Comics UK

geoff42 wrote:And i'm fairly certain Tom Tully did write a few scripts for 2000 ad.

Quite a few. He co-created Harlem Heroes, Inferno and Mean Arena, as well as The Mind of Wolfie Smith (which started in Tornado, of course) and also worked on the revamped Dan Dare.

Most of that information about the pub etc I would think came from this piece on 'Moose' Harris's great sites on British comics. Linky http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynig ... o.uk/?p=73

philcom55 wrote: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

I've been through my copy of the Heros book - there's very little about Tom Tully in the introductions. What there is describes him as 'stalwart of the comics world' and 'able to spin out a story'. The intros are overwhelmingly about Frank Bellamy.

David McDonald wrote:Most of that information about the pub etc I would think came from this piece on 'Moose' Harris's great sites on British comics. Linky http://www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynig ... o.uk/?p=73

Yep, Tom lived next door to my Aunt and Uncle for years, and ran one of our local pubs. Despite what it says on the Comic wiki, he was still writing for Battle, 2000AD and RotR whilst running the pub. He used to knock out episodes of Johnny Red and Roy in an office room above the bar during the afternoon.

He moved to The Cross Keys on Rowde, and kept a house in Lavington. After his wife died, he carried on running the pub with his son Joe, up until he retired. Comics work was long behind him at this point, and although he tried to get into children's books he didn't have a lot of success.

He wasn't really a private sort, he was always happy to talk about his work over a few after hours pints. I was amazed when he admitted to writing Death Game 1999, but looking at Inferno, it made sense. I'd always thought he was more Dan Dare, Johnny Red and Roy when I knew him, but it turned out he was capable of a dark and violent tale if needed.

I tried to chase him down for an interview in 2010 or 2011 but I was told he wasn't interested in talking about his work anymore.

Next I heard was just after his funeral in late 2013. A lot of the local landlords attended and I heard about his passing from one of them, who ran the pub opposite Tom's.