Walt Disney comic books were immensely popular with Australian readers for several decades, dating back to the first titles issued by John Sands Ltd. (Sydney), such as the Mickey Mouse Book, during the mid-1930s. However, most Australians grew up reading the Walt Disney comics published by W.G. Publications Pty Ltd during 1946-1978. While some of the early issues were printed in black & white, later Australian editions were printed (offshore) in full-colour, and were distributed throughout Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

Of particular interest to Australian comic collectors are those issues featuring reprints of Donald Duck stories written and drawn by the late Carl Barks (1901 – 2000), who, in the eyes of many fans and critics, kept the Disney comics franchise alive for years, due to his adventurous storylines, dynamic yet graceful artwork, and inventive characterisations. Barks also added new members of the ‘Duck’ family, including his uncle, Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose and the Beagle Boys, to name but a few.

However, a recent discussion amongst some fellow comics’ aficionados revealed that, in at least one instance, Australian readers were not enjoying original Carl Barks artwork – but a poorly redrawn local version!

The Carl Barks story, ‘Adventure Down Under’, shows Donald Duck being hypnotised into believing he’s a kangaroo, and mistakenly boarding an aeroplane bound for his ‘home’ in Australia, only to be eventually rescued by his intrepid nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie.

‘Adventure Down Under’ was originally published in Dell’s Four Color No.159, dated August 1947. The cover of this issue is ‘Walt Disney’s Donald Duck in Ghost of the Grotto’. The story was first published in Australia by W.G. Publications Pty Ltd as Walt Disney’s Donald Duck in Adventure Down Under (Issue number ‘OS7’) [see image above], sometime in late 1948 – early 1949.

However, not only were two pages from the original Barks story cut from the Australian reprint, but it appears that the story itself was redrawn by an unidentified Australian artist [see panel at left].

Australian comic artist, and self-confessed Carl Barks devotee, Dillon Naylor, compared his copy of the 1940s Australian reprint, with a later, full-colour American reprint of ‘original’ American version [see panel below], and found some telling differences.

“I've fished out my [American reprint] copy and included an enlargement of two panels which show the differences - but you really need to see the originals up close to see it all properly. It's been light-boxed exactly, but Bark's line work is very precise and has a beautiful thick and thin quality to it. Check the shading on the kangaroo's tail where the lines all bleed together. The sloppiness is especially noticeable with the faces.”

“The lettering has all been redone as well. My theory is that they couldn't get hold of black & white film for this particular issue. Back then it was nearly impossible to make a clear, black & white film from a printed colour comic, so an answer might have been to hire some ‘stand-in’ to light-box [trace] it off the printed pages.”

While such practices weren’t uncommon amongst Australian comics publishers during the 1940s and 50s, most ‘retouching’ was restricted to partially redrawing covers, expanding panel sizes to accommodate the larger Australian printed format, or to excise references to American slang, and replace them with Australian expressions.

But this example raises the question about whether any further Carl Barks stories were comprehensively redrawn for the Australian editions – and, perhaps, throws into question some of the prices paid by Australian collectors who (quite rightly) thought they were purchasing unaltered, Australian reprints of Carl Barks-drawn Donald Duck stories. (However, some enterprising comic dealers might be tempted to promote these as ‘unique Australian variant issues’ to Carl Barks enthusiasts!)

The other intriguing aspect about this Australian reprint is the cover. The cover to Four Color No.159 depicts the lead story, ‘Ghost in the Grotto’. Decades later, the Gladstone edition of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck Adventures (No.11, February 1989) makes ‘Adventure Down Under’ the cover story [see image at left] – but the illustration is a modern-day version by Daan Jippes, and not Carl Barks.

To my knowledge (and I make no claim to being a Disney Comics expert!), the cover for the 1948-49 Australian reprint of 'Adventure Down Under' had not previously appeared in any American edition of the same story. So, was this an original Australian cover illustration?

