Book Palace Books has announced several new Fleetway Comics Archives, all now at the printers and available on pre-order.

These Archives collections are limited editions of 500 copies each, so you may want to pre-order sooner rather than later to ensure your copy.

Billy Bunter offers tales of Greyfriars’ “Owl of the Remove” with complete Billy Bunter comic strips from the Comet.

Billy Bunter had a long career at Fleetway. He began in hugely popular text stories and then went on to further fame as a purely slapstick character in the pages of Knockout and Valiant, where his depiction was almost totally unrelated to his original conception. The strips that appeared in Comet take us firmly back to the roots that established the popularity of the characters: exciting dramatic adventures featuring not only Billy Bunter but also the cast of other Greyfriars characters.

This volume comprises the very best of the Comet Billy Bunter dramatic strips written by Frank Richards, including all those drawn by Reg Bunn and Charles Henry Chapman (aka CH Chapman), that most admirers would consider the pick of the crop, or as Billy Bunter might say, the icing on the cake: “The Famous Five” by Reg Bunn; and “Greyfriars School” and “Bunter of Greyfriars” by Charles Henry Chapman.

Dick Turpin features tales of heroism on The King’s Highways, offering complete Dick Turpin stories and illustrations from Sun, Comet and Thriller Picture Library comics from the 1950s.

This collection comprises the cream of Dick Turpin strips published during the halcyon days of the Amalgamated Press. Within its pages the work of such masters as Derek Eyles, Hugh McNeill, Eric Parker, H. M. Brock, Jesus Blasco, Eric Bradbury and Cecil Doughty.

You can enjoy shenanigans aplenty in Robin Hood, featuring the very best complete comic strips from Knockout, Sun, Robin Hood Annual and Thriller Picture Library comics, by creators including Jesus Blasco, Reg Bunn, Reginald Heade, Fred Holmes, Patrick Nicolle and John Millar Watt.

Tales of adventure on the High Seas are collected in Sea-Wolves, offering piracy comic strips from Film Fun and Knockout British comics. Included are “Captain Kidd” by Reg Bunn and Alberto Salinas (from Film Fun); “Captives of El Dorado” by Cecil Doughty and Patrick Nicolle (Lion); “Mysterious Island” and “Pirates of Blood River” both drawn by Mike Western (Film Fun); and “The Black Pirate” by Cecil Doughty (Knockout).

Due for release later this year is Buffalo Bill, a 160 page collection of comic strips drawn by the brilliant, much admired Jesus Blasco, collected from Comet.

Finally, also in the pipeline is War Eagle, a 120-page collection of strips from Comet drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi, plus short war stories from Top Spot.

While the creative lineup on the July books is superb, expect there to be a strong demand for these two Winter releases.

“Of all the European artists to contribute to British comics in the 1950s and ’60s, two stand out as being the most popular: Jesus Blasco and Ferdinando Tacconi,” David Ashford and Norman Wright previously noted.

From November 1954 when his first strip appeared in the UK, Spanish artist Jesús Monterde Blasco aka Jesús Blasco (3rd November 1919 – 21st October 1995) carved an astonishing path through British comics, producing some of the most popular stories of their times. British strips often played fast and loose with historical facts and physics and grounding them in Blasco’s photo realistic artwork made them believable to their youthful audience. His artwork inspired a generation of new artists, Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland both acknowledging his influence.

In a profile on the Book Palace website, David Ashford, Norman Wright and Steve Holland note Blasco was Born in Barcelona, he was one of five siblings – brothers Alejandro, Adriano, Augusto and sister Pilar – who, to one degree or another, all worked in comics. Entirely self-taught, Blasco began working professionally in comics shortly after his first prize-winning drawing appeared in Mickey when he was 14. Only 15, he created ‘Cuto’ for Biloche in 1935. The boy hero become one of Spain’s most popular comic creations following his appearance in Chicos in 1940 and Blasco added a second popular strip to his CV when he created ‘Anna Diminuta’ for Mis Chicas.

Blasco was called up to serve during the Spanish Civil War and, after the war, served three years military service whilst still managing to keep up a steady output of comic strips from war stories to nursery tales.

In 1954, he made his debut in the UK and continued to contribute to British comics for over 20 years. From drawing “Buffalo Bill” and “Billy the Kid” in Comet and Sun, Blasco took over the artwork of those most British of heroes, “Robin Hood” and “Dick Turpin”. He also turned his hand to fairy tales, drawing beautifully painted spreads for Playhour featuring Pinocchio, the Dancing Princesses, Rumpelstiltskin and others.

In 1962 he drew “Vengeance Trail” for Eagle and, that same year, began work on his two longest-running strips: the darkly menacing adventures of “The Steel Claw” in Valiant and the whimsical children’s fantasy “Edward and the Jumblies” for Teddy Bear.

Thanks to inking help from his brothers Alejandro and Adriano, who did not receive any individual credits in the UK after 1955, the Blasco family were able to turn out an astonishing number of pages each week with no fall-off in quality.

In 1982, Blasco was awarded the prestigious Yellow Kid at Lucca and the French honorary award Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1986 he worked with Victor Mora on reviving “El Capitán Trueno” but the strip was caught up in the collapse of its publisher. Blasco turned to Italy and Bonelli’s long-running western saga “Tex” and science-fantasy “Zona X”. He also teamed up again with Victor Mora to recount the historical adventures of “Tallaferro”.

Born in Milan, Ferdinando Tacconi (27th December 1922 – 12th May 2006) has had two great interests in life, both of which he has been able to indulge throughout his career: drawing and aeroplanes. His first comic strip, published in 1947, was not typical of the work he was to pursue later, being a story of Morgan il Pirata. In the mid 1950s, Tacconi began working for British comics. Besides his work for Express Weekly, he drew the war strips, “War Eagle” and “Commando One” for Comet and “Battler Britton” for Sun, as well as scores of War libraries.

His work was wide-ranging and included “Jet Morgan” in Express Weekly, “Riders of the Range” in Eagle, and a great amount of full colour work, both strips and covers, for Look and Learn.

Although Tacconi became known as a really first-rate war strip artist, it was for his superb rendition of the famous Charles Chilton radio serial, “Journey Into Space” in Express Weekly (in which all the main characters were based on actual likeness of the radio actors) which first brought him to prominence here.

His most famous European strip is “Gli Aristocratici” (“The Gentlemen”) which features a group of bowler-hatted English crime fighters in London’s “Swinging Sixties”. In 1989, he wrote and drew, together with Gino D’Antonio, an eight volume series of books on the Second World War. Tacconi continued to produce high quality artwork for the adult comics market in Italy.

• View all the Book Palace Fleetway Comics Archives here

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: Billy Bunter
Author: Frank Richards
Artists: Reg Bunn, Charles Henry Chapman
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due July 2024
Number of pages: 224
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548551

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: Dick Turpin
Author: Norman Wright (introduction)
Artists: Cecil Doughty, Hugh McNeill, Derek Eyles, HM Brock, Edgar Spenceley, Eric Parker, Eric Bradbury, Jesus Blasco, Geoff Campion
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due July 2024
Number of pages: 264
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548575

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: Robin Hood
Author: Norman Wright (introduction)
Artists: Patrick Nicolle, Reg Bunn, Reginald Heade, Jesus Blasco, Fred Holmes, John Millar Watt
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due July 2024
Number of pages: 264
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548582

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: Sea Wolves
Authors: Various
Artists: Reg Bunn, Alberto Salinas, Cecil Doughty, Patrick Nicolle, Mike Western
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due July 2024
Number of pages: 120
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548568

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: Buffalo Bill
Artist: Jesus Blasco
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due Winter 2024
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)

• Pre-order Fleetway Comics Archives: War Eagle
Artist: Ferdinando Tacconi
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due Winter 2024
Format: Hard Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)

The Desk Artes blog by Emmanue Landres has a five-part biography of Jesus Blasco’s career, in Spanish

• Jesús Blasco (I). Trabajos para España: 1935-1953

• Jesús Blasco en U.K. (II) 1954-1977 (compiled with help from David Roach)

• Jesús Blasco en francés (III)

• Jesús Blasco y el resto del mundo (IV)

• Jesús Blasco vuelve a casa (V)

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.

Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, downthetubes News

Tags: Adventure Comics, Billy Bunter, Book Palace Books, Buffalo Bill, CH Chapman, Dick Turpin, downthetubes News, Ferdinando Tacconi, Jesús Blasco, Mike Western, Reg Bunn, Robin Hood, War Comics, War Eagle