Hunt the Hero

More superlative aviation art by Ian Kennedy for Battle, dated 8th April 1978. This one's easy-the hero's Kenneth More... Eh what, Kenneth More wasn't a real war hero, you say?

Intermission

If you head over to Lew Stringer's blog you'll find some Brian Lewis art.
I still remember meeting LS upstairs in the back-issue department of Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham in the early 80s. A young Crow overhears a conversation between a customer and a member of staff. Twigs that the person standing at the counter is non other than the publisher of a fanzine entitled Fantasy Express. One issue of said 'zine having a rather spiffing interview with Joe Colquhoun, one of my all time favourite artists. Feeling very nervous and a little over-awed by meeting a 'major-league' member of Fandom, Crow approaches and the ensuing 'conversation' takes place. Please note: I'm utilising a faux 'Mid-Lund aksunt' for comic effect:

Crow. Excuse me chap? Bin yow Leo Stringah?

LS. 'LEW' Stringer. Ar, I bin.

Crow. Oi think Fantasy Express is bostin'!

LS. Ta.

Crow. I loik old Brutish coimics too. I thunk they're luv loi.

LS. Ar. Right...

Awkward silence, they look at each-other. Silence, a pause, both blink at each-other a few times, then Crow absent mindedly wanders off to look at the back issues... The end.

To paraphrase the Floyd song: tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit/fan-boy...

Normal service will resume shortly.

Public Enemy No1

Art by Geoff Campion. From Lion dated, 29th August 1964.

Badges of the Brave

Art by Ian Kennedy.

Spanish Blade

Tony Weare illustrates this tale from the Express annual 1957.

Border Snatch

These Gerry Embleton pieces come from the Tiger annual 1963. Never really hear much about GE compared to his brother, Ron. Ron Embleton's art was a lot slicker and more 'commercial' I guess? I prefer Gerry's work-it's a bit grittier.

In the Days of Robin Hood

I just can't get enough of Pat Nicolle's art. I just love his line-work. Gorgeous!! Cor blimey, I'm overcome with emotion-I'll have to lie down for a mo. Ahem, moving along...

Cursitor Doom

Haven't had some Geoff Campion for a while, so here we go with another Cursitor Doom episode. This one is from Smash dated, 10th May 1969.

Don't forget Titan Book's Albion Origins is a compendium of unusual IPC heroes and includes a complete Cursitor Doom tale.

The House of Dolmann

From Valiant, March 4th 1967. Eric Bradbury provides art for this series. Dolmann uses 'mechanical dolls' to fight crime. He throws his voice to make the dolls 'talk'. He's complete nut-job isn't he? Look at the sequence on page two: there's at least six dolls having an argument! I bet if you could hear them speak there'd ALL sound different. He reminds me a little of the JF Sebastian character in Bladerunner: he lived all alone with mechanical people too.

*Remember folks: A complete Dolmann adventure is one of the stories included in the Albion Origins book. Go here to purchase.

Bazooka Charlie

Cover art by Ian Kennedy.

British Comic Art Mk.1

This is a link to a site I created a few years ago. I should suspect that most of the people who visit here have already found this one while trawling the Net for info about British comics. Any-hoo, if you haven't seen it before, go and have a dekko. You'll find info about: Geoff Campion, Ron Embleton; Ian Kennedy, Brian Lewis; John Stokes and Ron turner. That way it'll save me having to copy everything over to this corner of my 'Media Empire'...

From the Vaults of Time

Art by Solano Lopez from Valiant, 4th May 1963. Or should I say: from the Solano Lopez studio? Anyway, dinosaurs brought back to life and re-introduced into modern society with disasterous results. As usual...

In the Days of Robin Hood

From the pages of the Robin Hood annual 1960 comes more edukashunul stuff 'n wot-like from the pen of Pat Nicolle.

Frankie Stein

Ken Reid provides the insanity for this post from the Wham! annual 1966. As you can probably guess from reading this blog I have a bias towards adventure strips. I recollect reading the Beezer as a kid. It was over-size in the early seventies wasn't it? I remember struggling to turn the pages. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, apart from the odd issue of the Beano and Sparky I seemed to gravitate towards the adventure titles: Hotspur, Victor, then Warlord and Battle then 2000AD. I always felt that a lot of the humour titles actually weren't all that funny... Moving along. I was reading this annual in bed the other night and I thought this lunatic strip was wonderful enough for me to break 'tradition'. Ken Reid WAS special wasn't he? I think that if he had lived in France or the States he'd have been lauded as a genius.

The Whirlpool of Weed

Bill Lacey provides the artwork for this strip which appeared in the 25th September 1965 edition of Lion.

Frontline UK

Art by Ian Kennedy from Buddy, July 30th, 1983.

The Hand of Zar

Don Lawrence puts an insane amount of pen-work into this strip. From the Lion, 3rd October 1964. More info about DL here and here.

In the Days of Robin Hood

Some more Pat Nicolle from the Robin Hood annual 1960.

Go West Young Woman

Spot illustrations by Ionicus for the Girl annual 1963.

Mighty Hunters

Some more lovely squiggly pen-work, and something vaguely informative. Two for the price of one folks! Illustrations for this lesson provided by Pat Nicolle from the Lion annual 1962.

Death Wish

Episode one, drawn by Luis Collado Coch for Valiant dated, 20th December 1975.

Cursitor Doom

Eric Bradbury provides suitably atmospheric art for Cursitor Doom from Smash dated 25th October 1969.

The complete version of this serial can be found here in this rather spiffing anthology reprint by Titan books.