Ron Turner artwork for Eagle annual 1984

I'm just recording for posterity that this artwork (by Ron Turner from Eagle annual 1984) still exists. 

It was sold by Compal in their May 2024 auction (lot 124). 

Hammer price was £250

Ron Turner - Vanguard to Neptune

Here, here and here I've highlighted (quite recently) some pulp paperback covers that artist Ron Turner had, later on in his life, re-created. Well, another image has now come to light and is shown here...

it's currently on sale on ebay UK right here with bidding starting at £395 - no bids received at the time of writing - good luck if you do bid! You can also make an offer. I'll report back on the sales price in due course.

The auction runs until Sunday 7th August 7pm BST

The grand illusion art - by Ron Turner

Here and here I've highlighted (quite recently) some pulp paperback covers that artist Ron Turner had, later on in his life, re-created. Well, another image has now come to light and is shown here...

it's currently on sale on ebay UK right here with bidding starting at £395 - no bids received at the time of writing - good luck if you do bid!

Boom! Sells for £395

'Magnetic Brain' art by Ron Turner

I reported previously (here) about a 'modern day' recreation of a Ron Turner cover that was up for sale...well if you missed out then the good news is that you've another chance now - albeit a different image. For sale here this is, as the seller says...

Ron Turner recreated this cover which originally appeared in the legendary VARGO STATTEN paperback series, first published in 1953.

The medium used is gouache and the size of the image is 365 x 255mm

Overall size of board is 490 x 355mm

Artwork is in excellent condition

The auction runs until 8pm 29th May 2022 (BST) - bidding starts at £395 - good luck if you bid!

Check out all Ron Turner mentions on the blog here

The G-Bomb art by Ron Turner

Over here on that ebay there's a rare chance to acquire a piece of full colour Ron Turner art....

...as the seller explains...

rare recreation by Ron Turner of his original cover to The Vargo Statten paperback published in 1952. 

Size of art: 370 x255mm on thick card. Medium: Gouache

Overall size:485 x 255mm

...the auction closes tomorrow (23rd April at 9pm) - good luck if you're bidding

Rayguns & Rocketships Kickstarter closes today

Just a reminder that this campaign finishes this morning at 10:30AM GMT so there' still (just!) time to back it...

Just a shout-out for a brand new Kickstarter campaign (which can be found right here) from Rian Hughes (who I last saw at the opening of the Beano exhibition at Somerset House). As Rian says...

Rayguns and rockets! Spacesuited heroes caught in the tentacles of evil insectoid aliens! Who could resist such wonders? Science-fiction paperbacks exploded over the 1940s and ’50s literary landscape with the force of an alien gamma bomb. Titles such as Rodent Mutation, The Human Bat vs The Robot Gangster, Dawn of the Mutants and Mushroom Men from Mars appeared from fly-by-night publishers making the most of the end of post-war paper rationing. They were brash and seductive – for around a shilling the future was yours.

The stories were often conceived around a pre-commissioned cover and a title suggested by the publisher, and the writers were paid by the word, and sometimes not paid at all. Titles were knocked out at a key-pounding pace, sometimes over a weekend, by authors now lost to literary history (plus a few professionals who could spot an opportunity) who were forced to write under pseudonyms like Ray Cosmic, Steve Future, Vector Magroon, or Vargo Statten.

Despite the tight deadlines and poor pay, the books’ cover artists still managed to produce works of multi-hued, brain-bending brilliance, and collected here is an overview of their output during an unparalleled period of brash optimism and experimentation in publishing. Includes scans taken from rare original art!

There's nearly a month to go on the campaign so there's plenty of time to get behind the project...

Rayguns & Rocketships Kickstarter launches

Just a shout-out for a brand new Kickstarter campaign (which can be found right here) from Rian Hughes (who I last saw at the opening of the Beano exhibition at Somerset House). As Rian says...

Rayguns and rockets! Spacesuited heroes caught in the tentacles of evil insectoid aliens! Who could resist such wonders? Science-fiction paperbacks exploded over the 1940s and ’50s literary landscape with the force of an alien gamma bomb. Titles such as Rodent Mutation, The Human Bat vs The Robot Gangster, Dawn of the Mutants and Mushroom Men from Mars appeared from fly-by-night publishers making the most of the end of post-war paper rationing. They were brash and seductive – for around a shilling the future was yours.

The stories were often conceived around a pre-commissioned cover and a title suggested by the publisher, and the writers were paid by the word, and sometimes not paid at all. Titles were knocked out at a key-pounding pace, sometimes over a weekend, by authors now lost to literary history (plus a few professionals who could spot an opportunity) who were forced to write under pseudonyms like Ray Cosmic, Steve Future, Vector Magroon, or Vargo Statten.

