Woman's Pictorial - 23 July 1927

Here's a nice gallery from the women's magazine Woman's Pictorial. The cover is muted, the paper and printing is very nice, the illustrations classy, the authors popular... what a difference 85 years makes. I can't imagine Woman's Pictorial would have ever considered publishing an article under the title "This Weird Statue Got Me Pregnant" (see the final pic).

Albert Bailey

Peres

A. W. Sindall

(* All pictures © IPC Media except Take a Break © Bauer.)

Pages from Pearson's - 12 January 1935

Some illustrations from the pages of Pearson's Weekly for 12 January 1935 . . . and I'm struck again by the similarity of the subject matter in an issue of this 1935 magazine and magazines of today. Articles included that ever-green subject "What's wrong with television?", although part of the problem back then was the quality of the images, with the author of the opinion that "when television eventually becomes a domestic utility the pictures will be split up into at least 200 lines." These, I suspect are the horizontal scanning lines of today's PAL (in the UK) or NTSC (in the USA) systems, which are  625 lines and 525 lines respectively.

Another subject was "Why Are We Living Longer?" which boasted that a healthy man could expect to live to 66. That has now risen to 79 (and 82 for women).

Elsewhere in the magazine there was a hand-wringing article asking "Can modern youth repair the havoc we middle-aged people have wrought?", a news piece claiming that middle-aged men were paying 250 guineas for face lifts, an article about a footballer and a worrying piece about waste disposal.

Apart from one illustration (the first below) by Clive Uptton, the main illustrator for Pearson's – this issue at least – was B. J. Dawson, who illustrated three of the stories. Apart from also contributing to Wild West (the British boys' paper published by Amalgamated Press), I know nothing about Dawson, so any additional information would be welcome.

 

 

 

 

(* all illustrations © IPC Media.)

Greg Egan cover gallery

Greg Egan has to be one of the most exciting SF authors to have appeared in the thirty years. It's almost unbelievable that he's been around for that long and it was probably twenty-five years before I read anything by him. My knowledge of his work is very patchy and I have only a handful of his books. However, you can find a very good bibliography of his works here and lots more information about him at his official website.

An Unusual Angle (Carlton, Victoria, Australia, Norstilia Press, 1983)
(no UK paperback)

Quarantine (1992)
Legend 0099-15381-5, 1992, 248pp, £4.99. Cover by Peter Gudynas
Millennium 1857-98590-7, 1999, 256pp.
Gollancz 0575-08172-4, 2008, 251pp.

Permutation City (1994)
Millennium 1857-98175-8., 1994, 310pp, £8.99 Cover by Chris Moore [tpb]
Millennium 1857-98218-5, 1995, 310pp.
Gollancz 0575-08207-0, 2008, 377pp.

Distress (1995)
Millennium 1857-98285-1, 1995, 343pp, £9.99. Cover photo by The Image Bank [tpb]
Phoenix 1857-99484-1, 1996, 352pp.
Gollancz 9565-08173-2, 2008, 424pp.

Diaspora (1997)
Millennium 0752-80925-3, 1998, 376pp.
Gollancz 0752-80925-3, 2001, 376pp.

Teranesia (1999)
Millennium 1857-98864-7, 2000, 249pp, £5.99. Cover by Yasuo Seki
Gollancz 978-0575-08333-2, 2008, 295pp, £7.99. Cover by Rebecca Deveraux (Arcangel Images) / des. Sue Michniewicz

Schild's Ladder (2001)
VGSF 0575-07123-0, 2001, 249pp [tpb]
Gollancz 0575-07391-8, 2003, 256pp.
Gollancz 0575-08111-2, 2007.

Incandescence (2008)
Gollancz

Zendegi (2010)
Gollancz 0575-08618-1, 2010, 332pp, £14.99. Cover by Greg Egan/des. Sue Michniewicz [tpb]
Gollancz 0575-08620-3, 2011.

