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Post by dem bones on Oct 29, 2008 12:10:57 GMT
Kevin Carpenter - Penny Dreadfuls And Comics (Victoria And Albert Museum, 1983)  Trevor Smith
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Penny Dreadfuls And Other Story-Papers
Edward J. Brett's 'Wild And Wonderful Fiction'
Brett's Competitors And Their 'Penny Packets of Poison'
Outlaws And Criminals As Heroes
Dime Novels
Boys Own Periodicals, Boys Own Periodicals, and 'Healthy Reading For The Young'
Harmsworth's Crusade Against The Penny Dreadful
Billy Bunter And Sexton Blake
The Big Five
Comics
Some Forerunners Of The Comics
Early English Comics
Childrens Comics Between The Wars
The Adventure Strip
Eagle And After
Today's Pre-School Comics
Desperate Dan And Friends
Girl's Comics
War Comics
Index A catalogue, written and published to tie in with the exhibition of Penny Dreadfuls, Boys & Girls Own Adventures, early Dime novels and Comics old and new, organised by the author for the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood and a neat crash-course in nineteenth century street fiction, as immortalised in James Greenwood's histrionic essay A Short Way To Newgate ( The Wilds of London, Chatto & Windus, 1874) as Penny Packets of Poison. If you've ever wondered at the appeal of Penny Dreadful's, just read Greenwood's apoplectic comments on Spring Heel’d Jack, the Terror of London, Tyburn Dick, The Skeleton Crew (content: exactly what you'd expect from the title!), and the downright fruity The Pretty Girls Of London (content: exactly what ... etc)! Peter Haining would often exhume whole chapters of these romances for his anthologies and *ahem* "non-fiction" works, most notably the lovable The Penny Dreadful: Strange, Horrid And Sensational Tales! (Gollancz, 1975). Mr. Carpenter doesn't go into any great detail about the written content of these scandalous publications, but makes up for this with reproductions of evocative cover artwork and illustrations from The Young Englishman (skeletons impaled on long stakes), Dick Turpin, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and several non-horrid titles. It's much the same story with the comics: a brief history of their evolution, offset with plenty of illustrative material, mostly covers, sometimes entire strips. Larks, Sparks, Eagle, Bunty, Shiver & Shake, Battle .... How could I ever have forgotten the magnificently wicked Beryl The Peril?
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Post by carolinec on Oct 29, 2008 14:08:16 GMT
Ah, this brought back some memories! In my "other life" as a nerdy autograph collector, I had a nice little bit of email communication a few years ago with former Beano artist, Leo Baxendale, creator of The Bash Street Kinds and Minnie the Minx. A lovely guy! For some reason, as a kid, I never really liked the "girly comics" but much preferred those like The Beano (probably for the same reason that I'd usually be found playing with toy guns, cars and a football, rather than dolls - I think my parents were a bit worried about me! :  . So, nice memories there. Did anyone see that programme on TV a while back - Comics Britannia? |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 29, 2008 14:47:32 GMT
For some reason, as a kid, I never really liked the "girly comics" *astonished* You're not seriously trying to tell me you didn't get Misty? You don't know what you were missing! Ghosts in Victorian Orphanages, killer potted plants on the rampage, deadly bees, Countess Misty's love spells - it's seriously fantastic! Actually, if you want to know anything about Bunty, just ask one of the guys on here 'cause it seems we were all reading that stuff while you were playing football. Football, no less! I am sorry, call me mr. male chauvinistic if you will, but it is a scientifically proven fact that girls, as everybody knows, cannot play football .... |
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Post by carolinec on Oct 29, 2008 18:05:23 GMT
but it is a scientifically proven fact that girls, as everybody knows, cannot play football .... And well you might hide under a chair after a comment like that!  Yes, I used to play with the boys down the road - and sometimes we'd play football too ...  Anyway, come on then, own up - which of you guys used to read the girly comics then (other than Dem)?  |
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Post by killercrab on Oct 29, 2008 19:54:40 GMT
Anyway, come on then, own up - which of you guys used to read the girly comics then (other than Dem)? >> Whizzer and Chips and The Victor for me ! However I disliked football. ade |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 29, 2008 20:32:29 GMT
Anyway, come on then, own up - which of you guys used to read the girly comics then (other than Dem)? Only those of us who don't know the meaning of fear could take 'em! However I disliked football. ade Shame that, ade. I reckon you'd have made a top keeper with those giant crabby pincers. Whizzer and Chips! I've quite a stash of them when Creepy Comics was in it, plus Pongo Snodgrass unless that was Whoopee or something. Also, a Shiver and Shake yearbook - Grimley Feendish! The Bride's got about four Misty annuals, too, and that's not including her Best of Misty specials' from the 'late eighties, but i'm not allowed near them very often! |
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