The longest running comics that have never been renumbered

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Digifiend
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The longest running comics that have never been renumbered

Post by Digifiend »

Newsarama has a piece about the 10 longest running currently published English language comics that have never been renumbered (which means nothing from Marvel is in there, and the only DC comic is Looney Tunes). I'm pleased to say the top two are British - 2000AD and The Beano! Nice to see Beano get credit where it's due, instead of getting ignored because it isn't sold in American comic book stores. Though they did call the publisher DC Thompson, and everything should've been one place lower, as they don't mention Commando.
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Phoenix »

Digifiend wrote:Though they did call the publisher DC Thompson, and everything should've been one place lower, as they don't mention Commando
Is Commando generally thought of as a comic, Digi? For me it's neither the right size nor the right shape. I would bracket it with the likes of Starblazer, each issue of which, as far as I'm aware, presents itself as Space Fiction Adventure In Pictures, the Picture Story Library For Girls series from Bunty, Judy, Mandy, and Debbie, and Football Picture Story Monthly, because within their covers they only seem to present one story each. All the comics I was brought up with, read widely as a schoolboy, investigated as a young adult, and now write about, had anything from four/five serials to six/seven, with a complete thrown in very occasionally for variety.

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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by starscape »

Digest-sized comics for me. Same as Archie and the rest. Also, Spider-Man is a different size to most British comics of yesteryear and only one story. Golden Age comics, e.g. All-American Comics, another size too. But you'd be hard-pressed not to call them comics.
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

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starscape wrote:Digest-sized comics for me. Same as Archie and the rest. Also, Spider-Man is a different size to most British comics of yesteryear and only one story. Golden Age comics, e.g. All-American Comics, another size too. But you'd be hard-pressed not to call them comics.
And considering that the website and presence on social media is Commando comics, not Commando Picture Libraries, it would be akin to classifying the American wizard size as magazines instead of as comics.

While we might describe them as Picture Libraries, they are still recognisable to one and all as a comic.
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Phoenix »

starscape wrote:Digest-sized comics for me. Same as Archie and the rest. Also, Spider-Man is a different size to most British comics of yesteryear and only one story. Golden Age comics, e.g. All-American Comics, another size too. But you'd be hard-pressed not to call them comics.
That is a persuasive answer, starscape. Thank you.

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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by dishes »

If they missed out Commando, maybe they overlooked other comics too (from English-speaking countries other than the US or UK, for example).
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

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dishes wrote:If they missed out Commando, maybe they overlooked other comics too (from English-speaking countries other than the US or UK, for example).
With the exception of The Beano and 2000AD, they have missed out loads as a lot of British comics broke the 500 barrier and these have all been missed such as The Dandy, Victor, Hotspur, Warlord, Bunty, Judy, The Eagle Mk 1, Battle, Tiger, Wizard Mk 1, Rover and Adventure. And that is without having to think too hard!
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Adam Eterno »

colcool007 wrote: And that is without having to think too hard!
[/quote]

Good job really! :lol:

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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Lew Stringer »

colcool007 wrote:
dishes wrote:If they missed out Commando, maybe they overlooked other comics too (from English-speaking countries other than the US or UK, for example).
With the exception of The Beano and 2000AD, they have missed out loads as a lot of British comics broke the 500 barrier and these have all been missed such as The Dandy, Victor, Hotspur, Warlord, Bunty, Judy, The Eagle Mk 1, Battle, Tiger, Wizard Mk 1, Rover and Adventure. And that is without having to think too hard!
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by paw broon »

Before I get on my hobbyhorse about digest size comics - and there are different sizes of digest comics - can I mention another English language comic breaking the 500 barrier? If that's o.k., The Phantom, published by Frew in Australia, is not a kick on the bahookie of #1800. :D
Digest size. I have to say starscape is right. There are as many types of digest comics as those in much bigger formats and many of them feature more than one story, incl. Thriller Picture Library issues, Archie's different titles, Cowboy Picture Library. As for genres, British digest comics have featured war, western, romance, S.F., School (boys and girls), superheroes, detective, horror, spies, secret agents, historic, classic characters, t.v. adaptations, funnies, reprints. In fact, something for everyone. And not only comic art, as we all know it, i.e. illustrated panels with word balloons, but photo novels, which apart from British ones like Blue Jeans, were/are popular in non-English speaking countries. A favourite genre of mine are the Mexican superhero wrestler comics. MSW titles appear as photo novels and standard comics and they are all a lot smaller than Commando, for instance.
And the digest size Diabolik, (different size from SDL, Commando etc.) published by Astorina in Italy, has been running uninterrupted since 1962, albeit at varying frequencies.

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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Lew Stringer »

paw broon wrote: And the digest size Diabolik, (different size from SDL, Commando etc.) published by Astorina in Italy, has been running uninterrupted since 1962, albeit at varying frequencies.
Don't European comics usually renumber at the start of every year? Or has Diabolik avoided that tradition?

Good point about The Phantom!
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by paw broon »

Yes, you're bang on. It's just that Diabolik has been running non-stop since 1962. That's only the original title with new story every issue and doesn't include the reprint run, the 2nd. reprint run and the Gigante issues. Not to mention all the collections and other specials that appear regularly.
As I'm on my hobbyhorse, not as well known as Diabolik, Kriminal, which I prefer, ran for over 400 issues. Like D. at first, these titles and others were very violent untill the cencor stepped in and they were toned down, but the Magnus artwork remains exciting till this day.

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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Lew Stringer »

paw broon wrote:Yes, you're bang on. It's just that Diabolik has been running non-stop since 1962. That's only the original title with new story every issue and doesn't include the reprint run, the 2nd. reprint run and the Gigante issues. Not to mention all the collections and other specials that appear regularly.
As I'm on my hobbyhorse, not as well known as Diabolik, Kriminal, which I prefer, ran for over 400 issues. Like D. at first, these titles and others were very violent untill the cencor stepped in and they were toned down, but the Magnus artwork remains exciting till this day.
It's a shame they're not translated into English, or perhaps they were once and I missed them? I have the few copies of Sadistik that Mort Todd published a few years ago in English. Photo strips but similar to Diabolik in character.
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by colcool007 »

Lew Stringer wrote:"we focused on currently-running titles"
I missed that bit! :lol:
I was just stunned at how they managed to miss Commando. I also ask that two other comics are considered and they are Aces Weekly and Heavy Metal both of which are still going and both have notched up over 200 issues.
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Re: The longest running comics that have never been renumber

Post by Lew Stringer »

colcool007 wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:"we focused on currently-running titles"
I missed that bit! :lol:
I was just stunned at how they managed to miss Commando. I also ask that two other comics are considered and they are Aces Weekly and Heavy Metal both of which are still going and both have notched up over 200 issues.
Aces renumbers every volume though. Not sure about Heavy Metal. They missed Mad too!
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