Fast Fiction
Fast Fiction was a market stall, magazine, mail order distributor and news sheet that played a key role in the history of
British small press comics. It existed in its various forms from
1981 through to
1990 under the stewardship of
Paul Gravett,
Phil Elliott and
Ed Pinsent.
The name was taken from a
Classics Illustrated knock-off spotted in the
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.
Paul Gravett started the
Fast Fiction stall at the bimonthly
Westminster Comics Mart in
London,
England in
1981 selling imported
European comics, or
Bande Dessinée. Having discovered that interesting new comics were being published in short run
photocopy form he contacted the creators and offered to sell their comics on his stall and through mail order. Initially this was done for free with a small percentage cut being introduced later. The
Fast Fiction stall became the defacto social centre for small press publishers along with the adjoining pub, The Westminster Arms.
Cartoonist
Phil Elliott and Ian Wieczorek took over
Fast Fiction in late 1981 when Gravett started working for
Pssst! magazine leading to him launching
Escape Magazine. The bimonthly stall and mail order distro continued along with a regular information sheet listing titles available to order, and a new anthology featuring cartoonists they sold. This was also called
Fast Fiction debuting in 1982 with a print run of 100 copies and lasting for at least 27 issues.
Ed Pinsent, another cartoonist who had been involved in the
cassette culture music trading scene, subsequently took over from Elliott and continued to run things until 1990.
Following the closure of
Fast Fiction their mailing list was passed on to
Luke Walsh and
Mike Kidson who used it to launch the small press comics review zine
Zum!.
*
British small press comics*
Escape Magazine*
Zum!*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
*Huxley, David (2001)
Nasty Tales: Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll and Violence in the British Underground Headpress ISBN 190048613X
