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!)

Argon the Savage - book 2

Following on from 'Argon book 1' there was even a book 2 - again this is badged '2000ad' but it had never been printed in 2000ad so this seems a little bit optimistic to say the least!

Fernando Fernandez (according to this obituray here) died on the 9th August 2010. The obituary notes "...Only 17 when his first strips were published, Fernández filled the pages of British comics for the next decade, though he did so anonymously.

In the UK, he earned his reputation for his work on Fleetway's Air Ace Picture Library, the romance comics Valentine, Marilyn and Roxy, and a variety of book covers. In the US, he is remembered for his highly stylistic contributions to the publisher James Warren's horror comics, including the eerie Rendezvous, which was voted one of the leading stories to appear in Warren's magazines."

Argon the Savage book 1

Argon the Savage (book one) has always seemed like an anomaly of a 2000ad/Fleetway Quality reprint. It's 62 pages of black & white art (printed slightly larger tha standard US comic book size) for a strip that did not appear in 2000ad or indeed in any Fleetway title, this is its sole appearance from an artists who you could hardly claim was a household name here in the UK.

As you can see from the blurb above its your "typical" psionic caveman meets spaceman tale, with art (see below) that reminds me a little of Jose Ortiz's masterful use of black and white.

An oddity by the artist who so beautifully illustrated "Dark Visions - an illustrated guide to the Amtrak Wars" - which we looked at (here) a while ago.


page 3 of the book

page 3 original art...

page 1 original art...

The last 2 imgaes are swiped from here and are for sale for 700 euro's each.

Dark Visions - the Amtrak wars

Continuing on from yesterday's not quite comics post, here's another...

As a sci-fi reading teen I loved Patrick Tilley's epic series The Amtrak Wars, which follows the adventures of Steve Brickman in a post-apocalyptic USA. A book I could never find at the time (probably very early '90s) was 'Dark Visions - an illustrated guide to the Amtrak Wars'. Having picked it for a few quid recently I can find see what I was missing out on.

Published in 1988 it's beautifully illustrated by Fernando Fernandez across 64 pages of an amazingly detailed glossary of the Wars - full of technical illustrations (not be Fernando) and set-piece images (like those shown below), which are by Fernando. In a world where there was no Wikipedia for the Wars this was the next best thing and is well worth searching if you're a fan of the books.

Copies are available on ebay from about £30 upwards (buy it now) or £175 (auction) - good luck with that!