British Comics

Bryan Talbot’s new graphic novel, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor, a prequel to his Grandville saga, will be published in September in France and in November in the UK.

With top-hat and cane in hand, Detective Inspector Stamford Hawksmoor shadows the murky backstreets of London on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.

In the dying days of the French occupation of Britain, through gaslit, cobbled streets and squalid alleyways, stalks the great eagle Detective Stamford Hawksmoor in search of the homicidal manic whose killing spree claims dozens of seemingly unconnected victims, from random murders to targeted political assassinations.

Although cover dated 26th February 1977, today marks the 48th Anniversary of the launch of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, 2000AD! I think most readers of downthetubes will agree it’s one of the most vital and important British comics in the history of the medium, and one which still publishes mind-blowing new stories – every single week.

That said, the team behind the comic are often asked, “How do I start reading 2000AD?” and you can see why – it can be daunting to look at Rebellion’s vast library and wonder where you should actually start! With that in mind, they’ve curated a “starter pack” list of their finest current collections, available from all good book and comic shops, and digitally, too. If you want to try 2000AD, start with any of these!

Alongside, Rebellion have also included classic stories featuring some of our most famous characters, purely in the interest of looking to spread the word of 2000AD further, of course, and not because they want to give anyone a real dose of Thrill Power Overload….

So, let’s see what the team picked. Which 2000AD thrills would you choose to introduce new readers to the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic? Ace Garp? Dan Dare? The Ballad of Halo Jones? RoboHunter? Ian Why not comment below?

MODERN 2000AD CLASSICS:

• Brink: Book One
• Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt
• Dreadnoughts: Book One
• Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man
• Lawless: Book One
• The Out: Book One
• Thistlebone: Book One

CLASSIC CHARACTERS

• Judge Anderson: Satan
• Judge Dredd: Vs Death
• Nemesis The Warlock: The World of Termight
• Rogue Trooper: Genetic Infantryman
• Sláine: The Horned God
• Strontium Dog: The Galaxy Killers
• Zenith: Phase One

Celebrating 50 years of Battle in 2025, Pat Mills, the creator of 2000AD, has launched his successor to “Charley’s War”, “Ragtime Soldier”, drawn by Gary Welsh and Phillip Vaughan, which first appeared in an eleven-page story in the Great War Dundee anthology, published in 2019.

The crowdfunder continues the story, including the original tale (still available to download from Millsverse here), delivering a 48 page adventure in the style of “Charley’s War” the groundbreaking antiwar story first published in Battle.

The Kickstarter offers the best price for this book, which is curated by ComicScene.

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“I had discovered so much more since writing ‘Charley’s War’, “Pat reveals. “So in Ragtime Soldier we relate these new and darkest stories of World War One. Stories that no one has dared to tell before and will never be dramatized anywhere else. How our soldiers were given drugs to send them over the top, and how they became desperate addicts after the war. How there was provable trading between the British and the German enemy, in order to keep a conflict going that made millions in profits for the arms manufacturers.

“Ragtime Soldier has the same comedy, comradeship, heroism and tragedy as ‘Charley’, but it has exciting differences too,” Pat continues. “We now see the war from a heart-warming Scottish and Dundee perspective, the city where I started my writing career, and with a Scottish creative and publishing team behind it. And we also discover the sinister events that happened after the war on the Home Front.

A 17-year-old from Barnstaple has had a graphic novel commissioned by a Devon arts organisation.

Aaban Aslam was doing work experience in Beaford Arts' photographic archive when staff realised he had a talent for drawing.

Beaford has paid him to create the first chapter of The Widening Gyre as a pilot, and has published it on its website.

The adventure story is inspired by the North Devon landscape and folklore, in addition to the photographic work of James Ravillious and the Oscar-winning cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins, whose early works are in Beaford's collection.

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When Aaban started his work experience in Year 10, he was not doing GCSE art.

The education team at Beaford spoke to the art teacher at his college and he submitted his work for the graphic novel as coursework and completed the course in just four months, gaining top marks.

