This fantastic two-page comic appeared in the British underground magazine Frendz in November 1971. At the start this comic credits Michael Moorcock for the “words” and Jim Cawthorn for the “art.” Moorcock is a highly respected sci-fi writer who produced several classic sci-fi novels in the 1960s and 1970s, including The Knight of the Swords, The Hollow Lands, and Gloriana. Cawthorn was a frequent collaborator with Moorcock, both as an artist and as a writer—Cawthorn actually did many of the original covers for Moorcock’s novels.
 

Michael Moorcock
 
Frendz was a weird duck, an underground magazine with ties to Oz and International Times—its original name, dating from 1969, was (weirdly) Friends of Rolling Stone, which was then shortened to Friends and later changed to Frendz.

According to John Coulthart, who found these Hawkwind images several years ago, this comic was “done largely as a promotional piece for that year’s new album, In Search of Space, the Sonic Assassins tag was one which stuck, becoming almost a secondary name for the band in later years. The name Void City also recurred later as the name of a track on the Choose Your Masques album.” “Sonic assassins” is a marvelous turn of phrase, isn’t it? Here’s a poorly Xeroxed gig poster from 1977 referring to Dave Brock’s band as “Sonic Assassins.” 
 

 
The cover for In Search of Space was executed by Barney Bubbles, whom we highlighted a few days ago. Coulthart himself designed several Dave Brock/Hawkwind covers starting in the 1980s.

This “Sonic Assassins” cartoon (a.k.a. “Codename: Hawkwind”) has a wonderful “MAD Magazine on acid” feel, note King Kong in the background of the first panel bowled over by the lameosity of the sounds of Engelbert Humperdinck, Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan etc.

Click on both images for a larger view.