Starlord Annual 1981

Brian Bolland draws the cover for this annual, featuring Starlord revealing Ro-Jaws, the Gronk, Johnny Alpha, Hammerstein, Ardeni Lakam, Na-Rutha, James Blocker, Suzie Cho and two more figures from under his purple and gold cloak. Both Ardeni and the Gronk are doing the 'hands held up to the head denoting psychic powers being used' that …

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2000AD Annual 1979

Kevin O'Neill provides the cover featuring two green aliens one threatening a woman in a skin-tight spacesuit and another being shot by some kind of cyborg. Thankfully the image stands on its own - i.e. there's no Supercover Saga copy inside the annual to detail what's going on. On the contents page is what might …

2000AD Prog 81: Dan Dare Guardian of the Galaxy

Art honours go to Dave Gibbons and is the one with Dare swooping towards us in a space suit above a planet. In the Nerve Centre, Tharg plugs the new series of Flesh in an answer to a letter about the Loch Ness Monster (and gives away the ending - or at least gives a …

Prog 39: Get it through your thick skull, Earthman… we don’t have pointed ears!

Looks like Ewins and McCarthy again with a fairly eye-catching cover, probably their best yet. Off the top of my head it'll be a few years until they become truly excellent artists, so I'll shut up about it for the time being. Judge Dredd: The Ape Gang makes their first appearance. The first time I …

Prog 38: Killer rock!

Did I mention that I think Trev Goring can do great, atmospheric artwork that induces feelings of tension and distrust? Unfortunately this cover is not well-suited to such a style. The space snake creature is a fine enough design though the spaceship is a sphere with legs. Colour does nothing for this image (trying to …