Faceache, Ken Reid’s best-loved comic character and Leopard of Lime Street returns in new Rebellion collections

A panel from the long-running Faceache strip by Ken Reid. This art is from the first merged issue of Buster and Jackpot, cover dated 6th August 1982

A panel from the long-running Faceache strip by Ken Reid. This art is from the first merged issue of Buster and Jackpot, cover dated 6th August 1982 (More information here on Great News For All Readers)

Rebellion, publishers of 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine, have announced full details of their first new collections featuring all-time classics of British comics from the 1970s and ‘80s. And what a terrific selection from their recently-expanded cache of characters it is, too, including collections of One-Eyed Jack, Marney the Fox, The Leopard of Lime Street – and the legendary Ken Reid’s much-loved Faceache.

2000AD and Rebellion Publishing acquired the Fleetway and IPC Youth group archive from Egmont UK last year, which includes hundreds of much-loved comic characters and strips. The first titles in company’s new Treasury of British Comics line have now been announced  – and they reflect the huge range of material Rebellion now own.

“These are the comics that forged the childhood memories of millions and imbued many of us with a life-long love of the comics medium,” enthuses company spokesperson Michael Molcher. “It’s both a pleasure and a privilege to be bringing them back into the light after decades on the shelf.”

Ben Smith, head of books and comic books at Rebellion Publishing, which owns 2000AD, describes the new line as a chance to restore “a vital but largely overlooked piece of British cultural history”.

The new Treasury of British Comics line will launch in June this year with John Wagner and John Cooper’s “part Dirty Harry, part Judge Dredd” One-Eyed Jack, first published in 1975, as we exclusively reported back in November.

This will be followed in July by the first collection of Mike Western and Eric Bradbury’s “British Spider-Man” series The Leopard from Lime Street – a series many have clamoured to be collected on British comic forums for years.

The Watership Down-style tale of a lone fox’s desperate struggle to survive against wicked humans, Marney the Fox, by writer M Scott Goodall MBE and illustrator John Stokes,, first published in Buster, will be published in hardcover in September, featuring a positively gorgeous new cover from the artist who these days is well known for his theatre set art.

This will be followed by Gerry Finley-Day and Eric Bradbury’s Dracula Files from the pages of Scream!, which saw ‘red peril’ meet gothic horror as Dracula stalked 1980s Britain in one of the sadly short-lived weekly horror comic.

November will see the second volume of the classic 1980s ‘horror comic for girls’ Misty, featuring two stories: “The Sentinels” and “End of the Line”.

And in December, a collection of Ken Reid’s legendary Faceache from Jet and Buster will be published in hardcover.

One of the all-too-forgotten greats of British comics, Reid’s work has been cited by Alan Moore and Pat Mills as a major influence. (Pat tried, unsuccessfully, to have a Ken Reid strip in 2000AD, a humour strip focused on the story of a hideously deformed survivor of nuclear war. IPC bosses apparently balked at the idea, perhaps fearing it too overtly political).

All these Treasury titles will be distributed through Simon & Schuster, which already distributes 2000AD’s bestselling imprint of graphic novels in the UK and North America.

“The wealth of story and art from past decades is woefully unexplored,” says Ben Smith, “and our experience with the 40-year history of 2000AD was that, if curated in the right way, this material has a large mainstream audience and that classic comics represent extraordinary opportunity not only to satisfy contemporary readers but also save and reinstate a vital but largely overlooked piece of British cultural history.

“It’s an incredible way for parents and grandparents to pass on their own childhood to new generations in the same way that sharing The Wind in the Willows or The Hobbit with children and young people forges and reinforces bonds across families.

“The reprographic work is extraordinarily involved,” he cautions. “Most pages have to be sourced from the original printed comics, as the film and artwork has been lost long ago. We have over a decade’s experience with a full time reprographics team, and we expanded the head count to take on the extra workload.

“We’re balancing material we have found to be of exceptional quality, with stories that readers have begun clamouring for as lost classics and little known gems.”

Treasury of British Comics: First Titles

One-Eyed Jack - Strip ExampleOne-Eyed Jack
Originally published: 1975 – 1978
Release date: June 2017
Trade Paperback

Part Dirty Harry, part Judge Dredd, all badass – Police Detective Jack McBane is the toughest, meanest law enforcer in 1970s New York City. Having lost his left eye in the line of duty, McBane will stop at nothing to rid the crime-infested streets of scumbags and villains – even if it means having to occasionally break the rules!

This first collection in Rebellion’s dedicated Treasury of British Comics line, collecting lost classics from the golden age of British comics, is a key strip in the history of British comics and a dry run for John Wagner’s greatest creation: Judge Dredd.

Never before collected, this story from the pages of legendary children’s comic Valiant marks one of the turning points in modern comics history.

Pre-order this book from amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Read our background feature on One-Eyed Jack here

The Leopard from Lime Street - Strip Example

The Leopard from Lime Street – Book 1
Originally published: 1976-1985
Release date: July
Trade Paperback

One of the most requested reprints from the Fleetway/IPC archive, The Leopard from Lime Street is the British Spider-man – a hugely popular home-grown teenage superhero!

Billy Farmer lives with his Aunt Joan and Uncle Charlie in the when he is scratched by a radioactive leopard at the local zoo. Gaining leopard-like strength, speed, reflexes, and tree-climbing abilities, when he’s not fighting crime, Billy sells photographs of himself to the local paper, using the money to support his frail aunt while contending with his violent, greedy and lazy uncle.

With warmth, wit, and stunning artwork by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, The Leopard from Lime Street is a gem of 1970s and 1980s British comics.

Find comic collections featuring the work of Mike Western, including Darkie’s Mob, on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Find comic collections featuring the work of Eric Bradbury on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

John Stokes beautiful cover for the new Marney the Fox collection from Rebellion Publishing

John Stokes beautiful cover for the new Marney the Fox collection from Rebellion Publishing

Marney the Fox
Originally published: 1974-1976
Release date: September
Hardcover

Written by the late M Scott Goodall and beautifully illustrated by John Stokes, Marney the Fox is a Watership Down – style tale of a lone fox up against wicked humans, channelling Lassie and The Fantastic Mr Fox along the way.

Marney is a young fox desperately trying to survive against the odds, from dodging blood-thirsty farmers to encountering other wild animals. This is a beautifully illustrated story capturing the British countryside and wildlife in astonishing detail showcases Stokes’ finest work, a masterpiece that has lain un-reprinted for decades and makes an ideal children’s book and early Christmas present.

Considered by both John Stokes fans and the artist himself as some of his best comics work, “Marney the Fox”appeared in Buster from the issue dated 22nd June 1974 to 11th September 1976.

“One thing that made ‘Marney the Fox’ exceptional is that, unlike most other Buster adventure strips, it played up the emotional content,” notes Lew Stringer in a great item about the strip on his Blimey! blog. “In that respect it was written more like a story for the girls’ comics, as opposed to something like ‘Von Hoffman’s Invasion’ (also in Buster) that was very action orientated. It’s an interesting technique to build up the emotional aspects because it enables the reader to sympathise with the character and become more involved in the story. With the technique Goodall used, the readers were privy to Marney’s inner thoughts, again a style much used in girls’ comics.”

Find comic collections featuring the work of Scott Goodall on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Read our tribute to Scott Goodall here

Find comic collections featuring the work of John Stokes on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

• Follow John Stokes on Twitter @JohnStokesArt

Dracula enjoys a bloodthirsty snack at the cinema in this episode of "The Dracula Files", which first appeared in Scream Issue 4 in 1984.

Dracula enjoys a bloodthirsty snack at the cinema in this episode of “The Dracula Files”, which first appeared in Scream Issue 4 in 1984.

The Dracula Files
Originally published: 1984
Release date: October
Trade paperback

From the pages of Scream! and presented in a sumptuous hardback edition, this is horror comics at its best!

KGB officer Colonel Stakis desperately hunts for Count Dracula, who is spreading terror in 1980s Britain after escaping from behind the Iron Curtain.

Blending Cold War paranoia with horror staples, Gerry Finley-Day and Eric Bradbury’s strip overcame sustained attempts at censorship to become one of the most popular strips in the 1980s’ best horror comics.

Find comic collections featuring the work of Gerry Finley-Day on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Find comic collections featuring the work of Eric Bradbury on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Misty – Book 2

Originally published: 1978-1980
Release date: November
Trade Paperback

Rebellion follow up their hit first volume of the ‘horror comic for girls’ with another collection of two stories: “The Sentinels“, written by Malcolm Shaw, drawn by Mario Capaldi and “End of The Line“, drawn by John Richardson.

Misty was a revolutionary concept by 2000AD’s creator Pat Mills in 1978 and left its mark on a whole generation of young women and “The Sentinels” was one of its first stories, featuring across its first twelve issues.

The opening page of "The Sentinels" from Misty Issue One

The opening page of “The Sentinels” from Misty Issue One

The two identical tower blocks, known as ‘The Sentinels’ to the locals, stand tall over the town of Birdwood – but only one is occupied while the other remains mysteriously empty. When Jan Richards’ family lose their home they decide to hide out in the abandoned block so they can stay together, only to be sent into a parallel world where the Nazis conquered Britain in 1940…

Panels from the episode of "End of the Line" from the issue of Misty cover dated 21st October 1978

Panels from the episode of “End of the Line” from the issue of Misty cover dated 21st October 1978

In “End of the Line”, Ann’s father was one of a group of engineers believed to have been killed whilst working on an extension to the London Underground but when she and her mother are invited to the opening of the new train tunnel, Ann discovers a mysterious time portal through which several workers are being kept as slaves by an evil Victorian called Lord Vicary.

Buy Misty Volume One from amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Find comic collections featuring the work of Mario Capaldi (including his biograpghy by his daughter) on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes

Read an article on “The Sentinels” on Girls Comics of Yesterday

Faceache by Ken Reid

Faceache by Ken Reid

Faceache
Originally published: 1971-1988
Release date: December
Hardcover

Ken Reid is consistently name-checked by the greats of comics – from Alan Moore to Kevin O’Neill, John Wagner to Pat Mills – for his unique art that is matched only by his enduring sense of humour.

In a hardcover edition befitting his status as one of the all-too-forgotten greats of British comics, we present his timeless Faceache – the humorous adventures of Ricky Rubberneck, the boy with a “bendable bonce” whose skin stretches like rubber. At will, he could ‘scrunge’ his face into anything, whether it’s mimicking others or turning into grotesque creatures – but usually comes a cropper!

Find comic collections and comics featuring the work of Ken Reid on amazon.co.uk – using this link helps support downthetubes



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1 reply

  1. “The wealth of story and art from past decades is woefully unexplored”

    I think they mean “centuries”!

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