Comic Book Crazy! / Comic Strip Vispo and the Art of Comics

 

Blame Savoy Books and Lord Horror comics, blame The Cramps and their Goo Goo Muck, blame Destroy All Monsters and their B-Movie monster music...blame my misspent youth drawing comic book style because I couldn't be bothered to study anatomy (at the age of eleven? Are you kidding?) but don't blame Whizzer and Chips. Of course I read comics as a kid. Wasn't the Beano Summer annual the most thrilling publication of the year (1970)? Wasn't 2000 AD a real kick? 

I wasn't living in 50s America otherwise I might have indulged in the four colour grime and gore that caused panic amongst parents and finally created the comics code which crushed the genre. So fast forward 50 years and I'm enjoying my own personal comic craze. As you can see by the photos, I've bought a few books. I haven't mentioned Jack Kirby yet, specifically, because I might write just about him in another post. 

Who mentioned Pop Art? Oh, Lichtenstein...him. He 'did no more or less for comics than Andy Warhol did for soup', Art Spiegelman said. Loathed or loved by comic fans? The former, probably. I don't know many comic fans, except the friend I've previously mentioned; the one doing his best to reduce my bank account to zeros with what he laughingly calls his 'advice', which I suspect is actually his vicarious thrill of reliving his own voyage of comic discovery years ago, via me. 

I didn't buy a motorbike in my 'mid-life crisis' - ha-ha! I haven't had one. Or did I? What well-off boomers spend their money on is their business. I'm not well-off. Yes, it's all relative, wealth. Can I afford to buy books? How much can I afford to spend of my pension? What is money? Is a £60 Captain American omnibus really a 'good deal'? My friend says it is compared to buying the individual issues. Well yes, obviously, but it's still £60. 

Roy Thomas' The Marvel Age of Comics - 1961-1978 is the latest arrival. That's the big (size) one. I bought the smaller version a few weeks ago and love it so much that I had to go big...the artwork included is so...gorgeous? Sexy? (ha-ha). Exciting? Phenomenal? Because Taschen use the actual original comics as their source. They don't mess around. No digital recolouring for them! That's one of the controversial issues with comic collections. I'll discuss that in another post. Suffice to say, for now, that it's having the artwork in it's original printed form that makes this book such a thrill...the paper tones, the inking...the colours! 

 

Naturally(?) my comic craze has inspired me to create some art influenced by comics. Here's two of them. I'm pleased with the results and will probably make more. I have others ideas for exploring comics as a basis for art but for now, visual poetry is the main element. In a way, great comic strips were a form of visual poetry to begin with...the idea of storytelling in pictures...where the text is almost secondary to the visual ideas. 

Thanks for visiting! TTFN

RTomens, 2026

RTomens, 2026

Vispo/Print/Collage: Mind Control / Jack Kirby's 2001: A Space Odyssey

Mind Control, RTomens, 2026

A collage of previous work printed to form the face with the eyes done in ink. 

Talking of ink, Mike Royer did the work on Jack Kirby's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is 50 years old this year. I managed to pick up every issue recently. It has not, as far as I know, ever been included in a collection. Here's the second issue...

More info here

Vispo: Signs From Space / HP Lovecraft and Heavy Metal and Bathory / Graham 'Ghastly' Ingels - the horror!

Signs From Space, RTomens 2026

The title was possibly influenced by reading HP Lovecraft recently, so it became Signs From rather than The Colour Out Of...and as I said to my friend who works in the charity shop when discussing Lovecraft it's his very dryness, his sort of academic prose style that makes him so distinctive, not only that, of course, but, you know, the way he describes horror situations as if they are field reports by a scientist rather than a fictioneer bent on thrilling the reader - know what I mean? 

There's a playlist of Lovecraftian metal on Spotify. 

 

Staying metallic: this morning whilst working on a new piece I've been 'listening' to Under The Sign Of The Black Mark by Bathory who, as you know, made metal noise as good as anyone, probably better than most...but I'm no expert. Take this, Chariot Of Fire. And. What I like so much about it is the drum sound so rapid-fire as to become mechanical to the point of almost become Thrash Techno. Right? 

