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British Comic Book Archive [BCBA]

TERRY HOOPER TALKS ABOUT THE BAT TRIUMPHANT!

by Frank Barrell

I’ve known Terry Hooper a very long time and wasn’t surprised that
he hasn’t been shouting about his Black Tower books. He never
does.

Some Things Strange & Sinister is a treat for anyone involved
or interested in UFOs,Ghosts,unknown creatures or just plain
weird phenomena. The success of the book has led to Amazon
jumping in to sell it and the cover price increase was dropped
because Terry insisted it made the book too expensive.

Now there is The Bat Triumphant! a 66pp black and white comic
album. I decided to corner the man himself,a rather dangerous
tactic,and ask a few questions. Time to see whether you can
squeeze blood from a stone!
Frank:Terry,The Bat Triumphant! has been around a good while
if not as a completed book then in serial form. When did you
start working on it?

Terry:uh,1985?

Frank:A..little..bit…more info?

Terry:1985. I had the Bat awaken to find Stahl,his kingdom,a
Soviet enclave. There were a lot of small countries under
Soviet occupation and as “Stahl” sounded very central European
I thought I’d place it there.

Frank:That’s the version you dropped -where you had a Soviet
Hind helicopter gunship being confronted mid-air by The Bat?

Terry:Yep.

Frank:So why did you drop that version?

Terry:Bloody Russians. I do all this then the “Soviet Union” falls
apart and all these states like Estonia,Lithuania,Latvia,etc.,get
their independence. No consideration for comic creators -though the
Americans never stopped Soviet bashing.

Frank:Do you still have those pages?

Terry:No. I have one roughly pencilled page and I’m guessing the
rest were lost in one of my house moves -though there may be a box
somewhere…

Frank:Originally,the Bat was published by Gerald Swann and you talked
to him and you said you were not too impressed?

Terry:Denis Gifford had the same reaction I did. Swannhad been one
of those war time entrepeneurs who published all this material but
in his later years the comics seemed to mean nothing to him and he
was more interested in talking about his pulp magazines.

I said to him I was a big fan of his old comics and I’d like to do
something with The Iron Warrior,The Bat and other comic characters
he published and the response was “Oh,do what you like with them” and
then talked about the pulps again!

Frank:Why is it these people publish comics but go into books and
tend to ignore their comic history?

Terry:Honestly,he was publishing pulps before and no US comics coming
into the UK he saw a way to make money. Simple as that.

Frank:And your plans to republish the original Swann strip?

Terry:Ask Ben Dilworth where-ever he is! He had my copy to make lazer
photocopies [no computer scanning for s back then!]and that was the last
I saw of it. If I could find good quality scans then I might rethink
the publishing idea but UK collectors just do not want to share!

Frank:I know that you were a big fan of the old UK comic Fantastic and
they serialised The Sub-Mariner Tales To Astonish stories where he tries
to win back Atlantis -did this influence you?

Terry:It was serialised in Terrific you twit -remember I showed you those
issues? Anyway,not really influenced by them. I do recall that I
needed a back-up strip starting with Black Tower Adventure no.51 which
would have been…

Frank:In 2000.

Terry:Okay,in 2000. I found the first part of The Bat that had been
drawn in 1994 and thought that part 2 was somewhere so I’d not need
to draw part 3 for a few months.

Frank:That was the bumper 52 pages issue with the yellow cover?

Terry:Yes. Only as I got to part 5,I think it was,did I realise that
this was a quest for The Bat to get his homeland back. They were just
meant to be space filling back ups.

Frank:But The Bat proved popular?

Terry:Yes. I think the biggest fan was Lee Davis who published Mondo.
I remember how,after The Bat confronted the Blauraben I got a letter
from Lee saying “what a b*******!” Then I heard there were other fans
but I decided to leave publishing for a while to package comics.

Frank:I know you said that you finished the story because you were bored
and the changed the title and redrew a lot of the art?

Terry:Yep. “The Bat” seemed a bit short for a book so I thought it needed
a more dynamic title and “The Bat Triumphant!” said it all..but DON’T flip
to the last page!!

The originally published parts were redrawn and when it came to prepping
the pages for printing a lot of cleaning was done.

Frank:Now people might get confused that the book has an original The Bat
strip but NOT the Swann Bat?

Terry:No,the Swann Bat was a 1940s strip by William A.Ward who drew a lot
for Swann. The second Bat is by George McQueen and was published in 1952 by
Cartoon Art Productions[CAP] -their character is more supernatural avenger than
anything else.

Frank:And a new [CAP] Bat strip?

Terry:Yes. I’ve no idea what happened to the first strip I drew with this
character so I drew another. My room is full of many ‘lost’ little
treasures!

Frank:I’m surprised you don’t lose your computer.

Terry:Hmm. Getting bored talking about this..

Frank:Hey,I can’t believe you’ve answered all these questions! So,are there
text features in the album?

