UPDATED: James Peaty writes Warhammer

Listening to the Mega City Book Club on the way to work this week I heard Eamonn talking to James Peaty (@JamesPeaty1575) about his early comic writing work on Warhammer comic. So, I thought I'd fish out the issues that James contributed to so that you'll all know what to look out for...

Updated items are shown in red

His contributions are as follows:
#62 = The '19ers (illustrated by David Millgate)
#64 = The '19ers
#65 = The '19ers
#57 = The '19ers
#68 = The '19ers
#79 = Quarry (illustrated by John Stokes)
#80 = Quarry 
#81 = Quarry 
#83 = Hammerbildt (illustrated by Gary Erskine)
#84 = Hammerbildt

#85 = Hammerbildt

Warhammer monthly #62

Warhammer monthly #64

Warhammer monthly #65

Warhammer monthly #68

Warhammer monthly #79

 Warhammer monthly #80

Warhammer monthly #81

Warhammer monthly #83

Warhammer monthly #84

Warhammer monthly #85

Black Library also published a more text heavy magazine, Inferno, and this also had some of James's work in. I don't have a full collection of Inferno (I'm currently missing issues 28, 40 and 46) but apart from those I've been through the rest of my collection and found the following...

Inferno #42 (May / June 2004) - 'Blood cried for blood'

Inferno #43 (July / August 2004) - 'The cuckoo of Hammerbilt'

The Valiant book of mystery & magic, 1976 - part 2

I looked (here) at 'The Valiant book of mystery & magic 1976' and one strip in particular stands out, "The final victim"...

The art is by Joe 'Charley's war' Colquhoun so that's pretty good and the script is by Pat Mills & Derek Cribbling (who he?)

What stands out is that the (managing) editor is called "JJ Legrun" - I'd humbly suggest that this is a play on legendary IPC editor "Jack Le Grand".

I guess the question is is the artist, as drawn, Joe Colquhoun?

The other point to note is that the other day Steve Marchant was trying to ascertain if a photo he had was of Le Grand...the only clue he had was that he thought that Le Grand had a bit of a gap between his front teeth. I noticed that in the strip "Legrun" has just such a gap between his teeth - a co-incidence? Maybe I'm imagining it? Or is it a VERY good drawing of Le Grand?

The Valiant book of mystery and magic, 1976

On my Summer holiday I finally acquired a copy of 'The Valiant book of mystery & magic, 1976'. I'd come across this on ebay before and had high hopes for the content but my efforts to acquire a copy had been thwarted as the book was often priced out of my price rage. Grrr.

Anyway, a copy finally acquired and I was delighted to see that the annual has full author / illustrator credits throughout - result! So here's what you can look for  

Cover art by Geoff Campion

The hand of Tuthoon - story by Frank Pepper; art by Fred Holmes

This evil place... - story by Angus Allan; art by John Stokes

Monster quiz by John Donnelly

The final victim - story by Pat Mills & Derek Cribbling; art by Joe Colquhoun

The Dracula dynasty - art by John Bolton

Creature from nowhere - story by Frank Pepper; art by John Burns

The red house - story by Jack Adrian; art by Joe Colquhoun

It's a weird world - art by Eric Parker [albeit uncredited]

Spellbinder - uncredited

Screaming skulls - art by Eric Bradbury [albeit uncredited]

The magic spectacles - art by Geoff Campion; story by Hal Wilton

The horrors of Turville Hall - art by Geoff Campion; story by Frank Pepper

Stranger than fiction - uncredited

The passing of Gallantyne Cox - art by Fred Holmes, story by Sydney Golt

Nightmare - art by Joe Colquhoun; story by Eddie South

The fugitive from the future - art by Geoff Campion, story by Hal Wilton

The terror in the fog - art by Eric Bradbury, story by Ted Cowan

The laughter from beyond - art by John Catchpole; story by Angus Allan

The night of the gargoyle - art by Geoff Campion; story by Jack Adrian

The man on the road - art by Joe Colquhoun; story by Jack Adrian

Of thee she'll sing - art by Geoff Campion; story by JR Montague 

The strange old house by the churchyard - art by Eric Bradbury; story by Anug Allan

Shelving treasures - part 3

Continuing my recent look at my re-organised shelves in my study (part one is here; part two is here)

Finally got (most of) my annuals lined up and alphabetised, yay!

Some 2000AD volumes and plenty of Thunderbirds based volumes

Commando volumes on the top shelf here and then my 'Treasury of British comics' shelf along with a few other volumes

A slightly different angle for the Commando volumes and, on the left, some Ladybird book style slim reprints  from Jack & Jill

... and here's the Battle, Action and Roy of the Rovers shelf

VR Troopers - from Phoenix Press

I've looked before at independent comics publisher Phoenix Press...

