Blimey! It's another blog about comics!

Blog Break

2009-11-01T14:19:00.003Z

Blogging is time consuming. Even an intended quick review of a comic can take an hour or more from scanning, writing the first draft to publishing online. A more detailed blog can take up to half a day or a full evening. Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, in order to catch up with some work I've fallen behind on through various setbacks (illness, being my Mum's carer etc) I'm putting this blog on hold for a few weeks. Don't worry, it won't be in mothballs for long, and I'll be back soon with some items of free gifts of the past, Christmas strips, and long-overdue reviews of some great small press comics that have been kindly sent to me.

So it really is a case of "back to the drawing board" for now. In the meantime, if you haven't checked out the blogs of friends and acquaintances on the list at the left of this page now is the time to do so. Lots of good stuff there to keep you occupied for ages!

Check back here again in a few weeks and hopefully I'll have a few new items posted by then!

(Photo above shows the pencil stage of a Super School page I did for The Beano. The completed artwork was published a few weeks ago.)

Crikey! No.12 out this Friday

2009-10-26T23:21:00.003Z

Issue No.12 of Crikey! the magazine of British comics should be in shops across the UK this Friday (October 29th). Once again it contains a strong variety of content, including interviews with Pat Mills (talking at length about his time at IPC plus other things), Leah Moore and John Reppion (on Albion), and veteran comic artist Frank McDiarmid (Cheeky weekly).

Also included is Lee O'Connor discussing his new project with Pat Mills (Stars: The Ayatollah's Son) and the first part of a two parter on Doctor Who comic strips over the years.

Issues of Crikey! can be bought from branches of Borders and various newsagents across the country, priced £4.99, or you can subscribe via their website here:
http://www.crikeyuk.co.uk/sub.html

Crikey! is the only magazine devoted to British comics, and let's face it, there have been very few precedents, so I hope all readers of this blog will support it so that it can continue to thrive. Remember, Crikey! doesn't have the backing of a major publisher behind it so it's up to us to keep such independent publications alive.

30th Anniversary of VIZ

2009-10-21T12:01:00.003+01:00

The 30th Anniversary issue of Viz, Britain's swearingest comic, is out today (cover shown above). Originally conceived in 1979 as a 12 page comic sold in local Newcastle pubs, Viz became a massive hit with the public, with its sales gradually rising from just 200 to over a million an issue by the 1990s.

(Above: Viz No.1 from 1979)

The latest issue reflects the original format a little by featuring more half-page strips in order to accommodate more characters within its pages. Classic characters such as Tommy 'Banana' Johnson are back in new stories, along with Hector the Collector and His Metal Detector and Johnny Fartpants, and regular favourites such as Roger Mellie and The Fat Slags are also included. (I contribute a half-page Pathetic Sharks strip on page 33.)

To celebrate the rare occasion of a British comic actually lasting for 30 years, The Cartoon Museum in London will be holding an exhibition of original Viz artwork from November 4th 2009 to January 24th 2010 (35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH). For more details visit their website at:
http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/

Viz No.190, the 30th Anniversary issue, is in the shops now priced £3.00
http://www.viz.co.uk/

30 Year flashback: Doctor Who Weekly No.1

2009-10-16T23:46:00.002+01:00

At the 1979 British comic convention in Birmingham's Metropole Hotel there was a buzz going around that Marvel UK were about to launch a brand new comic exclusively for the British market. Expectations were high, and on a panel that weekend Dez Skinn, then editor at Marvel UK, announced that the title was to feature... Doctor Who.

Personally my initial reaction was disappointment. As a (then) 20 year old I was going through my "Doctor Who is for kids" phase, - although I was still buying about 25 Marvel comics every month which kind of deflated that air of maturity. However, the news was that Dave Gibbons would be drawing the strip and I liked his work from 2000AD so when Doctor Who Weekly No.1 hit the stands on October 11th 1979 I gave it a go...

...and thought it was brilliant. From the outset Dave's artwork on part one of The Iron Legion was powerful and fantastically drawn, and the fact it was written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, my two favourite 2000AD scriptwriters, was equally pleasing. Doctor Who had previously suffered a roller coaster life in comics. Between the strips in TV Comic (mostly so-so, some dire) to Countdown/TV Action (all excellent) and back to TV Comic again (nosediving to comic strip hell) Marvel UK needed to raise the bar, which they certainly achieved. Thirty years on I still think the splash page is one of the most dynamic openings I've seen for a first issue of a British comic...

The lead strip only took up five pages in the 32 page weekly but the pace was fast and, it has to be said, more dramatically satisfying than the tv show was at the time.

The first issue had a fairly modest free gift; a small assortment of rub-down transfers that could be applied to the full-colour "panoramas" on the inside covers. (Interior colour! This was Marvel UK pushing the boat out, - but just for this launch issue.) The artwork on the transfers and the panoramas was also by Dave Gibbons...

The weekly included two other comic strips. One was the start of a reprint of a War of the Worlds adaptation from Marvel Classic Comics No.14. For the weekly, the Fourth Doctor's head was pasted onto page one as a narrator and the heading Tales from the Tardis added.

The final strip in the comic was another all-new British production; The Return of The Daleks, a four pager written by Steve Moore and drawn by David Lloyd...

The rest of the comic was taken up with short articles on the tv show. Mainly introductory for this first issue, the features explained the background story of The Doctor and the Daleks. There was also the first of a "Photo-File" series of pages with data on the actors from the show. William Hartnell was this issue's subject, and the first issue was dedicated to his memory.

All in all, a very solid publication and a great start to the comic. One thing that stands out today is that although these early issues were aimed at children, Doctor Who Weekly didn't dumb down to its readers. That's something that unfortunately can't be said for its modern-day equivalent Doctor Who Adventures. One cannot argue against DWA's success (regularly outselling other comics) but surely it would still sell on its name even if it wasn't quite so "young"? Or has the age of literacy declined so much between generations that short blurbs on photographs are now preferable to articles, and cut-out masks are more popular than fact-files?

