UPDATED: Colin Maxwell for Commando

To celebrate the announcement from publisher DC Thomson that Colin Maxwell will be writing another issue of Commando I thought it was about time I got a guide together for what he's written for Commando so far...

Commando 5371, published by DC Thomson 29th September 2020

Five soldiers seek refuge from a storm, looking for a place safe and warm.

Four lay down to rest that night, none are ready for the fight.

Three wake to find another gone. Will any of them survive till dawn?

Commando 5413, published by DC Thomson 16th February 2021

Polish Sergeant Jakub Leszczuk is one of the last men defending Lwow in 1939, but as the Russian tanks roll in, his unit rescues a small puppy called Rebus from a collapsed building.

It isn’t long before Rebus becomes far more than a lucky mascot for the escaping soldiers! As they retrain for the parachute regiments in Britain, Rebus’s desire to please and talent for tricks finds him with Leszczuk behind enemy lines in Italy before prepping the ground for D-Day, as this pair of underdogs help turn the tide on the Nazi war machine!

Commando 5433, published by DC Thomson 27th April 2021

Five men found The Dead Man’s Chest,
Hidden in a cave on an island in the sea,
One saw the riches and turned against the rest,
And decided the treasure was only for he.

But away they went to war in the sands,
And the treasure laid forgotten by the five,
As one by one they died by someone’s hands,
Till there was nought but one man left alive.

Commando 5475, published by DC Thomson September 28th 2021

The ORP Tygrys, or Tiger, was a Polish submarine outclassed by Poland’s modern subs, but its Commander, Leopold Swirski, was proud of the ship and his crew. Then September 1st, 1939 came, the Tiger bared its teeth and growled at the invading Nazi hordes. The sub fought tooth and nail to protect its homeland but took too much damage. Licking its wounds, the Tiger and its crew were forced to dock at a neutral port where the vessel was seized and declawed by the authorities. Well that wasn’t going to stop them —as you can’t change a tiger’s stripes!

Commando 5501, published by DC Thomson December 16th 2021 

Three high‑ranking SS officers meet in a remote mansion house near the Swiss border. With them is a cache of looted jewellery, paintings and antiques, forged papers and plans to flee the falling Reich to South America. But, as they talk in secret, they are disturbed by a knock at the door. A member of the infamous Gestapo has come to interrogate them. Does he know about their plans to flee? And what does this all have to do with Resistance fighter Christina Koch?

Commando 5517, published by DC Thomson December 16th 2021 

In the frozen town of Verdalsora, Norway, Georg Fischer is part of the Nazi occupation. However, after witnessing first-hand the brutality of his superiors, Fischer is sickened by the regime he knows he is a part of. His only option is to desert, fleeing into the merciless landscape of the fjords. But with enemies everywhere and death at every corner, Fischer will need more than his wits if he is to survive.

Commando 5533, published by DC Thomson April 12th 2022

April 1982 saw Britain enter a new conflict half the world away. But before the war would officially begin, tensions rose as three Royal Marines were sent on a recce mission far from their base at Port Stanley when Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands.

Left with an impossible mission that could change the tide of the conflict, the three marines must battle both the climate and the Argentinians if they are to save the day.

Commando 5537, published by DC Thomson April 26th 2022

September 1st, 1939. As the German army blitzkrieged its way across Poland, they didn’t have it all their way. The Polish were steadfast in their defence of their homeland, desperately trying to hold back the tide. But the Nazis would rue the day one man, Corporal Tomasz Zielinski, got on board an armoured train named after a legendary dragon. Tomasz and that armoured tank engine were determined to derail Germany’s plans!

You can find all other mentions of Colin on the blog right here

You can find all other mentions of Commando on the blog right here

Thistlebone signing at Gosh! comic announced

This signing has been announced by Gosh! comics on the 14th of May

Epic - an anthology, by Atomeka

A couple of recent purchases (and the death of Garry Leach) has spurred me on to look at Atomeka Press. A look at the Grand Comics database (here) is helpful (thanks for the images!) but incomplete. So, I thought I'd try and rustle up my own complete (?) list of Atomeka publications.

I've looked at the original A1 series (from 1989) here

Now, thanks to friend of the blog Reuben Willmott we can look at some more Atomeka titles...

Epic comics - an anthology, Atomeka Press, 1992, book one - cover art by Dave McKean

Epic comics - an anthology, Atomeka Press, 1992, book two - cover art by Dave Dorman

Epic comics - an anthology, Atomeka Press, 1992, book three - cover art by Doug Braithwaite

Epic comics - an anthology, Atomeka Press, 1992, book four - cover art by Colin MacNeill

Interior art contributors include John M Burns, William Simpson & D'Israeli.

All in all, sounds well worth looking out for.

Latest Catawiki auction opens - bid by 28th April

Just a reminder that this auction closes tonight - good luck if you're bidding!

