Cover Preview: MASTERS OF BRITISH COMIC ART

Here's news of a book that I'm sure will be appreciated by fans of British comics. Masters of British Comic Art will weigh in at over 300 pages and will be published by Rebellion next April. Written by artist and historian David Roach it features over 400 scans shot from original artwork and includes notable UK comic artists such as Reg Bunn, Dave Gibbons, Dudley Watkins, Frank Bellamy, Yvonne Hutton, Tom Browne, Roy Wilson, Hunt Emerson, Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, Bob Dewar and many, many more, with a cover by Brian Bolland! "Well over 100 artists" said David Roach, "and is as complete a history of British comics and artists as I could put together". 

Sounds like a must-buy! You can pre-order it from Amazon now:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Masters-British-Comics-David-Roach/dp/1781087598/

Wizard work by Bolland, Gibbons, and Ezquerra

Before 2000AD exploded onto the scene, some of its greatest artists had drawn strips for rival publisher D.C. Thomson. I showed The Year of the Shark Men on this blog in a previous post (see here) and today I'd like to show a few more forgotten treasures.

All of these strips are from The Wizard in 1976. Simon Gaunt was the fictional narrator of short, self-contained supernatural stories that were mainly used as filler material in the comic. Useful, therefore, to give work to the newer generation of artists such as Carlos Ezquerra, Dave Gibbons, and Brian Bolland. Their distinctive styles and talent were evident even then, and it was inevitable they'd become three of the top comics artists in the industry. 

Click on the pages to see them much larger. 

Who Killed Kane? drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, from Wizard dated January 31st, 1976...

Eye of the Tiger drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, from Wizard dated February 14th 1976...

The Black Monk, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, from Wizard dated April 3rd, 1976...

The Black Horse of Vengeance, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, from Wizard dated May 22nd, 1976...

The Deathless Army, drawn by Dave Gibbons, from Wizard dated August 14th, 1976...

The Last Torpedo, drawn by Dave Gibbons, from Wizard dated August 28th, 1976...

The Box, drawn by Brian Bolland, from Wizard dated September 25, 1976...

Roundhead's Revenge, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, from Wizard dated November 13th, 1976...

Carlos Ezquerra also drew a serial called Chained to his Sword during this period too, and I'll show some examples of that in a future post.

New edition of The Cursed Earth!

Here's Mick McMahon's fantastic cover art for the trade paperback edition of Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored, to be published by Rebellion in December, priced £19.99. It reprints the first long Dredd mega-epic which appeared in 2000AD in 1978. Previous reprints had excluded some chapters because they satirised brands such as McDonalds and Green Giant, but now the story is represented in its complete form.

The hardback version, which was published in July and sold out, had a cover by Brian Bolland (see below). 

This week in 1978: STARLORD No.1

Saturday 6th May 1978 saw the publication of IPC's new sci-fi weekly Starlord in newsagents across the UK. The new comic was a companion to 2000AD and was originally planned as a monthly until IPC got cold feet, resulting in some quick changes before launching as a weekly. 

As one IPC editor told me a few years later, monthly comics were considered too risky back then. The concern was that the young target audience who were accustomed to weekly comics would either forget which week a monthly would come out, or even lose interest during the four week wait for the next issue. Of course that attitude changed over the years as UK publishers had to rethink the frequency of their comics in the wake of ever decreasing sales to give them a longer shelf life. These days a monthly frequency is the norm, with weeklies being the oddities.

Anyway, back to Starlord No.1. The 32 page comic was on slicker paper than its sister title 2000AD and boasted more colour and better printing. It was also a few pence more expensive at 12p an issue. What it had in common with 2000AD was its presentation of stories in a dynamic and hyperactive fashion. For example, upon opening issue 1, the reader was immediately plunged into the relentlessly fast-paced Planet of the Damned by 'R.E.Wright' (Pat Mills) and Lalia. Here's the first two pages of the six page first episode which used the then-popular story theme about the 'Bermuda Triangle'...

Next came the first chapter of Time Quake, written by Jack Adrian with fantastic artwork by Ian Kennedy. Here's the first three pages...

Next, time for a breather and for the comic's fictional editor Starlord to introduce himself with art by Ian Gibson and an editorial dripping with paranoia...

The facing page showed the six alternative free badges, one of which was randomly attached by tape to the cover. If the readers weren't already jittery from Starlord's warning of imminent alien invasion the advisory about sticking the badges onto flesh would have completely pushed them over the edge: "you could develop a skin disorder, putting you out of combat"! 

Here's one of those very badges, designed by Kevin O'Neill...

Across the centre pages, the first episode of Strontium Dog, by T.B. Grover (John Wagner) and Carlos Ezquerra. A popular character still around today in the pages of the latest 2000AD. Here's the first two pages...

Rounding off the issue was the longest story, Ro-Busters, running to 11 pages! This was one of the strips originally intended for the monthly, which accounted for its length. Subsequent chapters would be half the size.