Doctor Who Weekly has survived the years of course, maturing with its readership. It became Doctor Who Monthly less than a year into its run and still thrives today as the 68 page all-colour Doctor Who Magazine. (Issue 414 of which was published yesterday.) Today it's a sophisticated magazine with in-depth features and interviews and its comic strip is now ten pages in length, but in essence it's still the same mag that Dez Skinn edited 30 years ago. I may have been skeptical about it when I heard the news in 1979 but Marvel's decision to publish was right, - three decades later it's still with us and, along with 2000AD and Viz, is the only other comic launched in the 1970s to have survived the years!

Amazing cover galleries

2009-10-15T01:45:00.003+01:00

Just a quick blog today as deadlines loom but here's a link to a website that should keep you fascinated for hours, if not days. Maybe even weeks. Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics is a fantastic index of DC Comics over the decades which provides background information on the characters and all kinds of other info. The best feature being an exhaustive cover gallery. Click on the Time Machine section, choose a year, select your month, and you'll see all the DC comics that had that cover date (or at least as many as Mike Voiles has scanned in so far, which is a lot).

Mike's now also opened up his Amazing World of Marvel Comics, which does the same for Marvel from 1939 to 1999. Again it's not complete yet but there are still hundreds of covers to see when you step onto the Time Platform. Behold the comics we'll never afford! Gasp at the way the cover art used to actually represent the content! It's a must-see website that's taken Mike ages to produce and is an ongoing project. Well worth a visit and definitely worth bookmarking!

Doctor Who Exhibition to close

2009-10-14T21:30:00.003+01:00

Not exactly comics-related but as some visitors to this blog are fans of Doctor Who I thought this might be of interest. The Doctor Who Exhibition which has held a prominent position on Blackpool's Golden Mile for five years is to close next month on November 8th.

Some of the items from the museum will be transferred to other Doctor Who Exhibitions around the UK. The museum features a range of props, monsters and costumes from the history of the 45 year old tv series.

I visited the exhibition last summer and I have to say I was somewhat disappointed that only props from the "classic" pre-Christopher Eccleston series seemed to be featured, and the items seemed somewhat shabby. However, the props and costumes were designed for the tv screen of course and never intended to be convincing up close. It was still interesting to view such items, including the TARDIS console and a Mechanoid from the 1965 serial The Chase which actually looked better constructed than some of the 1980s props.

Fronting the museum is a shop selling a good range of modern Doctor Who merchandise along with numerous back issues of Doctor Who Magazine and recent issues of Doctor Who Adventures. (There you go; there is a comics connection to this blog entry. ;-))

The exhibition (which is on Blackpool seafront, practically opposite the Central Pier) will be open every day from 10.30am to 8.00pm until November 8th, when it closes its doors for the last time.

This isn't the first Doctor Who Exhibition that has appeared (and disappeared) in Blackpool. A similar one, not far from the current venue, opened in 1974 and ran for 11 years. The current one will certainly leave a void. Blaring the various Doctor Who themes out from its key position on the promenade it presumably attracted lots of passing trade from Blackpool's millions of tourists, but according to this report the decision was made by the BBC:
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Closure-for-popular-Prom-attraction.5762660.jp

Click on the photographs to see them full size.

The good news for Whovians is that the exhibitions in Cardiff, Glasgow, Lands End, and Coventry will continue. For more information on the Doctor Who Exhibitions around the UK visit this website:
http://www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com/

This year's NEMI annual

2009-10-13T21:00:00.002+01:00

Titan Books have recently published Nemi 3, another hardback collection of Norwegian cartoonist Lise Myhre's daily comic strip. The 144 page full colour volume includes a great selection of strips featuring the sharp-witted free-thinking Goth, translated into English by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik.

Alongside the daily strips, longer Nemi stories are also included from the Norwegian Nemi monthly comic. The 11 page Monstrifer tale is particularly interesting, a story of Nemi's childhood and of learning to be proud of her individuality. Under lesser hands this could have been sickeningly cute, but Lise can be relied on to retain the right balance of pathos and biting humour, with an hilarious final panel for those who have been paying attention.

There are also a selection of full page illustrations spread throughout the book, which originally appeared as covers for the Nemi monthly. Nicely composed designs that would look great on a wall, and in fact in Norway they appear as pages in the Nemi Calendars.

The cover to the book itself is taken from a Norwegian Nemi Christmas album from 2002. For some reason the colour scheme has been changed from the original, and I have to say I prefer the more festive red and green of the Norwegian version (below).

With this third British volume, Nemi seems to be an established part of our Christmas books line up as much as she is in her native country. This doesn't surprise me, as I always felt the themes in the strip were universal enough to work anywhere. If you're a follower of Nemi from the UK Metro newspaper you'll enjoy this book, and if you're new to the strip, give it a go. Without wishing to sound pompous, it's a modern strip for modern times. When this celebrity-obsessed, brand-brainwashed, go-with-the-flow society of ours gets too oppressive, Nemi cuts through it like a knife. Best of all, it's funny.

Forbidden Planet currently have copies signed by Lise Myhre for sale from their online store HERE for just £7.99.

Below: Lise looking very glamourous at the launch party for last year's Nemi book at the Norwegian Embassy. Read about it here.

