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British Comics: A Cultural History
In this entertaining cultural history of British comic papers and magazines, James Chapman shows how comics were transformed in the early twentieth century from adult amusement to imaginative reading matter for children. Beginning with the first British comic, Ally Sloper—known as “A Selection, Side-splitting, Sentimental, and Serious, for the Benefit of Old Boys, Young Boys, Odd Boys generally, and even Girls”—British Comics goes on to describe the heyday of comics in the 1950s and ’60s, when titles such as School Friend and Eagle sold a million copies a week. Chapman also analyzes the major genres, including schoolgirl fantasies and sports and war stories for boys; the development of a new breed of violent comics in the 1970s, including the controversial Action and 2000AD; and the attempt by American publisher, Marvel, to launch a new hero for the British market in the form of Captain Britain. Considering the work of important contemporary comic writers such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Ian Edginton, Warren Ellis, and Garth Ennis, Chapman’s history comes right up to the present and takes in adult-oriented comics such as Warrior, Crisis, Deadline,and Revolver, and alternative comics such as Viz. Through a look at the changing structure of the comic publishing industry and how comic publishers, writers, and artists have responded to the tastes of their consumers, Chapman ultimately argues that British comics are distinctive and different from American, French, and Japanese comics. An invaluable reference for all comic collectors and fans in Britain and beyond, British Comics showcases the major role comics have played in the imaginative lives of readers young and old.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2011
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
James Chapman
27 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester. He has written several books on the history of British popular culture, including work on cinema, television and comics.
He attended Wales High School during the 1980s. He took his BA (History) and MA (Film Studies) at the University of East Anglia and then undertook his doctoral research at Lancaster University, completing his thesis on the role of official film propaganda in Britain during the Second World War.
In 1996 he joined The Open University where he taught a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and was principal contributing author to the university’s first dedicated course on Film and Television History. He joined the University of Leicester as its founding Professor of Film Studies in 2005.
Chapman’s research focuses on British popular culture, especially cinema and television in their historical contexts. He has written or edited ten books, including two which he has co-authored with Professor Nicholas J. Cull. His work draws upon the ideas of the film theorist Gilles Deleuze and applies them to understanding the role and nature of popular film and television. His books include studies of the science fiction television series Doctor Who and the James Bond films. SFX magazine described his book Licence To Thrill as "thoughtful, intelligent, ludicrous and a bit snobby - bit like Bond really".
He is a Council member of the International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST) and is editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.
Chapman has also published articles in the following journals: Screen, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Journal of Popular British Cinema, Visual Culture in Britain, Journal of Contemporary History, Contemporary British History, Media History and European Journal of Cultural Studies.
James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester. He has written several books on the history of British popular culture, including work on cinema, television and comics.
He attended Wales High School during the 1980s. He took his BA (History) and MA (Film Studies) at the University of East Anglia and then undertook his doctoral research at Lancaster University, completing his thesis on the role of official film propaganda in Britain during the Second World War.
In 1996 he joined The Open University where he taught a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and was principal contributing author to the university’s first dedicated course on Film and Television History. He joined the University of Leicester as its founding Professor of Film Studies in 2005.
Chapman’s research focuses on British popular culture, especially cinema and television in their historical contexts. He has written or edited ten books, including two which he has co-authored with Professor Nicholas J. Cull. His work draws upon the ideas of the film theorist Gilles Deleuze and applies them to understanding the role and nature of popular film and television. His books include studies of the science fiction television series Doctor Who and the James Bond films. SFX magazine described his book Licence To Thrill as "thoughtful, intelligent, ludicrous and a bit snobby - bit like Bond really".
He is a Council member of the International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST) and is editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.
Chapman has also published articles in the following journals: Screen, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Journal of Popular British Cinema, Visual Culture in Britain, Journal of Contemporary History, Contemporary British History, Media History and European Journal of Cultural Studies.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 2, 2015
A more scholarly look at the history of British comics than recent books I have read on their American counterparts, this book is littered with references, but is no less readable for it. Compared to the huge industry on the other side of the Atlantic, the British comics industry appears tiny, but that allows for more concentration on the individual sections. Each chapter tells the story of a particular type of comic - adult, underground, SF, girls, humour, war, etc - which, almost coincidentally, seems to cover a particular historical period, giving the impression that British comics evolved over time in a different way to the American ones.
