Escape Magazine
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The cover to Escape Magazine issue 3. Art by Chris Long |
Escape Magazine was a landmark
British comic strip magazine founded and edited by
Paul Gravett and
Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between
1983 to
1989.
Eddie Campbell,
Phil Elliott and
Glenn Dakin were amongst the many
cartoonists published within its pages.
Escape has its origins in the explosion of
small press or
minicomics that occurred in the UK in the early
1980's.
Paul Gravett was running a stall at the
Westminster Comic Mart in
London called
Fast Fiction where he would sell other people's self published comics for a small cut. These would generally be short-run publications, usually photocopied and assembled by hand, by creators who couldn't find a professional outlet for their work with many coming from an art school background with unique approaches to comic art.
At the same time awareness was growing of international developments in the medium.
Art Spiegelman and
Francoise Mouly's
RAW magazine had started pushing the boundaries in the
USA while European anthologies such as
Métal Hurlant,
Charie Mensuel and
PLG showed not only radically different styles of comic art to the usual UK/US variety but a more mature and analytical approach to the medium.
Gravett brought his knowledge and enthusiasm while his partner
Peter Stanbury, employed at the time at
Harpers & Queen, brought experience in print design and production and together they decided to publish, from their flat, a magazine featuring this home-grown talent along with showcasing examples of new and interesting comics from around the world.
The Importance of BD
Short for
Bande Dessinée, BD became the ideological anchor for
Escape. Gravett wanted to apply the values of and respect attributed to French comics to his new breed of British artists. Visually this was reflected in the work of
Phil Elliott and
Rian Hughes, but it also infused the whole attitude of the magazine, that some comics at least deserved be taken seriously. By identifying with the relatively exotic and beautifully produced volumes from Europe,
Escape distanced itself from the action-adventure style of
2000AD and the American
superheroes of
Marvel and
DC and established itself not only as something new, but something important.
Pssst!
In 1981, having passed the
Fast Fiction stall and distribution to
Phil Elliott and before starting
Escape, Gravett was employed as promotions manager for
Pssst!, an attempt to publish a British equivalent of the lavish French
Bande Dessinée magazines. While disillusioned with the direction, or lack of,
Pssst! was taking, his job brought him into contact with many more new and innovative cartoonists around the UK. To some of these, such as
Glenn Dakin in
Manchester, he introduced the concept of self publishing small press comics and sending them out to like minded souls, thus widening the net for
Fast Fiction.
Pssst! was forced to close after 10 issues leaving Gravet with a good idea of how not to run a magazine and a pool of talent.
The first seven issues of
Escape were published between 1983 and 1985 as A5, or digest, sized booklets of between 56 and 84 pages in length with black and white interiors and colour covers. The covers were wrap-around and, for the first five issues, hand-separated by Stanbury until full-process colour became viable. The smaller size was chosen to physically differentiate it from other comics around at the time with a nod to the photocopied small press comics that usually came in this format. It was also easy to put in your pocket. The first issue had a print run of 2000 and had a disproportionate reaction from the music and style media bringing in subscribers and advertising, notably the
NME and
Time Out.
While the contents of each issue followed a pattern of running home grown talent alongside features on comics from around the world (with an emphasis on European BD and American "art comics") the roster of artists changed regularly with new creators being brought in every issue. Despite, or more likely, because of the wildly different styles and approaches embraced by the magazine
Escape had a solid identity and loyal, if disparate, readership. As the landscape of the comics industry changed through the 1980s
Escape was there to report it and try to influence where people should be looking.
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Example of the typography used for the Escape logo and interior headline text from issue eight. Designed by Peter Stanbury |
In
1986 Escape changed to the larger industry standard American magazine format (8.25"x11") enabling them to reprint work by the international creators they'd previously only written about.
Jaques Tardi and
Gary Panter appear in issue eight and
George Herriman's
Krazy Kat became a regular feature. The logo also changed to a bold new design with extra prongs for the E and A and the magazine took on a more professional feel. Of the twelve issues published in this format eight had covers by non-British illustrators as
Escape moved away from its small press origins and fully embraced a more international, Art-based ideology.
