64 Facts About Denis Gifford

Denis Gifford was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist and historian of film, comics, television and radio.

Denis Gifford was particularly interested in the early stages in film and comics history, for which records were scarce and unreliable, and his own vast collection was an invaluable source.

Denis Gifford produced detailed filmographies of every traceable fiction, non-fiction and animated film ever released in the UK, and of early animated films in the US.

Denis Gifford compiled the first comics catalogue attempting to list every comic ever published in the UK, as well as the first price guide for British comics.

Denis Gifford was a cartoonist and comic artist who worked for numerous titles, mostly for British comics in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Denis Gifford was born in Forest Hill, London, the only son of William Denis Gifford, a printer, and Amelia nee Hutchings.

Denis Gifford grew up in the prosperous South London suburb of Sydenham, but was evacuated during the war to Tonbridge, Kent.

Denis Gifford attended the South London private school Dulwich College, and while a pupil there was an avid comic collector and cartoonist.

Denis Gifford produced a comic, The Junior, using heated gelatine and hectograph ink, which he sold for 1d around the school, but had published comics art by the time he was 14.

Denis Gifford became friends with Bob Monkhouse, a Dulwich schoolmate, fellow schoolboy cartoonist and later TV comedian and presenter, who studied in the year below and had cartoons published while at the school.

Denis Gifford's first published work was Magical Monty for All-Fun Comics at the age of 14, with a contribution to The Dandy the same year, and briefly worked as junior cartoonist for the newspaper Reynold's News.

Denis Gifford collaborated on comics writing and drawing with school friend Bob Monkhouse while they were still pupils at Dulwich College together.

Denis Gifford was most productive as a comics artist in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Denis Gifford had a distinctive, simple drawing style with a light-heartedness evident even in more action-orientated strips.

Denis Gifford created, wrote and edited several comics in the 1940s and 1950s.

Gifford provided art for movie adaptation strip Roy Rogers in Western comic The Sheriff Comics, signing himself 'Gus Denis Gifford' and offering a drawing style [in which] "[h]is likenesses could approach very close to the American ones produced by Harry Parks", consistent with Gifford's busy, comical style in other genres.

Denis Gifford went on to produce several strips for the highly popular humour comic Knockout, including Our Ernie, Stoneage Kit the Ancient Brit and his own creation, the gags and puzzles strip Steadfact McStaunch.

Denis Gifford later revived Steadfast McStaunch for a run in IPC's new title Whizzer and Chips, which itself merged with Knockout in 1973.

Denis Gifford worked on a number of strips in several titles in the Marvelman stable, and created the light-hearted backup features Flip and Flop and The Friendly Soul.

Later in the 1960s, Denis Gifford produced the one-off News of the Universe Television Service and regular humour strips Dan Dan the TV Man and the collection of one or two-panel gags, Jester Moment for TV Tornado where Mick Anglo was editor.

Denis Gifford provides an historical overview, giving particular attention to the pre-World War II era.

Denis Gifford's writing included biographies of cinematic figures, including Karloff: The Man, The Monster, The Movies and The Movie Makers: Chaplin, with his meticulous research and detailed knowledge well suited to the form.

Denis Gifford was a judge at the Sitges 1977 International Festival of Fantasy and Horror.

The Denis Gifford Collection is held as part of the BFI National Library.

Horror held a special fascination for Denis Gifford: he was an active figure in horror fandom of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, including the Gothique Film Society, and in the 1970s he had regular columns in Dez Skinn's House of Hammer magazine, first a serialised Golden History of Horror and later History of Hammer.

However, Denis Gifford had been deeply critical of Hammer Studios, especially the productions of its later years, preferring the more understated examples of early British and Hollywood horror.

Denis Gifford was a keen Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, and was a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society, writing various reviews and articles on films featuring the detective.

Denis Gifford wrote numerous articles on film and popular entertainment, both professionally and for fanzines.

Denis Gifford produced and directed the Pathe newsreel Highlight: The Singing Cinema, a compilation of extracts from British musical films from 1929 to 1964.

Denis Gifford scripted the Space Race spoof Carry on Spaceman in 1962, but although scheduled, the film was not shot.

Denis Gifford was regarded by many as the UK's pre-eminent comics historian, particularly of early British comics.

Comics scholarship, still relatively undeveloped in comparison to other media, was almost non-existent in 1971, when Denis Gifford published his first book on comics history, Discovering Comics.

Denis Gifford argued that "in Europe, perhaps the world" the first caricature magazine, an important prototypical form of the comic, was Hopkirk's The Glasgow Looking Glass.

Denis Gifford located the origin of the modern graphic narrative in the late nineteenth century, tracing development through various stages that included Judy - The London Serio-Comic Journal featuring Ally Sloper, the first recurring character in a text and picture serial.

Denis Gifford initiated the Ally Sloper Awards in 1976, an annual prize for veteran comic artists.

At a summit on comics history convened by the 1989 Lucca Comics Festival in Italy, Denis Gifford was invited to be one of the eleven 'international specialists' to sign a declaration that The Yellow Kid was the first comic character having been first published in 1895.

