Day Of Reckoning - Part 2

Here is another installment from one of the greatest U.K. pocket war comics never reprinted (there are some other gems as well which I might lay on you at some point).

I did ask Ian Kennedy if he used plastic kits much in his aeronautical artwork, but no he didn't, he had made the kits in his younger days but really it was photographic reference from aviation books by William Green and MacDonald that provided much of the grist to bringing this superb script to life.

That and Kennedy's thwarted ambition to be a pilot propelling his imagination into the flak torn skies that helped push stories such as "Day of Reckoning" into the premier league.

Artwork  © IPC Media 2010


For more Kennedy artistry check out "Aces High" edited by Steve Holland.

Day Of Reckoning - An Ian Kennedy Masterpiece from 1961!

"Day of Reckoning" appeared in issue 53 of the Fleetway Air Ace pocket libraries with cover art by Pino Delorco in the summer of 1961. The exact source of the script is frustratingly unknown but the quality of the writing and the little nuances of detail suggest a writer that had seen active service during the conflict that is so powerfully evoked in the pages you are about to read. This is one of the most captivating of the Air Ace series and one which slipped through the net in the recent Prion Book reprints.

The artwork is also second to none, the pages that you will shortly be absorbed in represent artist Ian Kennedy at the peak of his form. For this story and it's predecessor "Fighter, Fighter", Kennedy went above and beyond the call of duty, working long into the night, immersing himself in all the relevant photographic reference required to convincingly evoke the atmosphere and tension that the script demanded.

As with "Fighter, Fighter" Kennedy even signed key frames, something which was actively discouraged by the editors at Fleetway and in this case, they were alerted enough to ensure that a studio "bodger" opaqued out Kennedy's distinctive signature (check out page 23 when it appears).

"Day of Reckoning" represents for me at least a moment of real magic, when a superb script is brought to life by an artist who is going well beyond the requirements of fulfilling a brief, the sheer energy and passion that Kennedy brings to every panel of this story reveals an artist truly at one with his subject.

As I've said before - comics don't get any better than this...

Artwork  © IPC Media 2010

For more Kennedy artistry check out "Aces High" edited by Steve Holland.

Clash TV

As some of you will doubtless recall I did post a lovely clip of St Ettienne performing "Le Poupait Qui Fait Non, Non, Non" on this blog a short while ago. The performance in question appeared on the Jools Holland Show when the studio in which the acts performed was a lot less bling than what you get on the same show these days. In fact The Jools Holland Show just doesn't look effed up enough any more and every time i check it out it all seems to have got too safe and predictable.

 More opium for the middle classes, I want to see everything looking scuzzy and degraded but all I get is Kate Nash or The Mumfords and some lovely studio lighting.

All of which is a million miles away from this:



Notice that you really don't notice the backdrop much beyond what the band have brought with themselves, all you notice is the band and the performance in all it's art rock passion.

The guy that filmed it was I believe a young German Clash enthusiast and he did it all on one cam, he gets so carried away with the filming that he ends up on stage with the lads until Mr Strummer guides him into the wings by shoving his microphone stand into his chest.



There are still bands this passionate and edgy out there it would be good to see a few more of them get some TV exposure as well as the safer stuff.

Lovers Angst Revisited

Patrick Wright is without doubt one of the UK's greatest cartoonists, his razor sharp wit combined with his ability to focus on minute details pertinent to his narrative produce humor that still has the ability to make you laugh every time you revisit his work.

Here's some more sublime artworks from "Affairs of the Heart".

La Poupee Qui Fait Non

I can remember seeing this on The Jools Holland Show in 1993 and it was my first introduction to St Ettiene, who rather perversely chose to perform a cover version of a song by Michel Polnareff, titled "La Poupee Qui Fait Non, Non, Non".



Exquisite performance and here with a dash of true Gallic eccentricity is the video that was made to promote this song when Polnareff, who indeed did "wear some dodgy suits" released the song in 1966. Whereas Polnareff's sartorial gender bending was something of a style statement, the shades were more of a necessity as Polnareff was dogged by exceedingly light sensitive eyesight, which eventually required him to undergo cataract surgery at the relatively early age of fifty.



Both videos are engaging and whereas the original is truly bizarre, the St Ettiene rendition complete with drummer that looks as if he has only recently been dragged from his bed, is hauntingly beautiful.

More of the Wright Stuff!

These exquisite and perverse illustrations come from another collection of Patrick Wright cartoons, which appeared in 1992 under the title "Worthless Pursuits". They were drawn a lot larger than the measly size that the publisher opted for, so I've scanned them in at hi-res so you can savor every sublimely sordid detail.