“I shall become… a brick!”

I've recently purchased a bundle of awesome classic comics from the great Lew Stringer, who is not only one of the nicest guys in the comics industry but also one of the most knowledgable (and talented)... I'd read some of the strips from these titles before and always loved them, so it's great to finally …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – November 2019

The Important British Comics Anniversaries for November 2019! As explained in more detail last month, these are only the “big” anniversaries (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 90 & 100+ years), dates are cover-cover dates (where known), monthly comics with no known day of launch default to the first of the …

Oddities #20191025

Another piece of comics promotional material today. Generally, such things tend towards posters, badges and stickers and the like. You know? Stuff that has a fairly clear link back to comics. But in 2011, in order to promote their new ongoing titles Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men, Marvel decided that cardboard drinks coasters …

Comics That Never Were #1

While writing about Before Watchmen last week I was reminded that occasionally comics are promised but they don't arrive. Sometimes this is because of economic or political factors, other times it's because the creators changed their minds, or were otherwise unable or unwilling to produce the work. Now and then it's because the comic was …

Oddities #20191018

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 …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – October 2019

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 …

Oddities #20191011

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 …

Pocket-Money Comics: Hotspur

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 …