I wouldn't say I was a normal
child (!) but I always wanted to know who wrote and
drew the comics I read. Did you not find it annoying
that you were never credited (except for some reprints
in the later annuals!)? Artists could at least sign
their artwork so you knew who was responsible. You got
a photo at the Space City Gerry Anderson exhibition
in Blackpool as part of the Space:1999 comics display
but that's about all!
Credits were never terribly important to me. I - seventh
son of a seventh son that I am - could foresee the future.
I knew that one day there would be this thing called
the Internet. Nah, but seriously, it wasn't such a big
deal. I always knew that the artist was far more important
than the writer. Sure, few artists could actually do
a script from scratch, but it is, after all, the impact
of their drawing that catches the eye and snares interest.
So they have the right to sign their stuff. It happened
that, on occasion, damp-eyed and sympathetic chaps like
Martin Asbury, who had listened tearfully to my bleating,
added my name to the strip as writer. I think, on Look-In,
a couple got through before Alan Fennell cried out with
furious rage and had 'Angus Allan' wiped from the originals.
I responded by treading on his blue suede shoes.
Having a look at my back issues
you're absolutely right - you got a credit scribbled
in on a couple of Six Million Dollar Man episodes in
1976 …
Do you remember would-be rivals
to Look-In, (TV) TOPS and BEEB? Did they ever try to
poach you (I think some of the Look-In artists worked
for these titles)?
I do not remember the rivals to Look-In that you mention.
No kidding - and I'm not being daft or prima-donnaish
or silly - I have no knowledge of any rivals. As far
as I was concerned, there were none. Such is confidence
in oneself and the publication one works for. I reckoned
it was the best, and had no challenge.
TOPS ran some quite 'cool' strips
like Minder and The Professionals - I think it was quite
popular initially but it only lasted two years.
 I
did do both Minder and Professional Annuals for another
company - the name escapes me, but it was a small company
run by the Babani brothers in London (this will be Grandreams
- Alistair). I also did 'Allo 'Allo for them. The Minder
one was especially bizarre, as George Cole refused to
have anything to do with it. I think that possibly the
Babanis weren't offering him enough. So a Minder Annual
came out with plenty about Dennis Waterman in both strip
and feature and text story, but with an Arthur Daley
who had a spiv moustache, and was merely called 'guvnor'
or something like that! Totally ridiculous (that's him
pictured left - Alistair).
My own personal interest in Look-In,
as a regular reader, ended around 1984 when I graduated
to Smash Hits (!) but I know you continued to work at
Look-In on strips such as Robin of Sherwood and The
A-Team. You ran into problems with violence in these
strips - is that what ended your relationship with the
comic?
My relationship with the comic ended slowly. It began
with the increasing editorial pressure to diminish and
finally ban all violence, at whatever level. I cannot
now imagine why Look-In continued to pay for the rights
to A-Team while forbidding me even to show a pistol
in the strip. Insane. And when the editor bought Robin
Of Sherwood and asked me to write it without bows and
arrows … well! The ensuing argument resulted in getting
my own way, but I had to promise to use arrows only
to send messages or convey climbing lines to castle
battlements. What a nonsense! It was at that time that
Look-In began to fall heavily in circulation, and no
wonder. I don't agree with blood and gore and mindless
violence at all, but kids love a bit of mayhem, and
God knows there's enough of the real thing around.
|
| Worzel Gummidge. 1980. Art:
Mike Noble |
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| Dangermouse. 1982. Art: Arthur
Ranson |
I've seen some issues from the
late 80s/early 90s and they really are just gaudy
poster magazines with the odd 3-panel 'funnies' strip,
very poorly drawn and hardly written at all so it's
clear Angus Allan was no longer around ...
From the mid-80s on, it was down the pan. Scooby Doo? Gad, I had to write it - and what a bore! Inspector Gadget? I had to write that, too (this was around 1987 - Alistair). I was near to suicide until I went over to France for a weekend and discovered that a family I met in a bar thought I was Jesus because I wrote Inspector Gadget for an English publication. Duckula had taken over as the main strip in Look-In (circa 1988 - Alistair). And someone else was writing it. I was annoyed. I should have been. When Dangermouse had been running for a while, the big man up there at Cosgrove-Hall, Brian Cosgrove, was so impressed with the scripts we ran that he asked to use them as on-screen cartoons. I actually got credited (although erroneously on-screen as 'Angus Allen' - Alistair). And after that, he asked me to write a couple of originals for the series. It isn't often that a comic-strip spinoff engenders that sort of thing. Blowing my own trumpet? You bet. I'm proud of it!
You relocated to the South of
France many years ago now and you run a farm there with
your wife Gillian?
Yes - here I am with my wife Gillian (ex-editress of Penelope, and latterly Chief Sub Editor of Woman's Own before it became a load of merde). In the South West of France we are retired among eight acres of wild meadow and woodland, which we are successfully converting to a dreamlike garden. We have our own natural spring of clear, pure water, which goes superbly with any booze you care to mention. I write no more - merely because [comic] markets are all gone - but play clarinet with a local Dixieland jazz band.
Did you keep any mementoes of
your times at TV21 and Look-In? I probably don’t want
to know the answer to this - but what happened to all
of the thousands of pages of original art from Look-In?
Artwork was retained by the publishers, usually. And when I think what happened to it all! Except for bits and pieces salvaged here and there by the artists (some of which I possess) it all eventually went to the furnace. My God, if only I'd plundered it by the cartload, I'd be able to grow rich! To think that I once had my hands on 64 pages of Ron Embleton originals for Kit Carson - his first strip away from the pulp/junk comics, and written by me. Oh well, at least I have a set of glossy art pulls of the thing, but that's not quite the same. I believe Alan Fennell, who was most astute, saved a lot of TV21 original stuff, but when he died, nobody could find it. I dare say it got slung out somewhere.
I have not brought all my copies of TV21 and Look-In with me, because there wasn't a removal van large enough. I retain all the annuals I ever wrote, and some specials. Some TV21 Captain Scarlet records I wrote. Also - a prized possession, which looks sternly at me now - my Good Grief Oh Crikey Services To Dangermouse Award. I don't think there are many of those about ...
From Look-In I've got a piece of Martin Asbury original artwork from Six Million Dollar Man hanging up right here in front of me, alongside various other bits and pieces. I managed to get Martin to give me some pages, and John M. Burns kindly let me keep a couple of Smuggler black and whites and a couple of Magnum full colour pages, which adorn our staircase here along with various other strip originals. I like it better than The Louvre - and … "Yah-hah-harrrrr! IT'S ALL MIIIIIINE!"
Angus Allan - thank you so much!
This interview text is copyright Alistair D. McGown
and may not be reproduced without prior permission.
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