notDedicated
Comics Auction Sites
26 Pigs Auction Room: www.26pigs.com/auctionroom
Comic Book Postal Auctions: www.compalcomics.com
Auctions of British and US comics, artwork, and comic
book ephemera. This site includes Market
Reports with information on recent sales
notnot
Spread the Word Fan Site:
www.dreamnation.fsnet.co.uk/abc.html
A website dedicated to those
mek-nificent fighting machines from the pages of the galaxy's
greatest comic: The ABC Warriors. Features character profiles,
creator bios and a gallery of artwork from the various
series over the years, plus run downs on Nemesis
The Warlock and Ro-Busters.
So, please come on in and feel free to browse around...
Fan: www.geocities.com/aquaberrycrew
Created by Martin Hand this fantastic
strip ran in 1990s edition of the BAPA newsletter. Says Martin: "While
most of the pages made me wince (who wouldn't be embarrassed
by something they'd hacked out 15 years ago?), I found
Ross [Cowin]'s commentary very enjoyable (though mostly disagreeing with his assessment
of the "value" ofthe scrawls) and it brought
back many happy memories."
Not to be confused with Marvel's Avengers,
the cult television show also spawned many comic strips, including
a run in TV Comic.
• The Avengers Comics Strips
Link: wingedavenger.theavengers.tv
Terrific site about The Avengers comics.
Works best in Explorer on a PC and Opera on a Mac (OSX)
There were two strips called Billy's
Boots, the second
and more famous now owned by Egmont and most recently reprinted in the
Striker comic,
to the delight of many readers.
The first Billy's Boots
was a humour strip written and drawn by Frank Purcell, who worked for a
number of boy's comics and newspapers. Sadly, Purcell died in 1971 after
a long battle with cancer. "I distinctly remember the boy who found the
magic boots," recalls nephew Stan Purcell in an email posted on the Comics
International Yahoo group in November 2006. "The studs were dials for 'shooting',
'dribbling' 'passing' etc etc. I know the series was very successful and
was no doubt continued after he became too ill to continue with it."
Billy's Boots resurfaced
as a totally different strip in Scorcher comic
in 1970. Artists included Mike Western and John Gillatt. This strip ranfor
about four years (becoming Scorcher
and Score along
the way) before merging into Tiger in
1974, taking the strip with it. The strip also
featured in the 1980s
Eagle and Roy
of the Rovers.
The Broons is a comic strip published in Beano publisher
DC Thomson's The
Sunday Post newspaper featuring features the
Broon (Brown in Standard English) family, who live in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe
Street, in the fictional Scottish town of Auchentogle or Auchenshoogle, an amalgam
of Dundee and Glasgow. Originally created and drawn by Dudley D. Watkins,
the strip made its first appearance in the issue dated 8 March 1936.
• That's Braw Fan Site
• Buy a Facsimile Edition of the First Ever
Broons Annual (Facsimile Annual)
• Order from Amazon.co.uk: Click
Here
• Order from Amazon.com: Click
Here
Fan: www15.brinkster.com/hiamie/greyfriarsA fascinating insight into the schoolboy character
first created by "Frank Richards", a pen name for Charles Harold St John
Hamilton in 1898 but first published in 1908 in The
Magnet.
After the Magnet ceased
publication during the Second World War due to paper shortages, Frank continued
to write Billy Bunter stories, and these were published in paperback, initially
by Charles Skilton, then Cassells. There were also comic stories published
in Knockout and Lion,
to which IPC Media hold the copyright, and a TV series, which ran for 10
years.
How many Captain Britains are there? This web site (www.psysdomain.com/alliesa-f/captainbritaincorps.html)
lists the entire Captain Britain Corps, although it does include Captain
Babylon, a character I came up with as a spoof but whose profiel was
raised by the involvement of Marvel UK stalwart Richard Starkings, who
kindly lettered both his adventures in my 1980s fanzine.
Fan: www.carriestrip.org.uk
The Carrie strip was published in Mayfair and was originally drawn by Don Lawrence. The saucy strip is lovingly recalled on this site, with imagery, artists guide and more.
• Click here for a downthetubes feature on Dan Dare
•
See
also Eagle links,
above: and Frank
Hampson entry in my Comics Artist section
Apart from comic creators such as Dave Gibbons, Chris
Weston, John
Byrne,
Chris Claremont, Jon
Haward, Rian Hughes and Paul
Cornell, famous Dan Dare fans include:
Actors: Colin
Baker (the Sixth 'Doctor Who'),
John Cleese (writer, actor and tall person), Ronnie
Corbett (actor and comedian - he wore his Eagle badge on The
Two Ronnies) Michael
Crawford (actor), Dawn
French (comdeienne, actor), Ross
Kemp (actor), Lenny
Henry (comedian and actor), Terry
Jones (actor and director), Michael
Palin (Actor),
Artists: Chris
Achilleos (artist), Gerald
Scarfe (artist
and cartoonist - in an interview in the Guardian Scarfe
recalled: "At 16, I won a drawing competition in
the Eagle. David
Hockney was runner-up.")
