posted by steve flanagan at 06 32 4 comments labels buffy christopher cooper doctor who john ross wednesday 5 march 2008 not adding to the stockpile of puns on the word canon a few weeks ago chris mautner started an attempt to define what might constitute a canon of comics timothy callahan followed up with a longer list chris returned to the subject here and there have been further comments from heidi macdonald and john holbo my first reaction on looking at chris s and tim s lists somewhat unfairly as timothy at least is explicit that he is attempting to set out a canon of american comics was something along the lines of gad sir how can there be a comics canon that includes nothing by hergé leo baxendale or osamu tezuka further reflection on my reaction and the comics i d be tempted to canonise leads me to suggest the following definition comics canon those comics which the commentator drawing up the canon has read and been influenced by minus a few that he or she finds too embarrassing to mention plus a few that he or she would like people to think that the commentator had read and appreciated at least that s how i d go about it i suppose that a canon should really arise from debate leading to some sort of consensus but i don t think that f r leavis paid much attention to anyone else s opinion do you picture canon fodder from 2000ad art by chris weston pinched from 2000ad online oh damn it s a pun posted by steve flanagan at 20 25 2 comments labels 2000ad chris weston tuesday 4 march 2008 stars of page and screen last month saw the anniversaries of the first appearances of two major characters from twentieth century pop culture 100 years of billy bunter and 75 years of doc savage there is sometimes a sharp intake of breath from offended comics fans when they catch the likes of marvel describing its core business as managing trademarked characters and other intellectual properties rather than publishing comics but really appearing in different media is a mark of cultural success and always has been herakles and theseus cropped up in poems and plays as statues and on friezes on vases and on coins and sometimes versions from other media have swamped the original mary shelly lived to see her philosophical vengeful creature replaced by an incoherent rampaging monster in stage versions of frankenstein billy bunter and doc savage first appeared in prose fiction magazines a species that is now almost extinct though the death of the magazines did not mean the end of prose fiction any more that the possible death of periodical comics will mean the end of comics as a form but i first met bunter in the comic strip which ran in valiant from 1963 to 1976 and doc in george pal s 1975 movie version although i did later read reprints of some of the original stories from both series that wasn t until after i had encountered dc s 1980s doc savage comics as well as prose fiction comics and movies doc appeared on the radio and bunter on both radio and television the time for both is probably passed doc savage is altogether too simplistic a hero for modern tastes superman without the thrill of flight or the bizarre love triangle j k rowling s hogwarts revived children s fantasy but does not seem to have spawned more stories about mundane boarding schools both remain strong images but are probably fated to remain suitable mostly as knowing references in the likes of planetary and the black dossier pictures and panels billy bunter art by reg parlett from valiant ipc magazines 3 june 1967 doc savage issue 1 cover by adam and andy kubert dc comics november 1987 image taken from the grand comics database the league of extraordinary gentlemen the black dossier by alan moore writer kevin o neill artist ben dimagmilaw colourist bill oakley and todd klein letterers and scott dunbier editor america s best comics wildstorm dc comics 2007 posted by steve flanagan at 18 28 4 comments labels adam kubert alan moore billy bunter doc savage kevin o neill league of extraordinary gentlemen reg parlett valiant monday 3 march 2008 frayed ends buffed up it would seem from jo chen s cover to buffy the vampire slayer season 8 issue 16 found via blog newsarama that joss whedon is planning a crossover with his series fray which you will recall dealt with the adventures of a slayer in a blade runner y far future this is not too much of a surprise given that the big bad of season 8 wants to rid the world of magic while fray has already told us that it happened click to enlarge of course but let s hope that there s more to it than tying up dangling continuity threads incidentally what s karl moline up to these days pictures and panels cover to buffy the vampire slayer season 8 issue 16 by jo chen page from fray issue 3 created and written by joss whedon with karl moline penciller andy owens inker dave stewart colourist michelle madsen letterer and scott allie editor dark horse comics august 2001 posted by steve flanagan at 07 32 no comments labels buffy fray jo chen joss whedon karl moline sunday 2 march 2008 a wise fool supposedly though it fits suspiciously well into english idiom confucius once said a wise man speaks because he has something to say a fool speaks because he has to say something it would seem that my fit of wisdom is passing normal foolishness can now be resumed pictures and panels an example of the heartbreakingly bleak garfield without garfield strips created by removing the cat from jim davis s originals link via the ephemerist fred van lente and ryan dunlavey action philosophers the lightning round evil twin comics july 2007 posted by steve flanagan at 17 35 no comments labels fred van lente garfield jim davis ryan dunlavey mother s dog it s mothering sunday today here in the uk now more commonly called mother s day under the influence of the celebration held in the us and elsewhere in may my own mother passed away many years ago now but i m feeling sentimental so here are a couple of examples of her favourite comic strip fred basset fred basset was created by alex graham and started running in the daily mail in 1963 graham died in 1991 after drawing about 9 000 strips but the series has been continued by other hands including his daughter it s notable for a gentle humour rooted in accurate observation of canine behaviour at least if the jack russell terrier we kept when i was a