Comics UK

Hi, Comicminx, I've just read the 19th issue of Battle (July 12th 1975) that contains Ian Kennedy's art on the "Battle Badge of Bravery" strip and there's no comparison with Ron Smith's art. No offence; but the art of Kennedy's (I imagine, from a pure glance) would take far longer to draw than Ron drew. I have no knowledge of Kennedy's art but for this strip; i'm sure, he drew for Warlord. The art looks familiar. Don't take me wrong: Ron Smith was an exceptional artist but, like Ezquerra, he could draw economically while maintaining a good standard. I'm pretty certain Ian Kennedy's solid art couldn't have been maintained with such frequency as Messrs' Smith and Ezquerra.

Ron Smith drew a grand total of 48 seperate picture serials for Thomsons in the 1950's comprising 28 for Adventure, 6 for Hotspur, 4 for Bunty, 1 for Wizard, 4 for Topper, 3 for Beezer, 1 for Dandy and 1 for the People's Journal.
If it would be of help Col I will list them here with relevant dates etc.

Kashgar wrote:Ron Smith drew a grand total of 48 seperate picture serials for Thomsons in the 1950's comprising 28 for Adventure, 6 for Hotspur, 4 for Bunty, 1 for Wizard, 4 for Topper, 3 for Beezer, 1 for Dandy and 1 for the People's Journal.
If it would be of help Col I will list them here with relevant dates etc.

Oh god Ray! I think I love you! I am currently working my way through 1960s Hotspurs to find the Ron Smith stories in there. It is my intention to try and use one frame from each story and to give a very short synopsis.

And here's a question for you. Was Spinner Quinn from Adventure in the 1550s issues one of Ron's? I think it is, but every so often, I have to look again.

The first article has weighed in at 1300 words, but there is so much that this could be a full series for 2016!

Sounds like a great idea Col! Given that he put so much detail into every panel it's astonishing how fast Ron must have been. Looking at early issues of Diana there seems to be a period when he was producing as many as four full-colour pages every week for that title alone!

colcool007 wrote:Was Spinner Quinn from Adventure in the 1550s issues one of Ron's?

According to some information on artists that Ray sent to me in 1992, Col, the artist on Spinner Quinn was Calder Jameson.

Incidentally, it's worth remembering that in addition to his picture serials Ron also produced a lot of covers and feature pages for Thomson's during the 1950s and 1960s. Here's an example of the 'Into Battle' feature that ran on the back page of Beezer between no's 97 and 130.

I had seen them. But I got so caught up with the Lone Wolfe story, I kind of got distracted...

Phoenix wrote:

colcool007 wrote:Was Spinner Quinn from Adventure in the 1550s issues one of Ron's?

According to some information on artists that Ray sent to me in 1992, Col, the artist on Spinner Quinn was Calder Jameson.

To clarify the situation both Ron Smith and Calder Jameson worked on Spinner Quinn.
Sorry if I only mentioned Calder Jameson all those years ago, Derek.
Now to the Ron Smith D C Thomson stripography 1952-1959.

Adventure

The Boy who Licked Napoleon 1438(9/8/52)-1451(8/11/52)
Thunder Flash 1482(13/6/53)-1496(19/9/53)
Solo Solomon 1498(3/10/53)-1513(16/1/54)
The Phantom Flyer 1513(16/1/54)-1529(8/5/54)
Doom Crater 1526(17/4/54)-1541(31/7/54)
The Flag of the Fighting Fifth 1542(7/8/54)-1549(25/9/54)
Spinner Quinn 1550(2/10/54)-1561(18/12/54) with Calder Jameson
Ryan of the Redcoats 1554(30/10/54)-1567(29/1/55)
The Fighting Falcons 1562(25/12/54)-1584(28/8/55)
Nick Swift of the Planet Patrol 1568(5/2/55)-1589(2/7/55)
Danger Guards the Inca Gold 1585(4/6/55)-1597(27/8/55)
The Red Rovers 1599(10/9/55)-1629(7/4/56)
First Home Flynn 1610(26/11/55)-1631(21/4/56)
The Terror Tests 1630(14/4/56)-1640(23/6/56)
The Wires Must Go West 1632(28/4/56)-1651(9/8/56)
Young Eagle 1641(30/6/56)-1654(29/956)
The Silent Raiders 1652(15/9/56)-1672(2/2/57)
Ryan of the Redcoats 1655(6/10/55)-1666(22/12/56)
Jungle Jackson 1667(29/12/56)-1678(16/3/57)
The Red Rocket 1673(9/2/57)-1689(1/6/57)
Solo Solomon 1689(1/6/57)-1704(14/9/57)
Railway Mad 1690(8/6/57)-1709(19/10/57)
The Guinea-Pig Goalie 1705(21/9/57)-1737(3/5/58)
Rocket Island 1723(25/1/58)-1743(14/6/58)
Young Eagle 1738(10/5/58)-1758(27/9/58)
Ryan of the Redcoats 1770(20/12/58)-1782(14/3/59)
Black Lightning 1783(21/3/59)-1803(8/8/59)
Sky Tigers 1804(15/8/59)-1821(12/12/59)

As well as his work on these picture strips in Adventure (all in the 'stories in pictures', pre word balloon, format) Ron was also responsible for providing the spot illustrations for, amongst others, the final text serial featuring Adventure favourite Strang the Terrible in 'The Valley of Lost Crusaders' 1556(13/11/54)-1569(12/2/55) and also the
illustrations that accompanied the first text serial featuring that Victor picture strip favourite to be Bill Doyle in 'Doyle of Death Alley' 1565(15/1/55)-1584(28/5/55).
More anon.

