Comics Retrospective

Comics Retrospective was an old fashioned, cut'n paste fanzine self published by Tony Ingram from 2003 to 2006, running 34 issues in total (although #34 had extremely limited distribution). It featured a mix of historical articles on British and American comics and comic creators, with subjects ranging from the lives of Ken Reid and Alan Moore to characters from 2000AD such as Robo-Hunter or American superheroes like The Defenders, to newspaper strips such as Jane and Garth. Originally bi-monthly, it later switched to monthly frequency and gained a new cover logo designed by Comics International editor Dez Skinn. From issue #7 onwards, it gained its first regular feature, The Avengers Files, a serialised rundown of Marvel Comics' long running Avengers title, and from issue #9 onwards it gained its second, Axa's View from the Vault, which saw former newspaper strip character Axa introduce and narrate (supposedly in the first person) brief articles on old British characters and strips; the conceit was aided by images of Axa taken (without authorisation) from old Axa comics by her creator Enrique Romero. Much of the material in the early issues had first been published in the apazine Rainbow Bridge in the 1990s. Later issues also included material from other contributors including Mario Botte (who drew cartoon versions of Marvel and DC characters as mini pin-ups) and the late David E. Wiggins, who regularly reminisced about his life-long love affair with comics. The title also spawned numerous oversized Summer and Winter Specials dedicated to subjects such as Marvel UK, Doctor Who in comics and the New Eagle, and a short lived sister title, Marvel Retrospective, which ran for just two issues. It eventually ceased publication after Comics International, which had provided its main source of advertising, stopped being published on a regular basis, causing it to lose its audience.