Sign O' The Times (UPDATED)

The de-menacing of Dennis continues. Read about it on Down The Tubes.
















However, it seems reports of Dennis going soft have been somewhat exaggerated, as reported by Lew Stringer.
It's obvious to me though that Dennis has been cleaned up over the last 20 years. Personally, I miss the nastiness of some of the older Beano strips and other British kids' comics. But I wonder: would anyone let their children read that stuff these days?
See below for a vintage Davey Law Dennis strip.

Stranger Comics

I've always loved this cartoon by R.Sikoryak, and always wanted to scan and show it here. I did not however want to ruin my copy of Snake Eyes (the comics anthology it originally appeared in, in black & white). Anyway, The Comics Bureau have kindly posted it on their blog, allowing for a quick swipe, and no spine-mangling of a classic 90's anthology (yeah, I know I'm uptight...).

Steve Ditko - Tales of the Mysterious Traveler

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #10 ~ Nov/1958.
Read the whole comic on goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com

Carl Barks. From the Calgary Eye Opener.

Torchy the Battery Boy (Episode 1)

Something a bit odd about this one.

Bod

The 70's kids cartoon.

More Somersaults

By me and Dan Locke. See them on the Forbidden Planet blog every week.

APF2 Reports and Coverage

A podcast by creative choices featuring an interview recorded at the Publish You Book Launch (you'll need something like iTunes to open this... then you download the podcast. It's podcast no.3, and it's free).

The down the tubes report written by gareth brookes.

A nice write up of the "Are You Zine Friendly?" event on dazed digital.com (Dazed & Confused).

(via Steve Tillotson on Bugpowder).

The history of Irish comics

Patrick Brown has posted the first part of a series which will detail the history of Irish comics.

This chapter includes : "18th and 19th century Irish cartoonists, from Henry Brocas drawing British atrocities in the wake of the 1798 Rebellion, to William O’Keefe and John Doyle in London, to the anti-O’Connell cartoons of ‘the Presbyterian laureate’ William McComb in Belfast in 1841, to John Fergus O’Hea, J. D. Reigh and Thomas Fitzpatrick (grandfather of fantasy artist Jim Fitzpatrick) in nationalist papers in the 1880s, to Jack Yeats’ early career in British comics."

(Via Forbidden Planet and Drawn).

Kirby Story Of The Month

From Alarming Tales #1, September 1957.
(From Cartoon Snap).

The Dark Side of Carl Barks

“We’re like a weed – you see it and trample it to the ground and don’t think anything about it. We’re like that weed – we have our little life and when we’re gone, we’re gone.” – Carl Barks.

Read about it on Comics Comics.

I'm Back!

And my advice to everyone is : go on holiday... and remember what it feels like to relax. However, I was sorry to have missed all the fun at the Alternative Press Festival, especially seeing these pictures, put online by Saban Kazim (see the full set here):