Atomic Comic #2 by Novo Media

The

ATOMIC COMIC

Issue 2

February 2013 Price: FREE!

WELCOME BACK!

Welcome to our sensational second fun filled issue of Atomic Comic! We've got heaps of goodies lined up for you this month - including an interview with writer Sean Baldwin and cartoonist Jamie Smart, we find a fresh Korky the Cat story which has never before being printed, we have a guest article on Dennis the Menace written by Will Barber and heaps more! If you love Atomic Comic be sure to share us around and tell all your friends! We also love to hear your support and suggestions, which you can message to us on Facebook and Twitter: www.facebook.com/atomiccomic @Atomic_Comic

Contents: 3 ..... The Original Atomic Comic 4 ..... The Changing Face Of Dennis The Menace 8 ..... An Interview With Jamie Smart 16 ..... A Brief History About British Comics (Part Two) 17 ..... Why The Digital Dandy Is Underrated 20 ..... A Blast From The Past 22 ..... An Interview With Sean Baldwin 30 ..... Auction Watch 32 ..... Mega! 33 ..... Man From Space Is Out Of This World 34 ..... Rejected! 35 ..... About Us

Atomic Comic

(Original Version) Welcome back to another issue of Atomic Comic. To start off this fun filled second issue I thought I'd write an article about something I've discovered since issue one was published! On your left you can see a comic which goes by the same name as this publication - Atomic Comic! Now I can't give you an exact publication date as I don't own a copy, but the research I've done shows that it

was published in the 1940's, most probably 1947, with either a green or purple cover. It cost 3D and had eight pages, and the front cover has a character named Horace Dragweed, illustrated by Rob Wilson, but other than that I'm afraid I can give you no more further information. I've managed to track down a copy for sale, so hopefully we can look at it in a future issue!

The Changing Face of Dennis the Menace - By Will Barber - Taylor

Dennis the Menace is a cultural legend like Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Doctor Who. Like all these other great, timeless characters, he has changed. Unlike Bond, Holmes or The Doctor, Dennis is primarily a comic character so the change between each incarnation of Dennis is harder to see than with the different Holmes for example. Let us start with the first of Dennis the Menace (A note: This Dennis should not be confused with the American Dennis the Menace who appeared at the same time as our hero but over in

America.) Dennis the Menace Incarnation One: 1951-1970 Dennis' first incarnation appeared inside of the Beano in 1951 where he was drawn by David Law. Dennis was very different to how he is now. He was much tougher, although even back in the early days he had his trade mark red and black jumper. Often, at the end of stories, Dennis would be smacked on the bottom by a slipper as punishment for his antics previously in the strip. This was common practice back in the 1950's. If we compare Dennis at the beginning of Law's work in 1951 with the end of Law's work in 1970, Dennis was taller in 1970 than he was in 1951! No one knows why Law did this. It could be suggested that as Law was a perfectionist, he needed Dennis to grow. David Law sadly died in 1970. By this time, Dennis had been promoted tothe back and front pages of the Beano and in full colour. It was time for a new major change to the Dennis strip, the beginning of a new artist, David Sutherland.

Dennis the Menace Incarnation Two: 1970-1998: Dennis was about to undergo more changes. After the addition of his pal Gnasher during Law's time as the artist, Dennis would meet Curly (who had appeared briefly in previous strips.) and Pie Face. For most of Sutherland's times as artist they would be called The Menaces. This showed a profound change in the makeup and ideas of Dennis. Until Gnasher appeared, during the 70's, Dennis had been alone in his menacing. Now there was a full gang of Menaces. Times were changing and so was Dennis. It was out with the corporal punishment of the previous era and in with a new fresh Dennis. It was time for Dennis to clean up rather than be smacked on his bottom. Sutherland was later told to make Dennis less teenage; his editor claimed he needed Dennis to be more childlike for the new Beano animations. Subsequently, Dennis became more like a child as he went into the 2000s. Dennis was to undergo another change of artist and a change of direction.

