Heroes! The British invasion of American comics - part 8

Recently (ish!) finished at the Cartoon Museum (here) was their exhibition 'Heroes! The British invasion of American comics'. 

For anyone who couldn't make it here's part 8 of my look at what you missed...

Part 1 was here

Part 2 was here

Part 3 was here

Part 4 was here

Part 5 was here

Part 6 was here

Part 7 was here

Mek Memoirs #1 - Kev O'Neill

I'm always happy to feature Kev O'Neill's work here on the blog (click here for all previous mentions of the great man) and I recently spotted the below on the Gosh! comics ebay account (here)...

...yes, it's a copy of (the original) Mek Memoirs #1 by Kev. This particular copy sold for £97.51

This is an original printing (NOT the Dark and Golden facsimile Edition) of Mek Memoirs in high grade from Kevin O’Neill’s personal collection. Gosh! Comics is selling this copy on behalf of Kevin’s estate. Extremely rare, this piece of comics history has been notoriously difficult to purchase in recent years and certainly not found in this grade often, likely untouched since printing. The comic itself is the Urtext for British science fiction robot comics, predating ABC Warriors and used by Kevin to convince Pat that robots had a place in 2000AD, Pat’s hatred for Robot Archie being legendary. We will mail this boarded and bagged in a cardboard mailer, tracked! 

“See the future history of robot warfare captured on video for the very first time. Von Kruppenstein! The Crusher! The Killdozers! Take a peek at the horrible world to come in searing battle action! This acerbic end of the world comedy is an unmissable look at a war you never want to see happen! This robot conflict urtext set the stage for the comics sci-fi revolution that was just around the corner."

Art by Kevin O’Neill, story by Chris Lowder writing as Jack Adrian.

UPDATED: Comic Speculator News (1992-94)

I've now added in covers for issues 12, 13 & 15 for this update

Inspired by episode 342 of the Awesome Comics Podcast (check it out here) I thought I'd remind myself of the '90s speculator boom nonsense by pulling together my issues of the British answer to Wizard that was Comic speculator news. It lasted 13 issues in total, here's what you missed...

Comic Speculator News promo issue

not to hand - do you have a copy?

Comic Speculator News issue 0, December 1992

looks like it's been run off on a photocopier - single sided photocopying at its best!

Comic speculator news #1, February 1993

Comic speculator news #1, February 1993

All the issue have front & back covers that look like front covers - I'll include them here to avoid (?) confusion. A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #2, April 1993

Comic speculator news #2, April 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #3, May 1993

Comic speculator news #3, May 1993

I can't recall what this is referencing
A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #4, June 1993

Comic speculator news #4, June 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #5, July 1993

Comic speculator news #5, July 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #6, August 1993

Comic speculator news #6, August 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #7, September 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout (apart from the covers)

Comic speculator news #8, October 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #9, November 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #10, November 1993

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #11, January 1994

A4 sized, 48 pages, black & white throughout

Comic speculator news #12, February 1994

it then seems to have undergone a name change to... 

Comic News #13, March 1994

it's now free (rather than 55p). It COULD have been an entirely separate title but I reckon that if issue #12 of CSN came out in Feb 1994 and this is issue #13 and is dated March 1994 then I reckon it's the same publication.

Comic News #14, April 1994

cover not to hand - can you help??

Comic News #15, May 1994

Leonides and the belt of gold - by Kev O'Neill

A recent auction lot (here) entitled Leonides and the belt of gold - the lot was described thus...

A portfolio of original comic book art entitled LEONIDES AND THE BELT OF GOLD by Robert Curran with art by Kevin P. O’Neill, consisting of a cover page and 10 interior pages of story on board. 32cm x 40cm. This comic appears to be as yet unpublished.

I'd be delighted to hear any suggestions for where this early work by Kev might have been intended for.