In Memoriam: Manny Curtis

Artist David Lloyd reports on the death of cartoonist Manny Curtis on his web site.

"Another great cartoonist of my acquaintance passed away earlier this month," he says of the Enfield-based creator, one of the first to have a comic strip featuring black characters in prominent roles in Britain.

"[Manny was] not a comic strip artist like Phil Gascoine," David recalls, "though he worked commonly in the three-frame newspaper strip format - but a gag man. He drew reams of single gags as well as creating many series of three-framers."

Manny Curtis was born 23 October 1924 in London, England. In 1942, at the age of 18, he was called up into the British Army, and he fought in the Far East until the end of the Second World War in 1945 After leaving the army, Manny took up cartooning for a living. He worked for most British national newspapers, and several magazines (including Playboy), and created the first mainstream 'black' cartoon character.

"He was the kind of cartoonist who first got me interested in the whole field of cartooning when I was a kid poring over the dozens of single gag cartoons that used to fill tabloid newspapers then, which were all about files in cakes, cheese straws, and vengeful wives with rolling pins," says David. "It was the simple yet powerful line of such drawings that got me started in this job that I ended up doing. And Manny was a master of that style of work.

"He was also a staunch defender of his profession and it's standard of craftsmanship, and a pugilist in debate."

In an article for the Big Lottery Fund web site in 2005, Manny recalled his voyage to Burma with his usual good humour.

He returned to his South Lancashire Regiment in 1944 after a fortnight's home leave in Roman Road, Bow, East London, he was sure he'd be in Italy in no time.

But after he boarded the giant P&O liner Strathaird off Greenock, he noticed that the Indian crew were a bit tight-lipped about destination details. "I could well understand their reluctance to tell me how long it took to get to Italy, because security was a big thing then," recalls Manny, who now lives in Enfield. "They must all have been briefed to say that we were going to Bombay, and I appreciated that. But when we sailed through Port Said and into the Red Sea I began to have doubts about ever getting to Italy."

After hospitalisation with malaria in India, Manny Curtis served for the next year in Burma, taking part in many fierce battles and seeing many comrades die. After he was returned to Britain in November 1945 he suffered a near-fatal bout of cerebral meningitis. After his recovery, he served in an army training centre near Warrington until he was de-mobbed in 1947. (Manny's recollections of his time in Burma are posted here, on the burmastar web site.)

Manny features in this video from Word of Mouth Films on YouTube, talking about the origins of his comic strip Algie and Fred, which ran in Tidbits magazine and was the first modern humour strip in the UK to regularly feature black characters.



"He had a long life and his legacy was laughter," David Lloyd remembers. "We should all be so lucky."

• View some of Manny's work on Artizans

Comica rounds off with British creator events

Comica in London is coming to a close - with 5 and 6th November evenings polishing off this year's festival at the ICA in The Mall.

On Saturday, Nick Abadzis launches his Laika graphic novel about the world's first living creature in space, a cosmonaut dog - and Abouet & Oubrerie from Paris talk about their African teen romance AYA. More info here

On Sunday, there's a whole afternoon from 2.30 to 7.00pm on British comics, tying in with Comics Britannia - girls' comics with guests Stella Duffy, Nina Myskow from Jackie and more; War Comics with experts Steve Holland and David Roach; and the IPC Revolution, Tammy to 2000AD with Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill, Gerry Finley-Day and Ramon Sola.

Many of you will want to catch the Mart on Sunday, so you could go there first from noon and maybe come by later to iCA. You can also catch Comica Comiket, the small press fair which runs till 7.00pm, free to ICA members or for the price of day admission - £3 or £2 concessions. This gets you into the ICA bar, signings and fair but not the talks.

• Lots of info here: www.paulgravett.com/comica/comica07/comica07.htm
• Booking for ICA here: www.ica.org.uk/comica

What Editors Really Think

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been having an email discussion with a few creators about the Joy of Pitching -- that dark art of trying to sell a script to an editor.

For some years now, downtheubes has had a guide to writing comics on its pages, but just for fun, here's my take on interpreting rejection responses.

If you're outright rejected don't give up: an editor has several levels of response. (What they really think is in brackets)

- Thank you, but no thank you. Here are our guidelines for submitting stories.
(Don't write in crayon - and yes, I did once get a pitch in crayon).

- This is great, but it's not what we're looking for. Have you actually read our top title, BLUG BLADDER BEAST AND CHUMS?
(If you're submitting stories, read a company's output first).

- This is great, but it's not what we're looking for right now.
(We like your stuff, it made us laugh/cry/scared us, but we're not printing that kind of book, but if you wrote something that was our kind of book we'd look at it)

- This is great. With a bit more polish, we could buy this
(We're giving you the chance to re-write it but if you screw up we won't ask again)

- Have you got time to come to the office or chat?
(We like the work, we want to employ you, let's see if you're amenable to us re-writing it, find out if you are sane, and how mad we make you are when we re-write)

- This is great, send us an invoice, it's being drawn by Brian Bolland as we speak. Would you like to write a 12-issue mini series about anything you like?
(This never happens)

Of course, these days some editors are more direct and say exactly what they think, but I've always felt a little common courtesy goes a long way -- after all, do you really want to lose a reader by being rude to them, especially an active one who likes your book so much they want to be part of it?

One final more serious point. As an editor, I always found it easier to comment on a script if I saw it drawn -- I recall showing some of my stuff to Alan Grant that way back at one of the London UK Comic Art Conventions and he said it was easier than reading a script. That's why fanzines are such a valuable way of crafting skills, and these days, the additional editing being done on the best of these is really paying off.

Cosmogenesis Trailers Released

Ramping up its publicity for a 550 page collection of Adam Grose and Tony Suleri's epic SF comic Cosmogenesis: The Chronicles of Quongo, Clown Press have just released several video trailers for the book via YouTube.

The book -- a collection of the (completely overhauled and re-edited) strips from the galaxy-spanning self-published series -- charts the rise of simian Quongo from unwitting adventurer to possible messiah. Using the galactic setting, compared to Star Wars in its richness, the narrative explores the writer's interest of grand cycles of time, numerology, and the recurring motif of mythological lone saviours prevalent in many cultures.

"The story is set within another time and place, in a galaxy not so far removed from our own, yet resides in a higher dimensional reality," says Adam. "The premise comes from an idea that there are many civilisations out there in the Milky Way, yet we can not see them, because our reality is on a lower plane of vibration.

"...The whole story reveals a galaxy coming to the end of a great cycle of time. A time which would bring about a shift in consciousness in each individual and bring about the return of 'Those of Many.'"

The story is an incredible epic, and the collection is certain to attract plenty of interest.

• The Cosmogenesis collection will be available soon from all good bookshops priced £19.95, and from the Clown Press web site
• Preview pages
• Read more about the creation of Cosmogenesis on Adam's blog
• Read a 2005 interview with Adam and Tony on the Engine Comics web site