Eric Parker - character studies & groups (part 6 of 6)

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
Female heads (part 3) here
Female heads (part 4) here
Pubs (part 1) here
Pubs (part 2) here

Overseas (part 1) here

Overseas (part 2) here

Overseas (part 3) here

Overseas (part 4) here

Overseas (part 5) here

Overseas (part 6) here

Overseas (part 7) here

Overseas (part 8) here

Overseas (part 9) here

Overseas (part 10) here

UK scenes (part 1) here

UK scenes (part 2) here

UK scenes (part 3) here

UK scenes (part 4) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 1) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 2) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 3) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 4) here

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 5) here

And now we turn our attention to some of his character studies & group scenes (roughs)...

is this a pub interior?

these people all seem quite finely dressed - are they at the races?

Is this a sketch of Sexton Blake's study?

Eagle club - Silver Eagler

I'm always happy to feature unusual bits of Eagle merchandise on the blog. 

There were...

Dan Dare roller skates here

Dan Dare hairbrush here

Dan Dare tie clip here

Eagle stationery here

Eagle club notebook here

With the compliments of the Eagle club here

Eagle / Girl table tennis medals here

Eagle club cycle pennant here

Dan Dare gyro jeep here

Dan Dare space shooting here

Dan Dare rocket ball here

Dan Dare beach ball here

Dan Dare bagatelle here

Eagle report to members (1951) here

Dan Dare field glasses here

Dan Dare interplanetary dominoes here

Dan Dare space-ship construction game here

Dan Dare draughts here

Dan Dare transfers (1) here

Dan Dare transfers (2) here

Riders of the Range painting book here

Dan Dare models here

Today it's the turn of the 'Silver Eagler' badge. The silver Eagler badge replaced (in 1954) the 'mug of the month' badge (that had been awarded since the launch of Eagle in 1950). These were awarded to those members of the Eagle club who had gone 'above and beyond' the call of duty.

Never seen one of these before. These images are swiped from ebay.

UPDATED: Girl comic merchandise

I've added some new items of merchandise - and these are highlighted in red

I've previously looked at some of the spin-off merchandise associated with Swift comic (here), Swift books (here) and Robin comic merchandise (here). In a similar vein I thought I should look into the merchandise produced by their sister title Girl. I've looked at Girl novels (here and here) but this is the other merchandise that was produced.

I thought I'd be able to find more merchandise but googling 'girl comics merchandise' turns up a lot of stuff which is not to do with the Girl comic I'm after. Anyway, I'm sure more will turn up but here's what I've found so far...

All new items highlighted in red

A lovely selection of Girl diaries here. The green diaries are dated (internally) as 1954-7 and then there are two 'stripy' diaries (for 1958 and 1959 respectively). 

Image c/o ebay.

New addition today is this piece of advertising for a newsagent...

Promotional Poster for Free Gift in Vol 12 #6 - Feb 9 1967 Rare

Girl card game from Pepys

A more comprehensive set of birthday cards images has now come to light...

The backs of the cards - albeit not in the same order as they're shown above

The Wendy and Jinx cards (designs 1+2)

The Belle of the ballet cards (designs 3+4)

The Lettice Leefe and Miss Froth cards (designs 5+6)

Over on the www.dandare.info website (here) I've spotted these two Girl birthday cards...

The first features Wendy and Jinx

...and the second has Lettice Leefe and Miss Froth

This Girl diary for 1956 recently sold for £47...

I'm unsure how many years this ran for - in fact this is the first Girl diary I've ever seen. The Eagle equivalent was long established and ran from at least 1951-1963 (but was red not green). There was also a Swift diary but I've never seen one of those so I can't even say what colour that was! 

Also spotted this on ebay recently - looks like a plastic belt buckle 

Pelham puppet of 'Lettice Leefe' - a character created by John Ryan (who created Captain Pugwash and Harris Tweed for Eagle) 

Pelham also made a 'Belle of the Ballet' puppet as well

And then there's this - a Girl doll - featuring the Girl logo on the dress and the belt buckle

from 'British dolls of the 1950s' by Susan Brewer (2009)

And there's this piece of Eagle/Girl crossover merchandise - yes, it's a table tennis set!



I'm sure there's more out there so if you have any images you could share just let me know.

Ah, a carpet sweeper! What a delightful piece of tie-in merchandise

And here's some more Girl products - I'd love to get bigger and better pictures of all of these but at least it gives me some stuff to look for

from 'The history of girls' comics' by Susan Brewer (2010)

And, thanks to friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs we can also add these images...

...a blond haired version of the doll shown above...

...and a paintbox (which looks quite similar to the Swift paintbox that was also produced)...

Paranoid Gardens signing with Chris Weston

Gosh! comics have announced a signing with artist Chris Weston in April...

Let's see what they have to say about this event...

We are thrilled to announce we have a signing with superstar artist Chris Weston for our Gosh! exclusive bookplate edition of Paranoid Gardens, the latest comics opus from Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, Chris Weston and Dave Stewart. Join artist Chris on Friday 25th April 2025, from 6-7pm to get your copies signed!

Writers Gerard Way (The Umbrella Academy) and Shaun Simon (The Fabulous Killjoys), join forces with Illustrator Chris Weston (The Filth), colorist Dave Stewart (Hellboy), and letterer Nate Piekos (Black Hammer) to present an all-new surreal comic book experience that's ER meets Dr. Who... on acid.

Loo is a nurse at the most bizarre care-center around. The staff are not entirely human, and the cases downright unearthly. Aliens, ghosts, superheroes, and more creatures plague its hallways as both doctors and patients and the hospital itself seems to be somewhat self-aware. Loo believes that despite a recent failure at her job she’s been given some sort of higher calling in this mysterious place, and decides to rise to the challenge. Along the way she must fight her way through corrupt staff members, powerful theme park cults, and her own personal demons and trauma to meet this challenge and discover what secrets the gardens hold.

Collects issue #1–#6 of Paranoid Gardens.

Chris will be signing copies of the book here in the shop on Friday 25th April, from 6pm. You can pre-order a signed bookplate edition of Paranoid Gardens from our website for mail-order or collection by clicking the link here.

Rolf Kauka's Buzzi Bear

Not a comic - it's actually a magazine - but there we go. I came across a reference to this recently and wanted to dig a little deeper into what this was.

Rolf Kauka's Buzzi Bear went on sale on November 29th 1990. Buzzi was the brainchild of Rolf Kauka and has been published in Germany since 1967, France since 1984 and Italy since 1986. The German edition regularly sells over 250,000 copies.

Rolf Kanka's Buzzi Bear, issue #1, January 1991

Rolf Kauka's Buzzi Bear, issue #2, February 1991

No idea how many issues were produced but it was at least two!

Maxwell the magic cat - the complete litter

I've looked before at Alan Moore's Maxwell the magic cat...

I looked at volume 3 here

I looked at volume 4 here

and in Italian here

And now thanks to ebay seller Lofthouse Emporium (here) it's come to my attention that there was also a 'collected' set of books also produced. It's not a single volume instead it's more of a folder into which each of the volumes could easily slip. Nice! And also rare! Good luck tracking down one of these