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Great British Comics (subtitled Celebrating a Century of Ripping Yarns and Wizard Wheezes) transports the reader through more than 100 years of Britain’s bizarre weekly comics, newspaper strips, magazines and graphic novels, from their secret origins to today’s cutting edge. The journey takes in the rural wonderlands of Rupert Bear and the blasted outback of Tank Girl, the glistening spaceships of Dan Dare and the Mega-City mean streets of Judge Dredd, the knobbly knees of Dennis the Menace and the tight black-leather costumes of Modesty Blaise.

Divided into chapters by themes such as schooldays, family life, cartoon creatures and science fiction, the book charts the careers of timeless icons including Korky the Cat, Billy Bunter and Fungus the Bogeyman across the decades from the 1920s to the 1990s. The engaging, informative text is richly illustrated with toys, badges, merchandise and other collectables, as well as comic-book panels and covers.

Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury co-created the bestselling books Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life and Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics.

Aurum, paperback, 192 pages, published October 2006

Authors: Paul Gravett & Peter Stanbury

What The Author Says:

you can read what Paul has to say about how this book came into being and also an interview with him about British comics over on the FPI blog.