Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK

Continuing our month long look at British creators who have written and drawn superhero comics for both the American and domestic markets, in a panel recorded in front of a live audience at the London Science-Fiction Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to a quartet of Marvel UK luminaries who were responsible for some of the best action / adventure titles in the 1980s and 90s.
Simon Furman, was (and still is) the primary writer of Transformers, as well as the scribe behind a dozen installments of the Doctor Who comic strip, plus many of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and Death’s Head. John Freeman, helped create many of Marvel UK’s early 90s titles such as Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth. Dan Abnett and Gary Erskine co-created the Knights of Pendragon, a series which gave UK superhero Captain Britain a new, darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to an Arthurian team of heroes.
Alex and the four creators discuss the rise in popularity of Marvel UK as a producer of original material in the 1980s and some of the memorable comics they founded along the way. (Part 1 of 2)

4 covers of Marvel UK titles from the late 70s to mid 80s - Hulk Comic #41, Captain Britain #1, Transformers #8, Action Force #24

For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org / Listen to part two of the Marvel UK panel

Links: Wikipedia pages on Marvel UK, Dan Abnett, , Gary Erskine and John Freeman
John’s website on British comics news: www.downthetubes.net
Gallery of Marvel UK covers at the Grand Comics Database
Marvel UK fanblog: It came from Darkmoor
Interview with Gary Erskine in The Guardian about working in the British comics industry

Listen to Alex’s interviews with Chris Claremont and Alan Davis / Paul Cornell about Captain Britain
Listen to Alex’s interview with Simon Furman about Transformers: part one / part two
Continue reading →

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Panel Borders: eXpat Heroes

Starting a new podcast series of the UK’s only weekly radio show about comics, Panel Borders has a month of shows looking at the ‘British Invasion’ of UK creators who have worked on American and American-style superhero titles.

Alex Fitch talks to Chris Claremont, a veteran comics writer born in London who became one of the most prolific and popular American comic book writers of the 20th century, most famous for a 16 year sojourn writing the Uncanny X-Men from 1975 – 1991, with his last few issues selling in the region of eight million copies each.

In this episode, recorded at this year’s Bristol International Comics Expo, we’re focussing on a superhero Chris created for the UK market – Captain Britain – in 1976, the character’s relocation to America via the monthly comic Excalibur in 1988 and his more experimental X-Men spin off – New Mutants – which Chris created in 1982 and returned to writing last month.

(Originally broadcast 2nd September 2010 on Resonance FM)

New Mutants and Captain Britain by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis

For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links: Wikipedia pages on Chris Claremont and Captain Britain
Article on New Mutants Forever at newsarama.com

Listen to Alex’s interviews with Alan Davis and Paul Cornell about drawing and writing Captain Britain respectively

Recommended events:

Pat Mills’ Electric Picnic

Graphic Content: The Big Comics Chat… A chaotic and fun-stuffed rocket ride through the inner and outer reaches of the comics and cartooning universes. Our intrepid and esteemed panel – Pat Mills (2000 AD), Steve Bell (Guardian), Emma Vieceli (Manga Shakespeare), Phil Barrett (Matter) and Mel Gibson (Northumbria University) – will cheerily dissect and debate the “sequential art” scene as it and was: offering thoughts, opinions and recollections on a wide range of topics, including: Classic British comics, Manga, Bande dessinée, Girls’ comics, John Major’s underpants, the Irish small presses, and much, much more. Masked and caped crusaders may also get an occasional mention…

Friday 3rd September, 5.30pm, Stradbally Hall Estate, Stradbally, Co. Laois, Eire

Panel Borders: eXpat Heroes [ 26:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download