For those looking to get a taste of the offerings that the UK small press scene has been cooking up then head on over to Comicsy. This is a new site setup to promote the work of UK creators and make comics more readily available to the market.

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Good article, thanks. The British comic book industry needs all the promo it can get and far more adult readers, plus, in fact, more kids reading too! The small publisher and indie press is thankfully booming right now, with an incredible amount of creators and great books. You didnt mention Classical Comics, who I write for myself, but the ones you do mention are excellent publishers... For an radical take on the problems of and possible solutions for the comic book industry please have a look at my post, which blaims, guess what - capitalism!

http://sean-michael-wilson.blogspot.jp/2011/10/comic-books-need-revoluti...

I have a lot of respect for John Freeman and Ernesto and Nigel, but I go along with the theory that Britain does need a comics industry, and that it still doesn't have one; at least it doesn't have one that fosters, supports and nurtures the creators. All we have ever had and continue to have (and here I am referring to the big 2) is a business that looks after its own interests and exploits the creators as "work-for-hire".

Back when IPC, DC Thomson, and Marvel UK, were all on the go, you could find characters like Tammy Tuff, by Smurfs creator Peyo, and Lucky Luke, by Morris, and written, at the time by Asterix writer Rene Goscinny, appearing in British titles. But that was all they did, "appear" with the rights remaining with their creators, and the payments for the right to reproduce the stories disappearing back to France or Belgium, where the money helped run an arts studio system on a par with the Japanese mangaka studios. Meanwhile their British counterparts were picking up £65 or so payment per page, and losing all the rights to their creations. A system that meant that when the comic folded, or dropped a page, the hapless British creator was not only jobless, but his or her character was binned. In other countries the creator-owned character did not depend on the publication, the publication depended on the creator-owned character. It is a system that has ensured that the comics industry in other countries still attracts the best talent, and our lack of such an industry is the reason we do not have numerous studios working on their own creations, and training up the next generation of creators. The way the British comics industry, if it can be called that, has been run, has cost the economy dearly and its lack of possibilities has seen some of the best talent in the UK send their work overseas or jump ship to the movie and computer games industry.

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Thank you for this excellent response. The idea that comics = U.S. superheroes needs to be left behind. There is greatness in the UK comics industry, and its greatness also lies in wanting to do and be something different. The differences in appreciation of comic art in the UK and, say, France and Belgium are down to socio-historical factors, not necessarily to the quality of the storytelling or publishing standards. There is an excess of focus on U.S. superheroes, and this has, in my opinion, damaged the medium's reputation as one that can transcend the boundaries of the caped crusader genre. At The Comics Grid we try to communicate the diversity of comics as a medium, and perhaps the readers of this article might want to check our journal out. http://www.comicsgrid.com/

Well done to the New Statesman for illustrating this article about modern British comics with a not-at-all-offensive caricature of a black person from a comic published in 1938. Clearly, it isn't just The Spectator that is clueless.

Thanks for this riposte to the Spectator article. I regularly publish British comics news on my own web site downthetubes.net and numbers of visitors are very healthy - as is the British comics industry. It's true there aren't as many adventure comics around as there once were, but compared with some magazine segments, comic sales are still pretty good and the rise of interest in comics thanks to digital publication online and on mobile devices has, according to industry web site ivc2.com, driven an apparent upswing in sales of comics in comic shops both in the US and the UK. Comics have always evolved and we live in very exciting times as far as this particular medium is concerned.

Bravo. The British comics industry isn't thriving but it is there if people bother to look.

What we need is more publicity, flagging up new works that could be of interest to people and more pieces pushing the angle that comics aren't just for kids any more.

Although the Internet is changing availability there is also a need to find ways of helping comics get out there into shops, especially as it is difficult to get the one distributor of comics to comic book stores to stock independent publishers and small press titles.

Anyway this is a good step in the right direction.