Search This Blog

2 May 2026

UPDATED: Big Value Comic (1995)

Big Value Comic was a short-lived (just 18 issues in total) all reprint comic from 1995 featuring material from BusterWhizzer and Chips, Whoopee and Big Comic Fortnightly

UPDATE (02/05/26); now with covers added for issues 10, 12 & 14. All images taken from here

UPDATE (07/04/26); now with covers added for issues 5, 7 & 8. All images taken from here

Here's my (incomplete) covers gallery...

Big Value comic #1, February 24th 1995

Big Value comic #2, March 10th 1995

Big Value comic #3, March 24th 1995

Big Value comic #4, April 7th 1995

Big Value comic #5, April 21st 1995

Big Value comic #6, May 5th 1995



Big Value comic #7, May 19th 1995

Big Value comic #8, June 2nd 1995

Big Value comic #9, June 16th 1995
image not to hand - can you help?

Big Value comic #10, June 30th 1995

Big Value comic #11, July 14th 1995


Big Value comic #12, July 28th 1995


Big Value comic #13, August 11th 1995

Big Value comic #14, August 25th 1995


Big Value comic #15, September 8th 1995
image not to hand - can you help?

Big Value comic #16, September 22nd 1995

Big Value comic #17, October 6th 1995
image not to hand - can you help?

Big Value comic #18, October 20th 1995
image not to hand - can you help?

1 May 2026

UPDATED: All the Bears

There's a story to be unpicked somewhere about all the following characters and, right now, I'm not sure how it all hangs together so I just need to start somewhere by working out all the instances of the character appearances that I've found so far.

The characters are Star BearsScare Bears and Were Bears...

UPDATE (01/05/26): Here's a 48 page long, full colour, A4 sized comic that I've never seen before...

and here's the back page...

So the comic contents are as follows...
1). front cover - 1 page
2). Scare Bears meet the St. John badgers - 2 pages, new material
3). Star Bears - 4 pages, (reprinted from Zodiac comic #1)
4). Scare Bears - 4 pages, (reprinted from Zodiac comic #1)
5). Scare Bears - 12 pages
6). Star Bears - 4 pages, (reprinted from Zodiac comic #2)
7). map of the events going on in Hyde Park that day - 2 pages
8). Star Bears - 4 pages, (reprint from Zodiac comic #3)
9). Scare Bears - 4 pages, (possible reprint from Zodiac comic #4)
10). Star Bears - 6 pages, (possible reprint from Zodiac comic #4)
11). Scare Bears - 3 pages, reprinted from Zodiac comic #2
12). advert - 1 page
13). rear cover - 1 page


UPDATED: I've found an image of the Scare Bears stickers (25 in a pack for 24p!) so I've added that in below...

1). Star Bears 
Created by Craig Dixon and Matt Gibas
Here and here I looked at Z comic...

...which has 4 pages of Star Bears content...

...and then there was the sticker book (here)

And in this book there's a 6 page strip...
Here's an example page...


2). Scare Bears 
Illustrated by Craig Dixon and Matt Gibas
Illustrated by George Nicholas
This featured in the sticker book (here)




Here and here I looked at Z comic...

which featured a 4 page Scare Bears strip


there was also the Scare Bears monster party book that I looked at here

The Scare Bear also feature on the cover of 'Cartoon Aid' which I looked at here

and this has two newspaper style strips


plus this full-colour 12-page strip (illustrated by George Nicholas - my list of his work here)

3). 
Were Bears
 
another comic from George Nicholas - which I looked at in more detail here - a title from 1990/1. So I'm assuming that the Scare Bears evolved into Were bears




30 April 2026

Eric Parker - miscellaneous work, part 7 (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

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









29 April 2026

Comic Cutz - the art of Barrie Mitchell (part 3)

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

His work for Red Dwarf the smegazine...