Fast Fiction

Last updated

Fast Fiction was a market stall, magazine, mail order distributor, and news sheet that played a key role in the history of British small press comics (featuring work by rising stars such as Warren Ellis, SMS, Glenn Dakin, Phil Elliott, and Rian Hughes). [1] It existed in its various forms from 1981 through to 1990 under the stewardship of Paul Gravett, Phil Elliott and Ed Pinsent.

Contents

The name "Fast Fiction" was taken from a Classics Illustrated knock-off spotted in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide . [1]

History

Paul Gravett started the Fast Fiction stall at the bimonthly Westminster Comics Mart in London, England, in 1981, selling imported European comics, or bande dessinée. Having discovered that interesting new British comics were being published in short-run photocopy form, he contacted the creators and offered to sell their comics on his stall and through mail order. Initially, this was done for free, with a small percentage cut being introduced later. The Fast Fiction stall became the de facto social centre for small press publishers, along with the adjoining pub, The Westminster Arms.

Cartoonist Phil Elliott and Ian Wieczorek took over Fast Fiction in late 1981 when Gravett started working for Pssst! , magazine [2] (leading to him launching Escape Magazine ). The bimonthly stall and mail-order distributor continued, along with a regular information sheet listing titles available to order, and a new anthology featuring cartoonists they sold. This was also called Fast Fiction, debuting in 1982 with a print run of 100 copies, and lasting until 1991 (with issues #29 and #30 reviewed in Zum! #1).[ citation needed ]

Ed Pinsent, another cartoonist who had been involved in the cassette culture music trading scene, subsequently took over from Elliott and continued to run things until 1990.

Following the closure of Fast Fiction, its mailing list was passed on to Luke Walsh (later known as Luke Temple Walsh) and Mike Kidson, who used it to launch the small press comics review zine Zum! . [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Campbell</span> British comics artist and cartoonist

Eddie Campbell is a British comics artist and cartoonist. He was the illustrator and publisher of From Hell, and the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus, a wry adventure series about the few Greek gods who have survived to the present day.

A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.

Publication of comic strips and comic books focusing on science fiction became increasingly common during the early 1930s in newspapers published in the United States. They have since spread to many countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British comics</span> Comics originating in the United Kingdom

A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British.

Glenn Dakin is a British cartoonist and author of children's books. He is the author of the Candle Man book series, and he contributed to a number of British comics magazines including Escape and Deadline, and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s. His main creations are Temptation and the semi-autobiographical strip Abe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Gravett</span> British journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster in the comics industry

Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing since 1981.

<i>Escape</i> (magazine) British comic strip magazine

Escape magazine was a British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 and 1989. Eddie Campbell, Phil Elliott and Glenn Dakin were amongst the many cartoonists published within its pages. Escape Publishing also released a limited number of graphic novels in the period 1984–1989, some co-published with Titan Books.

Phil Elliott is a British comic book creator who was published in Escape Magazine. He was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trident Comics</span> Defunct British comic book publishing company

Trident Comics was a short-lived comic book publishing company based in Leicester, UK. Specialising in black-and-white comics created by new British talent, it was formed in 1989 as an offshoot of the comics distributor/wholesaler Neptune Distribution, and went out of business in 1992 when Neptune was acquired by a competitor.

British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. They're comparable to similar movements internationally, such as American minicomics and Japanese doujinshi. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to distinguish them from zines about comics. Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell, Paul Grist, Rian Hughes, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, Philip Bond and Andi Watson.

Dave Thorpe is a British writer who is best known for his work on Captain Britain.

Psychopia is a small press zine featuring reviews and articles on British comic books and small press comics and interviews with cartoonists. Unusually for comix zines it focussed almost entirely on British comics such as The Beano and The Dandy ignoring American superhero comics.

Ed Pinsent is a British cartoonist, artist, and writer.

Titan Distributors was a British comic book distributor which existed from 1978 to 1993, when it was acquired by a larger U.S. distributor. Operated by Nick Landau, Mike Lake, and Mike Luckman, Titan Distributors supplied comics, science fiction, and other genre products to retailers all over the United Kingdom. Titan also operated the retailer Forbidden Planet, produced the bimonthly Westminster Comic Marts, and operated Titan Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrier Comics</span> British comic book publisher

Harrier Comics was a British comic book publisher active in the mid-to-late 1980s. Harrier was notable for putting out black-and-white comics in a mold more similar to American comics than to typical British fare.

<i>Rockets Blast Comicollector</i> Comics advertising fanzine

Rocket's Blast Comicollector (RBCC) was a comics advertising fanzine published from 1964 to 1983. The result of a merger with a similar publication, RBCC's purpose was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections. It also proved to be a launching pad for aspiring comic book creators, many of whom corresponded and exchanged their work through RBCC, and published work in the fanzine as amateurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Pearson</span> British illustrator

Luke Pearson is a British illustrator, cartoonist, and comic book writer best known for the Hilda series of comics for Nobrow Press, and Hilda, the Netflix series based on the comics. He has also storyboarded episodes of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time, during its fifth and seventh seasons.

Comic Mart is the catchall term for a series of British comic book trade fairs which were held in the United Kingdom from 1972 until the early 1990s. The Comic Mart was one of the earliest recurring public comic events in the UK, predated only by the British Comic Art Convention. Comic Mart began in London, eventually expanding to Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, among other locations. The first few Comic Marts were organized and produced by Rob Barrow and Nick Landau; eventually they split up to produce competing versions of the event, and were joined by other regional organizers.

<i>Pssst!</i> British comics magazine

Pssst! was a short-lived British comics magazine published by Never–Artpool in 1982. Pssst!, which lasted ten monthly issues, was an attempt to publish a British equivalent of the lavish French bande dessinée magazines.

Comica, the London International Comics Festival, was a comics festival held in London. Organized by Paul Gravett, the festival generally took place over a number of weeks. In the beginning, the festival's main venue was London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA); thus the name, "ComICA".

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 FREEMAN, JOHN (23 April 2009). "Strip!: Ed Pinsent and Fast Fiction". DownTheTubes.net.
  2. ↑ Gravett, Paul. "Escape Magazine: The Great Escape Twenty Years On," PaulGravett.com. Retrieved Nov. 28, 2022.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.