KID KLASSICS: IT'S DEAD, JIM! REALLY, IT'S DEAD...

What is?  The British comics industry, that's what!

Remember all the comics that newsagents counters used to

strain under, week by week, the product of IPC and DCT?  I'm

talking about real comics, not puzzle or activity mags with a smat-

tering of comic strip content - actual comics that were filled to the

gills with strip after strip, for only a few pence, published by mighty

empires devoted to producing weekly periodicals for kids all over

the country (and abroad).  Companies who were in competition
with each other, vying for whatever pocket money wasn't
spent on sweets and toys.

That doesn't exist any more.  It has expired, turned

up its tootsies, fallen off the twig, shuffled off this mortal coil,

is pushing up the daisies - dead!  What remains today is nothing
more than the equivalent of a craft fayre or car boot sale, where
anaemic and emaciated survivors cling on by their fingertips, try-
ing to be all things to all kids, but sadly ignored by the majority
of them.  Circulation figures today are generally so poor that,
in the industry's heyday, a comic would have suffered
cancellation long before it ever sank so low.

Don't be misled by those who say otherwise;  those
whose self-interests lie in talking up the current situation.
We're talking about comics - weekly, published paper comics,
devoted mainly to humour and adventure strips for the entertain-
ment of kids and teenagers, at a reasonable price.  We're not talk-
ing about on-line cartoons, or collected editions in book form.
Comic strips can be published in a variety of mediums, but a
book is a book and a website is a website, which - although
they might feature comic strips - are not in themselves
'comics' in the traditional sense.

So, to reiterate - the industry of traditional, weekly,
published paper periodicals called comics is, sadly, dead.
The BEANO and 2000 A.D. do not constitute an 'industry'.
No amount of wishful-thinking, or reinterpretation of the facts
can change that.  However, whether it's an immutable condition
is by no means certain.  Perhaps, some day, that once-mighty
industry can be resurrected, and, if so, those of us who love
comics - real comics - printed paper comics - will
welcome their return.  What else can I say?

  Roll on that day, eh?   

Posted in: Cartoons