Doctor Who bonanza from Panini

2009-10-13T15:30:00.001+01:00

News of three new Doctor Who publications from Panini UK:

First up, rapidly approaching its 30th Anniversary, Doctor Who Magazine No.414 is out this Thursday. Unusually for DWM, the issue is bagged (see above) with a free gift: four packets of the new Doctor Who Alien Armies cards (25 cards in total, including a limited edition one exclusive to DWM). The 68 page issue also features a wealth of interviews and features plus part one of a new comic strip Ghosts of the Northern Line. Here's the actual cover, unbagged:

Comic strips featuring the 10th Doctor from recent issues have been collected in a few graphic novels, the latest of which is Doctor Who: The Widow's Curse, which collects nine stories:
THE WOMAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD
BUS STOP!
THE FIRST
SUN SCREEN
DEATH TO THE DOCTOR!
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS
THE WIDOW’S CURSE
THE IMMORTAL EMPEROR
THE TIME OF MY LIFE!

As a bonus, the book contains a bumper commentary section where the writers, artists and editors reveal the stories behind the strips, featuring never-before-published sketches, unused and deleted scenes, original story outlines and more. Available now from all good bookshops priced £15.99 or from Amazon currently at £11.19.

Also available now, from newsagents and comic shops, priced £5.99, is the Autumn Doctor Who Special Edition, Doctor Who Magazine Special 23: Sarah Jane Smith. No comic strips in this one unfortunately but for fans of the series DWM takes you behind the scenes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, with an in-depth episode guide, including original storyline ideas, deleted scenes, and hundreds of facts – all illustrated with never-before-seen photographs. Plus an extensive brand new interview with Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith. (A new series of the Sarah Jane Adventures starts this Thursday on BBC1.) On sale now, priced £5.99.

Thanks to DWM editor Tom Spilsbury at Panini UK for permission to run the images.

Next year, Doctor Who gets a complete facelift; new Doctor (Matt Smith), new companion (Karen Gillan), new/retro TARDIS (based on the exterior design of the original Hartnell one), and a brand new logo. Expect to see this logo on all new Doctor Who merchandise in 2010, including Doctor Who Magazine. Click the video below for a preview...

Four more Commando issues out now

2009-10-12T00:39:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Callum Laird at D.C. Thomson, here's the details of the four issues of the war comic digest Commando that are in the shops now...

Commando No 4235: Desert Despatches

Thought you’d heard the last of Fred ‘Ferret’ McGlone, Harry Hornby and Digby Bolton? They were the Trident newspaper’s finest war reporters in a bygone era. But Ferret still has a few tall tales to tell — and they’re all true, of course…
Like the time the intrepid newsmen went to cover the war in the Sudan, and Digby had swapped his sketch pad and pencils for a new-fangled movie camera.
Get ready to read their DESERT DESPATCHES

Story: Norman Adams
Art: Keith Page

Commando No 4236: Need to Know

A crack British unit was on a secret mission in German-occupied Greece. This operation was top secret, NTK − Need To Know. Then disaster struck. The officer in charge was killed and the only other person who knew their objective lost his memory in the same attack.
With the enemy on their trail, the team had to complete their vital task, and fast. If only they could work out what it was…
We could tell you what it was but, yes, you’ve guessed, the details are strictly NEED TO KNOW!

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Ricardo Garijo
Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

Commando No 4237: OIL RIG RAIDERS

Out of the night they came − a gang of international terrorists intent on holding a whole North Sea oil rig and its crew to ransom.
But they were not to have everything their own way. A call for help had gone out. The Royal Marines were on their way!

Story: Mike Knowles
Art: Denis McLoughlin
Cover Art: Phil Gascoine

Commando No 4238: GRADY’S AIR FORCE

As he lumbered along in his ancient Tiger Moth biplane, Eddie Sampson couldn’t wait to join his old friend, Mick Grady, who now commanded the mercenary air force flying for the government side in a bitter African civil war.
It was hard to believe that this wild, reckless Irishman could be in charge of anything. But Eddie soon had other things to worry about when a salvo of tracers suddenly streamed past him − fired by six rebel jets that were closing in fast…

Story: Ian Clark
Art: Gordon C Livingstone
Cover Art: Gordon C Livingstone

40 Year Flashback: WHIZZER AND CHIPS No.1

2009-10-11T00:01:00.001+01:00

Four decades ago today, on Saturday 11th October 1969, IPC Magazines launched the first of many humour titles that would propel them to the top of the British comics industry. Whizzer and Chips No.1 arrived boasting the unique selling point of it being "Two comics for only 6d", - 16 page Chips comic was inside 16 page Whizzer.

As with most comics of the period, Whizzer and Chips No.1 was promoted on television with short, snappy ten second advertisements and within other comics (such as Smash!) with four page pull-out ads on salmon-pink paper...

In reality, Whizzer and Chips was only ever one comic of course, and, within the walls of IPC, was regarded as such by its editor Bob Paynter. At the time D.C. Thomson's Dandy and Beano each had 16 pages for 4d and IPC knew they couldn't compete on that level, so the illusion of two comics for 6d worked, as Whizzer and Chips seemed better value for money as "two" comics than it would have as one.

Being a rival to Dandy and Beano was obviously the intention, and IPC's clever "two-in-one" marketing technique ensured the success of the comic right from the outset. A comic cannot survive on a gimmick alone of course, and fortunately Whizzer and Chips also had a strong content. Many of the humour strips were created by relatively new cartoonist Terry Bave and his wife Sheila who provided the scripts. Bave had learned his craft freelancing for Odhams on strips such as Sammy Shrink and Baby Smasher. For the early issues of Whizzer and Chips he provided no less than seven pages! One of the most popular, Me and My Shadow, a simple but imaginative concept, can be seen here...

Other artists who had freelanced for Odhams also appeared in IPC's new venture. Mike Lacey kicked off with Odd-Ball (which would run for many years by various artists) and Sid's Snake, but the superb Graham Allen was wasted on the limited strip Give A Dog A Bone (a dog tries to hide his bone every week with not-quite-hilarious consequences), and Mike Higgs felt the talents he'd developed on The Cloak were restrained when he was given the more pedestrian Space School to illustrate. Nevertheless, Mike still turned in a great job...

