welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Wednesday, December 6, 2017

FACEACHE VOL. 1 FROM REBELLION




Last week I received my copy of Ken Reid’s Faceache published by the new copyright owner. I am proud I had an opportunity to make a small contribution to the preparation of the book, and I am pleased that the editor included a special thank you to me in the credits.


I like nearly everything about the book: introductions by Alan Moore and Ken’s son Antony are an entertaining read and offer some fresh insights; I like the endpapers and the back cover (not so thrilled about the front one); reproduction quality is impressive, considering that the stories were scanned from newsprint comics; it is nice the book is printed on plain paper rather than the glossy stock used for Marney the Fox collection published earlier this year.


The sub-title says “The Ken Reid Years”, so I would have preferred if they had left out the poorly-drawn pages by the substitute artist (16 altogether) and filled the book with Ken Reid’s art from cover to cover. 


That aside, it’s an excellent volume, a must for every Ken Reid/Faceache fan! I very much hope it does well in the bookstores and Rebellion find it worth their while to release Vol. 2, 3, etc. of this great character that happens to be one of my favourites in British comics.


P.S. - Have you noticed that the actual front cover differs from the version used in the various online articles and blogposts that promoted the book when it was first announced? Amazon and eBay sellers are still using the first version of the front cover. I am glad Rebellion changed it because as many as five scrunges in the first version were drawn by the substitute artist, while those appearing on the actual book are all by Reid! 


9 comments:

  1. Nice you've helped...will get it soon..
    Got Marney and Leopard from lime street too..

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    1. I bought Marney the Fox but skipped Leopard from Lime street.

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  2. I've just published my own post about the book, Irmy - only to notice once I'd done so that you got there first. What don't you like about the front cover? I thought it was quite striking.

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    1. I'm not even sure, the design simply doesn't appeal to me. I think one large drawing would have been more to my liking.

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  3. Oops, no I haven't published my post yet - it's sitting in my drafts file. 'Twas the Marvel one I published. I've prepared three posts in advance and lost track.

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  4. My copy should arrive from Amazon sometime next week. :)

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  5. I plan to buy all three when funds allow. Some idiot boasted to Lew Stringer recently that he or she has a bootleg Faceache volume. Lew pointed out that that’s the wrong way to show support: you pay up, even if in my case it means waiting for a while, and also that this sort of thing could go against further releases. Well said Lew.

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    1. In the prior absence of an official Faceache volume, does having a 'bootleg' one make a lot of difference though? In the case of Faceache, Ken Reid didn't own the character and his estate wasn't being deprived of royalties or any other kind of income. (And if he were still alive, he wouldn't receive any royalties from the official volume either.) The copyright owner at that time wasn't commercially exploiting the character, presumably on the assumption that no one was interested, so if they weren't prepared to do so, did it hurt anyone that someone else did? In fact, perhaps that bootleg volume helped maintain interest in Faceache and was responsible for Rebellion recognising that it was worth buying the copyright and releasing their own book. If I had a bootleg version, I'd still get the official one because I'd see the bootleg as a mere 'stopgap'. Of course, I'm talking about old, out of print strips (as Faceache once was) that would otherwise be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to acquire any other way, not new work which is readily available and supplies the creators with income. I think the bootleg volume you refer to was produced in such small numbers that even if those who have got one don't buy the official version (and I think most of them will, even if it's just for the introductions), it won't make any real difference to the success (or otherwise) of the Rebellion edition. Incidentally, I'm informed that the bootleg volumes cost a small fortune so would only have been bought by diehard fans. I really do feel that most of them will still buy the new, official edition.

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  6. Where's the harm if it was out of print?

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