Heroes! The British invasion of American comics - part 7

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 7 of my look at what you missed...

Part 1 was here

Part 2 was here

Part 3 was here

Part 4 was here

Part 5 was here

Part 6 was here

Mick Austin - sales on HA

Just recording for posterity this selection of work by artist Mick Austin thta has been sold in the not too distant past on Heritage Auctions.com...

Mick Austin Fantastic Four Invisible Girl Illustration Original Art (Marvel UK, 1982). A large and beautiful portrait of Susan Storm, created in mixed media on a thick illustration board for an issue of the UK edition of Fantastic Four. Image area of 15.75" x 21.25". Light handling and corner/edge wear. Signed and dated. In Very Good condition.

Sold for $50 (or $79 with buyers premium)

Mick Austin Halls Of Horror #27 Cover Original Art (Quality Communications, 1983). This painting, created for the cover of an issue of the horror film and comics magazine Halls of Horror, evokes the films Jaws, Brides of Dracula, and The Night Stalker. It is rendered in mixed media on illustration board, mounted to a rigid backboard with adhesive tape at all four corners. Image area of 13.25" x 18.25". Light handling, corner/ edge wear. Signed and dated. In Very Good condition.

Sold for $380 (or $475 with buyers premium)

Mick Austin Halls of Horror Presents, Dracula Special #1 Cover Original Art (Dez Skinn, 1984). A bone-chilling portrait of Dracula, as portrayed by Christopher Lee in 1958's Horror of Dracula, rendered in mixed media on a thick illustration board with an image area of 12.5" x 17.5". Minor spots of light surface abrasion are present. Signed. Light handling wear. In Very Good condition.

Sold for $850 (or $1062.50 with buyers premium)

UPDATED: Redeye - Accent UK

To call Redeye a 'fanzine' might make you think of something a lot more amateur looking than it was. To call it a 'magazine' might make you think of glossy paper and full colour printing - and it didn't have that either. Instead, it sat someone in between those 2. A4 sized, colour covers, 60-100 pages long, absolutely jam-packed with news, reviews, interviews, retrospectives - with a real focus on British comics. Everything I could love in a magazine really. 

The fact that it was supposed to be quarterly but only came out about twice a year wasn't a problem because it was always full of stuff I wanted to read. It was printed with a really tiny font - thus meaning that it took even longer to get through your 60, 70, 80 pages of content.

All updates highlighted in red and c/o friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs.

Redeye, issue 1, November 2003, cover art by Martin Eden

Redeye, issue 2, May 2004, cover art by Neill Cameron, 68 pages

Key features...interviews with Jason Cobley, Frazer Irving. Also material on David Lloyd, Dan Dare and Dave Gibbons.

Redeye, issue 3, November 2004, cover art by Grant Springford, 64 pages

Key features...interviews with Alan Grant, Paul Cornell. Also material on Brian Bolland, Dan Dare and Bristol 2004 convention report. 

Redeye, issue 4, May 2005, cover art by David Hitchcock, 80 pages

Key features...interviews with Jock, David Hitchcock, Ian Edgington, D'Israeli, Leah Moore, John Reppion & Shane Oakley. Also material on Action and the 2000AD art of Carlos Ezquerra.

 

Redeye, issue 5, Jan 2006, cover art by David Bircham, 96 pages

Key features...interviews with Tharg, Ian Edgington and D'Israeli. Also material on Starlord, Alan Moore in 2000AD and convention reports.

Redeye, issue 6, January 2007, cover art by Tom Gauld, 98 pages

Key features...interviews with Tom Gauld, Steve Yeowell and Lee Kennedy. Also material on the 2000AD art of Mike McMahon, the story of V for Vendetta and the Judge Dredd story 'Origins'. 

Redeye, volume 2.1 [wraparound cover] - pdf copy only

Redeye, volume 2.2 - never published but this is what would have been in it (due September 2009)

Heritage auctions - London, part 2

Here's a few images from the recent event (11th Feb 2026) at the Heritage Auctions gallery in central London. Event seemed to go well - they've promised to organise more! 

Art is up for auction at either auction 7461 (here) or 7462 (here) at the end of Feb/start of March. Good luck if you bid!

Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing page

Some (!) comics

Todd McFarlane art up for grabs

Alex Ross artwork

Peanuts by Charles Schultz

Simon Bisley (centre) in conversation with Tim Pilcher (right)

snacks!

The complete Starlord - volume 1

Now available to order here on Amazon UK is "The complete Starlord archive (volume 1)". Publication date is 19th November 2026, contains issues 1-12 and the Starlord summer special.

Heritage auctions - London, part 1

Here's a few images from the recent event (11th Feb 2026) at the Heritage Auctions gallery in central London. Event seemed to go well - they've promised to organise more! 

Art is up for auction at either auction 7461 (here) or 7462 (here) at the end of Feb/start of March. Good luck if you bid!

Judge Dredd megazine cover by Dean Ormston

John Byrne Superman / Joker cover

Lee Elias cover art for 'Chamber of Chills'

John Bolton 

UPDATED: Old Boys Books - bibliographies etc

I really, really don't need to start another collection...BUT I am prepared to give room on the blog for a listing of bibliographical material related to the 'Old Boys Book' genre. These were text based rather than comic strip based so I've never collected the original material or the many fanzines that the genre spawned.

I don't pretend that this is any way a complete listing, it's just stuff I've come across recently on eBay and you've got to start somewhere. I'll add more titles as I go along. For this update it's some Frank Richards material...

UPDATE: all updates highlighted in red

Nelson Lee library - 7 pages, dated July 1961

Letters to a friend from Frank Richards (published by Museum Press)

one day I'll have enough time to look properly at all the book published by Museum Press. But not today.

The letters of Frank Richards

Sexton Blake catalogue (1966) - according to this source

supplement to the Sexton Blake catalogue (1971) - according to this source

the same Wikipedia page also lists a 2nd edition of the catalogue as having been published in 1993

The Nelson Lee library - Edwy Searles Brooks

the seller notes that this is 116 pages long and minutely detailed

This (below) look like the first edition of the above book. Described thus...

Published by the Old Boys' Book Club with an introduction by Bob Blythe, who seemed to run the club at the time, or at least heavily involved. The guide has orange card covers and approx 60 pages inside, packed with information on Nelson Lee. 

90 glorious years

A celebration of 90 years of the GEM and the MAGNET and a tribute to the life & works of Eric Fayne, the editor of Story Paper Collectors' Digest from 1959 to 1987. A great, profusely illustrated B&W 200 page book

John Nix Pentelow, 1872-1931

a relatively scarce fanzine for the Magnet Library. Printed in 1976 by the 'Cambridge Old Boys Book Club' and focusses on the life of John Nix Pentelow. Contributions from Jack Overhill, Bill Lofts, Deryck Harvey, Danny Posner, W.J.A. Hubbard and W.H. Broster