ComPal auction offers Dan Dare, Spider and Kelly's Eye art

The Spring 2013 Comic Book Postal Auction closes next week - and they have some fantastic British comic lots on offer, as usual, including original art from strips such as Dan Dare, The Spider and Kelly's Eye as well as complete runs of comics such as New Eagle

Sure to attract top bidding are artworks such as Keith Watson's Dan Dare art for The Eagle Vol 15: No 46, published in 1964, in which the evil Mekon has begun a systematic destruction of London from an immense metal mushroom growing in the heart of the ciy (Lot 107).

Lot 117 is a great piece of Spider art by Reg Bunn, published in 1966, in which The Crook From Outer Space becomes the Spider's evil twin, while Lot 148 is a page from Kelly's Eye published in 1972 by Solano Lopez, in which, coincidentally, Tom Kelly, owner of the life preserving 'Eye Of Zoltec' travels back in time to battle Ragnar his other world evil self.

Also offered, among others, is cover art from humour comic Shiver and Shake by Robert NiXon (Lot 159); art by Eric Parker for the cover of an issue of the Sexton Blake Library (Lot 53); a smashing piece of Desperate Dan art drawn and signed by Dudley D. Watkins, published in 1952 (Lot 65), and a 1956 Topper cover by the same artist (Lot 72). There are several Picture Library and Rupert the Bear artworks also in the auction, as well as a page from Saber, published in a 1969 edition of Tiger and Hurricane by Denis McLoughlin (Lot 96).

One of the stalwarts of British comics illustration, Denis McLoughlin (1915-2002) is best known for his work for TV Boardman where he drew Roy Carson, Swift Morgan, Blackhawk, The Spirit and Buffalo Bill. His 'hard-boiled detective' comic style won him legions of fans in the 40s and 50s and his work on Okay, Adventure, Buffalo Bill, Super Coloured and New Spaceways Annuals further enhanced his position. In 1967 he went to work for IPC where 'Saber', illustrated above, was his first project.

Later employed by D C Thomson, he drew stories and covers for Buddy, Bullit, Crunch, Victor and Wizard and his last work was illustrating Commando War Stories in pictures.
Tragically, he took his life with a Colt revolver a week after his 84th birthday. His work is rarely seen at auction.

A promo copy of the short-lived Tornado - absorbed into 2000AD after just 22 issues - is among the comic rarities. The title featured artist Dave Gibbons as super-hero Big E on the cover of the first issue, posing inside with Tharg. Also on offer is a promotional issue of Whoopee, as well as other rare and sometimes elements of unpublished comics, such as Viking, a DC Thomson title that is being offered along with a authenticated script for the Scottish company's Starblazer title (Lot 165).

New Eagle fans may also be interested in a 93 issue unbroken run of the title, offered in five bound volumes starring Dan Dare and The Mekon by Gerry Embleton, The Fist Of Danny Pike by John Burns, The Tower King, House Of Daemon and Fifth Horseman all by Jose Ortiz. Included in the lot are free gifts Action Force Mini Comic 1-5, an Eagle Convention Programme 1980, Mekon poster and Bubbly World Cup Chart poster, a Matchbox Toys poster and several other toy posters and leaflets, plus a Boys And Girls Exhibition programme from 1962, a Radio Luxembourg 50 Pop Years magazine, Christie's Dan Dare artwork catalogue (1993), Eagle Days Remembered supplement (1994), Dan Dare At 50 (2000), a BT Dan Dare phone card and several other 1990s pieces.

One of the star items in this catalogue is a Dandy Comic No 1 (Lot 30). Its grade is [gd+] and with the demise of the weekly print Dandy late last year ComPal know there will be strong interest in this scarce first issue. Several early Dandy comics from 1938 are also on offer.
When the printers at DC Thomson checked the registration and colour of a comic before a print run the ‘printers' proof’ was signed off by the editor or his sub prior to printing. These unique pieces of DC Thomson history have never been seen at auction before and there are five Beano covers available at Lot 37.

There are plenty more comics on offer too, including runs of Magnet and many more.

• Bidding will close at 8.00pm UK time Tuesday 5 March More info: www.compalcomics.com

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Beasts take over the Cartoon Museum!

Animals have always inspired cartoon and comic artists, from the British Lion to Bunny Suicides, Korky the Cat to Simon’s Cat. Now, London's Cartoon Museum is to host an exhibition of animal-inspired cartoons.

The Animal Crackers exhibition includes works by creators such as Nick Abadzis, Leo Baxendale, Alfred Bestall,  Simon Bond, Hunt Emerson, Michael ffolkes, Martin Honeysett, Don Lawrence, Royston Roberston (above), Ronald Searle, Ralph Steadman, Bryan Talbot, Norman Thelwell, Dudley D. Watkins and many, many more.