Dennis the Menace: Incarnation Three (1998-2003) Dennis' new artist was David Parkins. He brought even more change to the Dennis strip. Gnasher, The Menaces, Dennis' parents and the Softies were still central, but a new character was to emerge during Parkins era. The new character was Bea, Dennis' younger sister. She was and still is as much of a Menace as Dennis is. Also, during this period, Dennis started to be involved with other Beano characters. After Dennis' 50th anniversary, Parkins could not keep up with the vast Menace workload and had to leave the post as artist. This would lead to more change, but not as much as had gone on before. Dennis the Menace: Incarnation Four (2004-2010) Nigel Parkinson, Jimmy Hansen and Tom Paterson became Dennis' artists after Parkins left. This change, unlike the previous changes, was not that drastic. Dennis, Gnasher, The Menaces and co. continued in the direction that they had been going in under Parkins. In 2009 however, Dennis changed for good. The Beano became in coproduction with the BBC for a new animated series. (The previous Dennis series had been in the 90s and had run successfully for two series.) Dennis was to be completely revamped. The entire way Dennis was drawn was to change, as were all the familiar characters. Bea was side-lined and so were the Menace parents. The emphasis was to be on the idea that Dennis was no longer a Menace but just a kid trying to have fun. This announced change provedto anger some people. Indeed, when this new incarnation of Dennis appeared, lots of people felt the strip had betrayed its roots. In 2010 Nigel Parkinson, Jimmy Hansen and Tom Paterson left the role as Dennis' artists and a new artist took over.

Dennis the Menace Incarnation Five (2010-2012) Barrie Appleby took over a s Dennis' artist. The style was the same; Appleby drew the same Dennis as had appeared in the TV series. This Dennis, however, was different. The 2009- early 2010 version had not been a deliberate Menace. The Dennis Appleby draws, however, seems to have reverted back personality wise to the Dennis who was first introduced to us back in 1951. He may not look the same and he has definitely changed, but one thing you can say is: Dennis is still a Menace after 61 years.

We Speak To The Great Jamie Smart! Interviewed by Harry RIckard

Hi Jamie! Do you have any nicknames you'd like us to call you?

Call me what you like! So, tell us a bit about yourself. What exactly do you do at present? I don’t know what the word is to describe me. I guess I’m an illustrator, but that always sounds grander than what I do. I draw comics, cartoons, things like that. I also write and draw children’s books and work on a handful of projects which you could generally put under the word ‘cartoons’. Though I’ve never liked the word ‘cartoon’. Even when I was a kid, I felt if I said I drew cartoons, it would get dismissed as a lesser form of art. Cartoon now has that connotation for me. Ah, I see! So, could you perhaps tell me, when did you first get discovered and how? There isn’t really a ‘discovered’ in this game. You work hard, draw a heck of a lot, and keep sending it out and showing it to people. My first actual job drawing cartoons was for a cookery magazine, then I went onto drawing for newspapers and comics, but it was when I started drawing more alternative grown-up comics (only grown-up in the sense that they were a bit more violent) that I really gained an audience, who then filtered back down into the children’s comics I did. It’s weird how it has worked out.

As a child, did you read a lot of comics? Which ones inspired you? I used to read all of them. Such as Dandy, Beano, Whizzer and Chips, Buster, and especially Oink! I think I loved Oink most of all, it spoke to me and my sense of humour and helped me evolve that. It was really disgusting and rude, the sort of humour you probably couldn’t get away with now, but it was so acutely funny and well drawn. So, how did you come up with the ideas for Space Raoul and My Own Genie - because they're pretty random! I don’t know where ideas come from. That first spark can come at random times. Often I find my mind is thinking the most while I’m watching TV or playing video games, that’s when my brain switches off and allows ideas to come in (or perhaps it’s getting fired up by seeing other people’s creativity, that’s a real possibility). Space Raoul was originally just a quick sketch of a fox, called Roger. I drew a circle round his head as a space

helmet, wrote ‘Space’ in front of Roger, then crossed out Roger and wrote ‘Raoul’. That was the rather pitiful creative process, but with some characters as soon as you can see them, you know exactly how it’s all going to work. Who they are, the situations they’ll get into and how they’ll react. It all just floods into place. Other ideas take a lot longer to develop. But it’s all part of the fun.

