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Hibernia delivers up Lost Treasures, a superb collection of little-known British comic gems

By John Freeman on April 6, 2024

Hibernia Comics latest collection, Lost Treasures, is out now, collecting two complete stories from the children’s magazine, Treasure, by masters of comic art, John M Burns and Jesús Blasco.

The first story, “Children of the Stars”, is a tale telling the adventures of the Zexton family, as they set out for a new life on the planet Alpha Nine.

The story is wonderfully drawn in its entirety by the late John M Burns, described by Colin Brown of the John M Burns Facebook group as “one of the best examples of his black and white work, being an artistic bridge between his first SF strip ‘Space Family Robinson’ in 1966 and one of his most fondly remembered, ‘Countdown’ in 1971.”

The second strip is “The Long Way Home”, drawn in its entirety by Spanish comic master Jesús Blasco, and it is one of his finest works. “The Long Way Home” charts two children’s long odyssey to find their parents across the crumbling Roman empire in fourth century Britain.

“Blasco’s art on this story is simply amazing, some of the finest black and white artwork to be published in British comics,” publisher David McDonald enthuses.

In his preface for the collection, comic artist and historian David Roach says “Each page, each panel, is a masterclass in black and white composition, something that was always there is his work of course, but reached its peak here. But of course, I don’t have to wax lyrical about how wonderful the strip is because, at last, you can read the whole thing here, collected at last. You’re in for a treat.”

“This is a little different to our usual collections,” David McDonald notes, “but fitting well within our goal of shining a light on lesser known or forgotten masterpieces in British comics. It has been an ambition of mine to reprint these two stories since stumbling across them in old copies of Treasure.”

Lost Treasures is 92 pages, perfect bound, black and white, with an introduction by publisher David McDonald and also includes a preface to “The Long Way Home” by David Roach, detailing Blasco’s work in British comics in the 1960s and 1970s.

• Lost Treasures is limited to 200 copies, only available to buy direct from Hibernia here, so don’t delay – order today!

This book is sent from Ireland and all postal charges are charged extra and at cost, and at checkout. Unfortunately these costs are still marching upwards, especially for those outside Europe. Please allow three weeks delivery to the UK and Europe, four weeks for US Asia and Africa and six weeks for Australia, New Zealand and South America. Delivery is usually much quicker but delays do happen. Irish orders can be expected with a week.

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.