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.