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Post by justin on May 19, 2009 21:12:00 GMT
A sneak preview of an article I've written for Crikey! the magazine of British comics about New English Library. I probably shouldn't be sharing it but let's keep it a secret.
I've got 4 out of the 6 NEL Angels mags so they will be featured more in-depth in a future Fanatic. Indeed this article may well also appear in a slightly amended format in a future Fanatic. But wanted to share something other than my normal blatant self-promotion!
Additions/corrections/comments very welcome.
Special thanks to All Things Horror for sharing his copies of Target with me!
PULPS RULE OK!
In the first instalment of a two-part article Justin Marriott makes the case for British comic’s greatest innovators- paperback publishing house New English Library!
Although I’ve been an avid reader and fan of this magazine from its debut issue, I’ve often commented to Crikey’s Commander-in-Chief that the featured comics and artists and the manner in which they were covered didn’t necessarily resonate with my own memories of reading British comics. I was born in 1969 so the comics I avidly devoured growing up were the likes of ‘Battle’, ‘Action’ and ‘2000AD’, titles which have received scant coverage in Crikey! to date. Glenn’s response was a logical one- he challenged me to stop my moaning and come up with an article meself.
Before I get to the heart of the matter- which is to share my enthusiasm for ‘Action’ comic and its Kids Rule OK strip in particular- I have a confession to make. I don’t really read that many comics these days and I certainly don’t collect them. Instead I am a paperback fanatic, a creature that haunts dusty second-hand book-shops across the land in search of musty and yellowing pulps from the 1960s and 1970s. I seek out lurid stories of randy window-cleaners in bell-bottom jeans and pudding bowl hair-cuts, grizzled WW2 Stormtroopers wading knee-deep in gore and burnt flesh, motor-cycle maniacs and violent skinheads running riot in British sea-side resorts, and giant rats/crabs/insects (take your pick) feasting on intestines like sloppy spaghetti. And the paperbacks in these genres published by New English Library (N.E.L.) in particular.
Hopefully you haven’t stopped reading by now and will allow me the opportunity to expand upon why I see N.E.L. as British comic’s great unsung innovators in the first part of this article, and in the next part the parallels that I believe existed between N.E.L. and the British comics industry, ‘Action’ in particular.
In the mid-1960s, publishers N.E.L. (who had been known as Four Square) were financially on their knees, until Gareth Powell and a newly recruited Peter Haining set about reviving their fortunes. Haining had been a journalist at National Newsagent, a weekly trade paper in which he used his paperback review column to espouse upon what he saw as a lack of paperbacks aimed at teenagers. Powell agreed with Haining and invited him to put his money where his mouth was by joining N.E.L. and commissioning such titles.
With a keen eye on the trends of the day Haining did just that, developing paperbacks on subjects such as The Beatles and pirate radio, and books tying in with popular TV series such as ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘Tarzan’. In search of new titles and ideas Haining would also regularly visit the West Coast of the US where many vibrant young publishers were thriving. A favourite of Haining’s discoveries were the Ballantine paperback sized reprints of Mad, whose satire and irreverence encapsulated the vibe he wished to bring to N.E.L.’s youth titles. Although he could only agree a licence to distribute the Mad books in the UK, in the late 1960s Haining was inspired to pull together paperback collections of classic comics in the form of a series of reprints of Hulk, Thor and Batman. Could he claim to have invented the graphic novel? At the time the collections absolutely bombed and no further titles followed which was a major disappointment to Haining.
N.E.L. would hold weekly brain-storming sessions where they would study news stories, box-office smashes, best-sellers and popular trends, then commission a team of efficient writers (many of them ex-journalists) to produce a book to cash in on such trends. Their most financially lucrative idea being a series of ultra-violent and black-humoured ‘Edge’ westerns in the tradition of the spaghetti genre which was pulling in the punters at the cinema. Clocking in 67 adventures, Edge was sold all over the world and only a silly mistake prevented a film being made of the character- the author sold the film rights to some chancer called Irving Allen in the mistaken belief it was Irwin Allen of Poseidon Adventure fame!
