Censored MACH1 art from prog 4 up for sale

Comic book postal auctions have some goodies up for sale in their latest auction (here) but I just wanted to highlight this page in particular...

This is page 1 of the MACH1 strip that appeared in 2000AD prog 4 but there are some interesting differences between what Enio drew and what Tharg would print....

Also note the story title 'A man called probe' rather than MACH1 

Here's the page as it appeared in prog 4 (19th March 1977)

so there are quite a few differences then!

1). The image of the scientists in the top left of the page has been shrunk down and moved to the top right of the page (and the logo has obscured the scientist on the left hand side of the image completely

2). Two of the rebel figures (on the left hand side of the page) have been cropped out of the final image entirely

3). the vehicles on the right hand side of the page have been left out of the printed page (they're effectively behind the "In 24 hours a president must die!" balloon)

4). the cap that the rebel leader was wearing has been removed

5). as has his moustache - and thus his rather obvious similarity to Fidel Castro has been changed completely

Good luck if you bid - at the time of typing bids have reached £330 - I'm going to stick my neck out and say this'll make £1,000

I've covered recent MACH1 original art sales here

Boom! Sells for £1,380 (including 19% buyer's premiun)

MACH 1 original art from prog 4

I seem to have been covering early 2000AD a lot recently but another really early lot is currently up for sale here

The listing is for 2 original pages (page 25 & 27) and two 'stat boards' (page 22 & 23) for prog 4 - dated 19th March 1977.

On the image above (bottom right) you can see the note JNP13 indicating that this was for Juvenile New Publication 13 - this was the in-house reference for 2000AD pre-launch. I assume the words after that "...room 2012 KSR" mean room 2012 [presumably room 12 on the 20th floor] of King's Reach Tower and indicate the room in which 2000AD was being conceived.

At the time of typing the price has been bid up to £341 - update...the final sale price was £1,287

MACH1 reprint volume - cover reveal

Rebellion have revealed the covers for M.A.C.H. 1 - The John Probe Mission Files....

It's due out in March 2018

Starting out as a rather crude take-off (as many of those early 2000ad were) of the six million dollar man the series eventually became more interesting as John Probe well, probed, his back story to find out how he came to be the Man Activated by Compu Hyperpuncture that he was.

Script is Pat Mills, art is By Enio.