UPDATED: Cookie - Clearmark comics

I've looked at some comics published by 'Clearmark comics' in the past...

Popular fairy tales here

Were Bears here

The world of Wym here

Tom and Jerry here 

Rupert here

They also published Cookie - the fortnightly for pre-school for children. Issue 1 was definitely published but I'm unsure about issue 2 - any clues welcomed. You'll see that the contents include Henry's Cat, the family Ness, Pound puppies and more

Now updated with an actual cover image for issue #12 . 

Looking at old issues of Denis Gifford's ACE newsletter also reveals the following...

ACE for September '90 says that issue 12 (cover dated 9th August) will be the first monthly issue (and that the price has gone up to 80p)

ACE for Oct / November '90 says that issue 13 (cover dated 9th September) has a free badge

ACE for Jan/Feb 1991 says that issue 13 (cover dated 6th September) was the last issue.

So, some slight confusion about the cover date of issue 13 (the correct date would seem to be 6th September as that's 28 days after the 9th August issue but we shall see) but it's the last issue whatever the cover date.

ACE for September 1990 also records the publication of a holiday special. 

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 1, 21st March 1990, 60p

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 2, 4th April 1990, 60p

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 2, 4th April 1990, 60p

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 3, 18th April 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 4, 2nd May 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 5, 16th May 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 6, 30th May 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 7, 13th June 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 8, 27th June 1990, 60p

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 9, ??? 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 10, ??? 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 11, ??? 1990, 60p

image not to hand - can you help?

Cookie comic - a Clearmark comic, issue 12, August 1990, 80p

Cruikshank 200

I've looked at the various publications associated with the Cartoon Art Trust / Cartoon Museum before. 

Newsletters can be found here;

An incomplete look at exhibition catalogues is XXXXX

Fundraising auctions are XXXX

I'm always happy to include other mentions of the Cartoon Art Trust in publications. I stumbled across this 1992 book celebrating 200 years since the birth of illustrator George Cruikshank.

Flier...

Associated with the exhibition was this booklet. A recent ebay seller described it thus...

Physical description; 56 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 23 x 25 cm. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Graves Art Galley, Sheffield, 27 Feb. - 3 Apr. 1993, Orleans House Gallery (London), 1 - 31 May 1993. 

Includes bibliographical references (page 56). 

Catalogue of exhibition held, Museum of the Order of St John, Clerkenwell, London, 30 Sept. - 21 Oct. 1992, and other places

UPDATED: The Blacksad books

Updated: 'They all fall down - part 2' has now been released.

For other Blacksad / Juanjo Guarnido there's also...

sketchbooks here

a calendar here

On my 'to collect' list is certainly the Blacksad volumes by artist Juanjo Guarnido (see my feature on his sketchbooks here). I was a bit confused by the various editions of the books so I thought I'd work it all out to help me (and you!) out...

I'm indebted to this wikipedia page for helping me out with all of this...

The first story - Somewhere within the shadows. I own this.

The second story - Arctic Nation. I own this.

The 3rd story (Red soul) does not appear to have had an English-language translation.

This volume, from Dark Horse, collects the first 3 stories. I own this.

The 4th Blacksad story, A silent hell

The 5th Blacksad story - Amarillo. I own this.

This volume (which is labelled as volume one actually collects the first two parts of the 6th story, They all fall down - in France these two parts appear to have come out as separate volumes).

The 3rd and 4th parts of the 6th story, They all fall down, have now been collected in this single volume...

There's also this volume - the sketch files - to look out for. Same format as the first two books highlighted above. Seems rare, out of print and pricy!

The Windsor tapestry - part 5

Some more images from the recently closed 'The Windsor tapestry' exhibition held at the Cartoon Museum in London (here)

Part 1 was here

Part 2 was here

Part 3 was here

Part 4 was here

Twisted Metal 2 - comic

Today's blog post is basically a plug for the recalledcomics.com website (here) which is a wonderful rabbit hole to go down! It's full of rare variants of comics and you could spend ages looking at all sorts of comics you didn't know existed.

I'm only going to pick out one example (but there are plenty more to find!) - this is Duncan Fegredo's cover to the Playstation tie-in comic to Twisted Metal 2.

Apparently only 100 copies were ever produced and these sell for big bucks! Good luck tracking one down!

UPDATED: Clive Barker's 'Hellbreed' - Marvel UK

Michael Carroll's timeline of Marvel UK comics (here) has an array of interestingly short-lived comics on that I thought I should create cover galleries for them. Sometimes this is easier said than done but let's look at the 3 issue Clive Barker's Hellbreed comic from 1995.

UPDATED with a better image for issue 2 and a better image for issue #3.

Clive Barker's 'Hellbreed' - issue #1, May 1995, £1.95

Clive Barker's 'Hellbreed' - issue #2, June 1995, £1.95

Clive Barker's 'Hellbreed' - issue #3, July 1995, £1.95

This appears to have then be collected in this volume (published under the Epic imprint) - or at least the cover has been re-used on this volume! Cover art by Mike Mignola.

Action cover (1976) - Colin Wyatt

This auction lot (here) caught my eye some months ago...it was described thus...

Action Comic 4th Of December 1976 With Front Cover Concept Drawing By Colin Wyatt. 

This was the first issue of the re-launched Action comic. Never seen a rough cover sketch for Action before. I'm unclear who drew the published cover. 

Boom! sells for £120 + fees

Commando - for 360 years

An interesting issue of Commando here - this definitely is not one of the regular issues (issue 1664 is actually entitled The sea devils) instead this slim volume was issued in 2024 to celebrate the 360th anniversary of the UK Commando force. 

Good luck tracking one of these down! 

Thanks to Karl Kennedy for alerting me to the existence of this and to Nick Sparakes for the images

Last of the summer wine - the Daily Star years!

I'm always delighted to feature newspaper strips on the blog (see this link for all mentions of newspaper strips so far) especially one-off collections.

The Daily Star newspaper most notably had a Judge Dredd strip in it for many years but it also had other strips and it's those that I'm more interested in. 

So far there's Ben & Katie (here) which was their version of George & Lynne. We can now add Last of the summer wine to that list. Only one reprint volume was produced (see images below - all taken from here - thanks!)

Art was by prolific cartoonist Roger Mahoney.

Lawless 2025 - the photos, part 1

For anyone (like me!) who thinks it'a a very long time to wait until Lawless 2026 here's some photos of Lawless 2025 to help keep you going until May 2026.

First up here's some Simon Bisley prints, the man himself and his trophy!