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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2019 11:37:37 GMT -5
There are little differences between the UK and US when it comes to comics. What kind of list can we come up with? For instance, there's this:  Quite a few UK comics, at one point, started the story on the cover. Did US comics ever do that? I'm sure some may have, but nothing comes to mind. During the golden periods, when there were a lot of comics on UK shelves, we had a lot more anthology titles. And they were published weekly for the most part. This 1990 issue of Eagle had many strips, plus features:  We were often "bombarded" with cover gifts:  There were a lot of mergers over time. Publishers such as IPC would merge titles when one title was on its last legs. Or to increase sales. Eagle, which began in 1982, and MASK, which began in 1986, merged in 1988. As the blurb shows, "Two Great Comics Join Forces":  A US annual was a comic with more pages. UK annuals were hardback, A4 (tell me if I'm wrong with my measurements, Confessor!), had reprints, text stories, features, etc. Like this one:  That particular annual had original strips, based on the live-action show, a reprint of the comic Hulk's origin, two text stories, fact files on Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, interviews with Bixby and Ferrigno, an article about the Hulk's history, an article about the Universal Studios Hulk, an article about gamma radiation, etc. Quite a bit. Then there's Commando. It began in 1961:  And it's still going 58 years later! Uniquely, there are four issues published every fortnight. And, if Wikipedia is accurate (you know how I am with measurements!), each issue measures 7 × 5½ inches and has 68 pages. The cover aside, the newsprint pages are black and white. I am not suggesting these unique aspects aren't found elsewhere. I am just talking about how it was when I was a kid in the 80s. And variety is the spice of life, although I don't like stories starting on a cover, I'm glad that that aspect died out as time went on. I like that we had a lot of anthology titles. The cover gifts were lame (how many badges or 3-D specs does a person need?) but charming to my young eyes. Mergers were great for ensuring a favourite title carried on even if it meant sharing with another one. I like that our annuals were bigger and better (take that, Americans!), and there is nothing quite like Commando. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 16, 2019 12:49:12 GMT -5
I remember a New Teen Titans by George Perez that started on the cover, but yes, very unusual to start a comic that way in the U.S.
The mergers of two titles is something very British. About the only example off the top of my head that might be similar in the U.S. is when Hawkman was cancelled in the '60s and The Atom became The Atom And Hawkman for a few issues.
Also, plain newsprint covers (though in color) are a rare thing in the U.S. if they ever happened at all; in the '40s Fox had some comics that weren't newsprint covers but were a less glossy stock and printed four-color the same as the interiors.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 16, 2019 14:02:13 GMT -5
I've seen a few that started with the cover; but, it was rare, due to how covers were done. Often, the cover artist only knew the basic plot or was just given an unrelated cover idea. Quite often, they were either barely related to the story or had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
Anthologies were a bigger deal in the Golden Age, when page counts were at 64. By the Silver Age, that number had been cut in half. By the Bronze, it was trimmed even more. You still got some anthologies, like Adventure Comics, which might then become the home for a lead or lead and back-up. With the Dollar Comic experiment, they turned into anthologies.
Weeklies were never big in US comics. Most periodicals that came out weekly were things like current events and comics followed those publication patterns. Eclipse dabbled with putting out bi-weeklies, with Airboy and Area 88, among others; but, abandoned it rather quickly. The page count was half of a normal comic and fans didn't care for it. US fans would rather get one big comic with the whole story than 4 smaller ones, with a couple of pages.
DC did Millennium as a weekly mini-series, then put out Action Comics Weekly, and, later 52.
Mergers weren't common, beyond Atom and Hawkman; but the reverse was. Marvel turned their anthologies Tales to Astonish and Suspense Tales into solo titles, picking up the numberinging, for at least one and starting the other with it or with a number 1. The more common practice was to carry on the numbering of a title with a new book, to maintain the Second Class mailing privileges. It cost more to register a new title, so publishers often just renamed an existing title. Charlton did this frequently and the numbering of a book might cover 4 different titles.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2019 14:05:32 GMT -5
I've seen a few that started with the cover; but, it was rare, due to how covers were done. Often, the cover artist only knew the basic plot or was just given an unrelated cover idea. Quite often, they were either barely related to the story or had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Anthologies were a bigger deal in the Golden Age, when page counts were at 64. By the Silver Age, that number had been cut in half. By the Bronze, it was trimmed even more. You still got some anthologies, like Adventure Comics, which might then become the home for a lead or lead and back-up. With the Dollar Comic experiment, they turned into anthologies. Weeklies were never big in US comics. Most periodicals that came out weekly were things like current events and comics followed those publication patterns. Eclipse dabbled with putting out bi-weeklies, with Airboy and Area 88, among others; but, abandoned it rather quickly. The page count was half of a normal comic and fans didn't care for it. US fans would rather get one big comic with the whole story than 4 smaller ones, with a couple of pages. DC did Millennium as a weekly mini-series, then put out Action Comics Weekly, and, later 52. Mergers weren't common, beyond Atom and Hawkman; but the reverse was. Marvel turned their anthologies Tales to Astonish and Suspense Tales into solo titles, picking up the numberinging, for at least one and starting the other with it or with a number 1. The more common practice was to carry on the numbering of a title with a new book, to maintain the Second Class mailing privileges. It cost more to register a new title, so publishers often just renamed an existing title. Charlton did this frequently and the numbering of a book might cover 4 different titles. One truly does learn something new every day! |
