Ron Smith destroys the Forth Bridge

[Trout]

BOOOOOOOOM!




Here's an eBay find I thought the board would enjoy.

I picked up a bundle of French reprints of DC Thomson comics. They're branded as King Cobra, although you only get a few pages of Ron Smith-drawn, snake-themed superheroics and a lot of back-up strip. Mind you, the back-ups are often great fun, and include work by Redondo and yet more by Ron Smith, including the Forth Bridge destruction seen above.

One thing's for sure: this fella's not happy about it.




The story seems to be about a high-powered alien's visit to Earth. He appears to be pretty evil because he goes around destroying all sorts of landmarks, including the Scottish one above. I expect that caused much amusement in DC Thomson's Dundee offices.

The covers of these comics are all by Ron, and they're all great.




Take a look at the perspective on this one. It reminded me of a very similar scene with Judge Dredd.




Anyway, I hope everyone gets a kick out of seeing this stuff, especially with the Ron Smith signing coming up soon. The man's a genuine hero - as a Second World War Spitfire pilot - and a fascinating artist because of the quality of work he could produce at speed. My favourite thing to do in charity shops and car boot sales in the UK was to root around the old annuals in search of Ron Smith art.

I'll finish with the back cover of one of these digest-sized comics. Clearly, a French publisher had bought the reprint rights for a whole pile of characters, so we get strips from different stables all on one page. Great fun!



Sorry about the crappy pics. I had to use a phone.

Cheers

- Trout

[Richmond Clements]

That's great!

Also - King Cobra is BACK in Strip Magazine..!

[Greg M.]

The story seems to be about a high-powered alien's visit to Earth. He appears to be pretty evil because he goes around destroying all sorts of landmarks, including the Scottish one above. I expect that caused much amusement in DC Thomson's Dundee offices.

This was clearly quite a popular leisure activity for evil alien chaps of a certain vintage - the Deathlords of Nox blow the bridge up in 'Doomlord' by causing a plane to crash into it too.

[Trout]

That's great!

Also - King Cobra is BACK in Strip Magazine..!

I didn't know that! I'm glad to hear it. He was an inspiration for "King Trout"...

[Banners]

Also - King Cobra is BACK in Strip Magazine..!

Gah. Spoilers!

[Colin YNWA]

Its a shame those reprints of UK characters from Titan didn't get more momentum behind them (The Spider and Steel Claw) as there's a few characters I'd love to see reprinted and the more I see of it the more King Cobra heads that pile.

[Jim_Campbell]

Fantastic stuff. Thanks, Trout...!

Cheers

Jim

[Richmond Clements]

Also - King Cobra is BACK in Strip Magazine..!

Gah. Spoilers!

A bigger or smaller one than the cover..?

[Proudhuff]

Nice one Troutpout, I do wonder about your secrective and strange life amongst the Quebecois, now we know 

[Banners]

Gah. Spoilers!

A bigger or smaller one than the cover..?

But the cover says "But who is he?". Now we know!

;-)