Buster by Baxendale

The excellent Kazoop! blog is always worth a visit for fans of British comics and today is a perfect example of that. Blogmaster Irmantas has found the six Buster's Diary strips for the covers of Buster that Leo Baxendale did as fill-ins in 1967 and has posted four of them on his blog today. I was aware of them as they were listed in the Buster Index by Steve Holland and Ray Moore 20 years ago, but I don't think I'd seen them before. 

Usually back then, a fill-in artist would be asked to 'ghost' the regular style but clearly Leo was allowed to do them in his own way with the distinctive style he was using at that time. Great stuff!

Head over to the Kazoop! blog here to see the four covers:
http://kazoop.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/buster-covers-by-leo-baxendale.html

Commando comics out this Thursday

Latest news direct from D.C. Thomson....

Commando Issues 4847-4850 – On Sale 24 September 2015

Commando No 4847 — Nature Of The Beast

The Convict Commandos had been on many dangerous missions as the War raged on. Now it looked as if their latest adventure could turn out to be their last.

   ‘Jelly’ Jakes wasn’t just an expert safecracker — he was an expert coward too! The quivering little man had become a vital part of a scheme to halt an insidious enemy threat — one that could undermine the Allies’ efforts to win the War. Jelly and the rest of the team would have to uncover

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST

Story: Alan Hebden

Art: Manuel Benet

Cover: Manuel Benet

Preview: http://www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/24th-september-2015-collection?issue=4847 

Commando No 4848 — Stand And Fight

Perched high among the girders of the bridge spanning the jungle river, Private Dan Neal carefully aimed at the explosives charge lashed to the bridge supports. He knew that if this bridge wasn’t blown, the Japanese would pour over it, massacring any British troops who stood in their way. And if it was blown up, Dan knew he would go sky high with it. 

   His trigger finger took the first pressure, then began the slow steady squeeze…

Introduction

Down through the decades that Commando has been published, perceived cowardice has long been a recurring, but thankfully not over-used, plot motif. Indeed, one of our Silver Collection titles from earlier this month, “Day Of Shame” (No 4846) also had a similar theme but was completely different to this story.

   In my opinion, Stand And Fight is a memorable tale because – apart from Gordon Livingstone’s typically wonderful art and cover – the main character, Private Dan Neal, appears to be a rare Commando anti-hero. Flawed, secretive, morally ambiguous, as readers we’re not quite sure if we even like him. Right away that gives this adventure an edge. Adding a duplicitous enemy prisoner and a loyal, ice-cool Ghurkha to the mix makes it edgier still.

Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor

Stand And Fight, originally Commando No 467 (April 1970), re-issued as No 1343 (August 1979)

Story: N. Allen

Art: Gordon Livingstone

Cover: Gordon Livingstone

Preview: http://www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/24th-september-2015-collection?issue=4848 

Commando No 4849 — Charge…Or Die!

They were an unlikely force...an infantryman, a cavalry officer and a mechanic. Yet, when they put their petty squabbles aside this irregular Polish ‘unit’ were a force to be reckoned with.

   After Germany’s lightning-fast invasion of Poland, these three misfits were determined to fight back.

   Yes, indeed, they were an unlikely force…but one which, against the odds, still managed to strike fear into the hearts of the invading enemy.

Story: Kek-W

Art: Vicente Alcazar

Cover: Janek Matysiak

Preview: http://www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/24th-september-2015-collection?issue=4849 

Commando No 4850 — King Of The Sky

They twisted and turned all over the sky, the two pilots trying to pull every trick in the book to be the one who drilled in the final killing burst.

   This was no ordinary dog-fight…for both aircraft carried the colours of the Royal Air Force. Something very odd was going on to have a Spitfire duelling savagely with a Mosquito…

Introduction

Compared to our Gold Collection banner of re-issues, which were originally published 50 years ago, King Of The Sky is practically a young whipper-snapper of a book, what with being a mere quarter of a century old. However, at its core is a charmingly simple but effective premise that means it wouldn’t look out of place in the Gold Collection either.

