Comic Cuts: Upcoming Books (Carlton)

Carlton have released some cover images and further details for their 2008 titles due in September and October.

SEPTEMBER

The Best of 2000AD (ISBN 978-1853756689, 1 September 2008).
"Attention Earthlets", Prion Books announces a publication containing the best bits of the most sought-after comic in the galaxy: "2000AD". This huge book contains hundreds of comic strips, features and articles from the utterly original and anarchic comic that defined a generation. "The Best of 2000AD" pays homage to the greatest sci-fi magazine of them all.

The Best of Boyfriend, edited by Melissa Hyland (ISBN 978-1853756658, 1 September 2008).
"Boyfriend", a new kind of girls' paper, was launched in the spring of 1959. It was the first girls' magazine to truly put music first. Each week there would be a new 'Boyfriend'—Russ Conway, Johnny Mathis, Lonnie Donegan—introducing his life story and, to prove that he had a softer side, his favourite romantic story.You could also meet 'The Girl Behind the Boy'. Whether this was so you could emulate her to get your own pop-star boyfriend or a case of "know your enemy" so you could steal her boyfriend, I don't know. Away from the music, Rachel Lindsay handed out fashion tips on everything from clothing to hairstyles and twins Johnny and Jeannie Talbot offered weekly advice on the "Boyfriend" problems page. "Boyfriend" really came into its own when the sixties began to swing. The magazine gave itself over to modern pop: as early as February 1963, before their first album was out, "Boyfriend" was describing The Beatles as "even more modern than modern." Cliff Richard was a favourite of the magazine and was given his own column to introduce other stars of the pop scene...although it's unlikely that Cliff ever got any closer to the column than cashing the pay cheque he earned from the magazine for using his name.
__Seven years after its birth, "Boyfriend" sank beneath a swelling tide of pop magazines and girls all over the country mourned its passing."The Best of Boyfriend" celebrates the life of an iconic sixties publication with a welter of material that represent some of the best pate.

The Best of Punch Cartoons, edited by Helen Walasek (ISBN 978-1853756795, 1 September 2008).
See details here.

The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever! The Best Thing for Girls—Next to Boys (ISBN 978-1853756672, 1 September 2008).
Your daughter, or even your granddaughter, probably has no idea what it was like growing up in the sixties and seventies. Nowadays, MTV, mobile phones, the internet and downloaded pop bypass much of the excitement of rushing to the newsagent each week to find out who were the featured pin-ups, which of your favourite stars were being interviewed and what intriguingly delicate problems Cathy and Claire were tackling. This bumper edition of nostalgic pages is from the magazine that was truly top of the pops with every girl in the country for almost thirty years after its first publication in 1964. The magazine's heyday came in the seventies when The Osmonds, David Essex, The Bay City Rollers, David Cassidy and Slade were among the regular faces appearing in its pages but it wasn't just for the pop, TV and film stars that girls beat a path to their local newsagent's door. Like the original magazine, "The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever!", it includes fashion and beauty tips, puzzles and quizzes to help you find out, for example, the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone, recipes, horoscopes and enthralling Readers' True Experiences, as well as a smattering of romantic picture story strips. Now is your change to relive all of those golden Jackie moments and show the youngsters in your life what life was like when you were growing up. You can listen to a few hits while you do so, too, because of "The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever!"

Commando: Bandits at 12 O'clock, edited by George Low (ISBN 978-1847321282, 1 September 2008).
Everybody who has ever turned a page of a "Commando" war library has a favourite air story. The first thing to catch the attention are the names...Spitfire, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Whirlwind, Mosquito. Who wouldn't want to read a story with aircraft like that twisting and turning through the pages, machine guns or cannon flaming? And then there are the men who flew the fighters, bombers, seaplanes, flying boats and transport aircraft into combat. These pilots of every nationality had one aim...to make sure that they won their deadly duels high in the sky. "Commando: Bandits at 12 O'Clock" is a collection of some of the finest and most exciting air adventures ever published by "Commando", so strap in, buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Hospital Nurse Picture Library: Love on Ward B, edited by Melissa Hyland (ISBN 978-1853756665, 1 September 2008).
Blonde and impossibly beautiful, Sally Brown is a probationary nurse at General Hospital and the star of 'Hospital Nurse Picture Library'. With her friend and colleague Maureen Evans she patrols the kind of wards that would have been familiar to her readers thanks to television. "Emergency Ward 10" had been running since 1957 so everyone knew that hospitals were buildings full of dishy doctors and patients in need of a little tender loving care. The "Hospital Nurse" series was first launched in 1963 and for years thereafter, young girls, young women and not-so-young women invested a shilling each month to keep up with the romantic adventures of young Sally Brown. In the 1960s, nursing was second only to being an air hostess when it came to glamorous occupations for girls. Tales like "First Love", "Live and Love", "Kiss and Remember" and "Fooling With Love" tap into the obvious elements of love and romance—but titles like "Man Crazy" and "Naughty Nurse" hint that there is more fun to be had in these picture stories than between the prim covers of a Mills and Boon novel. If you think hospitals are just sterile wards full of sick people, think again.

