UPDATED: Mandy Picture Library cover mystery

UPDATE (16/06/26): thanks to the help of several people the mystery has been solved!

It turns out that this was actually a rough for Judy Picture Library #226. By my calculations this was the February 1982 issue (issue #1 was May 1963). Thanks to Goof and Karen Ross.

Thanks also to Goof and Shaqui Le Vesconte for identifying the artist as Selby Donnison (biography here and here)

We can now confirm that the art I purchased was a rough as we can see several changes for the final artwork...

a). the logo!

b). the hair colour of the girl in the green jacket

c). the desks aren't in the final version

d). the hair colour of the 2nd girl (looking left to right)

Mandy Picture Library was still going strong in 1982 - it ran from 1978 to 1997 see here for more details - so I'm unclear why this wasn't used as a Judy PL cover.

This is a recent acquisition and is a bit of a mystery to me. It appears to be the cover for a Mandy picture library. BUT I've looked at all 277 covers of Mandy picture library and this isn't one of them. Perhaps it was an idea for a cover that never got used??

I also notice the 4 girls and instinctively wonder if they are supposed to be 'The 4 Mary's except that they appeared in Bunty not Mandy. There are 10 Bunty picture library issues that feature 'The 4 Mary's' and this isn't the cover for any of them.

Like I say, it's a mystery. Further hypotheses welcome!

Eric Parker - miscellaneous work, part 10 (of 23)

I've recently begun a lengthy series of blog posts all about renowned illustrator Eric Parker (check out his Wikipedia entry here) who had a 50 year (!) career as a comic illustrator.

I've looked at Roughs (part 1) here
Roughs (part 2) here
Roughs (part 3) here
Roughs (part 4) here
Female heads (part 1) here
Female heads (part 2) here
Female heads (part 3) here
Female heads (part 4) here
Pubs (part 1) here
Pubs (part 2) here

Overseas (part 1) here

Overseas (part 2) here

Overseas (part 3) here

Overseas (part 4) here

Overseas (part 5) here

Overseas (part 6) here

Overseas (part 7) here

Overseas (part 8) here

Overseas (part 9) here

Overseas (part 10) here

UK scenes (part 1) here

UK scenes (part 2) here

UK scenes (part 3) here

UK scenes (part 4) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 1) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 2) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 3) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 4) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 5) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 6) here

Life drawings (part 1) here

Life drawings (part 2) here

Life drawings (part 3) here

Life drawings (part 4) here

Life drawings (part 5) here

Life drawings (part 6) XXXX

Life drawings (part 7) here

Life drawings (part 8) here

Life drawings (part 9) here

Life drawings (part 10) here

Gentlemen is here

Horses (part 1) is here

Horses (part 2) is here

Furniture is here

Old soldiers (part 1) is here

Old soldiers (part 2) is here

Old soldiers (part 3) is here

Sexton Blake is here

More soldiers is here

And now we turn our attention to a final (albeit large selection of his work). Next up is his work on "miscellaneous". These are a variety of sizes - from the very small to the quite large.

Comic Cutz - the art of Barrie Mitchell (part 6)

The Barrie Mitchell exhibition that took place in Ryde in February 2026 had many highlights and a LOT of art. I tried to take photos of all the art but there was too much! Anyway, here's the start of a long series of posts all about the art that was there...

1). Harlem Heroes was here

2). paintings of cars was here

3). his work for Red Dwarf was here

4). some football art was here

5). some Dr Who art was here

Some more Dr Who art...

Excalibur auction - part 1

Some images from the recent auction of original comic art from Peter Hansen's amazing collection. This art was sold on Saturday 9th May 2026 by Excalibur auctions.

Dan Dare art by Ian Kennedy (from the cover of the 1988 Eagle holiday special)

Ron Turner art

Robert Nixon art

David Lloyd art from V for Vendetta

John M Burns art

Brian Bolland art

Dudley D Watkins art

UPDATED: Moebius - Titan Books reprints (part 1)

A recent acquisition of a Moebius book pushed me to the internet to track down what other volumes there are in this series - subtitled 'The collections fantasies of Jean Giraud'.

I seem to recall they were advertised for years in Comics International as remaindered books - this lack of interest now means that the books seem to be very expensive - prices from £30 upwards. Yikes. Good luck getting hold of an affordable set.

