Comics UK

Just to say that I have contacted the NUJ to try to get some historical information on the strikes that had such a big impact on IPC in and around the 70s. The person from the NUJ who has written back to me is someone called Pete Wrobel, who worked on Look and Learn. He was the the union rep of what was then known as the Juveniles Chapel. Are there any questions that people on this board would like me to try to ask him, now that initial contact has been made?

He also pointed me in the direction of someone with the rather fabulous name of Gaythorne Silvester. He was editor of Oh Boy (PW thinks) and might have set up My Guy before moving to Woman magazine in the 80s. If this would be an interesting contact for anyone then let me know - Gaythorne has a LinkedIn profile so he should be publically contactable I'd hope.

I have had some very interesting information back from PW, clarifying the union activities and industrial action during his time at IPC. I also asked for his comment on the question raised in this thread because why not ask about that while I was at it? I know the thread does say the mystery is solved but it should add more background.

Once all the back-and-forth with him is complete I'll post it as an entry to the Jinty blog, which was of course amongst the titles affected by the strikes in the late 70s and early 80s.

Thanks Jenni. I look forward to the extra background info.

Me, too. This sounds like it'll be very interesting. British comics seemed such a mysterious, even secretive, business, it's always fascinating when this kind of background information comes out.

Raven wrote:Me, too. This sounds like it'll be very interesting. British comics seemed such a mysterious, even secretive, business, it's always fascinating when this kind of background information comes out.

If we could reveal some of the stuff that goes on it'd make your hair curl.

Lew Stringer wrote:

Raven wrote:Me, too. This sounds like it'll be very interesting. British comics seemed such a mysterious, even secretive, business, it's always fascinating when this kind of background information comes out.

If we could reveal some of the stuff that goes on it'd make your hair curl.

He's mentioned some quite impressive stuff but hinted that he could say oh-so-much more - but not until one or two specific people are no longer with us

I was slow in getting back to Pete to have him approve the final wording, but he got back to me super-quickly for which I am very grateful! Here is the post with information about union activities and their impact (or otherwise) on IPC title closures:
https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... te-wrobel/