Sam Glanzman Combat Collection: Dunkirk Preview Pages

 

 

Want to see a little more before you commit to funding in the 250+ page Sam Glanzman Combat collection? The good folks at It's Alive have you covered! 

Here's some preview pages from the Dunkirk story.

 

Click HERE to back COMBAT on Indiegogo

PEARL HARBOR • DUNKIRK • MIDWAY • BATTLE FOR BRITAIN • D-DAY 250+ pages of WWII greatness!

 

We are proud to announce the first COMBAT collection by Sam Glanzman. This includes Pearl Harbor, Dunkirk, Midway, Battle for Britain, and D-Day. Over 250 pages of WWII greatness! Plus, three cover galleries, including all the great retro covers from the 1960's, plus the new variant covers by Dave Dorman, Walter Simonson, Russ Heath, John McCrea, and Russ Braun. 

 

Dunkirk variant cover by Walter Simonson

 

We also included all the essays, old and new, about WWII and Sam Glanzman. And each comic book page in this collection has been brilliantly cleaned up and restored by the talented restoration artist Allan Harvey!  We currently have 48 backers, and we need 77 more backers to raise $5000, so we can print and ship this 250+ hardcover collection, and we are asking $40 per book. We also have hard covers available for $60, signed by Sam Glanzman's widow, Sue Glanzman. 

 

CLICK HERE TO BACK THE COMBAT COLLECTION CAMPAIGN

 

 

There's a LOT more info (and images) on the campaign page.

 

 

To add a little context, Sam Glanzman, a WWII veteran, enjoyed a long career in comics. In addition to his military stories, he also had a gift for fantasy. He drew Hercules and Tarzan for Charleton, Savage Tales for Marvel, Turok Dinosaur Hunter for Acclaim, and Zorro for Topps. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have no history with It's Alive, and cannot vouch for their products, service, or reliability. Still, if you're a fan of any of those classic series, you might enjoy contributing to this project, and seeing Glanzman's WWII stories.

 

Dragon Dave

Tangled River #1 Preview Pages

Here's a sneak peek at a contemporary comic, published by the good folks at It's Alive.

Tangled River is an all-ages science fiction story, told from the point of view of Tanya, an artistic teen growing up in a space colony on a distant Earth-like world sometime in the future.

 

Earth colonies have been set up across the planet, but a mysterious event ten years previously has wiped out all technology. Tanya is one of the small group of children born on this planet, who have never seen any of the technological wonders that their parents once took for granted. Now at age 14, her life consists of school, chores, taking care of her sick mom, and hanging out with her rebellious best friend, Licorice. All that changes when she sees a mysterious flaming object in the sky.

 

Tangled River #1 Cover A by Michael Cohen

 

The heart of the tale is Tanya’s relationship with her mother and friend, especially when both join her as part of an expedition to find the remains of the ship that brought them here from Earth. It’s a coming-of-age story, told as a memoir, as Tanya struggles to find her identity in a society where she isn’t highly valued.

 

Tangled River #1 Cover B by Jenni Gregory

 

Each issue of TANGLED RIVER features a standard cover by Michael Cohen and a variant cover by Jenni (DREAMWALKER) Gregory! 

 

Here's a preview of the first five pages of Tangled River #1.

 

If you enjoyed this preview, you can download the first two issues for free, but only in the next couple days.

 

DOWNLOAD TANGLED RIVER #1 & #2:

 

If you like them, please consider picking up print copies from your local comic ship, or you can order them from our online store HERE.

 

Many thanks to the good folks at It's Alive, for giving us a look at the comics they publish.

Dragon Dave

Sam Glanzman Combat Collection: D-Day Preview Pages

 

From the Pages of Combat by Sam Glanzman

Recently, the good folks at It's Alive sent me an email asking for assistance. I've never dealt with them personally, but as I know my readers enjoy my musings on older novels, I thought I'd pass along their write-up, along with preview pages and some stunning variant covers from today's leading comic artists. Enjoy!

PEARL HARBOR • DUNKIRK • MIDWAY • BATTLE FOR BRITAIN • D-DAY

250+ pages of WWII greatness!

