Sparky was a D.C. Thomson comic which ran from 1965 to 1977. Originally aimed at young readers as a sort of stepping stone between Bimbo and Beano, it was revamped in the late Sixties for the average comic reading age but with more than average content. Sometimes experimental and surreal, and often laugh out loud funny, Sparky is still fondly remembered by collectors today.
Now, loyal Sparky fan Alan Smith has devoted a great deal of his time in compiling a fantastic 129 page Sparky File recounting the history of the weekly. Available as either a Word document or PDF to download from the Comics UK website, the impressive tome escorts the reader through the issues, recounting each character with synopses, names of artists, and charting the many changes that the comic underwent. There's even a listing of every free gift and which issue they appeared in.
Such a venture could easily have been presented in a dull and clinical fashion but Alan keeps it lively by adding his opinions and snippets of information. All in all it's a brilliant reference work that I'm sure every fan of this very individual comic will be consulting time and time again.
You can download The Sparky File by clicking on the links that follow. Personally I found the PDF version worked best on the iPod Touch, and the Word .doc was best for the desktop computer.
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Sparky File.dochttp://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Sparky File.pdf
If they don't work, refer to the Comics UK forum here where you'll find the links:
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3541&start=0
John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog has some fantastic news today concerning forthcoming titles from Waverley Books. The most exciting of which in my opinion is that in a few short weeks, on June 3rd, The Very Best of Black Bob will be available to buy. This £9.99 hardback, compiled D.C. Thomson archivist and ex-Dandy editor Morris Heggie, will be in the same horizontal format as the Black Bob books of the 1950s.
The famous "Dandy Wonder Dog" first appeared as a text story in The Dandy in 1944. It then ran in several serials in The Weekly News as a comic strip drawn by Jack Prout, which then appeared in The Dandy from the 1940s to the late 1960s, then as reprints until the 1980s. Jack Prout died in 1978.
The strip adventures of the clever Border Collie and his master, shepherd Andrew Glenn were always presented as picture strips with text captions. (Dialogue balloons never appeared in the weekly strips, although they did appear in strips drawn for the Dandy Summer Special.) This gave the strips an old fashioned look, but it made no difference to the kids who loved the stories. In fact that was part of the charm. It was a firm favourite of mine as a child and I for one will definitely be buying this collection.
Waverley Books also have other D.C. Thomson titles scheduled for this year and details and cover images can be seen over at the Down the Tubes blog:
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-dc-thomson-books-from-waverley.html
The latest issue of the 68 page monthly reprint comic Classics from the Comics (No.169) went on sale last week. D.C. Thomson's Garry Fraser has provided a list of the contents of this edition which as usual collects a variety of vintage strips from Beano, Dandy, Topper, Hornet, Sparky and more:
Page 4 Little Plum
5 Smiffy
6 Tiny
7 The Sparky People
8 Dennis the Menace
10 My Home Town – Lichfield
11 The Banana Bunch
12 Richard the Lion
13 Bodger the Bookworm
14 General Jumbo
17 Hop, Skip and Jock
18 The Jocks and the Geordies
20 Kid Kats
21 Cops and Robbers
22 L Cars
24 Figaro
25 Young Sid
26 Baby Face Finlayson
27 Kelly
28 Fred the Flop
29 PC Big Ears
30 Bill the Burglar
31 The Badd Lads
32 Dixon Hawke
34 PC McGraw
36 Cops and Robbers – Classic wordsearch
37 Sleepy Ed
38 The Truth About Wilson
40 Cuddles and Dimples
41 Dennis the Menace
42 Puss an’ Boots
44 Jimmy and his Magic Patch
46 Hungry Horace
47 Desperate Dan
50 Pup Parade
51 WIN! Classic DVDs
52 The Wild Rovers
54 The Truth About Wilson
56 The Germs
57 Beryl the Peril
58 The Bash Street Kids
60 Claude Hopper
61 Grandpa
62 Mr Licko and his Lollipops
64 Desperate Dawg
65 Mickey the Monkey
66 Colonel Blink
67 Julius Cheeser
68 Biffo the Bear
The first four Commando issues for May are in the shops from today. (Another four will be out in two weeks time.) Here's the intel from editor Calum Laird...