Terry:Oh yes. On Ward’s The Bat and McQueen’s The Bat!

Frank:And next?

Terry:Merriwether-God’s Demon Thumper. That should be out in July and then
a couple other albums before the follow up to Some Things Strange And Sinister
and a book of interviews.

Frank:I can see your eyes glazing over with boredom so I’ll say thank you
and let the folk know the book is orderable via this link!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-bat-triumphant/7216178

Terry:Thank you. Know I need to go and set a snare for the postman.

Frank:And he’s not kidding.

I had,initially some ten or more years ago,hoped to one day open an actual physical building wherein old comics,art work and books could be visited and consulted.

The BCBA has helped a number of creators families get copies of their fathers or grandfathers work -most of which they had never seen. That makes me happy.

Sadly,though I have appealed over and over again via the internet for scans of pre-1950 comics or annuals I have met a stoney wall of silence. Even appealing directly to collectors who I know have such comics and scans -they mention them often enough!- has brought forth...nothing! A very sad state of affairs.

Therefore,I have grabbed whatever I can find and a few people have been kind enough to forward what they have found. Sadly,mostly with no original scanner credit.

So,I would very much like to thank any of the scanners who find their work on this site:THANK YOU.

Please,contribute if you can.

Regards

Terry Hooper-Scharf

DEFINING THE AGES OF BRITISH COMICS

The late Denis Gifford spent many decades chronicling the history of British comics. It was a never-ending task and at least we still have his books to rely on –these have been so plagiarised by new ‘experts’ that it shows just how valuable any Gifford book is. For this reason,I am relying solely on Denis’s and the “Tel’s From The Crypt” feature from vol.1 no.1 of COMIC BITS [1999].

Of course,there are some who would argue that comic strips go back further than the dates I give. This is debatable and,hopefully,one day theUK will have a symposium on the subject! In the meantime,if you want to learn more there is an excellent and highly recommended site worth visiting~

http://bugpowder.com/andy/

You will find some great treats there! According to Denis,the first comic magazine was actually titled…The Comick Magazine! The magazine appeared on 1^st April,1796. The publisher was Mr Harrison of 18 Paternoster Row,London who describe the title as “The compleat Library of Mirth,Humour,Wit,Gaiety and Entertainment”.

Most purists would argue that The Comick Magazine was wholly text,however,it did come “enriched with William Hogarth’s Celebrated Humorous,Comical and Moral Prints”. –one per monthly issue! These prints formed the series “Industry and Idleness” and when put together in their “narrative sequence”,argued Gifford,”they could be described as an early form of omic strip” –again,check out Andy’s Early Comics.

Thomas Rowlandson provided plates for The Caricature Magazine [1808]. On the 1^st May,1809 came The Poetical Magazine and it was in this –Rowlandson the artist once more—that what is arguably the first British ‘comic’ super star was born:Dr Syntax! The serial by William Combe,”The Schoolmaster’s Tour” was Dr Syntax’s first,uh,outing and in 1812 was reprinted in book form [graphic novel?] as “The Tour Of Dr Syntax in Search of The Picturesque”. This featured 31coloured plates.

Dr Syntax spawned merchandise spin offs,as any comic star does,such as Syntax hats,coats and wigs!!

Inspired by the French funny paper Figaro,on 10^th December,1831,the four page weekly Figaro In London appeared. Cover and interior cartoons were by Robert Seymour. This first funny weekly went on for eight years and was to inspire [imitation] spin-offs such as Figaro In Liverpool and Figaro In Sheffield. We can see the future shape of the comic industry appearing here!

Punch In London appeared on 14^th January,1832 –this weekly lasted 17 issues and the last featured 17 cartoons!

The longest lived comic magazine,of course,was Punch from 17^th July,1841 until its demise in 2002! It is a fact that Punch,on 1^st July,1843,introduced the word “cartoon” into the English language;on that date the magazine announced the publication of “several exquisite designs to be called Punch’s Cartoons”.

Two weeks later the first appeared,the artist being John Leech. [for more info on Punch see http://www.punch.co.uk/]

Leech also drew “The Pleasures Of Housekeeping” [28^th April,1849] –described as a slap-stick strip aboutr a suburbanite called Mr Briggs which,ten years later,was published in book form as Pictures Of Life And Quality.

In 1905 Mr Briggs was still being reprinted in six penny paperbacks.

Judy~The London Serio-Comic Journal started on 1^st May,1867 and,on 14^th August of the same year introduced a character who became one of the greatest comic heroes of the day…….Ally Sloper!

Ally Sloper [so called because,when a debt collector turned up he Sloped off down the Alley!] was a bald headed,bulbous nosed figure with a rather battered hat. ..often described as a Mr Micawber type [as played by W.C.Fields and others over the years]. Ally was constantly trying to make money but more often than not never quite succeeded.