Denis Gifford signed, but pointedly did so in the name of Ally Sloper, first published in 1867.

Denis Gifford sought to draw a distinct definition for British comics history, as the Golden Age and other historical eras of comics were first defined to describe US comics history.

Denis Gifford observed that the "Thirties were the Golden Age of British comics" due to the profusion of successful, high quality and specifically British humour comics beginning in the 1930s, including DC Thomson's The Dandy, The Beano and Magic and Amalgamated Press's Jingles, Jolly, Golden, Radio Fun, Happy Days and Knockout.

The start of the Second World War in 1939, and the resulting paper shortages, marked the end of many of the titles, a definable end to the era and the beginning of what Denis Gifford termed the "Dark Age".

Denis Gifford recognised that the growth in adult readership of comics since the 1970s was due to nostalgia, but did not foresee the potential for a development of the medium.

However, Denis Gifford's concerns were limited to comics intended for children and adolescents, and he was well aware of a development of the medium for an adult audience.

Denis Gifford collected and was able to appreciate the content of underground and Modern Age comics, offering sophisticated and sometimes sympathetic analysis.

Denis Gifford was working on a filmography and history of 1930s British television, but died before its completion.

Denis Gifford wrote extensively for comedy and light entertainment in both television and radio, his work often reflecting his fascinations of radio and film nostalgia and cartoon art.

Denis Gifford wrote the first television series of comedy stars Morecambe and Wise, Running Wild, having been brought in with fellow cartoonist, comic enthusiast and film buff Tony Hawes to save a series which was initially panned by critics.

Denis Gifford provided material for the opening night of ITV and co-wrote the first comedy show to be screened by BBC2, the TV movie Alberts' Channel Too for the launch of the channel, although the whole evening's broadcasting was lost due to a power blackout.

Denis Gifford wrote for Junior Showtime, devised the nostalgia panel show Looks Familiar for Thames TV, presented by Denis Norden, its radio counterpart Sounds Familiar and the Thames quiz show Quick on the Draw featuring drawings by cartoonists and celebrities, with presenters including Bob Monkhouse, Rolf Harris and Bill Tidy.

Denis Gifford wrote scripts for the ITV children's puppet shows Witches' Brew and The Laughing Policeman.

Denis Gifford designed stunts for the popular BBC1 game show The Generation Game.

Denis Gifford regularly wrote obituaries of notable figures in comics, film and entertainment history for British national newspapers The Independent and The Guardian and posthumously for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, drawing on his specialist knowledge and often personal familiarity with the subject.

Denis Gifford collected the first and last issues of all comics published in the UK, as well as Christmas issues and other special editions, and collected first issues of US comics.

Denis Gifford was a collector of other ephemera, including pulp books, popular magazines, theatrical programmes, film and comic fanzines, original film scripts and sheet music, as well as pop culture memorabilia, describing himself as "the keeper of the nation's nostalgia".

Denis Gifford had certain specific interests, notably British horror films of the 1930s to the 1960s, early cinema and radio, Laurel and Hardy movies and memorabilia, British comic papers of the late nineteenth century and British and US comics of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, especially those which featured personalities from contemporary radio.

Denis Gifford was to spend the rest of his life trying to replace those lost copies.

Denis Gifford's collection was the product of his lifelong passion for comics and popular culture, and his highly prolific research work was an attempt to provide a comprehensive history of the ephemeral.

Particularly in the early decades of his writing on the subject, pop culture drew little attention from academic research and Denis Gifford was particularly passionate about the most obscure examples of vintage comics, film, television and radio, and determined that they should be recognised, chronicled and remembered before extant copies were lost.

Denis Gifford was a pivotal figure in the development of comics "fandom" in the UK, first through his writing and publishing of early fanzines in the 1950s.

Denis Gifford organised Comics 101 in 1976, the first convention dedicated to British comic creators, with guests including celebrated figures in British comics including Frank Hampson, Leo Baxendale, Frank Bellamy and Ron Embleton, Marvelman creator Mick Anglo and Garth creator Steve Dowling, Denis Gifford conducting an on-stage interview with Dowling.

The name of the convention was a reference to the 101 years since the first issue of Funny Folks which Denis Gifford regarded as the first comic.

In 1977 Denis Gifford co-founded the Society of Strip Illustration, a network for all those involved in any stage of the creative process of comics production which later became the Comic Creators Guild.

Denis Gifford wrote extensively for comics magazines and fanzines, particularly Comic Cuts, and it was here that he wrote some of his most specialist work on comics history and criticism.

Denis Gifford continued to organise, guest and attend comics conventions throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s in the UK, USA and throughout Europe, including regular guest appearances the Lucca International Comics Festival, was an official guest at the first UK Comic Art Convention in 1985 and was a guest speaker at the 1st UK Paperback and Pulp Bookfair in 1991.

Denis Gifford created the Ally Sloper Awards, a series of awards to recognise veteran British comics artists.