Animator Telepurte REMOVED From Youtube

It Is THE British Comics History Journal

If you are  interested in the men and women who influenced later comic book artists then you might find Comic Bits 1 and 2 of  interest...

Each issue has 80 pages looking at British comics, creators as well as Boys Papers and Penny Dreadfuls and they are both crammed full of some very rare art and much more information than any online post!

A4
B&W
80pp
Text, comic strips and some rare photographs!
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/comic-bits-vol-2-number-1/paperback/product-1e4jjqkk.html

The return of THE British Golden Age of Comics magazine! 

Interviews with 

Mike Western, 

John Cooper 

 Jon Haward 

plus a look at Ally Sloper on film, Defining the Ages of British Comics, William McCail plus a lot of art and stripwork. At this price -cheap!

Ed T Hooper-Scharf
A4
B&W
80 pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/comic-bits-volume-2-no-2-may-2020/paperback/product-166j76qn.html

The second issue of the magazine celebrating creators, titles and characters of the British Platinum, Golden and Silver Ages of comics. 

In this issue William A. Ward finally gets some long deserved recognition for his contribution to comics John McCail gets "bigged up" something rotten!

 We look at comedian and actor Bob Monkhouse's comic creation career 

Steve Dowling -Father of the Garth newspaper strip speaks to Denis Gifford (the ONLY interview he ever gave) 

There is a look at Dennis M. Reader and his comics work that spawned some of the UKs first super heroes. 

also a look at William Fletcher Thomas, Ernest Wilkinson, Jos Walker, Mary Byfield and William H A Chasemore... oh, and LOTS of lovely art and stripwork!

John Armstrong 1923-2018

 

John Armstrong in 2003 photo (c) Jenni Scott

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


John Armstrong is a British comics artist, best-known for his work in Misty and Tammy, for which he drew the long-running strip Bella. Other strips he has drawn include The Secret Gymnast in Bunty.

Although one of the few acknowledged artistic pupils at his infant, junior and secondary schools, John Armstrong's first proper art lessons were whilst serving in the Army, in the Far East. "To keep us occupied, art lessons were started in a deserted palace outside Rangoon; local people in ethnic dress posed for us," he recalled in 2003. "I still have portraits of Burmese and Indian women, and West African and Indian soldiers.

On leaving the army, this course and its artwork steered John to art school in Middlesbrough’s Constantine College. In five years he passed Intermediate Arts and Crafts and gained National Diplomas in Design in both painting and illustration – making me more qualified than any of the staff.

On the Principal’s advice he next did a year in Teacher Training College. The students used to take the bus to various schools for teaching practice. "Two characters who sold toy bows and arrows in the local market boarded the same bus and expressed their amazement that an aspiring teacher was always reading a comic," John recalls. "In those days “educationists” regarded comics as a subversive element.

"On teaching practice I’d amuse the kids by drawing Tarzan a la Hogarth on the blackboard. The kids got to like me and would beg, “Don’t be a teacher, sir!” With this excellent advice and with my art school specimens I got my first job in a Newcastle Ad Agency, meeting with commercial artists for the first time – a daunting experience. I was astonished by the skill of the head layout artist who would simulate a brochure – photos, lettering, typesetting – all by hand using pencils, inks and water colour so that it looked exactly like the eventual printed article. Art schools knew nothing about such expertise."

After a year there John headed south and pounded the streets of London with a heavy folder filled with art school work. Using an A-Z and a Writers and Artists Year Book he visited about 40 studios, publishers and agents and eventually got a job in a studio opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral and soon got his first freelance commission from Putnams Education Department for a poetry book. Quite a lot of school book work followed.

Armstrong acquired an agent in London's Holborn one year later and soon got his first comics job, a ballet story for Girl's Crystal. It was girls comics from then on.

John regards his most notable stories as the strips he drew for IPC: Cherry and the Children, which ran for five years, and Bella, which covered 10 years in Tammy. Bella was, it appears, the only character to get her own book at IPC.