Authors: Stephen
Baxter (author), Philip
Pullman (author)
Celebrities: Aldo
Zilli (celebrity chef)
Entrepeneurs: Richard
Branson (founder of Virgin: "Dan Dare is a heroic, thoughtful and fiercely independent character; I was an avid reader of his epic journeys."), James Dyson (well-known vacuum cleaner salesman: "As a child, I pored over Eagle magazine cut-aways that delved into the workings of everything from Bloodhound missiles to offshore oil rigs.")
Muscians: Elton
John, Brian May (Queen
guitarist), Sir Tim
Rice, Joe Strummer (musician,
RIP), Bernie Taupin (lyricist,
singer, songwriter and poet)
Politicians: Ken
Livingstone (first Mayor of London)
Radio and TV Personalities: Paul
Gambaccini (radio DJ), Des
Lynam (sports presenter),Paul
Ross (journalist, radio presenter), Jonathan
Ross (DJ, chat show host and general comics fan), Peter
Sissons (news reader),
Scientists: Dr
Alan Bond (Astrophysicist and rocket developer), Professor
Stephen Hawking (physicist),, Professor
Colin Pillinger (Beagle 2)
TV and Film Producers: Gavin
Scott, (creator of Sci Fi Channel's The
Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and the movie Small
Soldiers and
adapter of The Mists of Avalon and The
Borrowers),
(thanks to David Brunt, David Howe, Rufus Dayglo and Alan Woollcombe
and others for help compiling the above list)
Official: www.dandare.co.uk
The Dan Dare Corporation Limited owns the global media rights to The Eagle comic and the comic strip "Dan Dare". The company also owns the rights to several other comic strips published in The Eagle, e.g. "Ghost Squad", "Computer Warrior", "Doomlord", "Manix", "Storm Force" and "Ultimate Warrior".
The book rights for Dan Dare are handled by Gordon Wise at Curtis
Brown Group Ltd and merchandising products by Copyrights Group Limited, a Chorion company.
See our 2009 News Story: "Chorion
Secures Rights to Dan Dare"
Offiicial: Spaceship Away
Licensed three-times-a-year title that includes new 'classic' Dan Dare
adventures as well as other strips.
Fan: The
Dan Dare Story
Detailed history of the character
with a huge amount of information - over 100 pages. The
site also features information on Eagle comic.
Webmaster: Nicholas Hill
Fan: Dan
Dare Net
This website is intended to
provide an introduction to Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future
in what the author hopes is an enjoyable and informative
manner. The site includes a complete history of the character,
images, plus a comprehensive list of related web links.
There's also a range of fully interactive "fun stuff" (games, puzzles
and toys, some with a Dan Dare theme, some without.
Fan: www.dan-dare.org
Having run out of server space over at www.dan-dare.net,
this 'sister' site is a "brief introduction to Dan Dare" site, with the .net site being the full-monty "interactive Dan Dare" site.
There are some major image scans that aren't on the web anywhere
else, plus some more fun and games along the lines of those at the
.net site.
Fan: Dan
Dare: Interplanet Space Fleet
Includes information on the
character's merchandise, a listing of all adventures and
more.
Webmaster: Brian Humphreys
Fan: www.dan-dare.org.uk
The owner of this site, a tribute to
the work of Frank Hampson, is posting illustrations from various
sources so there is much new-to-the-web material to see.
Fan: Darebar
A single page overview of the
history of Dan Dare, the Eagle, and the creator
of the character.
Fan: The
Spanish Dan Dare
The Spanish Dan Dare, Diego Valor, appears to have enjoyed
much greater popularity on the radio than as a comic strip.
The success of the radio show was consequently projected
to other media including comics. And, of course, the radio
version came first.
Fan: Superbrits
Link: www.superbrits.co.uk/dandare
Dan Dare Info
The Eagle Comic was reprinted around
the world, in many formats and many languages, yet information
concerning this phenomenon has never been assembled in one place
before. This site offers a look at these reprints by country and
try to define the print runs and years of publication, and any
other oddities that turn up, such as the "Great US Stamp Mystery".
