Steve Dillon - CMNI #38

Listening to the 2000ad Thrillcast episode remembering artist Steve Dillon I heard Richard Burton talking about using Steve on his fanzines back in the day. Knowing that Richard was most likely to be talking about Comic Media News International (CMNI) I've looked at them to check out Steve's contribution to this zine...

I'll look at issues 39 and 40 over the next couple of days, first up is issue 38 (from October - November 1978)...

Scouse Mouse comics - an incomplete guide

One of the first comics I ever blogged about was 'Ace' or 'Scouse Mouse presents Ace!' comic to give it it's full title.

I'm still not clear on the chronology of this comic but I know that the last issue was April 1989 (see the Werewolf cover, below). The first 3 images were from an ebay lot that I didn't win and copyright dates are sadly missing from them...

Scouse Mouse presents Ace! comic, issue 1

Scouse Mouse presents Ace! comic, issue 2

Scouse Mouse presents Ace! comic, issue 3

Based on the image from the image on the back of issue 3 (above) we know that the title was then re-named 'Scouse Mouse and the scallywags' came next...here's the only example I have of that title

...but somehow it ends up as just being Scouse Mouse by the time it merges into Whizzer & Chips (on 15th April 1989 - the Scouse Mouse logo was dropped from the masthead after precisely 4 weeks, apparently) - so maybe the December date on the above comic means it's from 1988. Again, copyright dates are missing from these comics.

George Nicholas also worked on the Budgie Malone comic - which I looked at here , here and here as well as Were Bears comic (here). All 3 titles are hard to collect - so good luck in your collecting.

Powerman #11 - Dave Gibbons, Eric Bradbury & Carlos Ezquerra

I've looked at Powerman before (here) and I've tried to gather together all the images I can find of this rare Nigerian comic by Brian Bolland & Dave Gibbons. I recently acquired a small collection of Powerman comics so I'll be bringing highlights from those comics in the coming weeks ...

Previously we've looked at...

a). issue 5 is here

b). issue 6 is here

c). issue 7 is here

d). issue 8 is here

e). issue 9 is here

f). issue 10 is here

g). issue 16 is here

h). issue 18 is here

And there's a Brian Bolland interviw (here) - from Arkensword fanzine 13/14 - and artist Ron Tiner speaks about his time on Powerman here

And here's the highlights from issue 11...

Powerman by Dave Gibbons - a 16 page strip

The black star by Eric Bradbury - a 9 page strip

War story by Carlos Ezquerra - a 5 page strip

Powerman #6 - Brian Bolland, Eric Bradbury & Carlos Ezquerra

I've looked at Powerman before (here) and I've tried to gather together all the images I can find of this rare Nigerian comic by Brian Bolland & Dave Gibbons. I recently acquired a small collection of Powerman comics so I'll be bringing highlights from those comics in the coming weeks ...

Previously we've looked at...

a). issue 5 is here

b). issue 7 is here

c). issue 8 is here

d). issue 9 is here

e). issue 10 is here

f). issue 16 is here

g). issue 18 is here

And there's a Brian Bolland interviw (here) - from Arkensword fanzine 13/14 - and artist Ron Tiner speaks about his time on Powerman here

And here's the highlights from issue 6...

Powerman by Brian Bolland - a 16 page strip

The black star by Eric Bradbury - a 9 page strip

War story by Carlos Ezquerra - a 5 page strip

Brian has confirmed that the cover was his first paid work - see his comment below....

Powerman #5 - Gibbons, Bradbury & Ezquerra

I've looked at Powerman before (here) and I've tried to gather together all the images I can find of this rare Nigerian comic by Brian Bolland & Dave Gibbons. I recently acquired a small collection of Powerman comics so I'll be bringing highlights from those comics in the coming weeks ...

Previously we've looked at...

a). issue 7 is here

b). issue 8 is here

c). issue 9 is here

d). issue 10 is here

e). issue 16 is here

f). issue 18 is here

And there's a Brian Bolland interviw (here) - from Arkensword fanzine 13/14 - and artist Ron Tiner speaks about his time on Powerman here

Today we have issue 5...

Powerman by Dave Gibbons...a 16 page strip

The Black Star by Eric Bradbury...a 9 page strip

War story by Carlos Ezquerra...a 5 page strip

Raymond Briggs retrospective announced for 2020

The House of Illustration (here) have announced an amazing sounding retrospective of the work of graphic artist Raymond Briggs

Running from 2nd October 2020 to 24th January 2021

Raymond Briggs’ influence on children’s literature cannot be overstated. He invented scatological humour for children, centred stories around working-class families for the first time and confronted massive, ‘grown-up’ issues including dementia, death and nuclear war.

This long-awaited exhibition will show never-before-seen material from Briggs’ personal archive that reveals the origin of the iconic titles that have become literary classics and international phenomena. With original artwork from books including his poignant picture book The Snowman (1980) and pioneering graphic novel Ethel & Ernest (1998), the exhibition celebrates Briggs as an exceptional draughtsman, typographer and storyteller.

It also looks like the 'Tom of Finland' exhibition that was at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival also seems to be making it to London (here) from 6th March 2020 to 21st June 2020/ Let's see what they have to say about it...

This timely exhibition celebrates the artist whose unique aesthetic and homoerotic visions had a profound impact on the likes of Queen and the Village People – despite living and working in a country where both homosexuality and pornography were illegal.

It will feature iconic, previously unseen drawings from Tom of Finland Foundation’s collection – unabashed tributes to gay sexuality and identity which continue to have an outsize influence today.

Comics artists ahoy at Gosh comics in mid-January

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AS THE PUBLICATION DATE OF THE BOOK HAS CHANGED TO MARCH. IT IS HOPED TO RE-SCHEDULE THE EVENT.


