Dez Skinn


Derek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly. After leaving Marvel UK, Skinn founded and edited Warrior, which featured key works by Alan Moore.
Called by some the "British Stan Lee," Skinn is one of British comics' most influential figures. He has also caused no small amount of controversy in his career, specifically related to legal issues regarding his publishing new adventures of the 1950s character Marvelman, as well as charges of plagiarism about Skinn's 2004 book Comix: The Underground Revolution.

Fandom

Skinn first came to prominence in the world of British comics fandom. As a teenager he contributed articles to the seminal fanzine Fantasy Advertiser, published by Frank Dobson. When Dobson left for Australia in 1970, he handed the zine on to two contributors, Skinn and Paul McCartney, to continue. As editors, Skinn and McCartney expanded the magazine to include more articles and artwork.
In 1971 Skinn and Bram Stokes produced Comicon '71 at the Waverley Hotel in London; the guest of honor was Frank Bellamy and other guests include Frank Dickens, Mick Farren, and Edward Barker. Skinn returned in 1981 to produce the final incarnation of Comicon, co-organized with Frank Dobson. He also produced the 2005 Brighton Comic Expo.

Career

IPC

Skinn's professional career started at IPC Magazines in 1970, where he was sub-editor on Whizzer and Chips, Cor!!, and Buster. Also Father of Chapel of the local branch of the National Union of Journalists, he became an editor before leaving, on the Buster Book of Spooky Stories.

Warner Bros.

Skinn left IPC to expand the comics arm of Warner Bros. publishing. He took over editing MAD UK, Tarzan, Korak, and Laurel and Hardy, revived Monster Mag, and launched House of Hammer, which won the 1977 Eagle Award for Best UK Title.

Starburst

In January 1978, Skinn independently created the science fiction monthly Starburst, published under Skinn's own Starburst Publishing Ltd. Sporting the tagline "Science Fantasy in Television, Cinema and Comix," Starburst contained news, interviews, features and reviews of science fiction material in various media. Starburst won the 1978 Eagle Award for Favourite British Pro Comics Publication.

Marvel UK

Thanks in part to the success of Starburst, Skinn was headhunted by Stan Lee to reshape Marvel's floundering UK reprint division. In his 15 months as editorial director for Marvel UK, Skinn reported directly to Lee; he reformatted the existing titles Marvel Comic, Star Wars Weekly, and Spider-Man Comics Weekly, plus the monthlies Rampage and Savage Sword of Conan. In addition, Skinn launched Doctor Who Weekly and Hulk Comic, among many other titles — Frantic Magazine, Marvel Pocket Books, Star Heroes, TV Heroes, summer specials, winter specials, etc.
In 2010 Skinn received a Guinness World Records certificate and credit for creating the world's longest-lasting TV tie-in magazine for Doctor Who Weekly.

Quality Communications

Leaving Marvel in 1980 for his own company, the London West End Studio System, Skinn worked primarily in advertising design for both the film and fashion industry. In 1982 he returned to publishing with his own company, Quality Communications, where Skinn founded and edited the comics anthology Warrior. Warrior went on to win 17 Eagle Awards, introduce V for Vendetta, and revive Marvelman/Miracleman.
In 1990, Quality Communications launched the comics trade magazine Comics International, which Skinn published and edited for the following 16 years. His "Sez Dez" column was a regular feature in issues #100–#200, at which point Skinn sold the magazine in 2006 to Cosmic Publications. Since 2005, Quality has published The Jack Kirby Quarterly and The Art of John Watkiss.

Columnist

Skinn now writes a column called "The Skinny" for Future plc's comics trade magazine Comic Heroes. Because of his strong beliefs in education through entertainment and the increasing world levels in illiteracy, he has recently begun working with the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, initially chairing a discussion there on comics and literacy in the Middle East, which led to his becoming curator of the Middle East Film and Comic Con, which debuted in 2012.

Controversy

Marvelman (a.k.a. Miracleman)

Before launching Warrior, Skinn contacted writer Alan Moore, telling him that "Marvelman's copyright had belonged to the publisher L. Miller & Son,... that they had gone bankrupt in 1963 and that the rights to Marvelman had passed to the Official Receiver could be purchased for a very small amount..."; and asked Moore if he "would... like to... contribute to this new retelling of Marvelman."
A quarter-century later Moore found out that Marvelman creator "Mick Anglo had always owned the copyright, that it had never been owned by L. Miller & Son, and that they had not gone bankrupt, but had concluded their affairs quietly in 1963.... Basically, Mick Anglo had been robbed of his ownership of ." According to Moore, "I was not on the best of terms with Dez Skinn by the end of the Warrior experience. I didn't trust the man, and my opinion – for what that is worth – is that there was knowing deceit involved in the Marvelman decision."
But according to Skinn, he had met with Anglo three times before assigning creators to Marvelman and Anglo had expressed no problem with the relaunch then or for the following 20+ years. Skinn cites quotes by Mick Anglo from George Khoury's 2001 book Kimota!: The Miracleman Companion, " I don't know; that was Miller's sort of thing... Dez contacted me and he wanted to revive it and I said go ahead and do what you like."
After Warrior magazine folded due to poor sales, Skinn signed a deal with independent American publisher Eclipse Comics to reprint the Marvelman stories before continuing the storyline with new material by Moore and later Neil Gaiman. According to an editorial by then-Eclipse editor Cat Yronwode in Miracleman #24:
For Kimota!: The Miracleman Companion George Khoury interviewed both Skinn and Yronwode — separately — and asked each about the claims published in Miracleman No. 24. Skinn claimed to Khoury that "bout ten years after that Miracleman No. 24 letters page," he and Yronwode had a "conversation via e-mail about that outrageous stuff." According to Skinn, Yronwode informed him that "Dean had filled her head with those stories" and apologised to him. But when Khoury relayed this to Yronwode during his interview with her she denied it, maintaining that the "conversation with Dez Skinn about that" never happened and that she never apologised.

''Comix: The Underground Revolution''

In 2004 Collins & Brown published Skinn's book Comix: The Underground Revolution. Skinn's authorship of the book was contested by Patrick Rosenkranz and Trina Robbins. Rosenkranz alleged that "Skinn's book extensively "borrowed" from Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963–1975" by using as its title "the same four words, cleverly rearranged, as the subtitle of book," "helping himself to quotes from many interviews conducted, repeating facts and figures that dug up," and "reprint seven of photographs without permission." Skinn responded by insisting that "No theft was intended". Skinn claims that those seven photographs had been implemented by one of the ghost writers subcontracted by him and when he found out about it, he apologised to and paid Rosenkranz. Skinn claims also that the book title was chosen by the commissioning publisher.
Robbins noted that she wrote Chapter 6, "Girls on Top?" for Comix: The Underground Revolution but was not given credit. "... Dez e-mailed me with a request to contribute a chapter on women in the underground... I did get paid for it... one usually expects to be credited for what one writes". Skinn claims that he informed Robbins that no sub-contractors were credited in any of the publisher's titles, and that as the chapter was primarily about her, any such credit would have completely undermined its purported objectivity.

Awards

Eagle Award

He has won a number of Eagle Awards:
The Eagle Awards were replaced during the period 1997–2003 by the National Comics Awards: