Clarks Commandos Series 5 Part 1

They're back! Kit Carter and his Clarks Commandos return for another adventure. If you've not met Kit before, you can find earlier adventures by following the links: Series 0, Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Series 4. The reason it starts with series zero is explained if you follow the link.

Here's the first few episodes with more to follow over the weekend.

Artwork is by Tom Kerr... and there will be more of this story tomorrow.

Clarks Commandos Series 5 Part 2

The penultimate set of episodes for series 5 of Clarks Commandos. If you missed the beginning of the story, scroll down...

Artwork by Tom Kerr. The final three episodes will appear tomorrow.

Clarks Commandos Series 5 Part 3

The final episodes of our latest adventure for Kit Carter and the Clarks Commandos. If you missed any of the previous episodes, scroll down.

Artwork by Tom Kerr. Kit and the Commandos will return in another adventure...

Comic Cuts

Still working on Sci-Fi Art but I've had to take the evening off due to being knackered and not being able to think straight thanks to last night's storms and a lack of sleep. Not that I've been slacking off—I've been scanning instead of writing. Oh, and looking around the internet for news, of course, or I wouldn't be writing a Comic Cuts column.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of scans. The first at the head of the column is a double-whammy of comics connections: the artwork is by Brian Lewis who drew 'Captain Condor' for Lion and many strips for House of Hammer; and the author is Ken Bulmer who scripted the first few adventures of 'The Steel Claw' and numerous issues of Battle Picture Library.

Above is another comics-related collaboration: Brian Lewis and author Syd J. Bounds who was a regular contributor to Air Ace Picture Library.

And this one is an early piece by Gordon Hutchings. Gordon has featured before on Bear Alley as he went on the be one of the best artists appearing in Playhour. He drew my favourite, 'Gulliver Guinea-Pig', for some time and also 'Num Num and His Funny Family', which has been a huge favourite of BA readers.

I guess all this proves is that there are links and connections between almost everything I work on and very rarely are there even six degrees of separation between the subject in hand and British comics. It's usually only one degree.

News from around the net...

* Painter and cartoonist Beryl Cook died peacefully at her home early Wednesday morning, 28 May 2008, at the age of 81. Untrained, her paintings were inspired by the people she met and observed around her home town of Plymouth where she and her husband ran a guest house in the 1970s. An antique dealer friend persuaded her to let him try and sell some and they sold quickly, leading her to hold her first exhibition in 1975. She was featured in an edition of the South Bank Show in 1979. The BBC made a 2-part animated show called Bosom Pals based on her characters in 2004.

News: BBC News (28 May); The Times (28 May); Daily Telegraph (28 May); The Independent (28 May); The Guardian (28 May).
Obituaries: Daily Telegraph (28 May); The Guardian (28 May); The Times (29 May); The Independent (30 May).

* Jamie Hewlett is providing visuals for a BBC Sport's marketing campaign based on the traditional Chinese folklore Journey to the West. More at Down the Tubes.

* Kristy Valenti begins a multi-part appreciation of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise. Part 1 here. Part 2 still to be posted. (link via Journalista)

* Paul Gravett interviews Warren Pleece 25 years on from his first appearance in Escape. Pleece, and Woodrowe Phoenix will be interviewed by Paul as part of Between the Panels 2 at the ICA on Wednesday, 11 June, at 7.00pm. The page above is from 'True Faith' by Garth Ennis & Pleece from Crisis (1989).

* Eleftheria Parpis profiles Ralph Steadman in Adweek (26 May). (link via Journalista)

* Lew Stringer has posted a tribute to the late Mike Western at the newly improved Blimey!.

* Swedish fan Mike Eriksson, who runs the Where Eagles Dare website dedicated to Commando-style war pocket libraries, has included an article on Commando in his new magazine, Slice, which has been running in Swedish since 2003 but has only just had its first 'Global Edition' in English.

Bond... James Bond cover gallery

As today is the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth and the official release date for Sebastian Faulks new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, I thought it was a good time to look back at the original novels by Ian Fleming.

Painted Covers

Pan 333, 1955. Cover by Roger Hall.
Pan G198, 1959. Cover by Sam Peffer.
Pan G198, 1961.
Pan G198, 1962; 1963. (same as above)

Pan GP83, 1957. Cover by Rex Archer.
Pan GP83, 1961.
Pan X233, 1963. (same as above)

Pan 392, 1956. Cover by Josh Kirby.
Pan G216, 1959. Cover by Sam Peffer.
Pan G216, 1961.
Pan X234, 1963. (same as above)

Pan G101, 1958. Cover by Rex Archer.
Pan G101, 1961.
Pan G101, 1963. (same as above)

Pan G229, 1959. Cover by Sam Peffer.
Pan G229, 1961.
Pan G229, 1962. (same as above)

Pan G335, 1960. Cover by Sam Peffer.
Pan G335, 1961. Cover by Sam Peffer.
Pan G335, 1962. (same as above)

Pan G455, 1961. Cover by Pat Owen.
Pan X238, 1963. (same as above)

Pan G551, 1962. Cover by J. Oval.
Pan X239, 1963. (same as above)

1st Series livery [ 1963]

Pan X232, 1963.

Pan X233, 1963.

Pan X234, 1963.

Pan X235, 1963.

Pan X236, 1963.

Pan X237, 1963.

Pan X238, 1963.

Pan X239, 1963.

Pan X201, 1963.
Pan X240, 1963.

Pan X653, 1967.

Pan X350, 1965.

Pan X434, 1966.

Pan X527, 1968.

Pan X 02081-1, 1967.

Movie Tie-Ins

Pan G335, 1962.

Pan X236, 1963.

Pan X238, 1964.

Pan X201, 1965.

Pan X434, 1966.

Pan X232, 1967.

Pan 10350-4, 1969.

Pan 10235-4, 1971.

Pan 10233, 1973.

Pan 10573-2, 1974.

As our gallery is intended to cover Ian Fleming novels only, I'm including the following... the new novel is rather oddly credited on the cover as "by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming".

Why on earth they've decided to use this rather bizarre byline I've no idea. Is Ian Fleming now to be considered the pen-name of Sebastian Faulks? Why would Eon want to diminish the Ian Fleming brand in such a way on his centenary? Technically there is a new Ian Fleming book just about to hit the shelves, an omnibus collection of all the James Bond short stories called Quantum of Solace which will reprint the stories from For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy along with '007 in New York' which has been added to editions of Octopussy and The Living Daylights (the original title of the collection) since 2002. It originally appeared in the New York Herald Tribune back in October 1963 and might have been missed by quite a few Bond fans in the UK unless they picked up the 2004 edition of the collection.

(* I ran out of scanning time so I had to grab a few images from the Pan Collector's Website.)