Richard Burton (comics)

Last updated
Richard Burton
Nationality British
Area(s)Writer, Editor, Publisher
Pseudonym(s)"Burt"
Notable works
Comic Media News fanzine
Eagle Awards co-founder
Editor of 2000 AD .
Awards Eagle Award (1977, 1978)

Richard Burton is a British comic publisher and editor who had a lengthy career at IPC Magazines. While an assistant editor at 2000 AD , he became known to readers as Tharg the Mighty's bumbling assistant Burt, who appeared in a number of strips with him. (Burton was later top editor at 2000 AD.) Earlier in his career, Burton published the popular fanzine Comic Media News, and was a co-founder of the Eagle Awards.

Contents

Career

Comic Media News

In 1972, Burton and fellow enthusiast Nick Landau took over a fanzine called Comic Catalog, [1] renaming it Comic Media [2] and establishing the Comic Media brand. [1] Burton and Landau produced a few issues of Comic Media, assisted by Dennis Lee and Tom Downes. [3] In 1973, receiving permission to reprint U.S. comics industry news items from the long-running American comic fanzine The Comic Reader , [4] Burton launched the four-page Comic Media and The Comic Reader Newsletter #1, which eventually came to be known as Comic Media News (CMN). [5]

Meanwhile, Landau produced the 1972 UK Comicon and then branched out to one-day London Comic Marts and direct market distribution. Landau's Comic Media Distribution Service imported American comics from the "big two" publishers DC and Marvel; [6] it later became known as Titan Distributors. [2]

Burton produced Comic Media News from 1973 to 1980, eventually publishing 40 issues. [7] Continuing the fanzine's relationship with The Comic Reader , the first seven issues were titled Comic Media & The Comic Reader UK Edition Newsletter before shortening to Comic Media News. Martin Lock was features editor for CMN from 1973 to 1977, [8] while he was publishing his own comics fanzine, Bemusing Magazine (BEM). CMN had a circulation of close to 2,000 in late 1977, [9] and began to feature art contributions from such established creators as Brian Bolland. [10] With issue #34, the magazine expanded its title to Comic Media News International, reflecting its readership in more than 20 different countries. [11]

In 1977, along with fellow British comics enthusiast Mike Conroy, Burton started the Eagle Awards (voted on by British comics enthusiasts). [12] [13] (Comic Media News won the Eagle Award for Favourite Specialist Comics Publication/Trade Publication in both 1977 [14] and 1978.) [15]

2000 AD

After turning down a job offer with DC Comics, [5] Burton was hired as an assistant editor at Marvel UK in March 1978, [5] [16] working for editor Dez Skinn (whom Burton knew from the early days of US conventions and fanzine publishing). [2] With Skinn, he created the popular character Night Raven, who first appeared in Marvel UK's Hulk Comic #1 (March 7, 1979).

After less than a year at Marvel UK, in March 1979 Burton left for a new job at the weekly comic magazine Tornado , published by IPC Magazines. [17] Tornado only lasted through August 1979, at which point Burton moved to 2000 AD (also published by IPC). [18] At this point, Burton retired Comic Media News, though he continued to co-produce the Eagle Awards for another couple of years with Mike Conroy. [19]

Burton stayed with 2000 AD throughout the 1980s and into the mid-1990s. In 1986 he became editor of Battle . In 1987, IPC's comics line was sold to Robert Maxwell and renamed Fleetway Publications; Burton was at that point promoted to editor of 2000 AD, [20] succeeding Steve MacManus. Egmont UK bought Fleetway from Maxwell in 1991, merging it with their own comics publishing operation, London Editions, to form Fleetway Editions. At that point, Burton took the opportunity to launch the very successful videogame tie-in Sonic the Comic with Fleetway, which lasted nine years (three with him as editor). Notable strips and storylines published under Burton's editorship as "Tharg" include:

Burton held the editor position at 2000 AD from 1987 to 1994. He then worked on the computer magazine Fun Online .

Burton has since made a career in computers and digital cameras. [21]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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<i>Warrior</i> (comics)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Bolland</span> British comics artist

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Derek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly. After leaving Marvel UK, Skinn founded and edited Warrior, which featured key works by Alan Moore.

