Super Stuff in the Bronze Age: October 2022

Friday, October 21, 2022

The Adventures of Andy & George - Irv Novick's greatest achievement?

I came across the remains of my Action Man/G.I. Joe toys recently, and it brought to mind those wonderful ads on the inside back page of DC comics from 1966, which painted a world of Action Man/G.I. Joe toys to which I could only aspire, brought to life in the comic strip “Adventures in the G.I. Joe Club with Andy and George”.

Artist Irv Novick is chiefly remembered these days for his collaborations with writer Frank Robbins on Batman following the character’s re-invention in 1969, but Novick had had a storied career both in comics and advertising, and it was this combination of skills, plus the sponsorship of colleague and friend Robert Kanigher, that lead Novick to illustrate a series of vignettes - a story about two wholesome pals - Andy and George - that ran over ten successive months across the DC comic line in books cover dated April 1966 through January 1967.

Prior to the appearance of the Andy & George strip, Hasbro had previously used the ad space for more traditional photo-based copy, showing G.I. Joe action figures in various costumes, but the element of adventure and narrative was missing. The idea of creating a comic strip that created scenarios for the G.I. Joe’s to be acted within was a stoke of genius. Andy and George would integrate all newly released sets into their play scenarios and built scale dioramas for their troops, giving kids some ideas on how to play with their G.I. Joes, and also hopefully get boys to identify with Andy and George.

Comic books were well suited to "content marketing", perhaps more so that any other printed media. Today, when you hear “content marketing” the mind tends to think of blogs, Facebook, Instagram and viral YouTube videos. But content marketing has been around far longer than digital. Because content marketing is about Storytelling, and humans have told stories for as long as there has been history. Our attention will always go to those who tell great stories, whether they be directors, writers, historians, comic book artists or brands.

And so the idea of weaving an on-going storyline, aligned as much as possible to the stories within the pages of DC's War comics, but extending into the superhero line, was focused on Andy & George's military objective : to get as many boys as possible to sign up with the club at G I Joe Club at 50 cents a pop.

At this time, Novick was one of the major artists on DC’s war books, his name becoming mentioned in the same breath as Joe Kubert and Russ Heath. The first ad premiered in parallel with Novick’s artwork in Our Fighting Forces #99 “No Mercy In Vietnam” and while the ads ran, Novick contributed war book artwork to Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War, All-American Men of War , G I Combat and Captain Storm, all under the editorship of Robert Kanigher.

Unlike the artwork within the main pages of the comic, the artwork for the ads was Black & White, with watercolour shading, always printed on the shiny inside back cover of the comic. The placing of the ad was strategic - it was the last item to be in the reader's mind before they closed the comic book.

Unlike some of the comic book stories , there were to be no overt references to the war in Viet-Nam. Reading through the letter columns of Kanigher's war books, some young male readers were voicing concerns about possibly being drafted for service in Viet-Nam within a few years. And so other than the introduction of a Green Beret later in the series, the strips focused more on the "Good War" of WWII , with a nod to the Space Race that captured boys’ imaginations.

The ads were not confined to just DC's War Books, but appeared in all superhero and humour titles, regardless of target gender audience. Of the 32 titles published with the April 1966 cover date, only the six romance comics did not run the ads. Even Lois Lane, Wonder Woman and Bob Hope titles ran the ads.

Looking at the 10 strips in sequence as they appeared over the ten month period, story dynamics start to emerge. Of the two boys, George is the leader. He's the guy who generally gets given the toys and leads on making the suggestions of where and how to play with them. Andy generally acquiesces. George is the spokesman for the company, and lords it over Andy.

Let's take a look at the ads in sequence, as published primarily in the War titles where Novick invariably contributed a story in the same issue that month:

Ad #1 : Apr 1966 Our Fighting Forces #99 "Arctic Adventure"

Ad #1 introduces George & Andy building a Winter Battle Scene. George recommends using Soap Powder as a substitute for authentic snow. They both seem to have GI Joe’s with Parka gear. No mention is made of George’s mother’s reaction to losing a month's supply of Tide.

