Eye-Popping Poster Art Day On CBO

Or Not.

So, I posted a photo last week and mentioned an image in the background. The one is the image in question. One of a series of cartoons Ben Dilworth drew for newspapers (not sure whether they were published). It was 1989 -it says so on the cartoon) and armed police officers in the Metropolitan Police Force (oops, these days it's "Service") accidentally shot dead another innocent member of the public -Stephen Waldorf was killed in 1983 and I'm sorry to say there have been quite a few since then though I'm wondering if this was more aimed at the debate at the time to permanently arm police officers in the UK? 

Who knows? I'm old.

Remember the artwork to the above is around A3 so it gets reduced a LOT here.

Next we have my favourite. Another Dilworth cartoon commentary featuring a certain ruler of Hell. It's been battered a bit since 1989 but I'm certainly contemplating making this a card stock A4 poster to sell at the October comic and zine event!

 
And yesterday, totally unrelated to Ben Dilworth, I was lugging more archive boxes and sorting through them when I came across this cranky old memory from 1987.

I had just organised Bristols first comic mart/fair and had booked the large room (it was massive) at Pip n Jays Church just opposite where the Bristol Evening Post offices used to be on Temple Way.   Dealers were there and it wasn't a bad turn out -but disasterous none-the-less. Along with Paul Brown and Ben Dilworth and, I think, brother Mike, we had put up notices all over the place from Bedminster to Clifton to promote the event. I even got it mentioned on BBC Radio Bristol.

So there we were.....a trickle of people noticed the signs outside but it was very poor attendance but still early in the day.  I thought I'd telephone Radio Bristol and ask if they could mention it again.  What I heard from them was gutting. "Someone" had called that morning to tell the radio station that the event had been called off for various reasons.  So, most of the morning people were being told there was no event.

I did find out who was behind this -the local comic shop which had been a bit hostile to the idea of people buying back issues elsewhere (they had told me very clearly where I could put my mart notice.  How do I know it was them?  Well, as it was a cancellation the BBC at that time obviously took phone numbers to contact and they gave me the number.  I recognised it and pointed out that they should -SHOULD- have called me4 on the phone number I gave them.  I did phone the number in question and a familiar voice responded by giving his shops name!

Who did the art on this highly battered, at the bottom of a box artwork?  An artist who had contacted me while I was working as a comic book agent but I forgot the name.  However, using all the techniques put into salvaging old 1940s UK comics to republish I managed to read the very very faded pencil writing: Joe Matthews.

So, good memories....bad memories -rather like that dodgy vegetarian curry.

Now, Terry not well. Terry go rest.  Terry be back.  Terry not be back then Terry dead.  Terry be sad then.