End of an era – After 40 Years - the final death of AKA /A1 Books and Comics, Glasgow

I was sad to see that A1 Books & Comics had ceased trading after some 26 years in their current location in Parnie Street. For those of you that do not know “A1” was of the successor to the legendary “AKA Books and Comics” shop which served in the 1980s as the meeting place where future comic book superstars Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely (Vincent Patrick Deighan) Jock, and many others would meet to plan their future domination of the world of comics.

Above: John McShane the co-founder (along with Bob Napier and the much-missed Pete Root) of the original AKA Books & Comics with a young Alan Moore at an AKA book signing. - Below the original location of AKA Books and Comics in Virginia Galleries.

In 1983 the original AKA store opened in the Virginia Galleries, a bohemian shopping arcade with around 40 traders in the city centre. The store was originally located in a single small unit on the ground floor of the Galleries before moving to larger premises in the same area. By the summer of 1984 the store was a resounding success and was firmly established as the main comic shop in the city, this led in 1986 to the failed experiment that was “AKA 2” a new more upmarket shop selling mostly SF/fantasy books in the trendy west end of the city - a few months later “AKA 2” had closed its doors.

Above "Avengers" issue 96 (cover by Neal Adams) and below "The Fly" issue 1 (Cover by Jim Steranko) two comic books I vividly recall purchasing in the original AKA shop from John and Pete.

In 1998 the Virginia Galleries were deemed to be unsafe and were closed after sinking 10 inches over a single weekend as excavation work was going on at the adjacent Marks & Spencer store in Argyle Street. At this point AKA moved to its final location in Parnie Street and was renamed “A1 Books and Comics”. Over the years that followed “A1” changed management and slowly focused more on toys, collectors’ models, and games, all of which were already being sold in the company’s partner store “Static” just a few doors along on the same street - it was obvious something had to give and that sadly was A1 comics.

Above: The Virginia Gallaries just before it was demolished.

On its last day (searching in vain for some bargains of interest to myself) the manager of the store informed me that the “Static” store would remain open and that “A1” would continue as a Facebook online store. As good as online stores may be they will never provide the great memories that stores like AKA and A1 books and comics provided to many comic fans.

Thats all folks!

Thanks to all the folk that have visited my wee blog over the years. Sadly, due to various personal reasons culminating in a health issue that has landed me in hospital ( for some time) I won't be updating this blog again. Take care and watch your health.

Top Tens: Jim Aparo

From the first time I saw Jim Aparo’s art in the pages of DCs “The Brave and the Bold” #100 he has remained one of my favourite comic book artists of all time. His style was both realistic and yet at the same time cartoony which only added to the appeal of his storytelling. For many comic book fans Aparo’s Batman is the definitive version of the character, although that accolade for myself rests with the equally legendary Neal Adams, Jim Aparo will always be the artist that defined both Aquaman and the Spectre for me. Below are a few of my favourite covers by the great man:

Jim Aparo began his artistic career working in advertising at a Connecticut ad agency, but his true passion as a lifelong comic book fan was to become a comic book artist. In his pursuit of that goal he gained his first professional work with Charlton comics where he worked with the companies then editor Dick Giordano, providing art on (among other strips) “Nightshade” a female super-hero back-up feature that appeared in Captain Atom, and most notably on Charlton comics version of Lee Falk’s “The Phantom”.

When Dick Giordano moved to DC Comics, he took Jim Aparo with him where he worked on Aquaman and the Phantom Stranger. After seeing his excellent art on the Phantom Stranger, editor Murray Boltinoff asked Aparo to work on a Batman/Phantom Stranger team-up for “The Brave and the Bold” #98 - The rest is the stuff off comic book legend and Jim Aparo stayed on this title for almost every issue until the final 200th issue.

The mystery skier in the above cover was "Two Face"

I have shown Jim Aparo's covers for his excellent run on the Spectre when it appeared in "Adventure comics" . I couldn't leave out showing an Aparo Spectre cover and recenlty came across this issue of "Ghosts" #97 which features a great Aparo Spectre cover (sadly he didn't draw the actual strip).

Jim Aparo passed away in 2005 at the age of 72. His final work for DC during his life, was the cover of the trade edition of “Batman in the Eighties” published in 2004. To this day everytime I see one of his great covers, it always makes me smile.

Gone but not forgotten: Near Myths - The early work of Grant Morrison and Bryan Talbot

Near Myths was an A4 SF magazine (similar to Dez Skins’ “Warrior”) published out of the Science Fiction Bookshop in Edinburgh under the ”Galaxy Press imprint”. Although the magazine only ran for 5 issues between 1978 -1980, it has gained a bit of a cult reputation over the years (in the UK at least) as it was the first home of Bryan Talbots excellent “Adventures of Luther Arkwright” series. The magazine also featured some of Grant Morrisons earliest published work with his "Gideon Stargrave" character. In line with many British comic magazine at this time Near Myths was printed in black and white on newsprint with full colour (glossy) covers.

I can still recall the first time I saw the first issue of "Near Myths" in 1978 in a small village newsagents, from memory the initial excitment of seeing a new sci-fi comic magazine (and a Scottish one at that) was tempered by the fact that most of the strips were pretty poorly illustrated, the exception being the excellent "Adventures of Luther Arkwright" by the talented Bryan Talbot (splash page from #1 above).

Above: "Near Myths" #1 (cover from internet as my copy has lost its cover)

Above:"Near Myths" #2

Above: "Near Myths" #4 (issue 3 at header).

Above: the contents page to #4.

Above: from #4 the splash page of Grant Morrisons "Gideon Stargrave" strip which he wrote and drew as a teenager. Below from #4 a page of Bryan Talbots "Luther Arkwright" series.

Although Near Myths had national (UK) distribution and was planned as a monthly title most issues arrived late following its debut in October 1978, with the final issue (#5 cover below) appearing around 18 months later in April 1980. This along with the magazine being clearly tagged as being for “mature audiences” may have resulted in its demise although there were also some pretty serious finacial issue at play with the magazine.

The Science Fiction Bookshop at this time was run by Rob King who edited issues 1-4 of "Near Myths". Sadly Rob King and the Science Fiction Bookshop were heavily in debt with Mr King abandoning the shop, his debtors and the magazine leaving Brian Talbot to edit the final issue (cover above from Internet). Due to the long delays between issues I missed the last issue of "Near Myths" (or perhaps I lost interest) which looks to have been heading in a more commercial (for an "alternative" magazine) direction with excellent creators like Hunt Emerson and Trina Robbins contributing.

How the duck got his trousers: When Disney took legal action against Marvel

Around thirty years before the Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment (Dec 2009) they threatened a trademark lawsuit against Marvel due to the similarities between their own duck superstar “Donald”, and Marvels irreverent “Howard” character. At the time in the 1970’s this was big news among comic book fans, but in the decades that have passed since this legal “battle” took place I had forgotten about this, well that was until I purchased a new copy of “Howard the Duck” Magazine issue 8 which discussed this very subject (cover to issue 8 below).

It was around 1977 when the Walt Disney Company threatened to sue Marvel claiming that Howard the Duck infringed on their Donald Duck trademark, so in order to avoid a legal battle Marvel's management team signed an agreement with Disney regarding the design of Howard the Duck. According to the Marvel article that appeared in issue 8 the original Howard the Duck, to be known as "the 'old' Howard the Duck" would never be used again, except in reprints. Instead Howard would be replaced by a new design that included bleary eyes, a new shape of his head, a swollen beak and most important of all Howard had to wear trousers. The above design sheet seemingly created for Marvel by John Romita, was sent to Disney for their approval along with the letter below that was sent to the Marvel creative team that worked on Howard.

Steve Gerber (Howards co-creator) wasn’t happy with Disney's meddling and satirised this episode in “Howard the Duck” #21 (1977) in the story S.O.O.F.I (Save Our Offspring From Indecency).

Later in issue 2 of the "Howard the Duck" magazine (1979) Bill Mantlo addressed the issue of the Disney redesign less discreetly in the excellent story “ Animal Indecency” with the character Sidney Land. Although Disney and Marvel remained in communications over this issue and with Disney issuing a final cease and desist letter in the late 1970's, Howard's popularity had faded and the Magazine ended in 1981 with issue 9. At the end of the day despite all this back and forth and with legal threats being issues, Marvel never did fully implement any of Disney’s changes.

Strangely with Disney now owning Marvel and Howard they still seem intent that he should not look like his “real” 1970’s design, instead the more duck like image is what they plan to use - It's not a great look for such a cool comic character.

Bring on the Back ups: When John Buscema drew Batman......and Superman

A big fantasy of my early fanboy teen years (mid-late 1970s) was the thought of some of US comics greatest artists working for both Marvel and DC on some of their top characters. Of course, it wasn't the case that this never happened back in the 1970’s as artists like Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, and others successfully worked to some extent for both companies. However, artists like John Buscema (who I imagine Marvel had under contract) didn’t make the move to try their hand at working on characters like Batman, Superman. Green Lantern etc. Well, that wasn’t until 2000 when Big John eventually took the opportunity (as did many others ) to work for DC. Although he did work on Superman (of sorts ) in the “Just Imagine Stan Lee creating….” series and provided (very) rough pencils for Gil Kane on the posthumously published “Superman: Blood of My Ancestors” book, he did provide full art on a one shot Batman black and white back up tale that appeared in "Batman: Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -the the result as you would expect were pretty impressive. Sadly Big John passed away in 2002 only a couple of years after this was publsihed. Enjoy some of the last work of a comic book genius:

Above:The cover to "Batman Gotham Knights" #7 (2000) -Cover by Brian Bolland.

Above: The cover and splash page to "Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Buscema creating Superman" (2001) - Cover byJohn Buscema.

Above:The cover to " Superman - Blood of my Ancestors" - Cover image taken from the Grand Comics Database.

Favourite Comics: Avengers - #96 - The most expensive comic (I ) ever purchased - Neal Adams

As I mentioned in my last post the Avengers "Skrull - Kree wars" storyline (Avengers #89-97) is one of my all-time favourite story arcs. Although I read most of these strips in the mid 1970's when it was reprinted in the UK's "Mighty World of Marvel and Avengers" comic I always wanted to pick up the original US comics, especially the Neal Adams issues. I managed part of this quest when I picked up #94 in 1979, however it wouldn't be until 1982 until I tracked down my second Avengers US comic (#96) in Glasgow’s (legendary) AKA Books and Comics. Despite finally finding this issue (never an easy task in early 1980s Glasgow) it took me a few hours to eventually decide on purchasing the comic as at £15 (around $19 today) it was (and still is) the most expensive comic I have ever bought. Below are some of my favourite pages from this comic which was the first issue to feature the modern Avengers logo, enjoy.

Above: The only picture I can find of the (rough) location of the original AKA Books and Comics (ground floor) in the now demolished Virginia Galleries in Glasgow. AKA was the place that future comic book giants like Grant Morrison, Mark Miller and Frank Quitely (Vincient Deighan) would meet. ( Picture from "Glasgow Live")