Adventure strips also appeared in the early issues of Whizzer and Chips, albeit fairly lighthearted ones compared to the sort of material that Valiant featured.

Kings of the Castle was a ho-hum strip about the working-class King family inheriting a castle, The Space Accident was a science fiction strip drawn by Ron Turner, The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk was about a kid with magic glasses, but the standout strip for me was The Stealer, nicely illustrated by Tom Kerr...

The most distinctive humour pages in the comic were written and drawn by veteran comic artist and comic historian Denis Gifford who presented us with Koo-Koo Klub and a revival of his 1950s Knockout character Steadfast McStaunch. Every week Gifford devised puzzles that McStaunch would need the reader to solve, - a great interactive idea. Whist Gifford is remembered as the author of many books on comics (who also devised tv and radio shows) his inventive comic style has now mainly been forgotten which is a great shame. Here's the first 1969 Steadfast McStaunch, completely written, drawn, and lettered by Denis...

Another gimmick that Whizzer and Chips was renowned for was the "rivalry" between the two comics, where characters from one comic would "raid" the other, - and the readers would have to spot them in backgrounds. That didn't kick off until issue two, however Chips No.1 cover-starred Sid's Snake - the characters that from No.2 would be the cover stars and mascots of Whizzer. The famous cover star of Chips, accident-prone Shiner, didn't appear until the second issue.

Right from the outset Whizzer and Chips looked slicker, stronger, and better designed than its Odhams predecessors Wham!, Smash!, and Pow! had been. Personally, as a ten year old reading it back then, I found it entertaining but not as irreverent or, well, funny, as the Odhams weeklies had been. The hallmark of IPC's humour comics was "safe" comedy, and Bob Paynter would always encourage creators to be "careful", fearing backlash from parents and retailers.

That said, a few hundreds thousands kids obviously enjoyed Whizzer and Chips immensely, given its long run. Even though I never found Harry's Haunted House anywhere near as entertaining as The Nervs, I still stuck with the comic until my early teens, - mainly due to the solid storytelling and artwork. The popularity of Whizzer and Chips led to the launch of Cor!! in 1970, and many other similar titles such as Whoopee!, Shiver & Shake, Monster Fun, Jackpot, and others which enjoyed varying degrees of success. Even Fleetway's Buster was gradually revamped into an all-humour title to fit within the IPC humour group.

IPC attempted the "two-in-one" gimmick again in the early 1970s with football weekly Score 'n' Roar and humour comic Shiver and Shake. Neither were very successful, proving that innovation is better than imitation. (My theories on Score 'n' Roar's failure can be read here.)

Forty years ago I remember a schoolmate of mine, Grant Hicks, running around the playground of our junior school with Whizzer and Chips No.1, ecstatic that he'd got "Two comics for the price of one". IPC's gimmick had paid off, and continued to do so for that title for many years.

Companion comics which fell by the wayside, such as Knockout and Whoopee! were merged into the seemingly invincible Whizzer and Chips. Eventually the two-in-one comic's luck ran out. Whizzer and Chips folded in 1990, by which time a drop in sales and budget cuts meant that it contained a lot of reprint and had reduced its total page count from 32 pages to 24, phasing out the Chips insert. Yes, in the end Whizzer and Chips merged into itself, before being swallowed up by the long-running Buster.

Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic No.1

2009-10-10T12:35:00.002+01:00

Weird! Eerie! Authentic! Dodgem Logic, the latest idea from the mind of Alan Moore, is "the 21st Century's first underground magazine from his home town of Northampton" which will be published every two months by Knockabout. The internet is already buzzing over this new mag and the official press release can be read over on the Moore & Reppion website (that's the site of Alan's daughter Leah and her husband John, both writers in their own right)....

http://www.moorereppion.com/announcing-alan-moores-dodgem-logic/02/10/2009/

Dave Gibbons interviewed

2009-10-09T15:15:00.001+01:00

Here's a blast from the past I dug out recently: an early Dave Gibbons illustration for Nick Landau's 1974 fanzine Comic Media No.11. Although Dave's work would soon become more polished, it's still a very striking image. Interestingly, inside the mag, Nick's editorial mentions that Dave was moving onto professional work so effectively this was his last work purely as a fan. (And this issue was the first fanzine I ever bought, - ordered via an ad in the Marvel UK weeklies.)

Speaking of the talented Mr.Gibbons leads me onto the main news item of this post which is that a long and fascinating interview with Dave about his many accomplishments (including his early days) can now be read online at:
http://sardinianconnection.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-gibbons-interview-1.html

and part 2 at:
http://sardinianconnection.blogspot.com/2009/10/dave-gibbons-interview-2.html

The interview was conducted with smoky man and Antonio Solinas for an Italian book published in 2008 and covers Dave's entire career to date.

Before I go, here's another rare piece from that same 1974 issue of Comic Media, - a humourous ad by Dave for Martin's Bookshop. A quick Google search found the address is now a Ben Pentreath Boutique. How times change...

The Best of Battle is here!

2009-10-07T00:06:00.001+01:00

Titan Books' long-delayed The Best of Battle has finally been published and, to coin a cliché, has been worth the wait. A chunky 288 page collection of strips from the long-running Battle Picture Weekly comic of the 1970s (then published by IPC, but now owned by Egmont) which features artwork by some of the industry greats.

Inspired by D.C. Thomson's Warlord comic, Battle (as it became known) was a far tougher comic than most of its predecessors at IPC (such as Jet and Thunder). Whilst these stories still stray into the cringe worthy "Achtung Englander" type territory, and D-Day Dawson's exploits are somewhat far fetched, they also offer a grittier portrayal of warfare than had been seen in other comics of the period.

