Christmas comics: 2000AD (1979)

Here's the second in this year's selection of vintage Christmas comics, and it's 2000AD and Tornado Prog 145 from 1979. A great cover by Carlos Ezquerra, and the art department has even added traditional snow to the logo. 

Inside, the comic isn't actually that festive, as IPC tended to leave the Christmas hi-jinks to the humour comics, but it's such a great line-up of strips that I thought you'd like to see a taste of them. The issue got off to a strong start with Judge Dredd by John Wagner and Mick McMahon...

Future war story The V.C.s by Ian Rogan and Garry Leach...

The Mind of Wolfie Smith had transferred over from Tornado comic. This episode was by Tom Tully and Mike White...

The centre-spread at this time featured The Stainless Steel Rat, adapting Harry Harrison's novel in comics form by Kelvin Gosnell and Carlos Ezquerra...

2000AD featured a single-page humour strip back then, with Captain Klep drawn by Robin Smith. (Ken O'Neill had been the original artist.)

Black Hawk was written by Alan Grant and illustrated by Massimo Bellardinelli...

Finally, at the back of the comic, a Christmas strip! Tying in with the front cover, it's Tharg's Christmas Tale, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra...

Don't forget that this year's Christmas 2000AD will be out on Wednesday with 100 pages! Here's a preview:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-christmas-issue-of-2000ad-is-zarjaz.html

There'll be pages from another old festive title tomorrow. Which year will we arrive in? Wait and see!

Comic oddities: STARCOM (1987)

This 8 page A4 size comic, Starcom,  was presented as a pull-out in the middle of a comic or magazine in 1987. (I've long forgotten which title.) It was a promotional item for a new range of toys but what makes it interesting to comics collectors is that it features a six page comic strip drawn by Garry Leach. (Just five years after he produced the memorable visuals for the Marvelman revival with writer Alan Moore for Warrior.)

The 3-D technique for comics was back in vogue at the time and Starcom used it to give a wonderful aspect to Garry's already fantastic artwork. It came free with a pair of 3-D specs, which I'm afraid you'll need to see these pages in all their glory. (Or any 3-D specs from other comics should do the job too.) Failing that, you could improvise your own 3-D Specs by holding a piece of transparent red plastic/film over your left eye and green transparent plastic/film over the right eye. 

Here's a few examples from the comic. As always, click on the pages to see them much larger.

The back page of the comic showed the actual toys the strip was based on. They're unfamiliar to me as I was long past the age of playing with toys by 1987 but I'm sure that some of you must have fond childhood memories of them. Feel free to post your comments below about the toys and/or Garry Leach's great artwork.

The Daredevils: the posters

When I wrote my overview of the 1983 comic The Daredevils last week I promised I'd be showing you the posters that appeared in the issues. Without further ado, here are all 10 posters that appeared as centre-page pull-outs in every issue (except No.3, which carried an advert). These were brand new pieces of art commissioned by editor Bernie Jaye from some of the UK's finest talents. I don't think most of them have ever been reprinted. Marvel may have even forgotten about them. 

Issue No.1, January 1983: Daredevil by Garry Leach. 

Issue No.2, February 1983: Spider-Man by Paul Neary.

Issue No.4, April 1983: Black Panther by Mick Austin.

Issue No.5, May 1983: The Special Executive by Alan Davis.

Issue No.6, June 1983: Mephisto by John Higgins.

Issue No.7, July 1983. Art by Alan Davis. A promotional poster that readers were encouraged to ask their newsagents to place in their shop. If the shop agreed, and gave the reader a note confirming it, Marvel would send the reader a replacement poster signed by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Did any of you out there get involved in this promotion? 

Issue No.8, August 1983: Elektra by Dave Weir. 

Issue No.9, September 1983: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by... not sure. Could it be the work of Jerry Paris? Let me know if you can identify the style.

Issue No.10, October 1983: The Fury by Alan Davis. 

Issue No.11, November 1983: Merlin and Roma by Alan Davis.

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. 

Miracleman Revisited

Excellent cover by Alan Davis.

I must admit that when I reviewed Marvel's relaunch of Miracleman No.1 the other week I wasn't intending to continue buying the series. After all, I'd read it back in the 1980s and I have the run in Warrior, but curiosity got the better of me and I've just bought Miracleman No.2 (and a copy of the uncensored version of No.1 as I'd only previously bought the digital edition). 

As I've read it before, I already know how the story turns out, but what makes this reprint series appealing to me are the back up features. As with issue 1 we once again get a peek at seeing scans taken directly from Garry Leach's original art. Personally I find this sort of stuff fascinating to see where bits were whited out or what margin notes were added and suchlike. It's as close as you can get to owning the actual art without paying the fortune these pages generate now.

The other back up features include significant reprints of the 1950s Marvelman strips. In issue 2 we get the origin of Marvelman and the first appearance of Kid Marvelman - which tie in nicely with the 1980s strips at the front of the comic. 

I know that some comic fans have complained about the back-ups because they just want cover to cover 1980s strips. Well, to me being a comic fan has always meant that you're interested in the history and background of the strips not just the story content. As long as Miracleman continues to feature such material I'll keep buying it. 