Merchandise abounded,Sloper Pewter mugs,figurines,bottles and much,much more. And you can learn a great deal more on a wonderful web site –

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/graphicnovel/rogersabin.htm

There was an Ally Sloper comic in 1948 and some might think that was it. However,Walter Bell drew the old lad in Ally Sloper,a British comics magazine published by Denis and Alan Class in the 1970s and soon to reappear in Ally Sloper’s Comic Bits [successor to Comic Bits].

Ally has certainly lived longer than his creator,Charles Henry Ross,could probably ever have imagined!

Into the 20^th Century and there was the rise of many illustrated text stories and comic strips with text under each panel.

D.C. Thomson had titles like ADVENTURE and ROVER. Alfred Harmsworth’s,and later his Amalgamated Press’, COMIC CUTS was the first comic though. Issue 1 was published on 17^th May,1890 and the final issue was published on 12^th September,1953 with issue number 3006!

But the 1930s saw a virtual explosion in comics from small publishers outside London. These included Merry Midget,no.1 dated Saturday,12^th September,1931 and published by Provincial Comics Ltd.,Bath –and the other title from this publisher was Sparkler. Also publishing from Bath were Target Publications who produced Rattler and Target.

Now these were traditional humour strips and gags along with text adventure stories. But in 1939 something happened that ended the Diamond Age and saw the beginning of the Golden Age.

On the 8^th July,1939,the Amalgamated Press published,in Triumph,the strip “Derickson dene”,drawn by that mysterious comic great Nat Brand. Gifford described the strip as “a four page serial strip that established him [Dene] as the first British super hero in the American comic book style”.

And then,on the 5^th August,1939,in Triumph no.772,compilations of the Siegel and Shuster Superman newspaper strips started. On the front cover,flying through space and drawn by John “Jock” McCail was The Man of Steel.

These two very significant strips,in my opinion,ushered in the British Golden Age.

There was only one little problem. Across the English [or French] Channel,a little twerp with a silly moustache started a “bit of a tiff” we know as World War Two. Paper restrictions and the banning of imported goods such as comic books,meant that British publishers had to use whatever they could. Comics were printed on brown wrapping paper,silver paper[!] and other inferior stocks. Many comics simply vanished. No new ongoing titles could be published so smaller publishers began to issue one-off eight pagers.

The best known publishers remembered today are the Amalgamated Press and D.C.Thomson,at the latter not just Lord Snooty and his Gang but also Eggo and Desperate Dan took on the Germans.

But Gerald G. Swann deserves a mention for books such as War Comics,Topical Funnies Special Autumn Number,Thrill Comics,and Slick Fun. . Swann gave us Krakos the Egyptian and Robert Lovett:Back From The Dead.

A.Soloway produced All Fun and after the war Comic Capers[1942] and Halcon Comics[1948]. R & L Locker published Reel Comics and Cyclone Illustrated Comic. Newton Wickham published Four Aces and Martin & Reid produced Grand Adventure Comics.

Gifford himself,later to work on Marvelman,produced Mr Muscle. Cartoon Art Productions of Glasgow published Super Duper Comics [1948]. W. Daly gave us Crasho Comic [1947]. Cardal Publishing of Manchester gave us the Gifford drawn Streamline Comics [1947]……..

There were so many publishers and titles and these titles included Ally Sloper,Ensign Comic,Speed Gale Comics,Whizzer Comics,Super Duper,The Three Star Adventures,The Atom,Prang Comic,Marsman Comic,Big win comic,Big Flame Wonder Comic,Evil Eye Thriller,The Forgers and many,many more –super heroes,science fiction,humour,detective,war comics the lot.

However, there was soon to be a revolution. Publishers started declining and the big companies continued on. Then,on 14^th April,1950, ”launching British comics into the new Elizabethan Age,and the Space Age” appeared The Eagle,starring Dan Dare. This date can be seen as the start of the Silver Age of British comics.

New characters would appear who would engrave themselves on the new generations of comic readers.

In the Amalgamated Press’ Lion no.1,23^rd February,1952 Robot Archie made his debut. In 1953,rivals D. C. Thomson featured General Jumbo in The Beano. Miller,of course,brought us Marvelman and his family of comics.

More uniquely British characters followed and into the 1960s we saw “The House of Dollman”,”The Spider”,”Steel Claw”,”Rubberman” appear.

In the mid –to- late 1970s titles began to get cancelled more and more frequently with Thomson and Fleetway/IPC seemingly not sure just where they were going comic –wise.In February,1977,2000 AD made its debut and it was a pivotal point for British comics [not to mention for the US industry which later recruited many of the talents involved to help its rapidly sinking comics in the mid-1980s. And though some comics continued few survived. Beano and Dandy continue but British comics as an industry seem almost dead.

From all of this we can define the ages of British comics.

The Diamond Age ~ 1796-1938

The Golden Age ~ 1939-1949

The Silver Age ~ 1950-1976

The Bronze Age ~ 1977—–

And there you have it;a brief breakdown and definition of the Ages. of British comics.