Moon Madness! Original art by Brian Lewis from 1966

Moon Madness was the craziest adventure strip I ever read as a child, and my 7 year old self was gripped by every episode. Written by Alf Wallace and drawn by Brian Lewis, it appeared in Smash! in 1966 for just 9 weeks... but what exciting weeks! 

Now you can see the original art from the strip, being posted in installments on the AtomekArt Facebook page! The pages have lost a few captions over the decades but Brian Lewis' art is still worth seeing. Check it out....

https://www.facebook.com/AtomekaPress/

...and if you want to know more about the strip, see my old blog post about it here...

https://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2009/07/moon-madness.html

What Would YOU Do?

Art: Brian Lewis

Art: Geoff Campion?

In 1963 and 1964, the weekly comic magazine Boys' World ran a feature on its covers entitled What Would YOU Do? Each week the readers would be presented with a challenge to solve, with the answer revealed inside. The images featured top quality artwork by the likes of Brian Lewis, Gerry Embleton, James McConnell and more. 

Six years later, the newly combined Lion and Eagle resurrected the feature in 1969 by using the same challenges, but with redrawn artwork by Geoff Campion. Here's four of them for you to compare, along with their solutions.

Now, you might be wondering why IPC didn't simply reprint the old Boys' World covers instead of commissioning new artwork? Two reasons. One being that Boys' World had been printed on top quality glossy paper but Lion was using cheap newsprint that wouldn't have reproduced the painted artwork very well, and perhaps another reason was that they wanted covers that were in keeping with the interiors; ie: linework by one of their current artists.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia, and a good opportunity to show some top class comic covers!

Art: James McConnell

Art: Geoff Campion

Art: James McConnell

Art: Geoff Campion

Art: J.H. Batchelor

Art: Geoff Campion

STARLORD cover gallery (1978)

Art: Ramon Sola

As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the short-lived Starlord weekly from 1978, I thought I'd run a gallery of all 22 covers. I've scanned them from my own comic collection, and the art credits (where I didn't recognise them) are from sources online. 

If you didn't already know, Starlord was launched as a slicker companion comic to 2000AD, and introduced us to Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters; characters that are still around today. After just 22 weeks, Starlord merged into 2000AD, but it's still remembered as one of the best comics of its day.

Starlord comic is Copyright ©Rebellion Publishing Ltd.

Art: Brian Bolland??? Anyone know for sure? 

Art: Kevin O'Neill

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Art: Kevin O'Neill

Art: Ron Embleton

Art: Ramon Sola?

Art: Brian Lewis?

Art: Graham Coton

Art: Graham Coton

Artist unknown.

Art: Brian Lewis

Art: Carlos Ezquerra

Artist unknown.

Art: Alberto Salinas?

Art: Kevin O'Neill

Art: John Higgins?

Artist unknown.

Art: Graham Coton

Art: Ian Kennedy

Art: Jose Luis Ferrer?

Art: Graham Coton

There was also a Starlord Summer Special published in 1978 while the weekly was still in circulation...

As a bonus, here are the free gifts from the first three issues of the weekly... 

The free foil badge was designed by Kevin O'Neill and there were six to collect, each one randomly attached to the front cover. 

Issue 2 gave away a cardboard slide that revealed info on the planets...

Issue 3 presented Starlord's equivalent of the old 'Battleships' game...

Front

Reverse

Jimmy Joy, the TV Boy (CHIPS, 1953)

Those of you around my age may remember a sixties strip called Charlie's Choice in Smash!, that featured a boy's magic TV set that enabled characters to enter our world. Well, there was a precedent of sorts in the 1950s with Jimmy Joy, the TV Boy, that ran in Chips from 1952 to the final issue in 1953. 

The difference was that Jimmy's set worked the other way; allowing Jimmy to enter through the screen into the TV programmes. The artwork was by Albert Pease, a long standing and excellent cartoonist for the Amalgamated Press comics. Here are a couple of examples from 1953. (Yes, Chips was printed on pink paper.)

