Ally Sloper #2 - Kev O'Neill & Harry Bishop

From the pages of Ally Sloper magazine #2 (October 1976) comes this early piece of Kev O'Neill artwork...

and here's the issue to Ally Sloper #2 - cover by renowned western artist Harry Bishop

Ally Sloper #4

From the pages of Ally Sloper magazine #4 (January 1977) artwork by two of the American great - Al Williamson and Jack Kirby - both with their take on Ally himself

The adventures of Captain Cosmic

Came across this in a charity shop recently for 99p, hardback annual 48 pages - an independently produced (i.e. not by DC Thomson, Grandreams, Fleetway etc.) annual is always an oddity, so was intrigued enough to pick it up.

Looks good!

The flowers of Hell - update

Thanks for all the feedback on Michael Moorcock / Howard Chaykin, I thought that Moorcock's introduction (to The Swords of Heaven, the Flower of Hell) would be of interest...

rear cover of the book

Transformers - Earthforce

Book 4 (and the last I have) in this series of 5 reprints by Titan Books - this was published in November 2005. In Earthforce, Optimus Prime realises that having brought the war to earth, the Autobots must protect humanity...but with the hard-headed, battle-hungry Dinobot, Grimlock, in charge, the heroes may be even more dangerous than the villains!

Stories are credited as being from the following issues:
261-267, 269, 271, 278-281, 234 & 228

Stories are as follows:
Starting Over! - script by Simon Furman; art by Staz
Two steps back! - script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman
Break-away! - script by Simon Furman; art by Staz
Desert island risks! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
Once upon a time - uncredited
Life in the slow lane - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
Snow Fun - script by Simon Furman; art by Jeff Anderson
Mystery! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
The living nightlights! - script by Simon Furman; art by John Marshall & Stephen Baskerville
The house that Wheeljack built! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Michael Eve
Divide and conquer! - script by Simon Furman; art by Staz
The 4,000,000 year itch - script by Simon Furman; art by Jeff Anderson
Makin' tracks! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Michael Eve
Prime's Rib! - script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman
[Double] Deal of the century! - script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman

David Lynch draws comics

To celebrate the new series of Twin Peaks airing this week I've fished out the enclosed...

The gimmick/idea was that the same illustrations were used in each episode with only the dialogue changing. Can't think why the idea hasn't really caught on.
A few more strips are available here

Transformers - Fallen Star

Here's book 3 (of) in the Titan Book Transformers reprint, this volume from September 2005

All the books highlight that the strips are taken from Marvel UK's Transformers title issues 219-222, 229, 237-239, 272-247, 282-283 & 249-50 - but as I don't have these I can't tell which issues the following stories originally appeared in...

Race with Devil - script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman

Fallen star - script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman

Mind games - script by Simon Furman; art by Staz
Two Megatrons! - script by Simon Furman; art by Geoff Senior
Flashback! - script by Simon Furman; art by Stephen Baskerville & John Marshall
The bad guys ball! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Michael Eve
Secrets - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
Bugged - script by Simon Furman; art by Jeff Anderson & Michael Eve
Internal Affairs! - script by Simon Furman; art by Simon Coleby & Michael Eve
Assassins - script by Simon Furman; art by Jeff Anderson & Michael Eve                                     External forces! - script by Simon Furman; art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
The lesser evil- script by Simon Furman; art by John Marshall & Jeff Anderson 

Transformers - Way of the Warrior

I've recently acquired 3 (from a series of 5) small (smaller than A5) Marvel UK Transformers reprints, published by Titan Books in July 2005, to encourage you to seek them out I'm going to list the contents of each book so you can see what you are missing out on...

All the books highlight that the strips are taken from Marvel UK's Transformers title issues 219-222, 229, 237-239, 272-247, 282-283 & 249-50 - but as I don't have these I can't tell which issues the following stories originally appeared in...

Survivors! (part 1) - script by Simon Furman, art by Dan Reed
Survivors! (part 2) - script by Simon Furman, art by Dan Reed
Survivors! (part 3) - script by Simon Furman, art by John Stokes
Survivors! (part 4) - script by Simon Furman, art by John Stokes
The hunting party - script by Simon Furman, art by Simon Coleby
Way of the warrior - script by Simon Furman, art by Simon Coleby
Survival run - script by Simon Furman, art by Lee Sullivan
Savage Place - script by Simon Furman, art by Geoff Senior
Cry Wolf! - script by Simon Furman, art by Pete Knifton & Michael Eve
Wolf in the fold - script by Simon Furman, art by Staz
Where wolf? - script by Simon Furman, art by Stephen Baskerville & Jeff Anderson
Shut up! - script by Simon Furman, art by Staz
Manoeuvres! - script by Simon Furman, art by Pete Knifton & Pete Venters
Whose lifeforce is it anyway? - script by Simon Furman, art by Staz
Greatest gift of all!- script by Simon Furman, art by Staz

All in all about 80 pages of comicy goodness in a book that you can very nearly stuff in your pocket, more small reprints please!