Gosh comics have announced a great sounding signing for mid-January - it's ticketed (and tickets were available from yesterday) so you may have to hurry - the facebook page is here

This is what they have to say about the it all...

We’ll have a stellar line-up of concept artists and designers from Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker here to speak about their work and sign copies of The Art of Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker on Friday 17th January 2020, 7.30-9pm!

It’s been a long time coming, but final chapter of the Star Wars saga (the Star Wars heptalogy?) hits screens on the 20th December courtesy of director JJ Abrams and a small army of creative folks who work all hours of the given day to entertain us.

As with previous films, Phil Szostak has put together an exhaustive tour through the artwork that informs whats up on the big screen. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, like every chapter before it, owes its visual language and fully imagined cinematic landscape to an incomparable art department: The Lucasfilm “visualists.” Good for us then that plenty of those talented folks are based right here in the UK, and we're lucky enough to be hosting a number of them for a Q&A session and signing. Adam Brockbank (concept artist), Bob Cheshire (concept artist), Glyn Dillon (senior costume concept artist), Kevin Jenkins (production designer), Jake Lunt-Davies (creature concept artist), John McCoy (concept artist) and Calum Alexander Watt (costume concept artist) will all be present here in-store to talk about their process working on the film, as well as take your questions, along with special guest moderator (and former Star W rs comic writer) Kieron Gillen! There will also be an opportunity to get copies of The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker signed by this incredible roster of talent.

The book comes out on the 20th December, but if you’re happy to wait you can pre-order a signed copy for collection or mail-order after the event right now via our website.

“The official behind-the-scenes book of concept, production, and post-production art for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Go inside the creative process behind the most anticipated film of the century. The latest trilogy in the Star Wars film series brings the Skywalker Saga to a close and The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will take readers into the creative process behind visualizing the epic worlds, creatures, characters, costumes, weapons, and vehicles of the landmark conclusion more than 40 years in the making.”

Things kick off on Friday, 17th of January from 7.30-9 pm. We'll be closing the store at 7pm for a brief set-up, reopening at around 7.20pm to let people take their seats.

Due to anticipated demand, the event is ticketed. Tickets are free but do make sure you reserve your place through Eventbrite soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Seating is unreserved, and tickets are limited to 2 per person. Tickets will be available at this link from Friday the 13th of December at noon.

Lion annual 1963 - Sydney Jordan endpapers

Sydney Jordan is undoubtedly best known for his work illustrating the Jeff Hawke newspaper strip. Not come across it? The Wikipedia page is here

I can't seem to find an on-line bibliography for Sydney's work (if you know of one please just let me know) but I'd like to add the end-papers for the 1963 Lion annual to such a list...

UPDATED: Mighty Max comics (part 1)

Published by Marvel UK in 1994-5 'The adventures of Mighty Max' ran for 10 issues - cover art is by Mario Capaldi, precise issues details when I have them...

New details in red

Mighty Max (Marvel UK) comic issue 1 

Story 1 = If the cap fits... [story by Dan Abnett, art by Mario Capaldi]

Story 2 = A site for sore eyes! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Keith Page]

Story 3 = Max's snack attack! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Keith Page]

Mighty Max (Marvel UK) comic issue 2

Mighty Max (Marvel UK) comic issue 3

Story 1 = Time & again! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Mario Capaldi]

Story 2 = Nuts with bolts! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Keith Page

Story 3 = The big thaw! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Mike White]

Mighty Max (Marvel UK) comic issue 4

Story 1 = A sting in the tale! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Mario Capaldi]

Story 2 = Heads you lose! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Keith Page]

Story 3 = Back to the stone age! [story by Dan Abnett, art by Keith Page]

Mighty Max (Marvel UK) comic issue 5

I posted the above on a Facebook groups and John Michael Burns (renowned colourist and nephew of artist John M Burns) commented about colouring the cover to issue 1 (and therefore possibly other covers too I guess).

UPDATED: Beano and Dandy calendars

Following on from a previous post (here) about Oor Wullie calendars I realised that there must be other DC Thomson calendars out there so I set off to google Beano calendars - so here's my guide to collecting them...

Don't forget you can review Commando calendars here and Judge Dredd calendars here

New material is highlighted in red but the summary of where I'm up to now is that I have images for calendars for 1986-2020 apart from 2001, 2016 and a 'skinny' 2005 calendar (assuming it exists). Of course there could be more out there so if I missed anything just let me know.

Interestingly the 1992 edition has a reference that says "Number 7" in the top right cover - indicating that this is the 7th edition of the calendar...

...hmmm, and the 1993 calendar says "Number 8"...

...hmmm, and the 1994 calendar says "Number 9"...

...thingk the 1995 one says 'number 10' in the top right corner

Finally found an image of the 1996 calendar (number 11 in the top right corner)...

Here's the 1997 calendar - you'll see from the back cover picture that this is (helpfully) number as number 12 so there must have been a calendar for 1996 (to be number 11)

The 1998 calendar

The 1999 calendar (left) and the envelope it came in (right)

The 2000 calendar (right) and the envelope it came in (left)

No sign of the 2001 calendar (yet!)

Here's the 2002 calendar

2003 calendar

Then 2004...

No 2005 calendar (I think!) so here's the 2006 edition... 

Hmmm, so for 2004 and 2006 it seems there were 2 calendars for Beano fans...

Here's a great collection of calendars...

The top row shows (in order) 2015, 2016, 2012 and 2014.

The bottom row shows (in order) 2013, 2017, 2011 and 2010.

So that's 2010-2017 in total

The 2015 calendar...

The 2017 calendar...

...And then the 2018 calendar...

...and here we are for 2019...

...and here's the offering for 2020...

...and here's Cuddles and Dimples from 2001...