"Great News Chums!" was the dreaded phrase that met British comic fans in the 1970's when they opened up their favourite weekly only to find that from next week, it would be merging with a crap publication you never bought. I can't guarantee that we won't merge this blog with one on, say, Taiwanese politics. But for now, enjoy a trip into pre-1985 graphic goodness.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Tornado Time!

Tornado was a 1979 IPC weekly, aimed at the 2000AD readership. It failed because its mix of strips was too broad (and mostly not good enough) - after 22 issues it merged with 2000AD ('great news chums!') and any vaguely popular, vaguely sci-fi-ish stories (including Blackhawk, which clumsily transmuted from a story of Roman slavery to an intergalactic adventure) were transferred over.
Superhero editor Big E was portrayed in photographs by an awkward looking Dave Gibbons.


Sunday 12 July 2009

Electric Blue

I know, I know, it's been awhile... work, weddings (not mine) and other things have conspired to keep me away from the all-important job of collating rubbish from the past. Expect such shortages from time to time.
But as a reward, here are the first five volumes of groundbreaking erotic video series
Electric Blue, from 1979 - 1981 (approx).
Electric Blue used a magazine format, and in these early editions, aspired to the sort of pseudo-sophistication found in most girlie mags of the 70's (most notably Mayfair and Penthouse). After the 10th edition, it was all downhill; censorship dealt a severe blow after volume 20, and the series finally died, long forgotten, in the 1990s.