CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: BUSTER COMIC LIBRARY COVER GALLERY...

Friday, 25 October 2013

BUSTER COMIC LIBRARY COVER GALLERY...

BUSTER COMIC LIBRARY was one of a series of pocket-sized 68 page comics that reprinted various IPC/FLEETWAY strips back around the mid-'80s. Lasting for 30 issues, it was great value for money and allowed collectors to see earlier escapades they might have missed of their favourite funnies. To me, the covers look like 'cut and pastes' of Buster artist REG PARLETT pics (with a few by ANGEL NADAL), but I saw the cover 'art' for issue #8 advertised on a website as being by TERRY BAVE, so it's always possible that he ghosted Parlett's style, though I remain unconvinced.

Anyway, I thought you might like to see all 30 covers, #29 being a bit of a rarity as it was pulled from distribution because of Buster holding a lighted firework. Enjoy!

6 comments:

George Shiers said...: Ah yes... the missing number 29 - I WISH I HAD THAT! *cough* *cough* *cough*; 25 October 2013 at 04:17
Kid said...: It's mine - all mine. Bwahhahahahahahahah! (Didn't you get a battered copy?); 25 October 2013 at 09:18
Anonymous said...: I picked up about 5 of these books a few years ago (in Arthur's in Cresswell lane, Glasgow) along with some other titles like the Eagle and Lion pocket books. I've always been a fan of the Digest / Pocket book foramt (Archie comics in the US do it particularly well) but wasn't aware of these titles at all in 80s. Were they well distributed? The ones I have are pretty good indeed with nicely presented and easy to read strips - Buster has some great Ken Reid Faceache strips and Eagle had Don Lawrence's Karl the Viking if I recall correctly - Nice to see Reg Parlett's work again, he was such a presence and talent in UK comics for what seemed an eternity, now he's almost forgotten - very sad in a way, so nice to see his work again - McScotty; 25 October 2013 at 11:22
Kid said...: Ah, Arthur - I know him quite well, the rascal. He no longer has his place in Cresswell Lane, preferring to use the internet now, I think. As far as I know, McScotty, the comic libraries were pretty well-distributed, but they weren't always well-displayed in newsagents.; 25 October 2013 at 11:26
TwoHeadedBoy said...: That Easter Egg cover's hilarious!

Got a few of these, and the Whizzer & Chips comic library ones are good too - seemed to be more variety in those ones rather than the same four characters every issue in the Buster ones (not that they were bad characters, obviously).; 27 October 2013 at 10:52
Kid said...: I've got the W&C ones too, TSB. In fact (as I'm sure you'll know), I worked on them, resizing and redrawing some of the pages. I'll be doing a cover gallery soon.; 27 October 2013 at 11:15

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artist on various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artist and spot illustrator on pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

For MARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as a restoration artist for MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

Have also made TV appearances as a collector of memorabilia.

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Just some of the titles I worked on are:

2000 A.D. * JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE * DICEMAN * SONIC The COMIC * JUDGE DREDD, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE * CRISIS * REVOLVER * EAGLE * TIGER * BATTLE ACTION-FORCE * BUSTER * WHIZZER & CHIPS * WHOOPEE * NIPPER * SCHOOL FUN * ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE * The REAL GHOSTBUSTERS * DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE * COUNT DUCKULA * RUGRATS * The TRANSFORMERS * DEATH'S HEAD * THUNDERCATS * GALAXY RANGERS * DRAGON'S CLAWS * SINDY * MARVEL MASTERWORKS * The TROLLS * LOADED * INFERNO * WARHAMMER * ROSE BLACK.

Copyright Notice:

Images remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are used here only for the purpose of review, promotion, and nostalgia.

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In the case of images culled from my own collection where copyright of an item isn't mine, I impose no copying restrictions on fellow bloggers.

(Although, if you don't allow copying on your own site, then you really shouldn't be copying from others, should you?)

And while you can credit this blog if you like, it's not mandatory. Who has time to make notes of every casually visited site during an idle browse of the internet?

In the case of anyone copying images of my own artwork and calligraphy, I affirm my right to be identified as the creator, and any such copying should not be for the purpose of monetary or material gain. (Unless it's mine.)

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Please also note that this blog is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or connected to, any organisation, business, or group, and is wholly independent.