When the new reprints of Classics Illustrated were first announced, there was no small amount of controversy (well, OK, a few annoyed posters on Comics UK) around the artwork being re-coloured in a "new, modern style". This meant horrible bright primary colours that destroyed some of the finer line-work, and made a lot of the art look needlessley cartoonish. For example, this scene from Jane Eyre, it's supposed to be her discovery of burned-out ruins on a bleak moorside, but looks like something from a western!

every issue of Classics Illustrated carries a small preview of the next issue on the back cover. The preview of next month's issue, Macbeth, looks as if they are either using the original colouring, or else thier "modern recolouring" is going to be done a lot more skilfully than it has been:

After my last post, suggesting that perhaps Classics Illustrated were going to start using a more sensible colour scheme in Macbeth, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Well, I did yesterday, and it appears that I was premature with my praise. The preview picture on the back of the issue had evidently been taken from an old issue, as they hadn't finished "modernising" (ruining) the artwork yet. Here is what the previewed page actually looks like:

As you can see the bright primary colours have returned with a vengeance! Just look at this page from elsewhere in the issue:

Pink and yellow fields? Purple mountains? Green and yellow castle walls? Based on the preview image on the back of this one, the next issue, The Invisible Man, is going to be back to abnormal too.

New items! I've actually bought a great deal of new stuff since my last post, which will hopefully be described in future posts. But here are some of the more recent and interesting items:

Sexton Blake: A Celebration

This is a book from 1994, published by Museum Press, which explains the history of Sexton Blake in exhaustive detail (though not as exhaustive as the recent radio documentary... but that also made a few 'mistakes' / deliberatley twisted details to fit in with the awful "comedy" series / had actors read out period adverts in ridiculous voices). I paid £25 for it, and I haven't seen it anywhere before, which suggests it's pretty rare. Perhaps "self published", with only a small print run? The end of the book mentions a planned TV series, which ended up never being made.

A TV series could be well-done today if producers put thier minds to it (2026note: HAH! I shudder to imagine...) – taking Doctor Who for inspiration (2026note: HAH!), they could jump around Blake's extraordinary lifespan, setting one episode in the 1890’s and the next in the 1950's, for instance (2026note: HAH! I shudder to imagine...). Mind you, I wouldn't trust many people in the 'meedja' to do such a series correctly... They'd probably turn it into unfunny trash, just like with the radio series. (And apparently the 1978 TV series was pretty bad too). (2026note: Well, looks like I had some sense!)

James Bond Omnibus

This is a beautifully-reproduced collection of several of the James Bond newspaper comic strips. These were made before the films, so they are products of their time rather than being, well, products of their time, like the films are. This means that Bond thunders around in a pre-war "blower" Bentley rather than an Aston with loads of comedy gadgets. I certainly know which one I'd prefer! The collection is enticingly numbered 001 – are they aiming for a complete run of all the strips eventually?

The Gem issues 1-15

Wha-a-a-a-a-t? As Quelchy himself might say. These aren't the originals, but facsimilies, seemingly sold individually just like the real issues were (only on much thicker, better paper) and bound privately by a collector, as opposed to the W Howard Baker preprint books which collected 'runs' of issues as a book. I didn't know there had been individual facimilies issued... perhaps they were sold through the "Old Boys' Book Club"? Which used to have regular meetings from the 60's to 90's, and now, I beleive, continues (2026note: continueD. I think since Corona they've been having Zoom meetings) as a Charles Hamilton-focused Yahoo group. Which I was summarily thrown out of after, I suspect, they looked at the other groups I was a member of (gay/swinging ones - with dirty pictures!), and got rid of me. Either way, there were several of these being sold on Ebay, the Gem in blue covers and the Magnet in red covers, all beautifully-bound and certian to last down the generations. It's a shame the collection was being broken up really, but I couldn't have afforded them all! Still, it's a shame I didn't buy more, as several would have looked great on the shelf together...

Oh, and, like Batman, the most famous character from this comic didn't actually appear in the first issue! Here he is appearing in the third:

Tom Merry & Co. certainly took over The Gem a lot more quickly than Sexton Blake took over the Union Jack. In issue 11 he moved from his initial Clavering school to St Jim's, where he would remain for almost 40 years (erm, best not think about it, it just works!). From then on the main story in each Gem was about this school and the boys and masters in it. Once the Magnet had been launched and established crossovers between the schools and characters of the two papers (and later other schools from The Boys' Friend, and girls schools from papers such as School Friend) became commonplace. Other AP characters including Sexton Blake also made appearances from time to time.