1981 Battle Action cover art by Joe Colquhoun up for sale

I haven't spotted any Charley's War for sale on ebay for ages...until now! This 1981 cover (which is a craker) is currently up for sale - with an opening bid of £1,350 (or make offer). 

Auction runs until 5pm GMT on Sunday - good luck if you bid!

UPDATED: Robin comic merchandise - an incomplete visual guide

Robin comic was one of the companion titles to the original Eagle comic (along with Girl and Swift) - Robin was aimed at the youngest demographic of the 4 titles. I don't collect Robin material but I thought I should try and record what sort of spin-off ephemera, games etc. exist for Robin.

The main problem with this is that is you google "Robin comic merchandise" you get an awful lot of stuff relating to Batman's young assistant, grrr.

Spin-off books are here

The 1st birthday book is here

The 2nd birthday book is here

The 3rd birthday book is here

The 4th birthday book is here

The 5th birthday book is here

The 10th birthday book is here

The 13th birthday book is here

New additions are highlighted in red

A letter welcoming a new member to the Robin club

The Robin book of pets

sold by COMPAL at lot 89 in there Summer 2012 (British section) and described thus Robin (1953) 1 13-16 39 Robin Metal Club badge Swift Club badge 2 Robin Birthday Club Cards Robin Birthday Postcard Odeon Film Club postcard. With Boy's World (1963) Vol 1: No 5 and free gift Olympic Medal Ranger 18 June 1966 Victor Summer Special (1968) and Robin 1 (1986) Robin 1 (1953) [fn-] balance [vg/fn] (17) Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £134. No idea what the Robin book of pets is. 

This image is taken from here

and looks a lot like a simpler version of the Swift birthday books that I covered here

A Robin birthday postcard (front and back)...  

...including nice Swift 'stamp' - Swift had launched on 20th March 1954 and this was sent on 20th July 1954 - so exactly 4 months later. 

In the tradition of Eagle / Girl / Swift there were spin-off jigsaws, here's one that I've found so far...

And here's a money box...

I'm sure there must be more stuff out there - can you help?

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE

I've been pointed in the direction of the 'Dan Dare info' website (here) for some rare Robin merchandise - so here are 5 cards (presumably of set of 6)…

Number 1 - Richard Lion, Peggy, Henry and Pug

Number 2 - Dumpy, Golly and Honeybun

Number 3 - Woppit, Mokey and Tiptop 

Number 4 - Johnny Bull, Woppit, Mokey, Tiptop and Bingo, Bango and Bongo

Number 5 - Johnny Bull, Woppit, Mokey, Tiptop and Bingo, Bango and Bongo

Phil Shrimpton was also kind enough to share some picture of Robin items he's sold on ebay…

Not sure if this is the 6th book they produced or a book for a child's birthday - anyway, it's good to know it exists...now I just need ot find book 4 and 5 and add them in

There was a Robin club (just as there was an Eagle club, a Girl club and a Swift club), in the Eagle club if you were a member for more than a year you got a star to dangle from the hoop on the badge, presumably this was true of Robin as well (even if the symbol may not have been a star)

Not really merchandise but for the die-hard Robin collector out there...

Further images c/o friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs...here's a Robin club badge with a leaf (I think) denoting that the member has re-subscribed to the club...

Jigsaw #3 'At the zoo', now I just need to find images on jigsaw numbers 1, 2 and 4

Super Sunday - the Sunday newspaper for boys and girls (1974)

This was a recent ebay find..."Super Sunday" a short-lived Sunday newspaper for boys and girls (as its masthead proclaims). The British Library catalogues it as having ran for 16 issues in 1974 - from 15th September to 29th December. I've included it on the blog on the basis of the comics strip it ran - 3 whole pages of comics says the front page!

Assuming the same strips were in each issue you had...

"Omily & Opylus - the adventures of two rival families in the wild west" - looks like a (French?) reprint but Google can tell me nothing about this strip. I can't quite make out the name of the name of the creators.

"Ringo". At least two stories "Ghatto's war" and "The good, the mad and the ugly". Again this looks like a French reprint, I can't quite read who the creators are and Google can't help me with the details of the strip. A mystery!

"Kebir - the princess and the diamond" - a reprint of a strip by Suat Yalaz (about whom more details can be found here)

I've had an update from Reddit about 'Super Sunday' from Bufete2020 who says...

I can tell you that Suat Yalaz (Turkish Artist) Link is the artists for both the Ringo (known in Turkey as "Soni Ringo") Link and the Kebir strip. Kebir was/is originally named Karaoglan in Turkey. Link. Not sure about Omily & Opylus

Dredd by Fabry & Bisley

Just a reminder about this auction - good luck if you bid!

Over on Italian art auction site Finarte.it there's a glorious Judge Dredd megazine cover for sale (right here in fact) from 2010. Art is by Glenn Fabry and Simon Bisley

The auction ends on Saturday 20th May

Estimate is 6,500 to 10,000 euro

The cover of Megazine #302

100 years of Norman Thelwell - part 1

It closed in May (2023) but here are just some of the highlights from the recent '100 years of Norman Thelwell' exhibition at Mottisfont National Trust property.

First up, the early years...

UPDATED: Etherington brothers comics - the early years

I've been interested in looking at the early comics works of the Etherington brothers for some time now and I've finally scooped up enough images to get me started. There's a lot of gaps here though so I'd be delighted for any help that anyone can give me.

Yore! 

This was (according to this link) was free with issue 6 of Dennis and Gnasher megazine #6. This was a collection of material that had previously appeared in The Dandy.

There's also Malcolm Magic. This appeared as single issues and then as collected editions. I don't have any images (yet!) of the single issues but I'm slightly better off with the collected editions. Here's volume 1...this has issues 1-3 collected

so that just leaves me looking for cover images for collected edition #2, 3 & 4.

There was also a "consolidated" collected edition with all 12 issues & extra stuff.

When I tweeted about this search previously I was delighted to have some feedback from them with the following images...thanks again guys!

Tusk comic, Blink Twice publications, the Etherington Brothers

Moon! comic, Blink Twice publications, the Etherington Brothers

Malcolm Magic comic #4, Blink Twice publications, the Etherington Brothers

Malcolm Magic comic #9, Blink Twice publications, the Etherington Brothers