   A ruthless Nazi pilot breaks out of a British POW camp and will stop at nothing to get back to the Fatherland and continue the War, pursued by an RAF man determined to catch him. It’s a classic scenario and still remains an enjoyable read.

Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor

King Of The Sky, originally Commando No 2400 (August 1990)  

Story: Bernard Gregg

Art: Terry Patrick

Cover: Mike Cox

Preview: http://www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/24th-september-2015-collection?issue=4850 

This week in 1971: COUNTDOWN No.32

It's been a while since I did one of these flashback features so here's a few pages from the issue of a comic that went on sale this weekend 44 years ago. It's Countdown No.32, dated September 25th 1971, which would have been published on Saturday Sept.18th 1971. (Click on images to see them larger.)

Countdown was a glossy 24 page weekly published by Polystyle, which featured strips based on the sci-fi adventure TV shows of the day. The comic tried to be a replacement for the glory days of TV21, to the extent that it had gained the licence to do strips of Gerry Anderson shows after TV21 had dropped them. (By the time this issue of Countdown was published, the ailing TV21 had merged into Valiant.)

The cover of this issue kicks off a new UFO serial illustrated by Gerry Haylock. One of the great things about Countdown was that it credited the artists; something most British comics didn't do back then.

The centrespread of the comic featured Doctor Who. The fantastic artist Harry Lindfield does a fine job of illustrating a very busy script but there's a lot going on to pack into two pages and it does feel like it would have benefited from spreading it over another page or two.

Eight of Countdown's 24 pages were in full colour, and although the content would vary over the comic's run, the Countdown strip itself had its two pages of 
colour every week. This was an originated strip not based on any TV show but it 
did feature spacecraft designs from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (No spacecraft in this episode though.) Artwork by the always-astounding John Burns. 

Countdown ran a different complete 7 page story every week, and this week it was the turn of Captain Scarlet. Connecting with continuity with the movie Thunderbirds Are Go, the strip saw the return of the Martian Rock Snakes, - this time on Earth as part of a Mysteron plot. A daft story but great art by Keith Watson...

Having the licence for Gerry Anderson strips meant that Polystyle could reprint old strips from TV21, which came in handy when the budget was reduced. Although originally published in full colour, some Stingray and Fireball XL5 strips were reprinted in greyscale. Furthermore, the Fireball strips were reduced and turned at 90 degrees. However, personally speaking this didn't bother me one bit and as a 12 year old I was only too glad to revisit those classic strips I'd read when I was six. 

As you might have guessed from the competition to win a weather station, Countdown liked to mix science alongside science fiction. The back page of this issue featured a cutaway of the Apollo Lunar Module (reprinted from a book called Manned Spacecraft). 

I thought Countdown was an excellent comic, just up my street. No sports or war stories; just science fiction and fact (plus the occasional feature about UFO sightings). Sadly it seems most kids didn't take to it and with issue 59 it changed its title to TV Action, expanding its content to include TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O, and Cannon. Later, it'd incorporate pop pin-ups to compete with Look-In, but it still remained a good TV adventure comic up until its merger with TV Comic in 1973. 

DWM 491 preview

Issue No.491 of Doctor Who Magazine is out tomorrow (Sept 17th), and it's gonna be a whopper! As the new series of Doctor Who starts on BBC One on Saturday, the official magazine is a bumper 100 page edition, bagged with a massive free double-sided poster.

It's a fantastic issue with a wide variety of Who-related content packed into its pages. There's the third and final part of the 12th Doctor comic strip Spirits of the Jungle which runs to 12 pages by Jonathan Morris, John Ross, and James Offredi...

A Daft Dimension humour strip by me, focusing on the Daleks...

Previews of the first four episodes of the new series...

