[K1ngcat]

Hi there! my first time on this forum, I came here via a link on Cole's Comics after getting back in touch with my love of his Plastic Man.

When I grew up in the 50s, British comics - with the exception of Dan Dare in the Eagle- were all mostly War, Football, or Humour, so I had to get my sci-fi kicks through B&W reprints - Planet Comics used to feature regularly on my shopping list, and it's great to see the US version so well represented here.  There was our own Marvelman, L. Miller's successor to Captain Marvel, but beyond that, not a lot of "long underwear" characters.

A few American colour comics used to get through, though a lot of these were the IW reprints, mostly one-offs, but through them I was introduced to Plastic Man, The Blue Beetle,  Doll Man, and Phantom Lady.  Charlton brought me Captain Atom, and finally Harvey gave me The Spirit, for which I shall be eternally grateful.

I spent a couple of years as a trainee artist in a London studio but didn't get much further than making the tea and picking up parcels. The closest I got to superheroes was being allowed to do one-colour overlays on early Marvel reprints!  It's great to see so many great comics so well-preserved and I hope in time to be able to contribute a few little gems from my meagre collection.  At present I'm still finding my way around, but a big thank you to Mark and the gang for inviting me aboard.

[paw broon]

Hello K1ngcat and welcome to CB+.  Glad you found your way here. 
I suppose it's always been the case that many British comics featured a lot of war, footie and humour, probably because we had so many anthology titles.  But we did have a lot of "long underwear" characters, albeit that many of them were in more obscure comics designed to look like American comics.  Denis Gifford's books and International hero site have references to them. But you'll find samples of some of them in our UK comics section.
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=270

[K1ngcat]

Thanks for the welcome. Paw. I had a look at the UK section but I don't see any Marvelman.  Does that mean the character's not PD because of his resurrection at the hands of Alan Moore & Alan Davis for Warrior?  A pity if so, I've got dozens of the old L. Miller issues I'd be happy to upload.

[paw broon]

You're right.  No way we can go anywhere near Marvelman, YM or MM Family. There has been so much controversy over the character.
Like you, I have a selection of the originals.
By the way, if you have a look at the Australian/NZ section you'll find more masked mystery men.  no Phantom obviously but we do have The Phantom of The East

[K1ngcat]

 After mentioning Marvelman, I had a quick nose around on the net and I see Marvel Comics bought the rights to the character.  They published a "Marvelman Classic Primer" back in 2010 which entirely escaped my notice until now.  Much as I admire Alan Moore's writing, I'm not sure if all these attempts to make Marvelman "modern," "dark" or "relevant" kind of miss the point.   

[narfstar]

Welcome K1ngcat. We have some other UK fans here as you have already met paw. Good to read you story and have you aboard.

[K1ngcat]

Thanks for the welcome, narfstar.  I downloaded a couple of your comics to my tablet, but my ComicRack Free reader doesn't want to open them.  I'd be pleased to hear any suggestions for a good, reliable, free download comics reader for android.  My laptop has CDisplay for Windows, which is simple and foolproof.

[paw broon]

I have PerfectViewer installed on my Samsung tablet and it works.  It's free from the Google store.  Have a go and let us know how you get on.

[K1ngcat]

Hi Paw, thanks for the advice about Perfect Viewer, I tried that only to discover it wouldn't open the downloads either.  I kept on getting "file not found" messages instead. 

I found some info on the Digital Comic Museum about problems dowloading with Google Chrome, so to follow that up I added Firefox for Android to my tablet, and I'm pleased to say that since then all my downloads have been successful ones.  I just move them to my "comics" folder and they instantly appear in ComicRack. 

It seems Chrome was telling me my downloads were complete when in fact I hadn't downloaded anything at all. Maybe a problem you guys are aware of? 

[paw broon]

Glad you finally got there, K1ngcat.  At the risk of sounding like a right old cynic, that's Google all over for you.  I just don't go near it, apart from the odd comic app on the store, and I can't go elsewhere for them.  Firefox on my android device works fine.  But, as I've said elsewhere, when downloading comics, more often than not I download to my pc, then click and drag them to a micro SD card that I can mount in my tablet.
Much easier to do virus and spyware scans on the pc if you're taking stuff from unfamiliar sites, which I do a lot
Also, if you need to zip up jpegs into a .cbz file - something I seem to be doing regularly - it's much easier to do it on a pc then transfer the finished file to the tablet. It's a right footer doing stuff on a tablet, but then I am chair of the local Luddite branch!