Iznogoud comic here

Phantom 2040 comic here

...and here's another addition to their work, yes it's the "Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic" - a tie-in to the populat TV series of the time (1995/6).

The Phoenix Press title is definitely much harder to find than the version that Marvel published. The art (and writing) in these comics is uncredited and might best be described as competent.

Here's what you're looking for...

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 1, September 1995

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 2, October 1995

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 3, November 1995

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 4, December 1995

cover not to hand - can you help?

The German edition of the comic had the same covers (and presumably the same contents) but they were published a few months after the British version, so, in the absence of the British edition, here's the German version  

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 5, January 1996

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 6, February 1996

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 7, March 1996

cover not to hand - can you help?

The German edition of the comic had the same covers (and presumably the same contents) but they were published a few months after the British version, so, in the absence of the British edition, here's the German version 

Saban's VR Troopers - official 3D comic, Phoenix Press, issue 8, April 1996

cover not to hand - can you help?

The German edition of the comic had the same covers (and presumably the same contents) but they were published a few months after the British version, so, in the absence of the British edition, here's the German version 

German covers are taken from here

There were also this from Marvel comic - albeit with no comics content. Again I'm unsure how long this lasted.

Strips 78 - the 2000AD contributors

I've been looking at various comic conventions recently (for a complete list check out the bottom of this post) and I recently looked at 'Strips 78' here - I noticed that there were a number of contributions from 2000AD artists so I thought I'd gather that all here for your benefit....

I'd be interested if anyone could tell me if the pictures by McMahon and Ranson relate to any particular stories that they've come across - thanks!

Brian Bolland

John M Burns

Mick McMahon

Arthur Ranson

Kev O'Neill

Dave Gibbons

If you're interested in other comic brochures then check out my other posts on the subject...

Bristol comic expo (2004-2014) is here

London comic festival 2003 is here
Kev Sutherland festival original art is here
A 'Lawless 2019' miscellany is here
Boys and Girls exhibitions of the 1950s and '60s is here
Glasgow comic art convention is here
Edinburgh art convention is here
Hi-Ex convention is here

UKCAC - part 1 - is here
UKCAC - part 2 - is here

UKCAC - part 3 - is here

BICS convention is here

Glasgow comic con is here 

Kapow! con is here

British comic conventions, 1970-76 is here

British comic conventions, 1977-81 is here

A miscellany is here 

Shelving treasures - part 2

Having recently re-arranged my collection of comics I thought I'd share a few photos of my collection - all of it squeezed into the spare bedroom. I covered my Eagle books & annuals the other day (here). Onto some new images then...

Warhammer comic and trade paperbacks (with Comics International collection below)

This is my '80s / '90s comic runs - includes new Eagle, Speed, Tornado, Starlord, Red Dwarf, Thunderbirds, Stingray and plenty more! All now in all alphabetical order - yay!  

And now we've got a shelf of comic reference books (plus another glimpse of the Comics International collection).  

And we finish up with the newspaper comics shelf (and a glimpse, on the shelf below, of the Comic Journal and Denis Gifford's ACE newsletter)

Paperback artists - new books to be released

Over here on the Books Palace website some new volumes catch the eye - all based around classic paperback artwork..

First up is '

This is described as... 

This deluxe special edition of the acclaimed The Art of Reginald Heade is extensively revised and greatly expanded. With almost double the page-count of the standard edition, it features over 400 additional, ultra-rare Heade artwork images, and presents many others in larger size than before.

First published 24 August 2018. This NEW EDITION published November 2020.

Author: Stephen James Walker
Artist: Reginald Heade
Publisher: Telos, due November 2020
Number of pages: 320
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (220mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781845831165

Priced at £50 you can order it here

 Accompanying 

Priced at £50 you can order the book here

The Art of Reginald Heade – Volume Two is a veritable treasure trove for Reginald Heade's many admirers, and for anyone with a taste for classic pin-up and book cover artwork.

Author: Stephen James Walker, Steve Chibnall
Artist: Reginald Heade
Publisher: Telos, due November 2020
Number of pages: 384
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (220mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781845831554

I'm hoping that at least one of the volumes will pick up on Heade's rarely seen comic strip artwork - see my notes on this subject here. 

If you're into vintage paperbook artwork then this book is for you

priced at £35 the book is described thus...

An affectionate and thoroughly-researched celebration of the classic Pan Books paperbacks, beautifully illustrated with sumptuous full-colour reproductions of over 300 of the original cover artworks.

Author: Colin Larkin
Artists: Various
Publisher: Telos, due November 2020
Number of pages: 256
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (220mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781845839888

Due in November 2020 the book can be pre-ordered here