Axa - the American years

I've featured the occasional piece of Axa artwork on the blog and thought it about time thst I looked to see how many volumes of Axa stories had been printed. My focus here is just on the American series - a total of 9 volumes.

Axa was appeared as a daily newspaper strip in The Sun from 1978-86. More details c/o Wikipedia are here. Art is by Enrique Badia Romero and the writer is Donne Avenell.

All other mentions of Axa on the blog can be found here

All other mentions of Donne Avenell on the blog can be found here

Catawiki auction ending 26th August 2021

This auction ends tonight - good luck if you're bidding!

Here are the original British comic art highlights from the latest Catawiki auction...

This piece by Romero - a typical action-packed Moesty Blaise piece

Another action-packed strip, this time it's Robot Archie (by Edward Kearon) - this is from the 1966 story 'The screeming beetle'

This distinctly non-action-packed cover (by William Francis Phillipps) for the 7th March 1964 cover of Teddy Bear comic

Another page from the Robot Archie story 'The Screeming  beetle' from Lion - I've highlighted just a single panel here to demonstrate Edward Kearon's skill

Here's an Axa strip by Romero used in The Sun in 29th May 1979

A Fernando Fernandez piece that doubtless ended up on the cover of a picture library somewhere (but I can't prove it!)

Catawiki auction ending 26th August 2021

Here are the original British comic art highlights from the latest Catawiki auction...

This piece by Romero - a typical action-packed Moesty Blaise piece

Another action-packed strip, this time it's Robot Archie (by Edward Kearon) - this is from the 1966 story 'The screeming beetle'

This distinctly non-action-packed cover (by William Francis Phillipps) for the 7th March 1964 cover of Teddy Bear comic

Another page from the Robot Archie story 'The Screeming  beetle' from Lion - I've highlighted just a single panel here to demonstrate Edward Kearon's skill

Here's an Axa strip by Romero used in The Sun in 29th May 1979

A Fernando Fernandez piece that doubtless ended up on the cover of a picture library somewhere (but I can't prove it!)

Van Helsing's Terror tales arrives in paperback

A quick shout out for the new publication from Dez Skinn (just search for him on facebook) it's a glossy softcover edition of his previously published (albeit in a limited edition hardback - 100 copies only) reprints from House of Hammer magazine, Van Helsing's Terror tales.

You can expect contributions from Martin Asbury, Donne Avenell, Jim Baikie, John Bolton, Joe Colquhoun, Dave Gibbons, Trev Goring, Brian Lewis, Chris Lowder, Angus McKie, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse, Ramon Sola and Patrick Wright.

the newspaper strip gazette - part 2

Finishing off my look at the Newspaper strip gazette then...
Issue 4 (November 2010)
Contents include Jane index (1953-57), Buck Ryan index part 2 (1940-46), sample strips of The Seekers (by John M Burns & Les Lilley), Gun Law (by Harry Bishop), Axa (by Donne Avenell & Romero), and Patti

Issue 5 (January 2011)
Contents include 'collecting corner' (by, er, me!), Jane index (1957-59), Buck Ryan index (1946-52), profile of writer Don Freeman and sample strips of The Seekers (by John M Burns & Les Lilley), Gun Law (by Harry Bishop), Jeff Hawke (by Sydney Jordan), and Patti

Issue 6 - March 2011
Contents include 'collecting corner' (by, er, me!), Buck Ryan index (1952-57), profile of writer Norman Pett and sample strips of The Seekers (by John M Burns & Les Lilley), Gun Law (by Harry Bishop), Susi (by Norman Pett), and Patti

Assuming the same publication schedule then the series continued thus (but I don't have any copies of these)
Issue 7 - May 2011
Issue 8 - July 2011
Issue 9 - September 2011
Issue 10 - November 2011
Issue 11 - January 2012
Issue 12 - March 2012 

Issue 13 - May 2012
Contents include introductions to classic western strips Matt Marriott, Rick Martin, Gun Law and Cisco Kid, Matt Marriott index and sample strips of The Seekers (by John M Burns & Les Lilley), Matt Marriott (by Tony Weare) Gun Law (by Harry Bishop), Cisco Kid (by Jose Luis Salinas) and Rick Martin.

...sadly I've no idea if this was the last issue or if it ran and ran - can you help? Get in touch if you can

Van Helsing's Terror tales has risen from the grave!

...or come back from the printers to be more precise and what a volume it is! Hardback, 80 pages, its even got a dustwrapper, it's like a proper annual and everything.


And then there's the roster of writers & artists involved...in no particular order...Angus McKie, Brian Lewis, Chris lowder, Donne Avenell, Jim Baikie, Joe Colquhoun, John Bolton, Martin Asbury, Patrick Wright, Ramon Sola, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse and Dave Gibbons

20 stories from the cream of British comics talent
70+ pages 
Hardback 
What more could you want? An essential purchase, well done to Dez Skinn for getting this published

Just search for "Monster Mag" on facebook

A Brian Lewis page...

A Joe Colquhoun page

 A Ramon 'Hookjaw' Sola page