Comics UK

I received a letter from 'Comic Football' saying
"We are temporaily suspending Comic Football once it's up and running again we will send you a email, I got a refund cheque.
After just 3 Issues
I thought it was excellent better then Dandy and Beano.

I just looked up their website---it looked quite good, Steel.

A bit of a shame all round.

If there is something better than the beano and dandy, that would be the biggest news of the year.

Kids don't buy quality, they buy familiar brands.

maybe/hopefully they are looking at ways to get it in to shops

If that's the case, good luck to them as they're going to need it.

Strip Magazine will be better than the Beano and Dandy but I should think major newspapers will not even mention it. They just don't care.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I just looked up their website---it looked quite good, Steel.

A bit of a shame all round.

I was approached to to work on Comic Football, but the page rate offered was so awful I declined....especially as I have next to no interest in football. I'd be worried about getting the numbers wrong on the shirts or something, which would need a lot of time for research as I'm a stickler for this kind of thing. I know - it's a problem!

But if the strips on their website are good examples of the content, then I can see a potential shortcoming - the strips just aren't funny, at least to this non-football fan.

Good luck to them in the future, anyhow. The world needs more British humour comics - whether the kids want them or not!

I don't like football or sport myself,Mike, but I quite liked the style of some of the cartoons.

There were some familiar toonsmiths in there!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I don't like football or sport myself,Mike, but I quite liked the style of some of the cartoons.

There were some familiar toonsmiths in there!

Yup, I sounded a bit negative, but it's the kind of comic I'd probably buy if I saw it in WHSmiths, despite having no interest in sport.

-MikeD- wrote:Yup, I sounded a bit negative, but it's the kind of comic I'd probably buy if I saw it in WHSmiths, despite having no interest in sport.

To be honest Mike, you basically just said what I think right there. IF I saw it in WHSmiths. Here's the problem, it wasn't. It wasn't available anywhere other than the internet!

I got the free Issue/Issue 0 of it to see what it was like. Loved some of the strips. Team Europa 2501, On the Bench, Junior Ref Julie, 50.000 Years F.C. and The Fanshaws were definite favourites while stories like We're not Singing Any more, One Day..., Acer and Kaos and Pele the Parrot just weren't funny.

It was a mixed batch. It's a shame it ended so quickly but I'm sad to say I expected it to happen.

We all know the problem. New launches have no choice but to be online only or only at comic book stores (which is why Strip Magazine is going into comic book stores first - if it sells well, they'll have a track record to prove to the mainstream retailers that it would be worth selling) - WHSmith and other high street shops and supermarkets won't take unfamiliar and untested brands. I'm sorry to say that the only way a football comic would have a fighting chance was if it was a Roy of the Rovers revival - they happily stocked it's reprint books (i'm not saying even that would succeed though, the kids and nostalgia markets are different things).

What I don't understand re WH Smiths is how come they can sell what seems to be hundreds of exceptionally limited interest magazines like Papercraft, Digital Battlefield, Unmanned vehicles, Lets make cards, and so many other obscure hobbies and interests that have mags - obviously these do sell but you would think they would take on a football comic - tough times for comic publishers it seems

I have actually wondered that myself, there's magazines about collecting military vehicles, as in full-sized working tanks and that. There must be less people buying that than The Dandy!
That said BMC did fold last year and I doubt there's a shortage of book collectors of all stripes out there. Mind you apparently they'd not increased their subscription price with inflation since they started in the 80's, so subscribers basically got 10-11 issues for nothing.

Seriously? Then I think their publisher should sack the accountant. I bet the magazine would still have been profitable if subscribers were paying the right price. You should get 1 or 2 issues free, not (assuming it's monthly) pay for one and get the rest of the year for free! What utter madness.