Crisis (Fleetway)

Crisis was a British comic book magazine published from September 1988 to October 1991 as an experiment by Fleetway to see if intelligent, mature, politically and socially-aware comics were saleable in the United Kingdom. The comic was initially published fortnightly, and was one of the most visible components of the late-1980s British comics boom, along with Deadline, Revolver, and Toxic!.

For other uses of the word Crisis in comics, see Crisis (comics).

Crisis
Publication information
PublisherFleetway
ScheduleFortnightly (1-48)
Monthly (49-63)
FormatComics anthology
Publication date17 September 1988 – October 1991
No. of issues63, plus 2 specials
Editor(s)Steve MacManus
Michael W. Bennent

History

Conceived by editor Steve MacManus, Crisis would offer to make the work creator-owned, which might lead to the chance for royalties and greater copyright control, which was a departure from the way they had done business up until then. They also planned to turn the stories into American comic books which would sell better on the other side of the Atlantic, although ultimately only the first few titles got this treatment and the title moved to shorter stories after issue #14.[1]

"The original concept was a superhero comic that could be sold in America" MacManus recalls. Each issue would feature two stories, both 14 pages long. It was planned to repackage these as individual monthlies for the US market.[1]

As a 2000 AD spin-off, it was initially science fiction based. It began with two stories: "Third World War", by Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra, extrapolated some of the effects of global capitalism on the developing world into the near future, as seen through the eyes of a group of young conscript "peace volunteer" soldiers; "New Statesmen" was a "realistic superhero" strip by John Smith and Jim Baikie. "Third World War" later moved on from developing world topics to minority issues within the UK and introduced two new artists, Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo, while Mills took on co-writers including Alan Mitchell and Malachy Coney.

When "New Statesmen" finished it was replaced by two contemporary stories: "Troubled Souls" by Garth Ennis and John McCrea, set amid the "troubles" of Northern Ireland, and "Sticky Fingers", a flatshare comedy by Myra Hancock and David Hine. "Troubled Souls" was Ennis's comics debut, and led to a sequel, "For a Few Troubles More", and a religious satire, "True Faith", the latter illustrated by Warren Pleece.

Crisis #1 (September 1988), featuring an image by Carlos Ezquerra of Eve from Third World War

"True Faith" and another proposed strip, "Skin" by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy, about skinheads and thalidomide, ran into problems with censorship. Robert Maxwell, Fleetway's then owner, withdrew the collected edition of True Faith from sale after receiving objections from religious groups; "Skin" was dropped after the printers refused to handle it, citing its harsh language and controversial subject matter.[2] Skin was later published as a graphic novel by Tundra, and failed to generate any noticeable outrage.

Another casualty of censorship was John Smith and Sean Phillips's "Straitgate". Its main character was intended to be a self-obsessed young loner who suffers from delusions and ends up going on a killing spree, but it was toned down until he became little more than a self-obsessed young loner.

Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell contributed "The New Adventures of Hitler" (originally published in Cut, a Scottish arts and culture magazine), a speculative story about how the young Adolf Hitler's stay in England might have affected his later actions. Morrison also wrote "Bible John", illustrated by Daniel Vallely, about a series of murders in Glasgow, and "Dare", his revisionist take on Dan Dare. "Dare" was drawn by Rian Hughes, and had started in Revolver, the sister comic of Crisis. Revolver folded before the last episode of the story, which was therefore concluded in Crisis. Morrison's frequent collaborator Mark Millar contributed a grim prison story, "Insiders", drawn by Paul Grist.

Later issues of Crisis included a number of translated European strips, including Milo Manara and Federico Fellini's "Trip to Tulum" (collected in a trade paperback published by Catalan Communications) and a number of short strips by Miguelanxo Prado. After issue 49 Crisis was published monthly, for 14 further issues, finally ending in October 1991.[3]

Other creators whose work appeared in Crisis include Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry, John Hicklenton, Philip Bond, Si Spencer, Peter Doherty, Igor Goldkind, James Robinson, Tony Salmons, Oscar Zarate, Paul Neary and Steve Parkhouse.

One of the characters in "Third World War" got his own spin-off series in 2000 AD, "Finn".

Editors
  • Steve MacManus #1–49
  • Steve MacManus and Michael W. Bennent #50–52
  • Michael W. Bennent #53–63

Stories

Notes
  1. David Bishop Thrill Power Overload, page 127
  2. Art Brendan
  3. "Crisis Folds, Fleetway Merges," The Comics Journal #146 (Nov. 1991), p. 22.
  4. Editorial, Crisis #51, p. 2
  5. 2000ad.org

References
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