Commando comic begins its 50th Anniversary

The 50th anniversary celebrations of D.C. Thomson's Commando comic begin this week with the first batch of issues for 2011. Having been in continuous publication since 1961, four issues of Commando are released every two weeks. I'll update this post once the usual press release from D.C. Thomson arrives but here's a preview of the latest editions which are in newsagents now:

Commando No.4355 - Raiders: Operation Hammer
The return of Ramsey's Raiders in an all-new story.
Story: Ferg Handley Art: Keith Page Cover: Ian Kennedy



Commando No.4356 - First to Fight
Brand new action with the US Marines.
Story: Ferg Handley Art: Olivera Cover: Janek Matysiak



Commando No.4357 - The Desperate Days
The first of the special anniversary issues which will reprint the first 12 issues from 50 years ago! Set in 1940, featuring members of the British Expeditionary Force fighting their way to Dunkirk. (Reprints Commando No.12 from 1961.)
Story: Elliot Art: Gordon Livingstone Cover: Ken Barr
Introduction by Commando Editor Calum Laird

Commando No.4358 - The Secret War
A classic story from the archives featuring Captain Tom Lawson seeking a traitor in the ranks. (Reprints No.1344 from 1979.)
Story: R.A. Montague Art: Peter Fleming Cover: Graeme Miller
Introduction by Deputy Editor Scott Montgomery


Visit the NEW Commando website:
http://www.commandocomics.com/

It's Dandy day again!

Just a reminder that as well as Toxic returning to the shelves today (see yesterday's post) The Dandy is also back after its Christmas break.

Above is a panel from my Postman Prat strip, and below is the cover to look out for. Yes, Desperate Dan is back on the front page:


http://www.dandy.com

New Year, New Villain

Egmont's Toxic returns to the newsstands this week after its festive break. Within its pages there's a brand new villain for Team Toxic to encounter in 2011: Baron Spyboss! That's him above.

The Team have faced loads of various villains over the years but I wanted to create a major new one, inspired by characters such as Grimly Feendish and Smash's Doctor Gloom. I hope you like the result.


Toxic No.177 goes on sale this Wednesday.

Toxic website: http://www.toxicmag.co.uk/

The name's Man... Action Man

If there was anything bigger than Batmania back in 1966 it was Action Man mania. Once Dads across the Western world had realized that their young sons playing with dolls wouldn't necessarily lead to cross-dressing, parents were happy to buy the new 12" multi-articulated action figures for their lads. It was the toy of 1966.

Action Man was produced by Palitoy in Leicester, although the first dolls they issued were re-boxed G.I. Joe figures from the USA, and had a Hasbro 1964 copyright embossed on their bum cheek. Once the dolls took off in a big way, Palitoy began making their own with permission from Hasbro.

What does this have to do with comics? Not a lot, although Action Man did have his own long-running comic from Panini several years ago of course, and Action Force, a sort of offshoot of the franchise, was a comic in the 1980s. However, long before that, Action Man appeared as a set of illustrated paperback books in 1967.


Six of the books were published in all; Dive to Danger, Artctic Mystery, Race for the Moon, Suicide Saboteurs, Date with Disaster, and versus The Master Spy. The format was an unusual design, five inches square, with 64 pages on pulp paper.


In order to connect the character with the various outfits available for the doll, Action Man became the code name of a special agent for International Military Intelligence, or "Intermil". We don't discover his real name. The publisher, Purnell, was obviously hoping to capitalize on the success of the James Bond character and in these books Action Man is pretty much a Bond-like character but without the sex drive. He even looks a little like Sean Connery on the cover of versus The Master Spy.


The artwork within the books is basic and does the job, albeit a bit derivative in places. In this illustration for example Action Man bears a strong resemblance to Willie Garvin from Modesty Blaise:


The scripts are briskly paced and as tough as they could be considering they're children's books. Sadly, neither the writer or the artist are credited.




As far as I know, a second series of the books didn't appear, so perhaps kids preferred to enact their own adventures with Action Man rather than read someone else's interpretation. I know I did when I was seven. I had the three books shown here but I wasn't bothered about the rest.

Just for nostalgia, here's the first equipment manual for Action Man products, from 1966 which I found tucked in the corner of my time machine yesterday:



Don't worry; toy-related items won't become a regular feature of this blog but as these books aren't really covered too well on the net I thought they might be of interest to visitors here.


Unofficial Action Man collectors website:
http://actionmanhq.co.uk/

Wham! It's New Year 1966

Here's the issue of Wham! that would have been on sale 45 years ago. As one would expect it's the New Year celebratory issue which gets off to a fine start with The Tiddlers on the front and back covers. Leo Baxendale was initially the artist of this strip but this week's is definitely not his work but that of one of the several "ghost" artists that Odhams encouraged to imitate Leo's style. I'm guessing that this might be early work by Mike Lacey.


Inside, the New Year theme continued, but in some cases only in a tenuous way. Here for example The Wacks merely use New Year as an excuse to write a song, but it's a funny script so worth showing here. Artwork by Gordon Hogg.


Wham! ran a regular pop page every week for readers to win an autographed record, and this issue saw the turn of The Moody Blues. Here they are reading an issue of the comic...


As ever, the centre pages saw another chapter in the Eagle-Eye Junior Spy serial. Artwork by Leo Baxendale. Once again Eagle-Eye is pitted against Grimly Feendish. Soon, Grimly would graduate to his own strip on the back page of Odham's new Smash! comic, but that was a month in the future at this point...


This was the period when Ken Reid was producing flawless slapstick comedy-horror and Frankie Stein was the triumph of his Sixties strips.


We all know that corporal punishment was the norm in British comics of this time but this issue of Wham! seems to relish in it. No less than three characters receive a beating from their parents...

Biff (artwork by either Artie Jackson or Graham Allen)...


The Humbugs (possibly Mike Lacey art)...


Danny Dare (Artie Jackson artwork)...


Wham! was mostly a humour comic but it did feature a couple of adventure pages. Here's a World of Adventure strip with artwork by John M. Burns (or possibly Eric Kincaid)...



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On another topic, the polls I've been running on my sidebar are now closed. Thanks to all of you who took time to vote. Here are the results:

Which era of British comics would you like to see covered more often on this blog?

Prewar (1900 - 1939)	10 (5%)
Wartime/postwar (1940-1959)	20 (11%)
1960s/1970s	105 (61%)
1980s/1990s	25 (14%)
Recent years 2000 - present	10 (5%)

Total votes: 170

What would you like to see BLIMEY! cover in 2011?

Only old British comics	22 (20%)
More features on old American comics	10 (9%)
Stay the same (Old & new UK comics)	75 (70%)

Total votes: 107

I'll be taking the results into account for future postings on this blog, so your input is appreciated.


Just for fun, I asked:

Which of the following has been your favourite new regular UK title of 2010?

Comic Heroes	38 (28%)
Clint	14 (10%)
The new look Dandy	83 (61%)

Total votes: 135

It's great to see The Dandy the outright winner, and Comic Heroes a reasonable second. Poor old Clint though. Not much love for that title, and issue 5 is currently running late having not been published this week as advertised.

For 2011 I'm hoping to update Blimey! on a weekly basis, possibly more often if I have time (or important news breaks). I hope you'll continue to follow the blog and enjoy it. Once again, a Happy New Year!