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Dez Skinn is a British comic book and magazine editor born in Yorkshire in 1951.
Early career
Following a journalistic stint on Yorkshire's Doncaster Evening Post, Dez Skinn moved to London in 1970 to pursue a career in comics and found work as a sub-editor with IPC where he worked on such titles as Whizzer and Chips, Cor!! and Buster. The comics publishing arm of Williams/Warner Bros headhunted him to work for them as managing editor of their fledgling Youth Group. It was during this time he edited titles such as MAD Magazine (UK Edition), Tarzan, Korak, Laurel & Hardy and revived Monster Mag.
The House Of Hammer
The House Of Hammer was a monthly magazine featuring articles on Hammer Films series of horror and science fiction films. It also featured comic strip versions of its films, as well as new material, by creators such as Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, John Bolton, David Lloyd and Brian Lewis. The magazine won numerous Eagle Awards and was hugely successful and with issue 19 received US distribution after an initial one-off compilation issue.
The title changed its name to Halls Of Horror after Warren Publishing had copyrighted the House Of Horror name in the US through publishing a single issue "ashcan" (500 copies, reprinting old Famous Monsters of Filmland material, in an attempt to prevent competition).Halls Of Horror lasted till issue 23 before it was abruptly cancelled, a cover for the unpublished issue 24 is in existence.
The title returned in 1982 from Quality Communications and lasted until its 30th issue plus a Dracula special.
Starburst
In January 1978 Skinn launched the first issue of Starburst as an attempt to take advantage of Star Wars and the growth in the interest of science fiction and fantasy. Skinn published it under the company name of Starburst Publishing Ltd. It lasted 3 issues before being bought by Marvel UK when he joined them as editorial director.
The magazine is still being published by Visual Imagination.
Marvel Comics
In 1978 Skinn was headhunted by Stan Lee to help the floundering Marvel UK publishing company. Lee was concerned that sales were dropping and gave Skinn freedom to revitalise the company as he saw fit. Skinn did this by moving the company out of Sevenoaks, Kent and back to London, bringing in his own editorial team (at the expense of having to lose Neil Tennant, who went on to form the Pet Shop Boys) and then launching new titles such as Doctor Who Weekly, Frantic Magazine (a MAD Magazine copy which featured very early work by Alan Moore and Alan Davis) and Hulk Weekly all of which featured new material produced in the UK by British creators. Hulk Weekly is best remembered for reviving Captain Britain, which had previously been US-originated material, and a precursor to V for Vendetta in Night-Raven.
With news trade confusion over the difference between glossy US and equally glossy UK Narvel Comics, he successfully revamped existing weekly reprint titles such as The Mighty World Of Marvel into a more traditional-looking UK title as Marvel Comic and similarly adapted Marvel UK's Spider-Man reprint title. With Star Wars Weekly he added photocovers and interior text features to widen the comic's appeal. His line of digest sized Pocket Books also proved successful, inexpensively offering 64 pages each of early Marvel superhero, horror and science fiction material.
Skinn's tenure at Marvel was hugely productive and in this time he provided the likes of Alan Davis and a 17-year old Steve Dillon their first published work. He also gave work to John Wagner, Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Dave Gibbons, John Bolton, David Lloyd and Alan Moore which gave them greater exposure. His best known decision was to return Captain Britain from limbo, first of all as a Black Knight supporting character in Hulk Weekly, then in his own strip in The Mighty World Of Marvel.
Skinn left Marvel in 1981 in order to set up Quality Communications and start his most influential comic, the anthology title, Warrior.
Warrior
Warrior was first published in March 1982 and ran 26 issues to January 1985. It was a title where all the strips were creator owned, something unique in the British comics industry at the time. The title was a mass of creativity, creators such as Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Alan Davis, Brian Bolland and Garry Leach created and worked on many memorable stories. These included Marvelman, V for Vendetta, The Spiral Path, Axel Pressbutton and Father Shandor, Demon Stalker.