Again, Dillon Naylor seems to think so: “The cover to the [Australian edition] was drawn by the interior artist, but not based on any inside panel I can see. I did also notice that the kangaroo is drawn more realistically, as though the artist had used a photo for reference. The Barks’ kangaroos [in the comic strip] are drawn with a round, black, Mickey Mouse-styled nose, while the kangaroo on the cover has more realistically drawn nose. So, I’m pretty certain this is a unique creation for this Australian edition.”

“I know of one other Carl Barks ‘Duck’ story that is redrawn in the same fashion, by what appears to be the same artist,” he adds. “Christmas Parade 6, published locally in 1958, features the Barks story, 'The Golden Christmas Tree', – so there may have been more of these ‘forged’ stories, but these are the only ones have in my collection.”

Perhaps more knowledgeable Disney Comics' collectors out there might care to enlighten us?

(Thanks to Dillon Naylor and David Studham for sharing their insights and information on this topic. )

In case you haven't already heard, the seventh issue of Philip Bentley's excellent little comics fanzine, Word Balloons, has just been published. This latest issue features an interview with Nicki Greenberg (discussing her graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby, amongst other things), the latest installment of 'My Life in Comics' (devoted to Phil's own recollections of his involvement with Australian comics during the 1980s), a selection of recent Australian comics' reviews and a local comic fandom directory.

A measly five bucks for this crisply produced black & white zine will tell you all you need to know about the current 'state of play' for Australian comics and graphic novels. Better comic shops should no doubt stock copies, but if you can't find it at a store nearest you, then email Philip Bentley for details on buying your copy, or write to him at: Second Shore, PO Box 286, Sandringham, Victoria 3191, Australia.

And, despite constant protestations that he would never do so, Philip has now launched his own blog, Fragments from a Second Shore, which will feature excerpts from previous issues of Word Balloons.

(Note: The image seen above is for the cover of Word Balloons #6 - I couldn't find a scan of the latest issue anywhere on the internet, wouldja' believe? And I had to pinch this one of Spiros Xenos' blog, Notes from the Junkyard!)

Note: The following review was originally published in the December 2005 edition of Collectormania magazine. I've reprinted it here, in a slightly amended and expanded form, to introduce readers to The Crumpleton Experiments, an Australian comic book published by Daniel Reed, and to coincide with the recent release of the series' eighth issue. My comments concerning this title, written at the time of its debut, hold true today as they did then, and equally apply to the latest installment of this charming series. If your local comic shop doesn't stock The Crumpleton Experiments, then you can email Daniel Reed directly to purchase your copy.

The world of Victorian-era Britain, characterised by its technological advancement, radical politics and scientific discovery, continues to exert its hold over our popular imagination even now, at the dawn of the 21st century.

This is particularly evident in science-fiction literature, which has seen the birth of the so-called 'steampunk' genre, with such diverse authors as K.W. Jeter, Steven Baxter and Bruce Sterling reinterpreting the technological dimension of the Victorian age through contemporary eyes.

Comic books and graphic novels, for their part, have also revisited this historic period, as writers and artists look back to the past, recasting the heroic archetypes of imperial England with a distinctly modern twist. Two of the most notable examples have been created by the English writer, Alan Moore – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (illustrated by Kevin O’Neill) and From Hell, an epic graphic novel about Jack the Ripper (illustrated by Eddie Campbell), both of which have been adapted into films.

While you may never see its name splashed across the marquee of your local cinema, a new Australian comic explores similar historical terrain and does so in a thoroughly entertaining manner.

Written and illustrated by Melbourne cartoonist Daniel Reed, The Crumpleton Experiments is set in Victorian England and focuses on the sinister-sounding Psychological Institute of Research.

Timid and prim Gwendolyne (Wendy) Elizabeth Brown applies for a job as a maid at the Institute, which is run by the eccentric and enigmatic Professor Crumpleton.

It’s bad enough she has to work alongside the Professor’s violent and foul-tempered assistant, Mangus. But when she stumbles into the Professor’s secret basement workshop, Wendy’s life is changed irrevocably.