[K1ngcat]

Thanks for the info, Paw.  I've never been a big fan of Google but I recently bought the tablet from my beloved, and Google was already on it.    I won't make that mistake again!

Interesting idea to click and drag to a micro-SD on the PC - there's already a 32g micro-SD in the tablet, so you might've given me another good tip there.

You're not alone. I'm considered a Luddite because I won't do Facebook and Twitter.  I've finally got used to playing through amplifiers that don't have valves in, but I'm still a 20th Century boy at heart! 

[paw broon]

I wont do Facebook or Twitter either.
Amps, eh?  What are you shoving through the amps?  Guitar, perhaps? Or are you a Vincent Crane copy and hammering out Atomic rooster stuff on keyboards?
I was in a couple of bands in the '60's and we started out with Vox AC30's, great wee amps.  So if you have stories to tell, I'm all ears

[K1ngcat]

Hi Paw

Guitar, mostly, though bass when not.  When I gave up on the idea of being a comics artist I turned to music - another profession where you're often ripped off, your work isn't your own, and it's hard to make any money!   

Needless to say I had to get a "day job" to survive, I worked 30 years caring for the elderly and disabled in the Social Services.  But I've been playing guitar around 50 years now, and I hope to get the hang of it one day. 

I've been in bands most of my life, some popular, some not, though most of them poorly paid, and none of them famous.  My most recent claim to notoriety is hosting a weekly London Blues Jam for  the past 10 years, and  I currently write reviews and articles for a British Blues website.  (I'd give you the links but I don't want to be accused of spamming!)

I'm a massive fan of Vincent Crane, who I used to see almost every other week in the Crazy World of Arthur Brown (damn, but they must've had a good agent! ) and my other Hero of the Hammond is Graham Bond, whose "Sound of 65" was the first Long Player I bought.   Yes, I used to have half shares in a Vox AC30, and what a fool I was to let that go!  Still, I have a Fender Bassman and a Marshall Plexi, I'm just too old and weak to drag them to gigs any more.

Good to hear from another muso on the forum, you must tell me some of your expoits sometime.

[paw broon]

How good to find another Vincent fan.  I'm jealous as I never got the chance to see him live, either with CWoAB or Rooster. 
Although I lived in Airdrie, about 30 mins from Glasgow by train, and saw The Stones, Groundhogs, Deep Purple, Peter Green's Mac, Taste etc., I couldn't afford to go to many big concerts.  But there was the Maryland Blues Club in Glasgow and they had some huge names on the odd Friday night.  I managed to get to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (with Mick Taylor and Henry Lowther)  and Muddy Waters played one evening, one of the most unforgettable nights of my life.
Unlike you, I haven't kept up with playing and sometimes wish I had but I wasn't really very good.  My main claim to what might pass for fame was in a 4 piece, with me as chanter, playing the Maryland as support for NSU, a band from Coatbridge who made a couple of albums and were hard and loud with a not-too-shabby guitarist called, if I remember, Ernie Rea.
Shamed to admit that I don't know enough about Graham Bond, so I will now try to remedy that.

[K1ngcat]

My favourite memory of CWoAB goes back to the days before they made the album and added the bass player.  They were just a trio then, Arthur, Vincent, and I think Draken Theacher on drums.  At the Chelmsford Corn Exchange (now sadly demolished) they were halfway through a set when the Hammond broke down.  Arthur & the drummer carried on as a duo to do their cover of James Brown's "I've Got Money" while Vincent disappeared under the Hammond to fiddle with the connections!  Great days. 

If you want to find out more about Graham Bond, and you'll allow me to do a little self-promo, I've written a short biography and a review of his "Sound of 65" album on the website at britishbluesarchive.org.uk under my "stage" name, Stevie King.  Well envious of your chance to see Muddy live, though, does that make us even?