Coming from Panini UK this week...

Conan joins the Avengers?!? Yep! It's the story you thought you'd never see... unless you read the original comic last year of course that this issue reprints. It's surprisingly good actually as it's written by Al Ewing who for my money is currently one of the best and most inventive writers in comics. 
Here's the solicitation info from Panini...

Avengers Universe No.7 Release date: 28/11/2019
76 pages of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! The team-up you never thought you'd see is here – the Avengers travel back to the Hyborian Age and meet the legendary Conan the Barbarian!!! Don't miss the shocks as the awesome ‘No Road Home’ saga continues! By Al Ewing, Jim Zub, Mark Waid & Paco Medina! Featuring material first printed in Avengers: No Road Home #6-8.

...of course, this isn't the first time Conan and The Avengers have appeared in the same scene. At least not if you followed Marvel UK in the 1970s. Although back then it was the result of two comics merging and Conan didn't actually meet The Avengers like he has now. (There's also a US Marvel comic called Savage Avengers featuring Conan in the present day with Wolverine, The Punisher, Elektra and more. That one jumped the shark for me I'm afraid. :)) 

Anyway, here's the rest of the pulsatin' Panini comics that will be in the shops on 28th November... 

Astonishing Spider-Man No.41.
76 action-packed pages of arachnid adventure! Spider-Geddon continues, as a beaten and nearly dead Spider-Man faces the favoured son of the Inheritors, Morlun! The wall-crawler has fought Morlun three times and almost died everytime. Can Spidey beat the vile vampire again?! By Sean Ryan & Juan Frigeri! Also, Miles Morales leads the Spider-Army on a raid on the Inheritors! But is it just a suicide mission?! By Christos Gage, Dan Slott, Todd Nauck & Carlo Barberi! The Spider-Army desperately needs new recruits! No one’s too weird to die for – er – serve the cause! So brace yourselves for SPIDER-MA’AM, a spider-powered Aunt! Also, a nightmare world where monsters roam the streets and a SPIDER-MAN strange enough to call it home! Plus, a Spider-Powered Captain Stacy! Police Officer by day, vigilante by night in a way you’ve never seen before! By Jed Mackay, Scott Koblish, Cullen Bunn, Mark Bagley, Ryan North, David Williams, Geoffrey Thorne & Todd Harris!

Wolverine and Deadpool No.7.
76 pages of Marvel’s toughest heroes! Three great stories! Logan discovers a deadly web of deceit in Alaska – and starts slicing through it! ‘The Long Night’ continues, by Benjamin Percy & Marico Takara! X-23 and Gabby face a new challenge: the X-Assassin! A new story begins by Mariko Tamaki & Diego Olortegui! ‘Night of the Living Deadpool’ continues as Wade Wilson fights to survive a zombie apocalypse! By Cullen Bunn & Ramon Rosanas! Featuring material first printed in Wolverine: The Long Night #3, X-23 #7 and Night of the Living Deadpool #2.

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America turns the clock back

While the world reels from the news of a bigoted, homophobic, narcissistic, thin-skinned man-child being voted as president of the United States, perhaps some comfort is that we can enjoy our escapism while it lasts. Today, Marvel Comics in the USA launch Avengers 1.1 by Mark Waid and British artist Barry Kitson. The story is set in the early days of The Avengers, when they had their first change in the line-up. Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp have quit, leaving Captain America with ex-villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch to train as the new Avengers.

The five-issue miniseries fits into the continuity after Avengers No.16, which was published in 1965, but I doubt we'll see any sixties references due to the elasticated "Marvel time" that tends to update flashbacks to contemporary times.

Here are a few preview pages with great art by Barry Kitson. 

There are also variant covers, including this stunner by Alan Davis…

Avengers 1.1, on sale in comic shops in the USA and UK from today. 

The Avengers by Pat Williams (1966)

Just time for a quick post today. Over on the Comics UK Forum, Sue Butcher recently asked members for samples of Pat Williams' artwork on The Avengers strips he did for TV Comic. This is the only example I have, and is from TV Comic No.769, dated 10th September 1966.

There are examples of selected panels over at the excellent Winged Avenger website here:
http://wingedavenger.theavengers.tv/comics/tv_ep_era.htm

I must admit I hadn't paid much attention to Pat Williams' work before but I really like his style. It's superb for black and white work, with a great inking technique. It'd be nice to see these strips collected in the same way that the Diana strips by Emilio Frejo and Juan Gonzales are soon to be. 
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-avengers-comic-strip-1967.html  

Diana's 'The Avengers' to be collected

Back in the 1960s the DC Thomson girls comic Diana ran a full colour serial based on the TV series The Avengers. I blogged about it here last year, and at the time a few people who left comments said the strips deserved to be collected into a book.

The good news is that's now going to happen, courtesy of Big Finish (best known for their Doctor Who audio adventures). If you missed the information that John Freeman posted about it on his Down the Tubes blog last week you can find out the details here:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=20759

The strip was superbly illustrated by Emilio Frejo with assistance from another artist, Juan Gonzalez Alecrejo on some episodes. 

If you didn't see my blog post about the strip last year you'll find it at this link:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-avengers-comic-strip-1967.html

The Avengers comic strip (1967)

Diana was a weekly comic for girls that had a quality above most of its sister titles of the 1960s. Published by DC Thomson, its glossy, large size format had many pages in full colour at a time when most comics were on newsprint in black and white. 

The luxurious photogravure printing process allowed artists to produce colour work with a full palette, rather than relying on flat, primary colour overlays to be added later, as in Bunty. 

In 1967, DC Thomson gained an arrangement with ABC Television Ltd to adapt the top rated TV series The Avengers into brand new comic strip serials to run  in Diana. 

The strip ran at two pages a week, on pages two and three, from issue 199 until No.224. From what I can gather from the few I have, the scripts were understandably juvenile for Diana's young readership and never on a par with the wit of the TV series but the artwork was excellent. The main artist was Emilio Frejo, although he was assisted at times by Juan Gonzalez. Frejo could usually produce good likenesses of the actors Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg, although no doubt he was limited by the reference available to him in those pre-video days. 

Here are a few episodes of the run from various issues of Diana in 1967. I'm not sure who'd own the rights to this strip now but I'm sure fans of the TV series and the artwork would like to see a book collection of the material.

The license for the strip was soon taken up by TV Comic after the run in Diana ended, but Polystyle's version wasn't really in the same league.

Polaroid cameras and Engelbert Humperdinck. Yep, 1967!

More info: http://wingedavenger.theavengers.tv/comics/diana.htm