The prose is dense and Chapman's interest in and love of the medium comes through clearly. At times you might think that some examples are the only ones in the area being covered - The Eagle and 2000AD, for example, are covered more than any other individual titles - but there is a fair amount of detail in everything that is covered.
My own journey through comics appreciation and collecting started with British comics - from Monster Fun, through Look-In and onto 2000AD and I remember many of titles from the seventies and eighties that are covered, although I lost touch with the British side in the nineties and was never exposed to the underground stuff, so there was plenty to interest me, as well as to stir my memories. I also liked the final section, which shines a spotlight on some of the influential British talent that made its way over the pond to work in the US.
The only reason this book doesn't get a five star review from me is that I would have liked to see a few more pictures and perhaps some in colour. That and the fact that Chapman, in the section about underground comics, seems to have mixed up his musical genres somewhat, and equates the punk movement with heavy metal...
The prose is dense and Chapman's interest in and love of the medium comes through clearly. At times you might think that some examples are the only ones in the area being covered - The Eagle and 2000AD, for example, are covered more than any other individual titles - but there is a fair amount of detail in everything that is covered.
My own journey through comics appreciation and collecting started with British comics - from Monster Fun, through Look-In and onto 2000AD and I remember many of titles from the seventies and eighties that are covered, although I lost touch with the British side in the nineties and was never exposed to the underground stuff, so there was plenty to interest me, as well as to stir my memories. I also liked the final section, which shines a spotlight on some of the influential British talent that made its way over the pond to work in the US.
The only reason this book doesn't get a five star review from me is that I would have liked to see a few more pictures and perhaps some in colour. That and the fact that Chapman, in the section about underground comics, seems to have mixed up his musical genres somewhat, and equates the punk movement with heavy metal...
January 20, 2013
This is a superb history of the British popular comic from Ally Sloper in the 1880s through to Judge Dredd and beyond.
There is a coherent history to British popular culture with patterns repeating themselves in other genres than comics - see our review of McKay's history of Hammer Horror at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
An individual British style and creativity certainly exists but economic conditions - depression, war, imperial drawdown, the recession of the 1970s and American competition - make the story a sad one.
Time and time again, success is short term and troubled. It is no surprise to find great creative talent nurtured by what was once a superb educational system fuelling the American industrial machine.
The wise know that one of the triumphs of 'old' Labour was an educational system that put creative opportunities in the way of the English working and lower middle classes - the creative explosion in music, design, film and graphics arose out of that policy.
Sadly, much of this looks like being thrown away by Daily Mail stupidity about 'standards' and current and recent education ministries of startling authoritarian ineptitude. The results will be seen in due course.
As for comics, the arrival of Dan Dare in the 1950s and the profusion of great children's comics in that decade and in the 1960s were a high point, even if they have skewed the world view of anyone over 50.
This was an era when it appeared culturally credible that the British were still a heroic people with an independent role in the world - we flew to Venus, saved the world and beat the Nazis and the 'Nips'.
Sometimes, I muse without evidence that some of our more ridiculous adventures in foreign parts owe more to Commando, Valiant and the movie version of 'Zulu' than the baby boomer liberals would like to admit.
Plucky military Brits or space cadets defeat Rommel and the Mekon much as their successors send younger men to die against the Taliban and 'Saddam'. Warren Ellis' 'Ministry of Space' is a nice, almost elegiac, corrective.
2000AD was a second high point but one restricted somewhat to one stable with no renaissance across the sector. Classically English dystopianism was soon exportable and modified for an America less at ease with itself.
Today, an authentic genius like Alan Moore and great contributors like Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis largely work in an American cultural context although all have created works that exhibit a strong British sensibility.
We have seen a similar British input into Hollywood from Directors who cut their teeth on the highly creative world of British advertising so that the British creatively do 'punch above their weight' globally while still not reaping the full economic benefits.
British actors have also been central to most of the great Hollywood mythos - originally as villains (that accent!) but latterly as wise ancient ones (that accent!). Naturally , we are neither.
Although there is very fine work here and British creativity has helped the US industry immeasurably, one gets the sense of lurches, starts and leaps, and desperation, reflecting a wider socio-economic culture, a nation on the 'down', rather than continuous development.
It is certainly arguable that the Japanese manga and French (even Italian fumetti possibly) traditions, insulated from American capital by language and custom, are superior in achievement in terms of being a coherent cultural expression.
