UPDATED: rare Captain Condor merchandise not to be sniffed at

A while ago I wrote about some obscure Captain Condor merchandise...a further update has now been added at the bottom of this post - shown thus

Dan Dare really monopolised British comics space-based merchandise but his rival Captain Condor was not above getting in on the merchandise action...First 2 images are small handkerchiefs from my collection (of comic stuff, not handkerchiefs)...

This final image is one that I grabbed from an ebay listing a while back and show that, innovatively, the handkerchief set actually tell a story...

This image also shows that different colour schemes were used on the same image - compare my red-edged handkerchiefs with the ones above. I'm sure that collecting a set of these is hard enough without worrying about getting a blue-edged set, a green-edged set and a red-edged set. Who knows though? If you're a big Captain Condor fan there's not a lot of '50s merchandise out there for you to collect and this may be your Holy Grail. Good luck with it.

...UPDATE and now another two have come to light

This is an ebay swipe and is entitled "Arrival on the moon"

This one is entitled "Martians space ships" and is clearly, unlike the earlier handkerchiefs, not part of a story.

So these two look like they could be part of a 'non-storytelling' set, in which case there's maybe just two more to find.

FURTHER UPDATE...

this handkerchief was recently for sale on ebay...not sure how this one fits into the "chronology" above but it could come before "Arrival on the moon" 

and I've now found this further example - entitled "Captain Condor inspects the defence of London"

For my reference I own the following:

"The SOS brought an immediate response..."

"Captain Condor and Pete land on their space station..."

"Martians space ships"

"Captain Condor inspects the defences of London"

"A helicopter from the space station saves Captain Condor and Pete just in time"

That means I don't own the following:

"SOS Condor calling space station...

"Captain Condor in the luna magnet ship circles to land"

"Arrival on the moon"

UPDATED: rare Captain Condor merchandise not to be sniffed at

A while ago I wrote about some obscure Captain Condor merchandise...

Dan Dare really monopolised British comics space-based merchandise but his rival Captain Condor was not above getting in on the merchandise action...First 2 images are small handkerchiefs from my collection (of comic stuff, not handkerchiefs)...

This final image is one that I grabbed from an ebay listing a while back and show that, innovatively, the handkerchief set actually tell a story...

This image also shows that different colour schemes were used on the same image - compare my red-edged handkerchiefs with the ones above. I'm sure that collecting a set of these is hard enough without worrying about getting a blue-edged set, a green-edged set and a red-edged set. Who knows though? If you're a big Captain Condor fan there's not a lot of '50s merchandise out there for you to collect and this may be your Holy Grail. Good luck with it.

...UPDATE and now another two have come to light

This is an ebay swipe and is entitled "Arrival on the moon"

This one is entitled "Martians space ships" and is clearly, unlike the earlier handkerchiefs, not part of a story.

So these two look like they could be part of a 'non-storytelling' set, in which case there's maybe just two more to find.

FURTHER UPDATE...

this handkerchief was recently for sale on ebay...not sure how this one fits into the "chronology" above but it could come before "Arrival on the moon" 

UPDATED: rare Captain Condor merchandise not to be sniffed at

A while ago I wrote about some obscure Captain Condor merchandise...

Dan Dare really monopolised British comics space-based merchandise but his rival Captain Condor was not above getting in on the merchandise action...First 2 images are small handkerchiefs from my collection (of comic stuff, not handkerchiefs)...

This final image is one that I grabbed from an ebay listing a while back and show that, innovatively, the handkerchief set actually tell a story...

This image also shows that different colour schemes were used on the same image - compare my red-edged handkerchiefs with the ones above. I'm sure that collecting a set of these is hard enough without worrying about getting a blue-edged set, a green-edged set and a red-edged set. Who knows though? If you're a big Captain Condor fan there's not a lot of '50s merchandise out there for you to collect and this may be your Holy Grail. Good luck with it.

...UPDATE and now another two have come to light

This is an ebay swipe and is entitled "Arrival on the moon"

This one is entitled "Martians space ships" and is clearly, unlike the earlier handkerchiefs, not part of a story.

So these two look like they could be part of a 'non-storytelling' set, in which case there's maybe just two more to find.

Captain Condor rare merchandise not to be sniffed at

Dan Dare really monopolised British comics space-based merchandise but his rival Captain Condor was not above getting in on the merchandise action...First 2 images are small handkerchiefs from my collection (of comic stuff, not handkerchiefs)...