UPDATE (12th June 2026)

Turns out there was also a volume published called "1/2". Published in 1991 by Graphitti Graphic Designs - some more details here

UPDATE (30th May 2026) for completeness I'm adding in further volumes to this set that weren't published by Titan Books (but were by Epic). So that's volumes 0,7,8,9

Moebius, the forbidden work of Jean Giraud volume 0 - Dark Horse

currently available to buy here

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 1 - Titan Books

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 2 - Titan Books

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 3 - Titan Books

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 4 - Titan Books

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 5 - Titan Books

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 6 - Titan Books

There are more details on the Jean Giraud Wikipedia page here 

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 7 - Epic

currently available to buy here

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 8 - Epic

currently available to buy here

Moebius, the collected fantasies of Jean Giraud volume 9 - Epic

currently available to buy here

UPDATED: Beano and Dandy calendars

Following on from a previous post (here) about Oor Wullie calendars I realised that there must be other DC Thomson calendars out there so I set off to google Beano calendars - so here's my guide to collecting them...

Don't forget you can review Commando calendars here and Judge Dredd calendars here

UPDATE (11/06/26) now with added calendar (highlighted in red) as follows...

Beano for 2026; 

Beano and Dandy for 1995, 2012 & 2013;

Dennis & Gnasher for 2012

New material (2025 calendar) is highlighted in red but the summary of where I'm up to now is that I have images for calendars for 1986-2025 apart from 2013 and a 'skinny' 2005 calendar (assuming it exists). Of course there could be more out there so if I missed anything just let me know.

Beano calendar 1986

Beano calendar 1987

Beano calendar 1988

Beano calendar 1989

Beano calendar 1990

Beano calendar 1991

Interestingly the 1992 edition has a reference that says "Number 7" in the top right cover - indicating that this is the 7th edition of the calendar...

...hmmm, and the 1993 calendar says "Number 8"...

...hmmm, and the 1994 calendar says "Number 9"...

There was also a Beano and Dandy calendar for 1994

There was also a Beano and Dandy calendar for 1995

...think the 1995 one says 'number 10' in the top right corner

Finally found an image of the 1996 calendar (number 11 in the top right corner)...

Here's the 1997 calendar - you'll see from the back cover picture that this is (helpfully) number as number 12 so there must have been a calendar for 1996 (to be number 11)

The 1998 calendar

The 1999 calendar (left) and the envelope it came in (right)

The 2000 calendar (right) and the envelope it came in (left)

Finally the 2001 calendars have been identified - yay!

Here's the 2002 calendar

Another 2002 calendar

2003 calendar

Then 2004...

No 2005 calendar (I think!) so here's the 2006 edition... 

Hmmm, so for 2004 and 2006 it seems there were 2 calendars for Beano fans...

Here's a great collection of calendars...

The top row shows (in order) 2015, 2016, 2012 and 2014.

The bottom row shows (in order) Dandy Beano 2013 and then Beano 2017, 2011 and 2010.

So that's 2010-2017 in total

Here are some better images for that 2010 calendar

Dennis and Gnasher calendar 2012

...a slightly better look at the 2012 calendar

The Dandy, The Beano classic calendar 2012

The Dandy, The Beano classic calendar 2013

The 'skinny' 2013 calendar available from Marks & Spencer...

The 2015 calendar...

The 2016 calendar

The 2017 calendar...

...And then the Beano 2018 calendar...

...and here we are for 2019...

...and here's the Beano calendar offering for 2020...

and now here is the Beano calendar for 2021...

and now the Beano calendar for 2022...

and now the Beano calendar for 2023...

and now the Beano calendar for 2024...

and now the Beano calendar for 2025...

and now the Beano calendar for 2026...

In 2001 Beanobooks put out (at least) 3 calendars related to other characters...

Beano books also produced a Dandy calendar for 2002...

The Minnie the Minx and Dennis the Menace calendars at the bottom of the next image are new to me...

If you're interested in comic calendars then here are the links to the other calendar themes that I've covered...

1). Beano & Dandy calendars are here
2). Commando calendars are here
3). Judge Dredd calendars are here
4). Broons calendars are above
5). Oor Wullie is here
6). Dan Dare calendar is here
7). Miscellaneous calendars are here

8). Viz calendars are here

9). Asterix calendars are here

10). Andy Capp calendars are here

11). Tintin calendars are here