An interview with prosthetic effects supervisor Kate Walshe... 

A feature on Patrick Troughton's last Doctor Who adventure, The War Games...

Plus loads more features!

As I said, the issue is polybagged, and the bag artwork is what's featured at the top of this post. Inside the bag, the actual magazine has this cover...

...which is in fact a wraparound cover...

Daleks from all eras in one scene? What's going on? Find out in Doctor Who this Saturday night at 7.40pm on BBC One!

Doctor Who Magazine No.491, 100 pages plus massive poster. £5.99. On sale from Thursday 17th September 2015.  

Have you bought your Brickman yet?

"There ain't never not no new British comics not no more nowadays" or words to that effect are things I hear quite often on forums, websites, etc. Of course there are new British comics coming along all the time. It's just that the huge expense and restraints imposed by the newsagent/supermarket retail system are simply too prohibitive for independent publishers. Just because a comic isn't in WH Smiths or Asda doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I'll cut to the chase. One of those comics is the one I self-published the other week. The one-off publication Brickman Returns! It's selling well but I thought I'd give it another plug for those of you who may have missed the news.  Here's the PR about it....

BRICKMAN RETURNS! sees the revival of one of my oldest characters as zillionaire Loose Brayne once again dons the cape and cowl to patrol the streets of Guffon City! The Poker! The Ostrich! Gnat-Woman! No criminal is safe when Brickman flings his Brick-a-rang! Aided by his partner Tina Trowel, Brickman is back in town!

Initially created in 1979 for my fanzine AFTER IMAGE, Brickman has returned numerous times over the years in various publications, most notably as a back up strip in 2006 to 2009 in ELEPHANTMEN, published in America by Image Comics. It is those 20 stories that I've compiled into this new collection! BRICKMAN RETURNS! acts as a sequel to BRICKMAN BEGINS, a collection of earlier strips published by Active Images in 2005, but it can also be read as a self-contained comic.

A prominent guest star in the Brickman strip is Combat Colin, who many will remember from his own regular strip in Marvel UK’s TRANSFORMERS and ACTION FORCE comics in the late 1980s. The creator-owned character now occasionally appears in the ACES WEEKLY digital comic.

BRICKMAN RETURNS! also includes bonus back-up features:

• COMBAT COLIN: A classic complete reprint from 1989 featuring Colin’s first encounter with his nemesis The Brain!

• SUBURBAN SATANISTS: My popular late Nineties strip, originally published in Norway and Sweden, finally comes to the UK, translated into English. It features the De Villes; just an ordinary suburban family with an unusual hobby.

• WELCOME TO THE LEWNIVERSE: A feature on the backstory of Brickman and his comic co-stars!

Obviously Brickman is a parody of Batman, but only as a springboard to take the character into his own daft direction. It’s not an intricate spoof of the minutiae of Batman comics. It’s basically broad comedy influenced by the stuff that inspired me over the years, such as the 1966 Batman TV show, seaside postcards, Odhams comics, cheesy horror comics, Monty Python, the Airplane movies, Not Brand Echh comics, and suchlike, and from all that hopefully my own style has emerged.

I’ve been freelancing in comics as a writer and artist for over 30 years, and continue to do so, but it occurred to me that I have several characters I own the rights to that I really ought to get back in print. BRICKMAN RETURNS is the first of those. All being well, I’ll release a couple more self-published titles in 2016. It’s been a long time since I self-published any comics and technology has improved so much now that a small circulation, digitally printed comic can look as slick as mainstream publications.

BRICKMAN RETURNS! is a one-off 32 page comic in full colour, rated Teen plus. Available to buy directly from me at £6.00 including postage, via my online shop at this address:

http://www.lewstringer.com/page7.htm

Copies are also available for £4.50 from Nostalgia and Comics, 14 - 16 Queensway, Birmingham B5 4EN.

Support British comics! And Brick-ish comics!