#partworks

TV21 – Reprints in the 21st Century (part 2) – The Gerry Anderson Vintage Comic Collection

Partworks are a curious beast of the publishing world. We’ve all seen the commercials; “build your own model of the Isle of Wight ferry, complete in 150 issues – issue 1 just £1.99! (Regular price £7.99).” Either that or you’re being encouraged to buy a television series episode by episode for ultimately five times the price you’d pay for the complete boxset on Amazon, or to take up a new hobby…

My god, it’s a harsh world but in some ways it’s also the gift that keeps on giving. Like a lot of UK people, I grew up with (Little) Story Teller, a partwork series of magazines with accompanying tapes aimed at the 3 - 7 crowd. The talent working on these things was unbelievable - on Christmas Story Teller Two, linked below, you can hear the voices of Richard Briers, Sheila Hancock, Miriam Margoyles, Joss Ackland and Nigel Lambert, and the stories, poems and songs were perfectly chosen, featuring a mix of classics (Dickens, of course, for Christmas), contemporary children’s writing (I remember Jill Murphy’s Peace At Last) and original work, often featuring recurring characters specific to Little Story Teller.

The Christmas editions of Story Teller (the larger format magazine that preceded and somewhat overlapped the publication of Little Story Teller) are legit Things I Would Save From A Fire. They’re tattered and falling apart and I love them, and some public spirited people have put One, Two and Three on YouTube, which is a great help given that my tape of Three tragically disappeared many years ago. I just... I can’t even tell you how big a part of childhood Christmasses these things were. 

2000AD Prog 300: Free badge for every reader! Plus collect Prog 1 of 2000AD First 4 micro-pages this prog! Prog 300

I want to say this is a jump-on prog, but with three continuing stories it isn’t. The composite cover features plundered artwork from Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson and Colin Wilson or Dredd, Slade and Rogue respectively, plus – if you remove the badge – a Tharg’s head hiding underneath. Not an incredibly inspiring cover, but it certainly gets the message that this is prog 300 across.

Tharg’s…

2000AD Prog 285: Robo Hunter goes football crazy! “What’s the score, Sam, huh?”

Ian Gibson’s cover introduces the problematic elements of this week’s Robo-Hunter episode straight away – 38 years later these Japanese stereotypes have not aged well.

2000AD isn’t the only comic from IPC that costs 18p, as Tharg plugs Charley’s War in Battle. The Nerve Centre continues with a letter from an earthlet (sorry, tellurian) who wants to reignite the debate around what to call those…

Tornado No 6: “The boy’s a wild animal! Hunt him down like a mad dog!”

This cover has Storm fleeing from a helicopter, and you know what that means? If a cover has a flying machine on it then send for Ian Kennedy! As with all other covers, this isn’t credited (and I can’t spot a signature anywhere) but it looks like Kennedy’s style to me.

The Big Editorial has Big E interviewing himself (he was supposed to have been taught by Tharg – he certainly gets a Big Ego…

Something For The Weekend: Warping Out To Sláine: The Horned God

Sláine: The Horned God is undoubtedly a high point in the early years of his appearances in 2000AD and a worthy saga to kick off a partwork collection of some of the best the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic has to offer after 40 years of publication. And, it’s the first time I’ve picked it up again since it was first published back in 1989. Now, years later (almost 30 years? What?) as an older and wiser…

Warner Bros. teams with Eaglemoss for new "Harry Potter" Partworks collection

Warner Bros. Consumer Studios have signed a global deal with Eaglemoss for a new “Harry Potter” partworks collection, which will be released next year. The collection will include exclusive figurines of characters from the series.