Well worth a read
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An excellent guide to the golden age of British comics, brilliantly written and researched; a must for nostalgic readers reflecting on the era when comics were as important as Tiswas, Look-In and the original Doctor Who. Recommended.
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A very informative account on the colourful and turbulent history of British comics
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To detail every single British comic since the 1930s would have required a huge book that would have been more like an encyclopaedia. This book is not an encyclopaedia, it instead gives a narrative on all the notable comic books that helped shape the British comics industry, and as such is very thorough and informative. Of particular interest is the way once popular comics suddenly got merged and re-merged with other titles as sales started to decline and the comic market got smaller and smaller, until even famous titles like Buster and Whizzer and Chips eventually had to throw in the towel. It doesn't make for a very optimistic appraisal of the British comic industry when you see the huge amount of once-famous comics that are now no longer published, but as an account of the contribution many of these comics made to popular culture it is a very interesting read.
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Thoroughly enjoyable, if you're not too nerdy!
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I'm not a comic collector but I was born in the '50s and was a child of the sixties, so this was right-on for me! As a boy I was an avid reader of the Eagle ("Eagle MkI" as identified here), but as I grew up I learned to love the classic comics as typified by Beano and Dandy. (I probably read about 2/3rds of the titles covered at one time or another). Graham Kibble-White's narrative style is relaxed and humorous. He is respectful of the artists and authors who gave life to so many favourite characters and suitably cynical about the accountants and businessmen in suits who ensured their demise.
The author sets out his stall at the start: he is not trying to create an encylopaedia. The stories he tells are, by and large, the ones that mattered in the industry. No significant titles are missing (although it's a shame he couldn't get hold of a colour plate of the Eagle cover).
I thoroughly enjoyed this stroll through so many names I remember well, not just the DC Thomson classics (although we were very proud in Scotland to be associated with that publishing house!)
If you are 40-50 and wonder what happened to the comics you fondly remember, you'll love this book.
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comic omissions
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I bought this book because I am a comics fan, but this book, not very aptly named ultimate book of british comics, seems to have so many omissions, just a few of the top of my head are The Jet, Wham, Pow, The Fantastic, The Teriffic, Bimbo and probably many more
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Excellent
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Reading this book takes me back to the days (1970s) when I would spend all my paper round and pocket money on comics.
The book is superbly written - a real gem.
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