For anyone (like me!) who thinks it'a a very long time to wait until Lawless 2026 here's some photos of Lawless 2025 to help keep you going until May 2026.
First up here's some Simon Bisley prints, the man himself and his trophy!
"...eclectic and entertaining" - John Freeman (Down the Tubes), "...essential reading" - Hibernia Comics, "...always a good read" Graeme Neil Reid, "...a terrific blog" Ian Wheeler, "...one of my favourite sites on the web - always fascinating and informative!" Michael 'Judge Dredd' Carroll
16 July 2025
15 July 2025
UPDATED: Fleetway Editions - Duck Tales
I'm filing this (for now) under the heading of 'comics I know nothing about'. I mean there are a LOT of Disney comics out there and I'm not going to try and start cataloging them all - it'd be a nightmare.
This on the other hand looks quite intriguing. '90 comics, high quality cover. It lasted at least 2 issues - the 2nd image below says that issue '2 will be on sale on 14th May 1992. The 3rd image below shows a copy of that 2nd issue so it definitely exists. Were there any further issues though?? Let's hope so. The 2nd image also tells us that this was published by Fleetway Editions.
Update: covers for issues 3-11 have now been identified thanks to this astonishing Disney comics resource (this is where the cover images are taken).
Disney's Duck Tales, issue 1, 30th April - 12th May, 1992
Disney's Duck Tales, issue 2, 13th May - 27th May, 1992
Disney's Duck Tales, issue 3, 28th May - 10th June, 1992
14 July 2025
Lux & Alby - acme comics
A recent (and as yet unread) acquisition is this series Lux and Alby sign on and save the universe came by my way as an early example of Simon Fraser's artwork.
Check out all other mentions of Simon on the blog here
Lux & Alby, acme comics, issue 1 (of 9), June 1992
13 July 2025
The Cartoon Art Trust auctions
I've looked at the various publications associated with the Cartoon Art Trust / Cartoon Museum before.
Newsletters can be found here;
An incomplete look at exhibition catalogues is here
And now for something different - the sales catalogues for two fundraising auctions that Bonhams held back in the 1990s. They may have been other auctions but, for now, these are the only two I'm aware of.
First up is this sale on Tuesday 26th September 1995
lot 6 - three detailed Brian Bolland sketches for covers to Batman and The Invisibles
lot 21 - 2 pages of V for Vendetta art by David Lloyd
lot 30 - 2000AD cover by John Higgins - featuring Dredd blasting a robot
lot 31 - Martha Washington title page ('Attack of the flesh-eating monsters') by Dave Gibbons
lot 31 - Martha Washington title page ('Attack of the flesh-eating monsters') by Dave Gibbons
12 July 2025
UPDATED: Paul Temple library - Micron
In 1964 digest publisher Micron produced 10 issues of the 'Paul Temple library' reprinting newspapers strips from the Evening News. I own issues 1, 2 and 4 and the reprints are very scarce indeed.
Further update - issues 11 & 12 have now been discovered. Copies of the original recently spotted for sale on the internet by sidcol
Update
I'm still missing cover images for issue 9 and 10.
There's a copy of issue #3 for sale (as a 'buy it now') on that eBay for £80 here
There's a copy of issue #8 for sale (as a 'buy it now') on that eBay for £80 here
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 1 - Paul Temple and the magpie mystery
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 2 - Paul Temple and the gun runners
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 3 - Paul Temple and the nerve gas gang
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 4 - Paul Temple in Operation Shrike
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 5 - Paul Temple plays with fire
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 6 - Paul Temple meets his double
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 7 - Paul Temple and the safari mystery
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 8 - Paul Temple in the charge is murder!
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 9 - Paul Temple and the Q.40 mystery
image not to hand - can you help?
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 10 - Paul Temple and the missing Van Gogh
image not to hand - can you help?
