Comics UK

As promised here is a list of all Ron Smith's picture strips for the Thomson comic weeklies excluding reprints.
Topper
The Tiger of Kashgar 31-71 (1953)
The Black Arrow 165-192 (1956)
Jack-a-Lantern 301-315 (1958)
The Call of the Wild 337-354 (1959)
The Dragon's Teeth 355-383 (1959)
Not Guilty - but sentenced to Death 384-404 (1960)
Back to Zero 405-435 (1960)
The Adventures of Midshipman Keen 440-470 (1961)
The Last Warriors 490-500 (1962)
Danger all the Way 516-533 (1962)
Flip McCoy in Australia 546-610 (1963)
Island from Nowhere 611-631 (1964)
Hector's Protector 632-652 (1965)
The Giants from the Sea 653-677 (1965)
Rusty's Raiders 678-695 (1966)
Three Eggs in a Basket 696-728 (1966)
Kidnapped College 780-802 (1968)
Oliver's Travels 832-838 (1969)

Beezer
Lone Wolfe 1-121 (1956)
Blood Brothers from the Spanish Main 121-147 (1958)
How Horatius kept the Bridge 135-136 (1958)
The Heroes of Paradise Road 284-329 (1961)
The Fighting Finlays 445-456 (1964)
The Space Kids 457-557 (1964)
Dee for Danger 584-605 (1967)

Dandy
My Gang by Whacker Wilson 665-728 (1954)

Do you happen to know if Smith's King Cobra stuff has ever been collected or seen reprinted in any form?

The Heroes strip should be reprinted..

thanks for the list Kashgar..

presterjohn wrote:Do you happen to know if Smith's King Cobra stuff has ever been collected or seen reprinted in any form?

Alas no. Some of those story-lines were absolutely toffee, but with Ron's art, who cared?

They were reprinted in French bd's in the 70s and 80s but can't remember the name of the comic.Also they would have been in French

The Cap.

Thanks for the swift replies. I have often been confused about the lack of love for Ron Smith amongst fans and I guess the industry too. For me he was THE Judge Dredd artist. I would love to have seen him do some Superhero stuff for Marvel or DC back in the 80's. I never thought his stuff looked anything than contemporary and well thought out.

Peter Gray wrote:The Heroes strip should be reprinted..

thanks for the list Kashgar..

Why not email classics@dcthomson.co.uk and make a request? Classics From The Comics might use it, since it's a Beezer story.

I love Ron Smiths art as well, and I never understood why he was never spoken about in the same breath as Bolland, McMahon etc as he was one of the most consistantly good original and high quality artists I have ever seen (similar to Gene Colan in that respect another underated genius). I think people just took it for granted that Ron would produce the goods every time to a very high standard, although I wasn't aware he had been working in comics so long and is 85 - his work looks so modern and fresh to me . I would have loved to have seen him draw the Hulk and Superman (he drew strong looking characters) amongst other strips, he would have blown their minds - I'll need to go look out my old 2000ADs to look at his work again now.

I, for one, could never be described as not loving Ron Smith's artwork. To me, he was the only artist that could ever have drawn Flying Fury in the Hotspur. As my memory cells prod me, he also drew Nick Jolly the Highwayman robber brought from the past to the present and combatted organised crime. And more than a few Code Name Warlord stories and the odd Drake RN stories as well for Warlord.

His JD work for 2000AD was without peer and as much as I love Ezquerra's work, I would always prefer to see another Ron Smith.

I agree with all the above comments. For an old dude he had no trouble drawing far out and imaginative modern looking sci-fi figures his stuff was as fresh as a daisy to me. I find it so sad that he has no online presence at all. He is a British gem that seems to have been largely ignored when in reality he was probably our British version of John Buscema during the 70's.

presterjohn wrote:he was probably our British version of John Buscema during the 70's.

Personally I'd go so far as to say that he was our closest British equivalent to Jack Kirby! It amazes me that his original artwork now tends to be almost 'ten-a-penny' compared to fellow Dredd artists Bolland and McMahon; this February 1991 'Rogue trooper' page (seen here with the lettering overlay removed) only cost me about £20 a few years ago, yet I think it shows a remarkably modern feel for SF design that is surprisingly similar to Kirby's 'cosmic' vision on titles like New Gods and Eternals. It would be interesting to know if Smith was himself a fan of such American comics:


Also, like Kirby he was one of those rare comic artists who proved capable of totally reinventing himself for a new generation of readers. It seems to me that if he'd retired at the end of the 1960s he'd now be remembered as one of the veteran 'old-style' British adventure artists who specialized in drawing war stories, pirates and cowboys, yet from the point that he started drawing Nick Jolly and then King Cobra for Hotspur it was almost as though some talented newcomer had suddenly burst onto the scene. It's well known that Fleetway tried out several classic British comic artists on Judge Dredd during the early days of 2000AD (including true legends like Mike Western, Ron Turner and Don Lawrence) but none seemed to make the grade - however, when Ron Smith finally arrived on Tharg's doorstep with drawing pad in hand he was reportedly greeted with an immediate cry of "what took you so long!"

- Phil Rushton

I've emailled my request

Hi enjoying the changes in Classics from the comics and the new pages from other comics like Hotspurs.

Also thank you for the Great Flood of London loved that..

I would love to see the Jellymen also

The Heroes of Paradise Road 284-329 (1961).

I love the adventure stories in The Dandy like The Stinging Swarm...The Red Wrecker..The Island of Monsters...The Talking Ball..

You have so many to choose from...an exciting adventure story...
Keep up the good work Peter Gray


Just done a new blog posts on Ron Smith
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... on%20Smith
see Back from Zero..

also
The Adventures of Midshipman Keen
So thanks Kashgar for the list very useful..