 

We are proud to announce the first COMBAT collection by Sam Glanzman. This includes Pearl Harbor, Dunkirk, Midway, Battle for Britain, and D-Day. Over 250 pages of WWII greatness! Plus, three cover galleries, including all the great retro covers from the 1960's, plus the new variant covers by Dave Dorman, Walter Simonson, Russ Heath, John McCrea, and Russ Braun. We also included all the essays, old and new, about WWII and Sam Glanzman. We currently have 41 backers, and we need 80 more backers to raise $5000, so we can print and ship this 250+ hardcover collection, and we are asking $40 per book. We also have hard covers available for $60, signed by Sam Glanzman's widow, Sue Glanzman. 

 

CLICK HERE TO BACK THE COMBAT COLLECTION CAMPAIGN

 

 Here's some Preview Pages from D-Day

 

Here's some newly commissioned variant covers for this Combat Collection

 

Pearl Harbor by Dave Dorman

Dunkirk by Walter Simonson

Midway by Russ Heath

Battle For Britain by John McCrea

D-Day by Russ Braun

We really need your support to get these comics by Glanzman collected, and out to a larger audience through book (not just comic book) distribution. We hope you will grab a copy of the COMBAT HC collection. And please spread the word to anyone you think would be interested in supporting war comics and/or Sam Glanzman. Thank you so much!

 

CLICK HERE TO BE ONE OF THE 80 BACKERS WE STILL NEED
TO PUBLISH THE COMBAT COLLECTION!

 

 

To add a little context, Sam Glanzman, a WWII veteran, enjoyed a long career in comics. In addition to Combat for Dell, he also worked on GI Combat and Sgt Rock for DC, and Semper Fi for Marvel.

 

Also very cool: he drew a four-part adaptation of Irwin Allen's movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea! 

I have no connection with It's Alive, and cannot vouch for their products, service, or reliability. Still, if you're a fan of any of those classic series, you might enjoy contributing to this project, and seeing Glanzman's WWII stories.

 

Dragon Dave

 

 

 

 

James Herriott on Tristan Farnon

The World of James Herriot, Thirsk, UK

 

In his novel All Creatures Great and Small, writer James Herriot paints an intriguing portrait of his younger colleague Tristan Farnon. Unlike in the 1970s TV series, we don't see his first arrival in town by train. Instead, Tristan hitchhikes his way home from veterinary college in Edinburgh.* When James picks him up at a cafe on the Great North Road, Tristan carries his own luggage out to the car, instead of expecting James to carry it. 

As in the TV series, Tristan gets on well with older folks. There are, for example, his fellow members of the Darrowby Bellringers Society. But there is also old Boardman, a character not featured in the TV series. 

The old man, a WWI veteran, serves as gardener for Siegfried. Although he's friendly with James, Tristan is the one whom he's most taken with. Perhaps it's the youthful high spirits that prompt Tristan to ride a bike through Skeldale House while performing his errands. 

 

The back garden of "Skeldale House"

 

I suspect that easygoing Tristan possesses vast stores of patience, and is a good listener. Old Boardman always welcomes Tristan into his little gardening headquarters, whereas, according to Herriot, few others are ever invited. There, surrounded by his tools and Bairnsfather cartoons, the veteran regales Tristan with his wartime adventures.

Tristan may be training to be a veterinarian, but he also loves to study personalities. When Siegfried strongarms him into caring for the chickens, he spectacularly fails to do so regularly enough to produce eggs. Yet on the occasions he does feed them, he studies them intensely, learning to distinguish each by sounds and mannerisms.

When Tristan is forced to feed the pigs Siegfried buys, he finds himself attracted to the piglets. Yet as they mature, and trade in their youthful personalities for increased girth and determination to consume, his affection for and interest in them wanes. Perhaps Tristan missed his calling as a psychologist?

Additionally, despite not always doing well at university, Tristan possesses a keen mind for facts. James Herriot finds it humiliating to do the daily newspaper at Skeldale House, as Tristan can finish them in the time it takes James to fill in one answer.

Actor Peter Davison (Tristan) visits the real "Skeldale House"**

All these little observations that James Herriot puts into his novel may not be at odds with the Tristan that we saw on our TV screens in the original All Creatures Great and Small series, but they do enhance our understanding of him. Or at least, the fictional character based on Brian Sinclair, as chronicled by James Herriot, the pen name of veterinarian Alf Wight. 

Perhaps sometime I'll have to watch the 2020 TV series, and see how they portray Tristan in the updated show.

Dragon Dave

*That's a 180 mile journey. Given the state of the roads back then, I wonder how long it would have taken him to reach Thirsk (Darrowby), and if he managed it in one day.

**Photo from The World of James Herriot, Thirsk, UK