Ad #2 : May 1966 Our Army At War #167 "Jeep and Bazooka"

The second ad to run features the 5-Star Jeep and Bazooka as the stars. George has obviously got the Jeep as a present. The Jeep was not cheap. I remember that I desperately wanted one, as my cousins had been given one.

Ad #3 : Jun 1966 All-American Men of War #115 "Deep Sea Diver"

George gets the Deep Sea Diver suit. He already has the cool frogman set that he brings into the action. No mention that the frogman will probably suffer from the “bends” as he swims at the same depth as the deep sea diver. [Personal aside - I got the Action Man deep sea diver set for my 9th birthday. The helmet damaged the nose of my Action Man, plus my parents would not let me fill the bath up to sufficient depth to raise and lower Action Man to/from the sea bed.]

Ad #4 : Jul 1966 Our Fighting Forces #101 "Combat Squad Gets Decorations"

George has seen that there are 15 different costumes for G.I. Joe/Action Man. George wants to dress his action figures in Combat squad fatigues, whereas Andy is more preoccupied with getting the lads into dress uniforms. George is definitely the gung-ho type; Andy the sensitive lad.

Ad #5 : Aug 1966 Our Fighting Forces #102 "A Front Line in the Back Yard"

George taking the lead to play with the GI Joe’s in the muddy backyard. Andy agrees. George is very influenced by the ads he has seen on TV, deciding that it would be more fun with multiple GI Joes.

Ad #6 : Sep 1966 Our Army At War #171 "Inspection Commendation"

Andy’s Dad is a bit of a martinet. He used to carry an M-1 rifle in the Army. He is off-stage, coming to inspect the foot lockers. He calls out “Attenshun!”.

Ad #7 : Oct 1966 Star Spangled War Stories #129 "Assignment: Outer Space"

George has just got the Mercury Space Capsule as a present. Andy thinks it’s great. He quickly removes his GI Joes combat kit and dresses him an an astronaut for a spacewalk. [Aside: my friend Steve Redford got the Action Man Mercury Capsule as a present ; I was very envious.]

Ad #8 : Nov 1966 Showcase #65 "New Man Joins Platoon"

The narrative shifts back to the military. Andy finally gets a new toy of his own. A Green Beret GI Joe as featured in Viet-Nam (and in the John Wayne movie “The Green Berets”.

Ad #9 : Dec 1966 Batman #188 "Battlegrounds of the World"

Definitely a move to WWII here. Andy has taken the lead to set up a complete war gaming environment spread across a local park, with separate sections for different soldiers of different wars and countries. (Have his parents come into some money?). Whatever, but Andy is going all-out to make George’s previous efforts seem small potatoes.

Ad #10 : Feb 1967 Our Fighting Forces #105 "20 Fathoms Under the Sea"

Featuring the Frogman Sea Sled, which George has (yet again) got as a present.

And then suddenly in Feb 1967, the campaign ended. Never to return.

And that was it. Andy and George’s job was done.

I have no idea who wrote the copy, but would not be surprised if Kanigher himself had not had a hand in it ; he kept iron control on the content of his war books.

By the end of the campaign, 400,000 boys had joined the G.I. Joe Club, exclusively as a result of reading Irv Novick’s strip. That was $200,000 of membership dues at 50-cents a pop, plus all the toys that were bought as a result. Whether Novick shared in the wealth, I do not know.

No-one mentioned in the letter cols that Novick was doing the art chores on Andy & George, despite Novick's artwork being praised by readers of the stories he drew. The only allusion I could find to Novick moon-lighting in the advertising field was Bob Kanigher's comment in GI Combat #119 in response to a question of keeping artists on specific strips.

Kanigher says “Many DC artists are in great demand in other media because of their excellence, such as newspapers, magazines, advertising, etc.; Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and Irv Novick immediately spring to mind; a certain amount of editorial juggling is needed.”

I probably first saw these ads in the December 1966 issue of Batman, which was on UK spinner racks around end of February 1967. I was disappointed that the G.I. Joe club was only open to residents of United States and Canada, and if I could have persuaded my parents to stump up 50c, I would have done.

