Search This Blog

19 August 2026

UPDATED: Cartoon Aid

I've looked before at publications associated with the Cartoon Aid charity (like Band Aid but with more cartoons and less Bob Geldof) - if you missed them they are as follows...

a). the Olympic book is here
b). Bryan Hitch's work in the Kidz book is here
c). Mike Collin's work in the Kidz book is here
d). Terry & Sheila Bave's work in the Kidz book is here
e). Simon Donald's work in the Kidz book is here
f). Cartoon Aid auction at Sotheby's & a festival in Margate is here
g). Waddington's jigsaw (from the Margate festival is here)
h). Scare Bears monster party book is here 
i). a REALLY big tome called Cartoon Aid here 
j). the 'Loadsa Funnies' telethon book featuring Judge Dredd art by Jim Baikie is here
k). same book but a Dredd strip by John Wagner & Mike Collins is here
l). same book but art by Bryan Hitch and Reg Smythe is here
m). same book but art by Davy Francis is here
n). same book but contributions by humour artists is here
o). same book - contributions by John M Burns, Dave Gibbons and others is here

I've started looking at some of the contents of this big book, so far I've looked at Asterix (here and here) and then I've found that there is some DC Thomson material in there (here) and then I've found some Achille Talon material (here) and some Look-In (here). The Lucky Luke material is here

There was also a t-shirt here

There was also a Dutch version of the book here

Then there were more Olympic volumes XXXXX

Then there was the "white volume, carry case and GOSH cartoon book" here

It turns out there was another style of carry case available too...




18 August 2026

Commando at the National Army Museum (2011) - part 1

Looking through some of photos the other day I came across a bunch from 2011 that had somehow never been recycled onto the blog. To make up for that here's my first batch of images from the 2011/12 Commando themed exhibition that ran at the National Army Museum (in London's Chelsea). My original review for it is here


Here's the Commando team - Calum Laird on the left, Scott Montgomery in the middle and George Low on the right.







17 August 2026

David Sque, Yvonne Hutton & Tom Tully

I'm indebted to friend of the blog David Sque for providing these two photos. David says "These were taken at a ROTR race meeting when I was racing Super Karts"

Davis is on the left here (with Roy of the Rovers on the back of his jacket).
On the right is Roy artist Yvonne Hutton. I've never seen a photo of Yronne before so this is a rare treat for all Roy fans.
In the middle is Yvonne's husband

On the left is comics writer Tom Tully and it's David Sque again wearing a hat and leathers. As David points out "...that's Martin's Marvellous Mini behind me".


16 August 2026

Colin Curly comic collection

Friend of the blog Lee Grice was kind enough to share these images of the rare "Colin Curly comic collection" with me. Good luck tracking this one down! 









Here's the complete listing of characters appearing in the collection...



15 August 2026

Tank Girl - test cover

Here's a rare piece of Tank Girl themed merch that I spotted for sale on ebay the other day. The description said "Possibly 5 printed for a convention, never sold" this was an Alternate Test Cover Book 1 Anniversary Edition Signed. Rare doesn't even begin to cover it!





14 August 2026

Comic Cutz - the art of Barrie Mitchell (part 10)

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
6). some more Dr Who art was here
7). yet more Dr Who art was here
8). even more Dr Who art was here
9). a final selection of Dr Who art was here

Here's some examples of his Marks Brothers art...









13 August 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 Bears, Scare Bears and Were Bears...

UPDATE (13th August 2026)
My look at Z comic issue #3 is here - this contains a 4 page Star Bears strip ("Born under a bad sign"); 2 pages of 3 panel gag strips featuring the Scare Bears; a 4 pages Scare Bears strip (untitled but based around a skeleton needing a coat) 

My look at Z comic issue #4 is here - this contains a 6 page Star Bears strip ("Born under a bad sign") and an untitled 2 page Scare Bears strip (no title but based around Old Father Time and Medusa)

UPDATE (25th July 2026)...here's a packet of glow-in-the-dark stickers (available, at the time of typing, here for £59.99)




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
10). Star Bears - 6 pages, (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