When professor Crumpleton finds his new employee lying unconscious on his laboratory floor, he discards any last remnants of medical ethics and decides to test-drive his Dream-O-Matic device on the unsuspecting Wendy.

This curiously-named device allows one or more people to enter a subject’s dreaming mind, in order to identify and treat any psychological disorders they may be suffering from.

Professor Crumpleton’s Dream-O-Matic works better than even he anticipated. It isn’t long before the Professor identifies a horrible, slug-like creature in Wendy’s mind as the physical manifestation of the low self-esteem that has seen her endure life as a downtrodden wallflower.

With the aid of a cricket bat-wielding Mangus, Professor Crumpleton attempts to beat Wendy’s low self-esteem into submission. However, the wretched creature escapes the laboratory, only to be run over by an omnibus.

Liberated from her oppressive sense of self-doubt, Wendy Brown indulges in an ‘extreme makeover’ of her own, discarding her frumpy maid’s clothes in favour of a revealing costume that turns her into a 19th century Lara Croft!

After leading Crumpleton and Mangus on a merry chase through London, Wendy decides to accept the professor’s suggestion that she retains some self-doubt (by eating a portion of the creature not crushed by the omnibus!), as well as joining the Institute as Crumpleton’s assistant.

So began The Crumpleton Experiments! Issues 2-3 of the series saw this band of misfit adventurers try to help Father O’Reilly save a parishioner from himself in ‘Fiddling Around with Evil’. Issue 4-5 mark the beginning of a new storyline, ‘Sapienta Flos’, which entails a dangerous journey into the seemingly placid mind of Bradley Brinkman, filing clerk for the Office of Statistics.

In the space of just five issues, The Crumpleton Experiments has proven itself to be one of the most consistently intriguing and entertaining Australian comics being published today.

Daniel Reed’s crowded and inventive plots are perfectly complemented by his scratchy, intricate artwork. The recurring dream sequences, bizarre monsters and oddball eccentrics are rendered in a suitably grotesque style.

This comic cannot be neatly slotted into any mainstream genre. Combining elements of satire, science fiction and horror, The Crumpleton Experiments is one of the best titles appearing in the otherwise currently moribund Australian comics’ scene[*]. For these reasons alone, The Crumpleton Experiment was a worthy recipient of the Ledger Award for Best Independent Press Title for 2004.

[*] That's certainly how I felt about the frequency and quality of a good many Australian comics being released at the time this review was originally published, but anyone with more than a passing interest in Australian comics realises that this situation has changed dramatically, and for the better, during the last 18 months or so.

Amidst the constant noise of talkback chatter, opinionated ‘shock jocks’ and endlessly regurgitated music play lists, it must be difficult for anyone listening to commercial radio in Australia today to imagine a time when radio was a dramatic medium. Yet dramatic serials and plays were once broadcast around the clock on Australia’s commercial radio stations, as well as on the government-controlled Australian Broadcasting Commission. Reaching the broadest possible audiences, from the big cities to outback towns, Australian radio drama was the true ‘mass medium’ of its day, before gradually losing its army of listeners to television by the early 1960s.

Both Australia’s radio drama and comic book industries were similarly, and adversely, affected by the advent of television. Yet at their peak of popularity during the late 1940s and early 1950s, these two popular art forms sometimes enjoyed a symbiotic relationship, with the ‘stars’ of one medium occasionally finding new life in the other.

The Twilight Ranger was one such radio star who made his way to the pages of an Australian comic book. Michael Noonan (1921 – 2000) was already a well-regarded and popular radio dramatist when he was invited by Artransa Productions[i] to create a new dramatic serial to be broadcast through their parent company, the Macquarie Network. What they wanted, in particular, was a western.

Noonan, who had already worked with his uncle, William (Bill) Moloney, on the radio serial Justice Rides the Range (broadcast on 2UE in 1946), wasn’t too keen to write another ‘horse opera’. Perhaps somewhat impishly, Noonan suggested he could write a western with a hero who doesn’t use a gun. The Artransa executives initially rejected the concept out of hand, but eventually called Noonan back, asking him to write two sample quarter-hour episodes – to be paid for only if they accepted the finished scripts.