I was a huge Action Man/G.I. Joe fan in the late sixties. I later made a 10 second stop-motion 8mm movie, a frame of which is shown here. Action Man/G.I. Joe is stood on the sideboard within which my comics were piled in two stacks.

Wither Andy and George? They grew up. George went on to become Don Draper in Mad Men and Andy became a social worker.

Monday, October 17, 2022

Bronze Age Obscurities - Sojourn #2

The landscape front cover of Sojourn #2.

As I noted in the comments to last week’s blog Bronze Age Obscurities, Sojourn #1 taking a look at the first issue of the innovative independent large-format comic, I managed to locate a copy of issue #2 for sale. The comic arrived in the post a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d share the final issue with our readers.

The second issue immediately introduces two changes in format; (1) the cover is landscape and (2) the logo now carries the strapline "New Vistas in Narrative Art".

Comparison of Sojourn to large-format DC and standard format comics.

Soujourn was the brainchild of Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder. The first issue was dated Sept 1977 on the front cover. This second issue has no date on the cover, but the indicia inside also dates this issue as Sept 1977, and also numbers issues #2 as #1 by mistake.

The artistic content is very much the same as issue #1, continuing the stories by the likes of Kubert himself, Dick Giordano, Lee Elias, Sergio Aragones, John Severin and Doug Wildey , with another stunning fold-out poster by Steve Bissette and editorial support from Jack Harris. The magazine takes a tentative step to include text articles, with a huge article with incredibly small font by Jack Harris on the current state of the comic business, and another article on the film oeuvre of Roger Corman by Bill Kelley.

This was to be the last issue of Sojourn. I feel that this comic/magazine hybrid died before it could get traction. By issue #2 it was becoming a comic/text magazine hybrid, not too dissimilar from the Marvel Black & Whites of a few years earlier, but not serving the needs of Superhero fans, or cross-promoting recent films in the pop-culture genre.

There were other large format magazines at this time - Steranko’s Comixscene/Mediascene/Prevue and The Monster Times come to mind as magazines which started with large format broadsheet pages. The Monster Times did not survive beyond the mid-seventies and Prevue's survival into the 80s was at the expense of moving to a more traditional format.

Sojourn was aiming for a more mature audience, a late teen/early twenties audience familiar with underground comix and the satire of National Lampoon. The artwork in Sojourn #2 pushes the envelope a bit ; some nudity in the art by Dick Giordano puts the book beyond the reach of the Comics Code in its stated objective of new vistas of narrative art.

Perhaps lack of success was due to bad timing. Large-format DC Limited Collectors Editions (the brainchild of Sol Harrison to create something different on the newsstand) were close to the end of their run. (1972-1978) . Famous First Edition facsimiles would run until 1979. With very few exceptions, these were reprint books, as were the Marvel Treasury Editions of the same era.

Up until this time, Kubert had largely avoided large format books. In 1975 Kubert had drawn the cover of DC's Limited Collectors edition of The Bible (July ,C-36), plus his artwork had also appeared in reprints of the DC Tarzan stories in large format in the same series.

Perhaps the lack of success was down to audience awareness. As far as I can find, the only ad for Sojourn appeared of page 4 of the June 1977 issue of National Lampoon. A lovely bit of art by Joe Kubert of Tor, but insufficient to capture audience awareness, or comprehension of the innovative new format.

Anyway, I've included some pictures of the pages of Sojourn #2. I encourage you to track down the issues; they are a lot of fun, even if they didn't break the mould of comic publishing.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Name That Comic!

by Ian Baker

This blog is a brief test of the power of social media to identify a comic featured in an old photo. The photo above is a section of a slide transparency taken either around August 1970 or possibly August 1971.

Can anyone identify the specific comic held in my hands? Not wishing to influence anyone's conclusions, but it looks to me like a large British comic, folded over. Perhaps the Beezer or Topper? There appears to be a yellow circular logo on the top left-hand corner (or could be bottom right-hand corner).

