I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

Moderator: AndyB

BH
Posts: 18
Joined: 06 Mar 2006, 02:48
Location: London

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by BH »

I worked on Photo Secret Love from the start, so the graphics probably look a bit ropey, hehe.
Pointless, random fact. Apart from the Editor and two writer/subs, I was the only art staff for a week or so...until they brought in a skinny young kid straight from artschool (who I ended up marrying many years later!). Funny how things turn out.

User avatar
Captain Storm
Posts: 898
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 21:15
Location: 1981
Contact:

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Captain Storm »

Ispy wrote:
The photo-strip phenomenon appeared around '74-5, first as a bold experiment, and eventually evolving into a considerable industry in it's own right


Weren't they doing that back in the late 30s/40s with Film Fun Annual.I seem to remember a young Jack Le Grand(famous IPC Editor and Creator)appearing in one.Though I can't say for certain if speech balloons were used.

a Curious Cap!

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

CAP...I believe what you are saying, but there was no 30s/40s equivalent of the late 70s-early 80s ' photostory' boom, which even the most unintrested comics reader could fail to notice........NOTHING is wholly original if one is prepared to delve deep enough into history.


my use of the word 'phenomenon' is meant in it's proper sense, ie something that took on a life of it's own, as opposed to an 'experimental' or obscure try-out.

User avatar
Captain Storm
Posts: 898
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 21:15
Location: 1981
Contact:

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Captain Storm »

I could be wrong,but I think all of the Film Fun Annuals carried Photo stories :?:

your cuddly Cap!

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

perhaps they did, but the facts are too obscure to clarify with ease.....[!]

'mention 'FILM FUN' to comic buffs and casual readers alike, and most people associate this comic with hand-drawn adaptations of contemporary film personalities, which took up the bulk of this sort of publication.......in all likelihood, they also ran photo-stories, but if they did, this is of secondary association to most punters, and certainly not the first thing that springs to mind when this title is mentioned.


---in all fairness, they often carried a photo of TERRY THOMAS or BRUCE FORSYTH in the title-heading, and indeed I well remember a BENNY HILL late 60s IPC strip that carried his youthful photo, but it was STILL a hand-drawn strip!

---the late 70s/early 80s mags like ' MY GUY' 'PATCHES', and the later 'JACKIE' [my sisters were teenagers at this time and bought these mags] were almost exclusively made up of photo-stories, and became quite a force to be reckoned with over this timespan. [these magazines, NOT my sisters...though maybe their husbands today will tell it differently!]

Last year, I mentioned [on this very thread] the early-mid 60s mag 'HELP!' which carried 'fumetti' photo-stories, which certainly pre-dated the girl's mags boom I have mentioned, but 'HELP!'is essentially another forgotten relic for well over 95% [and probably higher] of the UK population.
'HELP!' and 'FILM FUN' certainly were ahead of the girls mags, but their use of the photo-technique nowhere near swamped and saturated their host publications to the degree of the later teen rags.....perhaps evoving technology made it cheaper and practical to use photostories later on.


for sheer photo-story ratio within a specific populist genre, the girl's mags of the late 70s-early 80s definately had the highest profile, before or since.

the photo-strip method almost totally replaced the traditional hand-drawn strips in these teen mags[I personally preferred the traditional strips, and I can't stand the static, 'posed' shots of these staged photos; DRAWINGS have much more life and vitality!]-------I can't think of another example where photo-strips took over the content of a publication to such a degree.........but this phenomenon only seemed to burn brightly for a few years, and the drawn strip in general remained in relative healthy shape in other outlets.

Kashgar
Guru
Posts: 2781
Joined: 09 Nov 2006, 14:15

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Kashgar »

The Film Fun annuals never contained photo stories. What Cap is referring to were actually just photos taken, often using members of the editorial staff to save money, to accompany text stories produced in-house by the Amalgamated Press. And a text story accompanied by three of four photos to give it that 'movie' based feel does not a photo-story make.
Mind you, Film Fun editor Fred Cordwell was never loathe to put himself in front of the camera in these situations, usually to play the role of some lip-smacking, hand wringing villain of the type made famous by that great scenery chewing, barnstormer Tod Slaughter. And this wasn't only true of Film Fun as, when Cordwell edited AP's spooky, mystery story paper Bullseye, he would often have himself photographed as the villain of the piece with, off hand, a particularly murderous prison governor springing to mind.

User avatar
Captain Storm
Posts: 898
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 21:15
Location: 1981
Contact:

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Captain Storm »

A "story-with-photos" then!Ah well,half right :lol: :notworthy:

a not very photogenic Cap! :shhh:

Lew Stringer
Posts: 7041
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 00:59
Contact:

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Lew Stringer »

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:---I can't think of another example where photo-strips took over the content of a publication to such a degree.......
New Eagle.

Lew
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

fair point, LEW....the 'NEW EAGLE' came out around 1982, the same time as the teenmag 'photoboom'.....this may have carried some hand-drawn strips, but to be honest, my only real memories of it are in ads carried in '82 '2000 AD'.

