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The Origin of the Lion Rock WWII artworks
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Yes, it’s probably time for an update!
Well, over the last few months I didn’t find anything really new, but…
I recently got two of the original artworks!
We have seen the comic covers before, but I think it’s a good opportunity to take a closer look at these.
(And besides, some of the older pics in the thread have disappeared because of Photobucket... )
The first one is the „Luftwaffe Pilot“ artwork.
It was painted by Alessandro Biffignandi and was first used for the cover of „Air Ace Picture Library“ #145 in 1963.
The following picture shows the original artboard next to the Fleetway comic and a Mego box (French release).
The size of the painting is approx. 26 x 36 cm (10,2 x 14,2 inch).
The artboard is 32 x 44,5 cm (12,6 x 17,5 inch).
It seems that the artist made a small mistake when painting the plane in the mirror.
You can see the letter K on the fuselage. But it’s not inverted. Shouldn’t it be inverted when seen in a mirror?
On the French and German release Mego boxes the complete artwork is inverted
(which corrects the error, but I wonder if that was the reason for inverting the art on the boxes?).
I haven’t seen an Italian release box but there is a picture of the art in one of the Polistil catalogs
and that one is inverted, too.
On the original artwork and the comic book(s) there is a white swastika painted on the headphone.
For the French and German boxes the swastika was repainted in a brown / bronze color, but is still visible if you look closely.
It seems that on the Italian release art it was removed completely.
Here is a comparison:
Left to right: Original artwork, French box, German box, Italian catalog
And to make things even more confusing:
The picture printed on the small catalogs that were included with some figures
seems to be based on the version with the removed swastika - at least for the Johnny Action and German releases.
Here is the small picture from the German catalog:
The artist, Alessando Biffignandi, passed away in January 2017, aged 81.
British (comic) book expert Steve Holland wrote an obituary back then, that you can find in his "Bear Alley" blog.Comment
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The second artwork that I got recently is the „Japanese Pilot“ art.
The artist was Pino Dell'Orco. It was first used for the cover of „Battle Picture Library“ #75 in 1962.
The following picture shows the original artboard next to the Fleetway comic
and a Mego box (Italian release).
The size of the painting is approx. 31 x 42 cm (12,2 x 16,5 inch).
The artboard is 33 x 45,5 cm (13 x 17,9 inch).
On the German release box the artwork is inverted.
Here’s a picture of the Italian and German release boxes next to each other:
I haven’t seen the Johnny Action and French boxes.
The small catalog from the German release is shown on the Museum pages:
As you can see the art is inverted there, too.
The artboard came with a transparent sheet that contains the title text from a later issue:
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I recently found the paratrooper mini catalog . So we finally have a picture of the paratrooper box art.
Jens found the comic covers for the picture that mego used.
Enjoy
9ADBC203-DFE2-4A91-8198-0B71FF894F08.jpg
0704715A-4350-4E79-8366-6ABCA3CA108E.jpg
B21A91AC-4653-4E60-B448-14976E5ACE7F.jpgLooking for Remco Phantom. Mego mailer boxed figuresComment
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Fantastic ... I have a number of the boxed Art work and catalogs if you need them to dive deeper into your researchComment
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I created an updated list of all the information on the artworks we have so far.
You can find it here (Dropbox, hope this works...).
As you can see in the list the three artworks, that we still don't know much about, are these:
(If anyone has any idea where they come from and who were the artists, please tell us.)
"U.S. Marine":
"U.S. Frogman":
"Russian Officer":
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The question is: Where these three artworks created specifically for the toy line
or had they been originally created for some comic cover, magazine cover etc.,
like the other artworks?Comment
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LOOK what I found...
So I finally solved the mystery of the "Russian Officer" art!
It wasn't easy, because - as I suspected already two years ago (see post #105) -
it was based on an illustration for a magazine article, not some cover art.
Finding such an old article seemed like searching the needle in the haystack.
But with a bit of luck I found it and today got a copy of the magazine in the mail.
The magazine is "Look and Learn" #656 from August 1974.
The cover isn't what interested me. But pages 20 and 21 are:
Here's the box back of the Mego/Lion Rock Russian Officer (Polistil box) next to page 20 from the magazine:
It's another case of "spot the difference".
The box art is supposed to show Russian troops while on the original art it's German troops in North Africa!
As you can see, the empty areas on the box art are where the text of the article was placed.
The artist was Gerry Wood (who signed the art "G. WOOD" in the lower left).
He also created the "Tailgunner" art, also for Look and Learn magazine (we've seen that one).Comment
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That's great! It's amazing you found this needle!! I am so impressed with this effort.
It's funny, when I looked at this yesterday, I thought "that Russian officer most likely was originally something else. It was probably painted over."WANTED - Solid-Boxed WGSH's, C.8 or better.Comment
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Great job Jens
I am thinking the missing two artworks might come from that magazine line.
Two have come from that year 1974. I went through June July and August all the issues from that line . They were promoting World War II and Each issue had a little sib story with color glossy pictures in regards to World War II . So my money is on that year.
Looking for Remco Phantom. Mego mailer boxed figuresComment
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I am seven mini catalogs short of the complete 36. Here is my list if anyone has them or comes across them or know somebody who has them please let me know.
Here are the soldiers catalogs I need:
USA FROGMAN
GERMAN INFANTRY/STORMTROOPER
UK PARATROOPER
UK TANK COMMANDER
FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION
RUSSIAN INFANTRY
SCOTTISH GUARDLooking for Remco Phantom. Mego mailer boxed figuresComment
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