Thursday, December 31, 2020

COLEY, Wild In The Street, Pt. 2

(Continued from COLEY, Wild In The Street)

The 2nd self-published Coley book by John Blackburn was a collection of short stories that apparently all took place sometime after his 6 weeks on Voodoo Island.

As I stressed with the 1st book, I don't own this work, and I'm cleaning up and coloring these stories purely FOR FUN.  But if circumstances present themselves where I am able to re-publish this work at some time, the FIRST thing I'd do would be to contact Blackburn's estate, find whoever it is that owns the Copyrights, and strike a deal to SPLIT any potential profits from such an undertaking.

In the meantime... ENJOY!

By the way, I finally finished cleaning up & coloring this story on 2-27-2022.

COLEY, WILD IN THE STREET
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN (John Blackburn / 1989)
Page 12  /  pin-up

Page 13  /  pin-up
"COLEY ON THE EDGE:  ROLLER BOOGIE HOTROD"

Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Page 21

Page 22

Page 23

"ROLLER BOOGIE HOTROD" is supposed to have been the 2nd Coley story published.  While John Blackburn self-published "COLEY: WILD IN THE STREETS" in 1989, the story also appeared in MEATMEN Volume 14  (Leyland Publications  /  December 1992).  The art was reproduced slightly smaller in this (at regular "comic-book size"), but there were also minor differences.  After all these years, I just noticed that Coley was not wearing the medallion around his neck as seen in "...STREETS", and, the dialogue in the final panel was completely different.  I suspect this was a reprint of the original version of the art, but if it was published by itself before "...STREETS", I have yet to find any information confirming it.

As you can see here, the story was originally intended as a stand-alone, while in the version collected in "...STREETS", Jessica decides she wants to "get" Coley.  This has unfortunate consequences in the stories that follow.

Page 24  /  pin-up
Copyright
(C) 1989 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2022 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.

For more:
Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!

(Continued in COLEY: Wild In The Street, Pt. 3)

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

COLEY, Wild In The Street

 (Continued from COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 3)

The 2nd self-published Coley book by John Blackburn was a collection of short stories that apparently all took place sometime after his 6 weeks on Voodoo Island.  At the moment, it's impossible to be sure when these were done, and over how much of a stretch of time.  I have read that the 1st story in the book, "Bus Ride", was the 1st Coley story that Blackburn did.

Blackburn's work appeared in a number of "men's" magazine, and I rather imagine some, if not all of these, were published much earlier than this book. 
If I can ever track this information down, I'll be sure to add to to my blog here, particularly the several-page overview I put together back in 2012!

As I stressed with the 1st book, I don't own this work, and I'm cleaning up and coloring these stories purely FOR FUN.  But if circumstances present themselves where I am able to re-publish this work at some time, the FIRST thing I'd do would be to contact Blackburn's estate, find whoever it is that owns the Copyrights, and strike a deal to SPLIT any potential profits from such an undertaking.

In the meantime... ENJOY!

COLEY, WILD IN THE STREET
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN   (John Blackburn  /  1989)


Title Page

Indicia Page

Page 1  /  pin-up

Page 2  /  "This is Coley"

Page 3  /  "Coley On The Edge"
COLEY ON THE EDGE
"BUS RIDE"
Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 4
Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

COLEY ON THE EDGE"BUS RIDE"  PART 2
Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Copyright (C) 1989 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2020 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa


For more:

Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!

(Continued in COLEY: Wild In The Street, Pt. 2)

Thursday, September 10, 2020

COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 3

(Continued from  COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 2)

Here we go with the final chapters of the "Origin" story of John Blackburn's Voodoo Sex-God character, Coley Cochran.  As far as I know, there's only 50 copies of this book that were printed, and I've been lucky to have one of them.