Incidentally, '2000 AD' often carried [in their 'SUMMER SPECIALS' , for want of a better word] photostories with box captions 'starring' actors in ill-fitting THARG masks awkwardly cut out and pasted onto inappropriate background photos.......these pre-computer manipulation collage jobs were terrible, and if they were done by the same FLEETWAY team responsible for 'NEW EAGLE', then I'm not surprized this sub-genre never evolved into a full-blown phenomenon.

---by the way, CAP.......I've been meaning to ask......is your avatar a self-portrait/-------and please don't ask if MINES is! [mines is a homage to my all-time favourite fantasy film].

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by philcom55 »

From what I remember New Eagle still contained at least five strip pages drawn by Gerry Embleton (Dan Dare) and Jose Ortiz (Tower King), though its first five months or so were certainly Fleetway's most sustained attempt to emulate the then-current vogue for Girls' photostrips within a boys' title. Even the dreaded Doomlord started out as some guy in a rubber mask (anybody know who?). What's more the relative failure of this experiment probably put paid to any further boys' comics in this format (had it been a runaway success I doubt that DC Thomson would have wasted much time in converting their ailing Victor to photo stories!).

As far as really early precursors to the 1970s phenomenon go, how about this rather obscure 1948(?) effort from D McKenzie & Co. of Glasgow consisting of fumetti adaptations of current film releases (though even this contains one hand-drawn strip by 'Mark Earl'):

Image

- Phil R.

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

a real curio of which this forum is celebrated, PHIL.....but I wouldn't have it any other way!

the M-G-M lion seems hand-drawn, nowadays you could easily slip in a cool-looking mini-photo logo, so modern technology sometimes comes up trumps.... :cheers: :cheers:

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

I wonder if there is a website dedicated to 'photostory' magazine buffs........they may even have once-fit ex-photomodels [aged 20 in 1978] 'recreating' their starring roles and scenes, with 30 years+ beerbelly added..................compared to some of the SADDO sites I've seen, it wouldn't surprize me......

User avatar
Captain Storm
Posts: 898
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 21:15
Location: 1981
Contact:

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by Captain Storm »

Ispy wrote:
by the way, CAP.......I've been meaning to ask......is your avatar a self-portrait
If only :lol: No Ispy,but as I mentioned in a previous post it is a color portrait of Adam Eterno drawn by Graham Hill for Just 1 Page charity comic back in 2004.And as it happens,that same artist just contacted me today!So I hope to have a bit more info on him soon.Also he kindly offered to do a black and white portrait in more detail.Exciting times...for me at least :notworthy:

your "no-oil-painting" Cap! :P

BH
Posts: 18
Joined: 06 Mar 2006, 02:48
Location: London

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by BH »

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:........they may even have once-fit ex-photomodels [aged 20 in 1978] 'recreating' their starring roles and scenes, with 30 years+ beerbelly added..................compared to some of the SADDO sites I've seen, it wouldn't surprize me......
Oh, charming! I'll have you know I was still a teenager in 78, certainly don't have a beer belly, am still the same size and if anything I'm fitter! :P Oooh, you cheeky bugger! LOL!

Talking of which, if anyone comes across issue 6 of My Guy during their comic con' forays, I'd be willing to pay £5 plus postage. The front cover is a skinny bloke, wearing a red shirt and me in a pair of beige cords...with a wicked perm, haha! I can't find mine and I want it to show the (eventual) grandkids that granny was once a 'fit ex-photomodel'. :wink:


Can't remember who donned the 'Doomlord' mask, but Dave Hunt was editor of the New Eagle and probably turned up in some of the photo-montage stories they tried in that. A lot of staff turned up in them because we were cheaper than 'real' models, who were usually drama students. Scanning through some of those old photo-mags turns up a lot of faces that went on to become famous.
The trend for them started because IPC wanted to copy the ones they had in countries like Germany and Italy, but without as much risque detail, or sexual content (and yes, those ones were aimed at teens too). Because mags like My Guy, Mates, etc, were aimed at teens, IPC wanted to start a mag that those teens could progress to as they reached the 18-25 market and that's why they started Photolove and Photo-Secret-Love, with more adult content (but still not too rude). It was doomed to failure though and they were mainly read by the 13-18 market, while the older women tended to switch to the glossy type fashion/gossip mags once they'd grown out of the teen mags.


Personally, I never liked them much, but back then I was into reading sci-fi comics and Private Eye, not girly mags.

User avatar
ISPYSHHHGUY
Posts: 4275
Joined: 14 Oct 2007, 13:05
Location: BLITZVILLE, USA

Re: I was a Photo Love story girl, admits Bruce

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

being a model in one of those magazines was probably 'fame of sorts ' at the time, as I bet their circulation figures at this time were pretty high....I remember 'photolove' and 'SECRET photolove' now, they were sort of pre-cursors to today's 'photo-casebook' in the 'SUN', with scantily-clad models and sometimes questionable themes.......these 2 mags in particular were 'wall-to-wall' photostories, I recall.

Post Reply