Oddities: Indiana Jones vs. the V.S.W.K!

Last week, as I was preparing the August 2020 Hatch, Match and Dispatch feature, I was paging through my (sadly incomplete) collection of Marvel UK's Indiana Jones comics when I encountered a mystery that I'd spotted back when the comics were new but about which I'd subsequently forgotten... Indiana Jones Publisher: Marvel UK From: Oct …

Hatch, Match & Dispatch – August 2020

Welcome once again, readers, to our regular look at British comics that will be celebrating an important anniversary in the coming month. The celebrants time around include some Disney titles, a couple of appearances from everyone's favourite future law-enforcement officer, and -- from many decades back -- a cluster of story-papers aimed at grown-up women. …

Comic Scans

Just a quick request, folks: Please do not ask me to send you digital versions of the comics I review or feature on this blog! The comics I feature -- especially those that appear in the Pocket-Money Comics, In-Shallow Profile or Enfari Syndrome articles -- are from my own collection, scanned on my own scanner …

In-Shallow Profile: Load Runner

I don't know if Load Runner really was "The Galaxy's First Computer Comic" as the cover of each issue claimed, but that's an easy boast because thirty-seven years on we're still not in a position to dispute it. When, oh when, will the Powers That Be see fit to give us proper space travel so …

Tenuous Comics Link #20200719…

Those who know me well probably also know that alongside British comics another of my great passions is the German band Alphaville. I've loved them ever since I first heard their debut single "Big in Japan" back in 1984. Now, obviously, Rusty Staples is a comics blog, so what do Alphaville have to do with …

Pocket-Money Comics: Marilyn

Marilyn was a comic aimed at young women that ran for over ten years and presented its readers with comic-strips, prose fiction and articles all based around love and romance. The title, presumably, was chosen to imply an association with Marilyn Monroe: the comic was launched in 1955 shortly after Ms Monroe became massively famous. …

Journey Planet: Battle Picture Weekly

Forty-five years ago the war comic Battle Picture Weekly crashed down into the British comics scene with such an impact that the aftershocks are still being felt today. Now, in a special double-sized issue, the award-winning fanzine Journey Planet takes a look back at this fan-favourite -- and sometimes controversial -- comic, and presents all-new …

Pocket-Money Comics: The Complete Judge Dredd

As mentioned in this month's Hatch, Match & Dispatch feature, The Complete Judge Dredd title came to an end twenty-five years ago. Launched in February 1992, it boasted the clever tagline of "The Law in Order" and ran for forty-two monthly black-and-white issues, which isn't a bad old run for a comic that -- aside …

Oddities: Beneath a Steel Sky

Beneath a Steel Sky is a highly regarded 1994 computer game developed by Revolution Software and released on the MS-DOS, Amiga and iOS platforms. I bought it a couple of years after it was published but I never managed to get it to install properly, even though my PC at the time was a top-of-the-range …