And what could be more logical than to follow that sonic representation of horror with a master illustrator, Graham Ingels and the superb Fantagraphics book, Doctor of Horror...a 'Ghastly' treat!

Sleep tight...and don't have nightmares!

Vispo: Suspended Sentence / I have a criminal doppelganger

Suspended Sentence, (Sold) RTomens, 2026

Another mugshot from Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots used, along with altered vispo, print and marker pen.  This is the book. It's pricey now but I was lucky enough to find it in a charity shop for a fiver and since it's such a brilliant publication it is definitely in my Top Ten Bargains chart.

I was once accused of being a criminal...by the police! They got out of their car and approached me as I walked across Aylesbury Market square during my lunch break in the late-70s.

"You're out then," one said, smiling slightly. 

"Pardon?"

"How long have you been out?"

"Out of where?"

They laughed. It turned out I looked like a criminal they knew to be doing time. As hard as I tried to convince them otherwise I was left with the impression that they still didn't believe me. My doppelganger must be really accurate, I thought, for the police not to be able to tell the difference.

Vispo/drawing: Adrift / Steve Ditko / Atomic Age ink

RTomens, 2026

This period of trying to combat RSI by not typing sees me using printer and pen instead. Here's the second made in two days. I've used ink pens for years but have been trying new ways recently. Adrift combines printed layers of old typed vispo pieces, inked according to whichever parts I was to highlight or cover completely. 

I've been inspired by a recent dive into the world of comics, specifically the Atomic Age (roughly 1946–1956). Not that I dare compare my efforts to the great inkers of those days. Flicking through PS Artbooks' Outer Space Vol 1 the other day I was struck by this Steve Ditko panel. I have a friend who's been collecting comics and comic books for decades; he's a very useful guide through what is a vast world and a challenging one regarding reprints (digital recolouring or not? Black and white purity for the artist's work? etc). Through his enthusiasm he's also doing his best to tally bankrupt me...and is almost succeeding...

Visual Poetry: I Feel No Pain / Yes, I feel pain... / Album: World Downfall - Terrorizer

I Feel No Pain, RTomens 2026

Ironically and with no thought of my situation when making this today, I do feel pain, in my shoulder. It's probably Repetitive Strain Injury from...guess what? Yes, typing. It's only when I'm out walking, after about an hour, my shoulder starts playing up. Because of that, in an effort to type less (I can't stop!) I've been printing more content in recent pieces and adding type afterwards. In keeping with the tradition related to getting 'old', yes, I'm getting more pain in a body which I have treated like a temple...a ruined one...

Here's one album I've been getting energy from whilst creating...a mighty noise!

Collage: I Wanted To Be An Artist!

RTomens, 2026

I did want to be an artist when I was a kid. Meaning an artist making a living from being an artist. It didn't work out though. No-one else wanted me to be an artist. I hated school and left as soon as possible to a life spent doing menial jobs whilst occasionally thinking 'It's not too late for Art college' but it was. 

Now I no longer have to go to work.

I hear things about education and thank god I'm not tempted to go to Art school now and risk being brain-washed in that world.

Is that what they call modern art? / Meeting actual people and being a snob / Print: Celestial Landfall

 

Yes, people like Thelma do exist! They did exist when this comic strip panel was created (1952) and still do - so what? It doesn't matter how other people see art...unless they directly hamper any progress you should wish to meke...as in someone important that you meet looks at your art and says 'I like pictures that look like something!' and shows you the door. Why did you want to impress them anyway? They own a gallery? They act as agents for artists? Etc...

When I was a lot younger it would bother me that some people didn't 'understand' art, as in even old-fashioned abstract art. Perhaps I still felt it was a battle to 'win' and worth arguing about. Pah! What a waste of time. People have different opinions and taste. That's all. So what if the Thelmas (and male equivalents) of this world only want pictures that look like something.

Here's a print I made a few days ago:

RTomens 2026

I've been called a snob many times for just knowing what I like and some of those things being 'obscure'. My accusers only saw part of the picture, though. I love Motown records. Snobbish? Hardly. I love old reggae tunes, John Wayne films, Laurel & Hardy and Pop Art. Do any of those signify snobbery?

These days you can find people online with similar taste to you in obscure music, Art, books etc. In a way, it takes the fun out of it, although I did used to pine for like-minded souls before the internet and once found they were seen as rare treasures. It might be that friend of a friend you were introduced to in a bar. That someone in a club. A chance encounter on the tube with someone reading The Ticket That Exploded. 

People who were actual flesh and bone rather than just names on a screen were akin to records, physical vinyl. They meant something other than virtual 'friends' never to be met and streaming music. You had to make an effort to get both. You could touch them, smell them, get a feeling from them via eye-to-eye contact...the record sleeve, the handshake or hug...

(Talking of records, in a charity shop the other day I overheard a young girl tell the shop assistant that she'd just spent fifteen pounds on vinyl, to which the woman (aged around 45) replied 'Do you have a vinyl player?'. A vinyl player?!!! It's a record-player! And the plural of vinyl is vinyl, not 'vinyls'! God that annoys me. Since when did records become 'vinyls'?)

I don't know if young people still go to bars and clubs and discuss music, art and books. It's easy to think that regarding culture this is a lost generation (well, their culture is different, it's largely online). But I often see lots of kids hanging around music venues in Camden so there are still are 'scenes'. I would hope their music annoys their parents but I fear that their parents are 'liberal' and tolerant in that respect. Parents take their kids to festivals nowadays, for god's sake. 

I like to think there are teenagers out there proudly being 'snobbish' about the culture they like; reading obscure books and listening to obscure music. With 'everything' now being available online though, I suspect that any underground scene worthy of the name would have to be either offline, or so miniscule as to avoid attention. It would certainly escape the notice of this old fart.

TTFN

Print art: What Is A Woman Really Worth? / Destroy All Monsters and Mimicking Authenticity / My Soft Need 23 artwork

 

RTomens 2026

Revisiting Destroy All Monsters' artworks and music inspired me to create some prints. I was keen to try and avoid blatant copies, of course, although LJ believes that to be impossible. She, bless her, is oblivious to software program capabilities in that respect. Of course you can click on the 'Grungy Xerox' button to give your images that look. But what look is it? The look of old Xerox technology. Or is it only that? I wonder...because it's not only a look, it's the product of a time, place, technology, attitude etc...a culture. 

In the same way that it would be very hard, I imagine, to recreate the sound of Jamaica circa 1972 (is their an Off-Center Pressing button for that slightly warped and woozy sound - oh and scratches) recreating a visual style that perfectly mimics an old one may, technically, be possible, but I doubt it's so good as to be indistinguishable from the real thing. No, I'm not going to research that.

There are plenty of typewriters fonts available online and I've used a few but to these eyes they still don't look exactly like anything produced on an actual typewriter.  The inherent variation in pressure applied to keys and the resulting different shades of type is absent. Don't tell me, there's a typewriter app that does vary the weight of lettering randomly. Huh! 

The Destroy All Monsters magazine, collected in one volume, is a treasure. Unfortunately, both books are pricey nowadays. Their aesthetic, visually and sonically, is spot on - raw, rock'n'roll. 

*

I'm not sure when my eyes stopped communicating properly with my brain but it's a worry, naturally. Why do I ponder this? Well, I bought Soft Need 23 (2020) from Typewriter Jim last year, about 10 months ago - flicked through, shelved it, flicked through again more thoroughly, shelved it and had another look a couple of weeks ago, this time noticing the comic panel joke on page 48...hold on...that's mine! I made that years ago! I think...I'm almost sure, but it takes some recall to say, exactly, so I search my old blog, Include Me Out, and sure enough, there it is. I'm uncredited in SN 23 because by the time they sourced it my name had become detached, I suppose. I don't mind. It was funny, though, that I didn't discover it for months.

Vispo print: Instant Success

Instant Success, RTomens 2026