UPDATED: Ace Ventura, pet detective comic

 A recent episode of 'Sonic the comic the podcast' (#88 to be precise) reminded me of the existence of the Ace Ventura, pet detective comic. I thought I'd follow up that with a covers gallery but it turns out to be a tough series to find covers for. The Grand comics database list it as lasting 11 issues - but it only has a cover for issue #7. Contributors to #7 include Tom Frame, Dan Abnett & John Moore.

Any help finding these other issues would be much appreciated!

All updates are shown in red 

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #1, November 1996, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #2, December 1996, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #3, January 19997, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #4, February 1997, £1.20

image not to hand - can you help?

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #5, March 1997, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #6, April 1997, £1.20

image not to hand - can you help?

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #7, May 1997, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #8, June 1997, £1.20

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #9

image not to hand - can you help?

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #10

image not to hand - can you help?

Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, issue #11

image not to hand - can you help?

various issues 

Raymond Briggs retrospective opens today

Opening today in Cambridge is a retrospective covering the work of acclaimed illustrator Raymond Briggs.

There are more details here but it's free and is on until 26th August at the Cambridge University Library.

The organisers say...

With never-before-seen artwork, this exhibition delves into the work of the author-illustrator behind some of the UK’s most influential children’s books and graphic novels.

Raymond Briggs (1934-2022) is best-known for silent picturebook The Snowman (1978). But over a 60-year career, Briggs created illustrated books on themes from family relationships and grief to social mobility and political satire.

This exhibition includes work from Briggs’s pioneering titles, including The Snowman, and autobiographical graphic novel Ethel and Ernest. On show are his drawings, hand-lettered typography and page designs from his earliest commissions to his 2004 book The Puddleman.

Norman Thelwell saves the planet - opens today

Just a reminder that this opens today...

News just in from the Cartoon Museum about the next major exhibition, let's see what the have to say...

Next month, The Cartoon Museum will open a new exhibition that is a timely celebration of Norman Thelwell's life and his eco-conscious work in his book The Effluent Society. The opening of this exhibition neatly coincides with the centennial celebration of his birth and the re-publishing of the book.

Norman Thelwell Saves the Planet

Friday 28 April – Sunday 3 September 2023

It’s 100 years since Thelwell was born and we’re STILL *#!?ing up the planet!

Published in 1971, The Effluent Society by Norman Thelwell spoke about modern life and how the progress of humanity has led to us having an impact on the world. Many climate experts have struggled to impart the same love for our natural world that his work was able to. In his own words: ‘I was a sort of an unofficial country cartoonist, doing funny drawings that involved birds, cattle, pigs and poultry. One day I did a pony drawing and it was like striking a sensitive nerve. The response was instantaneous.’ Thelwell’s love for the countryside was front and centre in The Effluent Society. His words and art read as a hilarious but heartfelt message to look after the spaces we love and the world we live in, and in many ways predicted the issues that we face in 2023 and beyond.

The Cartoon Museum is celebrating this important work in 2023 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Thelwell’s birth. Over 50 years since this book was written, The Cartoon Museum takes the torch that Thelwell was trying to pass on. There’s a fine history of cartooning being used for public messaging whether that be for health of the body, mind or planet. That’s because where some more scientific communication may be harder to decipher, cartoons are and always will be accessible and engaging. 

We’ve come together with a number of modern day cartoonists and environmentalists to create art and messages about what needs to be done to support climate recovery and carbon neutrality across Britain and the world. We will display their work alongside alongside a bounty of original Thelwell cartoons, plus some of his countryside watercolours and original art materials and references, to inspire the next generation of doodlers and “direct-actioners” to pick up their notebooks and make a change. Because we think Thelwell was right. And we believe he, and you, could save the world.

We’ve also used this opportunity to change how we do things here in The Cartoon Museum. So far, we have:

Elected a Green Guardian for the museum!

Been selected to participate in London Mayor Sadiq Khan's Business Climate Challenge!