All suggestions greatly appreciated!

Friday, October 7, 2022

London Life and the Westminster Comic Marts

by Nigel Brown

[This time around SuperStuff co-editor Nigel Brown takes us back to the days of the late 70s with memories of those great Westminster Comic Marts past -- Baggsey (Ian)]

Portsmouth in the early 1970s was a great place to collect American comics (see the ongoing SuperStuff73 series on ‘Searching for comics in Portsmouth, 1970s style’), but as I wrote back in 1984, in SuperStuff #11, “Of the second-hand shops we haunted, on a recent trip I was only able to find two that possibly had some comics for sale”. Combined with the distribution problems that limited the availability of new comics off the newsstand, by the mid-1970s Portsmouth began to lose its lustre for the enthusiastic comic collector.

We’d already begun to take the odd school half-term trip up to London to Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in Berwick Street, and to Alan Austin’s ‘Crypt of Comics’ in Clapton, so when it came to decision time, I can’t say that I’d chosen to study in London just because of the accessibility of comics, but I admit it was a major factor!

My choice of London paid off. By late 1978 I was studying close to Angel tube station in Islington (not yet the gentrified area it was to become). I was within an easy walk up Islington High Street and Upper Street to Canonbury Lane, where I would spend many a happy hour hanging out in Alan Austin’s Heroes shop after he opened there in June 1979. In those days he still sold mainly comics.

(As an aside: before Alan Austin moved his business to that location, I used to visit his First Floor Offices in Mare Street, Hackney, on the odd Saturday, where I remember buying a pretty ropey (though intact) Fantastic Four #1, and also us both speculating on the future value of the newly published Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1. That would place this latter memory in September/October 1976, when I would have been visiting up from Portsmouth. I do recall that the consensus was that this new # 1 Spider-Man issue would never match the highly sought-after comics Amazing Fantasy # 15 and Amazing Spider-Man # 1, and the years have proved us right.)

©Marvel. Spectacular Spider-Man #1

Another regular destination in my student days was Dark They Were & Golden Eyed, by then in St.Anne’s Court, along with the newly opened Forbidden Planet (founded in 1978) in Denmark Street (Paul Hudson’s Comic Showcase in Covent Garden wouldn’t be opening until April 1982). By then, Dark They Were was becoming a shadow of its glory years, suffering under the high shop rent demanded in Soho, and the real excitement was reserved for Forbidden Planet. Not only did Forbidden Planet stock items not seen in Dark They Were, but Forbidden Planet pioneered creator signings that generated big thrills for fans, including a signing that had the fans queuing around the block in June 1979 to meet Neal Adams.

Other notables that I met at signings were Philip José Farmer in January 1981 and A.E. van Vogt in May 1982. It was also the kind of shop where I recall seeing Stephen King queuing up at the till, and Bob Monkhouse making a noisy visit.

But the bonus of my new London-based life was the Saturday mart at Westminister’s Methodist Central Hall.

I’ve lost count of the number of comic marts I’ve attended over the years, beginning with the Emsworth comic mart in May 1974 (see SuperStuff73 June 2021: ‘Announcing the publication of Alan Austin’s book…’). I still occasionally make it to the marts held these days at the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury, but those Westminster marts in the late 1970s/1980s stick most in my memory.

Located almost opposite Westminster Abbey, and at that time the headquarters of the Methodist Church (who’d raised the money to build it), Westminster Central Hall is a Grade ll listed building built in Edwardian times, at the height of Empire (and it looks it) clad with cream limestone in a baroque style that both reassured and awed in equal measure. The perfect place for a comic mart… comic collecting had finally ‘arrived’!

At the time, I didn’t realise that the Westminster marts were instigated and organised by Nick Landau (Titan Distributers), also one of the names behind Forbidden Planet. Although we can remember attending Westminster Marts as early as February 1975, the marts became a regular event from November 3rd 1979, with five marts in 1980 and were bimonthly throughout 1981.