Everyone loves you for your artwork - but we also love you for your genius writing skills. Could you give us any tips on how to write hilarious stuff? I think the key is to be selfish. Some artists try and write for their audience, but in doing that I wonder if you’re watering down what you’re really trying to say. Personally, I draw comics to amuse myself, and write the things I find funny. And if other people enjoy them too then hey, that’s a brilliant bonus, but at its core I’m writing these comics because I find them funny. One very important thing however is to write good characters. You won’t have funny things happen to boring characters. The characters are key, and working out who they are and how they react. Often, the best characters are very flawed, they do things wrong and that’s why they’re funny. We laugh at the inadequacies of others, it’s human nature, it’s what most comedy is based around.

Desperate Dan is a classic character - how did you feel when you became the new artist of it? Honoured, absolutely! I was bowled over, I didn’t expect it to happen. They left me to write the stories and draw the strips how I saw fit, which gave me a real sense of responsibility to do it as best as I could. So, tell us a bit about your stories since the revamp, how did you come up with the ideas for Pre-Skool Prime Minister and The Arena of Awesome? Pre-Skool Prime Minister was an idea from The Dandy, they gave me the name and let me go off in whatever direction I wanted. It appealed to me, the sense of craziness you could bring to such a grown-up authority. Arena Of Awesome was an idea I’d been floating around for a while, it’s a simple concept of pitting one character against another, but what makes it most fun for me is there really being no rhyme or reason to it, anyone can win!

One story we all found very strange was Thingummyblob - was it true that some of them were over 4 years old? I drew Thingummyblob around the time I started on Desperate Dan so yeah that would have been around 4 years ago. Some of them were printed, but a lot were held back and shown more recently. That’s just how these things work sometimes. What's your opinion on the Space Raoul and My Own Genie reprints that were running in the Dandy? Obviously I’m flattered The Dandy saw fit to reprint them, and it’s great if they’re finding a new audience. If you could draw any classic character for the Dandy - who would you like to draw? Y’know I feel pretty honoured to still be drawing Dan, so I’m quite happy with that. And if you could draw any current character from the Dandy - who would it be? As above! We all want to see your artwork in the Beano - so tell us, would you like to work for the Beano as well as the Dandy and Phoenix? Oh who wouldn’t want to work for the Beano, that would be amazing! I know they have a slightly different sensibility to The Dandy though, so it would have to be the right character.

I feel incredibly lucky to be working for the people I do, I wake up every morning excited to start drawing, so I couldn’t ask for anymore than that. Who would you love to have a shot at drawing in the Beano current or classic? Lets not jump ahead of ourselves! Of course, it wasn't all Dandy - what stuff did you draw for the DFC and what were they about I drew a strip called Fish-Head Steve which was about a town full of people who woke up with crazy objects for heads. That was so much fun to work on, and is currently in development to possibly be a TV show (hopefully we can finally start announcing things soon). That aside I also drew the weekly puzzle pages, and a oneoff 16 page strip called the DFC Olympics, which was one of the craziest things I’ve written. Do you miss drawing for the DFC? The DFC really made a huge impact on the UK comics scene, even though it didn’t last too long, it brought together a load of artists from different disciplines and showed just what we were all doing. It really showed off what the UK has to offer, and now many of us are reuniting on The Phoenix we all feel a real sense of camaraderie. How are you finding The Phoenix at the moment? It’s brilliant! Are you enjoying drawing Bunny VS. Monkey? Absolutely, I have a few ideas which have had long, difficult histories, and Bunny Vs Monkey has certainly been through a lot to get to where it is today (maybe one day I’ll talk about it!).

But it really gives me this whole little world to play around in, there is so much potential and so many great characters hidden in it that I’m full of ideas. We've heard you get a lot of trouble from haters on the internet. How do you find that? Ten years ago it would have stung a little, but I’ve been here long enough now to realize how ludicrous it is. If I don’t like something, I just don’t look at it, but the internet has given people the forum to really lay into things and try to pull them apart. Which is a shame, it should be a place where we support the things we enjoy and share art. It does get quite nasty sometimes. And they get very irate if you answer back, as if they’re allowed free speech but you’re not. The best thing to do in all these situations, however, is to ignore them. Arguing just fuels them on further. So no, it doesn’t hurt me now. I hate to see other artists getting anger aimed at them, that gets to me. But they can say what they Any advice for what happens when people begin to be mean about your work? See above!