The Clockwork Rocket (2011)
Gollancz 0575-09512-1, 2011,362pp, £14.99. Cover by Greg Egan/des. Sue Michniewicz [tpb]
Gollancz 0575-09514-8, 2012, 373pp.

The Eternal Flame (2012)
Gollancz 0575-10573-9, (Aug) 2013, 416pp.

The Arrows of Time (2013)
Gollancz 0575-10576-3, (Nov) 2013, 368pp.

Dichronauts (2017)
X

Perihelion Summer (Tor.com, Apr 2019)
X

COLLECTIONS

Axiomatic (1995)
Millennium 1857-98309-2, 1995, 368pp, £4.99.
Millennium 0752-81650-0, 1998, 368pp.

Our Lady of Chernobyl (Parramatta, NSW, Australia, MirrorDanse Books, 1995)
(no UK paperback)

Luminous
Millennium 1857-98552-4, 1998, 295pp, £9.99. Cover: photo by Alfred Pasieka [tpb]
Gollancz 978-0575-08208-3, 2008, 330pp, £7.99. Cover by Chad Baker/Photodisc/Getty

Oceanic (2009; omnibus of Dark Integers and Other Stories (Burton, Michigan, Subterranean Press, 2008) and Crystal Nights and Other Stories (Burton, Michigan, Subterranean Press, 2009) with one story removed)
Gollancz 0575-08654-8, 2010, 504pp.

The Best of Greg Egan (Subterranean Press, Oct 2019)
(no UK paperback)

Comic Cuts - 11 October 2013

I mentioned last week that Bear Alley was suffering from an overdose of spam comments and that I was changing the settings. Since then, not a single spam comment has come through. The in-box of my mail browser is no longer bursting at the seems with spam every morning.

However, this isn't a perfect solution. The whole point of having the original settings was that anyone could comment and could comment anonymously if that was how they wanted to. I'm more interested in gathering information than knowing that whoever is supplying it has signed up for Google Plus. So hopefully this is a temporary measure and once some of the spammers have given up trying to overload the site, I'll review the situation. I can cope with a reasonable level of spam; it had just reached a point where it had become too distracting.

I suspect the situation had developed because Bear Alley is so hugely popular—my fascination for old comics, paperbacks and magazines is, of course, shared with the elite of humanity. I like to think of my readers as intelligent, inquiring and attractive. Smart, handsome men and beautiful, brainy women, coming together with a common interest in exploring the byways and alleyways of once popular cultures.

Turns out you're actually a bunch of perverts. Just look at the most popular search terms that bring people to this website:

bear alley
erotic comics
erotic
erotic cartoons
erotic comic
erotic cartoon
bear alley uk.com
adult comic

These are the top eight search terms that result in people visiting Bear Alley. You filthy, filthy-minded perverts. Be off with you. You'll see no porn here, nothing tacky or dirty or erotic. That's what the Daily Mail website is for. And you young gay men, attracted by the word Bear . . . it's not that kind of bear. It's the name of a road.

So... now that we've got rid of the spammers and perverts... hello? . . . hello? . . . why has my voice started to echo?

Hellooooo?

Commando Issues 4643-4646

Commando issues on  sale 10th October 2013

Commando No 4643 – Resistance Strike

France, 1944. A French Resistance group, aided by an SOE agent, had been a thorn in the side of the occupying Germans, regularly sabotaging their vehicles and communications.
   But now something big was happening at a disused mine nearby — where slave labourers were being worked to death on a mysterious project. The Resistance had to find out what the Germans were up to, and what an eccentric French civil engineer was doing helping them. Could he really be a collaborator?

Story: Mac MacDonald
Art: Morahin
Cover: Janek Matysiak

Commando No 4644 – Spearhead!

Question: How on earth could any man be as brave as Marty Finnegan said he was?
Answer: By proving it in the heat of battle, like Marty did.
   What a man! What a hero!