John later worked on the girls title Misty, work he saw as a relief from trying to draw thousands of gymnastic poses without repeating himself. Misty was a success despite – or because of – its horror story content aimed at young girls.

After the demise of Tammy and Misty, John drew the comics version of the popular children’s school drama Grange Hill for a new magazine, BEEB for about a year. he then began working for DC Thomson, doing colour work for the first time on several annuals and for Bunty covers – plus some horse stories, his original passion.

In recent years John has provided artwork for ice rink pantomimes while gradually reviving his oil painting skills, mainly doing portraits of skating friends.

(Details taken from biography supplied for the Raptus 2003 convention in Norway.)

I'm Appealing....No, don't -I've heard them all before!

 

I've totally given up on trying to get scans of William A. Ward's The Bat artwork and the original Krakos the Egyptian book -though I have samples of the various Krakos strips. So I'm not going to ask for the impossible.

I know some of you belong to old Boys Papers groups, etc., so here is the list of old comic strips I'm looking for and if you can find any examples PLEASE let me know.

Abra and Cadabra -Puck 1926-1935

Bob The Pet Navvy -Jester and Wonder 1903-1906

Freddie Fluence  -Favourite 1912

Ronnie Roy -Funny Wonder 1940-1950

Professor Radium -Puck 1904-1916 (the image at the top is all I have and is VERY low res)

Merry Margie -Knockout 1939-1940

That's it.

Now.......

READ COMICS!!!

Up-date: it took a week but Merry Margie can now be ticked off the list but I've no objection to further sample strips!

Kid McBride Finds A Hornets' Nest!

 

scans 2003

Peter Sellers -Carry On, Mate!

 

The Falcon -The Oil Well Plot

Originally a scan offered on the old BritComics group and swiped from there. This has art by George Heath and is taken from Radio Fun Annual 1952

George Sanders IS The Falcon!

George Sanders, of course, played Mr. Freeze in a two-parter episode of the 1966 Batman TV series, was the voice of the uber malevolent man-hating tiger Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967), and as Simon Templar, "The Saint", in five films made in the 1930s and 1940s and that led to The Falcon.  The main reason was that RKO had been fighting with Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint, so they stopped the series and then put Sanders in a new B picture series about another suave crime fighter –starting with The Gay Falcon.

Now, this is a comics blog so ‘Sanders’ characters’ comic connections should be noted.  Mr Freeze originated in DC Comics and later appearede in the Batman TV show (three different actors playing him –Sanders, Eli Wallach and even Otto Preminger!).  

The falcon appeared in Amalgamated Press’s Radio Fun weekly comic as the suave, sophisticated hero but in 1954 he gained a neat costume that had wings and helped him fly –well before Marvel Comics Falcon. Worth noting here is that, as with British movie and radio stars, those of Hollywood and their characters were used unofficially –Danny Kaye, Laurel & Hardy, Mickey Rooney and many, many others were liberally used in British weeklies.

 Above: George Sanders as the Saran

 Above: Sanders as Mr Freeze

 Above: as The Gay Falcon (come on -we're better than that!)

Below: The Radio Fun strip The Falcon which used to carry a photo of Sanders at the top left before that was dropped.

 Below: from a May, 1955 edition of Radio Fun. The Falcon...with costume and wings!  Artist: George Heath

Slicksure To The Rescue!

 Harry E Banger (pron as in "Ranger") detective-cum-spy-cum super agent from Swan's comic line

Sigrid - Mirror (Official Video)

New Warhammer Faction Kruleboyz Orruks | Age of Sigmar Dominion Unboxing...

The Druid Knew......The Green Skies

 

The Green Skies Vol. 3 Part I 

A4

B&W

124pp

£10.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-1/paperback/product-5j4y7e.html?page=1&pageSize=4

It all began in 1987 and the Black Tower Universe has seen alien attacks, heroes kidnapped to be put into the middle of a war of the gods. 

