Mek Memoirs #1 - Kev O'Neill

I'm always happy to feature Kev O'Neill's work here on the blog (click here for all previous mentions of the great man) and I recently spotted the below on the Gosh! comics ebay account (here)...

...yes, it's a copy of (the original) Mek Memoirs #1 by Kev. This particular copy sold for £97.51

This is an original printing (NOT the Dark and Golden facsimile Edition) of Mek Memoirs in high grade from Kevin O’Neill’s personal collection. Gosh! Comics is selling this copy on behalf of Kevin’s estate. Extremely rare, this piece of comics history has been notoriously difficult to purchase in recent years and certainly not found in this grade often, likely untouched since printing. The comic itself is the Urtext for British science fiction robot comics, predating ABC Warriors and used by Kevin to convince Pat that robots had a place in 2000AD, Pat’s hatred for Robot Archie being legendary. We will mail this boarded and bagged in a cardboard mailer, tracked! 

“See the future history of robot warfare captured on video for the very first time. Von Kruppenstein! The Crusher! The Killdozers! Take a peek at the horrible world to come in searing battle action! This acerbic end of the world comedy is an unmissable look at a war you never want to see happen! This robot conflict urtext set the stage for the comics sci-fi revolution that was just around the corner."

Art by Kevin O’Neill, story by Chris Lowder writing as Jack Adrian.

Heroes! The British invasion of American comics - part 5

Recently (ish!) finished at the Cartoon Museum (here) was their exhibition 'Heroes! The British invasion of American comics'. 

For anyone who couldn't make it here's part 5 of my look at what you missed...

Part 1 was XXXXX

Part 2 was XXXXX

Part 3 was XXXXX

Part 4 was XXXXX

UPDATED: Cartoon museum publications

I've long wanted to catalogue publications that the Cartoon Museum (here) (and its previous incarnation as Cartoon Art Trust) have published. I'm not sure how many there are out there but this is my way of starting to finding out!

Update - I've added a few more catalogues this time - albeit without images. Hopefully they'll be added over time as I acquire the catalogues.

The art of Laughter - The Ashmolean museum (1992)

Giles - 50 years of work for Express Newspapers (dates unknown)

Lottery laughter - an anthology of Lottery cartoons (exhibition dates TBC but thought to be 1999)

The 100 British Cartoonists of the century (exhibition 26th Feb - 12th April 2000)

Flotsam and Jensen: Celebrating 55 Years of Cartooning, Illustration and Caricature (2002?)

The art of leaving out : Phil May 1864-1903, a centenary exhibition (2002)

Cartoon Art Trust Museum/University of Gloucestershire, 2002

24 pages

Mixture of Gin and Buttercups: a Retrospective Exhibition of the Cartoons and Caricatures of Michael Ffolkes at the Cartoon Art Trust Museum : 4 September - 1 November 2003

Thelwell country (exhibition 6th January - 6th February 2004)

Grin and Blair it! (exhibition 27th October - 18th December 2004)

Mars in their eyes (exhibition dates TBC but thought to be 2006)

A view of Dightons - the Dighton family, their time, caricatures and portraits (2007?)

Heath Robinson's helpful solutions (exhibition 5 July - 7 October 2007)

Eurobollocks! (exhibition 10 October 2007 - 20 January 2008) 

Pont - observing the British at home & abroad (exhibition 23 April - 27 July 2008)

A peep into clubland (exhibition 18th February - 3rd May 2009)

Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! (exhibition 6th May - 26th July 2009)

Ronald Searle - graphic master (exhibition 3rd March - 4th July 2010)

Bell époque - 30 years of Steve Bell (exhibition 25th May - 24th July 2011)

HM Bateman - the man who went mad on paper (exhibition 11th April - 22nd July 2012)

Steadman @ 77, (exhibition 1 May - 8 September 2013)

The Windsor tapestry (exhibition, 16th November 2024 - 30th March 2025

Care Bears - Marvel UK

I've not got house room for every interesting comic I come across. For the Marvel UK Care Bears comics I like the covers more than I suspect I'd like the interiors! 

Anyway, I swiped this image of a recent auction lot just to record for posterity the existence of official Care Bears comics binders. 

Lawless 2025 - the photos, part 11

For anyone (like me!) who thinks it'a a very long time to wait until Lawless 2026 here's some photos of Lawless 2025 to help keep you going until May 2026.

Simon Bisley prints were here

More prints & Bisley paintings were here

Bisley pencil work is here

Original comic art for sale here

Brian Bolland was here

The convention floor was here

Guests were here

More guests were here

Henry Flint was here

A miscellany of images was here

and now a 2nd miscellany of images...

Rare 2000AD stuff up for sale...

Dinosaurs in the lift (obviously)

Dave Broughton 

MC2

The Midlands Comic Collective produced at least 2 issues of their "MC2" anthology in the early 2000s.

The 'red' issue [so called so that I can differentiate it from the other issue to which it bears a very close resemblance] has a red background to the MC2 title. There's a list of contributors below - including Hunt Emerson, John McCrea, Laura Howell and plenty more...96 pages (excluding covers), slightly bigger than US comic format, b+w art throughout.

The blue issue features "new comic stories by the Midlands Comic Collective" but as I don't have this issue to hand I can't supply a list of stories / contributors. If you can help then do just let me know, thanks!

Ally Sloper - Walter Bell

I'm just recording for posterity the existence of this page of Ally Sloper art from issue #2 of Denis Gifford's 1976 Ally Sloper comic. 

It was sold for £66 by ace ebay seller phil-comics (here) on 11th May 2025