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15 July 2026

Eric Parker - miscellaneous work, part 12 (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
Miscellaneous is here
Layouts & scenes is here

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












14 July 2026

UPDATED: - Fusion covers

I'm grateful to Andrew Wolf for bringing these fanzine to my attention. He did so over on the "Fans of Alan Davis" Facebook page (here). I've not seen other covers for Fusion so if you can help me out with other images that'd be great. Andrew says 9 issues all with a print run of less than 200 copies.

UPDATE (21/07/26); now with covers for issues 1 & 3 added (thanks to friend of the blog Andrew Wolf - check out his Miracleman blog on Tumblr here)

UPDATE (01/07/26); with thanks to Comics Tony & Ewan Brownlow for their feedback on the original post. Updated with covers for issues 4, 6 & 7.

Fusion fanzine, #1, 30p
cover by Alex Breadner

Fusion fanzine, #2, 30p
cover by Alan Davis

Fusion fanzine, #3, 30p
front cover art by Mark King

back cover art by Grant Morrison

Fusion fanzine, #4, 30p
cover by Grant Morrison

Fusion fanzine, #5, 40p
cover by Alan Davis

Fusion fanzine, #6, 30p
cover by Grant Morrison

Fusion fanzine, #7, 40p
cover by Tony O'Donnell

13 July 2026

Jim Baikie - Orkney exhibition, part 9

For approximately the umpteenth time I'm indebted to Norman Boyd for his help with this blog. This time he was kind enough to send me some of his holiday photos from a recent trip to the Orkneys. 

Whilst there he was able to visit the exhibition all about the local artist that was on (from 03/05/25 - 21/09/25) at the Orkney museum in Kirkwall. Comics artist Jim Baikie was the focus of the exhibition. Norman took a lot of photos so I'll spread them over a number of posts, enjoy!   

Part 1 was here
Part 2 was here
Part 3 was here
Part 4 was here
Part 5 was here
Part 6 was here
Part 7 was here
Part 8 was here












12 July 2026

Excalibur auctions - part 2

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.

Part 1 was here

Just some more images from the auction - including this fantastic Dan Dare handkerchief









11 July 2026

SSI journal - 1985

I've looked before at all things to do with the SSI (Society of Strip Illustration) here and I like the newsletters they produced BUT these were produced in very low quantities so you stand virtually no chance of collecting a set. 

I've looked at some examples of the SSI journal for 
1992 here 
1981 here
1982 here
1983 here
and for other years I'm just going to collect images for the covers as and when they come up for sale on ebay. Over time we might end up with a full (??) set. So here's the start of a covers gallery for SSI journal for 1985...

SSI journal, June 1985

SSI journal, October 1985
originally for sale c/o here

SSI journal, November 1985
c/o friend of the blog Andrew Wolf


10 July 2026

Z comic - issue 4

I've looked previously at Z comic (from the Zodiac toy shop chain - see this blog here all about this leading toy shop of the 1980s)...
Issue 1 - part 1 was here
Issue 1 - part 2 was here
Issue 2 was here
Issue 3 was here

and now I've finally found a cover image for the 4th, and final, issue. Good luck tracking this one down!

A4 sized, 48 pages, full colour throughout.
Contributors include Mark Hannon, Craig Dixon, Mike Gibas, Leslie Kett, Z. Lagowski, George Nicholas, Simon Dixon, Peter Holman-Read, Peter Reading and more.

9 July 2026

UPDATED: British Cartoon Archive publications

I've (somehow!) never actually been to the British Cartoon Archive (more detail on its history here ) or (until very recently anyway) never owned any of its publications.

The EH Shephard catalogue was recently gifted to me by friend of the blog Eamonn Clarke (check out the essential listening podcast that is Mega City Book Club here) and it inspired to start looking into what other publications they've produced over the years.

This is surely a very incomplete list but you've got to start somewhere! Any further example would be very welcome.

One new addition to the listing for this post...
Centre for the study of cartoons and caricature, Bulletin, October 1979
I recently spotted this on ebay and know very little about it. I've no idea how (ir)regularly these bulletins were published. Any further information gratefully received.

One new addition to the listing for this post...
an exhibition from 1986

There was also apparently a Handbook [to the cartoon classification, 1976]

One new addition to the listing for this post...
I'm grateful for this website for the above image. This 16 page booklet was another of the earliest publications by the Archive.

Two new additions to the listing for this post...
Stabbed in the Front: Post-war General Elections  Through Political Cartoons, by Alan Mumford, published in 2001

Published by the University of Kent at Canterbury showcasing many of the exhibits from the Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature that were put together for a touring exhibition around the UK and part of France. Bi-lingual publication from 1992.


Two new additions to the listing for this post...
Getting Them in Line: An Exhibition of Caricature in Cartoon opened on Friday 31st October 1975 to mark the inauguration of the Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, published by University of Kent at Canterbury in 1975.

Beaverbrook's England 1940-1965: An exhibition of cartoon originals (1981)
An Exhibition Of Newspaper Cartoon Originals by Michael Cummings, David Low, icky & Sidney "George" Strube
Introduction by A.J.P Taylor 
University Of Kent - 1981 

EH Shepard exhibition, University of Kent, Summer 1974, A4 sized, 36 pages (including covers), A4 sized, black & white art throughout.

Political cartoons of 1998

Giles - one of the family