Comics UK

My next post on either my blog or on Down The Tubes will be to celebrate the art of Jim Watson. If you have anything to offer, I would be happy to use it and give you the credit as the fan. In case you are wondering if you have any examples of Jim's work, here is a classic example... Jim is now in his 80's and not in the best of health, so I want to create an article that will make him smile or at the very least think that he has done a "no bad" job. PM me for the email if you don't have it already.

I admit I wasn't crazy about him replacing Mike Noble on Zero X and Captain Scarlet in TV21, but I thought the documentary-style Falklands strip he drew for Battle was quite ground-breaking.

philcom55 wrote:I admit I wasn't crazy about him replacing Mike Noble on Zero X and Captain Scarlet in TV21, but I thought the documentary-style Falklands strip he drew for Battle was quite ground-breaking.

Phil, have you got easy access to either? If so, could you scan and send me a copy?

I've sent you a pm with a Zero X scan and two from 'Fight for the Falklands'. The latter was an interesting strip that began in Battle just months after the end of the Falklands war. While John Wagner's scripting wasn't anything like as critical as Pat Mills he did at least manage to avoid the sort of triumphalism that some of IPC's other writers might have fallen prey to. It ran from 18th September 1982 to 19th March 1983.

Phil,

Thanks for that and I got the links. And that means that it looks like Jim was associated with two Falkland strips as someone seems to think that he drew the one where the kid was a spy for the British Forces. I thought that strip was drawn by Mike Western but the last time I saw that strip was over 30 years ago, so I am happy to be corrected.

I will use the Zero X scan and I will send the other two over to Down The Tubes as the article is being published on there at the same time.

Jim was obviously very influenced by Frank Bellamy's Eagle strips about Churchill and Montgomery. To my mind he produced some of his best work in this vein for IPC's short-lived digest magazine True War. Oddly enough the Illustration Art Gallery are currently selling this page as a KEITH Watson original!

philcom55 wrote:Jim was obviously very influenced by Frank Bellamy's Eagle strips about Churchill and Montgomery. To my mind he produced some of his best work in this vein for IPC's short-lived digest magazine True War. Oddly enough the Illustration Art Gallery are currently selling this page as a KEITH Watson original!

I've told them this about six times... And one of these days I will buy one of those pages. I notice that the Ian Kennedy ones have now gone. Sigh.

And the article about Jim Watson is now live for those that wish to read about him.

And would you believe that Alan Clark's Dictionary of Comic Artists, Writers and Editors does not even mention Jim. What a swizz!

colcool007 wrote:

philcom55 wrote:Jim was obviously very influenced by Frank Bellamy's Eagle strips about Churchill and Montgomery. To my mind he produced some of his best work in this vein for IPC's short-lived digest magazine True War. Oddly enough the Illustration Art Gallery are currently selling this page as a KEITH Watson original!

I've told them this about six times... And one of these days I will buy one of those pages. I notice that the Ian Kennedy ones have now gone. Sigh.

Yes I've pointed it out to them a good few times too. Geoff is quite knowledgeable but Dave - by his own admission - not so much.

I wonder if it's like that episode of 'Open All Hours' where Ronnie Barker deliberately misspelled a notice in his window so he could sell something to every passer-by who came into the shop to point it out?

I have been going through my Wizards and I am willing to bet a packet of spangles on this being an early Jim Watson cover for issue 1959. Can anyone else confirm or deny? If it is, it is the earliest Jim Watson piece that I have found so far.

It looks like Ron Smith to me.

chrisb wrote:It looks like Ron Smith to me.

I can see why you think that, but here is a definite Ron Smith from four weeks later and you can see a significant difference in the faces and in the bodies.

I wonder if Davie Boone knew Daniel Crockett?

While I wouldn't entirely discount the possibility that Jim could have drawn that cover (and I agree that there seem to be some subtle hints of his later style) I'd say that if he did he must have been trying very hard to draw like Ron.

I can see what you are saying col, but to me, the way the hands are drawn are so Ron Smith like. Maybe it is like Phil said and Jim was doing it in a Ron Smith style or maybe it was done in a hurry by Smith to meet a deadline.