Given the apparent dramatic limitations of having a cowboy forsake the use of guns, no doubt Atransa Productions and, quite possibly, Noonan himself, were surprised to see The Twilight Ranger become a popular success. Starring Leonard Teale (1922 – 1994), who often wore high-heeled boots during recording sessions to “get into the part”,[ii] The Twilight Ranger debuted in 1948 and ran for 208 episodes.

Noonan’s decision to have his hero eschew firearms wasn’t just a dramatic contrivance, but was borne out of the author’s experiences as an army bomb disposal officer, serving in New Guinea during World War II.

Broadcast four times per week, The Twilight Ranger managed, as Noonan hoped he would, to air “his belief (and mine) that whenever guns are available, there is always the danger they will be used.”[iii]

Noonan was paid the then-top rate of £4.00 per episode, managing to negotiate a modest increase to £5.00 per episode, when he was commissioned to write the second lot of 108 episodes.

As was no doubt the custom back then, Noonan signed away all world broadcasting rights to The Twilight Ranger, and therefore never received any royalties from overseas sales. The sole exception to this rule was when Noonan received a “modest fee” for each episode that was translated into Afrikaans for the South African market, where The Twilight Ranger proved equally popular. (The serial was also apparently one of the most popular programmes aired on national radio in Canada at the time.)

“What I did not sign away,” Noonan later recalled, “were the publication rights, and some years later I wrote the scripts for a series of comic books, describing each frame and setting out any narrative or dialogue. I’d had some experience in this medium, thanks to cartoonist Dan Russell (1906 – 1999)… [who] paid me to do scripts for comic books about the outback cowboy with a travelling rodeo show, Tex Morton.”[iv]

Jack Atkins, the founder and publisher of Cleveland Press, acquired the comic book rights to The Twilight Ranger, keen to add comic books to his already successful line of crime, war and western ‘pulp fiction’ novelettes. Atkins commissioned Noonan to write the scripts, while hiring Keith Chatto (1924 – 1992) to illustrate the series. Chatto was no stranger to cowboy yarns, having created a popular western title, The Lone Wolf, for Atlas Publications in Melbourne during 1949-50. By 1955, however, he had already branched out into other areas of commercial art, including magazine illustration and record cover designs.

“In that same year,” Chatto later wrote, “I began working exclusively for Cleveland Publishing Company, at first illustrating and designing pocket book covers. At one period about this time, I was producing an average of six full colour covers each and every week for various publishers.”

“[Jack Atkins] commissioned me to illustrate a radio serial written by…Michael Noonan, called The Twilight Ranger. I had to adapt for the comic book Michael’s scripts and illustrate them.”

“I had become somewhat disillusioned about illustrating comics, particularly as the pocket books had become popular and my services as an illustrator were in demand at a lucrative fee. But the fee offered to illustrate [The Twilight Ranger] was too good to let pass.”

“I kept producing the covers whilst I worked on the comic. I must admit I was not altogether happy working on another man’s story, but the money was good and the publisher was prepared to put money into the publication to help make it a success.”[v]

The first issue of The Twilight Avenger appeared in October 1955 (The first two issues were unnumbered). In the comic book version, Jess Palmer was a seemingly timid milksop, forever getting under the feet of his uncle, Pa Palmer, owner of the Square Diamond Ranch, which borders the Carakaway Indian Reservation in southwestern Texas.

Unknown to his cantankerous uncle, Jess was made a blood brother of the Carakaway tribe, before he was sent away to England for ‘proper’ schooling. During a stormy midnight ceremony, the tribal chieftain, Long Twilight, gave Jess a thunder-hoof charm that would protect its wearer from harm. Accepting this token of brotherhood, Jess renounced the use of weapons, believing they only led to violence and bloodshed.

