Brian Bolland & The Drifters

Swiped from a Facebook post by Matt Lemon here we have, for posterity, Brian Bolland producing work for the band The Drifters.

Action cover (1976) - Colin Wyatt

This auction lot (here) caught my eye some months ago...it was described thus...

Action Comic 4th Of December 1976 With Front Cover Concept Drawing By Colin Wyatt. 

This was the first issue of the re-launched Action comic. Never seen a rough cover sketch for Action before. I'm unclear who drew the published cover. 

Boom! sells for £120 + fees

Scream Inn - Brian Walker

A recent sale by ace ebay seller philcomics of this piece of art by Brian Walker. This was produced for the 1976 (British) comicon, a lovely piece that someone was happy to pay £205 for. 

Frank Bellamy - he lifts an elephant!

I never need much of an excuse to feature the art of Frank Bellamy on the blog...and I've long wanted to feature his work for Gerry Cottle's circus because there must be all sorts of variations of these posters as it travelled around the country. 

Bellamy drew 3 posters for Gerry Cottle and you can read more about it here on Norman Boyd's amazing Frank Bellamy blog.

I featured one of the posters - The walk of death! - on the blog here

And now it's the turn of the poster "He lifts an elephant!" Not found many of these so far, I'll update the post when I find other examples.

Frank Bellamy - the walk of death!

I never need much of an excuse to feature the art of Frank Bellamy on the blog...and I've long wanted to feature his work for Gerry Cottle's circus because there must be all sorts of variations of these posters as it travelled around the country. 

Bellamy drew 3 posters for Gerry Cottle and you can read more about it here on Norman Boyd's amazing Frank Bellamy blog.

Action comic rarities up for sale

Ace comics auctioneer phil-comics (here) have a couple of Action rarities up for sale currently. I'll report back on the final prices realised but I'm expecting these to go for high prices...

First up is right here - it's a press pack for issues #1-4

boom! sells for £108.86

There's also this poster as well

boom! sells for £56.86

Action comic #37

Just a follow-up from my post the other day (here) about Action #37 going up for sale in October. For the benefit of posterity I've cribbed the images from the auction so that we can have a rare look inside this notorious issue...

front cover

back cover

interior art

interior art

interior art

Brian Bolland for Comicon 76

Images swiped from an ebay sale last year and included here as I hadn't seen them before. Brian Bolland's advert for Comicon (19)76

The images doesn't appear in the actual convention brochure/programme that was produced, so this advert is the only place you'd see this image.

UPDATED: Denis Gifford books

Having recently failed to acquire this book below it made me wonder of there are any other Denis Gifford books I don't know about out there.

So I thought I'd better see what books I think exist and then see if anyone can spot any gaps, right then, in date order we have as follows...

New addition this time is a collection of comics reprints.

A). Comic reference books

Discovering comics (1971)

Stap me! The British newspaper strip (1971)

The British comic catalogue 1874-1974 (1975)

Happy days - one hundred years of comics (1975)

(published by Jupiter books)

Victorian comics (1976)

British comics and storypaper guide! 1982

The international book of comics (1984)

This book is available with a variety of covers and comes in softback and hardback...

First up a WH Smith exclusive (softback)

Next up a WH Smith exclusive (hardback)

Next, normal edition (hardback)

Next, normal edition (softback)

and then there's this edition too...(softback, 1990)

The complete catalogue of British comics (1985)

Encyclopedia of comic characters (1987)

Happy days - one hundred years of comics (1988)

(published by Bloomsbury books)

Comics at war (1988)

The Eagle book of cutaways (1988)

The best of Eagle annual, 1951-1959 (1989)

The story paper price guide (1989)

The comic art of Charlie Chaplin (1989)

The international book of comics (1990)

The best of Girl annual, 1952-1959 (1990)

Christmas comic posters (1991)

Discovering comics (1991)

Super Duper Supermen! (1992)

(also available as a book of postcards)

Space aces! (1992)

(also available as a book of postcards)

B). Other Denis Gifford books with comic content

Run, Adolf, run: the world war two fun book (1975)

Stewpot's fun book (1977)

The Morecambe and Wise comic book! (1977)

Quick on the draw (1978)

Eric and Ernie's TV fun book (1978)

The two Ronnies comic book! (1978)

C). Catalogues of Denis Gifford's collection

Here are some more images relating to the book that made me write this post initially...

And now a book in Italian...

and now we can add in another Denis Gifford production from 1975...a one-off this, yes, it's "Penny comics of the thirties". A 2nd volume was planned but never produced.