And finally, do you have any important advice you'd like to give to any budding artists out there? Just draw. Draw draw draw. It’s the only way you’ll get better, and you need to be getting better all the time, we’re all trying to get better! This is a really difficult career to choose, financially it can be a really bad choice, and you can go long times without any work. The thing that will see you through, if you’re really determined to make it, is passion. Absolute heart. If you believe in what you’re doing 100%, and you want to be doing it as a job more than anything else in the world, then chances are you’ll make it. But be prepared for rejection (you get it a LOT. Just warning you). And be prepared to really put the hours in. We do this because we love it, but it is still work, and does require dedication. If, after all this, you do end up doing this as a fulltime career, then it’s the best job in the world. Guaranteed.

A Brief History About British Comics (Part Two) - by George Shiers In the previous issue of Atomic Comic I finished my article on the History Of British Comics talking about how Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, a weekly paper which came out every Saturday, had set the template for British comics to come. Ally Sloper's Half holiady folded on 6th September 1916, after over a thousand issues, and merged into Fun comic (apologies, I can't give a publication date for Fun, but all the issues I've seen are from the early 1920's). However, over the few decades from 1900 1930 we would see dozens, if not hundreds, of titles come and go! One such example can be seen above, but others include The Buttlerfly, Comic Life, Boy's Own, Funny Wonder, Crackers and some of the more well known titles such as Illustrated Chips, Film Fun and Rainbow. All these comics followed the same pattern - a handful of comic strips and a handful of text stories. Comic strips were of course the way forwards, and during the few decades mentioned the speech bubble became more and more popular, occasionally even replacing the chunks of text underneath a panel!

Continues in the next issue of Atomic Comic!

Why The Digital Dandy Is Underrated - by George Shiers

Recently, the Dandy folded and moved to a solely online version. Now I can understand why so many people are disappointed, as I was myself when the news was revealed, but what I don't understand is why people aren't reading the digital Dandy. I'll admit some have their reasons, but others dropped the title, which they were reading before it folded, simply because it was moving online. And this is what I'm disappointed by. The first thing I want to point out is that price of the comic has gone down by 50p, which fact fans, is 25% off the previous price! Moving on, the comic is fantastic. Although when issue zero came out the animation was jumpy and, I'll be honest, awful, and it didn't improve much with the first issue (shown above). However, when issue two was released, all that changed. The animations became much smoother and the comic strip loaded faster, meaning it was nicer to read. It improved even more with issue three and who knows, by issue 10 it might be perfect! Of course, a comic isn't about animations, but the actual contents. Now I can't give you an exact page count as the strips are shown panel by panel, but issue one had 18 features (comic strips, the back page video and a competion), which is a decent amount. Lets take a look at just a few comic strips.

The Numskulls by Jamie Smart The Numskulls originally appeared in The Beezer in 1962 illustrated by Billy Whizz artist Malcolm Judge, and was so popular that they moved into The Beano, and have now also got a strip in The Dandy. The character that the Numskulls live in has changed many times, and Jamie Smart's version is a young lad named Alex, who lives with a family of, in short, weirdos. Whereas Jamie's version is a lot crazier than previous versions (for example, some of the Numskulls are dinosaurs, ghosts, robots etc), but the writing is still funny which makes the stories an enjoyable read!

Retro Active by Wayne Thompson Retro Active brings back The Amazing Mr. X, a character that appeared in the Dandy way back in the 1940's and is also considered to be Britain's first superhero, and introduces some other characters along the way. The strip is very well drawn in Wayne's style with a fantastic layout, which in a way looks similar to the American comic books! Although it is interesting to see the animations, the way Wayne draws his panels suggests that it was designed to be shown as a full page, and that is something I'd very much like to see! Maybe one day he'll reveal it to us, but until then we'll have to use our imaginations!

