I was just looking into a folder that had art that originally was drawn in the 1990s. It was titled Biog and if anyone out there remembers the return of Dan Dare in 2000AD you will know what that's about.
Gil Page was Managing Editor at Fleetway and introduced me to the then editor of 2000 AD whose name I cannot remember. It was a long time ago. Gil told the man about an idea I had to bring the biogs back but not in the far future but modern Britain. The editor liked the idea and suggested that I put a script together for a ten part story and then he could see about approving it.
Gil managed to ask Massimo Belardinelli if he would be interested in drawing the strip if it was approved -that was part of his job. Belardinelli apparently said "yes". The problem was that I knew from experience that spending a week or so writing then editing a script could be for nothing. It was not an officially commissioned script and Fleetway did not "do" kill fees so I would be working and there was no guarantee of the project being accepted.
What I did find was that Gil and editors were willing to look at preliminary drawn strips to say "yay" or "nay" to. I phoned Gil and said that I was doing a lot of scripts for Fantagraphics in the US (do not even ask about that!!) but I could put together a preliminary strip to show story pacing etc. That was fine and for me not sleeping I got to drawing when scripts were finished (I was told that it was quieter than my typing from 0900-2000hrs every day).
Eventually I drew over 30 pages. These are roughs mind you and then I lettered and in those days that meant pasting word balloons onto art pages. Messy but combined it told the story and showed pacing etc. I took the pages in when I next visited Fleetway and Gil liked them and the editor liked the idea as well as getting Belardinelli to redraw the whole thing (I rather liked that idea myself). Then silence.
After a month I asked whether any progress had been made and I was told that "The editor isn't keen on Belardinelli" and no reason was given. I was told "he has another artist in mind who has already worked for 2000 AD". Fine. I could live with that. I produced a full script with part breakers and handed it to the editor who said it looked "fine".
Silence.
I asked Gil what was going on and he said he would ask the editor to phone me. A week later, and not via the editor himself, I was told that the idea was cancelled for "financial reasons -there's a tight budget". It seems that my 25 pages script was "too expensive". At that time a writer got £35 per page so at 25 pages that would total £875 the other method (the main one) was £35 per printed story page so 35 pages = £1, 225 which the editor did not want to approve and send to Accounts. This is why so many writers jumped ship and started working for American comic companies. Artists got well over £100 per page (depending who and whether b&w or colour it could be £150-200).
Biog never saw print and it shows how badly British comics were being run back then. When I took artists to meet sports comic editor Dave Hunt he was rushed off his feet as he had to do everything because the job of "office boy" no longer existed due to cut backs -it's why foreign artists were used -cheaper.
It was a big mess.
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