...and for comparison, here's an episode of Charlie's Choice, with art by Brian Lewis, from Smash! No.109 (2nd March 1968)....

BLUNDERBIRDS by Brian Lewis (1966)

I've shown an example of this strip before (see here) but I recently bought a couple more issues that it appeared in, and any reason to show art by Brian Lewis is a good one. This is actually the first episode of Blunderbirds, which appeared in Eagle Vol.17 No.27, dated 2nd July 1966. 

According to Irmantas, who commented on my previous post about the strip, Blunderbirds was Ken Reid's concept:

"The idea of Blunderbirds was created by Ken Reid and he was paid a weekly fee for each episode (for idea only!). The most exciting thing about Blunderbirds (for me) is that Ken also wrote the script and drew the pilot episode of the strip and sent it to B.Bartholomew of Eagle. By coincidence, I spent the last week or so trying, unsuccessfully, to track down the issue of Eagle where the episode was printed but it looks like for some reason the Editor chose not to use it in Vol. 17 in 1966. It is also not one of the two episodes in Eagle 1968 annual, so there is a strong chance that the episode was never used. Ken got paid for it, though."


What happened to Ken Reid's version is unknown but this first episode by Brian Lewis doesn't 'sound' like a Ken Reid script, unless Bob Bartholomew (Bart) severely re-wrote it. 

Here's another episode. This one is from Eagle Vol.17 No.38, dated 17th September 1966...

The next issue I have for that year is from early December, and the strip had vanished by then, so it was a very short-lived series. Still, it gave us some fantastic pages by Brian Lewis, a master of both straight and cartoony artwork. 

Here's the cover to the Eagle where Blunderbirds first appeared, in case you wanted to track down a copy for yourself. (Can anyone identify the cover artist, please?)

50 Year Flashback: SMASH! No.1

Half a Century ago this week Odhams Press launched the second title in what would soon collectively be known as their 'Power Comics' weeklies. I enjoyed all of them but Smash! was the clear winner for me, with its content being a great balance of humour, adventure, and Marvel reprint. 

The Marvel material wouldn't actually begin until issue 16 (when The Hulk arrived) but the contents of issue 1 were still a great line up. Here's what Smash No.1 contained...

Page 1: Cover by Leo Baxendale promoting the free gift.
Pages 2/3: Ronnie Rich. Art by Gordon Hogg.
Pages 4/5: The Ghost Patrol. Art by Gerry Embleton. (Reprint of The Phantom Patrol from Swift.)
Pages 6/7: Bad Penny by Leo Baxendale.
Pages 8: Percy's Pets. Art by Stan McMurtry.
Pages 9: Ad for Smash! No.2. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.
Pages 10/11: Brian's Brain. Art by Bert Vandeput.
Pages 12/13: Space Jinx. Art by Brian Lewis.
Pages 14/15: The Nervs. Art by Graham Allen.
Pages 16/17: Queen of the Seas by Ken Reid.
Page 18: The Tellybugs. Art by George Parlett.
Page 19: Mister Knowall actvity/puzzle page.
Pages 20/21: The Swots and the Blots. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.
Pages 22/23: Charlie's Choice. Art by Brian Lewis.
Page 24 (back page): Grimly Feendish by Leo Baxendale.

As you can see, Smash! had quite a collection of top artists of the day. As time went on, artists would be changed around or replaced but Smash! always had some quality people working on its pages. To correct a few myths: Leo Baxendale never drew The Swots and the Blots until 1969, the year he totally revamped the strip for the second series of Smash! published by IPC. Nor did he ever draw The Nervs, which was mainly by Graham Allen and later by Ken Reid. 

Anyway, enough from me. Here's a selection of pages from that very first issue of 50 years ago. One of the best comics of the 1960s....

Swots and Blots. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.

Charlie's Choice. Art: Brian Lewis.

Finally, here's the house ad for Smash! No.1 that appeared in that week's issue of Wham!