Jess Palmer disguised himself as The Twilight Ranger who, together with his young Indian companion, Red Moccasin, rode the Texan plains in defence of justice. Palmer’s double identity even extended to that of his horse; whenever he rode out of his cabin hideaway in the Carakaway forests as The Twilight Avenger, he did so astride his magnificent horse, Mahogany. When he returned from his mission, he would discard his black costume, and swap Mahogany for an old mare named Bluebell – a steed more befitting the frail bookworm he wants everyone to believe him to be.

Jess had to contend not only with the sneering contempt of Judy Keel, the fiery and voluptuous daughter of the ranch foreman, but also with the hostility of Sheriff Mullins, the sole lawman of the nearby township of Rawhide, who believes that The Twilight Ranger is an outlaw.

Despite Noonan’s occasionally redundant and wordy scripts, his stories lent themselves to Chatto’s delicate artwork. As he did on The Lone Wolf, Chatto dispensed with word balloons, preferring instead to relay all the dialogue and narrative text in caption boxes, which gave Chatto ample space to display his fine penmanship. Much of the action in The Twilight Avenger took place at night, creating an unusually dark, moody atmosphere, not often seen in most ‘cowboy’ comic books of the time.

The Twilight Ranger, however, was not the financial success that publisher Jack Atkins had hoped for. Despite boasting numerous reader competitions (with prizes including interstate flights on a T.A.A. Viscount airliner), and even being printed in full colour for its final issue, The Twilight Ranger ceased publication with its seventh issue. An eighth Twilight Ranger story was, apparently, later printed in Cleveland Press’ King Size Comic, which was published during 1956-59.

[i] Artransa (American Radio Transcription Service of Australia) Productions was established in 1938 by A.E. Bennett, Managing Director of Sydney radio station 2GB, to adapt American radio shows and scripts for the Australian market. Bennett hired Texan-born Grace Gibson (1905 -1988), of the Radio Transcription Company of America, to help establish Atransa Productions. Initially ‘on loan’ to 2GB for six months, she relocated permanently to Australia and eventually formed her own radio production & syndication company, Grace Gibson Productions, which still operates today.

[ii] Lane, Richard, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama 1923-1960 (Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1994); pg338

[iii] Noonan, Michael, In with the Tide: Memoirs of a Storyteller (St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1995); pg.107

[iv] Ibid, pg.107

[v] Chatto, Keith, ‘Keith Chatto: The Creator of Flame and Ash Tells His Story’, Flame Magazine, Vol.2 No.5 (1972) pg.20

Note: The following review was originally published in Collectormania magazine in January 2006. I'm reprinting it here, as the CD-ROM discussed is still available, and would be of interest to anyone keen to read original Australian comics from the 1950s. Furthermore, the CD-ROM's producer, Roger Stitson, is still working on launching an illustrated short story magazine, and is still seeking contributions from interested writers and artists. Read this earlier blog entry for further details.

As many collectors know, the increasing scarcity of vintage Australian comics from the postwar era has seen prices for popular titles climb dramatically in the last few years – often putting them beyond the financial reach of many readers.

Now, thanks to the tireless efforts of Melbourne writer and comic collector, Roger Stitson, fans can relive the adventures of three classic Aussie comic book heroes on CD-ROM.

“I’ve had the feeling for years that eventually most pre-decimal Australian comics are going to disappear forever, except for those held by dedicated collectors, or by large public libraries,” says Roger.

“Digitising these comics ensures that at least the images can’t deteriorate any further,” he explains, “ and putting them on CD-ROM is the next best thing [to reading the originals] for a mass audience. The discs can be bought for a fraction of the price of the original comics.”

Vintage Australian Comic Books on CD-ROM features complete reprints of four issues apiece from three classic titles – The Shadow (1st series/Nos. 1 & 20; 2nd series/Nos.5 & 17 - pictured at bottom); Sir Falcon (Nos. 2, 20, 44 & 53 - pictured at top) and The Phantom Ranger (Nos. 10, 36, 47 & 68 - pictured at left).

“I decided on featuring these three titles, because I have pretty good collections of these series, and the original publisher, Frew Publications [publisher of The Phantom], is still going strong in Sydney, and was therefore easy to locate,” says Roger. “Other Australian publishers have long since been defunct, so finding out where the copyright was held was something I didn’t feel like wasting time on.”

