Eric Parker female heads (part 3 of 4)

I've recently begun a lengthy series of blog posts all about renowned illustrator Eric Parker (check out his Wikipedia entry here) who had a 50 year (!) career as a comic illustrator.

I've looked at Roughs (part 1) here

Roughs (part 2) here

Roughs (part 3) here

Roughs (part 4) here

Female heads (part 1) here

Female heads (part 2) here

and now we turn our attention to the start of a series of illustrations of women's heads...I'd love to think that some of these are character sketches for characters that would appear in Sexton Blake but I can't be certain 

She could definitely be in a Sexton Blake story

This image intrigues me as I'd swear it was in fact a man - based on the short hair, striking nose and too bright make up - rather than a woman 

This looks like the start of a life drawing

Marvel UK rarities up for auction

Some interesting lots up for sale over at Excalibur Auctions in their sale on 10th Feb - all lots can be found here but I've picked out a few of my British comics highlights...

This is my favourite (lot 96) - it's the original artwork (by Carlos Ezquerra) for Marvel UK's Fury comic, issue 22

Lot 95 here is the final printers proof for Fury issue 11

Lot 88 (here) is from Super Spider-Man issue #291

Lot 89 (here) is the cover art for The Mighty World of Marvel #89

Lot 91 (here) is an unused runner-up Marvel Mastermind certificate from 1975

A number of these have been submitted for sale by someone who was "Art Director at Marvel UK in the 1970s"

UPDATED: Tiny Toon Adventures comic - 1994

 Here's one I'm filing under "I don't know much about this comic - so I'm recording it here in the hope that I'll be able to update this post in due course when more information comes to light".

This is not to be confused with the Marvel UK comic of the same name from 1992/3.

For this update I've added cover images for issues 2, 3, 4 and 5

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #1, 65p, 1994

the ebay seller has this listed as being from 1994. The cover art is by Dave King

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #2, 65p

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #3, 65p

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #4, 65p

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #5, 65p

Tiny Toon Adventures, issue #6, 65p

David M Windett (or Dave Windett as I think of him) has signed his cover art here

Credits for this strip are as follows:

Writer = John Walker

Penciller = Horacio Saavedra

Inker = Ruben Torreiro

Letterer = Nick Napoitano

Colourist = Tom Ziuko

Investors Chronicle - John M Burns art

I've recently come across some of these Investors Chronicle cover that have John M Burns covers. This isn't a complete set (I'm told there are 7 covers in total, all from 1985) but you've got to start somewhere...

Investors Chronicle, 19-25 July 1985, vol 73/922 

image c/o Colin Brown

cover for sale for £350 on the Book Palace website here

this was for sale on the Book Palace website but not no longer!

UPDATED: Cosmic magazine

The other day (here) I looked at Take a Break spin-off magazine - "Cosmic - the BEST kids' magazine in the universe" - this starred Captain Cosmic (who has his own annual here). I've now identified further issues of Cosmic and present them here...

Contributors are as follows:

Scripts: Guy Campbell

Pencils: Paul Moran

Inks: Simon Ecob

Colour: James McAlister

Plus for the final issue (red cover, dated 11-24 February 1999) there's also...

Glenn Dakin providing the script for the Taliska story, Adrian Salmon providing the pencils & Bambos Georgiou the inks. David Leach also get a shout out.

Updated issues are shown in red - thanks to "3DEB" who sent me some images; 3DEB entered (and won!) some of the competitions and is still the proud owner of a Captain Cosmic ruler and pencil sharpener.

UPDATE for this post - 4 covers, thanks to friend of the blog John Freeman

Volume 1

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 0, July 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 1, August 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 2, September 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 3, October 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 4, November 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 5, December 1997

Volume 1 is thought to last 5 issues (so Aug-97 to Dec-97)

Volume 2

Volume 2 is 13 issues long; monthly dated issues from Jan-98 to Dec-98 and then up to at least issue 13 (which is dated 26 November - 9 December 1998). So I suppose there could be an issue 14, which would be dated 10 December 1998 - 23 December 1998, which seems an odd date to finish the year on. I suspect there were only 13 issues as these could have been published 4-weekly with then a 'Christmas' issue to make up the gap between publishing monthly and publishing every 4 weeks.

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 1, January 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 2, February 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 3, March 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 4, April 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 5, May 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 6, June 1998

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 7, July 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 8, August 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 9, September 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 10, October 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 11, November 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 12, December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 13

This is dated 26 November 1998 - 9 December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 14

This is dated 10 December 1998 - 29 December 1998

Volume 3

Cosmic magazine - issue 4

The dating of issue 4 as 11 Feb - 24 Feb means that previous issues are presumably dated as follows:

Issue 3 = 28 Jan - 10 Feb 1999

Issue 2 = 14 Jan - 27 Jan 1999

Issue 1 = 30 Dec - 13 Jan 1999

so Cosmic has moved from being published "monthly" to being published every fortnight

Cosmic magazine - issue 5, 25 February - 10 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 6, 11 March - 24 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 7, 25 March -7 April 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 8, 8-21 April 1999

Cosmic magazine - issue 9, 22 April - 5 May 1999

Sadly I've no idea how many further issues / volumes there were - if you know (or can fill in any of the gaps above) do just get in touch.

The format is consistent throughout...52 pages, plenty of comics, quizzes, competitions, posters, information, reviews - all that sort of stuff really that kids love. Issues have a Captain Cosmic strip at the start followed by Taliska's travels in time strip.

Further details have come to light since that first post...

UPDATED: Old Boys Books - bibliographies etc

I really, really don't need to start another collection...BUT I am prepared to give room on the blog for a listing of bibliographical material related to the 'Old Boys Book' genre. These were text based rather than comic strip based so I've never collected the original material or the many fanzines that the genre spawned.

I don't pretend that this is any way a complete listing, it's just stuff I've come across recently on eBay and you've got to start somewhere. I'll add more titles as I go along. For this update it's some listings of Sexton Blake material...

Sexton Blake catalogue (1966) - according to this source

supplement to the Sexton Blake catalogue (1971) - according to this source

the same Wikipedia page also lists a 2nd edition of the catalogue as having been published in 1993

The Nelson Lee library - Edwy Searles Brooks

the seller notes that this is 116 pages long and minutely detailed

90 glorious years

A celebration of 90 years of the GEM and the MAGNET and a tribute to the life & works of Eric Fayne, the editor of Story Paper Collectors' Digest from 1959 to 1987. A great, profusely illustrated B&W 200 page book

John Nix Pentelow, 1872-1931

a relatively scarce fanzine for the Magnet Library. Printed in 1976 by the 'Cambridge Old Boys Book Club' and focusses on the life of John Nix Pentelow. Contributions from Jack Overhill, Bill Lofts, Deryck Harvey, Danny Posner, W.J.A. Hubbard and W.H. Broster