Boys Adventure Comics

16 January 2018

Comicon brochure 1976 - no signatures - part 2

Here's my final selection from the Comicon 1976 brochure (my special signed copy is now for sale here)...

First up is Bryan Talbot

Then we have Hunt Emerson

Ron Embleton was king of the comics in the 1970s, and here's his artistic effort

Brian Lewis also contributes a piece

15 January 2018

Comicon brochure 1976 - no signatures - part 1

Unsigned pieces from the 1976 brochure (which is for sale here incidentally) include the following

Here's a lovely lady from the pen of John M. Burns

John Bolton also makes an appearance

as does Martin Asbury - I assume this is supposed to be the $6m man

14 January 2018

Comicon 76 brochure - with signature (part 2)

Second (and final) part of my look at the autographs in my Comicon 1976 brochure

This one looks like Tony Weare to me - the only reason I can think for signing this page is that it's about the only blank page in the booklet - the rest of the pages are jam packed with art!

Here's a young looking Dave Gibbons (and Powerman as well)

Comics fan extraordinaire Denis Gifford also made it into the pages of the convention handbook.

13 January 2018

Comicon 76 brochure - with signtures (part 1)

Here's my Comicon 1976 brochure - it's A5 sized and full of one-off pages of art by the guests (typically) attending the convention. I was a little young to attend Comicon 1976 but whoever owned this brochure before me managed to grab a number of signatures...(more to come tomorrow)

Ken Simpson

Brian Bolland

Paul Neary

Trevor Goring (back page)

12 January 2018

Andersonic issue 23 is now out!

Here's the cover of ace Century 21 fanzine, Andersonic...

Contents include...

Ayshea Brough interview - Ayshea talks about her time working on UFO.

Archive - In 1993 Chris Drake interviewed Gerry Anderson for his book 'UFO & Space: 1999'. In the third part of this interview Gerry talked candidly about the making of Captain Scarlet.

Alan Shubrook - Alan writes about the recent demolition of the Century 21 studios in Slough and also shares his thoughts on working on Captain Scarlet.

Captain Scarlet Comics of the 90s - Graeme Bassett writes about his work on Alan Fennell's comic revival of the early 1990s .

The A-Z of Stingray - Essential marine facts for the aquanaut of tomorrow - today!

Space: 1999 - a critique of End of Eternity with the emphasis on Ray Austin's direction.

The Protectors - Mike Coldwell casts an eye over Shadbolt

Watching the Watchers - A look at Granada's Supermarionation transmission history of the 60s and 70s.

Captain Scarlet - 'Point 783' - two writers slug it out over this popular episode.

Merchandise Reviews - we review recent CDs and books. Plus 'Things You Do (when you're a fan)', news of an upcoming UFO convention and some other stuff.

The issue comprises 44 pages with colour inner & outer covers. 

It's now available via the website www.andersonic.co.uk (and eBay for a short period in the Collectibles > SF > Thunderbirds section); if you'd prefer to pay by cheque, please get in touch for the new postal address. Back issues are also (mostly) in print. Cost (including UK postage) is an incredibly low £2.90.

So what exactly is Andersonic? 
It's an A5 paper fanzine which covers the films and television series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Each issue contains features and articles which explore and discuss their many series, from the black and white Supercar and Fireball XL5, 60s series Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and The Secret Service; the live-action series UFO and Space:1999 and later stuff such as Terrahawks and right up to date with New Captain Scarlet. In previous issues we have also covered the films Doppelganger and Into Infinity. We have featured interviews with, amongst others, Mike Trim, Dominic Lavery, Shaun Whittacker-Cook, Jan King, Robert Easton, Tony Harding and Mike Noble.

11 January 2018

Glenn Fabry sketchbook - final selection of images

A final selection of images from the really very talented Glenn Fabry...

it's for sale here y'know

all images (c) Glenn Fabry
all characters are (c) their respective creatord

10 January 2018

Ian Gibson's lost children's book illustrations - part 2

And here's the second part...

9 January 2018

Ian Gibson's lost children's book illustrations - part 1

From the pages of Arken Sword #20, comes this oddity, it says here...

Grain is the creation of Paul Keatley and Ian Gibson. It started one Christmas night while they were entertaining friends. Paul told the story as Ian drew sketches to accompany hi. They took the ide and were going to package it as a series of illustrated children's books - Ian even drew up a whole pile of illustrations - but nothing became of it. it was in 1975 that Ian decided to put Grain into comic book form, harking back to its original inspiration - Asterix - and produced 12 finished pages. When John Jackson and I unearthed the unscripted pages during the course of our interview with Ian (Arken Sword 15), it prompted Paul & Ian to script the pages for me to print.

Paul Keatley is probably a name you're not familiar with, but he has worked in comics before. His break came in the early 70s when he was in London sharing digs with Ian and Steve Parkhouse. Paul sent in a lot of scripts to IPC's funny comics line - Buster, Whizzer & Chips etc. - but kept receiving rejections. Steve, who was already working for IPC, thought they were good enough so he included Paul's scripts in his batch of scripts. They were accepted. Eventually Steve told IPC the truth, and Paul sent in scripts under his own name. Paul moved on to other jobs, and other interests, including a tour of Europe as one of THE FORTUNES.

8 January 2018

Rare early Kevin O'Neill artwork

From early 1973 I present a Fantasy Advertiser fanzine (issue 49) cover by Kev 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' O'Neill.

I think he's captured the vibe pretty well

7 January 2018

Glenn Fabry skecthbook - volume1

A few images from Glenn Fabry sketchbook #1...

Cheetara from Thundercats

The sketchbook is for sale here

And here's Glenn's one and only cover from the new Eagle (signed fro me at the 2000ad con back in February 2017)

6 January 2018

Jesus von Nazareth - by Frank Hampson & Marcus Morris

Good news for all Frank Hampson fans out there, a new reprint volume of his work has just come to light. It was actually published in 2015 but Amazon UK only had a copy listed just recently!

Here's what the cover looks like (art by Ertugrul), as you can see it's a translation of 'The Road of Courage' strip (by Frank Hampson and Marcus Morris), the strip portrays the life of Christ. If you've never seen a copy of this masterpiece I recommend picking up the original Dragon's Dream version.

Anyway, here's the German version...

and here are 2 interior pages, all lovingly translated into German

This isn't the fist time the Road of Courage has been translated internationally, I look at other foreign language volumes here

Two volumes of Dan Dare's adventure have also been translated into German - the first 2 Hawk Book reprint volumes look like this in German...

5 January 2018

Wildcat Holiday Special - part 2

For all you Brian Lewis fans here is a 2 page Jet-Ace Logan strip reprinted in the Wildcat Holiday Special.

4 January 2018

Wildcat Holiday Special - part 1

Following on from yesterday's posting here are some snippets from the hard to find Wildcat holiday special. Ian Kennedy provides the front cover and some concept sketches. Ron Smith provides art duties on Joe Alien (as he had done before).

Keith Page, José Ortiz and Redondo provide interior art; a little bit of the art is reprinted from the comic but most of it is ~~leftover from Wildcat~~ new.