boy is any indication the first strip above is far from representative but i never could resist a morsel of metatextuality links alex graham entry at the lambiek comiclopedia fred basset on wikipedia gallery of fred basset collection covers toonhound entry on fred basset toonopedia entry on fred basset latest fred basset strip pictures fred basset strips by alex graham from the daily mail 1977 reprinted in fred basset the hound that s almost human no 27 associated newspapers no date given posted by steve flanagan at 17 07 no comments labels alex graham fred basset wednesday 13 february 2008 dandy surprise as a random purchase this week i picked up a copy of the current issue of the dandy no 3439 31 january 15 february 2008 d c thomson and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was almost entirely restored to being a traditional comic with only half a dozen pages of non comics material however it s described on the cover as an awesome mega comix special so this may not last this issue is only on sale for another day or two so rush out now and inflate the sales figures the highlight is a two page guide to drawing comics by jamie smart a slightly less rigorous analysis of the form than that offered by thierry groensteen but fun nonetheless posted by steve flanagan at 19 48 2 comments labels dandy jamie smart tuesday 12 february 2008 gone from a world he never made steve gerber has died aged only 60 his was one of the most distinctive voices in comics and he did more than most to expand the range of what letterpress mass retail comics could cover in the days before the opportunities and disappointments of the direct market tom spurgeon has an obituary panel cry turnip written by steve gerber illustrations by frank brunner inking by steve leialoha lettering by tom orzechowski edited by marv wolfman howard the duck issue 2 marvel comics march 1976 reprinted in essential howard the duck volume 1 2002 posted by steve flanagan at 19 46 1 comment labels frank brunner howard the duck obituary steve gerber monday 4 february 2008 manhattan on mars crater on mars photograph reproduced from the daily telegraph web site 2008 crater on mars panels reproduced from watchmen by alan moore dave gibbons and john higgins 1987 it s either a coincidence or a quite remarkable marketing effort for the upcoming movie update 5 february oops it seems that i have been misled by the telegraph running that story a little late over 20 years late in fact see the comments section next on gad sir comics the startling news that it looks like there is a man in the moon and hey don t those stars form a line that s a bit like a plough posted by steve flanagan at 20 59 6 comments labels alan moore dave gibbons watchmen is he dead then poke im with a stick to find out hhrmmhm oh sorry i must have dozed off now where was i oh yes judy drood girl detective panel from mad night by richard sala fantagraphics books 2005 in issue 287 of the comics journal bill sherman writes of judy drood in his review of the grave robber s daughter that her name evokes both nancy drew and ancient celtic rituals it took that issue of the comics journal a month to cross the atlantic and it has taken me a few weeks to get around to reading it all so by now bill sherman is probably fed up with people reminding him of charles dickens s final unfinished novel the mystery of edwin drood so far as i know dickens made up the name drood certainly if you google it you ll find no real people in the first couple of hundred hits his manuscript notes show that he started with the name brood and played with variants such as brude and drude before settling on drood none of which means that sherman or sala for that matter can t come up with his own associations of course incidentally the cover illustration reproduced above is probably more pored over than any other picture drawn to accompany any of dickens s works in the hope that it might provide clues to how dickens would have finished the story it is by luke fildes who shortly thereafter gave up illustration work to concentrate on portrait painting ending up as a member of the royal academy and a knight to boot but i have to say that his illustrations are generally very stiff and bland and hardly deserve to be considered alongside the work of his predecessors on dickens s novels cruikshank and phiz indeed next time you find yourself wondering why a first rate comics writer like say grant morrison is so often lumbered with second rate artists remember that it happened to the most successful novelist of the nineteenth century too posted by steve flanagan at 20 46 2 comments labels richard sala friday 18 january 2008 my makeup is dry and it clags on my chin we found that clowns are universally disliked by children some found them quite frightening and unknowable said dr penny curtis from the university of sheffield who conducted a study of the best way to decorate children s wards in hospitals bbc news story judy drood girl detective knows how to deal with frightening unknowable clowns and it s just about time for friday night fights too won t someone help bahlactus to take off his crown panels richard sala the grave robber s daughter fantagraphics 2006 posted by steve flanagan at 23 18 1 comment labels richard sala older posts home subscribe to posts atom about me steve flanagan steve flanagan is a decaying hulk moored somewhere on tyneside in north east england the manifest for his cargo of comics nostalgia is here view my complete profile a note about pictures you can see larger versions of most of the pictures in this blog by clicking on the images embedded in the text blog archive 2008 20 march 7 rude words in classic comic strips fun with numbers not adding to the stockpile of puns on the word c stars of page and screen frayed ends buffed up a wise fool mother s dog february 4 january 9 2007 262 december 15 november 26 october 23 september 26 august 31 july 29 june 29 may 32 april 36 march 15 british comics a quick guide for visitors june 2007 part 1 background periodicals part 2 books comics news and reference 2 clicks comics world directory beat the broken frontier bug powder coconino classics comic book resources comics reporter comics uk down the tubes early comics archive grand comics database icv2 indie review 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