Beaford Arts director Mark Wallace said when people came for work experience staff asked them what they wanted to be after school.

Aaban was very clear he wanted to work for Marvel Comics.

After looking at his portfolio, Mr Wallace said: "It's astonishing work... His sketches really capture North Devon in graphic novel form.

"We realised there was an opportunity there."

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Staff at Beaford Arts are looking for a publisher to work with them on the book when it is complete.

People can read the first chapter Beaford's website for free.

The organisation also plans to hold an exhibition of his work next year, once a new cultural hub it is developing with other partners in Barnstaple opens to the public.

This March, Stanley Arts are hosting Yo Comics!, the first South London Comics & Zine Fair for kids and by kids.

A free entry, family friendly event, Yo! Comics will be a day full of free workshops, free giveaways and the chance to meet some of your favourite kids comic book creators.

Comic creator stars from The Phoenix and published authors of your favourite comics will be at this special new event, including Gary Northfield, creator of “Derek the Sheep”, Neill Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Donut High), Tor Freeman Marc Jackson, Woodrow Phoenix, and many more. Also at the event is The Cartoon Museum, Comics Youth and other brilliant comics educators.

In a first for comics fairs, young people will also be joining in with these fine creators to sell their comics, with local schools and youth groups taking part.

The day’s workshops are hosted by the professionals themselves and will be for the 7-14 age range. The workshops will allow kids to make their own comics and cartoons which they can trade with other young comics creators.

For the best part of two decades now John-Paul Kamath’s London Horror Comic has been a staple of the UK small press circuit. Kamath’s stories have been illustrated by a number of collaborators, with the bulk of the issues providing complete-in-one tales. A rare thing for a numbered genre comic and something that makes LHC an easily accessible series for new readers.

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It’s really quite remarkable when you consider how LHC has been a constant for so many years in small press circles. Uncountable numbers of series and artists have come and gone in that time yet London Horror Comic has remained throughout. If genre fiction comics in the mould of US periodical comics are your thing, particular horror and supernatural books, then you won’t find a more consistently solid book than London Horror Comic.

Order

A woman from New Zealand has filed a civil lawsuit against bestselling British author Neil Gaiman and his estranged wife, musician Amanda Palmer, accusing Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she was working as the couple’s babysitter and nanny.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed the lawsuit in federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. Pavlovich previously publicly identified herself in an interview with New York magazine, which published an article in January detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled at Gaiman by multiple women.

Pavlovich’s lawsuit also accuses Gaiman of rape, coercion and human trafficking, and Palmer of “procuring and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.

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Pavlovich’s lawsuit states that she filed a police report in New Zealand, accusing Gaiman of sexual assault, but she alleges “the police took no action because Palmer refused to talk to them”.

Gaiman has worked with numerous publishers over the years. Two of them, HarperCollins and WW Norton, have said they have no plans to release his books in the future. Others, including Bloomsbury, have so far declined to comment.

Dark Horse Comics announced in January that it would no longer release its illustrated series based on Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The seventh of eight editions was released earlier that month.

A production of Coraline has been cancelled, while Disney has paused a planned adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Netflix is still scheduled to release a second season based on The Sandman, but announced last week it would be the last, in a statement that did not acknowledge the allegations against Gaiman.

The Shrewsbury-based illustrator, who was born in Wolverhampton, has captivated readers worldwide with his stunning artwork and imaginative storytelling, and recently released a number of comic books.

The Batman: First Knight came out in November last year and is available in hardback, in book shops including Waterstones and others including HMV.

Mike also worked with well-known writer Garth Ennis to create 'Freddie The Fix' which was released in December and is already highly-rated, and has worked with Oscar-winning writer John Ridley to release Justice League: The Atom Project, with the second issue set to come out next week after the first released last month.

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He said: "I was always reading comics, from a very early age I was always picking up comics. It just stemmed from that and I always wanted to do it from when I started reading.