The latest Catawiki auction of original (British) comic art is now open for bids. As ever I've selected my highlights, good luck if you bid (bidding closes this Thursday - 28th April 2022).

This page by Andrew Howat (a new name to me) from the back cover of Look and Learn (8th January 1977) - The Flying Dutchman story

This Robot Archie page by Edward Kearon from a 1967 Lion strip entitled the crystal leopard

This Reg Smythe Andy Capp newspaper strip from 1990

This Modesty Blaise strip by Romero

This Don Lawrence Trigan Empire strip from 1967's 'The Lokan invasion'

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould

I've long enjoyed the Rivers of London book series (by Ben Aaronovitch) and I've been delighted at how many comic spin-off series there have been. Hmmm, I wondered just how many comics are there? Well, time to start looking into this.

So far I've looked at... 

Body Work here

Night Witch here

Deadly ever after issue 1 here

Next up...Black Mould. If you spot any comics I've missed just let me know...Also if you can help with cover artist credits that'd be great (all the covers are taken from Ben's website - so the image quality is great but the artist credits are poor, ha ha). Thanks to Chris Nicholls for help with the artist credits.

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould, issue #1, covers 1-5

cover by Claudia Caranfa

cover by Lee Sullivan & Luis Guerrero 

cover by Anna Dittmann

cover by Arianna Florean

cover by Ben Templesmith

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould, issue #2, covers 1-3

cover by Paul McCaffrey

cover by Lee Sullivan & Luis Guerrero 

cover by Dan Boultwood

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould, issue #3, covers 1-3

cover by Lee Sullivan & Luis Guerrero 

cover by Matthew Waite

cover by Will Brooks

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould, issue #4, covers 1-3

cover by Rachael Stott and Luis Guerrero

cover bv Lee Sullivan & Luis Guerrero 

cover by Lorena Assisi

Rivers of London comics - Black Mould, issue #5, covers 1-3

cover by Rian Hughes

cover by Lee Sullivan & Luis Guerrero 

cover art by Nick Percival

Nigel Kitching - UKCAC contributions

As a follow-up piece to my recent post (for the Sonic the Comic podcast guys) here about Bojan Djukic drawing for UKCAC conventions I thought I'd look up their favourite artist, Nigel Kitching, and see if he'd done any work for UKCAC.

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! comic con is here

British comic conventions 1970-76 is here 

British comic conventions 1977-81 is here 

A miscellany is here

Nigel's work can be found in the following convention brochures...

The UKCAC 1997 brochure - Frank Quitely cover

Spawn by Nigel Kitching

The UKCAC 1996 brochure - Bryan Talbot cover

Batman by Nigel Kitching

The UKCAC 1995 brochure - Duncan Fegredo cover

The UKCAC 1994 brochure - Glenn Fabry cover

Jack Kirby had died in early 1994 so there were many artistic tributes to him in the brochure...

Here's his contribution to the 1991 brochure (Simon Bisley on cover art duties)

Here's his contribution to the 1989 brochure (John Bolton on cover art duties)

UPDATED: fun n' games comic - 1969/70

I've looked before (here) at the fun n' Games comic produced in association with supermarket chain Tesco. There was also this article by friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs.

Recently some further issues have come to my attention so I'm adding them to my covers gallery (below) for two reasons. 

Firstly, we now know that the title lasted to at least issue 51 - previously issue 38 was the highest known number.

We now have confirmation that the title lasted 52 issues (see images below), so a whole year.

Secondly, interestingly, we can now see that the name of the comic changed (from Tesco fun 'n games to fun 'n games) at some point between issue 11 and issue 26.

Still plenty of gaps in the covers gallery - do let me know if you can help with any other covers.

My thanks to Adam Teitge for cover images for issues 11, 26, 51 & 52 and to Shaqui Le Vesconte for covers 7 & 40.

New covers are highlighted in red

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 1, 25 October 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 2, 1 November 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 3, 8 November 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 4, 22 November 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 5, 29 November 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 6, 6 December 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 7, 13 December 1969

cover signed by Leslie Caswell

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 8, 20 December 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 9, 27 December 1969

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 10, 10 January 1970

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 11, 17 January 1970

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 12, 24 January 1970

cover signed by Leslie Caswell

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 13,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 14,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 15,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 16,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 17,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 18,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 19,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 20,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 21,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 22,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 23,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 24,

image not to hand - can you help?

Tesco fun 'n games comic issue 25,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 26, 2 May 1970

fun 'n games comic issue 27,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 28,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 29,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 30,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 31,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 32,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 33,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 34,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 35,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 36,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 36,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 37,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 38,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 39,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 40, 15 August 1970

cover signed by Leslie Caswell

fun 'n games comic issue 41,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 42,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 43,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 44,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 45,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 46,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 47,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 48,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 49,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 50,

image not to hand - can you help?

fun 'n games comic issue 51, 31 October 1970

fun 'n games comic issue 52, 7 November 1970