N.E.L. also revitalised the horror genre which had lay dormant for years with the exception of the yearly ‘Pan Books of Horror Stories’. Over a decade before the phrase “video nasties” was coined, N.E.L. described their horror titles as “nasties” promoting the unprecedented level of sex and violence in titles such as The Rats and Night of the Crabs.
Possibly their most-remembered books came out a brain-storm where a member of staff who was a Chelsea fan mentioned a news story about skinhead hooligans causing trouble at football matches. When a bona-fide skinhead who was then commissioned by N.E.L. failed to deliver, Haining called in one of his hacks to deliver Skinhead, which did exactly what it said on the cover. Followed by a dozen-odd sequels and a series of Hell’s Angels pulps also offering a similar level of purple prose, these books sold in the millions at the time and are avidly collected to this day, often fetching silly money on generic auction web-sites.
N.E.L. also published a number of magazines and comic books, which by their disposable nature were even more trend-led. Magazines on George Best, Bruce Lee, Johnny Cash, and Hell’s Angels (often with totally made-up interviews and “facts”) were churned out at an alarming rate. ‘Science Fiction Monthly’ (1973 to 1976) was published in an A3 broad-sheet format, mixing short fiction, reviews and massive full colour reproductions (minus intrusive logos) of cover art from SF books N.E.L. were publishing. Undoubtedly designed to be disassembled and used for posters, the mags’ approach to the art pre-dated the many fantasy art collections that were issued by the likes of Dragon’s Dream and Paper Tiger in the 1980s.
‘Edgar Rice Burroughs’ (1975) and ‘Ghoul’ (1976) were a pair of one-offs of possible interest to comic fans. ‘ERB’ was also in A3 broad-sheet format with poster-sized reproductions of paperback cover art in addition to articles from noted author Michael Moorcock and his regular-collaborator fantasy artist Jim Cawthorn on Tarzan comic strip artists and the new film adaptation of The Land That Time Forgot. In age before the internet this publication contained ERB information that would have been a revelation to most readers. There was even an article on Burrough’s westerns by horror author Guy Smith!
‘Ghoul’ was less successful, inspired by the humour employed by author Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes in his horror shorts (such as The Monster Club which was made into a dreadful film) it was a ‘Famous Monsters’ cash-in which combined quality short stories and articles with some truly appalling humour such as horror-scopes (geddit) and an interview with Dracula. Its’ cover tag-line of “It’s a ghastly giggle” was only half-right.
‘Dracula’ (1972) was a short-lived but noble experiment to replicate the European approach to comics, utilising the very best reproduction values to show-case some fabulous Spanish material from the likes of Enric Sio, Jose Bea and Esteban Maroto. Weighing in at a relatively slim 20 pages but a hefty 13 pence price tag, the paper stock and colours were beautiful particularly compared to the bog-roll used by IPC and DCT, and acted as a fantastic showcase for the pop-art and design-led strips.
Based on the high cover price and reading the comic’s editorials which referenced Lovecraft and underground comix, N.E.L. were evidently aiming for a more sophisticated and adult audience for the comic. Despite lofty plans to issue hard-bound folders into which you could file your issues, the comic was cancelled after only 12 issues, although the ever resourceful publisher rebound the unsold back issues into a ‘Dracula Annual’ which in itself is highly collectible. (By the way, Drac only ever appeared in a one-off strip)
Jim Warren of ‘Creepy’ fame did also issue a compendium of the strips under the title ‘Dracula’ (I’ve only ever seen it advertised in Warren horror mags so can’t comment as to its content) and soon after Maroto began working in ‘Vampirella’ and at least one Sio strip was reproduced in the colour centre-pages of an ‘Eerie’, so I imagine the title was instrumental in bringing the Spanish artists to the attention of Warren and US audiences. Although I’m conscious I’m giving credit to N.E.L. as trail-blazers for everything they did (Read how Peter Haining discovered gravity in the next issue) but when I recall ‘Dracula’ I can’t help but think of the likes of ‘Heavy Metal’ magazine and its lush production values and sexually-charged material which would follow four years later.
I believe N.E.L. also published a number of pocket-books in the style of ‘Commando’, although I don’t have copies and these would have definitely been rip-offs of the ‘Commando’ formula. One very interesting N.E.L. interpretation of a theme was ‘Target’ which ran for 50-odd issues (the last one I have is issue 50 and is dated 1972) and is not to be confused with another TV series based comic of the same title which would appear later in the decade. I believe ‘Target’ to be N.E.L.’s version of ‘Look and Learn’, the educational weekly which appeared to me at the time to be so dull and middle-class (not that I would have articulated in that way back then), not even The Trigan Empire could tempt me into reading it.
Although I was too young for ‘Target’ and have only become aware of it recently, it was evidently aiming at a market very different to that of ‘Look and Learn’, and one I would have identified with. Take issue 50 for instance, mercifully free from the wholesome educational content of ‘Look and Learn’, its cover carried a still from the new Hammer film Dracula is Dead and Well and Living In London (Christopher Lee contributed a weekly column as did Dave Lee Travis. Truly horrific!) with the contents including Part 2 of ‘The Hitler Gang’ featuring Rudolf Hess and a photo of a hanging victim of the SS, a study of ancient punishment including wood-cut reproductions of being hanged, drawn and quartered, a pin-up of a racing car, a soccer skills school and the Mau Mau cult were studied in ‘Secret Societies’. Comic strips such as ‘Bovver Boy’ and ‘L’s Angels’ rounded out the package for a publication aimed at teens!
N.E.L. evidently intended ‘Target’ as a feeder mag into their paperbacks, often carrying one-sided reviews of the latest horror or biker titles, and centre-spread posters of their covers. I’ll resist the temptation to now attribute ‘Target’ as the predecessor to ‘Nuts’ and the current “lads weekly” phenomenon, but the mixture of sports, outrageous photos and coverage of the latest films and music appears to be a formula as popular now as it was then.
Now I’ve finished attributing the invention of the printing press and penicillin to Peter Haining and N.E.L. it’s about time I pressed forward with my claim to parallels with this revolutionary publisher and the likes of Action. But that’s next issue!
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Post by jamesdoig on May 19, 2009 23:42:02 GMT
Thanks for sharing this - really interesting. Fascinating about Peter Haining. In Horror: 100 Best Books he has an essay on August Derleth's anthology, The Sleeping and the Dead, which he says he arranged first publication in Great Britain for Four Square. That was 1963, which must have been pretty early on in his career.  |
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Post by dem bones on May 20, 2009 0:12:43 GMT
Thanks so much for sharing this informative and enthusiastic history lesson, Justin. I've yet to see a Crikey but i think you're right, this article would be equally at home in Fanatic. Would love to be able to scan in some relevant covers but i don't have any, and if i use that Ghoul one yet again it will likely disintegrate before our eyes. I remember a mate of mine proudly brandishing one of the Hells Angels mags under my nose. Charming cover: some greasy chap biting the head off a pigeon and washing it down with a can of beer (unless i hallucinated the entire episode which is not beyond the realms of possibility)? That's the sum total of my exposure to this stuff save for once being £2 short of the asking price for the Dracula annual in a Holloway road bookshop. How much did they want for it? A fiver ....
Hope you get a decent response. The line "N.E.L. also revitalised the horror genre which had lay dormant for years with the exception of the yearly ‘Pan Books of Horror Stories’" is perhaps ever-so-slightly contentious, but some of the uncharitable comments i've found online about Peter Haining since his death have, uh, not shown the people making them in the very best light, so it's uplifting to read an unashamedly biased article celebrating his phenomenal drive and considerable achievement in lifting NEL up by the scruff of its neck.
