Comic cuts
Sir: As the author of the recently published Men Behind Boys' Fic- tion (Hutchinson) in which I wrote a lengthy piece on the D. C. Thomson papers, I would perhaps like to correct a few errors in Benny Green's entertaining piece (26 December).
There is on show at the exhibition of comics the famous nap hand of Hotspur/Wizard/ Adventure Rover and Skipper—all first numbers, loaned from my own collection of many hundreds of first editions of juvenile papers.
Whilst it is true that in nearly all cases D. C. Thomson have flatly refused to cooperate with re- searches, in my own case (prob- ably as an old boy of Red Circle) I am probably unique in getting behind the Iron Curtain and get- ting the authors and general history of Red Circle School from the juvenile Director.
The great success of all their papers is simply that they (the editors) were brilliant psychologists, as they seemed to know what. exactly boys wanted to read and prepared their papers accordingly. Their policy of refusing researchers and other writers facilities to dis- sect the contents of their material is simply that they firmly believe that the stories and comic strips should be judged entirely on the market at which they were aimed. And certainly not from an adult viewpoint. W. 0. G. Lofts 56 Sheringham House, Lisson Street, London NW1
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