Westminster Central Hall is a large venue, but the dealers managed to fill every niche (in both senses of the word!) with over 100 stalls, even up on the stage that looked down upon the palpably enthusiastic crowds. I remember Ken Harman used to have that spot.

(Ken, incidentally, was the dealer with whom I once swapped my Portsmouth-collected run of 1960s and early 1970s Superman titles – Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and some others – for a selection of fine-graded Marvel first appearances, including Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thor… all now long sold on…)

SuperStuff stalwarts Ian Baker and Geoff Cousins would sometimes make the trip up from Portsmouth for these events; Ross Carter, Portsmouth’s resident Star Trek specialist, would come up on occasion. We would join the anticipatory queue inside the marble foyer and, when the heavy oak doors opened at noon, unhampered by any entry charge, be part of the rush inside towards the treasures within.

Clutching our wants-lists, it wasn’t long before gaps in our collections were being filled as we did creditable impressions of frantic bees searching out pollen amongst fellow swarms of enthusiastic fans.

Particular comics I bought at the Westminster Marts included an Action Comics #28, with its striking Shuster-like Paul Cassidy cover, and its interior Superman art by one of my favourite early Superman artists, Jack Burnley. I also remember buying a copy of Avengers #3 with its classic battle between the Avengers and the Hulk, with the Sub-Mariner in his first cross-over from the Fantastic Four comic. I can’t remember the prices of these comics, but – and it pains me to admit this in these times, whereby the target to get more students into university has resulted in the costs being borne on students’ shoulders – these comics were well affordable from my student grant…

©DC. Action Comics #28. A Westminster Mart acquisition.

Apart from Ken Harman, I remember other dealers attending included Paul Hudson (from whom I bought the Action Comics #28), and others I recognised from the earlier marts held at Lyndhurst Hall in Kentish Town and at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Old Hall. I remember chatting with Mike Lake, by then one of the founders of Forbidden Planet, as I used to correspond with him when he dealt with comic imports at Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in their Berwick Street days, back in the mid-1970s.

By then, Alan Austin had stopped being a big player at the marts – he would just have a few boxes of comics on a friend’s table.

Many regular comic fans and dealers became familiar faces in that time, even if we didn’t know their names, but I recall one particular conversation I had with a non-fan: the Yes musician Steve Howe. Someone mentioned that he was there, and – in those days – I wasn’t yet a curmudgeon so I simply went up to him, introduced myself and we had a nice chat. He was friendly, and explained that he was there as his son was a comic fan. I remember giving him sound financial advice: that comics were a good investment! I have no idea if he took me up on that…

After the mart, I would sometimes return to my digs with my fellow Portmuthians to gloat over our newly acquired comics.

Given where this particular memory sets the scene, I know that this must have been after one of the earlier marts at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Old Hall in late 1978, possibly on November 5th; I have this particularly vivid memory of happily inspecting a copy of Amazing Spider-Man # 18 which I’d purchased at the mart that day, notable in that it completed my set of Spider-Man.

The day sometimes ended with a visit to the West End, to see a film at the superior cinematic facilities at the Empire Leicester Square or at the Dominion in Tottenham Court Road. That additional attraction of life in London is another story, to be told elsewhere. Suffice it to say that when I first saw Star Wars (as it was simply known back then) in its first run in early 1978, I saw it at the former Odeon Festing Road in Southsea with Ross Carter. The Millennium Falcon jumped into hyperspace and, at that exact moment, we were left looking at a blank white screen. The film had broken. Needless to say, when I re-watched Star Wars at the Dominion Tottenham Court Road a few weeks later, it was a less hapless performance!

Nowadays, I’m grateful that the marts at the Royal National Hotel still offer the comic mart experience, and in truth the depth and range of comics on offer means that there are still desirable comics to be had, and even the odd bargain on offer. Perhaps not always for comics these days; I recently picked up a near mint copy of the ‘Magpie ABC of Space’ book by Peter Fairley (1969) for just £5.

All marts have been fun, but looking back, the Westminster Marts were magic.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Bronze Age Obscurities - Sojourn #1

Back in 2010, on a trip to the Island of Maui in Hawaii, I purchased this oddity in a second-hand book shop in La Haina, Sojourn #1, published in September 1977.

