Comic Life

I had a relatively happy childhood growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s. There were also sad times of course, just as there is in anyone's young life; family hardships and illness, the death of pets, school anxiety etc, but on the whole they were good times. 

It helped to have an interest in something. Comics and drawing were my passions, and still are. As a result, I was never bored. Not once. If I wasn't out playing with my friends I'd be perfectly content to stay at home reading my comics or watching TV. 

We didn't have a lot of money. We lived in a council house, never owned a car, and by the time I was ten my Dad had to give up work due to thrombosis. (He had two operations to remedy it, neither of which were very successful, and he died suddenly in 1974 at the age of 52.) 

I was an only child, but I wouldn't say I was spoilt, because I was practical about what I knew my family could afford. I never had a bike and that didn't bother me. We had one holiday a year, usually a week in Blackpool but some years only a couple of days. I never had a record player until I was 15, but I did have comics regularly; Smash!, TV21, Dandy, Beano, Fantastic, Pow! and more. Back then, comics were cheap. Seven comics a week was my limit for a while, bought for me by my mum or other family members, but I'd try any new comic that was launched, even if only for the first issue, plus various American comics.

Comics not only expanded my reading and comprehension but also stimulated my imagination to create my own little comics drawn with ballpoint pens and felt tips on Silvine drawing paper folded in half to make a booklet. I became fascinated by the process of creating comics, and of their long history.

Thankfully, I never experienced the disappointment that many seem to have endured in that my mum never threw out my comics without asking me first. She knew how much they meant to me. When I eventually left home I took the comics with me.

Discovering comics, and the support of my family (particularly my mum) gave me the incentive to work in the comics industry. I did have a non-comics office job for a few years after I left school but it wasn't the path for me and I eventually quit to pursue my ambitions. Now, after 43 years in the comics industry, and all the experiences and friendships I've made, it was definitely the right direction to take. My family are all long gone now, but I think about them every day and I'm grateful I was so fortunate to receive their love and support.