Having received a shed load of these lovely images from Malcolm Norton, it would be churlish of me in the extreme not to share more of these exquisite images from Eric Parker of A.P.'s Sherlock Holmes clone Mr Sexton Blake.More on Blake can be discovered at Blakiana a website totally devoted to this publishing phenomenon.
It's worth mentioning that these digest-size editions of the Sexton Blake Library also had an indirect influence on the development of British adventure comics that continues right to the present day. The fact is that during the late 1940s editor Ted Holmes had been lobbying to start a line of American-style comic books and, after the success of a handful of titles such as 'Thunderbolt Jackson' (a Superman/Captain Marvel clone) and 'Kit Carson' which were tested on the Australian market, his bosses at Amalgamated Press gave him their grudging permission to repeat the experiment in the UK. Unfortunately it turned out that the only presses with spare capacity were those used for the Sexton Blake Library, and as a result Cowboy Comics Library and then Thriller Comics Library were launched in this completely untested format. In the event, of course, their immediate popularity took everyone by surprise and led to the rapid proliferation of many other such comic libraries...including those war series which continue to this very day in the form of DC Thomson's long-running Commando!
ReplyDeleteGod! You're just awesome Phil. I think I'll hand over this blog to you and then I can comment although my comments still won't include the pearls of wisdom that you so generously share with us.
ReplyDeleteI think I might have to construct a Cloud 109 Blog Hall of Fame with lofty statues of yourself and David Slinn, Dave Morris, Malcolm Norton etc, etc.
I'm thinking huge cavern a bit like the one in the Captain Marvel comics, with the statues of you chaps as the Guardians of Comic Lore attired like Greek Gods holding flaming torches aloft.
Actually wouldn't it be just great if we could make this whole blog a 3D interactive thing where one would enter through the portal of the guardians?
Mind you you guys would have to just keep holding those torches aloft and would be obliged to miss out on the beer and cakes and Anntte with her whips and guns.
Awesome!!!
I envisage myself more as a mere mortal who has somehow ended up in the cavern and is tiptoeing around under the feet of those massive statues :)
ReplyDeletePresumably Dave so you can free yourself up for the beer and cakes and the necessary chastisement from Ms Annette.
ReplyDeleteOf course we would have to have the vast library of Comiciana available, I'm thinking it's going to have to be the real paper and print deal as the iPad much as I love the thing just doesn't have the heady aroma of 1940's DC comics.
...I'm afraid I'd end up as one of those giant statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Mankind that lined Billy Batson's route to the Rock of Eternity. Probably Sloth! :-)
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