computers in every house, television that you can watch whenever and wherever you want, and portable phones (a miracle in itself) that can also play music and games and take pictures and keep us from getting lost. incredible. but the most amazing development has taken place in and around my favorite form of popular entertainment: comics.
I’ve been in love with comics, mostly American comics, ever since I first saw them in the late sixties. I must have been eight or nine years old when my older brother, Paul, brought home some battered and worn copies of Fantastic Four and Daredevil from the local junkyard. they had a big ugly ‘3’ scrawled in black marker on the lid, that being the price, threepence each. When you’re done reading them, you can check them out and get 1p off your next purchase. just as I never found a cake I didn’t like, never got a comic back, and still have a few of those original 3p prints in my now scarily large collection at home.
You are reading: Jonathan ross comic books
It wasn’t always easy being a fan of American comics in the UK, mostly because they were hard to find. for a while they used to sell them at the regular newsstands (oh happy days), but then the supply completely ran out. some would still make it – i heard bales were used as cheap ballast on larger cargo ships, which explained why when you managed to find a corner store that had a stash of something new and exotic like marvel team up, for example , it would probably be warped and wrinkled after getting soaked on the way.
even in london, where we normally take things for granted, they weren’t that easy to find. Back in the 1970s, I knew of only one shop where you could get a regular fix: the near-legendary darks they were and the gold eyes in St Anne’s Court, Soho. Now that’s what I call a great name for a store, and the place itself lived up to the promise. On two floors, a herd of hippie sci-fi and fantasy fanatics had created a sanctuary for impossible fiction.
lord of the rings posters hung alongside robert crugge’s sublimely rendered sexual fantasies, while wall-to-wall shelves were stocked with the latest american imports, all for around 30 pence each. one. the weekend they closed was both deeply tragic and memorably exciting as it all had to go. you could get your hands on the hardcover collections and higher priced items for a fraction of the normal price, and then, like something out of harry potter, it went from a place of magic to a dingy old muggle diner. /p>
Today we have Forbidden Planet, oh my gosh, Mega City, and probably several more specialty stores, but times were tough for a while. actually finding the comics was only part of the problem. As strange as it may seem today, back then it was embarrassing to admit that you even liked them, especially if you were, at least technically, an adult.
when i got my first job in london i decided to reread one of my all time favorite series, hergé’s magnificent tintin, on the tube to and from work. I was single at the time, and not exactly a girl magnet, but the memory of being openly singled out and made fun of by a couple of wily young women traveling has always stayed with me. well, spielberg made a movie out of those books! So who’s laughing now, the sexy travel girls?
Actually, you’re probably still you, because it wasn’t as good as it could have been. but that’s not my point. my point is that what was once seen as a joke, something for those arrested in a state of permanent childhood, is now not only acceptable and conventional, but also fashionable. the comics are great, the geeks are really inheriting the earth, and the release of avengers assembly on april 26th is, for me, the icing on the cake. here’s why.
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I was born, I gulp, in 1960, almost exactly at the time comics were recovering from the drought they suffered in the 1950s. Not all of the superheroes that had been so popular during the war years were gone: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, for example, continued their adventures virtually uninterrupted. But Captain America and the Human Torch and Captain Marvel and Uncle Sam and dozens of others had fallen by the wayside, many never to reappear. then dc comics gave superheroes another chance with the reintroduction of the flash, followed by hawkman and the green lantern and many others.
marvel comics did the same, and it was thanks to the creative genius of stan lee, along with jack kirby and steve ditko, that they were brought back to life along with new creations like spiderman, hulk, iron man and the mighty. thor just as in the real world you were once defined by your musical tastes: were you into the beatles or the stones, punk or prog rock, oasis or blur, even take that or e17? either at camp marvel or dc.
dc comics looked good, healthier. Superman was the paragon of American virtue, and the mysterious, almost sinister, Batman of the 1940s had been replaced in consciousness by the wacko, Camp, goofy version brought to life so memorably by Adam West in the television series. p>
but the marvel books were more fun: flashier, more modern, wiser. and they were set in the real world, more or less. Spiderman and Co lived and swung around in New York City, while Batman and Superman took care of Gotham City and the Metropolis. so for me it was wonderful all along, especially when he took another leaf out of the dc books, which had brought superman and wonder woman together with a bunch of other powerful people to form the justice league of america, and lee and kirby rounded up gathered some of his most badass and interesting benefactors and assembled the avengers.
Which brings us back to why I feel that despite the global recession and the fact that we only have barmy boris and konniving ken to choose from in the upcoming mayoral election, after all the world it went well. the avengers movie is near. there have been superhero movies before, of course. superman in 1976 set the benchmark for how to do it right, and superman ii did it even better, but 3 and 4 were horrible and the flop of the movie doc savage, the shadow, the phantom, the low budget version of the fantastic four… overwhelmingly failed to hit, so we all but gave up hope.
then came the sam raimi spiderman movies while the x men movies were also clear and did well. Rumors began to circulate, whispers began to spread: maybe, finally, we’d get what we’ve all been waiting for: a big-budget movie starring the greatest super team ever created (unless you prefer dc, in which case you have my doubts). condolences and cross your fingers that the justice league movie keeps happening).
casting robert downey jnr as iron man and creating a new franchise out of one of marvel’s second division characters made it seem even more likely until… well, here it is. the avengers movie. a day I’ve dreamed of for at least 10 years is just around the corner. iron man, hulk, the mighty thor, captain, america, hawkeye and sgt fury, with black widow to keep the kids at bay. All brought to life by successful actors with real careers and starring in a proper big-budget movie, written and directed by the incredible Joss Whedon. For middle-aged fans like me, it’s 25 Christmases at once.
recommended reading by jonathan ross
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If you want to catch up on some of the latest comics that don’t include Marvel’s best, check them out…
saga of bryan vaughn and fiona staples
the manhattan project by jonathan hickman and nick pitarra
secret service and super thieves by mark “kickass” millar, along with dave gibbons and leinil yu.
from dc, the amazing new titles frankenstein, agent of shadow, swamp thing, animal man
and of course, america has powers, written by me and illustrated by the genius that is bryan hitch.
avengers assemble gets its european premiere at vue westfield tonight and opens on thursday 26th may.
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