And finally, something for fans of Tom Paterson! The man who drew such fantastic strips such as Sweeny Toddler, Calamity James and even Buster returns with not one but two brand new strips! The first, revealed in issue three, was a revival of The Laughing Planet, the second is Expirin' Uncle Byron and still to come is Castle Bleurgh! Below is the first Laughing Planet in full, in which David Chattenborough visits Limpet World! I'm sure this on its own would make you subscribe!

And so you see, there is some fantastic stuff in the digital Dandy, and it really does deserve more appreciation than it is currently recieving. Just because it's going digital is not a good reason to drop the comic, and you're missing out on some stellar stuff!

A Blast From The Past!

- by George Shiers

Welcome back to another blast from the past, the feature where we show you a full comic strip from a classic comic! This issue we head back to 1975 to the first issue of Monster Fun! Monster Fun introduced some great characters, my personal favourite being X-Ray Specs, but this issue we'll be looking at Terry Bave's contribution Draculass. Draculass was Dracula's daughter who moved away from Transylvania to live with her cousin in an ordinary British town! The strip was great fun, with some clever stories along the way, so here for you to enjoy, is the very first one!

SÈAN BALDWIN TALKS

So Séan, you have an accent mark in your name bit posh isn't it? It’s Irish! And it's called a fada, apparently. Maybe it's posh in Ireland. And so have you always wanted to become a writer? Never a policeman or a wizard? First off I wanted to be an astronaut but there weren't any space academies for 3 year old Northerners. I was always inventing stories and drawing but I also got a taste for acting at an early age. So there was a confusion of sorts about which direction to take until eventually I realised that these were all various means of telling stories. The method may change but I'm still relating a tale. Mind you, it's still not too late to be a wizard. I suppose you read comics as a kid - so which one was your favourite and why? I couldn't get enough of them. Especially the English ones. There were so many around in the 70's - I'm that old - that it was hard to keep track of them all. So I'd go through phases where the 2 or 3 I was buying for a bunch of weeks were my favourites. The Beano was the first title I had on order and there was such a sense of anticipation leading up to it's arrival each week. I also bought Whizzer and Chips, Buster and TV Comic - for the Doctor Who strip - regulary. Krazy was an absolute sensation when it first appeared - hilarious, anarchic and visually inventive. This led to Cheeky comic which had quite a unique format built around a central character and demanded an exceptional work-rate from Frank McDiarmid, who drew most of the material. If he wrote the material too then I have no idea how he managed to stay sane. I also loved the comics that had a freaky aspect to them like Whoopee! and Monster Fun. They had a nice bit of spookiness lurking round the edges. As I got a bit older I grew very fond of Tiger, a reliable sports adventure comic, Doctor Who Weekly and of course 2000AD which was a complete game-changer. Nothing was the same after that. Can I ask what your favourite comic was?

My favourite comic? I'm particularly into British humour comics, not so much Adventure comics (like Lion or Eagle). And of course now we're entering a digital age - where webcomics have come into existence! There are some real good ones out there - I really like the Carrotty Kid which Andy Fanton draws, but my all time favourite is James Turner's Beaver and Steve - but he never updates that anymore - but his work in The Phoenix is brilliant! But actual paper comic? I'd narrow it down to either The Beano, The Phoenix or Whizzer and Chips. And since it was Whizzer and Chips that really got me into comics - I'm going to go with that! Great choices, all of them. I’m guessing you were a Whizz-Kid, like me? Andy’s a very talented and funny chap, as is Steve. It’s so exciting to have The Phoenix about and it’s inspiring to see such high quality work being showcased each week. Who was your favourite comic character? Did you write your own comic strips based on them? I loved Dennis the Menace of course but it was usually certain styles of artwork that grabbed me, like how the distinctive ones lent characters and their world an extra dimension. If I didn’t like the art then I’d give the strip a swerve. With Dennis you had that really shaky-looking style back then that struck me as pretty subversive. Dennis was quite a bruiser in those days. The old Davy Law reprints you’d get in the Dennis annuals were fantastic and quite strange in a way. Dennis’s world could be as sparsely framed as a Western movie with these tiny little silhouettes lurking on the horizon. Of course the master of cheeky characters was Leo Baxendale. I was born too late to enjoy his pioneering early work but he still had his moments in the 70s with things like the Willy the Kid annuals and his Pirates strip. The master of creepy characters was Ken Reid; another comics genius. He did loads of superlative stuff over the years but it was Faceache in Buster that really stood out for me as well as his brilliantly unsettling World Wide Weirdies for Whoopee! I also loved Robert Nixon, who took over Frankie Stein, one of Ken’s strips. He had lengthy spells with D.C Thomson and IPC and had such a classy and ‘friendly’ style. His work was very clean but also remarkably detailed at times, and crammed with an easy-going energy. This was in the days when artists were not only drawing several strips a week but also more than happy to embellish them with some wonderfully detailed borders. Glorious feats of imagination..