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Post by chadwilliam on Jul 16, 2019 17:18:47 GMT -5
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Post by spoon on Jul 16, 2019 19:41:54 GMT -5
The mergers of two titles is something very British. About the only example off the top of my head that might be similar in the U.S. is when Hawkman was cancelled in the '60s and The Atom became The Atom And Hawkman for a few issues. Mergers are rare in the U.S., and Atom and Hawkman is about the only example when the title of the book combined the two former titles. There have been a few examples of series being combined under a different title. I believe Superman Family resulted from the cancellation and merger of Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Supergirl. And in the late 1980s, Doctor Strange and Cloak and Dagger were canceled at the same time, but there series were continued in the merged Strange Tales that had half-length stories of each feature. Although I haven't read many horror or war comics, I've heard that when those genres were fading some titles were merged into each other. But I think they usually kept one of the pre-existing titles, so I'm not sure in what sense it's a merger. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 16, 2019 21:03:28 GMT -5
I believe Superman Family resulted from the cancellation and merger of Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Supergirl. That's a good example. A similar one might be Batman Family and Detective Comics merging, Detective Comics #380 and Batman Family #20 both leading into Detective Comics Starring The Batman family #481 (both titles on the cover). The revived Strange Tales with Dr. Strange and Cloak & Dagger looks fun as a sort of reverse throw-back to the '60s split titles! |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 18, 2019 21:28:24 GMT -5
They say to-mah-to; we say ketchup is a vegetable. They say car boot sale, we say receiving stolen goods. They had the Beano....  we have Beano...  We have a goofball for a leader, they may soon have a goofball for a leader....  They had the Beatles, we had the Beatles. We had Elvis, they had Alvin Stardust. We had Hee-Haw, they had the Wurzles. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 6:58:55 GMT -5
Ha!  You mean everything I've ever bought at a car boot sale was stolen?!!! Please tell me Boris Johnson won't be our Prime Minister. It has to be Jeremy Hunt (lesser of two evils). Also, as I've joked about before, your law enforcement confuses me. County sheriffs, state troopers, city cops, county cops, etc. Federal agents. Park police. We do it simple here (although many Americans have asked me why London has two police forces, the City of London Police and Metropolitan Police). |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 19, 2019 10:52:46 GMT -5
Ha! You mean everything I've ever bought at a car boot sale was stolen?!!! Please tell me Boris Johnson won't be our Prime Minister. It has to be Jeremy Hunt (lesser of two evils). Also, as I've joked about before, your law enforcement confuses me. County sheriffs, state troopers, city cops, county cops, etc. Federal agents. Park police. We do it simple here (although many Americans have asked me why London has two police forces, the City of London Police and Metropolitan Police). You have to remember how much territory we have to police. I live in Illinois, which encomappses as much territory as England and Wales; and, when combined with Wisconsin, could hold the entire UK. Meanwhile, the UK population is around 65 million; Illinois alone is 12+ million (most of that is just Chicago). That takes a lot of cops (and donuts). |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 10:58:50 GMT -5
In all honesty, I'm envious! I mean, I learnt that the United States Park Police exists. The last park police force we had (Royal Parks Constabulary) was abolished, probably in the early 2000s. We have a few specialist forces here. The British Transport Police polices the railways and railway stations; the Ministry of Defence Police protects Ministry of Defence property and assets; and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary polices and protects civilian nuclear power stations/facilities. But you guys seem to have everything covered. I mean, you have a United States Mint Police, FBI Police, etc. I'd feel very safe over there! Oh, we have cathedral constables: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_constable |
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Post by Farrar on Jul 20, 2019 12:21:07 GMT -5
Quite a few UK comics, at one point, started the story on the cover. Did US comics ever do that? I'm sure some may have, but nothing comes to mind. Brings to mind a favorite series of mine, Secret Six! For the first issue, the scene started on the cover and continued into the story  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 13:51:51 GMT -5
There were a lot of mergers over time. Some of the mergers were really bizarre as well - the UK Avengers comic ran for 27 issues before merging with ... Master of Kung Fu, to create "The Avengers starring Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu". Even more bizarrely, MOKF was often the lead story in each issue, despite being the junior partner (and having a lot fewer stories in the archives to reprint) - ah, of course, this was the 70s in the height of the Kung Fu film boom. In issue 95, this weird conglomeration had another merger, to create "Avengers and Savage Sword of Conan (starring Master of Kung Fu)", beating out Savage Avengers by several decades. These comics often featured UK-sourced covers featuring scenes such as Conan looking into some mystic orb showing Avengers in action (or vice versa). MOKF ended up sporodically alternating with Iron Fist stories, FWIW, Other titles formed from odd mergers included "Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives", which later merged with Mighty World of Marvel to give "The Mighty World of Marvel, featuring the Hulk and (Planet of the Apes or Dracula Lives)" |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 13:56:48 GMT -5
Very true.
Some of the mergers created rather unwieldy-sounding titles. Super Spider-Man and the Titans is a bit of a mouthful (one example).
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