SSI exhibition of 'British comic book art'

I've swiped these images from ebay seller acesales1966 (who always has interesting stuff for sale - well worth following) for posterity. 

This SSI exhibition was new to me, I've not see this poster before. Looks like some great art was on display!

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

Society of Strip Illustration - meeting #1

An interesting item that was up for sale recently at auctioneers Anderson & Garland [lot 433 in their sale of 5th March 2025] is this signature list from the first open meeting of the SSI - look at the list of people present! I've tried to decipher their signatures but there's a few I'm unsure of - any help gratefully received

Names in the left hand column then...

Fred Robinson

Roy Wilson

Ron Embleton

Gordon Wells

Don Lawrence

Dennis Hooper

???

Dick Millington

Manny Curtis

Mick McMahon

Dave Gibbons

??? [Brian Lewis??]

Jon Davis

Mike Tregenza

???

Names in the right hand column then...

Leo Baxendale

Denis Gifford

Les Lilley

Sally Artz

Martin Asbury

John M Burns

Brian Bolland

Kev O'Neill

Nick Landau

Mal Burns

Paul Neary

John Bolton

Trevor Goring

Barrie Mitchell

Mike Dorey

Ian Kennedy [an unusual instance of signing his full name of Chas Ian Kennedy]

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

Strips 78 - the programme

I've looked a few different conventions before....

Bristol comic expo (2004-2014) is here

London comic festival 2003 is here
Kev Sutherland festival original art is here
A 'Lawless 2019' miscellany is here
Boys and Girls exhibitions of the 1950s and '60s is here
Glasgow comic art convention is here
Edinburgh art convention is here
Hi-Ex convention is here

UKCAC - part 1 - is here
UKCAC - part 2 - is here

UKCAC - part 3 - is here

BICS convention is here

Glasgow comic con is here

Kapow! comic con is here

British comic conventions 1970-76 is here 

British comic conventions 1977-81 is here 

Comic conventions miscellany is here

Comics 101 is here

Strips 78 is here

Comicon 1972 is here

Eaglecon 80 - part 1 - is here

Comicon 1971 is here

Comicon 1970 is here

Bristol comic expo 2023 is here

ALL the Lawless 2023 posts can be found here

Alexandra Palace in 1992 is here

11th British comic convention (1979) is here

6th British comic convention (1973) is here

and now here's the very slim (single piece of A4 paper) that shows the programme for the Strips 78 (and Comics 103) convention held in September 1978

UPDATED: Fleetway Editions limited., 1992 structure

An interesting page from the October 1992 SSI journal (as featured on the blog yesterday) is this diagram of the then current structure of Fleetway Editions limited.

Interesting points to note...

Group One contains "Law in Order" - which is actually better known as "The complete Judge Dredd comic" (the title logo said Law in Order)

Group Two contains Greenbug comic - which I looked at here and here

Group Two contains Young Indiana Jones - but I'm not aware of London Editions publishing a Young Indiana Jones title??? It could have been a reprint of material published contemporaneously by Dark Horse??

What was project "Odyssey"??

What was project "Oh No!!"??

UPDATE: I got some very useful feedback on the above two projects so I'm recording those Facebook comments here for posterity...thanks to all who contributed...

 

Fleetway Editions limited., 1992 structure

An interesting page from the October 1992 SSI journal (as featured on the blog yesterday) is this diagram of the then current structure of Fleetway Editions limited.

Interesting points to note...

Group One contains "Law in Order" - which is actually better known as "The complete Judge Dredd comic" (the title logo said Law in Order)

Group Two contains Greenbug comic - which I looked at here and here

Group Two contains Young Indiana Jones - but I'm not aware of London Editions publishing a Young Indiana Jones title??? It could have been a reprint of material published contemporaneously by Dark Horse??

What was project "Odyssey"??

What was project "Oh No!!"??

UPDATED: SSI journal, 1992

Copies of the Society of Strip Illustration (SSI) turn up infrequently, due to their limited print-run. SI was delighted to acquire a few (from 1992) a while back. I'll share cover images and notable contributors. Here we go then...

Now with covers/details for July-October added

SSI newsletter, January 1992, cover art by Paul Schroeder

SSI newsletter, February 1992, cover art by Bryan Talbot

SSI newsletter, March 1992, cover art by Ron Tiner

SSI newsletter, April 1992

SSI newsletter, May 1992, cover art by Paul Rogers

SSI newsletter, June 1992, cover art by Steve Whitaker

SSI newsletter, July 1992, cover art by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood

SSI newsletter, August 1992, cover art by Pete Venters

SSI newsletter, September 1992, cover art by ???

SSI newsletter, October 1992, cover art by Steve Martin

cartoon strip by Steve Whitaker

letter from D'Israeli

SSI journal, 1992

Copies of the Society of Strip Illustration (SSI) turn up infrequently, due to their limited print-run. SI was delighted to acquire a few (from 1992) a while back. I'll share cover images and notable contributors. Here we go then...

SSI newsletter, January 1992, cover art by Paul Schroeder

SSI newsletter, February 1992, cover art by Bryan Talbot

SSI newsletter, March 1992, cover art by Ron Tiner

SSI newsletter, April 1992

SSI newsletter, May 1992, cover art by Paul Rogers

SSI newsletter, June 1992, cover art by Steve Whitaker

UPDATED: 'Orrible murders!

A while ago (here) I looked at a (very) limited edition comic that David Lloyd and the SSI had been instrumental in putting together - "'Orrible murders!".

Recently a seller on ebay was offering scans of the character sketches that David Lloyd prepared for 'Orrible...I swiped the images for posterity so here they are...

'Orrible Murders

The David Lloyd bibliography (here) has a one line mention of a comic from September 1992 called 'Orrible Murders! The question is though...what is this comic? Until just the other day I had no idea what it was, the good news is that I'm much clearer about that...

Published by the Society for Strip Illustration as a limited edition (of 200) the issue I've picked up has been signed by a number of the creators involved - specifically David Lloyd, Nick Vince, Duncan Fegredo, Hilary Robinson, Dave King, Ian Ellery, Brad! Brooks and Roger Langridge...

Neil Gaiman's plot is set in Deathwatch manor and sees a number of characters attempting to survive 3 nights at the manor in order to inherit the estate of the recently deceased, eccentric millionaire owner, Silas Gore.

Here's the list of creators involved...

Here's Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo (whatever happened to them?) contribution...

Here's David contribution to page 14...

Rare early Charlie Adlart art discovered

...in the pages of the Society of Strip Illustration newsletter for May 1991 is this A4 illustration by new member Charles Adlard

.

...At that time Mark Buckingham was chairman of the SSI and provided this cover illustration...

Neil Gaiman on Oink...

As a follow-up to the presentation that Mark Rodgers had done to the SSI (and that featured in the July 1987 issue of the SSI newsletter) here are 2 'letters of comment' (as they used to be called) from the August 1987 issue of the SSI newsletter.

Here's the first letter from, of all people, Neil Gaiman...

And here's John Richardson's thoughts on Oink, safe to say he doesn't sound like a fan...  

The birth, life and shelving of Oink comic

From the pages of the Society of Strip Illustration (SSI) newsletter for July 1987 we have this transcription of a talk that Oink! editor Mark Rodgers did...

early Carl Critchlow artowrk

A batch of SSI newsletters has arrived so I'll be mining this for interesting nuggets over the next few weeks, first up are two covers by Carl 'Thrud, Lobster Random' Critchlow...