British Superheroes

[ray gower]

Superhero Comics are often thought of as being American.

What few people realise is that Britain produced its own.

Who has heard of these:-

Wonderman (1948-51)
Streamline (1947)
Captain Crash (1948 Rumoured to have been a base for StarTrek?)
Electroman (1951-52)
Masterman (1952-53)
Tornado (1948 Drawn by Bob Monkhouse!)
Captain Universe (1954)
Atomicman
Dan Dare

 

[Tabitha]

You forgot an obvious one - well, kind of obvious anyway.

Captain Britain
I was actually just thinking about buying the trade paperback of the collected issues. It is quite expensive though.
The art was by Alan Davis, who has a very attractive style. I don't really have much memory of the exact storylines.

Out of the ones you have posted, the only one I am familiar with is Dan Dare.

 

[ray gower]

Yes I did. But with some reason. I don't think he was a British creation.

Open to correction?

 

[Tabitha]

I think it could be like describing "Four Weddings and A Funeral" as a British film - yes all the posts are filled by Brits and it is filmed in the country, but the money all came from America.

Captain Britain was published by Marvel Comics, obviously an American company, but I think it is proper to call it a British comic as the writer and artists were British. I can't think off the top of my head who they all were, but I remember reading a long article about British comics a few years back and Captain Britain was definitely described as a British product.
I'll look into it a bit further later on.

 

[ray gower]

I stand corrected

Does this mean Batman is British?
I understand most of the comics from the '60's upto and into the 80's were drawn in Glasgow?

 

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by ray gower

Does this mean Batman is British?
I understand most of the comics from the '60's upto and into the 80's were drawn in Glasgow?

I did not know that, interesting. Bob Kane, the quintessential Batman artist (who died a few years ago) was American, wasn't he?

 

[ray gower]

Never very good with names.

There was a series of programmes about comic production, celebrating the Beano's sixtieth aniversary a few months ago on the BBC. One was particularly dedicated to Batman.

Seems that DC decamped a lot of its comic production to the UK. The chap who had been doing Batman stories reckoned he had worked on Batman for ten years, trying ever more desperate measures to get people to read comics, until they finally packed in.

I know Batman has reappeared again, thanks to the movie. But the comics stopped production for some years in the meantime

 

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by ray gower

I know Batman has reappeared again, thanks to the movie. But the comics stopped production for some years in the meantime

That program sounds fascinating. It is strange to think that these comics were produced in the UK. I wonder if perhaps this was a DC offshoot - producing Batman comics for the British market only?
I read Batman comics intermittently in the early 80s, and I am pretty sure they didn't stop - and the movie, I think, came after the success of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman year One. I do remember there being reprints of much older US Batman comics for the British market in the late 80s - they were larger and on much different paper than the originals. Didn't last long, though.

 

[ray gower]

That could be the case. I stopped buying them regularly about 1966. They were just too depressing. Noticed not seeing them in the newsagent by mid 70's, then the resurgence a few years later. Now I think I miss the old style

 

[Tabitha]

Marvel and DC have gone in for reprinting a lot of their gold and silver age comics in trade paperbacks - it wouldn't be hard to pick up some collections of the older style ones you prefer.
Me? I like the newer ones, I like the glossier art - although not the Witchblade style stuff that is all thongs and breasts! The more realistic the art looks the better is a good rule of thumb for me.

I wonder what comics we could decribe as British now? Some of the most prolific writers are British - Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore. But the work they are producing seldom feels particularly British. Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles" did, to a certain degree, but then, those characters were hardly superheros!

What about 2000AD? I never read it that regularly, but it gave us Tank Girl, and Judge Dredd. I know Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl) is British, but not sure about Judge Dredd's creators - it does have a very American feel to it.

 

[ray gower]

Not read 2000AD in years. But yes, Dredd is British.
The American feel is deliberate and can be directed back to some of the earlier heros as well. If you really want an outlandish chap, where better to get him from than the US, which is full of odd folk?

There is also the never ending need to watch the bank balance. For anything to be rated a success, it must also sell in the States. Compared to the UK it is a far larger and profitable market

 

[Tabitha]

Now that I come to think of it, a lot of 2000AD had an American feel to it, as you say.

I definitely didn't like it as much as the American comics I read when I was younger, but I got to like it better as I got older.

I remember a fairly recent character called (I think) Durham Red - she might have been a vampire, I can't quite remember. I liked that character quite a lot.

 

[Tabitha]

Just had a thought - does Billy the Fish count as a British Superhero?

 

[ray gower]

Why not?
We have Dynoman and Bannanaman!

 

[Tabitha]

I forgot all about Bananaman *snort*
I used to love that cartoon when I was younger - don't really remember much about it, apart from the fact that he lived on Acacia Street...

 

[ray gower]

If memory serves me well. Bannanaman first appeared in conjunction with Fyffes Bannana advertisements (in the Beano).

I'll try and find out a little more about him, though he might be a little too modern for much following yet.

 

[triffid]

My all time favourite British superhero has got to be Zenith. This character appeared in 2000ad sometime at the end of the 80's/ early 90's. I loved the whole story arc about the many angled Gods and the multi-dimentional war, all top stuff, especially the way they took certain whizzer and chips/ Topper charaters (Billy Whizz, Archie the android) and turned them into adult superheroes . Anyone else here like Zenith?

 

[ray gower]

Welcome to our little patch Triffid.

Forgive me I never saw Zenith. Then I didn't buy many comics then. Sounds as if it might have been interesting, especially giving childhood favs a twist.

Borrowing characters from other comics is not in itself unusual. But usually they stay 'within the family'. Wonder how 2000AD avoided the wrath of Thomson

 

[Tabitha]

I sort of remember Zenith. I never really bought 2000AD, just guiltily flicked through it at the paper shop. I always remember thinking it was a very cool name for a character. So, that's kind of a no then!

 

[triffid]

Thanks for the welcome .

If you like your superhero tales slightly dark and given a bit of a realistic slant then Zenith would have been the one for you. If I manage to find a site explaining his history then I will post it .

I think the way they got around the whole copyright thing was because back before Rebellion bought up 2000ad it belonged to Fleetway, Fleetway owned the comics like Whizzer and chips, Beno (I think) ans Topper, so using them would have been no problem from a legal point of view. I do remember the creaters of Zenith saying they had actually go permission to use these updated versions of the old characters, they paid them proper respect and used them to great effect, especially Billy Whizz (rest in peace :dead: ).