We’re big fans of “The Spider“, a character created by Ted Cowan and Reg Bunn for Lion, his legend largely shaped by the work of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. So imagine our delight at seeing colourist Allan Harvey‘s restoration of a Lion cover by Geoff Campion, cover dated 12th October 1968.
Given the quality of the printing of British weekly comics back then, a back issue as published sourced online, you can certainly see how much work Allan put into his version to give it a real spark!
Inside, “The Fantastic Spider“, now super villain turned crime fighter, is pitted against his former assistant, Ordini, transformed by a “spider-weapon” to become amazingly creative – and still a criminal, newly escaped from prison. The forces of law and order are unimpressed!
The weekly issue also features “Andy’s Army”, “Carson’s Cubs”, “Gadgetman and Gimmick Kid” (a strip also written by Siegel, although as there are no credits, we don’t know if he wrote this episode), “Robot Archie”, “Rory McDuff – Danger Wanted”, “Spot the Clue with Zip Nolan”, “Texas Jack”, and “The 10,000 Disasters of Dort” (available in collection, released by Rebellion in 2023)… rounded off with back page fun from “Mowser”! The shorter page count per episode than, for example 2000AD meant Lion certainly packed a lot in every week!
London-based Allan Harvey is a Welsh artist, graphic designer and writer with a passion for comics. He has created comics for a variety of publishers over the years, including Factor Fiction Press, POS and the Comics Creators Guild. He has also written articles for Back Issue magazine, published by Twomorrows, looking at aspects of comics history.
Allan has been heavily involved in the restoration of numerous classic comics, utilizing his extensive digital photographic and graphics expertise. The A Distant Soil restoration, which saw him digitally remastering several hundred pages of Colleen Doran artwork to pristine glory for a new graphic novel edition for Image Comics, led to further such projects.
He also lettered and did much of the production work, including the classic Marvel cover restorations, for the New York Times best-selling Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir, Stan Lee’s graphic novel autobiography, published in 2015.
Allan Harvey largely works with US and European publishers, but here are some restored before/after Hugo Pratt pages from 1960s War Picture Libraries that he worked on for Rebellion, featuring art by Hugo Pratt. Allan did all of the Iron Fist and Crimson Sea hardcover collections
Other work includes restoring many Sam Glanzman comics for It’s Alive Press; the Eisner Award-nominated Atlas at War! – reprinting 1950s Marvel war comics – for Dead Reckoning; the normalman Omnibus for Jim Valentino, published last year; Hugo Pratt Picture Library titles for Rebellion; and the ongoing Atlas Comics Library for Fantagraphics, that brings classic 1950s Marvel comics back into print for the first time in decades. The Complete Deadbone Erotica Omnibus, restoring strips by Vaughn Bode, was published by Image Comics earlier this year.
• Check out Allan Harvey’s Portfolio at allanharveyrestoration.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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: Art and Illustration, British Comics, Comic Creator Spotlight, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Other Worlds
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