The book reprints a selection of stories from 18 different strips, ranging from the obvious choices (Charley's War, Johnny Red) to the more obscure (Panzer G-Man, Crazy Keller). Each strip is fronted by bonus material, - brief background notes on the characters and anecdotes from people who worked on the comic such as Pat Mills and Dave Hunt.

There are a few little mistakes in the book. At one point Mike Western is referred to as Chris Western (mixing him up with modern artist Chris Weston), and the D-Day Dawson art is solely credited to Colin Page when most of the selection features Geoff Campion art. It's also a bit strange that whilst we're told that Hold Hill 109 was a complete mini-serial in just six episodes the book stops short at chapter four. However, these are minor niggles and not something that should deter buyers.

Titan have wisely presented the book in a cheap softback value-for-money format for a R.R.P. of £9.99 rather than the hardback slick format of their Steel Claw and Spider volumes. Nevertheless, reproduction is first rate, with solid black inks and good clear linework.

The back of the book offers a welcome surprise for fans of the genre: "coming soon" from Titan Books will be individual solo collections for Johnny Red, Darkie's Mob, Rat Pack, and Major Eazy.

The Best of Battle is a superb collection of some of the finest UK adventure strips of the 1970s. With artwork by Joe Colquhoun, Geoff Campion, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike Western, Eric Bradbury and more it's a perfect example of a solid era of British comics. Copies are available from the Forbidden Planet website at a discount and you can order your edition here:
http://forbiddenplanet.com/37606-best-of-battle-volume-1/?affid=stringer1959

Misty returns - twice!

2009-10-06T00:59:00.003+01:00

Not only is the classic British girls' comic Misty back on the shelves as the latest Egmont Classic Comic it's also soon to return as an all-new one-off Halloween special! (See the cover by SMS above.)

Egmont UK launched the Misty edition (shown below), on September 16th, and it is exclusively sold in WH Smith. Its 52 pages reprint various complete mystery stories from the old weekly with artwork by John Richardson, Jesus Redondo, and others. It's available until 8th December, priced £3.99, when it will be replaced on the shelves with the fourth Egmont Classic Comic, Buster.

The other Misty special (shown at the top of this blog entry) is scheduled for later this month. This one will not be published by Egmont, but is produced with their permission. The 80 page edition will feature a selection of brand new complete stories by today's creators including John Freeman, Vicky Stonebridge, Briony Coote and Terry Wiley. It will also feature art by David Roach and an interview with Moonchild artist John Armstrong. A Bella poster by John Armstrong will be free inside.

Unlike the Egmont Classic Comics Misty special, the new Misty comic special will not be available in newsagents but you can order your copy from the publisher, priced £9.99, at the mistycomic.co.uk fan site:
http://mistycomic.co.uk/Mistycomic_Special_2009.html

A few photos from BICS 2009

2009-10-05T23:04:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed the British International Comics Show at Millennium Point (above) in Birmingham over the weekend. Company was good and weather was quite pleasant for October. I didn't have the chance to attend the panel discussions as I was busy on Egmont's Toxic table all weekend, so bearing that in mind, this isn't a review of the event, just a few photos inside the exhibitors' halls. That said, I didn't hear any bad things about the show, and there were a good variety of items on the bill so it seems to me that everyone had a fun weekend.

Here's the photos then, with captions underneath....

On the Toxic Table; Andy Davidson (editor) and Luke Paton (sub-editor / writer). Laura Howell and I joined them for a sketching session over the weekend which proved quite successful as numerous readers dropped by for a sketch. Good to meet the readers (two of whom are in the photo) and find that today's kids are still enthusiastic about comics.

Above left: John Short, writer of Rex and Robin Hoodie for Toxic.
Above right: Andy Dodd, caricaturist and artist of various projects for Time Bomb Comics.

Vincent Danks and Roger Gibson presenting their regularly published ongoing British crime comic Harker. Website: http://www.arielpress.com/index.html

Creator of The Cloak and Moonbird, Mike Higgs displays his latest work: a huge 464 page hardback collection of classic British superhero strips from the 1950s! Great British Fantasy Comic Book Heroes is a very limited collectors' edition that you can purchase by reading the details on the flyer reproduced below:

Above left: Nigel Dobbyn, artist on such varied comics as Sonic the Comic, The Beano, 2000AD and Spider-Man and Friends sketches for the readers. Fans of his version of Billy the Cat will be pleased to hear that he's produced another strip featuring the superhero for the Beano Annual 2011, on sale in September 2010.
Above right: Writer Ben McCool makes a welcome return to British shores for BICS before returning to his New York home.

Bryan Talbot was busy all weekend signing copies of his new graphic novel Grandville. More info and details of the other dates on Bryan's signing tour here:
http://www.bryan-talbot.com/grandville/index.php#grandvilletourdates

Wil Overton shows off a great new UK comic that he and his associates have produced: Smart Bomb! I'll be reviewing it here soon. Wil also runs dinkybox.co.uk a great online store that, amongst other things, sells art supplies that are ideal for comic artists, including the Deleter G Pen nib like wot I use.

Graham Pearce with his ongoing small press comic Sgt. Mike Battle. This is a very funny humour comic that I recommend everyone should buy. I'll be reviewing the recent issues here soon (honest Graham!). http://www.sgtmikebattle.co.uk/

Sitting beside Graham is freelance artist Vicky Stonebridge who co-organises the Hi-Ex comic event in Inverness.

Mike Collins spent a busy weekend sketching for fans, including some great illustrations of the new Doctor Who! See Mike's work soon in Panini UK's all-new G.I. Joe monthly comic.

Finally, a few quick snaps taken around the halls during the weekend...

Thanks to James Hodgkins and Shane Chebsey for another enjoyable comics show. You do the industry proud, lads, and your hard work is always appreciated.
http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk/

The Misadventures of Jane

2009-09-28T13:30:00.005+01:00

Picked this up from Forbidden Planet the other day; the latest release from Titan Books, - and what a classy book it is. The Misadventures of Jane is a quality hardback, with dust jacket, presenting classic strips from World War 2 and additional features not seen for over 60 years.