Introduction

Commando has always been about characters, many of them larger than life. And they don’t come much larger than Eric Hebden’s creation, Marty Finnegan, line-shooter extraordinary. If Marty had written for Commando, no-one would have believed a word. Fortunately Mr Hebden has done the honours magnificently, adding a little bit of black humour here and there for good measure.
   With a brilliantly coloured cover by Ferraz and strong black-and-whites by Martin it is very much a Commando story in every way. It’s not seen the light of day for 50 years but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Calum Laird, Commando Editor

Story: Eric Hebden
Art: Martin
Cover: Ferraz
Originally Commando No 68 (May 1966)

Commando No 4645 – Once A Tank Man…

…Always a tank man. Well, that saying was definitely true when it came to Corporal Nick Leigh and his fellow Royal Tank Corps men — dependable Lance-Corporal Walter Askey and hot-headed Private Sid Jones.
   When their Valentine III tank was destroyed by an enemy Panzer MkIV, they became prisoners of, first, the Italians then the Germans. But they escaped and found some unexpected allies, driving — and fighting in — a very special tank indeed!

Story: Mac MacDonald
Art: Keith Page
Cover: Keith Page

Commando No 4646 – Code Of The Warrior

The Samurai warriors of Japan in centuries past were honourable men, living by their chivalrous code of “Bushido”.
   In the Second World War some officers of Imperial Japan continued the noble tradition, abiding by its laws. None more so than Tomito Inosuke, a courageous fighter pilot with a burning desire for revenge — against a high-ranking VIP on his own side.

Introduction

Commando’s long-form 63-page format — they were basically like graphic novels decades before the term was coined — has always allowed authors plenty of room to develop their characters, the most important element of any story. Veteran writer Bill Fear doesn’t have just one main character here — he has three, each with distinct personalities, voices and motivations. Fear’s script weaves a solid action tale of honour and revenge that builds towards a satisfying, and perhaps unexpected, conclusion.
Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor

Story: Bill Fear
Art: Keith Shone
Cover: Ron Brown
Originally Commando No 2231 (November 1988)

Chums March 1927 part 4

The final set of illustrations from this particular issue of Chums... the first four by Thomas Somerville and the last two by Paul Hardy.

 

 

 

 

(* All images © IPC Media.)

Chums March 1927 part 3

Another selection of illustrations I believe Thomas Somerville did the first three and I believe (again) Gordon Browne did the last three.

 

 

 

 

(* All images © IPC Media.)

Bryan and Mary Talbot

Bryan and Mary Talbot's talk from this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Chums March 1927 part 2

Our gallery continues with a colour frontispiece by Ambrose De Walton, plus illustrations by Albert Morrow and... well, I don't know the artist of the final illustration.

 

 

 

 

(* All images © IPC Media.)

Simon Bisley - Shock of Green

If you ever wondered what it would be like to watch Simon Bisley painting, this is the movie for you. Shock of Green is nearly two hours long, so settle back with some beer and two, maybe three tubes of Pringles, and click play.

Chums March 1927 part 1

Chums was one of the finest boys' papers of all time in the UK and may well be the finest. There were three papers generally grouped together  when we talk of the story paper greats: Boys' Own Paper, The Captain and Chums.

Of these, the Boys' Own Paper was a little too preachy due to its religious background and The Captain could be a little smug and sycophantic towards the public schools it supported—and for those of you outside the UK, public schools here means expensive, fee-paying boarding schools for the rich. Both featured very good writers and top class illustrations, but Chums was far more adventurous from day one when Max Pemberton was the editor and the debut serial was Pemberton's "The Iron Pirate".

So, to my mind, Chums was the best of the three. I was rather pleased to have two issues of the monthly edition given to me recently as it has meant I can show off a selection of the paper's superb illustrations. H. M. Brock, Paul Hardy and Albert Morrow were amongst the illustrators and all three can be found in this single issue. We'll see Hardy and Morrow later in the week. In the meantime, here's a handful of pictures by H. M. Brock and J. Greenup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(* All images © IPC Media.)