This month sees the start of the VE-Day stories. Issues 4291 and 4292 are brand new, 4293 and 4294 were originally commissioned as part of a seven-part series for the 50th anniversary and get a fresh outing here. The rest of the series will follow this month and next.
Ian Kennedy’s covers grace three of the books, two with extra portraits on the back cover.
Janek Matysiak makes a welcome return as a cover artist with a new technique for his artwork. He has retrained to create his images totally digitally. We like it and were interested to hear the reaction to it.
Commando stalwart Gordon Livingstone’s artwork appears in Slogger’s War — we’re sure his fans will be delighted by that.
Commando 4291: FIGHT FOR THE EAGLE
Private Pete Curtiz was proud to be British — joining up to serve his country during World War II. Thanks to his surname though he was ordered to join a Polish unit. He was to fight for the Polish Eagle alongside men he had nothing in common with.
These tough veterans resented his presence and, in turn, Pete developed a bad attitude towards them.
They would have to set aside their differences and work as a team to survive. But could they?
Story: Ferg Handley
Inside art: Vila
Cover Art: Ian Kennedy
Commando No 4292: TO THE LAST MAN
In May 1945, even after the surrender of Germany, occupying Allied forces were in danger, forced to keep a constant vigil for marauding Nazis. They were the much-feared Werewolves — brutal, renegade, die-hards.
So a British Commando unit was given one final mission…to hunt down this enemy who would fight TO THE LAST MAN
Story: Ferg Handley
Inside art: Morahin
Cover Art: Janek Matysiak
Commando 4293: I WANT TO FIGHT!
From the first day of war in 1939, the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the countries opposed to Hitler’s Germany knew that it would be a long, bloody struggle before the Nazis were toppled to defeat.
They couldn’t know then that the day of victory would come in May, 1945. For Jean Duval, a French soldier who saw his unit crumble under the full force of the Nazi blitzkrieg in France in 1940, it would a bitter, hard war…
Story: Ian Clark
Inside art: Gordon Livingstone
Cover Art: Ian Kennedy
Commando 4294: SLOGGER’S WAR
From the first day of war in 1939, the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the countries opposed to Hitler’s Germany knew that it would be a long, bloody struggle before the Nazis were toppled to defeat.
They couldn’t know then that the day of victory would come in May, 1945. Tom “Slogger” Morgan, a British Commando, was to find that facing the enemy called for a certain kind of courage — but this was not the only kind of bravery needed in the battle for survival!
Story: Ian Clark
Inside art: Benet
Cover Art: Ian Kennedy
Official Commando website: http://www.commandomag.com/
Very sad news just in from Ellie Graham at Titan Books:
Titan Books is hugely saddened to report the passing of writer Peter O’Donnell, who died over the Bank Holiday weekend at the age of 90.
“Peter O'Donnell was respected as one of the greatest writers in the comics medium today and had a devout following amongst comics professionals and fans alike”, says Titan’s Managing Director, Nick Landau. “I am honoured to have known him – and published his greatest creations, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin – for almost 40 years.”
Born in South London in 1920, O’Donnell had a long and illustrious career, the highlight of which was his creation of classic crime character ‘Modesty Blaise’. The smart and sassy comic strip ran daily in the Evening Standard newspaper during the 1960s. O’Donnell retired from writing in 2001, but had continued to oversee Titan’s release of more than a dozen Modesty Blaise collections, contributing introductions and commentaries to his classic stories.
Adventurer, spy, smuggler and seductress, Modesty Blaise is the high priestess of pulp, providing crime thriller storylines with sass, wit and a touch of glamour, that have wooed celebrity fans such as Quentin Tarantino.
Titan Books has previously published 16 collections of the classic strip and has four further collections scheduled for release in 2010 and 2011.
http://titanbooks.com/categories/us/universe-58-Modesty_Blaise/
The 17th Modesty Blaise book, Death in Slow Motion (shown below) has just been published by Titan, and features strips from February to November 1983 by Peter O'Donnell and Neville Colvin. As well as Death in Slow Motion the book also includes the complete serials The Balloonatic and The Alternative Man. There's also an appreciation of the work of Neville Colvin written by Captain America artist Steve Epting, and Steve has also contributed an excellent piece of Modesty Blaise artwork exclusively for this volume.
Modesty Blaise: Death in Slow Motion is £11.99 / $19.95 U.S. / $24.95 Canada.