Script by Pat Mills, artwork by Carlos Pino. The war robot Hammerstein still appears today in 2000AD's A.B.C. Warriors and Savage strips, with Pat Mills having connected several of his series into one universe. 

Starlord wasn't a big success for IPC and sadly ended after 22 weeks, merging into 2000AD. Apparently 2000AD's sales were not good either, but it's thought that Starlord was sacrificed because it was more expensive to produce. On a positive note, the merger did 2000AD a lot of good, bringing in Ro-Busters and Strontium Dog which strengthened the comic.

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While I'm at it, here are the covers to issues 2 and 3, plus the free gifts. No.2 was drawn by Brian Bolland, relating to the Time Quake story inside...

...and No.3 sported a fantastic cover by Kevin O'Neill...

The free gift in No.2 was the 'Space Calculator', a cardboard slide which gave information on the planets of our galaxy. No.3's freebie was a 'Starblast' game; a variation of 'Battleships', with a wipe-clean laminated card that could be re-used. 

For more information on the background of Starlord comic, check out the book Thrill-Power Overload by David Bishop and, if you can find a copy, the now-out-of-print Beyond 2000AD from Hibernia Comics.  

Jump onto 2000AD

The latest issue of 2000AD (out today) is another perfect 'jumping on point' for new and lapsed readers. The 36 page issue features the start of five new stories with the welcome return of some old favorites. 

Judge Dredd fronts the comic as usual and a new adventure Enceladus begins by Rob Williams and Henry Flint.

Celtic barbarian Slaine is back by Pat Mills and Simon Davis.

Grey Area returns by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison.

Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One returns for a second series by Arthur Wyatt and Jake Lynch.

Johnny Alpha, Strontium Dog is back by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Each strip has a 'Series Update' to fill in new readers on the premise and backstory.

All this under an excellent cover by Brian Bolland! You can't go wrong. Rush out to your newsagent with your £2.45 and buy 2000AD Prog 1924 now, Earthlets!

You can also buy the digital edition if you prefer. More info at the 2000AD website:
http://www.2000adonline.com/    

Fanzine cover collection

Comics fanzines are pretty much a thing of the past now, replaced by websites and blogs like this. That's fine for news, comment, and articles, but you can't beat a good fanzine cover. And the 1970s and early 1980s had some crackers. Many of us started out in fanzines and some pros were still happy to contribute the occasional cover when asked. Above is the cover to Fantasy Advertiser International No.55, April 1975. The images surrounding Stan Lee's grinning mug shot are by Bryan Talbot in his early days. 

Let's take a look at several more. Today, Graham Bleathman is renowned for his fantastic cutaway paintings of Gerry Anderson vehicles and suchlike, but back in 1978 he was making his debut with his self-published fanzine Magazine of Tomorrow. Graham's art improved rapidly in subsequent issues...

Comic Media News was edited by Richard Burton who'd later go on to be an editor at IPC/Fleetway/Egmont on comics from Tiger and 2000AD to Sonic the Comic. This cover to issue 29 (Jan-Feb 1977) is by Brian Bolland...

Comic Media News No.33 (Nov-Dec 1977) with a nice 'jam' cover by Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, and Mick McMahon...

Comic Media News No.34 (Jan-Feb 1978) with a wraparound cover by Mike Higgs...

Comic Media News No.38 (Oct-Nov 1978) with art by Garry Leach...

BEM (formerly Bemusing Magazine) was published my Martin Lock who later set up Harrier Comics. This cover to No.22 (January 1979) is by the ever-brilliant Hunt Emerson...

BEM No.23 (April 1979) cover by Brian Bolland...

BEM no.25 (September 1979) cover by Bryan Talbot...

BEM No.27 (March 1980) cover by Dave Gibbons showing a very 1970s Dez Skinn...

BEM No.28 (May 1980) another cover by Brian Bolland...

BEM No.29 (August 1980) cover by Mick McMahon...

BEM No.35 (Spring 1982) cover by Kevin O'Neill...

Masters of Infinity was a smart fanzine published my Mike Taylor. The cover to No.7 (1980) was by Mick McMahon...

Workin Klass Super Hero was an A4 stripzine published by Jolly Martian Productions. This is issue 1 from 1979. Its cover (and some content) was by Glenn Fabry...

Fusion was an A5 fanzine edited by Hugh Campbell. The cover to No.6 (June 1985) was drawn by Grant Morrison, better known today for his writing of course...

Last but not least, we'll end as we began with a Bryan Talbot cover. This one for Short Fuse No.2 (1985) published by Graham Cousins, Paul Duncan and John Jackson.

I hope these covers have been of interest. I'll post more info about these old fanzines at a later date if enough of you are interested. For example, over on my other blog I've posted the first article I had published from 1979. You can see it here:
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-folly-of-youth-my-first-fanzine.html

Blimey! blog is taking a break for a few days now, unless important news comes along, as I have a lot of work on this week. Please keep posting your comments though as I'll still be taking a few minutes to reply to those.