Sjakie & Rob van de Rovers repriints

I've looked previously (here and here) at a few of the Dutch reprints of Billy's Boots that have been produced. That was quite a lengthy series of reprints volumes - stretching to at least 33 volumes. I've got most of those volumes (I'm just missing volumes 23 & 25) but there are a few more things that you could be looking out for once you've collected all those Billy's Boots volumes. This is by no means a complete guide to what's out there, it's just a introduction...

This is a (nearly) A5 sized text novel, approx. 70 pages long. Only one internal illustration.

Tom Kerr style cover for this reprint of the very earliest Billy's Boots stories. A4 size, paperback, full colour throughout. These stories are covered in pages 3-47 of the Billy's Boots reprint from Rebellion.

This is like one of the 'regular' reprint volumes only it's got a bit of extra content in it - quizzes, puzzles, skills etc. A4, full colour throughout, 64 pages.

A4 sized, black & white art throughout. 94 pages - of which 2/3rds is Roy of the Rovers and 1/3rd is Billy's Boots.

80 page, A4 sized, full colour throughout. Half Billy's Boots, half Roy of the Rovers.

A 'double' reprint album - this combines volumes 10 & 11 of the 'classic' album reprints. Why, since it's double album #1, it doesn't reprint volumes 1 & 2 is beyond me. Presumably they had lots of unsold copies of volumes 10 & 11 and this was the best way to get rid of them!

A postcard, art by Tom Kerr.

John Gillatt books - Billy's Boots artwork, part 2

Final selection of my (incomplete) collection of Dutch reprints of Billy's Boots - interior artwork by John Gillatt and, later on, Mike Western (from volume 25 onwards).

John Gillatt books - Billy's Boots artwork, part 1

To celebrate the new issue of Comic Scene I thought I'd post these up in celebration of my latest article. Intrigued? Buy Comic Scene now to find out more :)

Venture Books imprint - MIlls & Boon

Inspired by my earlier posting about Mills & Boon imprint Venture Books I've hurriedly trawled the net to see what other images can be found...

The horrific trail across England in search of a small glass phial containing blood - blood that had once flowed through the veins of the Lord of the Vampires.

A monstrous, dog-like creature is the evil doctor's creation in this new Frankenstein tale set against the bleak background of Cornwall's Bodmin moor. 

Violence and bloodshed were no strangers to McCool, which made him the sort of unorthodox agent the giant oil company needed to protect their rig from sabotage. 

Two of the books have proved too hard to track down and this is the best image I can get...

The plot for Adam is as follows

Death was a low price to pay for the capture of Adam when compared to the havoc and horror which followed the primitive monster's escape from his electrified cage.

The plot for Tiger Trap is as follows

The blood of humans and big cats mingle over of death as Jake Hiller tracks man-eating tigers in a desperate bid to save the species from extinction.

It comes from here and credits the Adam book as really being by (comics writer) Fred Baker; the Blood of Dracula book by (comics writer) Chris Lowder (a.k.a. Jack Adrian); the Frankenstein book as really by Peter Beresford Ellis; and Rig 59 as being written by Peter Christopher Watts. 

There's also reprints of at least 4 of these books in Italian - sorry for the poor image quality, they're taken from this interesting sounding website