British Comics

Historically called comic papers, British comics are the (optimistically named) 'funny pages' in the news paper.
They can also be sold in traditional American comic form, like with the Dandy or the Beano.

I've asked around the internet, and the general consensus seems to be that if you began reading British comics, you'll find them more entertaining than American ones.

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/AboutMe/AboutMeWhole.asp

^^^This site talks about one man's obsession with British comics and he says:
"Although I came across the American superhero comic-books, I'm afraid they just didn't do anything for me. Maybe it was because I started reading British comics first, and used the likes of Battle Picture Weekly and Action as a benchmark. Who knows, had I started reading DC and Marvel comics first, I might have thought that British comics were a bit bland."

Funnily enough, I began reading the Beano years before i knew what an American comic book was, although i seem to be a singularity.

British comics tend to be very dry and less focused on artwork. It was only until the 1990s that they were published in full colour.
They are usually aimed at children, and are rarely aimed at teenagers (and if they are, they're not funny).

The first British comic was Funny Folks (first published in 1874), according to most sources, but in the early 1800s there were 'penny bloods' and the 'penny dreadfuls' which were small pamphlets with a picture or two and a story in them. They were usually published weekly and provided poor people with a sort of book. (The printing press had just been invented, so books were still expensive, about 6 shillings each.)
The first penny blood was published in 1832 and was called the penny story-teller. There were 564 issues.
(example of a penny blood)>>>>

In the 1890s there seemed to be an explosion of British comics as they became more detailed, more popular and more widespread. The printing press helped greatly with this.

Nowadays, British comics tend to be less gorey, althoigh they're still aimed at the middle to lower classes.


to see some British comics online see:
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/FullStrip/FullStripMain.asp


picture:
http://www.scarcecomics.com/images/competition_beano85_front.jpg
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/History/HistoryWhole.asp?PassedEra=Story%20Papers%201

The Flash (and the JLA)

My favorite character.

There have been four Flashes to date; Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen.
In case you don't know (or couldn't work out from the name) the Flash has the power of super speed. All (except for Bart) got their power after some sort of chemical spill or inhalation.

Although it's been proven numerous times that he can't actually travel at the speed of light*, he still has his undoubted merits.

The Flash first appeared in the Flash Comics #1, from All-American Publications (one of the original companies that eventually became DC).

He's about as American as it gets, from the dashing good looks to the caffeine drenched journalist girlfriend.

He's chivalrous, successful, powerful and athletic (well, obviously), the epitome of the American Dream.

He plays an important role in the Justice League of America, defending Aquaman (see Geoff Johns, The Flash: Wonderland for an insight into this), and therefore plays an important role in the American comic-book culture.

The JLA was "founded"in 1962, slap in the middle of the cold war (okay, well the actual middle was 1969, but it's close enough). This was largely political, dealing with fears and paranoia extremely relevant to the day. These fears are 'fought' by the all American (and Kryptonian, Amazonian, Atlantic among others, but all were extremely American in spirit and were thinly masked to be The American Dream).

The villains are also thinly masked, with Despero, The Key, Shaggy Man, T.O. Morrow, closely resembling 'American Villains' of 1962, but most notable are Imperiex-Prime and Darkseid.

The JLA later slides into the Justice League of the Universe, which is much more politically correct, I suppose.

Anyway, the Flash is a very important character, a point which can't be stressed enough.
For proof, see this video:

This shows the Flash saving the world, complete with a call to the US president at the end.

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=326s1ISaVRI

*http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/mass_increase.html fot the speed of light reference.

This is just one of HUNDREDS of proofs