As every schoolboy (over the age of 70) knows, Jane was the Daily Mirror's popular cheesecake serial strip written by J.H.G. ("Don") Freeman and illustrated by Norman Pett. Jane's misadventures, which inevitably led to her being in a state of undress or nudity, seem very tame and quite refined today, but in the 1940s were considered to be quite racy. Yet even back then I understand the strip was taken in good humour by all, which of course was its intention.

The book contains two long black and white complete serials: N.A.A.F.I. Say Die! and Behind the Front from the war years plus a great selection of bonus features from Jane's Journal which have never been reprinted before. These include pin up art and an eight page full colour adventure. There are also rare photographs of artist Norman Pett at work with his model Chrystabel Leighton-Porter.

The black and white strips were previously reprinted in the softback Jane At War many years ago, but this time the strips are printed on far better paper with better reproduction.

Edited by David Leach, The Misadventures of Jane is another top quality book from Titan that is sure to appeal to aficionados of newspaper strips, glamour art and wartime memorabilia. At the height of the strip's popularity it was read by four million people a day! At the R.R.P. of £12.99 it's well worth the money, and Forbidden Planet are currently selling it even cheaper at an excellent discount on their online shop HERE.

The new Viz Annual for 2010

2009-09-25T22:00:00.001+01:00

The latest Viz Annual has just been published and once again is a chunky 160 page hardback similar to the British annuals of yesteryear. Viz: The Council Gritter is a collection of strips and features from issues 162 to 171 of the regular monthly, with its non-stop adult comedy showing why Viz is still the UK's best selling original comic.

With its format spoofing the 1950s style of 20 panels a page, the book is packed with strips including The Fat Slags, Roger Mellie, 8 Ace, Suicidal Syd, Major Misunderstanding, and many more including the hilarious Black Bob spoof Black Bag, The Faithful Border Binliner.

Parodies of redtop newspaper stories are also included, as are the hilarious "reader's letters" and spoofs of Miriam Stoppard's agony column.

Contributors include Simon Thorp, Davey Jones, Graham Dury, Alex Coller, Simon Ecob, Cat Sullivan, Paul Palmer, Christina Martin, James MacDougall and many others.

Viz: The Council Gritter has a R.R.P. of £10.99 but is currently available from Amazon at £6.04.

Four new Commando comics out tomorrow

2009-09-23T12:09:00.003+01:00

News just in: here are the covers and plot details of the four issues of Commando in shops tomorrow, and on sale until 7th October, priced £1.30 each. Thanks to Commando editor Callum Laird at D.C. Thomson for the info...

Commando No 4231: THE KING’S COSSACK

Charging across the Russian steppes with sword in hand, Major Jack Faraday was in his natural element, eager to get to grips with the enemy. But how did a British army officer come to be leading a wild Cossack squadron anyway?
Jack’s companion, Trooper Tom Tuttle, was wondering the same thing himself as he clung desperately to his saddle, too busy trying not to fall off to worry about such details as shrapnel and flying bullets!

Story: Alan Hemus
Art: Janek Matysiak
Cover: janek Matysiak

Commando No 4232: R.A.F. COMMANDO!

The wartime exploits of Britain’s Royal Marine and Army Commandos are world-famous, but the Royal Air Force had their Commando units too. These were the RAF Servicing Commandos, a highly-trained elite who served on recently-captured airfields, readying aircraft for battle, often under enemy fire…and sometimes having to fend off counter-attacks from those determined to get their old airstrips back!

Story: Ian Clark
Art: Gordon Livingstone
Cover: Gordon Livingstone

Commando 4233: MESSERSCHMITT STORM

In July 1939, RAF Flight Lieutenant Mike Storm was posted to Yugoslavia to instruct that country’s pilots to fly Hurricane fighters. He soon clashed with a Luftwaffe rival, Hauptmann Konrad Schwarz, an expert but ruthless Messerschmitt Bf109 pilot.
Years later, with World War Two raging, their paths would cross again. This time Mike somehow found himself flying Yugoslav 109s against their German counterparts.
The skies soon erupted in a MESSERSCHMITT STORM

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: José Maria Jorge
Cover: José Maria Jorge

Commando 4234: OPERATION STEAMBOAT

Burma 1945. First Lieutenant Jack Hibbert had a reputation for being unorthodox, much to the annoyance of his superiors.
However, when a strategically important bridge must be secured, Jack is the one who gets the job. Will he play by the rules this time? It doesn’t look like it when he commandeers an ancient paddle steamer to embark on
OPERATION STEAMBOAT

Story: Ferg Handley
Art: Olivera
Cover: Ian Kennedy

Visit the Commando website to subscribe: http://www.commandomag.com/

Toxic comes to BICS

2009-09-23T10:25:00.004+01:00

Toxic, Egmont's popular long-running comic-mag for boys, will be exhibiting at this year's British International Comic Show at the ThinkTank, Millennium Point in Birmingham on October 3rd/4th.

Toxic will have a table at the show, and visitors will be able to meet editors and artists/writers on the comic including Robin Hoodie artist Laura Howell, editor Andy Davidson, sub-editor (and small press writer/artist) Luke Paton, and myself at various times over the weekend, chatting and sketching.

For more details of the show (and the many more guests and events that will be featured there) visit the website at:
http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk/

Meanwhile the latest issue of Toxic is out today with a load of free gifts....

...and features Team Toxic facing the threat of the SOCK HORROR...

On sale now at all good, bad, and average, newsagents, supermarkets etc.
Official Toxic website:
http://www.toxicmag.co.uk/

Comics on newsreels of the past

2009-09-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

Realising that the old Pathé newsreels were now available online, I thought I'd have a quick search to see if they ever ran items on comics, - and indeed they did!

