Thursday 14 June 2012

Legends of the Dark Knight

Art by Mike McMahon, December to February 1993. It's interesting how DC comics took a punt on such non-traditional illustrators as McMahon and Kevin O'Neil for some of their mainstream creations. Apart from Batman, I was never that keen on DC. A lot of their characters seemed a wee bit silly to me. I never 'got' Superman, he always seemed so boring. Although, I think there was a bit of a bias as I only really read Marvel UK titles as a kid. Marvel seemed part of the 'real' world whereas DC characters lived in some sort of weird 1950s limbo universe.






Original artwork

If you head over to Comic Book Auctions you'll find a treasure-trove of goodies up for offer.
(In a Spike Milligan voice) "Ah, I see you bought the whole collection? SO rich!!"

Some of the pieces on offer:

 Sexton Blake Library 736 cover art  by Eric Parker (1941).






Beryl The Peril by David Law for The Topper (1950s).

Leo Baxendale talks about Davey Law in his book, 'A Very Funny Business', ( a great book, by the way) about how DL agonised/laboured over his pages. The art 'looked' simple, but the images didn't flow out of the artist so easily. It's kinda evident when looking at the patches pasted all over this original.





'Branded' original cover artwork (1960) by Nino Caroselli from Thriller Picture Library 302


Captain Condor by Keith Watson from Lion 7 Oct 1961. I really like the spaceship design.


Eartha, (early 1980s) episode 6 drawn by Jon M Burns for The News Of The World Sunday Colour Magazine.


Laser Eraser and Pressbutton

Art by Garry Leach, November 1985. Hm, there was a bunch of Laser Eraser and Pressbutton stories specifically created for the American market. I wonder if they were ever collected?


Tuesday 12 June 2012

Western Gunfighters

Back in the day I bought this magazine on the strength of the cover alone. Such a dynamic piece of art by Frank Bellamy. The original image plundered from here and the magazine nicked from here.


Monday 11 June 2012

Doctor at Sea

Look-In, 8th June 1974. Art by Harry North.


Zarga-Man of Mystery

The great Joe Colquhoun provides art for this weeks Buster, dated 20th May 1972.



Arken Sword

Do I have to say who did the art? Arken Sword was a really cool zine that morphed into Ark, a pretty slick magazine back in the day. You can read some of the interview from this issue here.


Tankbusters

Art by Luis Collado Coch. Warlord, dated January 24th 1976. I don't know what it is about this guy's style, but I could look at it all day. Simple, clear and gritty. Great war art.






Friday 8 June 2012

Jet-Ace Logan

I love Geoff Campion's spaceships in this strip. So improbable (compared to the fully-realised versions in Dan Dare which ran at the same time in the Eagle) and yet they give the strip a certain charm. This is from The Comet, dated October 6th 1956.



Wednesday 6 June 2012

Lazarus Churchyard

Art by D'Israeli circa 1992. Check out his very informative blog here.


Lobo

I know. Not technically British comic art, but well,  it's my blinkin' blog and I feel like it. Captain Bastich indeed!
Art by Kevin O'Neill circa 1993.


Axel Pressbutton

Just realised that this is only the second piece of Dave Gibbons art in the blog. This is from December 1984. I see a Treen, a comics editor from Betelgeuse and a certain Dalek killer in the background. Lots of fun!


Eric Bradbury provides the art for this strip published in Battle, dated 27th December 1980.




Monday 4 June 2012

The Secret Seven

Illustration by Eric Parker. Knockout, dated May 24th 1952.


Charlie's Choice

Art by Brian Lewis. Smash! dated 16th July 1966.





Fighters of the Fleet

Ian Kennedy. Warlord dated February 2nd 1980.



Tri-Man

Art by Solano Lopez from the 27th September 1969 edition of Smash!



Kane

By Paul Grist. I think this is from April 1997. More about PG here.



Knights of the Road

Art by Gerry Haylock. Eagle dated 13th May 1961.


TIE Fighter

Advertisment by Brian Bolland, 1979.




Kommando King

Geoff Campion, Battle dated, 1st December 1979.





The Bionic Woman

Art by John Bolton. Look-In dated 3rd March 1979. Hum, just realised that I haven't had any Bolton art on this site before. A bit remiss of me. Will have to add some more. Anyway, you'll find some more info about the guy here and here.