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The comics anthologies Ally Sloper and Escape magazine began publication in the 1970s and 1980s. They inherited a complex national situation, one in which locally produced comics always had to compete with foreign imports, primarily superhero comics from the United States. Each of these pioneering anthologies sought to create a space for small press and independent English comics and a wider sense of the history and potential of the medium, but in doing so, they had to negotiate a history and market shaped by the consumption of comics from the United States. Placing the anthologies within this larger situation, this article interprets the work of these various editors in terms of the national and cosmopolitan strategies they deployed as they sought to further develop English comics.

  BRACKEN BC's faith in their up-and-coming super heavyweight Denis Gifford was rewarded when the Bettystown youngster nearly pulled off a shock win at the National Open Youth Tournament.

Denis Gifford (35), 12 Tower Cross, Mornington was accused of assault at the Bettystown Court Hotel on December 23rd, 2007. He had also offered compensation of EUR 400 to the victim. He said CCTV footage from the night indicated there had been a fracas involving nine people but Gifford was the only person held responsible.

The judgment, to be published in next week's 'Stubbs Gazette', is the single largest secured nationwide during the second week in January. Two days later, the Collector General also registered a judgment of close to euro38,000 against Tallaght-based haulier Anthony J Mulligan, in what was Mr Mulligan's first registered judgment.

Cartoonist and comics collector Denis Gifford whose huge collection of material is being sold in a series of sales starting tomorrow. This study, completed in 1990, shows Denis amid his comic heroes and was drawn in ink and watercolours by a fellowcartoonist, Rob. In the 'wham, bam' world of children's comics the name of Denis Gifford stands supreme. An obsessive collector, newspaper cartoonist, comic strip artist, archivist, author and chronicler, he amassed Britain's biggest collection of comics, an accumulationwhich at his death last year was found to weigh no less than 12 tons. In a foreword to the catalogue for tomorrow's sale, Bob Monkhouse writes of his schooldays' friendship with Denis in which they both drew countless strip cartoons for Dandy, The Beano, Knockout and Radio Fun. He said: 'Denis was conscripted into the RAFin 1945 and he became well established as a newspaper cartoonist, drawing regularly for The London Evening News, Reynolds News and various comic magazines of the day. However, his passion remained fixed on kids' comics.

  In the third round [Denis Gifford] left nothing to chance, circling [Christopher McCloskey] and attacking in quick-fire bursts, leaving the Belfast man totally on the defensive. He couldn't live with the Bracken ace's speed or volume of work sand spent most of the round pinned in the corners or sagging on the ropes. In the end it was an emphatic 3-0 unanimous decision for the Bracken man and in doing so he followed in the footsteps of his great grandfather Willie 'Blinky' Gifford who represented Ireland way back in the 1930s.

Mr. Fletcher, a cartoonist who drew for British comics and, for a year, published his own Canadian comic book in Toronto, said he once \"babysat\" the largest and rarest collection of comic books existing in private hands.

Denis Gifford, who has died aged 72, turned Big-Hearted Arthur and Stinker Murdoch's \"Ah, happy days\" sigh into a way of life. Whether known as \"Britain's most eminent comic historian\" or the more cheery \"Mr Nostalgia\", Gifford had an infectious enthusiasm for days gone by, which he spread to a wide audience through books, radio and television. The creator of Sounds Familiar in 1966, and its television counterpart Looks Familiar (hosted by Denis Norden) in 1972, Gifford served up a feast of clips and anecdotes that were far more interesting than the quiz element of the shows. During summer holidays, Gifford sent some drawings to the Dandy comic, which were accepted with a request for more, earning the 14- year-old half-a-crown each for various headings. In 1944, he became an office junior at Reynolds News before joining the RAF. While serving around the country, Gifford freelanced, producing the complete contents of many thin comicbooks that flourished while the paper shortage rationed the appearance of many favourite titles. His distinctive drawing style later found a home in the London Evening News, where he drew the Telestrip cartoon (later revived in Rex magazine), and on bubblegum and cigarette sweet packets.

Steven Spielberg's Jaws put new bite into the animal revenge movie in 1975, but the touchstone movie was Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller The Birds, based on the short story by Daphne DuMaurier. Hitchcock shows common birds (pointedly not birds of prey, like those stuffed ones in Korman Bate's parlour in Psycho) suddenly intent on attacking people. In the apocalyptic ending, the people are forced to flee as birds dominate the landscape. In his 1969 book Movie Monsters, author Denis Gifford classified all the monsters of the horror film into distinct categories. His list of types included the Vampire, the Werewolf, the Cat, the Ape, the Brute, the Mutant, and the Beast, by which Gifford means the metaphoric beast that dwells within the heart of man, as in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Obviously Gifford was thinking about those classic horror films released before the 1960s, because his list omits both literal animals and metaphoric ones, like psychopaths and serial killers. Hitchcock's famous birds-eye view contemplating the destruction wreaked by the birds sums up the appeal of these movies. We have witnessed enough environmental disasters in the last few years to make us worried about upsetting its delicate balance, and animal revenge movies graphically remind us what fools these mortals can be.

Say to anyone who rode in a London bus during the second world war, \"I trust you'll pardon my correction\", and it's odds-on that they will come back with the rhyming line, \"That stuff is there for your protection!\" \"That stuff\" was the sticky-backed netting stuck over the inside of every glass window in every bus in town, designed to frustrate any shattering that would otherwise occur during a bombing raid - stuff that many a young Londoner enjoyed peeling away at the corners. The chap who did the admonishing so politely, who wore a black bowler hat, striped trousers and his gas mask in a neat holder slung over one shoulder, the complete uniform of a city gent, was Billy Brown of London Town. Many of [David Langdon]'s dialogue lines are brilliantly tailored words of wit. A munitions worker to the watchman as he departs for home carrying a shell: \"Just want to show the wife.\" An ARP warden to a housewife bathed in light from her window in an otherwise black blackout: \"Good evening, madam. Over two years ago, on the third of September 1939 to be precise, we declared war on Germany . . .\" Wife to hubby: \"I've invited the Hendersons over for the air raid, George.\" And a captionless cartoon of a man leaning, or rather lurking, at a pub bar. On his tin helmet are the words \"Secret Agent\". Langdon's first book of cartoons was called Home Front Lines and was published in 1941. At that time he had just left his post as an executive officer in the London Rescue Service to become a squadron leader in the RAF, where he would serve as cartoonist and eventually editor of the RAF Journal, a monthly magazine published from Adastral House, in Kingsway, central London. Strictly restricted and \"not to be communicated either directly or indirectly to the press\", copies of the journal later turned up occasionally at book fairs and proved to be remarkably good- humoured. The journal had a regular strip starring Billy Brown, \"who stands atop a letter box, admonishing finger raised: 'Hey! Before you post that letter - Couldn't you address it better?'\"