Racing in the Comics
In which a glimpse of an Ace starts me down a track to discover some new additions for an ongoing passion project.
I think it's safe to say that the two things in my life that I have been passionate about for the longest time are comics and motor racing. I’ve been a comics reader all my life, and it's fast approaching fifty years since that fateful day that my father took me to watch my first motor race.
So it’s only natural that when the two combine I have to know about it. Historically racing hasn’t been a subject that has been the subject of that many comics titles, in the US at least (Europe is another story that perhaps I’ll cover in a future newsletter).
My first experience of motor sport was a visit to the local motor-cycle speedway club in my home town of Manchester, the Belle Vue Aces (and I’m still a fan and supporter of the club, even if it is from far away Texas these days). So when I find evidence of the existence of a comic that has anything speedway related on it, it’s a good day.
Well this week just such a moment popped up. A post on one of the Facebook groups dedicated to old English comics was from someone proudly displaying a stack of the soccer-themed comic Scoop that was published between 1978 and 1981. Not something I’d normally be too interested in. But there on the edge of the photo of fanned out comics I could just see what looked like the iconic Belle Vue Aces race jacket.
The hunt was now on. And sure enough after some online research I found a nice clear image of said cover. There was a great photo of the speedway hero of my teenage years, 1976 World Champion, and Aces stalwart, Peter Collins in action. On the cover of a soccer magazine!
Why did I get so excited? Several years ago I set out to record as many instances of motor-sports in comics as I could find, and that eventually led me to starting a Racing Comics blog on Tumblr . It started out strong with regular posts, but as the years have gone by, and with just over 800 covers posted, it’s become more difficult to find covers I haven’t seen before. So any potential new source is treated with glee.
I had to wonder if Scoop, although it was marketed as a soccer paper, had more to offer, and a bit more internet digging soon revealed at least eight more motor-sports covers that will be racing their way onto the blog in the coming weeks.
As is often the case when I start down these sort of research rabbit holes, there are a few unexpected finds along the way, such as discovering that an early issue of Action Comics, the title that launched Superman, and arguably started the whole superhero genre, had a dramatic racing themed cover on issue 9 that was on the newsstands in early 1939. (It's the one at the top of this newsletter).
If you want to dig back through those 800 plus posts to see what other racing covers I’ve dug up over the years, just roar on over to https://www.tumblr.com/racingcomics
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers who have joined since last week. There’s also been a notable increase in readership for the newsletter over the last few weeks.I really appreciate your interest and support. If you’re one of those folks who have recently joined us but haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so by clicking the button below to get each upcoming newsletter delivered straight to your email.
Word Slinging
In my latest article for Reworked I discuss the power of wikis as a collaboration tool for your internal teams. And how you may already have quick and easy access to a wiki platform without realizing it. You can check it out right HERE.
On a side note, after the announcement last week about the upcoming launch of the Galloping Through The Cosmos anthology of Star Trek memories, I was surprised and delighted to get name checked (along with the other contributors) in the newsletter of Marvel editor, and fellow ‘grown-up kid,’ Tom Brevoort - Thanks, Tom
I can highly recommend Tom’s newsletter, Man With A Hat, for entertaining insights into the history of comics, informative answers to reader Q&As, and a look at Marvel’s current output from a man who helps pull it all together. It’s the highlight of my Sunday evening newsletter binge reading sessions -
Pages and Screens
Book Read in 2023 - “For The Love Of Mars” by Matthew Shindell.
This is a book that can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Subtitled “a human history of the red planet,” the first half, which directly addresses the ways that Mars has been thought about and discussed throughout human history, is disappointingly dull and flat and even occasionally patronizingly dismissive in its descriptions of how Mars has been portrayed in popular culture.
But when it gets to the robotic exploration of Mars over the last few decades the prose comes alive and the author’s enthusiasm shines through.
It feels that he really just wanted to write a book about the recent exploration of Mars, but sold the book by pitching the human history angle.
Movies watched in 2023 - Gran Tourismo
Continuing the racing themed entertainment this week, my youngest daughter kindly took me on a date recently to see the latest attempt by Hollywood to transform my favorite sport to the big screen. I’m a sucker for racing movies, both good and bad.
And this one wasn’t too bad. Sure it mixed all the expected cliched tropes of both sports movies in general, and racing movies in particular. Accuracy and historical timelines were sacrificed in the name of plot, and it seemed that every race track in the world looked like it was a part of the Hungaroring. But it had the advantage of being based on an actual story of how a gamer became a racer (see below), a story that I was already familiar with; and it stuck to the basics resulting in a fun, entertaining, and at times gripping story, that also included the occasional blending of the world’s of sim-racing and on-track action in innovative ways to help move the story along.
Podcast Procrastinations
I’ve been talking about James Bond a lot over the last week or so with three episodes of Bond related podcasts now in the can and going through the post - production edit phase. First up was a virtual DragonCon panel on the Bond theme songs (which I believe will go live at the Con on Sunday and then be posted on YouTube at a later date).
Sticking with Bond music, Jarrod Albriech and I recorded the next episode of Bond Music: Six of the Best in which we covered the 1973 album of James Bond’s Greatest Hits from Franck Pourcel et son Grand Orchestre, and a little earlier than usual it’s now available online HERE.
The Rogue Agents crew were back together this week on the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast network to discuss the trailers for Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man With The Golden Gun.
Links will be posted in future newsletters as and when they go live
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - A quick reminder that Episode 25 of The Before They Were Beatles podcast is now live and available on your podcast platform of choice.
Entitled “Beginnings and Endings” it covers the events of September through to December 1962 as we complete our journey as The Beatles return to the recording studio, make their TV debut, and say goodbye to Hamburg.
The August issue of the Before They Were Beatles newsletter is now online in which we take a look at John Lennon's tumultuous schooldays.
This month the newsletter's full contents are available FREE to all subscribers. So if you haven't checked out this monthly look at a slice of early Beatles history, this is the ideal opportunity.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week with comics cover dated May 1968 published in Brazil and Denmark. It was another round of reprinting original US covers so nothing new or noteworthy this week.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else that might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter