Colour Ranger Reprints From Bear Alley Books

By John Freeman on March 24, 2013

Steve Holland’s Bear Alley Books imprint have been putting out reprint titles from old British comics for two years now and the latest titles from the imprint are adaptations of the classic novels King Solomon’s Mines and Treasure Island, both of which are being reprinted in full colour.

Both books are A4 size reprints from Look and Learn’s sibling title Ranger which was published in 1965 and 1966 before being amalgamated into Look and Learn itself and from which Look and Learn received its most famous strip, The Trigan Empire.

Both of these Ranger strips were adapted by Trigan Empire co-creator Mike Butterworth, King Solomon’s Mines from H Rider Haggard’s original novel and Treasure Island from Robert Louis Stephenson’s original novel, with Butterworth using both author’s original language.

Treasure Island is illustrated by John Millar Watt who created the Daily Sketch’s Pop strip and King Solomon’s Mines is illustrated by Mike Hubbard who is best known for taking over the Daily Mirror’s Jane strip from its creator Norman Pett.

In addition to the strips themselves, Steve Holland had written three page illustrated biographies of each of the artists which are included in the appropriate title.

Both King Solomon’s Mines and Treasure Island cost £9.99 each plus postage and there is a special postage offer when buying both together.

There are more details of King Solomon’s Mines and Treasure Island on the Bear Alley Books blog –

King Solomon’s Mines

Treasure Island

Both books with combined postage

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.