Comic Strips Unnewspapered
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We got Heathcliff and Garfield, Dan Dare and Lance McLane, Detective Dick Tracy and Fred the Clown, and Calvin and Hobbes.
Garfield or Heathcliff
Wizards of the Coast has announced a superdrop of Garfield Secret Lairs. (I have to admit I have no idea what any of that previous sentence, other than Garfield means.) But Peter Smith at Draftsim is outraged at the disrespect shown the original orange comic strip cat (no, not Mr. Jack). Note the satire tag.
Heads up Garfield sympathizers! Wizards of the Coast just announced three brand new Garfield Secret Lairs. These are all part of the Cats Are The Best superdrop, and each of these Secret Lairs include some interesting reprints and all show off a unique art style. However, this announcement has not come without controversy, as it’s left us Heathcliff fans understandably upset. Is Wizards of the Coast really taking Garfield’s side, when Heathcliff is clearly the original funny orange comic strip cat?
Dan Dare Returns (to Space)
Dan Dare was a popular space-age Eagle comic book character in the UK (and briefly a comic strip in the Sunday People) from 1950 to 1969 by Frank Hampson and others.
Now Dan Dare is returning. Matthew Lockwood of the BBC interviews artist Marc Laming:
Dan Dare is a pilot in the British space fleet, the only non-privatised space agency left on Earth.
In First Contact, Dan and his new friends, young working-class inventor Al Digby and leading xenobiologist Prof Peabody, race against time to solve the mystery of how a comet has changed direction on its own before it devastates Earth.
Still Spaced Out – Now with Lance McLane
When Sydney Jordan and Paul Neary gave up on the Jeff Hawke comic strip (which made it into American newspapers the last couple years) they created another space adventure – Lance McLane.
John Freeman looks back on Lance McLane:
While not as well known as “Jeff Hawke”, and, for the most fans of the work across the globe of Syd Jordan’s work, “Lance McLane” (affectionately known as “Lance McBoil” to some of his more dedicated Scottish followers!) has his own fans, among them the internationally renowned comic artist Alan Davis.
“Although Syd Jordan is best known for his ‘Jeff Hawke’ work it was Lance McLane that caught my imagination,” he notes on his official website. “The post apocalyptic scenario, Fortuna android and endless alien weirdness and ancient mysticism were perfectly captured in an elegantly consistent reality.
Although…
“Jeff Hawke” ran in the Daily Express from 1954 to 1974, followed by two years of strips in the Scottish Daily News, for foreign syndication. “Lance McLane” ran in the Daily Record, for twelve years, from 1976 to 1988. That run of 10,209 episodes in total probably makes the combined strip the longest running science fiction newspaper adventure in the world [emphasis added].
That 34 years from 1954 to 1988 doesn’t compare with Buck Rogers daily and Sunday from 1929 to 1967 (38 years) or Flash Gordon Sundays from 1934-2003 (69 years) and dailies 1940-1944 & 1951-1991 (44 years) and revived daily and Sunday since 2023.
Something Different: The Complete Fred the Clown Webcomics
Funny book favorite cartoonist Roger Langridge has collected his 1999-204 Fred the Clown webcomic.
I have spent the best part of the day uploading newly-upscaled versions of my old Fred the Clown web strips to a Webcomics Studio page, and I invite you to check them out if you’re so inclined – link here. These are the strips that originally ran online on a weekly basis, starting in 1999 and ending in 2004 (although I’ve also included a few stragglers at the end, which take us up to last year), only at a higher resolution than I originally displayed them, as I don’t expect most of you to still have dial-up modems these days.
Fred is a romantic clown of little brain. Originally a web strip (this very web strip, in fact!), Fred the Clown later went on to become an Eisner and Harvey nominated comic book, and was subsequently collected in paperback by Fantagraphics Books.
The Collected Adventures of Dick Tracy by Matthew K. Manning and Howie Noel
As a guest writer on the Dick Tracy newspaper comic strip, Matthew K. Manning teamed with artist Howie Noel to deliver a stylized retro take on America’s favorite detective. Click on the links below to read their entire run on gocomics.com for free.
Okay this is a cheat as these comic strips appeared in American newspapers but Matthew K. Manning has uploaded his and Howie Noel‘s “Mr. Mirror” Dick Tracy story in one GoComics high-definition spot.
Auction: Specialty Calvin and Hobbes Art by Bill Watterson
Only one day left to get your bid in for a special Calvin and Hobbes drawing by Bill Watterson.
The handmade original drawing, signed and inscribed with the greeting “Hello to Sweden!”, was executed as an exclusive, personal gift to the publisher of Serieparaden, Alf Thorsjö. The motif, in which Watterson depicts himself at the drawing board together with Calvin and Hobbes, is both playful and self-reflective – a rare example of the artist in direct dialogue with his own characters.
The drawing was published in Serieparaden no. 1 (1987), the historic debut issue for Calvin and Hobbes in Sweden, where it is reproduced on the inside cover together with a photograph of Watterson, taken by Alf himself during an early visit to the USA. The auction lot includes said issue as well as a photograph in the same spirit that Alf took on a later occasion to further promote the magazine. On the back of the original, there is a stamped address, a detail from the production process of that time when originals were sent to print for reproduction – an important provenance-bearing element.
Currently at $38,398.00
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