Like many of the visitors to Comics UK, their comic reading started during the 1950's, 60's, 70's and 80's and they were brought up on a stable diet of Fleetway, D.C.Thomson and Marvel publications. We've all appreciated some of the artwork of these comics and most of us realise that without good writing, most stories simply would not have held up. Part of that writing contingent was Tim Quinn, who worked on titles such as Sparky, Topper, Doctor Who, Whoopee, Whizzer & Chips and Buster as well as the odd piece of TV work. So let's find out a little bit more about the man.

Tim, a very warm welcome to Comics UK. We¹ll start with the obligatory welcome question; Where were you born and when?
I was born in Liverpool in 1953 which accounts for a lot! It was a fabulous time and place to grow up. At age 4 I attended a convent school followed by a school run by Irish Christian Brothers (which accounts for everything else!).

What comics/story papers did you read in your youth?

Some of Tim's early reading material

I remember 'reading' comics before I could read. My elder brother got Express weekly and I loved the colours in the comic. Then I started on Playhour and Jack & Jill and Harold Hare's Own, gorgeous comics with fantastic artwork with a wide variety of styles. You got a very warm, safe feel from those comics. I love them to this day. Dandy and Beano, of course, got a look in together with Beezer and Topper. I remember buying the first issues of Buster, Valiant, Wham!, Sparky and TV21, very exciting moments. I also liked TV Comic a lot. Lion was another favourite. We had American friends who worked on a US Air Force base in Liverpool so we would visit there and get the latest American comic books too...everything from Sad Sack and Casper to Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. I loved them all. Telling stories in pictures was a joy to me.

What job(s) did you do before you started writing for comics?
After leaving school I became a stagehand and stage manager at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall which is the theatre where they produced BBC TV's Good Old Days series. Loved this.

Early job as a stage hand
I also worked as a ringboy at Blackpool Tower Circus. I was at the City Varieties for about 8 years. A lot of the old music hall acts from the Thirties were still performing there - Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Albert Modley - so it was a bit like living in the pages of old issues of Radio Fun!

Ringboy at
Blackpool Tower

Were you an imaginative writer as a schoolboy, or was it something which developed during your early years?

I daydreamed my way through school. I was usually off on cloud 9 having adventures with my dog Rags while the rest of the class were doing maths, etc. I wrote quite a few of these adventures down between the age of 7-11.

How did you get your first comic writing job and what was the title of the very first script that you wrote?

While working as stage manager at the City Varieties I brought in lots of comics to give away to kids in the audience during the pantomime season. I was at this time drawing and writing comics for my young brother. I remember sitting in the wings of the theatre reading a copy of Sparky when I thought I would have a bash at writing for the professional comics. I gave myself a month. Each day I wrote two stories about Hungry Horace. At the end of the month I read through all the stories and typed up four of them (only the reasonable ones) and sent them off to the editor of Sparky. Much to my surprise he wrote back to say he was accepting two of the tales for publication. I remember walking on air for a week! I received the marvellous sum of £4.20 per script. But what a thrill to see the story in print. I had enjoyed Hungry Horace when I was a kid, so it was fun to see him in my own story.

Click here to read one of Tim's scripts from his first character, Hungry Horace.

What was the title of your first script where you became the regular writer?

I was soon writing for many of the Sparky characters. Then Sparky combined with The Topper and I started writing for Topper characters too...Beryl the Peril, Mickey the Monkey, Peter Piper, Danny's Tranny, Ali's Baba, L-Cars, Thingummyblob, Tiny, etc.
 


Just some of the strips that Tim has written for.
L-R: Beryl the Peril, Danny and his Tranny, Tiny, Cedric (L-Cars), Mickey the Monkey, Thingummyblob

Did you actually invent a story or character, or had they already been invented and you were given a brief character outline from which to work from?

The first strip I created for Topper and Sparky was titled The Tyme Twins (Tim and Tina Tyme owned pogo sticks that could hop back through time). I've returned to this theme many times in strips I've created for kids' mags both in the UK and in the US.

Click the icon to read Tim's
very first Tyme Twins story.

Are you married? Any children?
Yes. I'm married to Jane who is my life. Jane is American and came into my life back in 1986 which was the year I started writing the 'Jane' strip in the Daily Mirror. I have two grown up stepkids who live in the US.

Did/do your children read comics? And do they like your stories?

Of course and of course!

Tell me more of the stories that you wrote and which comics they were in (fill your boots - as they say)?

In 1978 I attended Dennis Gifford's Comics 101 Convention and met the artist Dicky Howett who at that time was drawing Supermum in IPC's Whoopee comic. He got me into IPC. I wrote for Whoopee, Buster, Jackpot, and Whizzer and Chips (Sweeney Toddler, Supermum, Bumpkin Billionaires, etc.) I used to write whole annuals and summer specials for them around the early 1980's. Around this time Dicky and I also started producing British style strips for the weekly and monthly titles put out by Marvel UK. We had strips running in all their titles for quite a few years. Our stuff stood out like a sore thumb amongst the superheroics but seemed to go down well as a fun break with most of the readers.


