Extracts: JET-ACE LOGAN Fleetway Picture Library Classics © 2019 Book Palace Books (272 PAGES in Full edition)

FLEETWAY PICTURE LIBRARY ™ CLA SS IC S 4 return to regular strip work again but he was lured back for TV21 ’s ground-breaking, Daleks. This was his first colour strip where ingeniously designed spacecraft, machines and monsters, set against fantastic backdrops, combined with his clever use of colour to stunning effect. In the 70s, Star Trek, again for TV21 , and strips for 2000AD , including Judge Dredd, were his major offerings. He then revitalised the futuristic sports strip, Spinball Wars for Battle-Action , re-designing all the machines and aspects of futuristic technology whilst capturing the high energy and fast-paced tone of the strip. The 80s started well with a two-page colour strip, Journey to the Stars for Speed but even Ron’s contribution couldn’t save the comic and his talents were largely wasted with much fill-in work on juveniles and war strips. But his sf career was resurrected by this writer and a colleague of mine, Phillip Harbottle when together we created a new sf character for Ron – Nick Hazard. This homage to Dan Dare and Rick Random inspired Ron to produce some of his best work since those early years and gained for Ron, international recognition when they were published in the U.S. and his massive contribution to the sf genre was revealed to an American audience. The 90s saw Ron return to producing sf paperback covers, this time for the U.S. based, GRYPHON Books when they decided to republish the works of John Russell Fearn, (the VARGO STATTEN writer) featuring books not illustrated by Ron in the 50’s, thus taking his career full circle. He was still producing these covers when he suffered a stroke, later followed by a heart attack. He died in 1998. Flash forward to today and Ron’s covers are still in print on a range of sf paperbacks for US publishers, Wildside Press. And due to this writer’s association with artist, John Ridgway, Ron’s Space Ace strips have now been colourised for my own, self-published collections. Ron Turner was without doubt a true original, both in terms of imagination and style, but has left behind a marvellous legacy in the book covers and comic strips he produced that have certainly earned him his deserved reputation as a Master of SF art. John Lawrence March 2019