Following up on the release of the incredible, limited edition hardcover collection of the newspaper strip story, “Lance Hallam”, publisher Slingsby Bros, Ink! has just released the first ever Carol Day tale, “Charles Logan”, as a digital edition, for under £10.
Carol Day, the creation of the “artist’s artist”, David Wright, was published in the Daily Mail between 10th September 1956 and 25th May 1967. The beautifully-realised strip featured the every-day adventures of a young blonde model, Carol Day, who had a wealthy uncle in the Caribbean, Marcus, who serves as her guardian and help.
Slingsby Bros, Ink! plan to release collections of the much sought after “Carol Day” strips, utilising scans of original art provided by fans. The “Lance Hallam” collection is the very pinnacle of the kind of book the publisher would like to release, to do full justice to the strip and its creator.
Unfortunately, notes co-editor Roger Clark, “Not all ‘Carol Day’ stories are suited to such a high-end presentation as in ‘Lance Hallam’, mainly because we lack the source material to print a number of stories from original art.
“For those stories, we plan to use a variety of source material – original art, tearsheets, microfilm, photocopies – to put together complete or nearly complete stories.
“Since the quality and resolution of our source material varies significantly, we have processed the images to present as uniform a look and feel as possible.
“We hope the end result is an affordable, readable, enjoyable presentation of a classic comic strip that has been little seen for the last 50+ years and that also helps bring to life the brilliance of David Wright’s art and characters.”
Now, the first volume in the re-issue of the publisher’s ebook series is available for purchase, presenting “Charles Logan”, the first story from the Carol Day comic strip by David Wright.
The story began on 10th September 1956 and concluded on 8th January 1957, running for 104 episodes.
“Carol Day is a classic comic strip by one of the greatest artists ever to work in the medium, but it has not been widely available since its initial newspaper publication,” say the team. “This presentation is scanned from original art and tearsheets. Because of the variety in our source material and condition of some strips, the quality of the images is somewhat variable.”
Despite the varied technical quality of the strips within this eBook, dependent on their source, it’s quickly evident just how beautifully drawn the “Carol Day” strip is, and why it continues to impress to this day, in terms of art and storytelling. It’s great to see this material out there, for all to enjoy, at a price that’s affordable for most.
(That isn’t to in any way meant to detract from my appreciation of the stunning physical “Lance Hallam” collection, a joy to behold and read, but with a price of £299 for one of just 500 copies, I think we can agree it’s not exactly the most inexpensive of purchases!).
Slingsby Bros, Ink!’s welcome help to continue their print project, securing scans of more original art. To find out how you can help, go to their Project Dashboard to see what they are working on, and how to contact them.
• Buy “Carol Day: Charles Logan” as an eBook here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Amazon.com
• North American fans can order a copy of Carol Day – Lance Hallam now, direct from the Carol Day website
• British fans should order copies through Book Palace Books here
• Check out the Carol Day web site at carol-day.com
• “The Hauntingly Beautiful Carol Day”, by Christopher Killackey (PDF)
For the Winter 2015 issue of the CFA APA, Chris Killackey wrote an excellent, informative article on the rediscovery of the Carol Day art and how it made its way to the US. The CFA APA has a limited circulation, so most Carol Day fans probably haven’t seen it
Carol Day © Estate of David Wright. All rights reserved.
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 - Newspaper Strips, Comic Art, Comics, Digital Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
This is good news, but I would love some affordable print versions too.
As noted in the article, some of the strips are, currently, from low grade sources, making only digital editions feasible. But the team behind this project have done an amazing job gathering art – check out their website for progress. Fingers crossed, at some point, your wish may be granted.
Also available from the US amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBXXPPDB?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi