In-Shallow Profile: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

So, kids, back in the early 1990s Francis Ford Coppola made a big-budget adaptation of Dracula, the famous vampire novel written by Irish writer Bram Stoker (Bram is short for "Abraham" by the way -- just thought I'd get that in early in case I forget). The movie was very definitely a Big Thing because …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – Dec 2020

It's time once again to take a look at the British comics that are celebrating (or commiserating) an important anniversary... Previous episodes of Hatch, Match & Dispatch:2019: Oct, Nov, Dec2020: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov 25 years ago: December - SuperTed final issue.Publisher: Marvel UK / RedanFrom: 10 Mar …

Oddities: The Great Red Dragon fridge magnet

I don't know whether this is a particularly rare item, but it's certainly one of this household's most favourite things... Our largest fridge-magnet, this baby measures a colossal 140 x 145mm! This is the Great Red Dragon from Jeff Smith's comic Bone, which just happens to be one of the best comics ever published. Bone …

Pocket-Money Comics: Sun

Sun was one of those comics that never managed to settle down for very long. It was launched by J.B. Allen in the latter days of 1947 as Fitness and Sun, but with "Fitness and" in much, much, much (etc.) smaller letters than "Sun" -- so small that most readers probably never noticed it was …

Oddities: Judge Dredd movie promo badge

Judge Dredd badges are not that odd as such -- I'm the proud owner of the best part of a dozen of various different styles -- but the one we're featuring today is a little unusual because it's fairly rare, and it's rather large. But first, a bit of a preamble (it wouldn't do at …

Comics That Never Were #4 – #8

The archives have been plundered once again, readers, in order to bring you yet more comic-book gems from another reality! Before I go on (and on, and on) I would like to answer a question that I imagine at least one reader has possibly considered asking... The comics in this series have not all been …

New Non-Comics Blog!

Exciting news, readers! No, not that Rusty Staples has caught Enfari Syndrome and is merging with another blog and it's going to gradually disappear... Yer Uncle Rusty has launched a brand-new blog! There's not a lot on there yet, but it'll grow in time, I promise! It'll mostly be about writing, and it'll be packed …

Retro interview: Steve Dillon, 1990

This interview was first published in issue #7 of FTL -- the magazine of the Irish Science Fiction Association -- in October 1990. It was reprinted in issue #33 of Journey Planet in December 2016. Steve Dillon is a young British comic artist living in Dublin. Well, perhaps “artist” is too limiting a term – …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – Nov 2020

Here we are again with a super-streamlined version of Hatch, Match and Dispatch, readers! Just pure data, almost no filler! (See also Oct 2019, Nov 2019, Dec 2019, Jan 2020, Feb 2020, Mar 2020, Apr 2020, May 2020, Jun 2020, Jul 2020, Aug 2020, Sep 2020 and Oct 2020.) Update 20201027: The great Rob Kirby …

Falling for Superman

On 26 September 1938 -- a little over eighty-two years ago as the crow flies -- issue six of Action Comics (cover-dated November of that year) featured the Superman story "Superman's Phony Manager" (full disclosure: that title didn't appear in the original issue and has been applied retroactively). Action Comics was an anthology and Superman …