Eagle Times documents “Lost Eagle” project featuring art by Bellamy, Colquhoun

By John Freeman on July 12, 2014

The current Eagle Times, available now, features downthetubes contributor Jeremy Briggs’ latest piece on Lost Eagle – the aborted 1973 re-launch of Eagle comic with painted Dan Dare artwork by Frank Bellamy and Joe Colquhoun. Jane Colquhoun, Joe’s daughter, provided much needed facts on her father’s involvement with this project.

Regular readers of our site will recall Jeremy covered the mysterious artwork for a strip called “Eagle Force” last year, and David McDonald, while researching for his series of Comic Archive publications, Beyond 2000AD, uncovered the backgrounds of both the Frank Bellamy and the Eagle Force artwork.

Eagle Times Volume 27, Issue 2 also features:

Chad Varah’s uncredited written work for Eagle‘ – Although some of Samaritans founder Chad Varah’s contributions were given visible credit at the time of publication, others (including his script for the ‘Dan Dare’ story ‘Marooned on Mercury’) were not. This article reviews Chad’s uncredited contributions to the early Eagle and to Eagle Annual
‘In and Out of the Eagle‘ – another double dose of the series presenting collections of Eagle-related news snippets
‘PC49 and the Case of the Manilla Envelopes’ – another text story adaptation from one of Alan Stranks’ original radio plays about an East End “copper”.
‘Navy Mints and Swizzels Matlow’ – on the search for information about the advertising comic strip, featuring Minty, Fruity and Scotty, that appeared in Eagle from 1954, drawn by Roland Davies
‘Happy Days – Growing up in the fifties’ – a member looks back at those supposedly grey days of austerity and recalls it as a more colourful time than many in the media might now suggest
‘An Eagle Mug Shot’ – one of the first 1950s Eagle Club members who, at the age of 14, was awarded the “Mug of the Month” award by Eagle for taking care of the livestock when his farming father fell ill
‘Silver Eagler’ – a 1956 recipient of the Silver Eagle Award. (Silver Eagle was the new name for Eagle’s Mug of the Month award, from 1954)
‘War with the Sioux by Hollywood and Eagle‘ – comparing the story of “Custer’s Last Stand”, as told by Hollywood in The Great Sioux Massacre and Eagle in the ‘Jeff Arnold’ strip ‘The War with the Sioux’
‘Dangerous Dreamer – The Eagle back page story that never was’ – on the aborted strip about T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) that, had it not been cancelled, would have been drawn for Eagle by Jack Daniel
‘The Lost World’ – a review of the adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous story that appeared in Eagle in 1962, scripted by Richard Jennings and drawn by Martin Aitchison
‘Eagle‘s other cereals’ – the breakfast cereals that were advertised in Eagle during the 1950s and 1960s, and the interesting items (cut-outs, etc.) that featured on the backs of the packets
‘Marcus Morris and Eagle: approved reading for boys in the 1950s and 1960s’ – a reprint (with permission) of an article by John Springhall that appeared in The Historian, the magazine of The Historical Association, in Summer 2013
‘The 1954 Horlicks Spaceship Offer’ – on the special offers for ‘Dan Dare’ spaceship models that were available to exclusively to members of the Horlicks Spacemen’s Club. (Horlicks were sponsors of the Dan Dare serial on Radio Luxembourg
‘The Eagle Society Annual Dinner, 2014’ – a photo-illustrated report on activities at the Annual Gathering of the Eagle Society, which was held in April at St Albans, Herts.
‘Southport Observatory’ – an appeal regarding the restoration of the Great Astronomical Observatory in Hesketh Park in Southport, Eagle’s birthplace

• Membership of The Eagle Society is via Annual Subscription to Eagle Times magazine, which is published four times annually. The Subscription rate for 2014 is UK £27, Overseas £38 (in £s Sterling, please). Postal applications to: Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA. If you wish to pay by Paypal (from your Paypal account to the eagle-times hotmail address given below) we request an additional payment of £1.50. Enquiries: eagle-times@hotmail.com. Web: http://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk

• David’s full interview with Doug Church about lost Eagle, Eagle Force and much more besides is published in Comics Archive: Beyond 2000AD which is available directly from David’s Hibernia Comics on-line shop as both printed and e-publication versions. There are more details of Beyond 2000AD and David’s other titles at the Hibernia Comics blog

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.