First Look at Ranger The National Boys' Magazine

Here's a first look at the opening pages for Ranger The National Boys' Magazine, which should be out somewhere around April 15th. The layouts are almost finished and it shouldn't take long to rustle up proofs. So within the week we will start taking pre-publication orders.

I will, of course, let you know as soon as information appears on the Bear Alley Books website.

Commando Cover Artists

This following list covers all issues of Commando. Taken from official listings, many of the names are only indicated by surnames and more research is needed to confirm the full names of these artists.

Gino D'Achille
Alvaro
Amador
Severino Baraldi
Barcilon
Ken Barr
Beltrame
Benet [Manuel Benet Blanes]
Jeff Bevan
Boada
Broen
Ron Brown
Buccheri
Alan Burrows
Angel Badia Camps
Chaco
Chicharro
Chito
Clave
Tony Corbett
Correa
Cortiella
Mike Cox
Dalger
Davis
Ramon de la Fuente
Dave Dimmock
Mike Dorey
Lopez Espi
Fernando
Ferraz
Nicholas Forder
Horace Gaffron
Garcia
Ricardo Garijo
Phil Gascoine
Gibbons
Gibson
Gonzalez
Griera
Roger Hall
Gerry Haylock
Hunt
Ibanez [Vicente Ibáñez Sanchís]
Iranzo
Carlo Jacono
Sandy James
Jamieson
Jimeno [Justo Jimeno Bazaga]
Jones
Jose Maria Jorge
Jack Keay
Cam Kennedy
Ian Kennedy
Gordon Livingstone
Jorge Longaron
L. Castello Lucas
Jordi Macabich
Ian McIntosh [staff pseudonym]
Mackay
Janek Matysiak
Millar [staff pseudonym]
Graeme Miller
Ortega
Keith Page
Terry Patrick
Penalva
F. D. Phillips
F. A. Philpott
Picco
Carlos Pino
Porto
Aldomo Puig
Repaces
John Ridgway
Robertson
Rodrigo
Rollan
Martin Salvador
Sanfeliz
Sanjulian
Scholler
Segrelles [Eustaquio Segrelles Del Pilar]
Keith Shone
C. Steward
Sutton
Temeraire
Treganza
Tubaro
Vila
Villagran
Villanova
Keith C. G. Walker
Colin Watson
Weaver
Mike White
Alan Willow

Other credits (mostly agencies)
Bardon
Graphic Lit
The Illustrated
S.I.
S.I.Z.
Staff
Stock
Transworld
Union Studio

Comic Cuts - 29 March 2013

You will be pleased to hear that the Ranger book is almost finished. I finished off the clean up on 'The Adventures of Macbeth' over the weekend and the introduction is now firmly nailed down at around 15,500 words. There's a couple of minor tweaks required of the index and I have to put together the last few pages but the layouts are almost done and artist credits almost all in place. The final book should be around 160 pages, as are the Sexton Blake annuals I've published in the past. But I should be able to rein the price in a bit as licensing isn't so restrictive on the indexes as it was on those particular books. Expect an announcement within a week.

So... er... that's what I was up to this week.

Oh, yes, I meant to say that the Rolling News column is a  little screwed-up at the moment. Worked fine on Monday, couldn't get it to save anything on Tuesday. All I get is a message saying "Please correct the errors on this form." So I set up a new one with plain text, which works. Try to add a link or make even the simplest correction and it becomes impossible to save the changes. This problem has persisted through Wednesday and Thursday with no sign of Blogger fixing it. We'll just have to see what happens. Update: It turns out that none of my link lists can be altered. According to Blogger, a fix is being tested in draft and should be rolled out across Blogger shortly. This was announced Friday, still no sign of it on Saturday but keep your fingers crossed. That's what I'm doing with mine.

Random scans this week is a science fiction special... although the first title is a contemporary fantasy. Cover art is by Heather Cooper. The Lewis Shiner artwork is by Tony Roberts. Hyper-Drive was a genuine surprise. The cover is by John S. Smith, who also produced covers for Micron around that time but was later a leading artist for Look and Learn. But is the final cover also by Smith? It's a very small scan I picked up from somewhere on the net, so if anyone can supply me with a better scan...

Next week. Hmmmmm... we shall have to wait and see. In other words, I don't know.

Commando 4587-4590

Commando isues on sale 28 March 2013.

Commando No. 4587 – The Battle Of Blood Island

Though it was known as “The Blooded Jewel,” the island of Ula was a peaceful place, its name derived from spectacular sunsets and sunrises not warfare. Sitting in the ocean west of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, the inhabitants were mainly fisher folks whose only enemies were the elements, wind and sea.
   That all changed early in the First World War when a force of German raiders swarmed ashore. Caught up in the action were two schoolboys. Upon them depended the outcome of THE BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND.

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Keith Page
Cover: Keith Page

Commando No. 4588 – The Sky Pirates

Pilot Officer Mike “Midge” Mercer flew a Vought Corsair fighter for the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific — fending off hordes of Japanese aircraft as he and his fellow fliers protected the Allied fleet.
   To begin with, it seemed that the Corsairs — nicknamed Pirates — had the edge. But the Japanese had another card to play which posed a deadly question to the FAA pilots. Just how did you beat an enemy willing to sacrifice their own lives…?

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Morahin
Cover: Ian Kennedy

Commando No. 4589 – Sunk Without Trace

When “The Ship without a name” glided into the Mersey Channel that night, the few watchers were seeing her for the first time, but they never forgot her, for “K-1” was like no other ship ever built.
   They never saw her again.
   Her destination — the South Atlantic. Her mission — even the Captain wasn’t sure.
   But one thing was certain. The Germans were waiting for her. Slowly the jaws of the trap closed. The fantastic story of K-1, the ship that was to change the whole course of the war, had begun…

Introduction

Naval stories are always a difficult trick to pull off in Commando. Our compact page size doesn’t exactly lend itself to the depiction of the epic scale and leisurely pace of most sea battles. Which is why subs and MTBs — and, as here, Q-Ships — are our favourites; for the action is close and fast.
   The team of Blandford, Rigby and James have come up with a story with a hidden mystery, good, effective art, and a menacing cover designed to set up a fast-moving, action-packed story.
   Classic Commando.

Calum Laird, Editor

Story: Blandford
Art: Cecil Rigby
Cover: James
Originally Commando No. 93 (November 1963).

Commando No. 4590 – Warship On Wheels

The two young officers had never seen anything like it. A huge German train bristling with guns and covered with armour plating…it was like a warship on wheels.
   And, as they would discover, when that warship got steam up it was unstoppable — even if another train got in the way!

Introduction

 This is a shining example of a Commando caper — a fast-moving yarn that literally starts with a bang (in this case a crashing B17 bomber) and never lets up during its 63 pages. The credit is due to writer Alan Hebden who created the many memorable characters here. There are escaping British POWs, surrendering Italian soldiers and an unlikely (and unlikeable) Nazi VIP — all brought to life by interior artist Denis McLoughlin. And there’s an excellent, as always, cover from Jeff Bevan.
   So, all aboard and full steam ahead for a first-class adventure romp!

Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Denis McLoughlin
Cover: Jeff Bevan
Originally Commando No. 2176 (April 1988), re-issued as No. 3636 (July 2003)

Recent Releases: March 2013

MARCH 2013 

H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain, Montezuma's Daughter, edited by Steve Holland.
Book Palace Books ISBN 978-1907081163, 16 March 2013, 128pp, £15.99.
Three stories from the pen of the master storyteller H. Rider Haggard. In 'King Solomon's Mines' (art by Bill Baker & C. L. Doughty) adventurer and hunter Allan Quatermain is approached by Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to help find Sir Henry's brother, last seen travelling into the heart of unexplored Africa in search of the legendary King Solomon's Mines; in 'Allan Quatermain' (art by Mike Hubbard), the hunter persuades his friends to set out once again for Africa; and in 'Montezuma's Daughter' (art by Jesus Blasco), Thomas Wingfield sets off to avenge the murder of his mother. After a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, shipwreck and slavery, his search eventually leads him to the shores of Mexico, where he is captured by Aztecs.
Order from Amazon.

Judge Dredd: Judge Child Saga by John Wagner, Alan Grant & Brian Bolland.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081099, 14 March 2013, 160pp, £6.99. [£5.24 from Amazon]
When Judge Feyy, Mega-city One's oldest pre-cognitive, has a vision of the city being destroyed in 2120, Judge Dredd and a select group of other Judges, including future Chief Judge Hershey, are sent on a mission to find the Judge Child. Apparently, young Owen Krysler may be the only one with the power to stop the apocalyptic event from ever happening. With the fate of the 'Big Meg' in the balance, Dredd will travel through the irradiated wastelands of the Cursed Earth and venture out into the depths of uncharted space to find him!
Order from Amazon.

Judge Dredd: Origins by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Kev Walker.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080993, 19 March 2013, 192pp, £12.49.[£11.36 from Amazon]
History is written in this land-mark Dredd story. The severed hand of Chief Judge Fargo, the very first chief judge, is delivered to the Grand Hall of Justice with a ransom note. Dredd and his team must travel into the Cursed Earth to try and recover the body of the Judge Father. But this is more than just a journey across America, this is a journey into the past and into the history of the Judges and Mega-City One itself! Reissue (originally published in May 2007).
Order from Amazon.

King Solomon's Mines by Mike Butterworth & Mike Hubbard.
Bear Alley Books ISBN  978-1907081-69-9, 15 March 2013, 44pp, £9.99.
Welcome to H. Rider Haggard's classic novel adapted in full colour by Mike Hubbard, originally serialised in the pages of Ranger and reprinted for the first time! This was a daring attempt to publish the novel in its original language, using Haggard's own words, although abridged, making it one of the most faithful of all adaptations.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

Mean Team by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Alan Hebden & Massimo Belardinelli.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081105, 14 March 2013, 160pp, £13.99. [£9.65 from Amazon]
In the year 2886, Death-Bowl is the most popular sport in the galaxy. In the history of the game, 'Bad' Jack Keller and his squad of hardened killers, known as the Mean Team, have racked up more wins than anyone else their incentive being the hope of freedom! But team owner Richman Von is not so eager to lose him champions, So Jack, Amok the alien Beester, the robotic steelgrip - and Henry Moon the telepath trapped inside the body of a panther - will have to bring their battle out of the arenas and out into the big, wide world!
Order from Amazon.

Modesty Blaise: The Girl in the Iron Mask by Peter O'Donnell & Enric Badia Romero.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857686947, 22 March 2013, 104pp, £11.99. [£8.27 from Amazon]
Features the classic stories "Fiona", "Walkabout" and "The Girl In The Iron Mask" written by popular British crime writer Peter O'Donnell and beautifully illustrated by Enric Badia Romero! Willie's admirer Fiona returns, Modesty faces the outback alone and an iron mask could mark her end in this latest gripping volume! It features story introductions by "Blaise" archivist Lawrence Blackmore!
Order from Amazon.

Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill.
Knockabout ISBN 978-0861661831, 5 March 2013, 56pp, £9.99. [£6.89 from Amazon]
In the grim cold of February 2013 a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book will surface: Nemo: Heart of Ice, a full-color 48-page adventure by the inestimable Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. It's 1925, fifteen years after the death of Captain Nemo, when his daughter Janni Dakkar launches a grand Antarctic expedition to lay the old man's burdensome legacy to rest. Accompanied by Nemo's shipmate Ishmael, a ration of rum, and her father's log, Janni embarks on a perilous journey to the bottom of the world pursued by employees of the megalomaniacal Charles Foster Kane, who seek the return of plundered loot. Jules Verne meets H.P. Lovecraft in the final showdown beneath the Mountains of Madness – the uncharted gap in the map where time is broken and our hero's reality is about to crack! Ready the Nautilus! She's going back to the South Pole!
Order from Amazon.

Superior by Mark Millar & Leinil Yu.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857685957, 26 March 2013, 200pp, £10.99. [£7.58 from Amazon]
Simon Pooni had it all going for him - plenty of friends at school, good looks, and his coach called him one of the most talented basketball players he's ever seen. But that was when he could still move his legs. Now he's living with multiple sclerosis - until SUPERIOR entered his life! The newest smash graphic novel from Mark Miller ("Kick-Ass") and Leinil Francis Yu ("Secret Invasion")! Softcover edition.
Order from Amazon.

Tales from Beyond Science by Rian Hughes, Mark Millar, John Smith & Alan McKenzie.
Image Comics ISBN 978-1607064718, 5 March 2013, 88pp, £25.99 [hardcover; £22.09 on Amazon]
Image Comics ISBN 978-1607067177, 5 March 2013, 88pp, £12.99 [softcover; £11.69 on Amazon]
Follow your host Hilary Tremayne on eight surreal journeys into the unknown. Discover the truth behind the mysteries of spontaneous human combustion, the Bermuda Triangle, the lost 13th month, and the real reason men have nipples.
Order from Amazon: hardback, paperback.

Treasure Island by Mike Butterworth & John Millar Watt.
Bear Alley Books ISBN 978-1907081-68-2, 15 March 2013, 44pp, £9.99.
Here for the first time since it was serialised in the pages of Ranger is one of the finest adaptations of the classic Treasure Island, beautifully painted by John Millar Watt and retold in Robert Louis Stevenson's original language – making it one of the most faithful adaptations and well as one of the most visually stunning.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

Eagles Over the Western Front part 7

(* Eagles Over The Western Front © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

Eagles Over the Western Front part 6

(* Eagles Over The Western Front © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

Hal Clement: Cover Gallery

(* The following was written for The Guardian back in 2003 but was never used; a shame, but these things happen. I'm breaking my rule of thumb to only post British paperbacks in galleries as so few of Clements' books had UK editions.)

Harry Clement Stubbs, who died on 29 October 2003 at the age of 81, had two careers that entwined and complimented each other. After two years in public schools, he taught high school science for thirty-eight years at Milton Academy in Massachusetts. At the same time, as Hal Clement, he wrote meticulously plausible science-fiction based on the scientific knowledge of the time.

Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 30 May 1922, Stubbs’ first brush with science fact and fiction was the Flash Gordon comic strip. As Flash blasted off for Mars the strip gave some facts about the journey which prompted questions from 8-year-old Harry; his father took him to the local library and Harry emerged with a book on astronomy and a novel by Jules Verne.

He studied astronomy at Harvard University, obtaining a BS in 1943, but his math was not strong enough to take it up as a full-time career. He served as a bomber pilot, flying 35 combat missions from England with the 8th U.S. Air Force. He remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve until 1976, retiring with the rank of Colonel. He used his GI grant to study teacher training at Boston University, receiving his M.Ed in 1947, and later obtained a masters degree in chemistry from Simmons College in 1963.

Stubbs – as Clement – began writing whilst at Harvard, selling his first story, “Proof,” to John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories at the age of 19. From the start he penned “hard” science-fiction, where a problem was set out scientifically and science was essential to its solution. Clement was as rigorous as any golden age mystery writer in setting out the conceits of each story so that readers had a fair chance of reaching the solution ahead of the characters. Indeed, one of the arguments of that period was that a traditional detective novel was impossible in science-fiction because new technologies would have evolved, an argument Clement answered with Needle, in which an alien police officer arrives on Earth in pursuit of a criminal; the problem is that these aliens live symbiotically within a host and the quarry may have invaded the body of any person on the planet.

In common with many novels where the puzzle is the plot, characterisation tended to fall by the wayside. This was amply made up for by Clement’s creation of extreme environments and the challenges they created. In Iceworld, which concerns the smuggling of the most dangerous narcotic known, nicotine, by sulphur-breathing aliens, the alien planet was Earth; in Close To Critical, the planet Tenebra has a crushing gravity, atmospheric pressure, scorching temperatures and constantly shifting crust, towards which the children of an alien diplomat are drifting; in his last novel, Noise, Kainui is a waterworld peopled by sea-faring colonists living in floating cities surrounded by corrosive salt seas and constantly rocked by seaquakes.

Clement’s most famous work, Mission Of Gravity, was set on Mesklin, whose rapid rotation – a day lasts only 18 minutes – has created a disk-shaped world with 3 times Earth’s gravity at the equator and nearly 700g at the poles. When a research probe sent to the pole fails to relaunch, a group of scientists hire one of the caterpillar-like natives, Captain Barlennan, to save the data it has collected. Barlennan, however, is not only a typical Mesklinite – fifteen inches in length and two inches high – but also a shrewd operator who spends much of his time trying to think of ways to sweeten the deal he has struck. The crafty merchant also appeared in a sequel, Star Light.

Following his retirement in 1987, Clement was able to concentrate more actively on writing and as well as new novels (Still River, Fossil) also participated in the republication of his best work in the three-volume series The Essential Hal Clement. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1999. Clement also gave his name to the Hal Clement Award for Excellence in Children’s Science Fiction Literature, awarded annually since 1992.

A popular attendee of conventions, sometimes as a fan artist (he painted starscapes under the name George Richard), he died in his sleep only days after his appearance as a guest at MileHighCon at Lakewood, Colorado.

Clement was survived by his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Myers) whom he married in 1952, two sons, George and Richard, and a daughter, Christine.

NOVELS (series: Mesklin; Needle)

Needle (Needle). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1950; London, Gollancz, 1961; as From Outer Space, New York, Avon, 1957.
Corgi Books YS1383, 1963, 158pp, 3/-. Cover by unknown

Iceworld. New York, Gnome Press, 1953.
(no UK edition)

Mission of Gravity (Mesklin). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1954; London, Hale, 1955.
Penguin 1978, 1963, 199pp, 3/6. Cover by Yves Tanguy ('The Doubter')
New English Library 0450-02994-8, Jun 1976, 192pp, 60p. Cover by Eddie Jones [introduction by Robert Conquest]
Gollancz VGSF 0575-04022-X, 1987, 203pp. Cover by Tony Roberts
Gollancz 0575-07094-3, 2000, 203pp.
Gollancz [SF Masterworks] 0575-07708-5, 2005, 208pp.

The Ranger Boys in Space (for children). Boston, Page, and London, Harrap, 1956.
(no UK paperback edition)

Cycle of Fire. New York, Ballantine, 1957; London, Gollancz, 1964.
Corgi Books GS7417, 1966, 171pp.

Close to Critical (Mesklin). New York, Ballantine, 1964; London, Gollancz, 1966.
Corgi Books 0552-07915-4, 1968, 158pp, 3/6. Cover by unknown

Star Light (Mesklin). New York, Ballantine, 1971.
(no UK edition)

Ocean on Top. New York, DAW, 1973; London, Sphere, 1976.
Sphere 0722-12444-9, 1976, 159pp, 60p. Cover by David Bergen

Left of Africa (for children). New Orleans, Aurian Society Press, 1976.
(no UK edition)

Through the Eye of a Needle (Needle). New York, Ballantine, 1978.
(no UK edition)

The Nitrogen Fix. New York, Ace, 1980.
(no UK edition)

Still River. New York, Ballantine, Jun 1987; London, Sphere, Nov 1988.
Sphere 0747-49117-9, 1988, 280pp, £3.50.

Fossil: Isaac's Universe. New York, DAW, Nov 1993.
(no UK edition)

Half Life. New York, Tor Books, Sep 1999.
(no UK edition)

Noise. New York, Tor Books, Sep 2003.
(no UK edition)

Planet for Pluunder, with Sam Merwin. Fiction House, Oct 2012.
(no UK edition)

COLLECTIONS

Natives of Space. New York, Ballantine, 1965.
(no UK edition)

Small Changes. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1969; as Space Lash, New York, Dell, 1969.
(no UK edition)

The Best of Hal Clement, edited by Lester del Rey. New York, Ballantine, 1979.
(no UK edition)

Intuit, introduction by Poul Anderson. Cambridge, Massachusetts, NESFA Press, Sep 1987.
(no UK edition)

The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 1: Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter (contains Close to Critical, Iceworld, Needle), edited by Anthony R. Lewis. Framington, Massachusetts, NESFA Press, Apr 1999.
(no UK edition)

The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 2: Music of Many Spheres, edited by Mark L. Olson & Anthony R. Lewis, introduction by Ben Bova. Framington, Massachusetts, NESFA Press, Feb 2000.
(no UK edition)

The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3: Variation of a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (contains Mission of Gravity, Under, Lecture Demonstration, Star Light, Whirligig World (non-fiction)), edited by Mark L. Olson & Anthony R. Lewis, introduction by David Langford. Framinton, Massachusetts, NESFA Press, Sep 2000; as Heavy Planet: The Essential Mesklin Stories, New York, Tor Books, 2002.

NON-FICTION
Some Notes on Xi Bootis. Chicago, Advent, 1959.

EDITED BY HAL CLEMENT
First Flights to the Moon, introduced by Isaac Asimov. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1970.
The Moon, by George Gamow, introduction by Isaac Asimov. London, Abelard Schuman, 1971.

(* originally published 25 September 2011; updated and expanded 24 March 2013.)