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 11 - Paul Temple and the Cabloni affair
Paul Temple library (Micron) issue 12 - Paul Temple and the affair of the tired tiger
11 July 2025
Puss in Boots comic - pilot issues
In his The complete catalogue of British comics (page 188) Denis Gifford notes the following about a title call Puss In Boots
1969 pilot issue, 24 pages
1970 pilot issue, 24 pages
different editions of this unpublished comic
Here's what those comics looked like. They were up for auction recently here
1969 pilot issue
10 July 2025
Hookjaw's gold! The original art
From a recent auction (here) were these pre-production pieces of artwork for the Hookjaw's gold! game from June 1977. Artwork by Colin Wyatt.
9 July 2025
The Seekers - c/o Lucky Comix
Back in 2013/14 Lucky Comix produced two print on demand reprint volumes of The Seekers newspaper strip. I'm unclear if further volumes were produced and, if not, why not. Maybe sales weren't strong enough? There's no copyright acknowledgment so maybe that was an issue. Anyway, these thing exist - good luck tracking them down.
I'm indebted to this website for details of these volumes, which also includes an overview and episode guide here
The Seekers - murder in the boneyard [2013]
The Seekers - the man who died twice [2014]
17th story
First story.
A young woman is invited by a new male friend to go to a private night club, the Boneyard. While there she witnesses him have an altercation with other patrons and when she tries to intervene, she is assaulted and ejected. Then she is the victim of a hit and run. In the hospital, her story is finally believed by a doctor who calls The Seekers. They will learn of a large gang of criminals specializing in all sorts of crimes who use the night club as their base.
The headmaster at a prestigious boys school has died and had a lovely funeral. Then a young student witnesses the man crawling from his unfilled grave. When another student later reports to the headmaster's matronly sister that she too saw the man after his burial, that sister contacts her old friend, Una, for help. Una puts Susanne Dove and Jacob Benedick on the case of locating a man seen the week before near a beach four months after he was buried!
8 July 2025
UPDATED: 'The wisdom of gnomes'
One of the first comics I ever blogged about (here, here and here) was a title called 'Wanted' - it was published by 'Celebrity' - a publisher about whom I knew very little (then or now!). It would turn out that Celebrity's most successful title would be their Count Duckula comic (which I covered here), but they had at least one other title published. This was The wisdom of gnomes, an (according to wikipedia) animated series made in Spain and was a spin-off from the series 'David the gnome'.
UPDATED now with the cover to issue #7, #8, #15 and the discovery of a special
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 1, 28th September 1989
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 2, 25th October 1989
24 pages long
Inside you get a single story - Journey to Scotland - which runs to 16 pages - with the rest being a mix of games, puzzles and adverts.
Interior art is unsigned but looks like it could be Capaldi (albeit drawing in quite a simplified style).
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 3, 8th November 1989
Now the question is - were there any more issues? Surely, no comic series stops after 3 issues? Sadly, I can't find any more but if you know differently do let me know.
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 4, 22nd November 1989
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 5, 6th December 1989
no image to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 6, 20th December 1989
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 7, 3rd January 1990
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 8, 17th January 1990
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 9, 31st January 1990
no image to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 10, 14th February 1990
no image to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 11, 28th February 1990
no image to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 12, 14th March 1990
no image to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 13, 28th March 1990
no image to hand - can you help?
UPDATE: I've now found the following references in Denis Gifford's old ACE newsletters...
Newsletter #115 (volume 13, issue 3), June 1990, Wisdom goes monthly from the April 1990 issue
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 14, April 1990
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 15, May 1990
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 16, June 1990
image not to hand - can you help?
The wisdom of the gnomes, Celebrity, issue 17, July 1990
Newsletter #117 (volume 13, issue 5), September 1990, the July 1990 issue of Wisdom is the final issue - issue #17 - and here it is c/o comics fan, and friend of the blog, Michael Carroll
So that's quite a few more issues than I was expecting and means there's plenty more issues to track down.
There were also (at least) 2 annuals produced - both look like they are sporting covers by Mario Capaldi.
The 1991 annual
Celebrity Publications postal address was Unit 1, H.Q. 3, Hook Rise South, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 7NH
Editor is Floron Florenzo
Assistant to editor is Ben Lakofski
Editorial Director is Etta Saunder
And then there was this too - David the gnome, TV special #2, 99p
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