Comics UK

Somebody (editing anonymously) has updated Tom Tully's entry on the UK Comics Wiki saying that he died last autumn. Can anybody confirm or deny? If it's true he deserves some kind of tribute or obituary.

He was a real king of comics. Given that he was more the boys action comics, rather than US or mature 2000AD, maybe ComicsUK should have the Tom Tully Award voted on? Maybe British action comics writers being honoured annually in a vote? Mike Western may be the artist version?

Editor's voice: I wonder what other readers think?

Well nobody put that on Wikipedia yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tully_(writer)

Maybe check the obits in Glasgow's local newspaper?

As for the UK Comics Wiki article, I've removed the sentence about a pub which was "according to Wikipedia" as not only should Wikipedia not be used as a source, the info was removed three years ago and is likely untrue. I also removed the death notice, stating in the summary that an obit should be provided as a source.

I asked Steve Holland, and he says he's heard several reports of Tom's death over the last few years, but none of them confirmed.

Terribly sad if true-a comic great and really does deserve appropriate recognition.

I take it he is/was an intensely private man?

I don't think he was. He was apparently quite big-headed according to someone who knows (I won't reveal who but very associated with comics for a long long time) but became bitter about his treatment within the comics industry. Not sure why. Maybe he felt he deserved to be transferred to 2000AD after the Eagle folded. I'm really not sure that would have worked to be honest. He was a great writer for boys adventure but 2000AD had changed considerably at that time. He definitely went off to run a pub or two, so that rumour is correct.

Certainly a comic great. Him and Gerry Finley-Day were right at the heart of the Seventies revolution, along with the more celebrated Wagner and Mills. I've always really enjoyed his writing.

If TT was big-headed, I'm sorry to hear this, as most comics contributers appear to be modest and self-deprecating about their talents/achievements/good fortune to be working in this industry.*

However they are only human like anyone else, I guess.......

* The ones I have met, ranging from Kevin O'Neill to John Geering, were charming and decent, going by their attitudes.

Only one artist [he's been named on here a few times] I met was a bit cold and detached, and perhaps acted a bit 'superior' ---I won't name him, though.

I wouldn't call Mills, Wagner, Rennie, Morrison, Moore or Millar shy or retiring either. Maybe it's an artist thing.

Most people in UK comics are level-headed and well mannered. Oddly enough the most conceited and arrogant people I've encountered in comics are the ones who have made the least impact in the industry. Perhaps that's why. Hard to continue improving if you already think you're cock of the walk.

Yes Lew, this principal also applies to the 'Toffs at the Top' of the financial heap, who are people with nothing further to prove to anyone, and are generally OK people who treat everyone fine.

The problem of snobbery, of course, lies with those who reckon they are better than those below them [either socially or financially] but still have a long, long way to be where they desire: a 'Toff at the Top'.

An old, old, affliction that sadly still rings true today.

I'm not quite sure how poor old Tom has gone from a retiring wallflower to a self-obsessed megalomaniac in just a few posts. It could well be that he was entirely justified in feeling badly treated by IPC - he certainly wouldn't be the first!

Incidentally, has anyone got the 'Heros' book? (I'm still saving up for it). Knowing Peter Richardson I'd be surprised if he didn't uncover some pertinent biographical details for the introduction.

- Phil Rushton

Billythecat wrote:Terribly sad if true-a comic great and really does deserve appropriate recognition.

I take it he is/was an intensely private man?

Only in that he didn't attend comic conventions, (as far as I know) but that also applied to most comics folk of Tom's generation. Sadly, as most UK comic cons were centred around American comics, the organisers tended not to seek out creators of traditional British comics. (Apart from those of us who had come to their attention by starting out in fanzines.) Pity. It would have been great to have seen Mike Western, Geoff Campion, Ken Reid, etc on a panel discussion.

That said, there was the Comics 101 event that Denis Gifford organised in 1976, which was UK centric, but I'm not sure if Tom Tully was there.

Lew Stringer wrote:

Billythecat wrote:Terribly sad if true-a comic great and really does deserve appropriate recognition.

I take it he is/was an intensely private man?

Only in that he didn't attend comic conventions, (as far as I know) but that also applied to most comics folk of Tom's generation. Sadly, as most UK comic cons were centred around American comics, the organisers tended not to seek out creators of traditional British comics. (Apart from those of us who had come to their attention by starting out in fanzines.) Pity. It would have been great to have seen Mike Western, Geoff Campion, Ken Reid, etc on a panel discussion.

That said, there was the Comics 101 event that Denis Gifford organised in 1976, which was UK centric, but I'm not sure if Tom Tully was there.

Thanks Lew.

Did anything ever emerge on this? I am flabbergasted that it still appears to be a mystery.

don't forget, he was probably the longest writer for Roy of the Rovers. I do remember the artist of the mid-late seventies and early eighties artist, David Sque, complaining of the cigarette smoke that accommodated the scripts that he received. And i'm fairly certain Tom Tully did write a few scripts for 2000 ad.