Strip Magazine

I stand corrected! There might be hope for some sort of comics scene and it might lie out there in Eastern Europe. I would guess, from what my friends in the US tell me, that the comics scene in the US and UK is either dead or stagnating or both. However, I was in Belfast on Tuesday for a meeting with Adrian and on the way home I stopped into Forbidden Planet and picked up a copy of Strip magazine which is a kind of comic anthology. I'm still reading through it - this week has been hectic, I'm not long out of hospital and I've been running round trying to get things done - but it looks interesting. The introduction says that the publisher, who's based in Bosnia, I think, has been a fan of strips like Adam Eterno and the Steel Claw. I can't fault his taste. He also can't understand why something similar is still not being produced in Britain today. Nor can I. These are the comics I grew up with and for better or worse I still think they're the best. There was a bit of thought and a bit of adventure with them - not the formulaeic material that's brought out now. I had a look round Forbidden Planet and do you know - for the the first time in a long while there was nothing there that I genuinely wanted. The American and British scene seems to be more or less petered out. So maybe the smaller publishers in Eastern Europe and I'm told South America may point the way to the future. So here's to Eastern Europe which I may explore further. Anbody who likes the Steel Claw can't be all that bad!