Sojourn was a broadsheet sized, independently published comic, the brainchild of Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder, featuring creator-owned stories by the likes of Kubert himself, Dick Giordano, Lee Elias, Sergio Aragones, John Severin and Doug Wildey , with a stunning fold-out poster by Steve Bisette and editorial support from Jack Harris.

The quality of the artwork is superb, reproduced presumably the same size as the originals, printed on good coated stock.

The lead story by Kubert involves his prehistoric Tarzan/caveman TOR, of which I had some familiarity, having bought the six issues that Kubert had drawn for DC back in 1975. At that time I was unaware that Kubert had originally drawn five issues of TOR first back in 1953 for St John Publications.

[Interestingly, I can find no information that states that these TOR stories have ever been collected in the subsequent hardcover TOR collections by DC. Can anyone confirm?]

Re-reading the issue now, I’m really impressed by the standard and quality of all the contributions. The artwork on the EAGLE strip by the great John Severin is especially fine.

I'm also particularly taken by the artwork of British-born artist Lee Elias on Kronos, the serialised story of which was eventually completed four years later in Warren’s The Rook. I'm convinced that Lee Elias and Frank Robbins must have shared some of the same DNA, the similarities in posing in their artwork are so great.

Sojourn ran for two issues, beset by distribution problems that probably caused its cancellation, although the mix of material - three private-eye strips, one caveman strip, a Western and an SF epic could do with more variety. That said, the avoidance of any superhero content is admirable.

The non-standard size and format of the comic probably challenged retailers as well. But it was a great experiment for an independent creator-owned property. The broadsheet format was of course followed by DC’s own short-lived Wednesday Comics 30-odd years later, but without the editorial content, or lofty ambition.

Anyway, enjoy the selection of pages I have included.

[Apologies for not colour-balancing the page reproductions, or scanning the pages on a flat-bed scanner ; Mrs B. is keeping me firmly away from the family in the spare bedroom while I sit out my COVID isolation!]

TOR was drawn largely caption free, different to the DC version of a few years earlier. Comparing it to my copy of TOR #1 from 1975, my preference is actually for the colour rendition in the DC comic, although I can see that Kubert was striving for a lean aesthetic here.

Central painted poster by Steve Bisette. This is a full double-spread broadsheet size. The intention was to have a similar poster in each issue.

The always-dependable Sergio Aragones contributed T.C. Mars (very) Private Eye. I always liked his single line strips and one-pagers in Plop!

First page from Dick Giordano's The Smooth.

E.V. Race Private Investgator, by Doug Wildey.

The superbly detailed work of John Severin on EAGLE.

Kronos by Lee Elias. I'd swear that Frank Robbins had a hand in this artwork, especially the lower right-hand panel. [Were Elias and Robbins ever seen together in the same room??]. I'm going to try to track down the remaining parts of this story; hopefully I've secured a copy of Sojourn #2 online earlier today.

Finally, I've included the editorial by Joe Kubert and Ivan Snyder on their ambitions for Sojourn:

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

American comics in Austerity Britain

Being a fan of American comics in Portsmouth, UK in the 1950s must have been a lonely existence. Having been born in 1959 and grown up through the sixties and seventies, there was never a time in my childhood where a DC or Marvel book was not available within a mile of so of where I lived.

But that period prior to 1959 was a dark time. In fact, comics were just one of many non-essential items specifically banned from importation from the US since 1939 as a way of preserving the value of the pound and reducing funds going out of the country. During the war, Britain was increasingly dependent on the US as its main supplier of goods, and reducing that dependency in favour of home-grown product was the prime aim.

In addition to the financial considerations, there was major concern that printed matter entering the UK during the war could be used as a way of providing coded messages to fifth-columnists hiding among the general population. And so towns with ports receiving approved goods from America were a focus for additional scrutiny. An article in the 20th Nov 1957 edition of the Liverpool Echo detailed how during WWII the Aintree branch office of Gov Dept M.C.5. made a point of intercepting all American Comics coming in to the UK on American ships - whether as ballast or crew entertainment - and then painstakingly examining each physical copy in case there were coded messages hidden in the pages as pencil notations.

