Splank! Annual 2018 is the brainchild of patron of these arts and dear friend, Peter Duncan. It’s a labour of love modelled on the British humour and adventure comics we read as children. The stuff that stirred lifelong fandom, the stuff that made the local newsagent holy ground. Peter has assembled some of the great cartoonists from those days and newer artists willing to re-create that Christmas Annual-book feeling.
(Peter authors the regular Splank! blog. It’s a keen eye on crowd-funded comics and classic UK comics and well, well written)
Peter has put a call-out for contributors, particularly: cartoonists who can write and draw; and creators keen to work on sport’s strips. Some more on the project (full posting here)
I’d like to represent as many of the styles and genres of British comics as possible. The book/magazine will be printed in a mixture of colour and black and white and at A4 format. I’m looking for offers of contributions from writers artists or complete stories that fit into any of the following categories.
– Humour strips, think Wham!, Smash! and Pow! but also Beano, Dandy, Monster Fun and the like. Be anarchic, bring old concepts up to date or hark back to memories of great strips of the past. The Power comics featured spy spoofs that fed off the movie and TV craze at the time. Something that mirrors that, or other TV memes that are current now. I’m looking for single page strips, half page gags or longer stories where warranted. I’m also looking for an artist to help me with a newspaper style strip that I may scatter through the pages.
– Adventure stories. Think the old British Hero sets, Robot Archie, Black Max, Janus Stark and Adam Eterno were my favourites. I’ve no formal page limits at the moment, but think 7-8 as a sort of maximum with 3-5 being a norm.
– Sports Stories. I always liked football comics more than I liked football. But a good sports strip would be a great addition. My own preferred sport is Rugby Union and I think I could come up with a few good Rugby gags if I had an artist to work with, but I’d be delighted to look at ideas about almost any sport. But please, bear in mind that any strip about international Rugby Union should end with an emphatic Irish Victory.
– Spooky stuff. I maintain that Misty, and to a lesser degree, Spellbinder were among the best comics produced in the UK. A Misty style ghost or supernatural story would be a superb addition and very much welcomed.
– Factual strips. Remember Look and Learn, Tell Me Why, World of Wonder? Strips that tell stories from history or science or current affairs.
– Nursery Comics – I learnt to read with comics. Things like Rupert the Bear and Tiger Tim. I don’t want a strip for young kids but perhaps something that is done in that style would be interesting.
All of these are just ideas and I’m willing to look at anything. I’m especially keen to get strips with female protagonists, so far I have none and it stands out like a sore thumb. I’m aiming for a PG-13 vibe so bear that in mind and if you have any questions please do contact me and we’ll see if we can bring Splank! back for the first time. All characters should be original, I’m not looking to tread on any copyrights here, and will remain the property of the creators.
If you are interested in becoming part of this project please do contact me. Writers should send a proposal for their story or, get in touch to discuss what they might look at. Artists should send some samples of their work and an idea of which story types they are most interested in working on.
This could be fun, let us see what we can do.
E-mails to Splank@boxofrainmag.co.uk
Physical Samples (if your prefer) to: Peter Duncan 16 Belmont Church Road Belfast BT4 3FF
The Splank! Annual is a great opportunity for high-profile creators so drop Peter a line. Soon, though. Spaces are filling up. So far confirmed are Glenn Matchett (Grayhaven Comics), John Robbins (Handful of Fingers), Duncan Scott and Dave Windett (Dandy), Nigel Parkinson and Leslie Stannage (Beano), Mike Higgs and Davy Francis (Oink!), Marc Jackson (Aces Weekly), Andrew Pawley (GalaXafreaks), John Farrelly (Captain Wonder) and Andy Luke (Whoever he is)
andy-luke.com 