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 …

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 …

In-Shallow Profile: Marvel Super Specials

The Marvel Super Specials series was a collection of one-shot comics published from September 1977 to November 1986, most of them featuring adaptations of then-current movies. I have no doubts that the series was inspired by the tremendous success of Marvel's Star Wars specials: their six-issue comic-book adaptation of the movie was repackaged as a …

Rusty’s Reviews Round-Up

To save you literally whiles of searching through this blog, here are all of Rusty's reviews in one place! Updated: 3 July 2021 Comics: The Bank Street Book of Science Fiction -- 7 Feb 2020 Batman Monthly -- 26 Jun 2020 Battle Picture Weekly -- 2 Jun 2019 Bea -- 15 Aug 2017 Boy's Cinema …

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 …

The Eagle Timeline

The Eagle Family Tree was one of the first major posts on this blog, back in May 2018, but it's always bothered me a little that I did it the lazy way, showing only the hierarchical relationships between the comics and not a proper time-line. Plus, unlike some of the later timelines on this blog …

Oddities: James Whale’s Frankenstein – the photonovel

James Whale's Frankenstein was published in 1974 by Picador in the UK as part of their Film Classics Library series. I've been wrestling with how to categorise this one for a while... Does it count as a noncomic or an oddity? Or is it neither? Or all three? I eventually concluded that it can't be …

Noncomics: William Shatner – The Unauthorized Biography

Once again Uncle Rusty has delved into his Star Trek cabinet, and this time emerged with a rather odd publication indeed... This ain't no comic-book, folks, though it looks and feels very much like one at first glance and first touch. William Shatner - The Unauthorized Biography is one of many similar books published by …

Noncomics: Star Trek – Planet Ecnal’s Dilemma

From the distant past of 1979 comes a Star Trek colouring book -- but this is not just any old colouring book. This is no mere random collection of line-art images: every page in Star Trek - Planet Ecnal's Dilemma is actually a panel in a continuous story (or half a panel, for the two-page …

Star Wars in 2000AD, part 1

Solar Salutations, fellow humans! It's time once again to splice the hatches and batten down the mainbrace and settle in for a long meander down retrospect river, because Unky Rusty has wrangled his trained pedantosaur out of its pen (actually, it's more of a paddock than a pen) and taken it foraging for juicy and …