As I've re-read and processed these pages, I can't shake the feeling that they were done over a long stretch of time, possibly not even in the order they were printed.  I've read online somewhere that Blackburn created Coley sometime in the 1970s, yet this book was printed in 1989.  I've also read that he did work that appeared in a number of men's magazines.  I wonder if any of this was published before Blackburn put out this limited-editon book, and if so, when and where?

As I was polishing off this little side project for the blog, I kept thinking how much I wish Blackburn was still around.  I would have LOVED for him to see what I'm doing with his character.  Once again, if at some point I find myself in a position to RE-publish this, the first thing I would do is get in touch with his estate, to strike a deal to SPLIT any profits.  This is HIS character, after all, NOT mine!

In the meantime, I've still got a LOT of pages to clean up and COLOR.

ENJOY!

COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN   (John Blackburn  /  1989)
"VOODOO SEXGOD  Part 3  FIRE DANCER"   (Chapter 5)
     Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 26  /  "And now... the EPIC conclusion!"

Page 27
Page 28


Page 29
"FAREWELL TO VOODOO ISLAND"
  (Chapter 6)
Page 30

Page 31

Page 32

Page 33

Page 34  /  pin-up

Page 35  /  pin-up
John apparently cut up the original art when the books were printed and included a panel in the back of each copy.  Here's the one included in mine.

Page 36  /  original art panel



I recently saw the hilarious low-budget film, "KING OF THE ZOMBIES" (1941).  This horror-comedy, which starred Dick Purcell and John Archer as the obvious heroes, and Henry Victor as the villain, really had comic actor Mantan Moreland as its center of attention.  Also in the cast was Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Tahama, the old cook, who was an expert on VOODOO.  As soon as I laid eyes on her, it struck me she could well have been the model for the old woman in Blackburn's story.
Copyright
(C) 1989 JOHN BLACKBURN.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2020 HENRY R. KUJAWA.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa


For more:

Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!
Read COLEY: WILD IN THE STREET in COLOR!

(Continued in COLEY: Wild In The Street)

Friday, August 7, 2020

COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 2

(Continued from  COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 1

I probably read John Blackburn's COLEY books more times than most comics
I bought over the years.  From about the time I began buying comics regularly, in the early 1970s, I tended to read books once, then file them away, with few exceptions too busy buying and reading newer books to go back and re-read the earlier ones.  But since I walked in on the Coley series, like most people, in progress with the 1st Eros mini-series... somehow managed to miss the 2nd Eros series and buy the 3rd... and then eventually got the 2nd, and then the 3 limited-edition books that preceded the 1st Eros mini... I naturally wanted to go back and re-read all the stories in the proper sequence.

It still baffles me that Fantagraphics' Eros Comix imprint NEVER got around to publishing the 1st 3 Coley books, so more of his fans could read them.  Well, at the moment, I may be doing this purely for FUN... but I hope in my way, I'm making up for their short-sightendness.

"COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND" can be looked on as his "origin" story.  Especially the 2nd chapter.

ENJOY!

COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND
cover by JOHN BLACKBURN   (John Blackburn  /  1989)
"VOODOO SEX"   (Chapter 2)
     Story & Art by JOHN BLACKBURN
Page 12  /  "Our story continues..."
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17


"VOODOO SEX GOD"   (Chapter 3)
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
"VOODOO SEXGOD   Part 2"   (Chapter 4)
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Don't go away!  Our story will continue...

Copyrig
ht (C) 1989 John C. Blackburn.
New COLOR Copyright (C) 2020 Henry R. Kujawa.

Scans from MY collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about John Blackburn at the Prism Comics site.
Read about "Coley Running Wild" at the Graphic Novels Info site.
See my detailed indexes of these books at the GCD site.
See my COLEY overview at this very blog!
Read GreyIrish' review of "Dagger Of Blood" at the
     Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein blog.

Read COLEY ON VOODOO ISLAND in COLOR!

Don't miss the 3rd PART of this... coming up next!!!

(Continued in COLEY On Voodoo Island, Pt. 3)