New Exhibition Focuses on the British Invasion of American Comics

Heroes: The British invasion of American comics opens at the Cartoon Museum in London next month with a look at how British artists and writers invaded America and made their mark on iconic superheroes.

As well as telling the story of early American comics such as Buster Brown, Miss Fury and Superman, it looks at how they influenced British artists and culture, and how the British then took that influence and sold it back to America through comics such as Watchmen and V For Vendetta. 

The exhibition - which opens on April 25 and runs through October 19 - looks at the many British creators who provided art for iconic superheroes including Batman, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Hit-Girl, including works by Brian Bolland, David Lloyd, Doug Braithwaite and Alison Sampson.

Other highlights include:

• British attempts to imitate American strips in the 1940s
• the story behind the 1972 launch of Marvel UK by Stan Lee and The Mighty World of Marvel including a rare original press kit given out at the launch event and never been on show previously
• rarely-seen, full-colour early American comic newspaper pages by RF Outcault, Harold Foster and Alex Raymond
• artwork by key figures from the history of British and American comics such as Jack Kirby, Jack Davis and Tarpe Mills

Heroes: The British invasion of American comics is co-curated by Steve Marchant and Museum director Joe Sullivan.