And so the only American comic material that legally found its way into the UK until the middle of 1959 when the law was changed, were British reprints using the plates of older American comics.

As Britain entered the 1950s, still in the grip of rationing, a review of both the national press and my local Portsmouth Evening News shows a very slowly emerging interest in American comics, but not in any positive form.

The only Portsmouth local to challenge Government policy was then thirty-year old Donald Gilbert T Cowd (1920-1985) who wrote to the editor of the Portsmouth Evening News on 12th April 1950:

There were no other reader responses to his letter, and so I suspect that Donald Cowd was a lone voice in the Hampshire wilderness.

Throughout the next decade I searched in vain for any further mentions of American comics in the Portsmouth Evening News. There were only TWO classified ads:

The first appeared on 4th June 1951:

WANTED. American Comics and Film Books. 161 Arundel Street

161 Arundel Street was the location of a second-hand shop run by a woman called Lily Darke. The shop was at the Commercial Rd end of Arundel Street. The majority of her classified Wants ads over the years concerned the acquisition of Gents, Ladies and Children’s clothing, which was her prime source of income from the shop. This was her first and only classified looking for American comics. Lily was not above accepting other goods. Later in the decade, on 11 October 1956 Lily was offered a Colt Revolver and an automatic pistol for sale by a local Southsea man - saw they said “United States Property” and bought them, taking them immediately to the police.

The other classified ad appeared two months later on Tuesday 21 August 1951

“Wanted. American Comics, Fantastic and Amazing Magazines, Books on Conjuring. Write or Call. (Edward William) BEAL (Bookseller) 235 Lake Rd, Portsmouth”

235 Lake Road was a double-fronted shop in Lake Rd, listed in years past as a prime business position opposite Timpson Rd - now long demolished in the 1970s redevelopment of Buckland.

(At this time, I noted that an Edward William Beal “Magician” also had an address in Southampton - I have no idea if they are the same man.)

This was the only classified ad Beal published regarding American comics - and no-one else published any American comic ads at all for the rest of the decade in Portsmouth.

Beal moved on to other retail opportunities; on 8 Feb 1952, Edward William Beal, bookseller along with other newsagent defendants (which included John Wesley August of 67 Charlotte St who went on to be a prime DC comic haunt of ours in the 1970s), had about 3,000 books in their stock ordered destroyed by Portsmouth Magistrates as they were likely to “deprave and corrupt”

Their lawyers had the case accepted that there was no suggestion that the newsagents in question were aware they might be selling obscene materials; were shocked and had co-operated fully with the police and magistrates to identify and agree destruction of selected items.

From the Portsmouth Evening News:

DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS ORDERED

More than 160 titles were included in list of obscene books and publications which Portsmouth Magistrates yesterday ordered to be destroyed. It is likely that the number if copies to be burned will total 3,000. Last October the Magistrates - Miss E. H. Kelly and Major W. H. Powell— adjourned the case "sine die" so that they could read each controversial document and make the decision. Seven defendants appeared at that hearing to show cause why 145 books and 29 magazines seized by the police should not be destroyed. They were Arthur John Smith, newsagent and bookseller. of 18, Queen Street Portsea: Edward William Beal, bookseller, of 235, Lake Road. Landport; Sidney Churchill, newsagent and bookseller, of 412, Commercial Road Landport: John Wesley August, newsagent and bookseller, of 67 Charlotte Street, Landport, William Henry Bryant, news agent and bookseller, of 73, Charlotte Street. Landport: Rosa Salome, bookseller, of 45 Queen Street, Portsea: and May Godding, of 2 and 3 Bradford Junction. Southsea.

Miss Kelly (presiding) told defendants yesterday “We have given most careful consideration the complaints in his case, and have been through the books and publications with very great care”. Reading a short list of titles which included Sultry Love, White Slaves of London, Auction of Souls, Ecstacy ,and La Vie Parisienne, Miss Kelly said these books were not of an obscene character and would be returned their owners.

"We are, however, satisfied that the remainder of the books brought before us are of an obscene character, and that they have been kept for the purpose of sale and gain, and order that they be destroyed. The test of obscenity is whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.”

Over the next three years the British press increasingly published reports of the damage that American Horror Comics were doing to the youth of America, and a determination that American Comics should be banned in the UK (oblivious that they had been banned for 16 years already). But the subtlety of all American comics in Britain being British-published was lost on the national press.

In 1953, a newspaper report that “hundreds of comics are leaking into Warrington each week” from the American Air Base at BurtonWood caused some public consternation; a Friday 19 November 1954 report in the Lancaster Guardian was more level-headed, but concluded that more censorship was needed:

Lancaster Guardian - Friday 19 November 1954

LANCASTER booksellers and newsagents are not selling the “horror” comics which have caused nation-wide criticism, a survey “Guardian” reporters this week reveals. Until two or three months ago small quantities did find their way to the city but a tour of Lancaster bookstalls and newsagents’ shops this week did not bring to light any comics of this kind. A "Guardian’’ reporter did, however, discover a few comics which, If hardly horror comics, contained a fair ration of violence. In one the villain was a particularly repulsive midget. In another there was a story in which girl was twice struck to the ground and in which two men were stabbed. magistrate, and headmistress of Skerton Junior School, commented, "As far I can see Lancaster is a place where there are few, If any, of these publications."

Mr. J. H. Morgan, a Lancaster newspaper wholesaler, told the Guardian that In the past some distributors had sent horror comics to Lancaster, but that there had been none since an issue of a “Frankenstein series two or three months ago. (Mr. Bruce Parkinson. a newsagent, of Meeting House Lane, said that this series "could be guaranteed to give a nightmare to anyone who read It.") Mr. Morgan said that there had been big demand from a section of the public for the horror comics that were distributed and that there had been a similar demand this summer in the seaside towns.

Mr. Morgan pointed out. however, that the three British firms which had been principally concerned with reproducing American comics of a horrifying kind had ceased to publish these comics a month ago. He did not think that there would be any more. There was no fear at all at the moment horror comics being published in Britain. Though the three chief firms had stopped, some other firm might start reproducing the comics in a year or two's time. But to this with financial success the firm would need to arrange for wide distribution and this would be extremely difficult…… Mr. Morgan stressed that the horror comics should not be confused with the ordinary Western comics which, he said, were quite harmless. The Western comics also were printed from plates imported from America Dr. W. George, chairman of Lancaster City Magistrates, said he had not seen any of the horror comics, but from what he had heard about them he was convinced it could not be good for the youth of the country to have such publications put in front of them. Mr. R. T. Alcock, a city magistrate, commented, while I have seen some of these American comics, the majority, consider, are lust silly, but there are certainly some which can be really harmful, particularly to not very intelligent children. " I would agree to them being strongly censored If not suppressed.” Miss E. Ochiltree, another magistrate agreed.

The publication of Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent made the national press in 1955….and then suddenly it all went quiet. Public concern moved on to other things. The Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner - Saturday 19 November 1955 - was the only paper in the British Isles to make mention of the Comics Code Authority creation and its role going forward in approving American Comic content. All UK public outrage about American Horror Comics had died by that point.

Obviously this blog post has been a rather cursory examination of the impact of American comics on the UK public consciousness in the 1950s, but I think it goes some way to explaining the lingering association in British minds of the 1960s of American comics with sleazy magazines, shady businesses and unsuitable content. First the needs of the Economy and National Security excluded US comics from our shores, followed up by the local judiciary as the arbiters of public taste and decency.

Things change so fast in retrospect. First Alan Class secured reprint rights in 1958, and then DC comics arrived on our shores in 1959 with Marvel soon after. The sixties then exploded for the UK comic collector as Odham's press first brought material to the masses on a weekly basis, supplanted by British Marvel as the seventies came around.