Used a carbon tracker to see how much effect on the planet each of our exhibitions is making!

And we will be using as many recycled or re-used materials as possible to make this installation as carbon-neutral as we can!

About Norman Thelwell

Born 3 May 1923 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, Norman Thelwell was an avid artist even as a child with his earliest surviving drawing being a pencil self-portrait at the age of 10. His teacher has marked on the picture in red ink: ‘V. good indeed’. His love of the British countryside also blossomed in his childhood, stimulated by frequent visits to a North Wales farm. When he joined the army in 1941, he travelled everywhere with a sketchbook and the first cartoon he had published was of an Indian subject for the London Opinion. He started a 25 year long stint with Punch in 1952 and over that time he produced over 1,500 individual cartoons and 60 front covers for the magazine. Thelwell also published 34 books in his lifetime which sold over 2 million copies in the UK as well as being translated into multiple different languages. For the later portion of his life he made his home in Timsbury, restoring a farmhouse so that he could be surrounded by his beloved countryside.

About The Cartoon Museum

The Cartoon Museum champions cartoon and comic art, highlighting its importance to culture and society. Since 2006 it has received 420k visitors, and built a nationally important collection of 4,300 cartoons, comics and caricatures, and a library of 18k items. It runs a well-attended school programme and sell-out school holiday workshops, and over 50k children and adults have attended cartooning, comics and animation workshops at the museum.

For more information visit www.cartoonmuseum.org / Twitter @cartoonmuseumuk / Facebook @TheCartoonMuseum  / Instagram @thecartoonmuseum / YouTube - The Cartoon Museum 

UPDATED: Keith Burns covers for Commando

I first came across Keith Burns art when he illustrated the Titan comics Johnny Red series, since then he's just started illustrating Commando covers and the covers are fantastic. Here are the covers he's done so far...

Commando 5209 - American avenger

Commando 5215 - a matter of honour

Commando 5229 - shadow in the storm!

Commando 5241 - steel inferno

Commando 5251 - Radar raiders

Commando 5259 - Braddock

Commando 5267 - Braddock demons

Commando 5289 - the Wombat and the Tiger

Commando 5297 - fog of war

Commando 5299 - Sladen's promise

Commando 5307 - Stealing Stukas

Commando 5315 - Ironhide

Commando 5329 - Blitzkrieg west

Commando 5335 - Durand's Dunkirk

Commando 5337 - Dodger's Dunkirk

This issue is interconnected with issue 5337 Durand's Dunkirk but told from the perspective of the British fighting to stop their retreat.

Commando 5353 - Outgunned!

Commando 5355 - Bullseye Bruno

Commando 5377 - Third time lucky

Commando 5385 - The flying emu

Commando 5395 - HMAS Expendable

Commando 5411 - Ready for Anything!

Commando 5417 - The girls on the guns

Commando 5448 - Die-or walk!

Check out the third of our nine 60th Anniversary specials Issue 5448 Die — or Walk! Former editor Calum Laird's sequel to Commando Issue 1 Walk — or Die! has the table turned with the Brit carrying the Jerry!

Commando 5463 - Target Tomcat

Commando 5481 - Vengeance

Commando 5497 - Pearl Harbor

Commando 5511 - Escape from Java

Commando 5525 - Sink the Shokaku!

published March 15th 2022

Commando 5547 - Stay behind squad

published June 9th 2022

Commando 5559 - Wild weasel!

to be published July 21st 2022

Commando 5607 - Combat air patrol

Commando 5619 - Achtung, destroyer!

Commando 5641 - sink the Tiger

The unthinkable has happened —HMAS Tiger has been captured by the Japanese and is being used to create havoc amongst allied shipping! The Australian Navy’s most experienced destroyer commander, John Griffin, is called in to solve the problem, his orders: “SINK THE TIGER!”

Keith's design roughs for Commando 5641

This should be in shops on today (Thursday 27th April 2023)