As I got a bit older the world of Judge Dredd trounced over everything else and I was instantly hooked. Still am. It’s probably true to say that nothing’s had as much impact on me comics-wise as classic Dredd drawn by all those incredible artists - especially Mike McMahon, the most original of them all. I could lose myself for hours in his work. I used to draw these characters endlessly but I preferred to write my own original strips that rarely lasted longer than my attention span allowed. School-related adventure stuff with me and my friends in. I remember a mate called Michael Farrell started his own little comic called FUDY. It had strips in it called Flop the Mop and Nutty Noodles and his Poodles. I was quite jealous of that. How about you, who’s your favourite artist? I have loads of artists who I really look up to! There are over 80 years of comics to go through - it's hard to choose really! I don't really see what all the fuss is about Dudley Watkins - I have replica copies of the first Oor Wullie and Broons books and I don't find his drawings all that great, although I’m growing more to his work over time. I do love Ken Reid's stuff though! He's really good at drawing monsters and horror stories, it's a pity he's no longer with us. But my all time favourite has to be Tom Paterson. I must have spent many hours drawing and tracing his art! He just crams so much detail into every box, I've always liked Calamity James, but Sweeny Toddler was my favourite of all his strips. I have to agree with you about Tom, he’s a supremely gifted and energetic humorist who has the rare knack (like Baxendale and Reid) of being able to make you laugh at the actual appearance of the character before you’ve even reached the jokes.

And you can draw - who and what have you drawn for over the years? My cartooning has tended to pootle along in the background really. A few local newspaper strips and designs for businesses. A little publishing work. Commissions of caricatures. It was weird because last year the Harry Hill scripts and Starburst strip arrived completely out of the blue. I’d been away from drawing on a regular basis for over 20 years. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long, as it’s my first love, but I’ve been involved with other creative pursuits in the meantime. Too many hats as always. So when was your first published art? That would’ve been around 1989. There were two weekly Eastbourne papers called the Herald and the Gazette. I did a humorous cartoon for the Herald on a Saturday based on some ‘amusing’ local news item like a Banger-Racing Bishop. On Wednesdays the Gazette had a feature called Strange Tales from Around the World where the Editor would give me a copy of the National Enquirer and tell me to pick a story from it to illustrate. Stuff like ‘Alien Baby Found on Everest’. Crappy things like that but good fun to draw and a chance to go to town a bit and get a bit more 2000AD with it all. I think back to those days often because artistically my style hasn’t changed that much. The main difference being that the pay was much better. And it was still rubbish back then!

And what about writing? I ghost-wrote a kid’s book for a well-known sports personality about 8 years ago. I’ve also had film reviews published. Back in the 90s a TV series I wrote with a mate was commissioned by Channel 5. Because we were new to the game it was over-developed to hell and after a lot of hard work it was dropped. Lesson learnt: stick to your guns.

When did you first appear in comics? February 2011. I wrote a 4 page Harry Hill strip that Nigel Parkinson developed into a 12 pager. The opening frame had Harry with a large singing boil on his face Susan Boyle. I managed to get Doctor Who in there too all 11 versions! Did you enjoy writing the Harry Hill scripts and seeing them published? I can’t tell you what a thrill it was to see that first strip appear whilst getting a credit for it. And I absolutely loved writing them; I loved the freedom to go wherever I wanted with it whilst sending-up celebrities. It took me back to reading Cheeky comic as a kid because here was a weirdlooking fella wisecracking his way through an abundance of larger-than-life characters. But I’m sorry to say that the money was absolutely abysmal. I nearly coughed up my kidneys when I was told how little they paid. If you want to get by working for The Beano and Dandy then write and draw the strips, or just stick to the pictures cos the writer gets nowt! Fair enough, the art takes longer, but the Harry strip required an awful lot of gags - or a lot of awful gags - and it wasn’t ever a case of 6 or 7 panels leading up to one punchline. More like 24 gag-crammed panels! So it ate into more time than was economically viable but I loved writing them so I did as many as I could - about 12 or 13 I think. I always looked forward to seeing how Nigel translated the strips - very rarely would he stick precisely to what I’d written, which could be a source of delight or frustration depending on what he’d added or omitted - but I took the view that any ideas that didn’t make it could be used again elsewhere. The strip I sent you, the 4-page ‘Bubbles’ one, followed my script very closely apart from a few panels. I was pleased with that one because it played with the form a bit and had a lot of inventiveness with speech balloons. I was bowled over by Nigel’s ability to present all that detail with such humorous clarity. I think he did some amazing work on the strip over the year that it ran and it’s such a shame that it had to finish so suddenly. I’d written a couple of scripts that never got used, including a Christmas one that I’d been hoping to see in print for some time. You can’t beat a good Chrimbo strip.

Unseen Harry Hill stories! - ever going to show anybody them or will they stay hidden for years until people so badly want them that the government is forced to buy them for millions of pounds? The latter, definitely. But I’d happily settle for a crate of ale as payment. Actually, Nigel and I may try and do something else with those scripts one day. Work them around another character perhaps. How do you lay out a script for a comic? Do you write it out or draw it? In the enclosed example you can see they’re a bit like a film script. I tend to stick to the model that 2000AD recommends - you can see it in their writer’s guidelines. Lay it out clearly and then it’s much easier to edit and make notes as you go along. I’ve still got some old 2000AD scripts that Alan Grant kindly sent to me back in the 80s and the layout’s not that different. With the Starburst strips I always write them first. Then it’s pencils, inks, colour, paracetamol. And you've got a new book coming out soon called Worrisome Wilf. Could you tell us a bit more about that? I wish I could but it might get me into trouble! The short answer is that Wilf, the first in a planned series of kids’ books about a nervous lad with an overactive imagination, was due out last October but suddenly there was a rash of unexpected disagreements with the publisher. Ultimately both parties agreed to disagree, and me and Martin, who illustrated it, are currently taking the project elsewhere. It was a real kick in the nuts when it happened, especially after we’d spent ages developing it, but we believe in the work and Wilf will get out there one day I’m sure. It can be tough, but that’s life sometimes - a right fickle old pickle.

Now that Harry Hill has come to an end will you still be writing for The Dandy or is that it? That’s it for now but mainly because looking after a young baby takes up so much time. It’s tricky enough making room for a monthly Starburst strip at the mo. But I’d like to return to The Dandy and work with Nigel again later in the year. I’ve got plenty of strips planned that I’d love to draw too. How exactly did you get 'discovered' by publishers like D.C Thomson? It was a pure fluke that happened completely out of the blue. A good mate of mine was at a party and was introduced to Nigel, who explained that he was looking for a writer to help out with the Harry strip, as he was getting rather snowed under. My friend recommended me so I then contacted Nigel, told him about my background and pointed him to my website where he could see examples of my writing style. He then sent me some finished pages of forthcoming scripts so that I could get a feel for what was required whilst seeing what themes to avoid for my own scripts. Then I wrote the above-mentioned 4-pager that was expanded into a 12 page special. How long does it take you to write a script? After the idea’s rattled around for a while a rough page can be written in an hour or two but that would often be longer with the HH scripts - allowing for all the gags and the high frame count. Then I’d go through it many more times before submitting so I could always look for ways to either edit things or cram in an extra pun or joke. It always helps to leave your work for a day or so if possible so you can come back and look at it with a fresh perspective. I was happy if I could write a 2-pager in a day although when pushed I could come up with 4. The Doctor Who strip is a bit quicker to write as it’s less frame-intensive and gag-packed, and I tend to revise the content at both the pencil and inking stages. The drawing always takes far too long.

Do you have any advice for any writers or cartoonists out there wanting to get their stuff published? Stick to your guns and trust your instincts. Feedback can help but I find that too many opinions confuse and kill the spark. Don’t get distracted like I did and try to do everything, pursuing other avenues, all at once. Keep reading comics. Get away from the desk when you can. Breathe in fresh air. As my partner Emily says, 60% of your body is water and if water stays still for too long it goes stagnant. Get a website. Stay the course. Take heart from your rejections - it’s something that every creator has to go through. And keep smiling! As the fortune-cookie says: ‘Victory belongs to the most persevering.’

Thanks for talking with us Séan. My pleasure. A full Harry Hill script plus the finished comic strip will be posted as a separate publication on our Issuu page soon. To find it, do one of two options: 1. Search 'laughterhouse' (our production name) in Issuu and click on 'people'. We are the top result, and all our publications should come up. 2. When reading an issue of Atomic Comic, click on the name 'laughterhouse' above the issue. This will take you to our home page, where you can find all our documents.

Auction Watch

- by George Shiers

Vulcan was originally released in Scotland only for a test run, before being released to the rest of the world (and in Scotland once again). The first issue of the Scottish edition is just about impossible to come by, so when the near mint one with the original free gift on the left was put on eBay bidding quickly picked up! Even so, I'm surprised to see it sell for ÂŁ255!

The Whampire Bat seen above was given away with Wham issue 15, and came with the original pouch. It sold for ÂŁ10.50.

Above: The Vulcan free gift Gruesome George!

Viz issues two and three were also uploaded to eBay, with issue two selling for £413.99 , and issue three for £235.99.

Original Fudge annuals are hard to come by, and feature some fantastic early work from Ken Reid! To your left is a photo of the front cover of the second book, published in 1941, which sold at auction for £107. The Cor! issue one on the right is in nice condition, with very white pages and only one fault (creasing on the left), but still managed to sell for a nice £45.66! Although there isn't room for images of everything, here are a few more auction results. Action issue one in VG+ condition sold for £22, the 1940 Dandy annual in poor - good condition sold for £193.54 and the 1943 Dandy book in similar condition sold for £142.66.

Mega! Mega! is a new comic/magazine to be published for the first time later this month. Going by the front cover, which you can see on your left, the publication does look very similar to Toxic, although maybe with a few more comic strips (we can't say yet, as the first issue is yet to be released). The cover, unfortunately, is a mess. It is very difficult to tell which word is the title, and images have been crammed into every space available, making it look far too busy and bright. Maybe this is just a first draft that was released, and I really hope that Immediate Media, who publish the magazine, fix the cover before it is released. Mega! issue one will be released on 6th February for and will cost ÂŁ2.99.

Man From Space Is Out Of This World! by George Shiers First of all, I'd like to apologise for the awful pun in the title, but this article brings some exciting news about Man From Space, a small press comic created by Marc Jackson. Marc has being giving us little clues towards what could be happening to Man From Space online for some time now, but we've never really learnt too much. However, we can now reveal that this month brings the launch of the all new Man From Space webcomic. The comic brings a new look and a new story and Marc promised that it is going to be "all awesome"! So if you've never read Man From Space, now is the time to start! Keep checking for updates at the Man From Space website: www.manfromspace.co.uk or follow Marc himself on Twitter, where he will no doubt be revealing the latest news: @MARCmakescomics

Above and Left: Sneak previews of the new look Man From Space! The above image is exclusive to Atomic Comic!

REJECTED!

REJECTED! is our aim to collect heaps of rejected comic strips, drawings or ideas, and publish them for the first time! This month's rejection is this Korky the Cat strip by Phil Corbett, featuring the Washi Monsters (Washi - Moshi, geddit?)! Enjoy!

About Us!

And Thanks To... We would also like to thank Will Barber Taylor, who wrote the four page article 'The Changing Face Of Dennis The Menace', which I'm sure you'll all agree was a fantastic, well researched read! To help us say thanks to Will, be sure to follow him on Twitter if you have and account: @Blackadder345