At some point, having been interrupted by total war, the British became wholly dependent on being the antechamber to America, almost certainly with the economic crises of the 1970s which also effectively destroyed Hammer.
There is an instructive and ambiguous little tale in the book that should be read by every national politician. A last gasp 'moral panic' caused the banning of 'violent' American comic books in the 1950s but this was not as straightforward as it might have seemed.
British distributors were making money out of these comics and they might have accumulated the capital to create new and exciting indigenous material if a Government had not been pressured by campaigners who undercut this market overnight.
'Dan Dare' filled the gap as did the British war comic but these all looked backwards to imperial and wartime conditions. Modernity was delayed until the counter culture triggered new ideas but these ideas were not commercial and creative business was what the country needed.
That banning was fascinating because it can be compared with the struggles for sexual freedom that were then being won in the US and which have been described in our review of the biography of Russ Meyer - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The sexual revolution was also taking place in the UK as evidenced in Paul Willetts' life of Paul Raymond - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... - but any ability to build an adult-minded comic book sector was crushed by government.
But the government was not the villain. The original 'moral panic' had been engineered by a malign Communist Party which then managed to roll in the usual suspects - authoritarian school teachers, trades unions and social workers as well as the faith-based community.
Civil servants and politicians knew the claims were unevidenced nonsense but the pressure grew and the Conservative Government caved in for electoral reasons, just to shut up the backbenchers and media.
The case study is interesting because little has changed. The Communist Party is dead but their place has been taken by a similar malign alliance of 'Guardian' feministas and faith-based foundations and charities.
Today, the issue may be the war on sex workers amidst highly spurious and hysterical claims about sex trafficking and the game may be played by big Evangelical Foundations instead of the Third International but the unevidenced authoritarian manipulation is the same.
Alhough Government remains solid on evidence and common sense up to a point, this coalition's mobilisation of pig ignorant cynics in the tabloids could result in malign and cruel laws that do serious harm.
But back to the book. It is highly recommended and academically sound, with copious useful notes for further study and very fair assessments with little sign of national bias or 'ideology'.
The author recognises his work is not the last word on the matter but the serious student of British culture could do a lot worse than start here.
Americans in particular might be interested in the cultural background of comic writers of the importance of Moore, Gaiman and Ellis. A culture that gave us 'V for Vendetta' is not a negligible one.
There is a coherent history to British popular culture with patterns repeating themselves in other genres than comics - see our review of McKay's history of Hammer Horror at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
An individual British style and creativity certainly exists but economic conditions - depression, war, imperial drawdown, the recession of the 1970s and American competition - make the story a sad one.
Time and time again, success is short term and troubled. It is no surprise to find great creative talent nurtured by what was once a superb educational system fuelling the American industrial machine.
The wise know that one of the triumphs of 'old' Labour was an educational system that put creative opportunities in the way of the English working and lower middle classes - the creative explosion in music, design, film and graphics arose out of that policy.
Sadly, much of this looks like being thrown away by Daily Mail stupidity about 'standards' and current and recent education ministries of startling authoritarian ineptitude. The results will be seen in due course.
As for comics, the arrival of Dan Dare in the 1950s and the profusion of great children's comics in that decade and in the 1960s were a high point, even if they have skewed the world view of anyone over 50.
This was an era when it appeared culturally credible that the British were still a heroic people with an independent role in the world - we flew to Venus, saved the world and beat the Nazis and the 'Nips'.
Sometimes, I muse without evidence that some of our more ridiculous adventures in foreign parts owe more to Commando, Valiant and the movie version of 'Zulu' than the baby boomer liberals would like to admit.
Plucky military Brits or space cadets defeat Rommel and the Mekon much as their successors send younger men to die against the Taliban and 'Saddam'. Warren Ellis' 'Ministry of Space' is a nice, almost elegiac, corrective.
2000AD was a second high point but one restricted somewhat to one stable with no renaissance across the sector. Classically English dystopianism was soon exportable and modified for an America less at ease with itself.
Today, an authentic genius like Alan Moore and great contributors like Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis largely work in an American cultural context although all have created works that exhibit a strong British sensibility.
We have seen a similar British input into Hollywood from Directors who cut their teeth on the highly creative world of British advertising so that the British creatively do 'punch above their weight' globally while still not reaping the full economic benefits.
British actors have also been central to most of the great Hollywood mythos - originally as villains (that accent!) but latterly as wise ancient ones (that accent!). Naturally , we are neither.
Although there is very fine work here and British creativity has helped the US industry immeasurably, one gets the sense of lurches, starts and leaps, and desperation, reflecting a wider socio-economic culture, a nation on the 'down', rather than continuous development.
It is certainly arguable that the Japanese manga and French (even Italian fumetti possibly) traditions, insulated from American capital by language and custom, are superior in achievement in terms of being a coherent cultural expression.
At some point, having been interrupted by total war, the British became wholly dependent on being the antechamber to America, almost certainly with the economic crises of the 1970s which also effectively destroyed Hammer.
There is an instructive and ambiguous little tale in the book that should be read by every national politician. A last gasp 'moral panic' caused the banning of 'violent' American comic books in the 1950s but this was not as straightforward as it might have seemed.
British distributors were making money out of these comics and they might have accumulated the capital to create new and exciting indigenous material if a Government had not been pressured by campaigners who undercut this market overnight.
'Dan Dare' filled the gap as did the British war comic but these all looked backwards to imperial and wartime conditions. Modernity was delayed until the counter culture triggered new ideas but these ideas were not commercial and creative business was what the country needed.
That banning was fascinating because it can be compared with the struggles for sexual freedom that were then being won in the US and which have been described in our review of the biography of Russ Meyer - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The sexual revolution was also taking place in the UK as evidenced in Paul Willetts' life of Paul Raymond - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... - but any ability to build an adult-minded comic book sector was crushed by government.
But the government was not the villain. The original 'moral panic' had been engineered by a malign Communist Party which then managed to roll in the usual suspects - authoritarian school teachers, trades unions and social workers as well as the faith-based community.
Civil servants and politicians knew the claims were unevidenced nonsense but the pressure grew and the Conservative Government caved in for electoral reasons, just to shut up the backbenchers and media.
The case study is interesting because little has changed. The Communist Party is dead but their place has been taken by a similar malign alliance of 'Guardian' feministas and faith-based foundations and charities.
Today, the issue may be the war on sex workers amidst highly spurious and hysterical claims about sex trafficking and the game may be played by big Evangelical Foundations instead of the Third International but the unevidenced authoritarian manipulation is the same.
Alhough Government remains solid on evidence and common sense up to a point, this coalition's mobilisation of pig ignorant cynics in the tabloids could result in malign and cruel laws that do serious harm.
But back to the book. It is highly recommended and academically sound, with copious useful notes for further study and very fair assessments with little sign of national bias or 'ideology'.
The author recognises his work is not the last word on the matter but the serious student of British culture could do a lot worse than start here.
Americans in particular might be interested in the cultural background of comic writers of the importance of Moore, Gaiman and Ellis. A culture that gave us 'V for Vendetta' is not a negligible one.
July 27, 2017
Truly horrid, and self consciously pompous and academic. It's very well researched and detailed, but it shows no understanding of why some people create comics, or why other people might want to read them, or how/why those two groups of people might interact.
I learnt the names and dates of production of some comics, but little else I cared about.
I learnt the names and dates of production of some comics, but little else I cared about.
May 29, 2024
Overall an enjoyable read for someone like me who "grew out" of comics in the early seventies but has since grown back into all the subsequent goings-on within the literary undergrowth. This was a pleasant excursion down memory lane and beyond into the history and prehistory of the genre. Well written and not too drily academic. I was only surprised to find no mention at all of Baxendale’s Wham and Smash from the late 1960s and only cursory treatment (mostly in footnotes) of Baxendale himself with his Bash Street Kids (The BBC said that he was "regarded by aficionados as one of Britain's greatest and most influential cartoonists" see Wiki). Although I was never a huge comics aficionado myself, even at a tender age I noticed how sophisticated Wham and Smash's artwork and narrative were becoming (see Wiki), the literary turn taken by some of their characters (e.g. Grimly Feendish and Jonah), the smart intertextual allusions secreted in various picture-frame corners and the surreal breaches of the fourth wall (reader's voice: conventions which can be seen to this day in various online genres). The oft-repeating basic storylines of my sister's' comics like Mandy and Judy were also worth more than a brief note IMO, so I wonder what else was missed out, but all in all a worthwhile outline.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews