Phil Elliott

Phil Elliott:
The past and present of the UK comic industry
by Chad Boudreau

What started off as an interview about Phil Elliott's involvement with Paul Grist's Jack Staff series published by Image Comics, ended up being about many things, except the aforementioned comic. As it turns out, Phil has been a very busy man, both in the past and the present, providing writing, pencils and colouring chores on a number of intriguing projects. Our conversation also shifted to the UK comics scene, both past and present and Phil had lots of insightful information about that particular industry. It should also be noted all the photos featured below are courtesy of Phil Elliott.

...working with Paul Grist

I first came across Paul's work from a photocopied comic he put out called Short Stories, and it was shortly after that I asked if he'd like to illustrate a script of mine. This was "Absent Friends", which appeared in Escape #11. Paul went on to draw another half-dozen of my stories, from short 2-pagers like "Monsters", which appeared in Taboo, to the longer "Stagestruck" that went into Fox Comics.

I've followed Paul's career ever since, admiring how he stuck with self-publishing while others (including myself) gave up! I was so pleased when he asked me to colour Jack Staff, and it's been great working on the book and to see it coming out looking so good. Paul's art works brilliant in black and white, but I feel it translates into colour well...I hope everyone else agrees!

The first issue of Phil's self-published A7 Comics

...the self-publishing racket

I've always published my own comics, from using carbon paper (and boy, that was a laborious task), Gestener machines (do those things still exist?), xeroxing and even litho to computers. You feel a greater sense of creative freedom publishing your own work...but then again, one's often forced to do this, when one can't find a "proper" publisher to print one's work! I found myself having to do this in the late 70s, when I couldn't get my work published.

...getting started

I've been drawing comics for almost as long as I can remember, probably since around the age of 7 or 8. I started contributing illustrations and strips to UK comics fanzines like The Panelologist and Bemusing in my mid-teens, but it wasn't until I was, I guess, 21 when I actually sold a comic strip, a thing called "Busby's Rock'n'Roll Facts" to the British music paper, Melody Maker. That ran for just 4 weeks, but was enough for me to give up my day job! Since then, I've had work published in all sorts of comics and magazines ­- Escape, Knockabout, Marvel, Punch, NME and others in the UK; PrimeCuts and Cheval Noir in the US; Fox Comics in Australia and A Suivre in France. Fantagraphics published Blite, Slave Labor did Post Apocalypse, My Day and Mr Night, Second City and Bluebeard. Second City was originally released as a miniseries by the UK publisher, Harrier Comics, a company who I did quite a bit of work for in the late 80s, including editing the humour anthology, !GAG!

...what he's up to these days

I've been a bit quiet with regards comics work in recent years, but it's still my first love and it's great to be involved in the business again with Jack Staff and the other stuff I've got coming out this year. First off, on June 25 is Illegal Alien from Dark Horse, which is a repackaging of a book I did with James Robinson for Kitchen Sink. And then in July (and every 2 months after that), Tupelo is coming from Slave Labor Graphics. Slave Labor also looks likely to publish Absent Friends, a comic collecting together all the strips I've done with Paul Grist. I've no release date for that yet. Finally, I'm also creating a new comic strip, Pool Tales, every week for serializer.net.

...the glory days of the UK comics scene

For a period, comics in the UK almost became the new rock 'n' roll, regularly reviewed in music papers, or hip fashion rags like the Face and ID. A lot of this was down to ground-breaking comics like The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Love and Rockets, Raw and the UK anthology magazines like Escape and Deadline. This was something of a boom-time for the British comics industry, with even Marvel UK commissioning new material for both its superhero comics, and creating new titles like Strip, which published more alternative work. IPC, which published 2000 AD launched Revolver and Crisis, which featured work with a more "mature", less fantasy or SF outlook. The underground comics distributor, Knockabout Comics had its own regular book which showcased new comics. The newly-formed independent publisher, Harrier Comics, put out a whole host of titles, including my own Second City and Eddie Campbell's Deadface comic. They were soon followed by Trident Comics, publishing early work by the likes of Mark Millar. And of course Atomeka Press came and went.

Elsewhere, there was Viz magazine, a pastiche of old style British comics like Beano, featuring characters like Freddy Fart Pants and Roger Smelly on the Telly. Viz had been carving its own path quite separate to what was happening in London. Totally independent, it was sold by its creators in pubs and clubs around Newcastle and eventually became, for a time, one of the biggest selling newsstand magazines of any genre in the UK!

...Phil Elliott and the UK scene

I wasn't really 2000 AD material and the U.S. seemed a long way away back then. So it was a case of running off my little black and white comics at a local copy shop and selling them outside the monthly comic marts in London. (The comic marts are not quite conventions…more like little markets.) I figured the best way to get any sales was to make mini comics, which could be quickly produced and sold cheaply. How could even a die-hard superhero fan refuse to part with a measly 10p!

A friend at the time said those A7 Comics (that's what I called them) had a "throw-away, disposable" quality to them. He was being complimentary and I knew what he meant. Apart from a short period in my teens, I've never been a comic collector. Comics should be enjoyed, well-thumbed, passed around…thrown away even. I simply can't get my head around this new trend in hermetically sealing comic books!

Anyway, it seems that not all my A7 Comics got thrown away. One found its way to Eddie Campbell, who would play a hugely influential part in my life for the next decade. Another was picked up by Alan Moore. My little disposable comics found their way to France, Australia, America, Japan and elsewhere!

...Vertigo sends its thanks

Alan Moore, along with Eddie Campbell, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Glenn Dakin and just about anyone involved in British comics were regular attendees at the London comic marts, held just a stone's throw from the British Houses of Parliament. Some, like Gibbons and Bolland, were already established names, having worked for 2000 AD, but there were also the likes of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, just beginning their careers and selling their own self-published comics on a stall now set up at the marts. This stall, the Fast Fiction table, became something of a beacon for UK comic creators, at whatever level.

Another beacon was the Westminster Arms pub, just around the corner from the comic mart, and it's strange to think now how every fourth Saturday that small pub would literally overflow into the street with comic talent. One terrorist bomb there (remember how close we were to the Houses of Parliament) and there may never have been any Vertigo comics...or at least, not as many!

...the UK scene today

There isn't really much of a British comics industry at the moment. Apart from 2000 AD, very few publishers are putting out new work. I was closely involved with Escape magazine in the UK and this was a very productive period for me and others. There was also an upsurge in self-published titles -- this was a time when an independent black and white comic could get orders of 20,000 or more! However, we all know how the market went belly up in a short time.

Viz is still going, albeit with a reduced readership, but all the others, Harrier, Deadline, Trident, Escape, have all disappeared. There are still plenty of people publishing their own comics, but since the demise of Fast Fiction and Slave Concrete, who acted as distributors for small press comics, there doesn't seem to be much cohesion.

Some guys, like Paul Grist and Gary Spencer Millidge (Strangehaven), have made some in roads into the U.S. market (it's difficult to make much money from just the UK market) but it's not easy to keep plugging away as an independent publisher. Even Eddie Campbell, one of the most vocal champions of independent publishing, felt there was no choice but to close down his business. It seems to me, that one can't be truly independent unless you can also control the means of production and distribution...the latter of which was, I believe, the straw that broke Eddie's company...when a distributor went under, owing him money.

Perhaps this is where the Internet comes into its own. It's relatively simple and cheap to post your comics online, for the whole world to see. The stuff that guys like James Kolchaka do, with their daily web-comics, is brilliant. That instant communication with an audience is something unique. Again, it's that "throw-away" quality that appeals to me.