Excalibur auction - part 1

Some images from the recent auction of original comic art from Peter Hansen's amazing collection. This art was sold on Saturday 9th May 2026 by Excalibur auctions.

Dan Dare art by Ian Kennedy (from the cover of the 1988 Eagle holiday special)

Ron Turner art

Robert Nixon art

David Lloyd art from V for Vendetta

John M Burns art

Brian Bolland art

Dudley D Watkins art

UPDATED: Cartoon Aid

I've looked before at publications associated with the Cartoon Aid charity (like Band Aid but with more cartoons and less Bob Geldof) - if you missed them they are as follows...

a). the Olympic book is here
b). Bryan Hitch's work in the Kidz book is here
c). Mike Collin's work in the Kidz book is here
d). Terry & Sheila Bave's work in the Kidz book is here
e). Simon Donald's work in the Kidz book is here
f). Cartoon Aid auction at Sotheby's & a festival in Margate is here

g). Waddington's jigsaw (from the Margate festival is here)

h). Scare Bears monster party book is here 

i). a REALLY big tome called Cartoon Aid here 

j). the 'Loadsa Funnies' telethon book featuring Judge Dredd art by Jim Baikie is here

k). same book but a Dredd strip by John Wagner & Mike Collins is here

l). same book but art by Bryan Hitch and Reg Smythe is here

m). same book but art by Davy Francis is here

n). same book but contributions by humour artists is here

o). same book - contributions by John M Burns, Dave Gibbons and others is here

I've started looking at some of the contents of this big book, so far I've looked at Asterix (here and here) and then I've found that there is some DC Thomson material in there (here) and then I've found some Achille Talon material (here) and some Look-In (here). The Lucky Luke material is here. 

Turns out that there was a t-shirt available too. Art by the legendary John M Burns. At the time of typing this is for sale here on ebay by someone based in Ukraine.

UPDATED: Ivory Castle Arrow covers

I've looked before at Ivory Castle Arrow (here) with their covers by John Ryan (issues 1-9) and John M Burns (issues 10-11). The search for issue 1 and 4 continues. 

Previously I've added images of the club badge but for this update I've added in some images supplied by friend of the blog Keith Chapman concerning his work on 'Arrow. Enjoy!

UPDATE (20/03/26) now withe cover to issue 4 - which is currently on sale here c/o ace ebayer ewan_b

Got issues...2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Need issues...1, 4

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 1

cover not to hand - can you help? 

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 2

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 3

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 4

cover by John Ryan, interior art by Don Harley, Philip Mendoza and others 

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 5

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 6

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 7

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 8

Interior art is by Philip Mendoza, Reg Parlett and an artist who's signed his work - How they found Maroobi - but I don't recognise the signature

Here's a close-up of that signature...

Any ideas? If so, just let me know, cheers!

UPDATE: I have now been told that the artist is Leslie Caswell - who was a mentor of sorts to Mike Noble when Noble was starting out in comic strips. Norman Boyd has a number of posts about Caswell on his Visual Rants blog, including this one which has comments from two of his children: 

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 9

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 10

Ivory Castle Arrow, issue 11

There was also a badge for the Ivory castle league - defend your ivory castles - it commands!

Friend of the blog Keith Chapman has shared these images of his work on issue 11. He also worked on other issues too.

John M Burns & British Telecom

A John M Burns oddity for you here - 'Tiger by the tail# by Michael Goss. 

The seller here described the item thus...

This is a magazine sized booklet for BT illustrated by the late great John M Burns. 20 glossy pages, over 40 illustrations. 1984.

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]

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 Seekers - the man who died twice [2014]

17th story

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!

UPDATED: The Dreamstone comic - London Editions

London Editions magazine from 1991, The Dreamstone, put together (issue 1 at least) by Glenn B Fleming & Brian M. Clarke. I don't have a full set sadly and think this title only ran to 6 issues. 

Interior art by Tim Perkins in issue 2, 3 & 4. Issue 1 is just screen-grabs for the titular cartoon series. Tim Perkins signature has survived on issues 4 & 6 (I think he drew the other covers too but these are unsigned).

Now updated with a cover for issue #3

I've got issues 1-4

The Dreamstone comic - issue 1

The Dreamstone comic - issue 2

The Dreamstone comic - issue 3

The Dreamstone comic - issue 4

The Dreamstone comic - issue 5

The Dreamstone comic - issue 6

and there's an annual as well

John Gillatt - early influences

Swiped from an ebay sale a while ago is this letter from comic artist John Gillatt all about his formative comic influences

Lawless 2024 - the photos, part 4

Hard to believe it's another 8 months to Lawless, boo! While we're waiting for the time to pass here's part 4 of my photos from Lawless 2024. 

Part 1 (the artists) was here

Part 2 - 2000AD art was here

Part 3 - more 2000AD art was here

and now some vintage British comic art...

Quite a few war picture library covers...

John M Burns & Mike Noble (left hand side, middle panel)

Ron Embleton art

Ian Kennedy art for new Eagle (top); John Bolton for Warrior (bottom)

top - Ron Embleton

bottom - Brian Lewis art for Captain Condor (in Lion)