Any Michael Moorcock fans out there?

...if so, can you help? I picked this up recently out of curiosity and I am wondering whether there are any other similar volumes?

It's "Heavy Metal presents" so I'm assuming it's a reprint from that magazine and it certainly contains a fair smattering of naked ladies. Anyway, googling "Michael Moorcock" brings up a lot of things I'm not interested in so any pointers gratefully received.

Comic price guides - the early years

Before Duncan McAlpine's enormous '90s price guides to British comics there were some earlier, less well-known publications

Here's the earliest one...published by Alan Austin in 1975...this covers US comic distributed in the UK after 1959 (before this distribution was too sporadic or non-existent). For comparison purposes let's track the price of one issues in all these volumes to see how prices changed, let's pick the first appearance of Spiderman in Amazing Fantasy #15 (mint condition) valued at £15.

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is the 4th edition and is undated. 

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is from February 1979 and Amazing Fantasy is up to £120. 

Chronologically next up is Denis Gifford's effort - although his effort is clearly focussed on British comics and should be seen as a pre-cursor for his later catalogues

Alan Austin then came back in 1983 with an updated comic guide. Amazing Fantasy #15 is now up to £300

According to my notes there was another price guide for 1979 (priced at 75p) but I can't seem to identify it - do you have a copy? Are there are other price guides that I've missed? Leave a comment here or on facebook.

Enid Blyton's adventure magazine cover gallery (4)

The final selection of these proto-graphic novels...

Issue 13 - adapted by Gail Renard & Les Lilley; art by Phil Gascoine

Issue 14 - adapted by Gail Renard & Les Lilley; art by Mike Dorey

Issue 15 - adapted by Gail Renard & Les Lilley; art by John Ridgway

Issue 16 - adapted by Gail Renard & Les Lilley; art by John Richardson

Enid Blyton's adventure magazine cover gallery (3)

Back to this series I didn't finish showing last week...

Issue 9 adapted by Gail Renard and Les Lilley - art by Mike Dorey

Issue 10 adapted by Gail Renard and Les Lilley - art by John Ridgway

Issue 11 adapted by Gail Renard and Les Lilley - art by John Richardson

Issue 12 adapted by Gail Renard and Les Lilley - art by Bert Hill

Cricket annuals (3)

So as well as Denis Compton being famous enough to have a series of annuals published I wondered what other cricketers might have had this privilege conferred on them...

1983 (above)

1984 (below)

Sadly I'm not sure the equivalent annual exists today, so no annual for Kevin Pietersen, Ben Stokes or Joe Root any time soon I fear :(

One last one though, this one (from 1980) not apparently featuring Ian Botham at all...

Cricket annuals (2)

After my last post about cricket annuals / books I had a sudden revelation that I should be searching under the name of famous cricketers and lo and behold I found the following...

I think this is the first Denis Compton annual (1951)

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

with apologies to Amazon, Abebooks and ebay - from where all these scans are sourced

Leopard from Lime Street - limited edition

Rebellion's new "Treasury of British Comics" is now open for business here and the highlight of the (limited) range they have on sale is the limited edition Leopard from Lime Street reprint. The book includes numbered bookplate and art print.

After being scratched by a radioactive leopard, young Billy Farmer soon discovered that he had acquired the strength, agility and senses of the mighty jungle cat. Creating a costume to disguise his identity, Billy became the masked vigilante known as the ‘Leopard-Man’ – Selbridge’s premier crime fighter. Living with his aunt and mean uncle in a small house on Lime Street, Billy juggles his time between schoolwork and saving lives, earning some money on the side as a freelance photographer for the Selbridge Sun .
Created by Tom Tully, Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, The Leopard from Lime Street, is the crown jewel of British superhero comic strips.

Best of all this volume is being advertised as book 1 - further volumes must therefore be in the pipeline!

You can pre-order the limited edition (of 200) here for £22.99 plus postage
You can pre-order the regular edition here for £14.99 plus postage

Release date is noted as 12th July.

