glycon ([info]glycon) wrote,
2007-05-08 15:34:00
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Society of Strip Illustration

The May 1981 edition of the Society of Strip Illustration Newsletter carried a Q&A feature with several comics writers of the time, including Alan Moore. this is where he said he'd like to write Marvelman if anyone was willing to publish it. The rest, the cliché goes, is history...

David Lloyd kindly scanned all this for me, and added these comments:

The pencil edits you see were done in preparation for the reprinting of this piece in a later newsletter. I put little contrast on these scans to make them as legible as I could for you. Replies from the writers were merely pasted down extracts from letters written with varying conditions of ribbons, and then photocopied. Pre-computer days. And also good exciting days, when there was much enthusiasm around about what could happen and should happen in the business.

One thing to mention - the SSI's accurate name was the Society of Strip Illustration. The founders of the society in '77 figured using 'illustration' in that way embraced all the creative tasks involved in the medium and those who performed them. It was a really important part of the scene in those days, and I was extremely proud to have been active in it.




Cover

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

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  • 6 comments

[info]concret67

May 8 2007, 20:56:35 UTC 5 years ago

Nice one, mate, very interesting read, thanks for taking the time to put it up - may have to stick a link up to this on the Forbidden Planet blog as well, I think.

[info]slovobooks

May 8 2007, 21:17:14 UTC 5 years ago

That's be nice! I'm going to try to make more use of this LJ than I have been. I've a load more Sounds strips, and various other rare and arcane odds and ends that I want to get online. I'll need to let [info]4colorheroes Stan know about this stuff too, although I think he checks the Alan Moore LJ.

[info]vveritasv

May 9 2007, 13:27:44 UTC 5 years ago

Thank you so much for posting this. I learned an enormous amount of minutiae about British comics...at least how it was in 1981. I wonder how much has changed in 26 years...we need a follow-up commentary.

Anonymous

April 30 2008, 18:52:12 UTC 4 years ago

What story is he talking about?

I notice that Moore refers to a story, alternately "Southern Comfort" or "Southern Change", as having been published in the most recent Summer Special.

However, I've never seen this story listed anywhere. I can't find a reference to it on the 2000 AD website, and, according to that site, the only "Summer Special" was in 1977.

Anybody have any idea what he's talking about?

Anonymous

April 30 2008, 19:32:39 UTC 4 years ago

I found the story now

OK, the story he is talking about is:

"Southern Comfort", 2000 A.D. Sci-Fi Special 1981, credited to "R.E. Wright" as writer, and "W. Howarth" as artist.

Now I have a new question for you. If Moore took the "R.E. Wright" credit because he was unhappy with the art (or editing, possibly), does that mean that this story is also Alan Moore:

"Easy Kill", prog 205 (Mar. 1981). Story by "R.E. Wright," art by Gary Leach.

[info]glycon

May 3 2008, 18:23:39 UTC 4 years ago

Re: I found the story now

There was thread about this on the Alan Moore Yahoo! Group, here. My reply then, as now, is this:

There are three possible explanations that spring to mind: Firstly, the
piece is misattributed, and it was actually Pat Mills rather than AM
who said this. Or the story was pulled by the editorial team and
rewriten by Mills under the pseudonym RE Wright (rewrite, see?).
Alternatively, RE Wright could be a house name that authors got to put
on their stories if they were unhappy with the artwork, in the same way
that film directors use the name Alan Smithee.
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