Ring Raiders - Sandy James art mystery

A couple of weeks ago friend of the blog John Freeman spotted this lovely piece of art for sale on the Catawiki auction site (here). He identified it as being by artist Sandy James and he wrote a short piece for his amazing Down the Tubes site here about Sandy & about the short-lived Ring Raiders comic that this work was for / from.

 

So here's where it gets interesting...Ring Raiders only lasted 6 issues in the UK (9 issues in Germany as we saw a couple of weeks ago). Sandy's art appears in all 6 issues - in the strip "Freedom Fight!". There's 3 pages of art per issue so a total of 18 pages of art in total. BUT that story is set in South America 1966 and there are very definitely NO vikings in it.

The Ring Raiders special that was published subsequently has the final 3 pages of the "Freedom Fight!" strip in it. This would have been in issue #7 of Ring Raiders. The final frame of these 3 pages has our heroes flying off into the sunset with the words "...to await our next mission!"

And that mission presumably involved travelling back to good 'ol viking time in issue #8 onwards. Guess we'll never know for sure now!

Ring Raiders - the German issues!

A recent discovery for me are these German edition of Ring Raiders comic. The British edition lasted just six issues (plus a special) but in Germany there were nine issues, published by Bastei Verlag.

I wonder if there issues 7-9 had stuff in them that would have been in the British version? If you know then please DO get in touch.

According to the German Comic Hunters website, the regular series ran for issues, published monthly from February to November 1990.

There were also three collected editions, and one extra issue (ExtraHeft”), published directly by Matchbox.

Ring Raiders, issue #1

same cover as #1 in the UK

Here’s an interior spread…

Ring Raiders, issue #2

This cover was used for issue #3 in the UK

Ring Raiders, issue #3

This cover was used for issue #5 in the UK (albeit the four character heads have been added to the German edition)

Ring Raiders, issue #4

Ring Raiders, issue #5

Cover not to hand - can you help?

Ring Raiders, issue #6

Ring Raiders, issue #7

The art is credited to (Enrique) Campdepadros

Ring Raiders, issue #8

Ian Kennedy head, but the rest of the art is credited to (Enrique) Campdepadros

Ring Raiders, issue #9

The art is credited to (Enrique) Campdepadros

Ring Raiders Special #1

Ring Raiders Special #2

Cover not to hand - can you help?

Ring Raiders Special #3

Cover not to hand - can you help?

Ring Raiders Extra Heft

Ring Raiders Extra Heft

Ring Raiders comics (others)

There were also 2 Ring Raiders annual - both were published by Grandreams. No sign of Ian Kennedy, Carlos Pino et al.

There was also a one-off 'mini comic' (3 pages of Ian Kennedy art) given away free with new Eagle 16/09/89) - and quite probably other Fleetway titles as well.

Ring Raiders comic, 1989 - part 3

Issues 5-6; same group of artists, Ian Kennedy covers

There was also a one-off special...Ian Kennedy cover

Ring Raiders comic, 1989 - part 2

Continuing the cover gallery from Ring Raiders, issues 2-4. Contents produced (again) by Ian Kennedy, Carlos Pino, John Gillatt, Sandy James and John Cooper.

Ring Raiders comic, 1989 - part 1

Ring Raiders comic then...ok, so its a toy range tie-in comic but by my reckoning it has the greatest concentration of Fleetway's comic talents of the 80s and 90s...let's check out that bold claim...

Cover is by Ian Kennedy

First strip is illustrated by Carlos Pino (who's just illustrated Commando issue 5000)...

Then you get John Cooper illustrating a strip...

A John Gillatt illustrated strip...

Then it's Don Wazejewski (ok, so he's the least well-known artist here)...but he worked a little bit on Battle and on new Eagle

And you end up with some Sandy James pages...

What a selection! Well worth tracking down.