"I think that is where the love of it comes from. A lot of stuff at that time was the Marvel reprint but then 2000 AD came out in 1977 and that was amazing, it blew my brain, especially because it was all done by an English publisher and it emphasised the possibilities.

"Even though I was only seven years old it emphasised in my brain that this is something I could do.

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Mike is continuing his work with the Justice League series and said he has three comics to complete.

Mike also revealed that there is talk about a sequel to The Batman: First Knight comic which may lead to another exciting project.

Local fans may also get a chance to meet Mike in the flesh this summer, as he is set to make an appearance at an event in Shrewsbury.

Learn more about his work at https://www.mikeperkinsart.com/.

Archive

Marvel Comics recently told the New York Times that they have "no new books forthcoming" from Neil Gaiman. Gaiman had written a number of comic book series for Marvel over the years, including Eternals and 1602. But most recently, that was just the republication, recreation and continuance of the series he had written for Eclipse Comics back in the nineties, Miracleman, and which had been tied up in legal problems for thirty years. After first republishing Alan Moore's original run, Marvel Comics then published Miracleman The Golden Age by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, as they had originally created it back then, followed by The Silver Age, which had been partially completed. Only for artist Mark Buckingham to radically redraw the entire arc from scratch, and take over more of the writing duties for its conclusion, to much acclaim. This was then to have been followed by the unpublished The Dark Age. Mark Buckingham would take the creative lead on the project, though based on discussions, deliberation and collaboration with Gaiman. But that seems no longer to be the case. I understand Buckingham ceased work on The Dark Age last summer and asked to be reassigned. He has recently been working on Amazing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics instead.

In his new Substack newsletter, Marvel's X-Men Group Editor, Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Tom Brevoort, when asked by Bleeding Cool regular Ray Cornwall, "What is the status of Miracleman: The Dark Age? Has the script been delivered? If so, is Mark currently working on it?" replied "At the moment, Ray, nothing is going on with THE DARK AGE. If something changes in that regard, I'm sure you'll hear about it." But that seems very unlikely right now.

Autistic comic book fans are being invited to participate in a Cambridge University study looking at how best to support neurodivergent people to enjoy cartoons.

The project, led by academics at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, aims to develop guidance to help make comic communities as inclusive and accessible as possible for autistic people.

Autistic people who enjoy comics, who are aged 18 and over and in the UK, are being invited to complete an online survey as the first part of the study.

Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.

It suggests that neurodivergent comic enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel “siloed”.

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“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” she said.

“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people.

...

The project, called The Collaboration For Comics And Autism, will work with partners including the CCIC and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

It will also work with specialist publisher Dekko Comics which supports neurodivergent learners, the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.

To complete the survey, see: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6F5yYUIr3AQzBky

The Good Omens Kickstarter was set up to fund the creation of a graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran of the Good Omens novel by Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A remarkably successful crowdfunding scheme, it raised £2,419,973 from 36,867 backers. The Terry Pratchett Estate, which runs the Good Omens Kickstarter, had offered refunds to donors after the original Tortoise Media allegations until last November. However, the estate now says that it "will no longer maintain this freeze in light of new articles and allegations. While we cannot speak further on the subject at present, we have chosen to reopen a short refund window for those who would no longer like to support the graphic novel until Friday, 7th February 2025."

They also state that "It has also been agreed that Neil Gaiman will not receive any proceeds from the graphic novel Kickstarter. Given the project management, production and all communication has always been under the jurisdiction of the Estate on behalf of Good Omens at large, this will not fundamentally change the project itself, however we can confirm the Kickstarter and PledgeManager will now fully be an entity run by, and financially connected to, the Terry Pratchett Estate only."

And for those who still want the book but might want to change the donor rewards, they say, "a number of tiers also come with author merchandise and books; we have been working on a system in the back end to remove or swap out particular rewards from tiers, should you wish to continue with the project, but not receive these specific items" and donors are encouraged to contact the Estate with their wishes. However, they state that those who received cameo appearances in the project cannot have them removed at this stage of the production process.