Tim met artist
Dicky Howett in 1978

Tim & Dicky's 'shelved' Zip comic
from Marvel back in 1981. Click
the icon to read some of the pages.
We actually created a weekly fun title, called Zip, for Marvel UK using a mix of artists from all over, including our own stuff. Alas, this was shelved when Marvel made a loss on a particular title. It still reads well to me though (only slightly biased, I think!). I was also still writing for Thomson's on Tops and Celebrity. ArRound this time I was writing scripts for the Little and Large BBC TV series and also scripts for their strip in Tops.


Tim wrote scripts for
the long-serving comedy
duo Little And Large


Tim also worked on Supermum,
Bumpkin Billionaires and Sweeny Toddler

Which of your own stories were your personal favourite(s)?

The Tyme Twins, The Gold Rush (from Jackpot), Tim Tyme (from US mag 'Children's Digest'), Jet Lagg, Earth 33 and a Third, I Was Adolf's Double (all from Marvel titles in the early 80's). In 1983 Marvel put all the strips Dicky and I had worked on into a summer Special called 'Channel Thirty Three and a Third'.


Click the icon to read the
very first 'Gold Rush' strip.


Click the icon to read some Channel 33⅓ pages.

You must have worked with some interesting artists, editors and characters during your comic writing career. Would you like to name and discuss a few of them?

Dicky Howett is a favourite. We did so much together. His style is as whacky as it gets. It was great to work with John M Burns on the 'Jane' strip. Always liked his work from the early 60's on. Mario Capaldi is another longtimer whose work I had grown up with. Beautiful stuff. When I became an editor of Spider-Man and the X-Men at Marvel, it was a fantastic time to work with artists whose work I had loved for years. It was also exciting finding new artists. On the wall of my office today I have hanging the work of Sal Buscema, Dicky Howett, Charlie Adlard and Mario Capaldi.

 

A panel from Doctor Who Magazine by artist Dicky Howett and Tim Quinn

Do you have any anecdotes from your time in comics?

While at Marvel I sent a letter to Melvyn Bragg at the South Bank Show suggesting that he produce a documentary on the 50 year history of Marvel. To my surprise he agreed and I was signed on as Associate Producer of the show. That was a buzz. All his other producers were from Oxford and Cambridge, I was the only one from the Topper and Sparky! 
While at Marvel I suggested producing a comic book revolving round characters created by Enid Blyton. To this end I met with her elder daughter, Gillian Baverstock. We got on very well, so much so that a few years later we set up a publishing company of our own, Quill Publications Ltd, and produced a monthly comic magazine called Blue Moon. This title featured sequels to fairy tales. I used a mix of Marvel artists. This is the title I'm most proud of having worked on. It only lasted for 12 issues, but it was a fantastic experience and looks great to this day, grab an issue if you can!

Click the icon to read some pages
from the Blue Moon magazine

We hear stories that the wages for comic artists and writers wasn't very good. Especially considering the work you had to do and the pressure you were under to meet the deadlines. Can you elaborate on that?

Working in comics was a joy. It's difficult to put a monetary figure on what strips and scripts are worth...It's nothing new to hear that the artist is usually screwed, this is a grand tradition that has been in place since the first cavemen took up a brush and slapped pictures on their cave walls. As far as pressure goes, that's a bit of a joke. If you call working in comics pressured, I think you need to get out more. It was a hoot.

When and why did you stop writing for comics?


Tim worked in the USA
on childrens magazines.
In my opinion there are no comics on the stands today. It's all bland blaaah! I detest what is being produced today. The talent is there but it's not being used. The people at the top are dull as dishwater accountants who have no knowledge or interest in what they are producing. It's sad that it has come to this, but hey, I'm lucky I had so many years of fun before it all collapsed. For many years I lived and worked in the US, working as an editor for the kids mags produced by The Saturday Evening Post Magazine (US Kids, Children's Digest, Jack & Jill, etc)

What career did you pursue afterwards?


That's no way to treat a
teacher. Tim found out
that Bash St may have
been based on a true story.
Believe it or not, I'm a teacher now at a school in Shrewsbury. On my first week in the job I was walking across the playground when somebody kicked a ball to rebound off the back of my head. I turned round and bawled "Who did that?" All I could see were about 100 grinning faces all of whom would have happily done it! It reminded me of all the strips I wrote for IPC and DC Thomsons where I had naughty kids lobbing objects at the back of teachers' heads. Divine justice, I guess! Certainly a pain in the neck, anyway you look at it.

What are you doing now?

Avoiding walking across the playground, teaching art, English, RE, etc. God help me! I also manage a singer from the 1960's, Julie Felix (www.juliefelix.com).

Julie Felix

Do you get much chance to read the British comics of today, like 2000AD, Beano, Dandy, Viz, Striker? If so, what do you think of them?

I did write a strip for Viz long ago. In my opinion Beano, Dandy etc have long past their sell-by date. The stories actually don't make sense in many cases. Pathetic.

Is there anything else you would like to add before we conclude?


"Comics and the Beatles" -
a great combination!
You know what I miss most about comics? That thrill of waiting for the next issue to come out. I really miss that. Sorry if I've ended up sounding like a miserable old git. On a positive note: Comics stand out in my life as one of the better things of living on planet earth. Comics and the Beatles!
Well, if you didn't know who Tim Quinn was before this interview, I think you do now.

Tim, of behalf of all who loved their comics during their childhood years and all the pleasure we had in reading your stories, I salute and thank you and wish you continued success.
 

10th March 2005