OCTOBER

The Art of War, edited by David Roach (ISBN 978-1853756627, 6 October 2008).
From the 1950s to the '70s Fleetway and its successor IPC was the world's biggest comic-book publisher and its line of digest-sized Picture Libraries was the jewel in their crown. The most popular and longest lasting titles were "War", "Battle", "Air Ace" and "War at Sea", which ran for a combined total of over four and a half thousand issues. This is a collection of over 400 of the finest "War", "Battle", "Air Ace" and "War at Sea" covers, digitally remastered from the original archived artwork in a lavish format with the finest quality reproduction.

Battle Picture Library: Let 'em Have It, edited by Steve Holland (ISBN 978-1853756719, 6 October 2008).
By the time it was launched in 1961, "Battle Picture Library" already had two stablemates at Fleetway Publications—"War Picture Library" and "Air Ace Picture Library". To avoid any conflicts with its sister magazines, Battle concentrated solely on stories based on land, although the authors and artists had plenty of scope when deciding on settings for their tales of action and adventure. Stories such as "Fort Blood" or "The Fire-Eater" pit our fighting men against their bitter enemies in the heat and dust of the desert while "The Flame and the Fury" or "The Island of Guilt" see them slogging their way through the intense tropical humidity of the darkest jungles. The "Let 'Em Have It" collection features some of the finest stories ever to appear in the "Battle Picture Library" series, providing hours of entertainment for fans of fighting yarns whether they be revisiting the classic comic book series they remember from their youth, or whether they are going into Battle for the first time!

The Best of Alex 2008 by Charles Peattie & Russell Taylor (ISBN 978-1853756894, 6 October 2008). (If you follow the link to Amazon above you'll notice they've posted the wrong cover image—but orders are for the correct book.)

High Noon: Wild West Picture Library, edited by Steve Holland (ISBN 978-1853756726, 6 October 2008).
Whooping Injuns, wandering cowpokes, grizzled prospectors, mysterious hombres in sombreros and masked outlaws—this is the untamed West of our childhoods, where the heroes are rugged and honest, the villains are yellow-bellied cowards and only the toughest survive. From the Great Plains to dusty Texan trails and lawless prospecting towns, every thrilling story in this book is jam packed with gunfights, jaw busting saloon punch ups, racing stagecoaches and tomahawk throwing varmints. So saddle up partner, grab your six-gun and prepare to ride into town.

Look-In: The Best of the Eighties, edited by Graham Kibble-White (ISBN 978-1853756863, 6 October 2008).
"Look-in: The Best of the Eighties" is a collection of some of the most memorable and nostalgic picture strip stories, interviews and features to have appeared in the top kids' magazine of the decade. Also referred to as the "Junior TV Times", "Look-in" was first published in 1971 and ran all the way through to 1994. During the 1980s, the magazine was at its peak, changing its cover design in 1981 to use photographs rather than the old artwork, but retaining the picture strips that everyone loved so much. As well as picture story strips based on TV shows like "Robin of Sherwood" or "Dangermouse", the eighties' "Look-in" featured the stories of pop stars in picture strips—"Duran Duran", "Wham!", "Bucks Fizz", "Madness", "Bros", "A-ha", and many more. In addition, the magazine offered behind-the-scenes glimpses of kids' favourite TV shows, interviews with pop, sport, TV and movie stars, pin-ups, quizzes and features on everything from skateboarding and BMX to popular science. Of course, the magazine continued to list broadcast highlights specifically of interest to kids for all of the different ITV regions, continuing to earn its ranking as the "Junior TV Times" and making itself an indispensable item in households all over the UK!

Rick Random, Space Detective, edited by Steve Holland (ISBN 978-1853756733, 6 October 2008).
Rick Random, Space Detective, was a comic book character who appeared in "Super Detective Library", published by Amalgamated Press, from 1954. His first appearance was in the "Super Detective Library" number 37 in a tale titled "Crime Rides the Spaceways". Random worked for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, and among his arch-enemies was a futuristic bank robber, John Jolson, who used a matter transmitter in one story to steal gold from London's Interplanetary Bank. Random's female companion was Detective Superintendent Andi Andrews. Rick Random proved as difficult to kill off in the real world as he did in his sci-fi adventures. He was resurrected in the late seventies in 2000 AD, where he enjoyed a whole new audience. Now you can enjoy ten of Rick's original interplanetary adventures all over again, with the wonderful artwork of Ron Turner reproduced larger and more excitingly than ever before.