The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, created by writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence, is to get its first, stunning-looking new chapter in more than 40 years with New Adventures from the Trigan Empire by Michael Carroll and Tom Foster, launching in November from Rebellion.

Running for almost two decades in the pages of Ranger and Look and Learn, The Trigan Empire has influenced generations of storytellers, including renowned film-maker Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code).

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And now, for the first time since 1982 – the Trigan Empire rises once again…

From the award-winning creative team of writer Michael Carroll (Judge Dredd, Dreadnoughts) and artist Tom Foster (Judge Dredd), New Adventures from the Trigan Empire picks up the torch to continue the classic, comics story originally told by Butterworth and Lawrence, and others.

This brand new original graphic novel will be published on 18th November in a luxurious hardcover edition, with a special numbered webshop edition available exclusively from the 2000AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops.

The first Mersey Margins Collective Comics Fair taking place next month at Future Yard CIC in Birkenhead is shaping up into a smashing showcase for comic creators.

Organised entirely by young people through the Marginal Changemakers project, the event is set to champion diversity, inclusion, and community within the comics industry.

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance via Comics Youth Eventbrite.

Taking place on Saturday 15th February 2025, the day includes free workshops like “Comics and Mental Health” with Bex Ollerton and “Comics and Climate Justice” with Emma Reynolds. There’s also a panel on “Comics and Identity” featuring creators like Lewis Hancox and Julian Gray (subject of the solo Lowry exhibition “Stories for Us”), delving into how comics empower marginalised voices.

The event will also showcase the work of twelve early-career comics artists from across the Liverpool City Region will exhibit their work, including Cara Brown, named one of Broken Frontier’s 2025 “Six to Watch.”

They are:

• Kusama: Polka Dot Queen.
• Low: Bowie’s Berlin Days
• The Compleat Angler: A Graphic Adaptation

Editor’s note: This story contains content that readers may find disturbing, including graphic allegations of sexual assault.

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This past July, a British podcast produced by Tortoise Media broke the news that two women had accused Gaiman of sexual assault. S​ince then, more women have shared allegations of assault, coercion, and abuse. The podcast, Master, reported by Paul Caruana Galizia and Rachel Johnson, tells the stories of five of them. (Gaiman’s perspective on these relationships, including with Pavlovich, is that they were entirely consensual.) I spoke with four of those women along with four others whose stories share elements with theirs. I also reviewed contemporaneous diary entries, texts and emails with friends, messages between Gaiman and the women, and police correspondence. Most of the women were in their 20s when they met Gaiman. The youngest was 18. Two of them worked for him. Five were his fans. With one exception, an allegation of forcible kissing from 1986, when Gaiman was in his mid-20s, the stories take place when Gaiman was in his 40s or older, a period in which he lived among the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand. By then, he had a reputation as an outspoken champion of women. “Gaiman insists on telling the stories of people who are traditionally marginalized, missing, or silenced in literature,” wrote Tara Prescott-Johnson in the essay collection Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Although his books abounded with stories of men torturing, raping, and murdering women, this was largely perceived as evidence of his empathy.

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If you know nothing about BDSM, Gaiman’s claim that he was engaging in it with these women may sound plausible, at least in some cases. The kind of domineering violence he inflicted on them is common among people who practice BDSM, and all of the women, at some point, played along, calling him their master, texting him afterward that they needed him, even writing that they loved and missed him. But there is a crucial difference between BDSM and what Gaiman was doing. An acronym for “bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism,” BDSM is a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent to the overall dynamic as well as to each act before they engage in it. This, as many practitioners, including sex educators like Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy who wrote some of the defining texts of the subculture, have stressed over decades, is the defining line that separates BDSM from abuse. And it was a line that Gaiman, according to the women, did not respect. Two of the women, who have never spoken to each other, compared him to an anglerfish, the deep-sea predator that uses a bulb of bioluminescence to lure prey into its jaws. “Instead of a light,” one says, “he would dangle a floppy-haired, soft-spoken British guy.”

