Evolution of a concept

Thirty years ago Marvel UK returned the rights to me of my character Combat Colin as they had no further use for it (or for any humour comics at the time). As Combat Colin was, and still is, my favourite creation, this was fantastic news.

(I should add here, as I often do, that it was Steve White who came up with the name "Combat Colin" though when I submitted the first ideas to Marvel. An inspired thought, and far better than the name I'd come up with which was "Dimbo".)

Anyway, having gained the rights, I was fired up with enthusiasm to create a Combat Colin comic. I set to work on a "dummy issue" that I intended to submit to publishers to see if they were interested. Here's the evolution of the cover...

Initially, I wanted a punchy title like those of the comics I grew up with such as Smash! and Wham! The name KZAP! came to mind and I did a very quick rough of the cover...

Maybe I thought that was too close to the underground comic Zap! so I had a rethink and retitled it BOOM!

Nah, BOOM! didn't sound powerful enough. It needed something more. Hey, maybe KABOOM! would work..? You'll notice I decided that Brickman should feature in it too, and a character called Kid Chaos! I've no idea what Kid Chaos was going to be. I doubt I'd thought it out beyond a catchy name...

KABOOM! was definitely going to be it so I produced a more finished cover. I'm still quite pleased with that logo design I did. This was long before I had a computer so it's all hand drawn apart from a bit of Letraset for "The comic for all ages" flash and the "This comic is DIFFERENT! It's funny!" conceit. 

But then... I had a rethink. It was the 1990s and comics named after the lead character were more popular than generic anthology titles so I redrew it as the Combat Colin Mega-Special...

Then I thought I'd put that idea on hold, rework the whole thing, and self-publish it as Yampy Tales, reprinting selected Combat Colin stories. For those who don't know "yampy" means "crazy", but it's quite a local term only used around a few areas in the Midlands so most readers had no idea what it meant. Anyway, I stuck to my guns and published three of these comics that I sold via mail order...

Two years later I returned to the idea of a new Combat Colin comic and redrew the cover again which emerged in its final version as the Combat Colin Summer Special 1967.... HUH? 1967?!? Well, the story was set in the past so I thought I'd have a bit of fun, even down to the Thorpe and Porter 1/6d price stamp. (Although this A5 comic would actually cost readers £1.20.) It was published in 1997 and as well as a brand new Combat Colin story it also included a new Pete and His Pimple tale (back before I gave the rights to Rebellion) and a reprint of a few of my Suburban Satanists strips (that had only previously appeared in Norway and Sweden)...

 

I only had a couple of hundred printed at most, and sold it via mail order. Yes, the competition to "Win a bag of monkey nuts" was genuine. The comic included a free Bingo card (well, the comic did have a seaside theme) and the winner received a big bag of monkey nuts!

A few years later, in 2000, I produced another Combat Colin Limited Edition Special. This one was A4 and mostly reprint. I created a new cover image using Bryce software. Yes, by this time I had an Apple Mac so I could design it using fonts rather than hand drawing the logo...

Then... no more Combat Colin comics for 17 years until I decided to get back into self publishing several years ago and produced four issues of a six issue Combat Colin series reprinting all the classic strips from the start...

Issues 1 and 4 are sold out now but 2 and 3 are still available from my eBay lists...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=203554298786&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&_ssn=graphite47

Yes, I still hope to produce Combat Colin No.5 this year, and issue 6 not long after, but it all depends on time, finances, and now my health. It was my intention to publish several comics collecting all the material I own the rights to and producing new comics too but these are not good times. Hopefully I'll have a more optimistic update for you soon.

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