Comics UK

Don't know if this helps, but Blek is an Italian originated character who had a long running, successful series of his own title in Italy. The strip was distributed, translated, in a number of European countries. Although, and I could be wrong about this, not in the UK.

There 's a strip by Robert MacGillivray concerning an orphan boy that inherits a manor and the ghost that comes with it. It lasted 14 episodes and its greek title is "Sidney 's manor". I had read its original title somewhere but I can 't remember it and haven 't been able to track it down again. It was something like Sidney 's estate or household or whatever. Could you please lend a hand?

Found it !!

ramirez wrote:Found it !!

Good on you for finding it, Ramirez! The basic idea reminds me a bit of Gaye's Gloomy Ghost from Jinty - Gaye is the caretaker of a stately home and has to cope with the ghost that comes with the old mansion. It's a humour strip drawn by Hugh Thornton-Jones.

Also, belated thanks for the reply on comics publishing for kids, in Greece.

Does someone know who the artist of this short story is? I know he 's also the artist of a football strip where the captain of the team goes blind for a few seconds during the matches, due to a plane accident that crippled his team...

The story I mentioned with the same artist is here, and its title in greek is "Football in the blind". As you can see it 's from Victor, which I hope will help identify it...

ramirez wrote:The story I mentioned with the same artist is here, and its title in greek is "Football in the blind". As you can see it 's from Victor, which I hope will help identify it...

The bit that threw me was that I thought it looked like a Joe Greer story but I could not recall him being a goalie. However, he was only standing in for his injured goalie and the original was The Jinx On Joe Greer which ran in the Victor from issues 931 to 950. And the episode that you have published is from issue 933.

Yes, it 's the Joe Greer story, thanks for that colcool007. I guess though that noone can identify the artist. I also checked the (very confusing) listing of Victor strips here and from what I managed to read, the name of the artist is not available there either...

The character Joe Greer had been introduced to readers of The Rover in the text serial The Fiery Man At Number 6 (Apr. 27 1968) - (Jul. 20 1968). The issues were dated but not numbered after the amalgamation of Adventure and The Rover as Rover And Adventure (Jan. 21 1961).

OK, let 's move on with two new enquiries. The first I believe will be very easy, and the reason I haven 't figured it out yet is because I 'm not aware of the correct spelling. The greek title of the strip is Bertie 's little bear and is a WWII story about a private named Bert Tumley (if my spelling is accurate) that befriends a bear called Bozzler (Bowzler maybe?) with an impeccable talent of locating german troops.

The second one must be rather difficult. It 's a Robin Hood story named Robin Hood and the magic potion where the potion is gunpowder. Looking at the small amount of panels per page (two at the most), I guess it could come from a small digest size magazine. Is there a chance the artist might be one of the Embletons? Any thoughts?

ramirez wrote:OK, let 's move on with two new enquiries. The first I believe will be very easy, and the reason I haven 't figured it out yet is because I 'm not aware of the correct spelling. The greek title of the strip is Bertie 's little bear and is a WWII story about a private named Bert Tumley (if my spelling is accurate) that befriends a bear called Bozzler (Bowzler maybe?) with an impeccable talent of locating german troops.

The second one must be rather difficult. It 's a Robin Hood story named Robin Hood and the magic potion where the potion is gunpowder. Looking at the small amount of panels per page (two at the most), I guess it could come from a small digest size magazine. Is there a chance the artist might be one of the Embletons? Any thoughts?

Well, I can help with part of this as the WWII story is Bertie's Bear from The Hotspur. I am not sure of the issue but a serial starts in issue 1066 with Bert Toomley acquiring the bear in the Far East as he captures him in a bearpit! The bear also seems to have a strong dislike for Japanese troops too!

Thanks again colcool007. I must admit I thought the Robin Hood story was rather tough to identify, so I 'm perfectly pleased with the bear strip answer. I 'll be back in a few days with something else...

I'm pretty sure the Robin Hood story wasn't the work of either of the Embleton brothers, but it definitely looks as though it came from the digest-sized Thriller Picture Library. The character starred in many issues of this series, and while I don't have a copy to check I'd guess that TPL#186 might be a likely candidate as it featured a story with the similar sounding title 'Robin Hood and the Magic Medicine' drawn by Guido Buzzelli.

Phil is bang on, as usual. The story is one of three stories in TPL #186, August '57. It's the first story in the issue and art is by Guido Buzzelli. Story title is "Robin Hood and the Magic Medicine". Confirming Phil's knowledge by digging out my copy and checking in the TPL Guide

A big thanks to both of you...