Archive - warning: it's tough going

First as part of our now retired ‘Small Pressganged’ feature, and now as an annual standalone feature, we have been running our ‘Ten UK Small Press Comics You Need to Own!’ round-up at Broken Frontier since 2012. Keeping up that tradition, here’s this year’s look back at some of the standout British self-published comics we covered over the last twelve months.

A quick reminder (and something we say every year) that this is not a “Best of” list, per se. Rather it’s an opportunity for us all to immerse ourselves in the creativity, imagination and invention of those working in the small press world, and to give an extra push to their practice, while celebrating the diversity of the self-published work on offer in the process. The focus this year is on solo creators or partnerships rather than anthologies, comics published by micropublishers or ongoing anthology-style series.

Rebellion has agreed a distribution deal to bring 2000AD to supermarkets across the UK, broadening the potential for sales of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.

2000AD has always been available to supermarkets for sale, but the publisher tells downthetubes the latest expansion, which began with the title’s Christmas issue, will run for a few months, to test sales in new locations. If a location sells their copies each week, then 2000AD will be added permanently to the weekly order – so the more people buy, the more we’ll see 2000AD expand into new stores!

The test followed requests by Rebellion’s distributor, because 2000AD is such a strong product.

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The sale of 2000AD in supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s is based on demand rather than on the chain, and whether or not the manager of a store has the shelf space and thinks there’s an audience for the comic at their particular location. It’s for this reason some supermarkets have always stocked 2000AD, because of local decision makers, but this new sales test is a welcome move, putting the comic in front of many more potential buyers.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22263288

Assuming you choose to believe Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law, then apparently the Fuhrer really did live in Liverpool between 1912 and 1913, staying with his half-brother Alois and family in an attempt to avoid conscription. Comics writer Grant Morrison took that basic premise and ran wild with it, producing a 48-page fantasia on Hitler's life that he gave to regular collaborator Steve Yeowell to draw. In 1989 it was serialised in a Scottish magazine called Cut, where it incurred the wrath of co-editor and Hue and Cry vocalist Pat Kane, who insisted the comic promoted fascism. The following year it had a UK-wide outing in Crisis, the lefty adult spinoff from 2000AD, only for the controversy to crank up all over again with accusations of Morrison actually being a Nazi. In the subsequent decade and a half, all attempts to republish the strip have failed, and these days Yeowell suspects that the original colour artwork doesn't even exist any more.

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Yeowell's black and white drawings show his usual skill at storytelling, even when depicting Morrison's wildest flights of fancy. But the art escalated to a whole other level in its Crisis reprint. A team of colourists led by another wildly talented artist - Nick Abadzis, whose beautifully observed Hugo Tate must be due for reappraisal by now - avoided the obvious approach of simply colouring in Yeowell's pictures, and used the emerging computer technologies to layer berserk collages of imagery on top of them. The fragmented mindscape of Hitler is even more vividly depicted in this version, as the disconnect between colour and linework becomes more and more extreme until, by the end, the final page's panels have images from the first page bleeding through them. Colourists rarely get the respect they deserve in comics reviews, and the work of Abadzis and crew deserves more respect than most.

The New Adventures Of Hitler may have a jokey title, and there are certainly laughs aplenty to be had from it: both in the bathetic portrayal of the young Hitler as just another one of Morrison's Neurotic Boy Outsiders, and in the satirical extremes of the depiction of his descent into insanity. But it still manages to send chills down your spine at all the right moments, culminating in the revelation that it's more the story of England than it is of Hitler.

Spank the Monkey

Wikipedia

2000 AD and publisher Rebellion had a bumper year on the comics front – a successful Kickstarter for romance anthology Roxy; a Gail Simone-led supernatural Misty special; a third series for Garth Ennis‘ war comic revival Battle Action; and celebrating 40 years of cult kids horror anthology Scream! with a hot-selling Archival Collection compiling every single issue of the beloved but short-lived British weekly plus an anniversary special of new material. 2000 AD also got some ‘special’ treatment – with a mashup themed Scifi Special – and the return of the 2000 AD Annual after 35 years. Plus the surprise news that a certain long-gestating movie adaptation had wrapped filming.

