Inside Viz #1 - 1979

A recent spot on eBay...here's what Viz issue 1 looked like...

The seller noted that that in common with many of the copies of the first issue the pages were stapled together in the wrong order. The order is: 1, 2, 9, 10, 5, 6, 7, 8, 3, 4, 11, 12!

Anyway, a rare glimpse inside the first issue of this seminal comic...

UPDATED: Viz calendars

If you're interested in comic calendars then here are the links to the other calendar themes that I've covered...

1). Beano & Dandy calendars are here
2). Commando calendars are here
3). Judge Dredd calendars are here
4). Broons calendars are here, here and here
5). Oor Wullie is here
6). Dan Dare calendar is here
7). Miscellaneous calendars are here

8). Asterix calendars are here

9). Tintin calendars are here

10). Andy Capp calendars are here

And now it;s over to Viz for a look at their offerings over the years...Happy collecting!

Viz calendar 1989

Viz calendar 1990

Viz calendar 1991

Viz calendar 1992

Viz calendar 1993

Viz calendar 1994

Viz calendar 1995

image not to hand - does this exist?

Viz calendar 1996

Any further calendars out there? I'm thinking about large calendars rather than A4 sized freebies with the magazine

UKCAC 1986 - portfolio (part 1 of 3)

For the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention (UKCAC) in 1986 a portfolio of drawings was produced from the artists present at the convention. It features loads of great art, here's the first selection of images...

There is (was?) a copy for sale here and the description below gives some useful context for the portfolio...

From the press release -

"We believe that we've scheduled a completely unique idea for the convention that will provide you a completely unique and worthwhile souvenir of the weekend. On the Saturday we hope to persuade every professional artist present to contribute to an eight piece illustration that will be printed overnight to provide the UKCAC86 Portfolio. All going to schedule this will be on sale at £1.50 for Sunday lunchtime, with all profits going to African famine relief. We're only printing 600 portfolios, and the original artwork will be auctioned on Sunday... a true collector's item, so snap them up quickly."

Full list 

1. Dave Gibbons "Rorschach", Barry Windsor-Smith "The Hulk", Gilbert Shelton "Fat Freddy's Cat"
2. Mike Collins "Axel Pressbutton" (Warrior), Kevin O'Neill "Metalzoic", Phil Elliott "Gibley"
3. Brett Ewins "Johnny Nemo", Carl Potts "Alien Legion", Gil Kane "Arak"
4. Bryan Talbot "Nemesis", Jim Baikie "Electric Warrior", Cam Kennedy "The Outsiders B.D. Ricken-Backer"
5. Frank Miller "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns"
6. Brian Bolland / Richard Starkings "The Joker - Smile!", John Bolton "Ogre"
7. John Ridgway "The 6th Doctor Who", Gary Kwapisz "Conan", Hunt Emerson "Max Zillion", Al Davison "The Astral Gypsy"
8. Eddie Campbell "Alec", Nigel Kitching "The Silver Surfer", Chris Donald "Felix and his Amazing Under-pants" (Viz), Mark Farmer "Kilowog"
9. Alan Davis "Batman", Myra Hancock "Myra", Seth "Cityscape", Unknown "Daredevil"
10. Graham Higgins "Retinal Burn", Bill Sienkiewicz "Jason from Friday The 13th - as child, Thursday The 12th"
11. Glenn Fabry "Ukko", Unknown "Mister X", David Lloyd "V for Vendetta", Fox "Redfox", Alan Moore "Maxwell The Magic Cat", John Higgins "Zombie"
12. Ian Gibson "Halo Jones", Lew Stringer "Brickman"

Viz calendars

I've looked at comics calendars before, a list of which looks like this...
1). Beano & Dandy calendars are here
2). Commando calendars are here
3). Judge Dredd calendars are here
4). Broons calendars are here, here and here
5). Oor Wullie is here
6). Dan Dare calendar is here
7). Miscellaneous calendars are here

And now it;s over to Viz for a look at there offering over the years...Happy collecting!

Viz calendar 1989

Viz calendar 1990
image not to hand - does this exist?

Viz calendar 1991

Viz calendar 1992

Viz calendar 1993

Viz calendar 1994

Viz calendar 1995

image not to hand - does this exist?

Viz calendar 1996

Any further calendars out there? I'm thinking about large calendars rather than A4 sized freebies with the magazine

Final selection of comics calendars

My series on collecting calendars featuring comics characters comes to an end today with this selection of slightly miscellaneous calendars.

For previous blogs in this series the Broons part 1 (1997-2010) is here, part 2 (2011-15) is here and part 3 is here

Beano calendars are here.

Commando calendars are here.

Judge Dredd calendars are here.

Oor Wullie calendars are here

Desperate Dan calendar, 2001

(one copy currently listed on ebay)


Cuddles & Dimples calendar, 2001

(2 copies currently listed on ebay - pretty cheap)


Dan Dare calendar, 1989

Viz calendar, 1996

Retro comic games - can you help?

Just trying to gather up images of 80s / 90s computer games featuring British comic characters - these are the only ones I could come up off the top of my head, which ones have I missed? Thanks.

The above two images are for the same Rogue game but the images were sufficiently different for me to put both of them up.

There's a great review of 2000ad character driven games here and also here