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[K1ngcat]

Hi people!

I'm K1ngcat, the Australian Panther's asked me to fill in for a fortnight. He'a noticed me posting complimentary stuff about UK SF artist Ron Turner and suggested I offer up one of his works for your consideration, so I've chosen this one: 

Rick Random's Manhunt Through Space : Super Detective Library #90 (UK Comics)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=74149

It's a great yarn, introducing a Space Pirate, a Cat Lady, Lee Chong, Dr. M'Bwango, and Charlie, plus a host of fantastic aliens.
I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think.

Cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

Nice story, good artwork.

I do kind of roll my eyes at the cliched "prove the convicted person innocent" story. It turns up in fiction so much that it tends to undercut the whole process of the original investigation of the crime, and the competency of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries, but it does introduce a deadline (pun intended) that the hero has to work against.

It's interesting to read old science fiction stories created before we even went into space and look at it with what we now know. For instance I was kind of disappointed that nobody's hair spread out when they entered the no-grav sleep room, but the artist had no idea that that would happen.

[Captain Audio]

It's interesting to read old science fiction stories created before we even went into space and look at it with what we now know. For instance I was kind of disappointed that nobody's hair spread out when they entered the no-grav sleep room, but the artist had no idea that that would happen.

To be fair in those days hair care products had so much laquer in them that you could bounce a brick off the average hairdoo.

[paw broon]

Yes, Brylcreem and Brilliantine ruled back then.  RAF pilots were called The Brylcreem Boys.

[K1ngcat]

For all the misunderstandings about zero gravity, I'm more disturbed by the fact our brave new world still has a death penalty!  Still on the plus side it's a bit more multi cultural than many 50s & 60s images of the future, and the women are allowed to be intelligent as well as attractive. Paw broon's right about the Brylcreem though.   

[crashryan]

K1ngcat, comic heroes on this side of the Atlantic must have imported Brylcreem by the tubful. Especially the gentlemen over at Quality comics. I don't know who started the trend  (Bill Ward, perhaps?), but dark-haired men wore cast metal hair with highlights so bright that they probably shone patterns on the ceiling! The romance-mag fellows were the worst offenders. If one of their blue-haired lotharios had jumped upward he probably would have stuck to the ceiling.

[The Australian Panther]

but dark-haired men wore cast metal hair with highlights so bright that they probably shone patterns on the ceiling! 

I'm thinking Superman? Kirk Alyn? George Reeves? Christopher Reeve?
Check out Gerard Christopher [Superboy] here. Awesome!
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-superman-actors/ranker-entertainment

Cheers!

[Captain Audio]

but dark-haired men wore cast metal hair with highlights so bright that they probably shone patterns on the ceiling! 

I'm thinking Superman? Kirk Alyn? George Reeves? Christopher Reeve?
Check out Gerard Christopher [Superboy] here. Awesome!
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-superman-actors/ranker-entertainment

Cheers!

Takes a lot of pomade to maintain that look after crossing continents at hypersonic velocities.

At my age I can remember how dad and men of his generation had much the same look and lathered on whatever hair oil they used to keep it in place.
In the 60's I went from Vitalis to Command hair dressing.
Interesting side note.
During WW2 and the Korean conflict it was found that the standard grease used to lubricate the M1 Garand rifle became hardened by sub zero temperatures, causing the operating handle to break when the first shot was fired. Front line troops found their own fix for the problem, they poured Vitalis hair oil on the Op Rod before going into battle.

[SuperScrounge]

To be fair in those days hair care products had so much laquer in them that you could bounce a brick off the average hairdoo.

LOL! 

Okay, why didn't her skirt flare out? Whalebone rods holding it in place? 

[K1ngcat]

To be fair in those days hair care products had so much laquer in them that you could bounce a brick off the average hairdoo.

LOL! 

Okay, why didn't her skirt flare out? Whalebone rods holding it in place? 

Well why not? If you check out a later Rick Random story you'll find we're still eating whales in the 23rd or whatever century. All dem bones gotta go somewhere!

