Ron Tiner talks Powerman

I've looked at Powerman before (here) and I've tried to gather together all the images I can find of this rare Nigerian comic by Brian Bolland & Dave Gibbons. Some more images recently became available (thanks ebay!) so I swiped them for posterity and they can be found as follows...

a). issue 18 is here

b). issue 16 is here

c). issue 10 is here

d). issue 9 is here

e). issue 8 is here

f). issue 7 is here

and there's a Brian Bolland interviw (here) - from Arkensword fanzine 13/14 - but, wait, there's more!

In response to my posting Ron Tiner was kind enough to get in touch and relieve some of his memories of working on Powerman...

The Jango strip was drawn initially by Eric Bradbury. I had decided to try to get into comics art (I was teaching in a comprehensive school at the time) and on the advice of Dave Gibbons, I took some sample pages to Bardon Press Features in Farringdon Street. I happened to arrive when the manager, Barry Coker, was a bit desperate to find a replacement artist, because Eric had decided to go to an archery competition instead of drawing the upcoming episode and I turned up at his door like a not-quite-adequate answer to a prayer. I drew that episode, and then took on the art chores for alternate episodes after that. 

Here's Ron's work for Jango...

"Powerman" was being drawn by Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons at that time, but 2000AD was just preparing for publication just then and both Brian and Dave were beginning to do work for that new venture. So I inked one episode of "Powerman" for Brian and then took over that strip. Eventually the publication ceased - owing to the chaos following a military coup in Nigeria - after I had drawn 5 or 6 episodes of the Powerman character. I have about half a dozen issues - if there's anything I can provide from those , just ask. As far as I know, Ron Smith only drew one series for the other Nigerian comic that Pkin were publishing then - called "Pop" 

The Powerman comic was bought out by a South African company. who ran the strip, but had a tea company to "sponsor" it. Believe it or not, I was given the chore of drawing in extra frames on Dave's and Brian's stories, showing Powerman stopping for tea after every incident requiring physical action. "Aha!" he would say, "After that, what I need is a nice cup of tea". And he would sit down and whip out a thermos flask from under his cloak. No... I'm not making this up!

Here's Ron's cover for issue 39

Ron Tiner has commented further on the possible last issue of Powerman - his is the best info. we have so I'm going to plump for issue #35 being the last issue