This final image is one that I grabbed from an ebay listing a while back and show that, innovatively, the handkerchief set actually tell a story...

This image also shows that different colour schemes were used on the same image - compare my red-edged handkerchiefs with the ones above. I'm sure that collecting a set of these is hard enough without worrying about getting a blue-edged set, a green-edged set and a red-edged set. Who knows though? If you're a big Captain Condor fan there's not a lot of '50s merchandise out there for you to collect and this may be your Holy Grail. Good luck with it.

Venture Books imprint - MIlls & Boon

Inspired by my earlier posting about Mills & Boon imprint Venture Books I've hurriedly trawled the net to see what other images can be found...

The horrific trail across England in search of a small glass phial containing blood - blood that had once flowed through the veins of the Lord of the Vampires.

A monstrous, dog-like creature is the evil doctor's creation in this new Frankenstein tale set against the bleak background of Cornwall's Bodmin moor. 

Violence and bloodshed were no strangers to McCool, which made him the sort of unorthodox agent the giant oil company needed to protect their rig from sabotage. 

Two of the books have proved too hard to track down and this is the best image I can get...

The plot for Adam is as follows

Death was a low price to pay for the capture of Adam when compared to the havoc and horror which followed the primitive monster's escape from his electrified cage.

The plot for Tiger Trap is as follows

The blood of humans and big cats mingle over of death as Jake Hiller tracks man-eating tigers in a desperate bid to save the species from extinction.

It comes from here and credits the Adam book as really being by (comics writer) Fred Baker; the Blood of Dracula book by (comics writer) Chris Lowder (a.k.a. Jack Adrian); the Frankenstein book as really by Peter Beresford Ellis; and Rig 59 as being written by Peter Christopher Watts. 

There's also reprints of at least 4 of these books in Italian - sorry for the poor image quality, they're taken from this interesting sounding website

Did you know Frank S Pepper wrote for Mills & Boon?

Frank S Pepper is remembered as the comics writer who gave us Roy of the Rovers, Captain Condor, Rockfist Rogan and many more besides (his Wikipedia entry is here).

What he's not remembered as is a Mills & Boon writer, but here is is...90 pages of story in the 'Venture books' line of horror / adventure titles. Published in 1977 and easy to acquire if you are happy to spend £15-£20. Harder to acquire if, like me, you think that's way too much.

Those 'Venture book' titles in full...

• Tiger Trap by Patrick McDonald
• Hound of Frankenstein by Peter Tremayne
• Adam by Mike Baker
• The blood of Dracula by Jack Hamilton Teed
• Rig 59 by Matt Chisholm
• Big deep by Frank S Pepper

I haven't actually read it - I'll let you know if it's any good 

Rockfist Rogan - the novels

To celebrate completing my 'collection' of Rockfist Rogan novels I thought I'd share the covers of these rare volumes with you...

For those not in the know Rockfist was an RAF fighter and champion boxer who appeared in The Champion, a boys story paper from the Amalgamated Press (which ran from 28/01/22 to 19/03/55). The stories were written by 'Hal Wilton' (actually legendary British comics writer Frank S. Pepper - creator of Roy of the Rovers and Captain Condor).

There were 3 'tie-in' books published
Rockfist Rogan
Rockfist in the kingdom of the Khan
Rockfist at the North Pole

The stories in this volume are as follows:
The jet-plane spy
Hunting the Hawk
Peril in the explosives factory
What's wrong with Rockfist?
The gold pirates
A shock for Rockfist
A Goal0Break
The land of skulls
The truth about the Tortillo affair

All of these were originally published in The Champion
The book is 135 pages long and the cover picture is from a painting by R. Simmons

Painting is, again, by R. Simmons. Stories had appeared [in their original forms it says - suggesting that perhaps they've been re-written for this novelisation] in The Champion.

There's an ad in the back of here for the 'Rockfist Club', it says "...to enrol and obtain the fine badge together with a Membership Card and a free copy of the Rockfist Gen Book all you need do is send 1/6 and a stamped self addressed envelop to the Secretary of the Rockfist club c/o Stuart Pepper & Son, London Road, Billericay, Essex"

Painting is, again, by R. Simmons. Stories had appeared [in their original forms it says - suggesting that perhaps they've been re-written for this novelisation] in The Champion.

Advertised but not appearing titles were
Rockfist King of the cannibals
Rockfist Rohan - Spy Hunter


All 3 novels are undated and normally cost £20-£30 in their dustwarppers.