Ron Smith D C Thomson stripography 1952-1959 cont

Hotspur

Chopper Grant - the Eyes of the Alaska Highway 897(16/1/54)-910(17/4/54)
The Return of the Falcons 921(3/7/54)-932(18/9/54)
Black Lightning 938(30/10/54)-946(25/12/54)
The Whale Hunters 955(26/2/55)-966(14/5/55)
Hammerhand 984(17/9/55)-1000(7/1/56)
Invasion Target - Earth 1041(20/10/56)-1056(2/2/57)

Wizard

Limp-Along Leslie 1491(11/9/54)-1517(12/3/55) first episode in free Midget Comic.

More anon.

Ron Smith D C Thomson stripography 1952-1959 continued

People's Journal

The Black Arrow (27/9/52)-(27/12/52) rpt in Topper 1956

Topper

The Tiger of Kashgar 31(5/9/53)-71(12/6/54)
The Black Arrow 165(31/3/56)-192(6/10/56) from People's Journal 1952
Jack a Lantern 301(8/11/58)-315(14/2/59)
Call of the Wild 337(18/7/59)-354(14/11/59)
The Dragon's Teeth 355(21/11/59)-383(4/6/60)

Beezer

Lone Wolfe 1(21/1/56)-121(10/5/58)
Blood Brothers of the Spanish Main 121(10/5/58)-147(8/11/58)
How Horatius Kept the Bridge 135(16/8/58)-136(23/8/58)

Dandy

My Gang by Whacker Wilson 665(21/8/54)-728(5/11/55)

Bunty

The Dancing Life of Moira Kent 1(18/1/58)-137(27/8/60)
Born to Skate 51(3/1/59)-67(25/4/59)
Queen for a Month 68(2/5/59)-94(3/10/59)
Wendy the Tennis Wonder 95(7/11/59)-118(16/4/60)

Gordon Bennett! How the heck did you get all that together so quick?

I will be honest and say that helps a lot Ray. Hopefully you caught my article regarding the reuse of scripts. And that would not have happened if I had not begun to research the full body of work that Ron Smith had done.

It's an interesting fact that, although not particularly known for his work on sports strips, Ron was the artist responsible for all of the football strips published by Thomsons in the 1950's, all three of them. 'Limp-along Leslie' in the Wizard and the two strips featuring the goalkeeper Lanky Hutton in Adventure 'The Red Rovers' and 'The Guinea-Pig Goalie'. It wasn't until 'Dozy Danny' was transformed into a picture strip in the New Hotspur 47(10/9/60)-82(13/6/61) that another artist, Bert Vandeput, would draw a picture strip with a footballing theme.
He was also the first and only artist to draw a picture strip for Thomsons in the 1950's which featured cricket, 'The Terror Tests'.

Kashgar wrote:Ron was the artist responsible for all of the football strips published by Thomsons in the 1950's, all three of them. 'Limp-along Leslie' in the Wizard and the two strips featuring the goalkeeper Lanky Hutton in Adventure 'The Red Rovers' and 'The Guinea-Pig Goalie'.

I'm sure that by now my lack of knowledge about artwork in comics and story papers, as opposed to my knowledge of the works of major artists such as Goya, Hogarth, Picasso, Hopper, Monet, Dali, Turner, Raphael, Kahlo, El Greco, Degas etc, exhibitions of whose work I have seen in the National Gallery, the Louvre, The Prado, the Royal Academy, El Greco's old house etc, is on the way to being legendary. The truth is that from the time I first discovered Thomsons' Big Four I always accepted the artwork on every serial as being appropriate, and across the four titles we're talking hundreds. However, if we remove from the issue my serious disappointment that The Red Rovers and The Guinea-Pig Goalie were not in text form as the previous serials about Lanky Hutton and Redstoke Rovers had been, plus the fact that in each case the story/plot was inevitably trivial and insubstantial, we are still left with many panels in both serials in which many of the characters featured are quite simply too tall. For many years I have assumed that the artist, if he was drawing people as he saw them, had an eyesight problem. Discuss.

Great artists indeed Phoenix! Who could forget Burne Hogarth's run on the Tarzan newspaper strip - or Ron Turner's legendary Rick Random stories in the Super Detective Picture Library?

Nice one Phil. I always wondered how that Turner bloke managed to do all that wonderful stuff over such a length of time
Although, Phoenix, for viewing some of Monet's most stunning works, I return from time to time to the Musée Marmottan in Paris, where it is difficult to not be moved by the beauty of the works. Mind, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona takes a bit of beating. Up there with the Rembrandt huis in Amsterdam. As you enjoy Turner, I hope you'll make the trip to Edinburgh in January for the annual exhibition at the National Gallery on The Mound. Disappointingly few spaceships on show:-
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/colle ... n-bequest-