Alongside some terrific prints by Barry Windsor-Smith, and a large selection of US comics, and British Wizard comics, to boot, two more original Leo Baxendale strip pages go under the hammer at Ewbank’s later this month.
Both pages appear to be from his “Super Comic” landscape format project, this time sample pages for his “Fort Fumble” strip. The auction takes place on 29th May, starting 12 noon, and the full catalogue is here.
Ewbank’s has previously sold seven pages in the same format, over different auctions. We’ve documented what we know about Super Comic here.
Writing in his autobiography, A Very Funny Business, Leo Baxendale, who died in 2017, revealed how he conceived the idea of a monthly comic – the Super Comic.
“Monthly comics are common enough in America, but not in Britain,” he explained. “My intention was that four week’s work poured into one issue would produce a truly super-comic. I circulated publishers with the idea, and Odhams took it as an affront.”
Comics archivist Steve Holland noted in his 2017 tribute to Baxendale that, as the artist’s two-year contract was coming to an end at Odhams in 1965, he began circulating the idea of a monthly ‘super-comic’ to publishers and his relationship with Odhams soured.
So far, nine pages are known to have come to auction, three sold for a tidy sum in August and the other four in December 2023, two in May 2024, all by Ewbank’s, some carrying a copyright date of 1967.
Also in the auction, among many lots of largely US comics…
• Ewbank’s Comics Auction 29th May 2024, 12 noon | View the full catalogue here
• Comics That Never Were: Leo Baxendale’s Super Comic
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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.
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