New Albion's Origins book

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 21 Sep 2007, 13:00

Shops often don't have very large quantities of these sorts of books. My local Waterstones has ONE copy of each of the Look-In book and the Great British Comics book. No copies at all in my local Smiths.

Lew

Steve Flanagan · Post by **Steve Flanagan** » 21 Sep 2007, 19:01

Forbidden Planet in Newcastle told me that they had expected Albion Origins this week, but received unordered copies of the Moores/Reppion/Oakley Albion paperback instead.

ogtec · Post by **ogtec** » 23 Sep 2007, 14:19

Raven wrote:
Peter Gray wrote:I've bought the book and gulped down Kelly's eye.....,
Where did you get it from? I've seen it in neither specialist comics shop or regular bookshop, and Amazon says it isn't out till mid-October and only available as pre-order ... so is it out already in some places?

Forbidden Planet (in London) have had it for over a week now. Big piles of them, and at ?3-00 off as well.

George

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 23 Sep 2007, 16:16

ogtec wrote:
Raven wrote:
Peter Gray wrote:I've bought the book and gulped down Kelly's eye.....,
Where did you get it from? I've seen it in neither specialist comics shop or regular bookshop, and Amazon says it isn't out till mid-October and only available as pre-order ... so is it out already in some places?
Forbidden Planet (in London) have had it for over a week now. Big piles of them, and at ?3-00 off as well.

George

Ah the benefits of a publisher being the same person who owns the retail chain.

Lew

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 16 Nov 2007, 16:05

I've just bought this as part of a 'buy two get one free' deal at Waterstones otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered already having the originals. Of course the reprinted stuff is great but it was spoilt to a degree by the Moore/Reppion intro in which, while apparently extolling the virtues of the old weekly boys' comic titles somewhat spoilt their eulogising by including 'Commando' in their recollections. Surely anyone who has any real interest in the genre would have spotted that blooper!
Other than that the Bolland cover is bloody awful too, conveying nothing of the brooding energy of the original artists to whom the cover should have rightly belonged. I think it's a pretty sad indictment to have to sell some of the best adventure strip art ever produced for British comics under a pallid wraparound cover by an artist, impeccable in other respects, whose style conveys nothing of those that created the gems within. Surely Bradbury, Lopez and Kerr could have been relied upon to sell themselves without Brian Bolland turning up as the 'guest star'.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 16 Nov 2007, 16:14

Kashgar wrote:Surely Bradbury, Lopez and Kerr could have been relied upon to sell themselves without Brian Bolland turning up as the 'guest star'.

The book is pitched at the comic fan rather than the nostalgia fan, so a Brian Bolland cover would be more appealing to that readership. Likewise, the logo was altered to use DC's Albion logo so as to appeal to the people who bought the Albion mini series. That's the theory anyway.

Personally I think they should have included the logos of the comics they reprinted from somewhere on the cover (or back cover) in order to appeal to the nostalgia market as well, but what do I know?

(I thought it was a great cover, evoking the dark moodiness of those old strips. Brian is a fan of that classic UK material, Steel Claw in particular, - hence his cover for The Steel Claw book, - and I thought he did Albion Origins justice myself.)

Lew

Cap Haggis · Post by **Cap Haggis** » 17 Nov 2007, 01:20

Have to say I agree with Lew I thought that the Bolland cover was excellent and was in the spirit of the originals (but updated) . I feel it would certainly make comic fans (as oppossed the the narrow UK nostalgia fanbase) pick this book up - Bolland is a major draw for a lot of fans - the strips themselves are of course excellent and top quality as Kashgar states, and I am sure will inspire a few new creators to look and doiong similar - for me the book was an all round win/ win.

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 17 Nov 2007, 10:20

On the whole I accept that Brian Bolland was the obvious choice to provide the cover for this book (with the possible exception of Dave Gibbons). However, having said that I agree with Kashgar that the end result has turned out to be surprisingly ugly. I think it was Dave Harwood who pointed out that Brian's inking is so beguiling that it occasionally conceals some fundamental weaknesses in his drawing technique.

In fact if you want to check the quality of an artist's basic draughtsmanship I've always found that it can be quite instructive to imagine their work being inked by Vince Colletta...

- Phil Rushton

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 17 Nov 2007, 12:01

I wasn't questioning Brian Bolland's personal affection for the old comic characters and the artists who created them. Nor was I questioning his ability as an artist, which is considerable, but I still feel that he can't evoke the dark brooding intensity that was part and parcel of Eric Bradbury's work for example.
If the modern comic enthusiast is beguiled by the Bolland cover then that's fine but what will they then think of the artwork within which is so un-Bolland like and so out of step with modern taste?
After all the artwork in this book was originally created for the kids we once were and not for the comic fan of today. If they need someone like Brian Bolland on board to make them part with their pennies then maybe, if he had had the time and they could have afforded him to do it, they should have gotten Brian to supply the artwork within too. Sod Bradbury, Lopez and Kerr, we'll just get some modern artistic titan to spruce up these rather quaint adventure strip characters and give them some 'now' appeal.
Whether you liked it or not we've had 'Albion', but this was meant to be 'Albion Origins' and I just think the originals should have been allowed to grace the cover.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 17 Nov 2007, 12:07

Kashgar wrote: Whether you liked it or not we've had 'Albion', but this was meant to be 'Albion Origins' and I just think the originals should have been allowed to grace the cover.

Aren't all of those artists now retired?

Lew

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 17 Nov 2007, 14:18

Solano Lopez still works,drawing erotic art(the dirty old bugger)

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 17 Nov 2007, 17:00

Incidentally, Brian Bolland was one of the "original" Valiant artists... in a way. He illustrated this Summer Special cover:

http://tinyurl.com/2yccka

Lew

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 20 Nov 2007, 13:45

I wasn't actually suggesting that the original artists involved should supply new art for the cover, some reprinted material dudded up from when they were in their pomp would have more than sufficed.
Not wanting to start another 'Terry Bave R I P' debacle but I'm pretty sure that Tom Kerr has long since gone in any case.
What a bloody good artist he was though. One of those highly skilled journeyman illustrators who seemed able to turn his hand to any type of strip work with equal effect.
And OK Lew I take your point about Brian Bolland being a Valiant original of sorts but from this particular fan's perspective a single Valiant cover of any persuasion does not him a Mike Western make or even a R Charles Roylance for that matter.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 20 Nov 2007, 15:56

Kashgar wrote:I wasn't actually suggesting that the original artists involved should supply new art for the cover, some reprinted material dudded up from when they were in their pomp would have more than sufficed.

Possibly, but I'll go for employing new material for a cover. After all, those Vulcan covers didn't look too good with the artwork enlarged.

Lew

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