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Showing posts with label Look-in. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Look-in. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Preview: THE BEATLES STORY

New from Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics imprint comes The Beatles Story, reprinting the serial written by Angus Allan and illustrated by Arthur Ranson that ran in Look-In during 1981 and 1982.

 Although Look-In is not one of the comics that Rebellion now own, The Beatles Story is unique in that Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson own the rights to the strip.

 Sure to be a hit with fans of the Fab Four, The Beatles Story is an affectionate photo-realistic take on the saga of what many of us consider to be the greatest band in music history.

•CREATIVE TEAM: Angus Allan (w) Arthur Ranson (a)
•REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
•RELEASE DATE: 22nd February 2018
•HARDCOVER, 57 pages
•PRICE: £12.99 (UK) 17ドル.99 (US)
•ISBN: 9781781086179
•DIAMOND: DEC171748

 The very first graphic novel to chart the creation, evolution and breakup of the fab four, first published in 1981. The Beatles Story is an exceptionally drawn account of the band from one of the UK's leading artists of his generation, Arthur Ranson (Judge Dredd, Button Man). It includes fascinating insights into Paul McCartney and John Lennon's first encounter, their early gigs in Hamburg's Kaiser Keller, through to the recording of the legendary Abbey Road album and the band's break-up. First published in the pages of legendary UK youth magazine Look In, this beautifully illustrated account is a treat for both the devoted Beatles admirer and new fans alike.
Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond



Available to pre-order now from the Treasury of British Comics shop:




Sunday, December 31, 2017

The New Year LOOK-IN (1972)

There's time for one final post this year so here are a few pages from the issue of Look-In dated 1st January 1972 (published at the end of 1971). Look-In had proved to be the big hit of 1971 when it was launched. I always preferred rival comic Countdown (also launched that year) but Look-In had its own distinct style and I can understand why it was so popular.

The cover is by Arnaldo Putzu, who contributed many painted covers for the comic over the years. You'll notice it's issue No.1. Look-In renumbered itself at the start of every year, presumably to entice new readers. It didn't seem to do it any harm.

 Inside, Leslie Crowther tries to keep up his New Year's Resolution in Crowrther In Trouble, drawn by Tom Kerr...

This issue featured three pages of horoscopes for the TV stars of the day. One of whom has definitely fallen from grace in recent times. Here's one of the pages...

The Please Sir! strip now featured the less distinctive class of 'Four C', as the original cast of 'Five C' had left to spin off into their own TV series. Artwork by Graham Allen, who until a few years earlier had been drawing The Nervs for Smash!


Follyfoot had no connection to a New Year theme but I couldn't resist showing artwork by Mike Noble...


The aforementioned class of 'Five C' had left school to star in their own TV show The Fenn Street Gang, so Look-In featured a strip based on that too. Artwork by Tom Kerr...

Even On the Buses had its own strip. Artwork by Harry North...

Subtitled 'The Junior TV Times', Look-In always featured selected highlights of ITV schedules for the week, focusing on the times children would be watching TV. Most of these regional TV stations have merged into others now...

Here's the schedules the right way up so you don't have to tip your computer on its side. ;-)

The back page of that issue featured a teaser for an Apollo badge offer that was coming in the following issue. Did any of you have these badges?

All that remains to be said is to wish you all a Happy New Year again and thank you for following this blog. Whatever you're doing this evening, have an enjoyable time!

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Christmas comics: LOOK-IN (1978)

I've shown some pages from TV Comic recently, so here's a few from its rival, Look-In. Launched in 1971, Look-In was an immediate success and its content of pop culture features and strips was a template that many children's mags still use today.

This 1978 Christmas edition of "The junior TV Times" as it called itself kicks off with a cover by Arthur Ranson showing a mixture of the festive TV highlights scheduled for that year.

Inside, the contents were not actually that festive, but it's still worth showing some examples here. First off, a Christmas Benny Hill strip by Bill Titcombe...

Next, a non-festive but very dynamic Six Million Dollar Man strip drawn by Martin Asbury...


I can't pass up the opportunity to show pages from my favourite artist of adventure strips. It's the Famous Five, illustrated by Mike Noble...


Look-In was notable for its four-page pop-star pull-out, and this edition featured a stunning Kate Bush poster...

 Although cringeworthy today, Mind Your Language was a sitcom about a classroom of racial stereotypes learning English. The comic strip version was drawn by Bill Titcombe who captured the actors' likenesses perfectly...


As it was "The Junior TV Times", Look-In was solely focused on ITV shows (and was even published by ITV back then) as this was before the TV guides included all channels. So, Look-In's three page feature on Christmas TV highlights only covered ITV, but it still gives you a good idea of what we were watching back then...




