THE WORLD HAS HELD GREAT HEROES...

Look at the pic above - my part of it was drawn around 25 years ago when I worked as a resize artist on the BUSTER and WHIZZER & CHIPS comic libraries.  That entailed turning one standard-sized page into two 'commando' sized pages.  Relax, I won't bore you all with the reasons as to why in this post.  Anyone interested can skip over to the excellent BUSTER site at http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/ and read a fuller account on the interviews page.  However, part of the process often involved extending the odd panel or two.  I could've merely extended the horizon lines to fill out the pic, but I liked to give the editor value for money, hence the addition of Mr. TOAD and my own character, PERCY PROON, on the left-hand side of the picture.

I was always quite proud of the effort I put into the comic libraries and I remember working on this panel as if it were yesterday, so just thought I'd post it here.  Bear in mind that a comic libraries page (before printing) was only about twice the size of the published item, so I had to draw pretty small.

Here's another one from a CHAMP strip...

...and one from SHINER...

...and one from TOMBOY.

Yup, ol' Percy sure got around in those days.

HAVE MISSION, WILL TRAVEL...

Me and Big Ben - December 23rd 1987

Some years back, I saw some collectable toys advertised in EXCHANGE & MART.  I duly sent off a cheque for the required amount and sat back to await my treasures - they never came.  I contacted the seller, and it was clear from his evasiveness that he'd never had the items to begin with.  Being Scottish, I'll travel miles to recover a shilling, so London was no distance.  Faster than you can say 'speeding bullet', I was down there to recover my money from said shady seller and to inform him of the error of his ways.

Did I recover my money?  Is SALMA HAYEK a goddess?  Of course I did!  And what did the would-be conman get from the encounter?  I'll leave that up to your imagination - but he wouldn't have been smiling for a while. 

One up for the good guys I'd say.

GET THAT DOG ON A LEAD...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

If you haven't yet got yourself a copy of the excellent The VERY BEST Of BLACK BOB, I'd suggest you purchase it as soon as you can.  My local Waterstone's had only three copies - and they say that the publisher (Waverley Books) has none left in stock.  This is a must-have for every true fan of U.K. comic strips.  The only thing better would've been if they'd issued facsimiles of the original eight books.  I'm lucky enough to have five of them, the 1959 edition being my favourite.  ('Cos that's the one I had when I was a kid.)

With an introduction by Morris Heggie, and an index by Ray Moore of every Black Bob tale ever published.  Superb value at only £9.99.

ISBN: 978-1-84934-028-1.

IT FLIES THROUGH THE AIR...

Copyright relevant owner

Calling all SUPERCAR fans!  Back in the early '60s, GOLD KEY published four Supercar comics.  Last year, artist Evi De Vie re-created the cover of issue #2 as a limited-edition print, all of which I suspect are now long gone.  However, he recently signed fifty 16 x 20 proofs - so check out the following link for details of how to obtain one.

(Link now obsolete.)

Here's the official spiel:

FULL BOOST VERTICAL!  Gold Key's Supercar comic  from the 1960's featured beautiful painted covers featuring the Black Rock labs crew in adventurous or dangerous settings.

Now, artist Evi De Vie has recreated the cover to issue two, featuring Supercar and crew flying over a nuclear submarine surfacing in the Antarctic!  Our highest quality giclee prints on heavy duty, acid-free archival paper accurately recreate the original painting in every way.

Evi De Vie is an American illustrator, and one of the original designers for the Lunar Models. Lunar Models was the original American sci-fi garage kit company and De Vie worked on many of the company's models.  He has been a fan of the Anderson's Supermarionation and live-action shows since childhood.

This unique reproduction is the result of many painstaking hours of work and the result is stunning.  Supercar majestically passes above the ice floe as the men below wave.  In the cockpit, Mike, Professor Popkiss, Jimmy and Mitch look down at the scene.  Evocative of the best comic art of the 1960's, this print is a must-have item any Anderson collection.