This cartoon bestiary features the iconic American Eagle, the Russian Bear and the financial Fat Cat, as well as favourite characters such as Mickey Mouse, Wallace and Gromit, Flook, Fred Basset, Gnasher, Pip, Squeak and Wilfred and Rupert Bear. Also included are cracking joke cartoons from Punch, Private Eye, The Oldie, The Spectator and many national papers. There is something for everyone with over 140 cartoons, caricatures, comics and graphic novels by over 60 artists.

Throughout history animals have fascinated us. We have hunted, eaten, studied, collected – and drawn them. They inspired our earliest art and our oldest myths. We have given them human attributes: ‘as cunning as a fox’, ‘as wise as an owl’, ‘as brave as a lion’. Selfish pigs and proud peacocks strut their stuff on our gallery walls accompanied by Aesop’s Hare and Tortoise, the Three Bears (minus Goldilocks) and other characters of fur, feather and scale from folk and fairy tales and from literary classics such as the Alice books.

Giants of the natural and unnatural world such as Moby?Dick and the Lambton Worm also feature, as well as beings which only exist in the minds of cartoon and comic artists. Among the ‘marvellous creatures’ are dragons of yore, the Loch Ness monster and a psychedelic horse.

Many of the cartoons suggest how much animals are ‘just like us’. From Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Jiminy Cricket and King Louie of The Jungle Book to Nick Park’s Gromit, these animals are human in every way that counts. Others, such as Simon’s Cat and Thelwell’s ponies, highlight our pets’ irritating or endearing habits.

Also represented are political animals, both individual and national. When political caricature developed in the eighteenth century it drew on the tradition of heraldic beasts – the English Lion, the Scottish Unicorn and the Habsburg double-headed Eagle. Others such as the Russian Bear and the French Cockerel became established in the nineteenth century.

Certain creatures are purely figments of the cartoonist’s imagination such as David Low’s ‘Coalition Ass’ and ‘TUC Carthorse’. At times animals themselves have taken on a political significance, as in China’s so-called ‘Panda diplomacy’. Politicians can find themselves depicted as King Kong or a chimp, a panda or even a dodo.

The world of animal cartoons is often a surreal place, allowing creatures to stray into the realms of art, business, politics and personal relationships. It reminds us just how much we share with our fellow animals.

• Animal Crackers: A Cartoon and Comic Bestiary; 25th July – 21st October 2012,  Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street London WC1A 2HH. Tel: 020 7631 0793 Web: www.cartoonmuseum.org

Bellamy, Beano and Buster comic art up for grabs in latest ComPal auction

The Autumn 2010 auction at British comics auction site Compalcomics has just opened, with 315 lots in the catalogue including a magnificent Beano front cover artwork drawn by Dudley Watkins and some rare Thunderbirds artwork from TV Century 21 by Frank Bellamy.

The signed Bellamy art - which appeared in Issue 220 of the classic 1960s comic and is expected to sell for over £700 - shows Thunderbird 2 landing near Project City where the Mole tunnelling vehicle is deployed to bore through the concrete walls with Virgil and Brains at the controls.

But the walls are live - and they’re being electrocuted...

The Beano cover - Issue 1406, cover dated 28th June 1969 - features longtime cover character Biffo highlighting the publication of that year's Beano Summer Special which is also enclosed with the lot.

ComPal say they have auctioned only three Beano cover artworks in the last twelve years and the art is expected to sell for over £200.

Another rarity on offer is at lot 10 where six of Mrs Hippo's Annuals reside, including the first from 1926. Starring the female versions of Tiger Tim and The Bruin Boys, Mrs Hippo, Tiger Tilly and the girls never made it in to comic form, just these annuals published between 1927 and 1935, which are in nice condition.

Tiger Tim is also represented with his own Bruin Boys' Bagatelle Game, a rare survivor from the 1920s and in full playable order at lot 42. Beano, Dandy and Magic early issues published by DC Thomson are in evidence from 1938 and 1939 - including The Dandy's first April Fool (Issue 18) and Christmas numbers.

The 1960s are represented by a near complete run of Hurricane in five lots (one containing a flyer for No 1 of The Big One), Commando, Battle Picture Library and various lots of Lady Penelope - including Issue 1.

In addition to the Bellamy art, there's also more comic work on offer including Look and Learn pages by Ron Embleton, Battlestar Galactica art from Look-In by Martin Asbury, a page of Frankie Stein by Ken Reid (and some of his great World Wide Weirdness pages from Whoopee), s1977 Bionic Woman art by John M. Burns for Look-In, Buster original front cover artworks from the 1980s by Reg Parlett, plus pages of The Broons and Oor Wullie by Dudley Watkins - the latter a regular staple of these fantastic ComPal auctions.


