Wednesday 25 December 2013

Have a Cheeky Christmas everyone!

 Frank Mc Diarmid who did so much to make Cheeky such a brill comic and good annuals. Wonderful to collect and reread...even for adults it offers a good chuckle!
This cover is drawn by Robert Nixon!

Monday 16 December 2013

Charles Griggs tribute..1916-2013
















 As a tribute to this wonderful comic artist. I've showed his later work The Dandy comic library 1984. It was fun to showhow he would draw different Beano characters in his style.
I love the crazy about creatures book Beano and Dandy has it showed artists names...behind the scenes and showing Charles going back to DC Thomson to see his original comic work at 90 years old. The photo shows his drawing being altered which personally spoils it...

He was great at covers as seen every week in Korky for The Dandy. He was great at doing the large panel which caught your eye...know wonder he got into postcards later on.

He also drew adventure stories like Captain whoosh and I love this era for the action packed two pager...wish this idea was used today.

We leave you with this brilliant close up of Korky...very Disney like...

Charles has left us such a wonderful comic legacy to enjoy and smile again and again...lets hope new readers will discover him in these old comics and reprints..

Cheers to Charles
and thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends

Peter

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Happy Days comic Fireworks fun and Christmas cover by legend Roy Wilson..

 A great book by Denis Grifford 100 years of comics...lots of great comic covers from 1870-1970. Bought in Oxfam this week for £3.99..;0)
I love Roy Wilson's work and these gems are the right season to show here well inbetween...wonder if the elephant driving the catherine wheel car inspired Korky the cat in the 60's when he did it for the Dandy fireworks issue..


Love the way the cover is wrapped around another picture running along the side...
These covers are a feast for the eyes...

Sunday 10 November 2013

The Dandy and The Beano 1937-1969 Classic Christmas comic covers..

Phil has worked hard to get this off the ground and its brilliant!
Whats nice there are lots of early covers as there were two Christmas covers in the early years...so glad he included both.. 
 


Heres my actual copy of this issue...




 I like The Beano covers has they often included the other Beano characters for the cover..
Its a lovely book and so glad DC Thomson has given permisssion for this.
                    It is very well made and has a dust cover and is printed on good matt paper..
I'm so glad the orders for this book are going well...lets hope it leads to other books..
Firworks comic covers...complete Jonah..Banana Bunch poster pages by Leo Baxendale...Black Bob..etc..

Get yours for just over £20 postage is reduced the more books you buy.



It will be the perfect gift this Christmas...

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Brains is dead!! Thunderbirds the comic collection


I've read up to page 104 now and this story stood out!
It was quite shocking seeing The Hood brainwash Brain and then using the info to blow up Tracy Island and the thunderbird ships. It went into some very dark areas and this story must of got children talking in the playground.
It shows that a comicstrip can go further than the tv series.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunderbirds-Comic-Collection-Gerry-Anderson/dp/1405268360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383654027&sr=1-1&keywords=thunderbirds+comic+collection

Leo Baxendale's Cap'n Hand The Beezer 9th Aug 1958


Leo wasn't the normal artist for this strip even David Law drew a few at the start..George Drysdale drew most of them..

Those polar bears remind me of the bears in Little Plum Leo did...

I love the colouring used!

Saturday 26 October 2013

UPDATE- Review: Thunderbirds The Comic Collection more pictures added and comments..




The stories and cutaways inside book...(I've finally got a scanner again and its the first time I've used it...good news for me)

I was sent a copy and thought the book was very well done... it was very kind of them to send me one...and also the Thunderbird postcards...


It has brilliant artwork and very readable...
 The Thunderbird comic strip is so unusual and dramatic...lots of exciting framing....also its great to have them all together so you can follow the story and cliffhangers....loads to read....what an amazing comic TV 21 was...also all in a nice painted colours...a big book to read and reread...


The Thunderbirds strip is very exciting and grips you from the beginning...it can have larger crowd scenes and more running then the tv show. It must of left you desperate to find out what happens next each week..
I was born in 1974 so my experience of Thunderbirds is in the early 90's when it was repeated and Blue Peter did the Tracey Island make...
So these stories are new to me. I've read the reprint books of Dan Dare so know Frank  Bellamy work. So nice to see his 60's work as well.

The book contains great cutaways of the different Thunderbirds....with info of the different parts. A bit like what Eagle comic did in the 50's centre pages. Which is a great feature for the book. Also Tracey Island and Creighton-ward Stately Home is covered in this way...








 Its fun the readers letters to Lady Penelope and Parker talking about the stars of the time..like Danger man Patrick McGoohan...it bring the characters even more to life.
  The pages are soo dramatic they almost come out off the page at you..in a 3D way!!


 Sample of what it is like on the back of postcard....

 Nice unusual postcards like the painting in the background...great details in this puppet series made it great fun...and real in a way..





http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunderbirds-Comic-Collection-Gerry-Anderson/dp/1405268360/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382819722&sr=8-2&keywords=thunderbirds+book


The postcards of Thunderbirds are great to send or you could blue tac them and fill a whole wall...I've done this with postcards in my bathroom and kitchen....its a brilliant idea!!!



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunderbirds-Postcards-Classic-Postcard-Collection/dp/140526893X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382819845&sr=8-1&keywords=thunderbirds+postcards


www.egmont.co.uk

http://www.egmont.co.uk/search.asp?strSearchString=thunderbirds&s.x=0&s.y=0&action=SearchBooks


Frank Bellamy draws most of the Thunderbirds and some of the Lady Penelope pages..One of the UK's best comic artists...

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=frank+bellamy&tag=mh0b-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=1695344257&ref=pd_sl_uy300k32h_p

 Who of course drew Dan Dare in Eagle comic of the 50's..See the link for other books that Franks work can be bought.

Frank Bellamy's "King Arthur and His Knights": The Complete Adventure by Steve Holland and Frank Bellamy (Sep 1, 2008)


Frank Bellamy's "Robin Hood": The Complete Adventures Paperback – March 31, 2008