Overkill - covers gallery, part 7

I've long been curious about Marvel UK's Overkill title - how long did it run for? Cover artists? Contents? All that sort of stuff. As ever, the only way to satisfy my curiosity was to start with a covers gallery. 

Part 1 (issues 1-7) was here

Part 2 (issues 8-14) was here

Part 3 (issues 15-21) was here

Part 4 (issues 22-28) was here

Part 5 (issues 29-35) was here

Part 6 (issues 36-42) was here

Part 7 is below

Issue 44 marks the transition from being published every 14 days to being published every 28 days

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #43, 15th December 1993, 99p, cover art by Carl Critchlow

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #44, 12th January 1993, 99p, cover art by Edmund Perryman

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #45, 9th February 1994, 99p, cover art by Edmund Perryman

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #46, 9th March 1994, 99p, cover art by Cam Smith & Ian Brindle

Overkill, Marvel UK, issue #47, 6th April 1994, 99p, cover art by Pete Doherty

Eric Parker - life drawings (part 4 of 10) - NSFW!

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

Character studies & groups, drafts (part 6) here

Life drawings (part 1) here

Life drawings (part 2) here

Life drawings (part 3) here

And now we turn our attention to some of his life drawings...

The next 3 images all look like the same model to me

UPDATED: Leo Baxendale's 'Supercomic'

Update...Ewbank's have ANOTHER page of Supercomic art coming up for sale soon. Lot 256 (here) of their sale on 9th April 2025 features this piece....

bidding opens at £120 and there's been one bid so far. A similar piece (see below) fetched £240 previously.

Leo Baxendale's proposed Supercomic is surely one of the great lost British comics. As he says (on page 86 of his autobiography A very funny business)... 

I conceived the idea of a monthly comic - Supercomic. Monthly comics are common enough in America, but not in Britain. My intention was that four week's work poured into one issue would produce a truly super-comic. I circulated publishers with the idea, and Odhams took it as an affront.  

It looks like (to me anyway, please tell me if I'm wrong!) that auctioneers Ewbank's have another 2 pages of Supercomic coming up for sale later this month in their comics auction on Wednesday 29th May at noon.

The very first lot (lot 4001) is here with an estimate of £200 - £400 and starting bids at £100. This is the first page of the Fort Fumble strip.

sold for £260 (plus commission etc)

The 2nd lot of the auction (lot 4002) is here with an estimate of £200 - £400 and starting bids at £100.  This is the second page of the Fort Fumble strip.

sold for £260 (plus commission etc)

All previous pages (and hammer prices) sold by Ewbank's are recorded below...

I've never come across any of the art from Supercomic and was not aware that any even existed until I spotted the art below at a recent auction (24th August 2023, Ewbank's Entertainment & memorabilia auction).

Lot 1043 (hammer price £950+fees) - the introduction by Spotty mentions Supercomic and the (c) note says Leo Baxendale 1967 - which is exactly the right year for this to have been produced

Lot 1044 (hammer price £200+fees) - this follows on directly from the previous image - more mention of Supercomic and the characters who'd appear in it.

Lot 1045 (hammer price £500+fees) - again, another mention of Supercomic and what's going to be in the comic next week.

If you won the auction congratulations to you and if anyone else out there can shed any more light on the art of Supercomic I'd be delighted to hear about it.

More pages from Supercomic were recently (14th December 2023) sold by Ewbank's at their Entertainment & Memorabilia Premier Live Auction sale. Here are the lots and the hammer price...

Lot 7141, £170

Lot 7142, £180

Lot 7143, £240

Lot 7144, £360

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

Commando 5671 - Dutch courage

Commando 5677 - Hell on high

They called Lieutenant Robert Lloyd a coward for flying out of formation in his B-17 and blamed him for the death of his crew. He was demoted to co-pilot in another outfit but his new pilot wasn't going to listen to a coward’s advice on flying!

Commando 5687 - Beneath

When the Nazis thundered over Europe, they did not know what horror lay beneath, hungry from the last war. It had tasted human-flesh and it craved more…

Commando 5711 - 3 Company

Three's certainly company with this lot! A soldier, a sailor, and a pilot find themselves stranded on the Dunkirk beaches each blaming the other for their predicament. But they'd soon after to work together to escape the clutches of the Nazis!

Commando 5715 - Steer into danger

The salty seadogs are back for another oceanic adventure in the Pacific as the experienced skippers of HMAS Tiger and HMAS Wombat take on deadly Japanese Cruisers!

Commando 5731 - Leg before Chindits

Major Charles Beevor and his depleted group of Chindits were deep into the jungles of Burma. Cut off by the Japanese, they were out for six and would not stop until the Japanese threat was bowled over!

Commando 5747 - the deadly sun

In 1918, the deadly sun shone down on the desert and blinded Pilot Martin Connors. Out of its rays came a German plane flown by an ace who had already killed three other British pilots!

Commando 5755 - D-day pilot

Commando 5779 - Pressure Point

Commando 5807 - Small but mighty!

Maltese Private George Abela was an artillery gunner on Fort St Elmo and he might have stood at a diminutive five foot two but like Malta and its people, he was tough! And he was about to stop an audacious Italian plan to destroy the Grand Harbour!

Commando 5839 - no surrender!

Egypt, 1942. The war in the desert was as hot as the blazing sun, with the Italians fighting the British in an all‑out battle for supremacy. The Long Range Desert Patrol was an ace in the hand of the Brits, and their raiding parties went behind enemy lines to cut off vital supplies to their Italian opponents.
Little did they know they would soon be fighting shoulder to shoulder for survival against a common enemy – the German Afrika Korps!