[gregjh]

Looking forward to reading these.

[bowers]

 This was a great choice, K1ngcat. I've downloaded many Super Detectives from this site and elsewhere and am trying to find time to read them! Usually, I'll start by reading all the issues of one character, and then move on to another. I hadn't read any Rick Random and was expecting a Flash Gordon knockoff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case.
The art was definitely the book's strong point. The aliens were so imaginatively rendered and such fun to view. The plot got a little disjointed and repetitive with all the jumping from planet to planet, especially when we could figure out the "surprise killer" quite early in the story.
All-in-all, a fun and enjoyable read. Cheers, Bowers
 

[K1ngcat]

The art was definitely the book's strong point. The aliens were so imaginatively rendered and such fun to view. The plot got a little disjointed and repetitive with all the jumping from planet to planet, especially when we could figure out the "surprise killer" quite early in the story.
All-in-all, a fun and enjoyable read. Cheers, Bowers

Thanks Bowers, the Rick Randoms drawn by Ron Turner, which fortunately are in the majority, definitely outclass the few rendered by other artists, and it was hard to know which one to feature. I'd definitely recommend trawling through the rest of the Randoms and enjoying more of Turner's imaginative future world.

Cheers
K1ngcat

[gregjh]

I'll be honest, I didn't finish this one. I found the artwork to be of very high quality: the faces of each character are distinctive and defined, the scope of each panel appears to my amateur mind to be instinctively accurate. What I didn't enjoy is the plot. I can't put my finger on exactly why I didn't enjoy it: at first I felt the space setting was a gimmick, and that the whole plot could have taken place on Earth without any real changes. To be fair though, the extraterrestrial and futuristic setting become more prominent as the story progressed.

I think that in fairness, I cannot judge the comic impartially. I had no prior knowledge or nostalgia for it so I was comparing it to masterpieces of modern SciFi such as the Mass Effect video games or The Expanse TV series. These comparisons are completely unfair for obvious reasons.

But as always, I feel enriched by the discovery of quality artwork and a little education on scifi creations of times past. Thank you!

[K1ngcat]

I'll be honest, I didn't finish this one.

But as always, I feel enriched by the discovery of quality artwork and a little education on scifi creations of times past. Thank you!

Sorry it didn't entirely float your boat, gregjh, but at least it ticked some of your boxes! I think the giveaway is that the Rick Random stories all feature in Super Detective Library so the detection element is paramount. Still, it is a product of its time and genre, and being an old fart, the nostalgia aspect does a lot for me!  Thanks for trying though.

K1ngcat

[The Australian Panther]

I do kind of roll my eyes at the cliched "prove the convicted person innocent" story. It turns up in fiction so much that it tends to undercut the whole process of the original investigation of the crime, and the competency of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries,   

It turns up in real life quite a bit too. it's a good plot device. You not only have to tell a story, but have the reader care about the narrative, so developing a convincing wronged and sentenced person works, and they do that well here.

I'm more disturbed by the fact our brave new world still has a death penalty! 

Well, that subject could make a Science Fiction all by itself, and I think it has at times.

I'll be honest, I didn't finish this one. I found the artwork to be of very high quality: the faces of each character are distinctive and defined, the scope of each panel appears to my amateur mind to be instinctively accurate. What I didn't enjoy is the plot. I can't put my finger on exactly why I didn't enjoy it: at first I felt the space setting was a gimmick, and that the whole plot could have taken place on Earth without any real changes.

Quite right in all that.
The story is very basic and clearly Ron Turner is more interested in using the story as a basis for depicting his imaginary world than the plot itself. And what a world it is. Even in a Flash Gordon story, the art is used to drive the narrative. Here the narrative is used to create the art. But Turner is also very good with drawing people including 'Good Girl' art.

