Everything you ever needed to know about comics (limited to the stuff that I know and am willing to tell you)!
Today's oddity is a piece of comics promo... a double-sided newspaper/poster given away in 2012 to promote the then-upcoming Before Watchmen series. Younger readers might not recall the ire that this series raised. Watchmen was a ground-breaking and beloved twelve-episode maxi-series created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. It was collected as a … Continue reading Oddities #20191018
Say hello to a new monthly feature here on Rusty Staples... a comprehensive, mostly accurate, although certainly incomplete list of anniversaries of British comic launches, mergers and cancellations! First, some caveats... 1. I'm only noting the "big" anniversaries (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90 & 100+ years), otherwise we'd be … Continue reading Hatch, Match & Dispatch – October 2019
Occasionally whilst hunting down obscure comics I encounter an oddity, anomaly or rarity that piques my interest but doesn't really have a place to go. Well, just for fun I thought I'd make a place for such things... For the very first one, here's an ad for issue #2 of Cheeky Weekly, a comic I … Continue reading Oddities #20191011
The New Hotspur / The Hotspur / Hotspur Publisher: DC Thomson First issue: 24 October 1959 Last issue: 23 January 1981 Issues: 1110 Relaunch of: The Hotspur True story: one of my friends refused to buy this comic because he thought that by doing so he would be supporting the football team Tottenham Hotspur. We … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Hotspur
Prepare yourself for a shock, comic fans: We are now further away from the last issue of Battle Picture Weekly than its first issue was from the end of World War II. Battle, to use its street name, is arguably one of the most important and influential British comics of all time. Of course, that's … Continue reading Branding: Battle Picture Weekly
Hanna-Barbera's Fun Time Publisher: Williams First issue: 1 November 1972 Last issue: 30 June 1973 Issues: 25 Relaunch of: Yogi and his Toy Just about anyone who grew up in the western world in the 1970s (and who has access to a TV set, which wasn't all of us, to be honest) will almost certainly … Continue reading Pocket-Money Comics: Hanna-Barbera’s Fun Time
Hello there (or indeed anywhere) Rusty Staples fans! Can you believe that it's been a whole year already since this blog was launched? Amazing! And what a year's it's been: absolutely packed from beginning to end with days, weeks and even months -- who says I don't give you value for money? It all began … Continue reading Rusty Staples: Year One
