UPDATED: Cosmic magazine

The other day (here) I looked at Take a Break spin-off magazine - "Cosmic - the BEST kids' magazine in the universe" - this starred Captain Cosmic (who has his own annual here). I've now identified further issues of Cosmic and present them here...

Contributors are as follows:

Scripts: Guy Campbell

Pencils: Paul Moran

Inks: Simon Ecob

Colour: James McAlister

Plus for the final issue (red cover, dated 11-24 February 1999) there's also...

Glenn Dakin providing the script for the Taliska story, Adrian Salmon providing the pencils & Bambos Georgiou the inks. David Leach also get a shout out.

Updated issues are shown in red - thanks to "3DEB" who sent me some images; 3DEB entered (and won!) some of the competitions and is still the proud owner of a Captain Cosmic ruler and pencil sharpener.

UPDATE for this post - 4 covers, thanks to friend of the blog John Freeman

Volume 1

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 0, July 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 1, August 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 2, September 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 3, October 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 4, November 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 5, December 1997

Volume 1 is thought to last 5 issues (so Aug-97 to Dec-97)

Volume 2

Volume 2 is 13 issues long; monthly dated issues from Jan-98 to Dec-98 and then up to at least issue 13 (which is dated 26 November - 9 December 1998). So I suppose there could be an issue 14, which would be dated 10 December 1998 - 23 December 1998, which seems an odd date to finish the year on. I suspect there were only 13 issues as these could have been published 4-weekly with then a 'Christmas' issue to make up the gap between publishing monthly and publishing every 4 weeks.

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 1, January 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 2, February 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 3, March 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 4, April 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 5, May 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 6, June 1998

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 7, July 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 8, August 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 9, September 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 10, October 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 11, November 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 12, December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 13

This is dated 26 November 1998 - 9 December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 14

This is dated 10 December 1998 - 29 December 1998

Volume 3

Cosmic magazine - issue 4

The dating of issue 4 as 11 Feb - 24 Feb means that previous issues are presumably dated as follows:

Issue 3 = 28 Jan - 10 Feb 1999

Issue 2 = 14 Jan - 27 Jan 1999

Issue 1 = 30 Dec - 13 Jan 1999

so Cosmic has moved from being published "monthly" to being published every fortnight

Cosmic magazine - issue 5, 25 February - 10 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 6, 11 March - 24 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 7, 25 March -7 April 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 8, 8-21 April 1999

Cosmic magazine - issue 9, 22 April - 5 May 1999

Sadly I've no idea how many further issues / volumes there were - if you know (or can fill in any of the gaps above) do just get in touch.

The format is consistent throughout...52 pages, plenty of comics, quizzes, competitions, posters, information, reviews - all that sort of stuff really that kids love. Issues have a Captain Cosmic strip at the start followed by Taliska's travels in time strip.

Further details have come to light since that first post...

UPDATED: Biker mice from Mars - from Marvel UK

Biker Mice from Mars was a short-lived title from Marvel UK - only 7 issues were produced and it's proving a hard title to collect! When I was looking for cover scans there seemed to be more from the German version of the comic than the British!

More details when I get them - the Wikipedia page about the cartoon TV show that the comics were based on is here

Updates in red

Issue 1 - cover dated 17th Feb 1995

Issue 2 - cover dated 3rd March 1995

Issue 3 - cover dated 17th March 1995

Issue 4 - cover dated 31st March 1995

Issue 5 - cover dated 14th April 1995

Issue 6 - cover dated 28th April 1995

Issue 7 - cover dated 12th May 1995

From the 3 issue I have (1, 2 and 5) Dan Abnett appears to have been the main writer, David Leach has mainly done the colouring, some pencils by Lee Sullivan.  

Comments on who worked on what...

and now we know that there was an Easter special as well, priced at £1.95

Maxwell the magic cat, volume 3

The four slim reprint volumes (published by Acme press) of Alan Moore's Maxwell the magic cat newspaper strips are surely high on the wants list of any Moore aficionado. Volumes 1 and 2 seem a little easier to get hold of than volumes 3 and 4 but I've long been more interested in volumes 3&4 as I knew they had Maxwell work by other artists in.

Below we have the artistic highlights of volume 3 - the original art of these images (along with those in volume 4) were all auctioned off at UKCAC87 for charity.

Art by Bryan Talbot

Art by Garry Leach

Art by John Bolton

Art by Graham Higgins (top) and Dave Gibbons (bottom)

Art by Ian Gibson

this fast-driving truck driver is clearing dead cats off the front of his cab - nice!

UPDATED: Cosmic magazine

The other day (here) I looked at Take a Break spin-off magazine - "Cosmic - the BEST kids' magazine in the universe" - this starred Captain Cosmic (who has his own annual here). I've now identified further issues of Cosmic and present them here...

Contributors are as follows:

Scripts: Guy Campbell

Pencils: Paul Moran

Inks: Simon Ecob

Colour: James McAlister

Plus for the final issue (red cover, dated 11-24 February 1999) there's also...

Glenn Dakin providing the script for the Taliska story, Adrian Salmon providing the pencils & Bambos Georgiou the inks. David Leach also get a shout out.

Updated issues are shown in red - thanks to "3DEB" who sent me these images; £DEB entered (and won!) some of the competitions and is still the proud owner of a Captain Cosmic ruler and pencil sharpener.

Volume 1

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 0, July 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 1, August 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 2, September 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 3, October 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 4, November 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 5, December 1997

Volume 1 is thought to last 5 issues (so Aug-97 to Dec-97)

Volume 2

Volume 2 is 13 issues long; monthly dated issues from Jan-98 to Dec-98 and then up to at least issue 13 (which is dated 26 November - 9 December 1998). So I suppose there could be an issue 14, which would be dated 10 December 1998 - 23 December 1998, which seems an odd date to finish the year on. I suspect there were only 13 issues as these could have been published 4-weekly with then a 'Christmas' issue to make up the gap between publishing monthly and publishing every 4 weeks.

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 1, January 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 2, February 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 3, March 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 4, April 1998

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 5, May 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 6, June 1998

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 7, July 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 8, August 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 9, September 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 10, October 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 11, November 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 12, December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 13

This is dated 26 November 1998 - 9 December 1998

Volume 3

Cosmic magazine - issue 4

The dating of issue 4 as 11 Feb - 24 Feb means that previous issues must have been dated as follows:

Issue 3 = 28 Jan - 10 Feb 1999

Issue 2 = 14 Jan - 27 Jan 1999

Issue 1 = 1 Jan - 13 Jan 1999

so Cosmic has moved from being published "monthly" to being published every fortnight

Sadly I've no idea how many further issues / volumes there were - if you know (or can fill in any of the gaps above) do just get in touch.

The format is consistent throughout...52 pages, plenty of comics, quizzes, competitions, posters, information, reviews - all that sort of stuff really that kids love. Issues have a Captain Cosmic strip at the start followed by Taliska's travels in time strip.

Further details have come to light since that first post...