Cricket annuals (1)

Since Summer is nearly upon us my thoughts turn to my favourite sport...cricket. Here's a selection of cricket annual to get you in the mood (!) for the Summer..

covers (above and below) by John Gillatt

Have I missed any other annuals - can you help? I'd also be interested in cricket strips, again, details welcomed

Andersonic issue 22 now avilable

Issue 22 of ace Gerry Anderson fanzine Andersonic is now out, I've always this A5 fanzine to be extremely professionally produced and proof that print it not dead! I tend to buy the issues with a "comic heavy" focus but like I say, it's well worth supporting and I though it would be of interest to people here...

Issue 22 is now available www.andersonic.co.uk (and eBay for a short period in the Collectibles > SF > Thunderbirds section) and features the following:-

David Palmer interview - David talks about his time in the Century 21 effects workshop on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and UFO, along with tales of Thomas the Tank Engine, Derek Meddings' Colt 45 and miniature astronauts. Plus photos of the original VG-104 miniature from Joe 90 as it is today.

Archive: In 1993 Chris Drake interviewed Gerry Anderson for his book 'UFO and Space: 1999'. In the second part of the interview Gerry candidly discusses Space: 1999.

Parker Goes to Halifax - Stephen La Riviere writes about the making of the recent Thunderbirds TV advert for the Halifax Building Society.. 

Spirituality in the 21st Century - A look at how the Anderson series addressed this subject, from the Christmas episodes of the puppet series to the more agnostic outlook of Space: 1999's first series

Kit Conversion - how to build your own Red Arrow jet from Thunderbirds/ Edge of Impact

Space: 1999/ Breakaway - Mark Braxton revisits the explosive opening episode

UFO/ The Psychobombs - Mike Coldwell takes another look at a favourite instalment of UFO 

Pop-Up Props - Spotting the use of shop-bought toys in Stingray  

Reviews - Invasion UFO and UFO Blu-rays along with Fanderson's Space 1999 Year 2 soundtrack and Ed Bishop interview CDs.

  

Strip Story - A look at the UFO comic strip 'Voyage of Disaster' from TV Action back in 1972.

... plus art by Richard Smith and some other stuff

Issue 22 comprises 44 pages with colour inner & outer covers.

If you'd prefer to pay by cheque or PO, please get in touch for the new postal address. Back issues are also (mostly) in print.

Free Comic Book Day 2017 - 2000ad

For anyone who missed out of the excitement of Free Comic Book Day last weekend (Saturday 6th May), I just wanted to highlight the 2000ad free comic as it highlights some classic British characters that have joined Rebellion stable this year, and who we can, hopefully, look forward to seeing more of in 2017 and beyond.

Here's the cover...

And the page in question...

Can you remember them all?

Copies were available, well, for free, on the day - then quite cheaply afterwards (mine cost 99p from evilbay - and that including postage) but now are up to the £5-£6 mark.

Striker reprint volumes - more to come

Striker volume 1 was released, if I recall correctly just before Christmas 2016...

As we know volume 2 is currently is now available for pre-order at the Striker shop here and it looks great...

Entitled Thamesford to Warbury, it’s another quality heavyweight hardback of nearly 300 pages, featuring every Striker episode from the start of the colour strips in 1990 to the early Warbury adventures in 1994. As with the first book, there’s an introduction by Striker creator Pete Nash with his thoughts and memories from that particular period in Striker’s fascinating history. There are two purchase options: £25 (including post & packing) for an unsigned copy or £30 for a signed copy.

Books will be dispatched around the end of May 2017

Pete Nash has previously released some story details...

The Trouble With Theresa (conclusion) – what will happen to Nick’s new wife?

Burn-out – Nick joins a sinister Italian club where success really is a matter of life and death.

Falling Star– Nick’s new rival has his finger on the self-destruct button.

Deadly Ambition – enter Rodney Crampton, Thamesford’s murderous new owner.

Micky Mulligan’s Comeback – a hard-man defender comes out of retirement but hides a secret from Nick.

The Boy From Ballygilpaddy – Nick comes up against the IRA in Northern Ireland.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE
The new printer Pete has found means that he can basically print to order so it looks like they'll only be about 90 copies printed over and above what has already been ordered, and once they're gone, that's it. It also means that future volumes are unlikely to have such a quantity of 'spares' available for people who don't pre-order. 

Pete has also released the expected publication dates for the next 2 volumes...Volume 3 is expected out at the end of August 2017 and Volume 4 at the end of November 2017. Sounds good to me.