Despite the deaths and losses the heroes -crime fighters, super powered and members of the magical union have come back but now unaware that alien races are escaping through the Sol system and that a mysterious space fleet is heading towards the inner planets, they find themselves trapped or distracted. 

The Many Eyed One is finally coming. 

The Multiversal Council has quarantined Earth and forbidden any to help. 

The evil has spread and there is treachery striking at the very core of Earth's defenders

Death Comes From The Hand Of A Friend

 

HEXAGON COMICS USA JUNE 2021 RELEASES (2): GUARDIAN OF THE REPUBLIC & MORGANE

 GUARDIAN OF THE REPUBLIC / ZEMBLA / OZARK / MORGANE (NEW)

 

MORGANE (RE-RELEASE)

Hexagon Comics USA now offers translations of selected titles from the catalog of this 70-year-old French comics publisher. Books can be purchased on amazon or through the website www.hexagoncomics.com. Retailers can purchase them at a 40% discount from distributor Ingram or from the publisher at the website above.

 

 

NEW RELEASE: GUARDIAN OF THE REPUBLIC / ZEMBLA / OZARK / MORGANE

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

56 pages 

b&w. 

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-068-1. 

US$12.95.

Story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Eduardo Garcia, Alfredo Macall, Manuel Martin Peniche, Gabriel Mayorga & José Luis Ruiz Pérez; cover by Roberto Castro.

After the mighty shaman Ozark triumphed over the evil wizard Maleficus, the seven powerful mystic gems known as the "Fingers of Shivar" were scattered through time and space. But the witch Alecto plots to reunite them in order to take revenge on Morgane, whom she holds responsible for the death of her lover, the sinister Lord Raven, and resuscitate the latter in the body of the Guardian of the Republic! Only the combined efforts of Zembla and Ozark can save the French hero from such a dreadful fate. This prodigious saga takes us from Tsarist Russia to the City of Lights via the African Republic of Karunda and Rapid City, South Dakota. Guest-starring: Ivan Karine the Cossack and the Napoleonic Imperial Guardian!

 

 RE-RELEASE:  MORGANE

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

48 pages

 b&w. 

ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-967-1. 

US$9.95.

Story by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier; Art by Mauro Lirussi; cover by Roberto Castro.

 

Young Morgane Gorlyer works for a prestigious French fashion magazine, but she is also the descendent of the original, much maligned, Morgan Le Fey, an enchantress who was King Arthur's sister and heir to the secrets of Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, Queen of Avalon. With her boyfriend, Faust (the son of Goethe’s character), who was cursed to spend his life as a black cat until Morgane freed him. she is forced to thwart the evil schemes of her jealous childhood friend Alecto and her deadly companion, Lord Raven, and face the awesome might of the dark god Shivar himself…

This 44-page occult saga, which transports us from the dark woods of ancient Brittany to the swanky haunts of London’s high society, is brilliantly illustrated by renowned Argentinean artist Mauro Lirussi.

Daleks Demanding Ice Cream

My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) (2016 Remaster)

TALES OF TERROR III .......

 

Wanna see the rest?

A4
B&W
62pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/tales-of-terror-iii/paperback/product-16qnwmd7.html

Each year Black Tower likes to bring you a little bit of extra horror/ghostly goodness in Tales of Terror. 

In the third volume there are contributions by Ben R. Dilworth -Krakos and Merriwether. While Paul Ashley Brown brings us the tales of The Worlds Best Mom and revisits his fear of trees! 

Darron Northall and Danny Jenkins bring us the horrific tale of Bud and Lou Go To Hell while George McQueens The Bat deals out justice and Art Wetherell's one pager is designed to make men wince! 

And Terry Hooper-Scharf finally includes issue 1 of The Paranormals to make this a true horror/ghost fest book!