Comics UK

Anyone else here enjoy documentaries about comics? I'm a big fan 1989's Comics Confidential, which was made just at the tail end of the 'Zap, Kow, Wham, Comics Aren't Just For Kids' hype boom. Its ropey production values, eclectic range of talking heads, cool soundtrack (50s Doo Wop to 70s Prog Rock) to iffy (80s) and gloriously naive, barely-pre-internet optimism that funnybooks had become 'serious' enough to soon change the world (something the mostly humour fans on this site will probably find particularly hilarious) hits all the right nostalgia notes for me.

There was also a Comics TV series on Channel 4 around the same time (not Comics the 9th Art, although that was great too), that I can't remember the name of. I would really appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction.

The 2ooo AD documentary is quite good, I think it is called Futureshock.

Michael Anden wrote:Anyone else here enjoy documentaries about comics? I'm a big fan 1989's Comics Confidential, which was made just at the tail end of the 'Zap, Kow, Wham, Comics Aren't Just For Kids' hype boom. Its ropey production values, eclectic range of talking heads, cool soundtrack (50s Doo Wop to 70s Prog Rock) to iffy (80s) and gloriously naive, barely-pre-internet optimism that funnybooks had become 'serious' enough to soon change the world (something the mostly humour fans on this site will probably find particularly hilarious) hits all the right nostalgia notes for me.

There was also a Comics TV series on Channel 4 around the same time (not Comics the 9th Art, although that was great too), that I can't remember the name of. I would really appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction.

There's been quite a few over the years, but a reasonably good one about the history of British comics from 1937 to the present (curiously missing out the first 50 years or so) was Comics Britannia, a three-part series on BBC Four. It's not available on DVD but hopefully it'll be repeated sometime. It included interviews with many people involved in comics.

Lew Stringer wrote:

Michael Anden wrote:Anyone else here enjoy documentaries about comics? I'm a big fan 1989's Comics Confidential, which was made just at the tail end of the 'Zap, Kow, Wham, Comics Aren't Just For Kids' hype boom. Its ropey production values, eclectic range of talking heads, cool soundtrack (50s Doo Wop to 70s Prog Rock) to iffy (80s) and gloriously naive, barely-pre-internet optimism that funnybooks had become 'serious' enough to soon change the world (something the mostly humour fans on this site will probably find particularly hilarious) hits all the right nostalgia notes for me.

There was also a Comics TV series on Channel 4 around the same time (not Comics the 9th Art, although that was great too), that I can't remember the name of. I would really appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction.

There's been quite a few over the years, but a reasonably good one about the history of British comics from 1937 to the present (curiously missing out the first 50 years or so) was Comics Britannia, a three-part series on BBC Four. It's not available on DVD but hopefully it'll be repeated sometime. It included interviews with many people involved in comics.

I've still got the Comics Britannia documentary saved I think, must rewatch it some time. It was good.

comixminx wrote: I've still got the Comics Britannia documentary saved I think, must rewatch it some time. It was good.

I still have the review discs from the BBC and was watching it the other week. Yes, it's pretty good overall. Good that they dedicated a decent amount of time to Tammy etc.

Epsode 1 of Comics Britannia can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3HC2dNahs

The Comics Brittania was repeated and I have both versions! The repeat gave a closing tribute to the fellow who wore the Deerstalker hat who had sadly passed away just after he contributed to the first documentary (Was he Ian Grey?)

yes that was Ian Gray, [Editor of Plug and the 80s Beano/ Dandy comic libraries] and he truly deserved every split second of airtime he recieved!

Thanks for the recommendations, I have bought the Futureshock documentary and look forward to checking out Comics Brittainia. Another that I've enjoyed a lot is 'Jack Kirby: Storyteller', which is on youtube. I've also heard that Johnathan Ross's Steve Ditko doc is suprisingly good.

Futureshock is avaiaible in hi-def [at least the version I have is] and the animated graphics are very well done---quite a bit of bad language though!


Great for covering the early genesis of the comic.

The Jonathon Ross/Ditko documentary, I feel is decent enough except that Ditko wouldn't appear on camera! Personally, I felt that Ross dwelt too much on Spider Man with barely a word about Steve's work on `Dr Strange` which stretched him more as an artist in my view.

The best story along these lines I ever heard was about the veteran Express cartoonist Carl Giles who shunned self-glorification and would not appear on TV despite many attempts by the broadcasters.

One day he was busy cartooning at his huge desk and an uninvited TV unit crept up behind him and attempted to film him--


----he turned round, sized up the situation, and told them to 'clear off' in no uncertain terms!

Good for him! Nice to know there are some that don't want their faces on TV!

I'm late to the thread but that Channel 4 series Michael was Ker-Splatt

What about the Dandy- Beano 50th anniversary "Arena"?