Despite the tight deadlines and poor pay, the books’ cover artists still managed to produce works of multi-hued, brain-bending brilliance, and collected here is an overview of their output during an unparalleled period of brash optimism and experimentation in publishing. Includes scans taken from rare original art!

There's nearly a month to go on the campaign so there's plenty of time to get behind the project...

Goodies Fun book (1)

Inspired by this recent post (by friend of the blog Michael Carroll) I've tracked down both the 'Goodies fun books'. They're quite different beasts - this volumes is more 'adventure' strip orientated and the other volume (coming soon on the blog!) is aimed at a much younger audience.

Anyway, this volume first...It's A4 size 52 pages (including covers) with a mix of colour and black & white artwork. I've not included examples of all the material but I've got most of the strips - the Ron Turner strip (7 pages in total) was a delight to discover.

Here we go then...

new from Book Palace books - part 3

More lovely reprint goodness from the Book Palace...

Exciting collection of four complete Rick Random stories

The Planet of Lost Men
Super Detective Library #79 published June 1956
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Conrad Frost

The Riddle of the Vanishing People
Super Detective Library #101 published March 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by Arnold Beauvais
Written by Bob Keston

Sabotage From Space
Super Detective Library #111 published September 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston

S.O.S. From Space
Super Detective Library #115 published ?October 1957
Art by Ron Turner, cover art by James McConnell
Written by Bob Keston

Authors: Bob Keston, Conrad Frost
Artist: Ron Turner
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due late 2020
Number of pages: 272
Format: Flexi Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 6" x 8" (165mm x 215mm)
ISBN: 9781913548063

And here's the final volume....

Complete stories featuring the atmospheric Western art of Ruggero Giovannini.

More details to follow.

Artist: Ruggero Giovannini
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due Summer 2020
Number of pages: 272
Format: Flexi Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 6" x 8" (165mm x 215mm)
ISBN: 9781907081927

Action Man annual 1985

I'm always interested in a Fleetway annual - this is an interesting one as it's not associated with a contemporary comic...

The artists used are a cut what you might expect from a 'spin-off' annual and some of the contents look like it's been recycled from the Fleetway vaults (having been printed elsewhere before)...

Looks like Graham Coton in the inside front page

...and then we're straight into some Jim Watson art

...and then there's a Joe Colquhoun page...

...Ron Turner then gets 2 pages to illustrate

...This is by Frank Humphris and I'm sure has been printed elsewhere...

Patrick Wright then gets to draw 'a bridge too far'

This is one of two Ian Kennedy strips in the annual

...and then Wilf Hardy draws the end-papers

Plenty of very good artists there and well worth hunting down.

Ron Turner in Quizzer - part 2

A long time ago (here) along with friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs I looked at a obscure comic-cum-puzzle-magazine 'Quizzer' - we just looked at one particular strip on that occasion but there are other nuggets in there...In this issue of Junior Quizzer there's some (long-lost) Ron Turner work, so here it is again for your enjoyment...

Junior Quizzer is (c) Dez Skinn

Ron Turner in Junior Quizzer - part 1

A long time ago (here) along with friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs I looked at a obscure comic-cum-puzzle-magazine 'Quizzer' - we just looked at one particular strip on that occasion but there are other nuggets in there...In this issue of Junior Quizzer there's some (long-lost) Ron Turner work, so here it is again for your enjoyment...

Junior Quizzer is (c) Dez Skinn

Archive Adventures - part 5

The Archive Adventures series is numbered up to issue 22 and then there are 8 un-numbered issues - I'll look at the first 3 un-numbered issues today and the balance in the next post.

My thanks again to Steve Taylor for his contribution to this posting. 

Archive Adventures issue 21

Archive Adventures issue 22

Archive Adventures un-numbered (Denis McLoughlin special tribute issue)

limited to 40 copies

Archive Adventures un-numbered (Dick Turpin and the Black Lily)

Archive Adventures un-numbered (The last of the Mohicans, part 1)

Archive Adventures - part 2

Thanks to blog reader Steve Taylor I can present the whole of the 'Archive adventures' series. So let's see what's in issue 6-10...

...and this is what the volumes themselves look like (A4 sized, black and white art throughout)


Archive Adventures issue 6

Archive Adventures issue 7

Archive Adventures issue 8

My spare copy is for sale here


Archive Adventures issue 9

Archive Adventures issue 10