“I contacted Frew’s publisher, Jim Shepherd, via Bryan Shedden’s Phantom website, The Deep Woods , outlined what I was doing and got a message back from Bryan saying that Jim was very happy for me to go ahead.”

Scanning and restoring these old comic books for digital presentation required a lot of time, effort and patience, according to Roger. “The original comics had turned yellow-brown with age, so I used a scanner and a graphics software program called Micrografx Picture Publisher to fade, or remove, the discolouring.”

Each comic book contains 24 pages and it took Roger approximately 7-8 hours to scan and retouch a single page – which is why it took him nearly four years (working part-time) to complete the project!

The results, however, have been worth the wait. The internal pages images, along with the front and back covers, are clean and crisp and can be viewed in three different size formats (S,M,L).

The CD-ROM also features background material, explaining how the comics were digitally restored, as well as a brief history of Australia’s postwar era comic book industry.

Users will need a computer with a Windows 95 (and upwards) operating system, along with sufficient RAM (memory) and a CD/DVD drive to install and open the CD-ROM’s contents.

Once installed, the CD-ROM takes just seconds to open up in a Web browser window. However, you don’t need to be connected to the Internet in order to view the CD-ROM’s contents. The navigation menu is clearly laid out and easy to use. (Note: I've since used this CD-ROM after switching to the Mozilla Firefox browser and it opens up just as easily.)

Apart from comic collectors and popular culture enthusiasts, Roger believes the CD-ROM will be of interest to schools as well.

“As a former English teacher myself, the CD-ROM will appeal to teachers, especially those who teach ‘reluctant readers’, or who are interested in visual literacy,” he says. “I’ve written a study guide with suggestions for classroom activities, plus a set of simple crosswords and colouring-in activities for juniors, which can downloaded for free from my website.”

Vintage Australian Comic Books on CD-ROM is available for A$35.00 (incl. postage) to individual customers, and for A$50.00 (incl. postage) for unlimited, multi-user customers (such as schools, libraries, etc.) For further information, visit the website, or write to: Stitson Education, PO Box 50, Preston Victoria, Australia 3073.

People living outside Australia wishing to purchase the CD-ROM may do so using PayPal via the website. Click here for further details. (Note: All images reproduced on this blog entry were taken from the CD-ROM)

Reg Pitt's name will be well-known to collectors of Australian comics, largely through his collaborations with his late brother, Stanley Pitt, on such comic books as Silver Starr, Yarmak - Jungle King Comic and Gully Foyle, their ill-fated newspaper comic strip adaptation of Alfred Bester's novel, The Stars My Destination.

While Reg principally worked with Stanley as a writer and layout artist, not many comic fans would know that Reg was a talented artist and graphic designer in his own right, having spent most of his working life in the advertising industry.

If you want to appreciate just how talented an artist Reg is, then here's your chance. From 3 May 2008, the St. George Regional Museum in Hurstville, New South Wales, will be hosting 'Abstractions', an exhibition of abstract, paper collage works by Reg Pitt.

As you can see from the exhibition invitation reproduced here, the colour and composition of these "complex paper collage artworks" is quite stunning. The subjects range from stylised landscapes to swirling geometric patterns which, frankly, wouldn't have looked out of place on a 1950s-era Thelonious Monk record sleeve.

The official opening for the exhibition takes place at 12.00pm, Saturday 3 May 2008, which will be attended by Reg Pitt himself, and the exhibition runs till 28 May 2008. So, if you find yourself in Hurstville, New South Wales during the month of May, then make a point of visiting the St. George Regional Museum and check out this unique exhibition.

UPDATE: The Abstractions exhibition will be opened at 1:00pm (AEST) on Saturday 3 May 2008. Same venue, same date - but the official opening will take place 1 hour later than originally scheduled.

These last few months have seen some quite remarkable selections of vintage Australian comic books being put up for auction on eBay Australia, ranging from classic Australian-drawn titles of the 1940s, to some good condition, Australian reprint editions of American 'Silver Age' comics from the postwar era.