When Warrior was cancelled, many of the unfinished stories were completed by various US comic publishing companies. However many of these stories had problems being completed due to the complicated issue of just who owned what, the most famous example of this is Marvelman.
Although Warrior was no more, Quality Communications continued on.
Quality Communications
After Warrior ended, Quality Communications and Skinn carried on being involved in comics publishing for much of the remainder of the 1980s. First of all they helped repackage several stories from Warrior for Eclipse Comics, including Marvelman. Skinn also supervised US reprints of 2000 AD material which were recoloured, these reprints continued till 1989.
In 1990, Skinn produced the first issue of Comics International, a monthly comics news and reviews magazine which has enjoyed great success to the present day. They also publish Toy Max, a magazine for toy collectors.
Controversy
Skinn is a controversial figure, with several creators (most notably Alan Moore and Mick Anglo) having major disputes over ownership of characters. Skinn states he helped create V for Vendetta with Moore and Lloyd as well as still being involved with the rights of the character. A similar issue involves Marvelman, where Skinn states he owns part of the character, even going as far at a comic convention in Bristol to state he has documented proof of this. As yet, this proof remains unseen. Skinn has also been accused of breaching copyright, through the publication of Comix: The Underground Revolution (2004), a work in which Skinn is identified as author. Writing in The Comics Journal 263 , Patrick Rosencratz, author of The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975 (2003), alleged that Skinn had "extensively
Following Rosencratz's editorial, Trina Robbins contacted The Comics Journal via e-mail, published in issue #266, in which she noted that she wrote Chapter 6, "Girls on Top?". " I was not credited ... Dez e-mailed me with a request to contribute a chapter on women in the under-ground ... I did get paid for it ... one usually expects to be credited for what one writes". | url = | format = | accessdate = }}
The Comics Journal later followed up these claims in #268, in which it revealed that whilst Skinn and the estate of Clay Geerdes had reached a settlement, Skinn and Rosencratz had failed to reach an agreement, Skinn noting "I discovered he was again attacking me ... I emailed him saying he was jeopardizing possibility of a settlement". Skinn concluded the matter had reached an impasse, stating "He ignored me, the comments ran online. Ergo total negotiation breakdown." | url = | format = | accessdate = }}
However, both the American and United Kingdom publishers of Comix: The Underground Revolution noted that it was Skinn, as author, who was contractually bound to gain clearances for using copyrighted material, with British publisher Chrysalis noting that upon learning of the alleged breach of Patrick Rosencratz's copyright, they "immediately tried to contact Dez Skinn about this and asked him to sort it out. We have not heard back from him yet but we will continue to chase him". Skinn acceded the responsibility was his: "the commisioning publisher's contract throws everything and anything problem-wise back at me".
Further controversy came when, giving a speech at the 2006 UK Eagle Awards, Skinn claimed that 2000AD, the UK's last remaining mainstream comic, would "be liquidated within a year". He also claimed that the Judge Dredd Megazine did not deserve its award, as it was just a sympathy vote. Both claims were denied by 2000AD's owners and editorial staff.
Miscellaneous
Skinn's career in comics actually began in 1965 with his fanzine The Derinn Comicollector which led to his producing other titles including Eureka! (1969) and a comics news fanzine Oracle (1968) he also edited the British comic fan magazine Fantasy Advertiser from 1970 to 1975.
He has also written the Underground Revolution, a history of underground comics, for Chrysalis Books (UK) and Thunder's Mouth (USA). His Quality Communications produced a hardcover edition.
Skinn is now involved with the UK's biggest comic event, the Comic Expo, which is held twice a year in Bristol and Brighton, where Skinn is now based.
He has a daughter, Alice Maud, born in 2002 to his partner Vaseema Hamilton, principal of BIMM (the Brighton Institute of Modern Music).
Notes and references
External links
Comics critics | British magazine editors | Comic book editors | Marvel UK
"Dez Skinn"