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The Eagle Awards were a series of awards for comic book titles and creators. They were awarded by UK fans voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's Eagle comic, they were launched in 1977 for comics released in 1976.

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Notable events of 1977 in comics. See also List of years in comics.

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Dark They Were and Golden Eyed was a science fiction bookshop and comic book retailer in London during the 1970s; the largest of its kind in Europe. Specialising in science fiction, occultism, and Atlantis, the central London shop also played a key role in bringing American underground comics to the United Kingdom. It also sold American editions of mainstream science fiction books that were not easily obtained anywhere else.

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">British Comic Art Convention</span> British comic book convention

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Martin Lock is a British comic book critic, writer, and publisher. As publisher of the fanzines BEM and Fantasy Advertiser, and then publisher of Harrier Comics, he was an important figure in British comics fandom in the 1970s and 1980s.

<i>BEM</i> (magazine)

BEM, originally known as Bemusing Magazine, was a British fanzine focused on comic books which was published roughly five times a year from 1973 to 1982. The brainchild of Martin Lock, BEM featured American and British comics industry news and gossip, interviews, comic reviews, essays, columns, and comic strips. Billed as "The Comics News Fanzine," BEM eventually transitioned into a professionally produced comics magazine. As time went on, the fanzine also became more of a "strip-zine," with original comics content — some of it written by Lock — increasing year by year. Notable artistic contributors to BEM over the years included Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, Bryan Talbot, Chris Ash, and Dave Harwood.

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.

Mike Higgs is a British comic book artist, writer, designer, and editor. He is the creator of the oddball humor strip The Cloak and the daily comic strip Moonbird.

The House of Hammer was a British black-and-white magazine featuring articles and comics related to the Hammer Film Productions series of horror and science fiction films. The brainchild of Dez Skinn, almost every issue of the magazine featured a comics adaptations of a Hammer film, as well as an original comics backup story, such as the long-running feature Van Helsing's Terror Tales.

Trevor Goring is a British artist who has worked in the comic book industry and the film industry. His comics work includes 2000 AD, House of Hammer, and Death Race 2020. Since the mid-1990s Goring has mostly focused on being a storyboard artist, working on such films as Independence Day, The Cell, Gattaca, X2, Watchmen, and The Cabin in the Woods.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News #20 (May/June 1975).
  2. 1 2 3 Skinn, Dez. "Fanzines page three: Early days of UK comics conventions and marts," DezSkinn.com. Retrieved Nov. 26, 2020.
  3. "Comic Catalog is Dead! Long Live Comic Media!", Comicon '72 program booklet (1972), p. 17.
  4. Willis, Russell. "AN INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN LOCK (PART 1 | THE BEM YEARS)," Under the Stairs (2013). Retrieved Jan. 8, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 Dakin, John. "'Marvel Revolution' in England," The Comics Journal #45 (Mar. 1979), p. 14.
  6. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News #15 (Sept. 1974).
  7. "Comic Media News (International)," Classic UK Comic Zines. Retrieved Nov. 26, 2020.
  8. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News #31 (June/July 1977).
  9. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News #32 (Aug./Sept. 1977).
  10. Bolland, "The 1970s – Comic Media News" in The Art of Brian Bolland, p. 47
  11. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News International #34 (Jan./Feb. 1978).
  12. 2000 AD #2111, 12 December 2018, p. 65.
  13. Burton, Richard. "'The Eagles' are launched!" Comic Media News #30 (Mar-Apr 1977), p. 11.
  14. Previous Winners: 1977, at the official Eagle Awards website, archived at the Wayback Machine. (Retrieved 9 September 2018.)
  15. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News International #37 (Aug./Sept. 1978).
  16. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News International #38 (Oct./Nov. 1978).
  17. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News International #39 (May/June 1979).
  18. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News International #40 (Summer 1980).
  19. "The Eagle Awards for 1980," BEM #35 (Spring 1982), p. 9.
  20. Richard Burton at 2000ad.org
  21. 2000 AD #2111, 12 December 2018, p. 67.

Sources consulted

Preceded by 2000 AD editor
19871994
Succeeded by