As mentioned on this blog before, there are two editions available; a censored version and a 'Parential Advisory' uncensored one. So Liz Moran once again has purple knickers added to her bum which is bare in the uncensored version, and a subtle bare nipple is deleted. The big question of course is how are Marvel going to handle the graphic birth scene in an upcoming issue? When Eclipse published it, they ran it uncensored. Will Marvel's owners, Disney, allow the same freedom? Surely, comic readers who rarely bat an eye at depictions of gore and murder in comic books will be able to handle seeing illustrations of a birth scene? Could any adult reader in 2014 seriously object to such a scene in a comic aimed at adults? How prudish would they have to be? Time will tell. 

Miracleman Nos.1 and 2 are available now from comics speciality shops or online comics dealers. 

30 Year Flashback: WARRIOR No.1

When Warrior made its debut in UK newsagents in March 1982 the landscape of British comics was very different to today. With a few exceptions, the frequency of most comics was still weekly, as publishers felt that if a kid had to wait a month for an issue he'd rapidly lose interest. Of course, Warrior wasn't exactly aimed at the same demographic as Tiger or The Hotspur so it was hoped that older readers would have a bit more loyalty and patience. Even so, it was a brave risk by editor/publisher Dez Skinn and his Quality Communications company.

Dez was no stranger to comics, having been a fan all his life, working on fanzines (including the first Warrior as a six issue stripzine), then on the staff at IPC's Buster, through his revamping of the whole Marvel UK line, to editing British Mad and House of Hammer magazine amongst other credits. Bringing that experience to Warrior meant that the new comic looked a slick and strong product from the start.

One of the things Dez understood was that covers should have clarity to stand out on the shelves, and the bold unfussy logo coupled with the impact of Steve Dillon's artwork (coloured by Garry Leach) ensured that.

With 52 pages for 50p Warrior was thicker and more expensive than most other British comics of the time but it certainly felt value for money. (The interior pulp paper helped too, making it feel at though it had more pages than it actually had.) Kicking off with an editorial by Dez instead of the traditional fictitious comic editor showed from the outset that here was a comic that was going to treat its readers like adults.


The identity of the mysterious silhouette on the cover was revealed in the first story. Marvelman had returned to comics after an absence of 19 years. Gone were the childlike stories of old, replaced by an intelligent script by Alan Moore and realistic artwork by Garry Leach. One of the things that Alan brought to British comics (and later influenced American comics) was his ear for natural dialogue which he'd combine with imaginative plots to tell stories that were gripping and intelligent. So radical was this that some writers today are still trying to emulate those techniques of three decades ago.

Compelling as this revamped Marvelman was, I'm sure that many readers would have been unfamiliar with the character prior to Warrior, so Dez provided a handy four page history lesson for us.


The second strip in the issue was The Spiral Path by Steve Parkhouse. Some of Steve's early work had been published as Marvel pin-ups on the back pages of Fantastic (a duty also achieved by Barry Smith) so it was remarkable to see how far he'd progressed by 1982.


Next up was a two page complete tale, A True Story?, by Steve Moore and Dave Gibbons. Polished work as always.


This was followed by The Legend of Prester John by Steve Moore and John Bolton, - a reprint from House of Hammer. Excellent line and grey wash artwork which unfortunately reproduced somewhat muddy on the cheap paper.


Next came the strip that would have the most impact: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. As brilliant as all the material in Warrior No.1 was I always felt that this series was the highlight. Atmospheric, intriguing, and carrying valid political messages, V for Vendetta deserved all the plaudits that it would soon acquire. (If your only exposure to the character is through the movie, treat yourself to the graphic novel for the far superior original source.)


Following V came a tale of mysticism from ancient times (a popular theme of comics back then); Father Shandor, Demon Stalker. The character had originated in the Hammer movie Dracula, Prince of Darkness, which had been adapted into strip form in House of Hammer magazine. For Warrior, Dez Skinn, Steve Moore and John Bolton had the Christian monk battle demons.


The final strip in issue one was Laser Eraser and Pressbutton, some light relief by Steve Moore and Steve Dillon. The character of Axel Pressbutton had originally appeared in the music weekly Sounds in the continuing strip The Stars My Degredation, written and drawn by Alan Moore. Much as I liked Steve Dillon's artwork, I always preferred Alan Moore's version. He made the psychotic cyborg look more... psychotic somehow.


Rounding off the issue was a two page biography of all the contributors. This was another welcome move for a British comic as back then many comics, particularly those of DC Thomson, still enforced anonymity on creators, forbidding them to even sign their work.

So that was Warrior No.1, in the shops 30 years ago, starting out with a strong line up that would sadly diminish a little over its 26 issue run. I won't go into the in-fighting and reasons for that as today is all about celebrating what impact it had on comics. Marvelman proved that superheroes could be handled maturely, V for Vendetta raised the bar for comics literature, and Warrior as a whole showed that British comics didn't have to always pander to kids or be restricted to the old ways of storytelling. Along the way it inspired comics such as The Daredevils and Blast! and today, the influence of Warrior is still with us with comics such as Strip Magazine and CLiNT.

Dez Skinn's website for more info: http://dezskinn.com/