The auction's US section profiles The Batman #12 (1942), Fantastic Four #1 with CGC late 50s issues of Detective, Lois Lane and Batman and along with our usual runs of 1960s Marvel and DC titles, there's some high grade horror from the 1970s and four original artwork pages drawn and signed by Sal Buscema.

• Bids will be accepted until Tuesday 7th September at 8 PM UK time. To go directly to the main page for the catalogue, click here

In Review: Classics from the Comics 172

There's the usual great mix of strips from a variety of DC Thomson humour comics in the latest issue of Classics from the Comics, on sale in all good newsagents now.

Favourites this time around have to be a 1977 episode of Spoofer McGraw, a teller of tall tales who regularly befuddled his duffel-coated mate in Sparky, sometimes, I recall in response to readers letters. Sparky was always one of my favourite DCT titles (although I was never very keen on Puss and Boots, who also feature this issue) and as Spoofer comes up with an absurd explanation for the arrival of a large cement mixer on his street, it's hard not to see why.

Humour is always in the eye of the beholder but there's plenty of fun to be had this issue, with two simple but effective 'sight gag' strips starring Mickey the Monkey from Topper; Little Plum taking up weightlifting, only to discover it's not all it's cracked up to be; a brilliant 21-frame Desperate Dan page by Dudley D. Watkins (21 frames! How often do you get that on one page today?) from 1956; a really bizarre Pansy Potter as she takes on, and betters, a weird-looking spiv character selling springs (springs? why?!); and a great Figaro! strip from 1962, from Topper, that pretty much rounds the whole jam-packed issue off.

There are also a couple of adventure strips - Space Kids by Ron Smith from Beezer, General Jumbo from Buddy, and older material too, from Adventure and the origial Wizard (although I'm not so sure these text stories are as good as the selected comic strips. They sit a bit uneasily with the rest of the comic, I think).

Once again, it's a fine mix and there's plenty for fans of The Beano and sadly now long-gone DCT comics to enjoy. I do hope though, that we'll see a return of creator credits, which was beginning to creep into the title but seems to have been dropped this time around. Other than that, £2 well spent, in my view!

• Classics from the Comics, published by DC Thomson, is on sale now in all good UK newsagents, price £2 Click here for subscription information

Cover image © 2010 DC Thomson, published with full permission

Dudley D. Watkins gallery launched as Courier revamps web site

(with thanks to Lew Stringer and the Forbidden Planet International blogs who spotted this first): DC Thomson has just revamped its web site for its Scottish newspaper The Courier -  and  included a fantastic gallery of comic work by Dudley D. Watkins.

Considered an icon of Scottish culture, Watkins amazing talents are forever linked with DC Thomson, working on comics, newspapers, books and more from 1925 right up until his death in 1969, gving life to unforgettable characters such as The Broons, Oor Wullie and Desperate Dan.

The paper presents a gallery of his work, drawn from the huge DC Thomson comics archive, much of it not been seen since it was first printed, so many decades ago, including strips from annuals, religious images from a 1957 Beezer book (Watkins was a devout Christian and it's thought he was given rein to create these images in order to persuade him to do other work).

Offering some fine examples of the artist's range and offers the chance to see different versions of some of the most famous characters "Watty" created, with very familiar faces from the Sunday Post.

• View the gallery on The Courier web site 

Desperate Dan © 2010 DC Thomson

Beezer Blog Launched

Comic creator and Beezer fan Simon Mackie has launched a new blog that aims to chart the history of DC Thomson's best-known large format humour comic.

The Beezer was a large format (tabloid newspaper/A3 sized) weekly published by DC Thomson from 1956-1981. Along with its sister comic, The Topper, it dominated the comic stands from the late 1950's to early 80's until it was cut down to A4 size.

"For many years the comic retained a charming consistency," says Simon, who is a huge fan of the comic. "Fantastic artists like Dudley D. Watkins, Bill Ritchie, Leo Baxendale and Mal Judge contributed: the characters rarely changed and when you opened up the comic every week you knew exactly on what page they were going to be."

Sadly, when it was shrunk in size, a lot of the original artists left and the characters and formats changed. The Beezer continued until 1993 when, after merging with The Topper, it ran for 153 issues before cancellation. Although never officially merged, some characters did continue in The Dandy and The Beano.

"My blog is solely devoted to the glory years of The Beezer when quality, style, consistency and above all size mattered," Simon enthuses.

• Simon Mackie's Beezer Blog: thebeezersgoldenyears.blogspot.com