Gotta take issue with you over "The Monster Club which was made into a dreadful film", though. Provided you turn the sound down at strategic intervals it's a gem.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 20, 2009 7:49:40 GMT
Top top stuff Justin! A schoolfriend of mine had some copies of Target and I remember being a little stunned to see articles about the later Hammer Draculas and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in a boy's comic.
re Edge - as far as I remember (and no way have I got them all) Edge appeared in 61 of his own novels and 3 Edge Meets Steele adventures. I know he appeared as a guest star in a couple of other PC westerns and Terry H has written a few internet only stories.
The only NEL comic I had was Ghoul - which I think has gone now. Darn! Excellent centre spread of the cover of the first Lory Dracula novel sans words.
NB Don't know if it's worth mentioning but I always remember the MAD books as Signet - although Ballantine did issue paper back versions of ECs Tales From The Crypt and Vault Of Horror.
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Post by allthingshorror on May 20, 2009 7:55:38 GMT
Brilliant article Justin - has made my morning before having to slither into work.
Though not NEL I would love to read an article on the House of Hammer - they definately have the kind of TARGET feel to them - hell they could be seen as EMPRIE's big brother.
Dem, what uncharitable comments have there been about Haining? The UK's most prolific and arguably the greatest ever anthologist - and they have to go and knock him when he can't answer back? Idiots.
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 20, 2009 8:28:20 GMT
Gotta take issue with you over "The Monster Club which was made into a dreadful film", though. Provided you turn the sound down at strategic intervals it's a gem. Indeed. Any film featuring not only Vincent Price but also The Pretty Things is a classic. |
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Post by dem bones on May 20, 2009 9:20:53 GMT
Dem, what uncharitable comments have there been about Haining? The UK's most prolific and arguably the greatest ever anthologist - and they have to go and knock him when he can't answer back? Idiots. I'm not going to repeat the one that particularly pissed me off on here. To be fair, those doing the knocking were equally happy to do so while he was alive and their grievances were/ are legit. Yes, he was often creative with his author attributions and slapdash when it came to applying publication dates: many of his alleged 'non-fiction' titles are laced with convincing 'evidence' that was entirely the product of Mr. P. Haining's fertile imagination. And so on and so on ... I used to get cross with his mania for recycling Dracula's Guest under yet another improbable title, but i like my authors to have a bit of mischief about them and, you know, who cares when his books are consistently entertaining? He even left plenty of room for those who criticise him to point out his every glaring flaw and feel dead smug about themselves so you'd think they'd be grateful? |
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Post by pulphack on May 20, 2009 17:33:19 GMT
a cracking read, admirably potted, and a good primer for the non-afficianado. the only thing i'd suggest is that you could name and shame a few of the hacks, as i know that the only two people i know who read Crikey would be aware of Richard Allen, and of NEL, but might not make the leap without some prompting (you know who you are...)
Target - i had the whole year's run as my mum used to get it for me every week on the assumption that it would be a good step up from Buster and Lion. i realise from the dates that i must have been 7 going on 8 at the time.
what WAS she thinking?
i remember a review and pics of one of the Dr Phibes films that made me want to see it for years afterwards. god, i'd love to see these again. and, of course, a lot of the editorial was down to a certain mr L James (as he laughingly revealed when i wastalking about it once).
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Post by sadako on Oct 31, 2023 1:05:23 GMT
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Post by andydecker on Oct 31, 2023 7:53:38 GMT
Thank you for the covers. What fun! Preymate of the month! I have to memorize this.
I can understand that parents at the time can't have been thrilled at some of those :-) Still much more healthy than the net. Inner Space. Imagination need. No things that spell for you.
Target has dead horses, a mobster, heavy rock and a vampire on the cover. What is not to love. Likewise the sf magazines. Silverberg, Brunner, great art. All gone.
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