Comics - Mick Anglo's Roaring Twenties

When I picked up the book 'Nostalgia on the Twenties' I was delighted to find it was written by Michael Anglo, creator of Marvelman.

I was more delighted still when I read the book, for as well as a lot of very intelligent and humane observations on the times and people, there is more than a little of a young Mick Anglo's life recalled in it as well.

His father was a theatre manager, and through him Mick Anglo met countless acts including Louis Armstrong and the renowned singer of the age, Florence Mills, who it seems cast something of a spell on young master Anglo.

It's full of fascinating times, such as when Mick's father called him down as a young lad to listen to the Jack Dempsey fight on the radio. How later, Mick would meet the legendary American boxer in the army, and again in Dempsey's restaurant in New York.

It tells of how he first got into the art business, and his first work in the fashion industry, selling designs to the rag-trade industry. How the film 'What Price Glory?' lead to a terrible spate of raspberry blowing amongst the English youth.

Ultimately it's the memory of a time viewed through the eyes of a young boy and revisited by an older and wiser man. Fascinating in it's own right as a document of the times, doubly so as it gives us an insight into a real legend of British comic books.

But I'm probably spoiling it for you.

The book is out of print, but I've seen it reasonably priced on e-bay and I know the library service I work for has it in their stores, so yours just might too. I've also noticed that the same author has another book on Victorian Penny Dreadfuls in the library, so I'll be taking that for a spin as well in due course and reporting back. Though I would expect it to be light on autobiographical detail :)