In the days before most people had television (and even before the invention of tv) the short weekly newsreels from British Pathé, shown before a film at the cinema, were the only way for the public to see news footage. Often the items included lighthearted subjects, just as the tv news does today, to lift the spirits of the viewers.

There are some brilliant finds on the Pathé news website http://www.britishpathe.com/ including several items on comics and associated media. Here's a few of the fascinating items I found. Click on the text links after each picture to visit the site and view the actual footage....

From 1937, an enthusiast who pre-dates fandom! Music hall comedian Barry Ono talks about his passion for collecting Victorian Penny Dreadfuls. Ono knows his stuff, his theatrical experience making him a good speaker, and it's a pity the footage isn't much longer as I'm sure his full lecture was fascinating. (Someone invent a time machine and invite this bloke to the next comic con.) He would eventually bequeath his large collection to the British Museum.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=36630

1943: Daily Mirror cartoonist Norman Pett talking about his work as he draws the latest Jane comic strip.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=38352

1946: Frank Richards, creator of Billy Bunter, at home in his study.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=46471

1955: End of the four-month national press strike, with some nice footage of newsagents shops of the period (no untidy bagged comics back then).
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=39246

1956: Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson at home working on the latest Eagle strip, with the family and friends he used as models for his work.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=556

1968: The Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Tate gallery, and how comics appealed to the whole family.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45036

45 Year Flashback: WHAM! No.15

2009-09-21T16:40:00.002+01:00

On this day in 1964 thousands of kids received a free "WHAM-pire Bat" in their copy of Wham! comic No.15. The weekly had only been launched by Odhams a few months earlier, and free gifts were a rarity in those days, so did this boom issue signal that Wham! had perhaps not performed as well as expected?

Whatever the case, Wham! would of course survive for another few years, until early 1968 when it merged into Pow!. By that time it wasn't as vibrant as it was at its launch, but this particular issue we're looking at represented Wham! in its prime.

When Leo Baxendale left D.C. Thomson to create a new comic for Odhams he had envisioned a 16 page "Super-Beano" featuring artists such as himself, Ken Reid, Davy Law, and Paddy Brennan. What actually emerged was a 24 page comic with only Baxendale and Reid leaving Thomsons to work on it, along with numerous new artists such as Gordon Hogg and Graham Allen. Nevertheless, the result was spectacular!

This issue of Wham! shows the comic in its typical robust style. The cover strip Biff (often by Baxendale but this time by Graham Allen) is a harder-edged precursor to Shiner who would appear in Whizzer and Chips five years on. The premise of Biff is simply a boy who always gets into fights, and back then a "fight" meant a punch on the hooter rather than the knife-wielding, ear biting thuggery in today's schools. Even so, it's hard to imagine today's comics relishing in such amoral comedy violence. That's what made Wham! so effective; it was irresponsible and it didn't care, - and funny with it.

Inside, Leo Baxendale's Eagle Eye, Junior Spy was a riot of busy slapstick adventure. Fourteen panels crammed into one page, but then look at page two, - a huge full page panel to show the impact of the explosion triggered by baddie (today we'd call him a terrorist) Grimly Feendish, - a mushroom cloud of "ten million tons of smelly, slimy swamp and assorted things". Baxendale's doing something revolutionary here. Full page panels were common for stand alone sets such as The Banana Bunch in Beezer, or occasionally in annuals, but unheard of as part of a humour story in a weekly.

Over the page, a more suburban strip: The Wacks. Gordon Hogg drawing this fun attempt to cash in on the moptop craze of the year. Opposite, the regular Wham! pop page which The Wacks always hosted, this week featuring The Honeycombs.

Kelpie the Boy Wizard came next, adding variety to the comic with a fantasy serial nicely illustrated by John Burns, (who is still working today, often drawing Nikolai Dante for 2000AD).

Next up was The Tiddlers, back in the days before they became a Bash Street clone when they had a teacher who was as irreverent as them. Here we see the Headmaster of Canal Road School preparing to face the anarchic kids by having an Aspirin sandwich...

An Aspirin sandwich?!? Yes, another example of how reckless the comic was, but I never heard of anyone stupid enough to imitate it, or complaining about it. It was just funny.

A few pages on, the centrespread, featuring at this point in time General Nitt and his Barmy Army. Another strip originated by Baxendale but here ghosted by Graham Allen. Leo was producing a huge amount of pages for Wham! but obviously couldn't draw the whole comic, so "ghosts" were brought in to help out. Graham Allen would prove to be the best of these, soon developing his own distinctive style and becoming one of the UK's top humour artists on later strips such as Tuffy McGrew for Pow! and King Kat for the Daily Star.

Danny Dare - He's Dan Dare's Number One Fan featured on pages 14 and 15 of this issue. A fairly dull strip but notable because the Dan Dare sequences of Danny's imagination were initially drawn by Dan Dare artists of the day. In this case it looks like the work of Don Harley. Not sure who drew the humour sequences, (Artie Jackson perhaps?) but definitely not Baxendale.

Brian Lewis, a fantastic artist who died far too young, ghosted Baxendale on The Pest of the West on page 17, displaying a drawing skill far beyond that of most ghost artists. Fortunately Brian was allowed to develop his own humour style, and of course he was also a highly accomplished adventure artist.

The jewel in the crown was in these early issues found near the back of the comic: Frankie Stein drawn by Ken Reid, surely the greatest humour artist of British comics? At this time Frankie Stein was a serial, and the title character only appears briefly in this episode, but look how Ken builds up the comedy with the two kids Cyril and 'Arry. Both characters are created just for this episode, but Ken manages to give them personality, building up Cyril's confidence until it's shattered in the final panel by the emergence of Frankie.