2024 was also a special one on another front — as The Beat’s own reviews editor Zack Quaintance took the plunge and became a regular reader, with weekly Prog Report instalments joining Wednesday Comics Reviews column. To also mark a year of Prog Report, Beat contributor and veteran reader (or “Squaxx dek Thargo”) Dean Simons discusses with Zack the Report’s genesis and the new reader experience, before they each select their highlights from the year.

Read on!

Not the whole game/comic, which is a superb creation from Al Ewing.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18623090

Many readers of Alan Moore—the prolific and influential author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Jerusalem, and, most recently, The Great When—are enchanted by the magic of his creative vision. For his next trick, The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, Moore would like you to come away with a respect for, and perhaps even a belief in, magic itself.

The 400+ page grimoire, coauthored with the late Steve Moore (no relation) and published by IDW’s Top Shelf Productions imprint, combines a lively and accessible history of ritual magic, practical guidance on how and why to use such techniques as tantra and Tarot, and amusing summaries of the lives of magical practitioners through the years—from Hermes Trismegistus to Alistair Crowley—done as single-page comics. Moore spoke with PW via email about the Bumper Book, magic, superheroes, and more.

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On the matter of the comic strip medium and its possible links to occult consciousness, however, I think there’s a much stronger case to be made: I believe it was during the 1980s that a Pentagon study concluded that the comic strip medium’s combination of pictures and words in sequence was the most efficient way of passing on complex information in a way that was likely to be retained. Unsurprised, but wondering why this might be, it occurred to me that the image, being preverbal, is the prevailing unit of currency in what used to be called our right brain, while the word is the prevailing currency of what used to be called our left brain. Might it be that the way we read comic strips engages these two “halves” of our brain on the same task, both at once?

In the Bumper Book, we propose that it was representational markings, or imagery, that gave us the key to written language, which in turn provided the key to modern consciousness, which our gradually dawning minds interpreted as magic. I suggest that the comic strip form, used correctly, can be a near-perfect medium for transmitting magical ideas, a bit like the poetic “language of the birds” that the alchemists construed as the ideal way to communicate concepts pertaining to alchemy. After all, our earliest cave-wall comic strips were probably intended magically.

Historically and even today, most people's conception of magic involves invoking supernatural forces to affect the outside world, and people typically either believe in it credulously or dismiss it as mumbo-jumbo. In The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, you make clear that the purpose and effect of these belief systems has mainly been to transform our inner selves and perceptions. How and why do you think these two distinct ideas got so muddled throughout history? Does magic have a PR problem?

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Amidst all this, we felt that any real human importance or social use for magic was being lost in a sea of either fatuous make-believe or Master of the Dark Arts theatrics. So, with the Bumper Book, we wanted to present what we hope are lucid, coherent and joined-up ideas on how and why the concept of magic originated and developed over the millennia, a theoretical basis for how it might conceivably work along with suggestions as to how it might practically be employed—and, perhaps most radically, a social reason for magic’s existence as a means of transforming and improving both our individual worlds, and the greater human world of which we are components. And we wanted to deliver this in a way that reflected the colorful, psychedelic, profound and sometimes very funny nature of the magical experience itself. That, we felt, would be the biggest and most useful rabbit to pull out of the near-infinite top hat that we believe magic to be.

A collection of TV adverts for comics and magazines like the Dandy, Bunty and Jackie are being shared online, more than half a century after they were made.

The 99 films were found in the basement of a building in Dundee owned by publisher DC Thomson.

DC Thomson used the ads to persuade readers to become regulars. Free gifts were common across all their titles.

A record of social history of the time, they also offer insight into the early days of commercial television advertising. The films - which date back to the 1950s and 60s - were discovered still in their cans.

Thanks to a partnership between DC Thomson and the National Library of Scotland (NLS), they have been restored and digitised and can be seen online at the Moving Image Archive.