
|
Cover of Silver Starr (Sydney:
Apache Comedy, n.d.)
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/413
|
 |
Inside cover of Silver Starr (Sydney: Apache Comedy, n.d.)
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/413
|
Comic capers in the National Library
Edgar Crook investigates the varied history and fortunes of the comic book in Australia
Comics, and more latterly graphic novels, continue to find new readers. In fulfilling its role to collect all kinds of printed media, the National Library has been acquiring comics since its inception. Today comics are represented in nearly every area of the Library. The stacks bulge with hundreds of boxes of them, from the Manuscript Section to Asian Collections. Even PANDORA: Australia’s Web Archive has preserved websites about comics.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cartoons and, later, cartoon strips were popular items in Australian journals and newspapers. It is not surprising then, that with the advent of comic books, there was a large and welcoming Australian market. However, it was not until 1931 that Australian-produced cartoons appeared as separate publications. Prior to this, the Australian market consisted of imported comics, predominately from Britain, and largely featuring humorous stories, or stories about schoolboy or foreign adventures.
 |
‘Holed Out’, reproduced from page [7] of Hop-Happy (Sydney: Miller, n.d.)
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/218
|
By the late 1930s this style of comic was being replaced in popularity by the brighter, slangy, hard-boiled American imports. These were aimed at a wider age range and some became immensely popular. American comics were also relatively cheap because Australia was used as a dumping ground for unsold older comics.
Cheap American comics hindered attempts to create competitive Australian comics. However, political pressure exercised by the Australian publishing industry contributed to a 1939 Import Licensing regulation that halted the import of all American comics, effective from July 1940. This hiatus allowed Australian comics to flourish, and wartime conditions also provided a good climate for tales of heroes, cunning foreign villains and daring feats of bravery.
Australian comics boomed through the 1940s and into the 1950s. However, with the relaxing of import controls and the new breed of American costumed and caped superheroes from the DC and Marvel publishing houses which began to appear in the 1940s they again suffered significant competition. Censorship also affected comic production in Australia and in the 1950s comics were targeted by moral and literacy campaigners. In 1955 a Professor Browne of Melbourne University studied 375 comic titles on general sale and found he could only recommend 27 of them to parents as suitable for their children. The view that comics tended to lower standards was compounded by the trial and imprisonment of a prolific and successful Australian comic book author, Len Lawson, for rape and, later, for murder. Lawson had been responsible for creating many of the comic characters in titles such as Action Comics (of which the Library has a good collection).
 |
Cover of Fatty Finn’s Comic, vol. 3, no. 5 (Sydney:
Fatty Finn Pubs, [194-?])
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/184
|
 |
Cover of Ginger Meggs Annual, Xmas 1953 (Sydney: Shakespeare Head Press) |
The National Library is fortunate to have been the recipient of two large collections which comprehensively cover the boom years of Australian comics. The McGee Collection of Australian Comic Books comprises 312 boxes of Australian and foreign comics published from 1940 to 1960. The donor, Graham McGee, was a Qantas aircraft engineer from Sydney who collected over 10 000 comics simply because of his love for, and interest in, the subject. His collection would have been even larger if comics that he had gathered as a child, including rare and immensely valuable gems such as the first Marvel comic published in 1939, had not been burnt by his father, thinking that his son no longer wanted them.
Complementing McGee’s collection is the John Ryan Collection of Australian Comic Books, which is held in the Manuscript Collection (MS 6514), and which consists of 66 boxes containing over 500 different comic titles as well as over 600 titles of comic fanzines (mainly foreign titles published between 1960 and 1979), along with Ryan’s own research files.
 |
‘The Dog and the Shadow’
Reproduced from The Giant Comic Book (Melbourne: Gunn & Taylor, [1945?]) |
Ryan was another avid comic collector—one who wrote articles and lectured on the subject. Ryan contributed to international publications and was feted in the United States for his knowledge. He also produced comic zines, such as Down Under (1964), copies of which are available in the Library. He did this while working as a sales manager for Firestone Tyres in Sydney and, subsequently, Brisbane. Apart from amassing a personal collection of over 8000 items he also wrote the authoritative Panel by Panel: A History of Australian Comics (Stanmore, NSW: Cassell, 1979). Unfortunately, it was during the promotional tour for this book that he died of a heart attack at the age of 48.
Ryan’s favourite comic book hero was Silver Starr. This costumed character, beginning his adventures in 1945, was created by Stanley Pitt, Australia’s most prominent comic artist of that era and one of a very few to find success in the international publishing arena.
 |
Cover of Bluey & Curley
(Sydney: Invincible Press, [194-?])
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/59
|
Another, smaller, collection is that of Murray Comic Publishers (held at N 741.5994 MUR) which features war, romance and adventure comics from the late 1970s to early 1980s. Such formed collections complement the Library’s other numerous holdings.
The mainstream comic book industry in Australia largely disappeared in the early 1960s, after which there were few publishers to promote or develop Australian talent. Bookshops rarely sold comics and newsagents were also reluctant to supply home-produced comics. As a result, Australian comic book production became a relatively peripheral—and underground—activity.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s alternative and often hand-printed underground comics became available in urban centres around Australia. These comics were squarely aimed at a young adult audience and often featured drug use and political messages. Many comics produced in the later 1970s became vehicles for complex artwork, and some of these focused on science fiction fandom.
 |
Cover of Koala Komics
(Sydney: Emvee Publishing, n.d.)
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/263
|
In the 1980s there was a new flowering of interest in comics in all genres and for all ages. This growth continued into the 1990s, particularly in comics aimed at adult readers, such as those put out by the Australian publishers Sick Puppy Comix and Steve Carter’s Comic Nasties. In Australia there are now numerous small publishers and artists producing comics, and as a consequence there has also been a great expansion of specialist comic-book shops where they can be bought.
 |
Cover of Kayo Comic
(Sydney: Calvert Publication Magazines, c.1944)
John Ryan Comic Collection,
MS 6514; Manuscript Collection, M128495/249 |
The graphic novel, essentially a full-length novel with much of the story conveyed through graphic images, is today the major focus of comic book readership. Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986), a tale of holocaust survival, won a Pulitzer Prize and became the first graphic novel to move from comic fandom to a wider audience. Other graphic novels published in the same year also used the medium to bring traditional superheroes to adult readers. Alan Moore’s The Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns were both groundbreaking international bestsellers which helped to re-ignite the comic book industry.
While Australian graphic novels have not reached such wide public attention, Australia has still produced some outstanding authors. Eddie Campbell, a Queensland-based artist, has been producing comics for a number of years and was also the illustrator for Alan Moore’s (1999). Literary authors, particularly those writing young adult fiction such as Isobel Carmody and Gary Crew, have also agreed to having their works adapted in graphic form.
In Asia and, especially, Japan, comics have never been entirely a media for the young. It is estimated that the Japanese comics known as Manga comprise about a third of all publishing in that country and they cater to all tastes and age groups. The Asian Collection of the National Library has examples of these comics, showing their sophisticated visual and narrative techniques. The Manga style of illustration is now influential internationally and many Australian comic books are using a similar style—in much the same way that previously American and British artistic influences were co-opted to tell Australian stories.
EDGAR CROOK is a librarian at the National Library.
|