Denis Gifford

Denis Gifford (1927-2000) was a British writer of non fiction. He specialized in the history of popular entertainments such as comic books and horror films. He created Marvelman by literally tracing over the American Captain Marvel comics of the 1940's.

Gifford lived on his own at 80, Silverdale in Sydenham and wrote more than fifty books from The Best of Eagle (1989) to the comprehensive British Film Catalogue 1895-1985 (1986). He also created several popular programmes for radio and television including Looks Familiar. But it was his collection of more than 20,000 comics that dominated his life. He was a regular at comic conventions and was caught on film taking comics without paying. In 1953 with the introduction of the Comics Code, he set an example by burning all his old American horror comics, something he quickly regretted. Rather than a completist in comics, he tried to get the first four issues of most titles and then picked up some others later. When he died his collection of comics were auctioned off.

A Life Remembered

(Added by David Robinson, British Writer-Illustrator, July 2007)

The above text, condensed from obituary material available elsewhere, understates Gifford’s contribution to popular culture during his lifetime and career.

Denis Gifford (1927-2000) was a British writer whose creative endeavours comprised writing and drawing for British comics; writing more than fifty books on various topics from popular culture; devising, compiling and contributing to popular programmes for radio and television; and other, related work, including film.

Though Gifford did not create Marvelman, as specified above, the “means to an end” method of replicating superhero and other “action” art, hinted at above, is not unlikely from one who was more comfortable with “comic” comics and described himself as a champion of “the idea over the execution”.

In addition to being a regular at comics conventions, Gifford more or less established the genre in Britain with Comics 101 in 1976, attended by dealers and comic artists. In 1978 he established the Association of Comics Enthusiasts (ACE), which ran for 14 years proper and, in reprint form in the British Comics Journal, until his death.

As a 14-year-old at Dulwich College, Gifford began drawing for Dandy, after sending a comic strip to its publisher D. C. Thomson of Dundee. His efforts caught the imagination of Bob Monkhouse, in the school year below, and they became friends and collaborators. They toured in the South East, giving charity performances with, incredibly, Monkhouse as the “straight man”.

After RAF service during WWII, Gifford drew cartoons for the London Evening News, Empire State News and Sunday Despatch. In the 1960s, he moved up a notch and began devising panel games like Sounds Familiar for radio, crossing to television as Looks Familiar.

Gifford wrote the script for comedian Derek Roy on the opening night of ITV in 1955; was asked to “bale out” the first TV series by Morecambe and Wise (which had been panned); co-wrote the first comedy show to be screened by BBC2 in 1964; wrote for Junior Showtime; and devised stunts for The Generation Game when this launched..

The British Film Catalogue took Gifford 20 years to compile, and listed every film made in Britain for public entertainment, along with the stars and directors. In order to compile the entries, Gifford pored through back copies of trade newspapers, looking at every advertisement; and tracking down directors who had retired years before.

Denis Gifford was briefly married during the 1970s, and had a daughter, Pandy.

His collection of more than 20,000 comics and other paper ephemera (including books, popular magazines and sheet music) did, indeed, dominate his lifestyle and his habitat, once described in one of the colour supplements as the den of “a boy who had run away from home” and never returned. His walls were lined with bookshelves, with other bookshelves installed at right-angles to these. As well as being unable to use the oven, he could reach neither his radiators, nor a broken curtain rail. At least once he fell, due to boxes of ephemera narrowing his way upstairs to bed.

Despite hints that he might bequeath this vast collection “to the country”, via the Victoria and Albert Museum or similar, this was broken up and sold off after his death, having been rescued from the black bags of a non-specialist house clearance company.

Selected bibliography

• A Pictorial History of Horror Movies (1973)
• Encyclopedia of Comic Characters (1987)
• American Animated Films: The Silent Era, 1897-1929; McFarland & Company; ISBN 0-89950-460-4 (library binding, 1990)