Notice also how wordy the Frankie Stein pages are compared to comics of today. Yet such verbosity helped to develop the comedy, and the dialogue itself is so natural.

At the back of the comic: Georgie's Germs, drawn by Leo Baxendale, although usually by ghost artists. (A simple way to determine if Leo drew the strips in Wham! is that he usually signed his pages.) This inventive strip was like a grimier version of The Numskulls, although recent years have now seen that strip use "gross" humour.

On the back page was Footsie the Clown; a rather tame strip compared to much of the interior material. Another Baxendale ghost artist at work here, but I'm not sure who. Footsie would later move to the inside, replaced by the caveboy Glugg, a more bouncy strip.

All in all, Wham! was a great comic in this, its first year. Its intention was to compete directly with The Beano; although with Wham! being twice the price that probably put paid to that. Even so, Wham! was definitely more modern and energetic than its rivals of the time, and felt exciting and fresh to read, - and very 1960s.

New Spaceship Away out soon!

2009-09-21T11:52:00.002+01:00

As reported here last month, the classic Daily Mirror newspaper strip Garth is to be reprinted in the next issue of Spaceship Away. Drawn by Frank Bellamy and in colour for the first time thanks to John Ridgway, Garth will be a welcome addition to the line up of strips which include Nick Hazard and Jet Morgan reprints alongside brand new Dan Dare strips.

Visit http://spaceshipaway.org.uk to order your copy now!

This weekend in The Guardian / The Observer

2009-09-17T21:33:00.002+01:00

As their week-long series of classic comics freebies draws to a close tomorrow with a reprint of a Seventies issue of Whizzer and Chips, both The Guardian and The Observer prepare to launch their next giveaways. Not comics, but they may interest budding artists. More info from Press Officer Hayley Dunlop....

The Guardian and Observer Guides to Drawing and Painting - free with the Guardian on Saturday (19 September) and The Observer on Sunday, are produced in collaboration with the Slade School of Art and the University of Gloucestershire. The guides will prove to be a useful starting point for anyone interested in learning how to draw (including the comic artists of the future!) or wanting to 'brush-up' (*groan*) on their existing skills. More details at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/competition/2009/sep/11/art

And here's a nice write-up of the drawing guide from the University of Gloucestershire:

http://www.glos.ac.uk/pressreleases/Pages/guardian.aspx

Commando marches on

2009-09-14T17:33:00.002+01:00

The latest issues of D.C. Thomson's long-running war and adventure comic Commando are in the shops now. Launched in 1961 the digest-sized comic is still in exactly the same format as it was when it began, (64 black and white pages) and even uses the same logo it's had since issue No.1. The only surviving British comic of all the many titles that were launched in the Sixties, Commando's resistance to new fads and formats is undoubtedly part of its appeal.

Publishing eight issues a month, in sets of four issues every two weeks, the current issues on sale until September 24th are as follows....

Commando 4227 THE BLACK EAGLE

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire…
After surviving the ferocious battles of civil war that gripped Britain in the mid-17th Century, young Scots Tam Nicol and Jock Mackie ended up unwilling crewmen on a buccaneer ship in the Caribbean.
Now, come hell or high water, they have to endure the dangers of life aboard The Black Eagle!

Commando 4228 NORWEGIAN NIGHTMARE

When the Germans rolled into Norway in 1940, they expected some resistance. Resistance they confidently expected to crush.
At first all seemed to go according to plan — a number of Norwegians even welcomed the new rulers of the country.
Not all, though. One man in particular was determined to make the Nazis’ stay a Norwegian Nightmare

Commando 4229 SHOCK FORCE SHOWDOWN: YURI’S REVENGE

Yuri Murayev − ex-soviet Spetsnaz, ex-SAS advisor − had settled in the West, trying to put his past well behind him. But there’s always one last enemy for a hard case like Yuri to tackle!

Commando No 4230 FOUR VOLUNTEERS

The first rule of any army is − “Never volunteer for nuthin’!” Yet here were four normally sane British soldiers stepping forward to take part in a very deadly mission.
Each of the four had his own personal reason for his action… and each would find his decision tested to the full in the desperate days which lay ahead.

Thanks to Commando editor Callum Laird for the information.

Guardian comic reprints exceed expectations

2009-09-13T14:55:00.004+01:00

The series of classic UK comic reprints that began in The Guardian yesterday have proven to be better reproductions than anticipated. In fact they're pretty close to being exact facsimiles.

Yesterday saw the first comic giveaway, a copy of Jackie from 1975; all 36 pages reprinted on glossy stock similar to the original. Today, The Observer gives away a reprint of The Beano No.2000 from 1980.

Comparing the reprinted Beano beside the original there are few differences between them. The paper stock on the reprint is slightly better than the 1980 version and the comic is stapled rather than glued (as old D.C. Thomson comics were), but otherwise it's pretty close. The reprint has been scanned from the original comic so this has meant a slight difference in the shade of blue, and a few other minor variations, but it's a great restoration job and a fine facsimile.

Beano No.2000 is a good choice of reprint too, considering issue 3500 is in the shops right now. The differences 1,500 issues on are quite considerable. Today's Beano is full colour, has almost twice as many pages and is glossy, - and costs £1.25 compared to its 8p counterpart in 1980.

This is a great start to The Guardian's classic comics series and things look promising for the week ahead where collectible items will include the Bunty Summer Special from 1972 and the first issue of Tammy.

Above image taken from The Guardian website, showing the rare Tammy No.1 that will be free in The Guardian on Thursday.

Yesterday saw The Guardian's Guide supplement run an article on that era of UK comics. Unfortunately I was misquoted as saying of British humour comics: "It's a genre that doesn't exist any more" when in fact I was only referring to a style of comic of the 1950s that Viz spoofs. Of course the genre itself still exists, - I make my living out of it! Newspapers eh?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/12/esoteric-brit-comics-pat-mills