History of the British comic: Encyclopedia II - History of the British comic - Overview

History of the British comic - Overview

British comics typically differ from the American comic book in a variety of respects. Although historically they shared the same format size, based on a sheet of imperial paper folded in half, British comics have moved away from this size, with the Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt a standard magazine size in the late 1980s. Until this point, the British comic was also usually printed on newsprint, with black or a dark red used as the dark colour and the four colour process used on the cover. The Beano and The Dandy both switched to an all colour format in 1993.

Although originally aimed at the semi-literate, working class, the comic eventually came to be seen as childish, and hence was marketed towards children. In today's market in Britain comics intended for teenagers or adults are considered to be more or less stretching the medium beyond its primary audience.

Historically, stories were of one or two pages in length, although they can now last longer and continue over a number of issues and period of time.

Whilst some comics contain only strips, other publications have had a slightly different focus, providing readers with articles about, and photographs of, pop stars and television/film actors, plus more general articles about teenage life, whilst throwing in a few comic strips for good measure.

Since the 1950s, it has been traditional that the most popular comics have annuals, usually published just in time for Christmas, and summer special editions.

In British comics history there are some extremely long-running publications such as The Beano and The Dandy published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, a newspaper company based in Dundee, Scotland. The Dandy began in 1937 and The Beano in 1938. They are both still going today. The Boys' Own Paper lasted from 1879 to 1967.

The intellectual span of British comics over the years has stretched all the way from the cheerfully moronic obscenities of Viz (adult) to the political awareness of Crisis (adolescent to adult) and the sound educational values of Look and Learn (children's).

There has also been a continuous tradition of black and white comics, published in a smaller page size format, many of them war titles like Air Ace inspiring youngsters with tales of the exploits of the army, navy and RAF mainly in the two world wars, also some romance titles and some westerns in this format.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Overview", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki