Friday, July 16, 2010

Planeta DeAgostini's classic UK comics reprints

In Spain, Planeta DeAgostini are reprinting old British classics in a series of new collections priced at  €14.95.They are also planning to reprint Janus Stark, Mytek and The Spider. I did some of the scanning for the Kelly's Eye and Janus Stark books 18 months ago, so it has probably taken two years to get these volumes off the ground.

One minor error on the first couple of volumes: Ken Bulmer didn't write Kelly's Eye, nor did Tom Tully write the early Steel Claw. I think Planeta have mixed up the credits on the promo covers, which they've attempted to correct in the release information for the books (Kelly, Claw) and the books themselves; the Kelly's Eye has been "corrected" to credit Tom Tully as writer. But it's still wrong: Tom Tully was not the original writer of Kelly's Eye; the first few years were the work of another writer (possibly David Motton, but I'm not 100% sure). I believe Tully only took over when Doc Diamond was introduced and Tim Kelly started time travelling. Poor old Tom Kerr and Mike Western, who both contributed strips that appear in this volume, don't get a mention either.

I was also intrigued to find that the history of IPC Media, which forms the two-page introduction begins with the creation of Eagle, which had bugger all to do with IPC or its predecessors, Amalgamated Press and Fleetway Publications. In fact, Amalgamated Press turned it down flat when it was offered to them by Marcus Morris and only acquired it by default when they took over Odhams in order to cement their position in the women's magazine market. An odd place to start when Amalgamated did, in fact, publish the first recognisable British comic in the shape of Comic Cuts.

El Ojo Mágico de Kelly vol. 1 (June 2010) 112pp
El Ojo Mágico de Kelly vol. 2 (August 2010) 136pp

Zarpa de Acero vol.1 (July 2010) 112pp
Zarpa de Acero vol.2 (September 2010) 112pp

El Imperio de Trigan vol.1 (July 2010) 80pp colour
El Imperio de Trigan vol.2 (September 2010) 96pp colour

(* My thanks to Skua for pointing out that these books were appearing.)

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