Comics UK

I've just received this book today. I was surprised by its size at first; basically a paperback novel. Compared to David Bishop's tome (Thrill power-overload) I was initially disappointed. But, on reading the initial chapters, I take everything back. Already, I have engaged with the author's memoirs and can't wait to carry on. This book is a far more personal take on 2000 ad than Bishop's. I have only read Steve's early experience with Fleetway as regards his time with Valiant, Battle, and Action; and i'm hooked. Very well written and offers a lot of humour. This is the kind of book that anyone with an interest in Fleetway (ala 1970's) should read. This makes me think if only the likes of Sid Bicknell and Jack Le Grand could have wrote their memoirs of Fleetway of the sixties and early seventies. What about D C Thomson: how many editors of that epoch could have written such memoirs - lost memories... sigh

geoff42 wrote:I've just received this book today. I was surprised by its size at first; basically a paperback novel. Compared to David Bishop's tome (Thrill power-overload) I was initially disappointed. But, on reading the initial chapters, I take everything back. Already, I have engaged with the author's memoirs and can't wait to carry on. This book is a far more personal take on 2000 ad than Bishop's. I have only read Steve's early experience with Fleetway as regards his time with Valiant, Battle, and Action; and i'm hooked. Very well written and offers a lot of humour. This is the kind of book that anyone with an interest in Fleetway (ala 1970's) should read. This makes me think if only the likes of Sid Bicknell and Jack Le Grand could have wrote their memoirs of Fleetway of the sixties and early seventies. What about D C Thomson: how many editors of that epoch could have written such memoirs - lost memories... sigh

Geoff, as you are enjoying this, I can heartily recommend Eagle Daze, a series of articles written by the late Roger Perry of his days working for Eagle.

And I am so glad that you are echoing Richard and I in how great a book this is. Hope you enjoy the rest and watch out for the heady days of the 1980s when pop culture really went Zarjaz for 2000AD!

Hi, Col, I've just finished reading the first three articles of Eagledaze and find them really good. At the end of the third, with the typewriter prank, I was practically heaving in my chair with tears rolling down my cheeks. I could quite clearly visualize the whole thing. Wonderful.

I really enjoyed Roy Perry's jaunt in the usa with Leonard Matthews and Eliazabeth Flowers. Now the both male protagonists have died, I kind of hope that Elizabeth is still alive just to keep that trip ongoing in someone's memory. I always find it sad that the last person to have recorded such a trip has died. That's why we need memoirs.

Well I bought the Steve MacManus book the other week and I read it in a day, it was that interesting/enjoyable.

A great insight into the runnings of IPC/Fleetway and the swansong of the 60s/70s/80s comics (apart from 2000AD that is).