 There'll be another festive comic tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Christmas Comics: LOOK-IN (1971)

Kicking off a short series of festive blog posts, here are a few pages from the first Christmas issue of Look-In, dated 25th December 1971. (Click on images to see them larger.) Dubbed the 'Junior TV Times', Look-In was published by Independent Television Publications Ltd (as was the TV Times then) and featured strips based on popular ITV shows. The wraparound cover above is by Arnaldo Putzu, who was the comic's regular cover artist and an illustrator of film posters of the day.

 The comic's 24 pages contained a variety of humour and adventure strips but it's only the humour strips I'm showing here as the adventure serials didn't have a festive theme. First up, here's Crowther in Trouble, featuring ex-BBC Crackerjack star Leslie Crowther, drawn by the prolific Tom Kerr...

Please Sir! was a popular comedy series and to me seemed to be a mixture of the movie To Sir With Love and The Beano's Bash Street Kids! The strip in Look-In was drawn by the versatile Graham Allen...


A spin-off from Please Sir! was the TV series The Fenn Street Gang, about Class 5C's adventures after leaving school, featuring the actors who could no longer convincingly play 15 year olds. Artwork for the strip by that man Tom Kerr again, a familiar artist of seventies comics...

The strip version of On the Buses was drawn by Harry North, an excellent artist, although Olive's reaction to being blasted in the face by a shower in the last panel seems oddly static.

Look-In also carried several feature pages. Curious as to what was on TV back then? Here's a selection of ITV highlights for Christmas 1971. I seem to remember watching the Mike and Bernie Winters All Star Christmas Comedy Carnival which contained new mini-episodes of various comedy series (a bit like Children In Need does now).


More festive fun soon!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Happy Birthday to Mike Noble!

Today is the 84th birthday of Mike Noble, one of the greatest adventure strip artists of British comics, - and certainly my favourite. I've been a fan of Mike's work for 49 years, ever since his Fireball XL5 strips in TV21, and although he's not as active in illustration today his style is still as dynamic and accomplished as it ever was.

Mike's a rare visitor to comic events but I did have the pleasure of meeting him ten years ago at a Bristol Comic Expo, and he came across as an unassuming and genuinely nice bloke.

On Facebook today, Beano artist Nigel Parkinson (who used to draw for Thunderbirds the Comic) said:
"Lovely fellow and very humble. When I met him (wow, 20 years ago!) he was saying to Alan [Fennell] how much he admired Embleton and Bellamy and how he wished he could draw as well as them. Well sir, you did and do!"

 I wrote a tribute to him and his work seven years ago on this very blog and you can read it here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/dynamic-art-of-mike-noble.html

Today, the Down The Tubes forum has a birthday tribute to the great man, which you can read here:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=16528



Here's wishing Mr.Noble a very happy and healthy birthday, and many more to come!
Photo from LOOK-IN in 1971 showing Mike's original art.

Sunday, March 09, 2014

This week in 1972: LOOK-IN

Look-In was one of the success stories of 1970s British comics. Published by Independent Television Publications Ltd, it was sub titled 'The Junior TV Times' (and TV Times was also published by the same company back then). Edited by Alan Fennel, who had previously edited the hugely successful TV Century 21, the ITP comic had its own style, combining features on ITV stars and programmes alongside comic strip versions of popular family shows. Look-In later began featuring popstar pin-ups and features, which proved very successful, but in its early days was very much a TV orientated magazine.

 Here are a few pages from issue No.11 (Look-In renumbered itself every January) that went on sale this day in 1972. The cover is by Mike Noble, who had been the original artist on the Timeslip strip (although the interior strip in this issue was by another artist).

 Inside, Harry North's On The Buses strip avoided the sexist jokes of the TV series, and went for more of a slapstick approach more suited to the comic's young readership.
Catweazle was a very popular children's TV show at the time, so it was only natural the man-out-of-time would appear in Look-In. Artwork by Gerry Embleton.

When he was working on TV21, Mike Noble had illustrated numerous science fiction pages for Fireball XL5, Zero X, Captain Scarlet, and Star Trek, so it was probably a welcome change for him to illustrate the down to Earth saga of Follyfoot...
Being 'The Junior TV Times', Look-In also contained interviews and articles on TV stars. Here's a brief question and answer session with Mike MacKenzie (Tarot in Ace of Wands) and a feature on Diana Rigg...
The Fenn Street Gang was a spin-off from London Weekend Television's Please Sir! and ran in Look-In as a comedy serial illustrated by Tom Kerr...
Part of Look-In's unique appeal was that as a publication associated with ITV it was allowed to publish regional ITV listings. Although being a children's publication it only focused on teatime to early evening.
Robert Harbin's 15 minute programmes Origami had amazed a lot of kids back then so a regular feature in Look-In was essential.
Priced at 5p, Look-In was more expensive than most of its rival comics, but it packed a lot of variety into its 28 glossy pages and proved to be a big hit with kids for many years.

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