GORDIE GOOSE - IN COLOUR...

In a previous post (here) I explained the background to this strip I drew when I was only 17.  I thought it might be good to see it in colour, so I dug out my acrylic inks and gave it a go, Unfortunately, I'm handicapped by being slightly colour-blind, so I freely admit my limitations in that department.  Also, I was working on an A4 photocopy, which I found rather limiting when applying my brush.

Anyway, hardly the finest example of a comic strip you'll ever see, but for a 17 year old lad working in a warehouse (as I was at the time) who hadn't yet developed any kind of style of my own, I'm sure that most impartial commenters will agree that it ain't too bad at all.

Or am I being unrealistically optimistic?

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And below (no expense spared) is the black & white copy, obviously.

WHIZZER & CHIPS COMIC LIBRARY COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright relevant owner

Well, you've already seen the BUSTER COMIC LIBRARY covers, so let's now look at the WHIZZER & CHIPS ones - all 14 of them.  These first came out in early 1985, and I was one of the re-size artists to work on the digest-sized periodicals.  Guess how much I got paid for each issue, which took about a day, day-and-a-half tops, to do.  £100 per issue.  That's good money today, never mind 28 years ago, and I had my lettering work on top of that.  If that's being a 'failure', as some bitter and misguided visitors to this blog occasionally seek to imply, then give me excess of it.  Yup, it was a nice little earner.

You'll note that each title was issued as a separate publication, unlike the weekly comic.  Both went on sale at the same time though, sitting alongside one another on newsagents' shelves.  Obviously a cunning marketing ploy designed to shift twice as many copies.  (What true fan would ever buy Whizzer without also buying Chips?) 

One good thing about working on the comic libraries (apart from the financial aspect) was in getting to 'connect' with strips I had first read as a child and leaving my mark on them in the process of adapting them to a smaller page size.  I also got to indulge my artistic sensibilities by adding my own art whenever any panels needed extending in order to fill the space.  (There are examples elsewhere on the site.)

Anyway, I'm sure you're not interested in what I was up to  nearly 30 years ago, so let's stick to the script.  Here, for your pleasurable perusal, are the covers of which I spoke.  Hope you enjoy them.

PART THREE - JOHNNY FUTURE Versus The OPPOSITE MAN...

Copyright REBELLION

 

LUIS BERMEJO ROJO was born in Madrid in 1931 and worked for many companies as a book illustrator and comic artist throughout his long career, including U.S. publishers WARREN and DC COMICS. His work appeared in U.K. comics such as EAGLE, TELL ME WHY, ONCE UPON A TIME and FANTASTIC, where he drew the fondly recalled (by people of a certain age, obviously) JOHNNY FUTURE.  (See? Who said this blog wasn't educational?)

 

Right, that's the boring introduction out of the way - now let's get into the power-packed action! And away we goooooo!