Sadly, many of them sold for prices well beyond the reach of many collectors (myself included), but it's reassuring to see that more than a few individuals and comic book dealers are still unearthing some extremely rare Australian comics, samples of which no doubt many collectors and researchers thought were simply no longer in existence.

But then we see the occasional eBay auction, whose results, frankly, defy all logic. A case in point being the first issue of Flying Aces (pictured), which fetched an astonishing $107.50!

And my question is - why? As far as I can tell, this issue was an Australian reprint of the American comic of the same name, which was published in the USA by Key Comics, lasting for five issues between July 1955 - March 1956.

The "first Australian issue" (as it was accurately described by the vendor on eBay Australia) does differ from the first American edition (pictured at left), insofar as the bottom half of the cover artwork has been reversed and partially redrawn, while some cover text has been added to the Australian edition. In this sense, I guess, it's a true "cover variant", and probably has curiousity appeal, perhaps amongst those collectors who like these odd Australian editions of American comic books.

Without seeing the contents myself, I can only presume that the interior strips for Flying Aces No.1 were reprints from the original American title. So, while the vendor of this title was quite accurate in saying this was the "first Australian issue" of this title, I wonder if some people thought they were bidding on an Australian-drawn comic book - as opposed to an Australian reprint of an American title?

This is by no means a reflection on the seller of this comic, whom I have purchased comics from via eBay, and who has always provided me with exemplary service. And, as I say again, they were absolutely correct in describing in stating "This is first Australian issue!", because it was. And, who knows, perhaps the successful bidder knew exactly what they were buying, and were prepared to pay any price to acquire Flying Aces No.1?

I guess this is just a note of caution, particularly to collectors new to the world of Australian comics, to do your homework, and be sure that you can make the distinction between an Australian-drawn comic book, and an Australian reprint of an American comic book.
(Cover images courtesy of eBay Australia and the Grand Comics Database Project.)

For those of you who enjoyed my reprint series of The Panther comic book back in 2001-2002, I thought you might like an update on one of my former artistic "partners-in-crime" and their recent activities.

Shane Foley, as you may recall, was the second cover artist (after Greg Gates) whom I used on The Panther reprint series. Well, Shane's longtime - and online - collaborator was Randy Sargent - but, as he points out, he prefers it if his friends call him "Sarge"!

Hailing all the way from the USA, Sarge has been Shane's colourist of choice, not only working on some splendid Panther cover designs (sadly, only one of which saw print on issue No.5), but also helping to bring Shane's fantasy comic strip, The Saga of Shakah-Rune (pictured) to life for Krash magazine.

Well, Sarge has taken the plunge and got himself a website, where he can show off his splendid ink & colouring work on a wide variety of comics projects. Like Shane Foley, Sarge is a big fan of 1960s-era Marvel Comics heroism, and his fondness for Jack Kirby's work especially, shines through on this elegant little website.

So, do yourself a favour and check out Sarge's Coloring Book - and tell him that Big Kev sent ya'!

Even if you're not a fan of country & western music, you cannot deny that Smoky Dawson, who died today (Thursday, 14 February 2008) at 94 years of age, made an indelible contribution, not only to Australia's country & western music industry, but to Australian popular entertainment.

Born Herbert Henry Dawson in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1913, 'Smoky' began his musical career in the mid-1930s, but rose to national prominence after World War II, both as a recording artist, and as the star of his own radio serial, The Adventures of Smoky Dawson, which was broadcast between 1952-62.

The crooning cowboy also became the star of his own newspaper comic strip, which was written an drawn by Albert De Vine for Sydney's Sun newspaper in the late 1950s. A spin-0ff comic book, The Adventures of Smoky Dawson, soon followed, which was published by Colour Comics Pty Ltd, and featured stories drawn by De Vine and the expatriate Italian artist, Andrea Bresciani.

You can download, as well as read, an interview with Smoky Dawson, recorded for Film Australia's Australian Biography series in 1994.