In late 1954, Fleetway's SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY which had been running sf stories, began a series called Rick Random - Space Detective  and editor, Ted Holmes, impressed with Turner's work, decided to try him out on the character. With the many design opportunities for spacecraft and machines, Turner soon warmed to the series and gradually began to make it his own, adding new ideas to the artwork to improve the story. In this, Turner had found the ideal comic strip. No longer did he have to provide covers, scripts and lettering but simply to produce the artwork for well-written stories, which he would enhance as he felt necessary. The series lasted five years, and together with Space Ace, represents some of his finest work of the 50's.

I really enjoyed this, to appreciate it, take your time and enjoy that great imaginative art.
Check out page #29 where they receive a MFF - MicroFotoFax. A Fax? in the early 1950's? Did he make that up from his imagination?
I wondered if, like Dave Gibbons, Turner had trained as an architect, but I can find no evidence for that.
The Random series is crying out for a CB+ Archive.
Here is a bio.
http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/UKComics/RonTurner/RonTurnerBiography.html
It also seems Turner did some Star Trek.
https://www.startrekcomics.info/uktosstrips.html
and The Daleks

But in 1965 he was tempted by an invitation to work on The Daleks for TV21 comic. This would be the first colour comic strip Turner had ever worked on and although it would also be time-consuming, he found he couldn't turn down the opportunity to draw sf again. The result was some of the most stunning work he'd produced for years. Having only the Daleks to portray accurately, the rest was a tour-de-force of his prolific imagination with the design of spacecraft, machines and strange creatures, set against fantastic backdrops. Left to his own devices, layouts and colour techniques were also given consideration as he experimented with different presentations of overlapping frames, open frames and almost three-dimensional ones as spaceships blasted out of the page towards the reader.

Here is the Dalek collection
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6556679-doctor-who
Fantastic stuff.
I think I have this collection but a more recent edition.
And the Gerry Anderson properties.

in 1968, TV21 came knocking once more, this time for strips based on their definitive series, Thunderbirds. The work was for a Summer Special but ultimately lead to related strips and over the next few years he worked exclusively on all the Gerry Anderson annuals including Stingray, Captain Scarlet  and Joe 90.

And Dan Dare

in 1985, Turner took on his fabled rival Frank Hampson and revived 'Dan Dare' for the new series of Eagle. Ron Turner died at the age of 76 on 19 December 1998.

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/turner_r.htm
Terrific body of work!
Not sure that Rick Random isn't his magnum opus, best body of work!
Thank you Kingcat. Excellent choice. If you have anything else you might like to feature, please PM me.
Cheers!
Something new tomorrow night!       

[Captain Audio]

I do kind of roll my eyes at the cliched "prove the convicted person innocent" story. It turns up in fiction so much that it tends to undercut the whole process of the original investigation of the crime, and the competency of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries,   

It turns up in real life quite a bit too. it's a good plot device. You not only have to tell a story, but have the reader care about the narrative, so developing a convincing wronged and sentenced person works, and they do that well here.

Ever hear of this?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Court_of_Last_Resort

[The Australian Panther]

Captain,
thanks for this. Love Earl Stanley Gardner, but more the non-Perry Mason works, of which there are many.
Here is a link to some of the episodes of that show.
court of last resort tv series
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=court+of+last+resort+tv+series+

Cheers!   

[K1ngcat]

The Random series is crying out for a CB+ Archive.
Here is a bio.
http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/UKComics/RonTurner/RonTurnerBiography.html
It also seems Turner did some Star Trek.
https://www.startrekcomics.info/uktosstrips.html
and The Daleks

Here is the Dalek collection
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6556679-doctor-who
Fantastic stuff.
I think I have this collection but a more recent edition.
And the Gerry Anderson properties.

And Dan Dare

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/turner_r.htm
Terrific body of work!

Something new tomorrow night!       

Thanks for all the Turner info, Panther, and for giving me the opportunity to draw attention to his work. downthetubes.net features a recent compilation of Turner's work under the title "Ron Turner's Beyond" colourised by John Ridgeway which looks tempting. I have seen the short-lived TitBits SF Comic and it's as impressive as his work on Rick Random, if you can track it down anywhere.

Thanks to all who've contributed, it's been fun, with Panther's permission I might do it again sometime. 

Cheers
K1ngcat