A year later, and after protracted negotiations,
Escape became the first periodical to be published by
Titan Books, a graphic novel repackaging house responsible for collections of
Judge Dredd and American titles such as
Swamp Thing. Gravett and Stanbury retained complete editorial control over the contents and direction of the magazine (despite some pressure from Titan). Despite a 60% sell through on predominantly London-based newsstands Titan were reluctant to push for wider national distribution and after two years and ten issues they parted company. A third, more ambitious, incarnation was planned but failed to find a backer and
Escape folded in
1989.
Alongside the magazine itself,
Escape served as an imprint for self contained graphic novels. These included the following:
Alec by
Eddie CampbellAlec: Love and Beerglasses by
Eddie CampbellAlec: Doggie in the Window by
Eddie CampbellDoc Chaos 1 by
Phil Elliott,
Lawrence Gray and
Dave ThorpeLondon's Dark by
James Robinson and
Paul Johnson (published through
Titan Books)
The Night Of The Busted Nose by
Phil LaskeyViolent Cases by
Neil Gaiman and
Dave McKean (published through
Titan Books)
Two exhibition booklets were also produced under the
Escape banner:
Comic Iconoclasm for the "Swiped! Comics in Art" exhibition at the
ICA in London. This was also printed in
Escape issue eleven.
The Black Island for the "Britain in Bande Dessinées" exhibition at the French Institute in London.
The influence of
Escape on subsequent publications and movements is not in doubt, but somewhat hard to pin down.
Publications such as
Deadline and
Heartbreak Hotel shared the combination of comic strips by relative newcomers and
lifestyle articles designed to reach a non-comics audience.
There are notable influences too on
Fleetway's experiments with comics for more mature audiences. Later issues of
Crisis featured
Paul Grist and reprinted European work while the short-lived
Revolver employed
Escape regulars
Rian Hughes and
Julie Hollings amongst others.
While, with the exception of
Eddie Campbell, the core group of artists associated with
Escape did not necessarily go on to great riches the magazine did publish early work by notable creators including
Neil Gaiman,
Dave McKean,
Paul Johnson,
James Robinson and
Rian Hughes.
For the
British small press scene Escape, along with
Fast Fiction, had been an important focal point both artistically and socially. This continued into the 1990s with the magazine holding a pivotal place in the history of the scene.
International distribution brought
Escape artists American exposure, most notably to the cartoonists informally known as the
Highwater Books scene. Highwater publisher
Tom Devlin and cartoonist
Tom Hart both cite
Escape, and
Glenn Dakin in particular, as influential in forming their attitudes towards comic art. Canadian cartoonist
Seth has recently written about the influence
Chris Reynolds had on him.
It should, however, be remembered that
Escape was part of a wider and at the time quite vibrant environment in British comics and that artists did move freely from publication to publication. While the magazine did carve out an important niche and break new ground, the work of
Knockabout and
Warrior and aspects of the
Harrier comics line should be taken into account.
The core group of artists featured in Escape came mainly from the British
small press and
Underground comics scenes of the late 70's and early 80's.
*
John Bagnall*
Eddie Campbell*
Glenn Dakin*
Phil Elliott*
Hunt Emerson*
Paul Grist*
Myra Hancock*
Rian Hughes*
Shaky Kane*
Bob Lynch*
Woodrow Phoenix (aka Trevs Phoenix)
*
Ed Pinsent*
Warren and
Gary Pleece*
Chris Reynolds*
Savage Pencil*
Carol Swain*
List of Escape Magazine contents - detailed listings of contents for each issue.
*
Fast Fiction*Campbell, Eddie (2001)
Alec: How To Be An Artist. Eddie Campbell Comics. ISBN 0957789637.
*Gravett, Paul (2003) "The Great Escape"
The Comics Journal Special Edition 3 46-61
*Gravett, Paul and Stanbury, Peter (eds)
Escape Magazine 1 - 19 *
The Comics Interpreter #1 Vol. 2 Print review of Glenn Dakin's "Abe: Wrong For All The Right Reasons"
*Hart, Tom (2001) "The Scribbled Philosophy of Glenn Dakin"
The Comics Journal 238 71-87
*Seth (2005) "Chris Reynolds: An Appreciation"
The Comics Journal 265*
Long interview with Dylan Horrocks - reprinted from
The Comics Journal issue 244. His time with the
Escape "gang" is about a third of the way down.
*
Kingly Books - Publishers of recent works by
Escape artists
Ed Pinsent,
John Bagnall and
Chris Reynolds*
Interview with John Bagnall