• Dan Dare Cap Badges
Termight
Replicas has released a full-sized Dan Dare cap badge
in coloured hard enamel.
The Dan
Dare cap badge measures 4.5cm in diameter and costs £9.95.
The concept art is by Chris Weston, based on Frank Hampson’s
original design.
• Available by cheque
or PayPal post-free worldwide from the Termight Replicas website: www.termight.co.uk/dtt.php
Dan Dare: The Animated
Show
Episodes: 26 x 22 mins (first 6 with effects by NetterDigital,
20 by Foundation
Imaging. FI are creditted for all episodes - they
'tidied up' the first 6). All the stories are two-parters,
so there are 13 stories in total. The series was bought
by Channel 5 in the UK and also screens in South America
on Fox.It is scheduled to be released on Region 2 DVD
from June 2003 through Columbia-Tristar. In March 2003
einsiders.com
claimed Columbia TriStar and Dan Dare Corp. are developing
a feature based on this animated TV series.
The first two episodes introduces the characters (via
a brief version of the first Venus story) and deals with
the creation of Space Fleet and how Dan became a colonel.
•
Read the Series Bible: Go
This is not intended as promotional
material, but a guide to the characters and universe involved
in the TV series. Fan Andrew Paul, who created the page says "This
file, being the origin of the series, is somewhat outdated now as some
things were changed during the two years of production. However, this
is still a great insight into how the project started."
Effects artist Rowsby
has the most interesting page I've found on the net so
far about the production of the show. Peter Profetto's
Dan Dare page on his Digital
Treats site has by far the most stunning spacecraft
visuals from the show.
Digital artist Chris
Manbe has posted some clips from the new show on his
web site. He was part of the Foundation Imaging team that
worked on the series, having taken the show on board from
the defunct Netter Digital. 3D graphic Larry Schultz similarly
posted some images on his Splinegod
site (direct link here).
Dan
Ritchie is another Dan Dare animator:he created various
Lightwave renders for the show, as did Richard
Khoo. Jose
A. Perez. worked on the show as a modeller and texture
painter. (Perez has also worked on Star Trek: The Motion
Picture - The Director's Cut and Enterprise).
Roger
Borelli was the Supervisng Character Artist on the
show who went on to work for Digital Domain where heworked
on several commercials. He's now working for Disney TV
Animation modeling Characters, props, and sets.
Bob
Forward was the highly-regarded producer on the show
and mentions it on his site. He's a writer, producer and
story editor whose credits also include Beast Wars
and SkyJammers. He's cucrently working as a freelance
writer on shows shuch as X-Men:
Evolution and the new Stargate
SG-1.
FX equipment providers Kaydara offer information on the
production of the show on their web site here.
1981 Dan Dare TV Show
This show never got off the ground
but there are some interesting reference sites: click
here for a dtb feature adapted from the fanzine Eagle
Flies Again on
the proposed show
• Mike
Cosford has put two of
his background designs for the show online. He's worked
extensively in design and layout for commercials for the
last 15 years, creating backgrounds, colour visuals, and
storyboards.
• Model maker Martin
J. Bower has put some of
his model designs on his fascinating web site. Bowers
was a regular contributor of model photographs to various
comics in the past; he's one of the most highly prolific
model makers and designers to the film, TV, advertising
and publishing industry. From 1969 to the present day,
he has so far produced almost 800 professional works.
Dan Dare fan David Britton tells me the
models featured were made by Martin Bower
in the early 1980's for Alan Vince, a
long-time fan and friend of Frank Hampson. "I
acquired them from Alan, eight years ago and they have
been shown in a "Spacefleet Headquarters" display
cabinet at the Eagle Exhibtions. The
next time and probably the last, will
be at the Muesum of Science and Industry
Manchester from the end of September
2003 to mid January 2004. The Dan Dare
exhibtion will be partner to the Mission
to Mars exhibtion and we will incorporate
the British Space programme 1955 to 1971."
• Wakefield Carter has compiled a fascinating guide to this aborted series
which includes contributions from Brian
Bolland and others on this site: www.2000ad.nu/spacefleet/atv/
The
Dan Dare Theme Park
Plans to build a Dan Dare
theme park in the UK came to naught, but this page features
an image of the design - the site also carries info on
some UK-based visual effects design for film and TV.
Dan Dare Artwork
London's Science
Museum displays several original Dan Dare boards on
display in an area entitled `Defiant Modernism 1930-1968'.
The boards, from 1951 and 1953, are part of those purchased
by the Museum at the 1993 Christie's auction house sale.
Entry to the Museum is free.
Original strips online
Many Dan Dare strips have been re-published over the years.
Everything up to Eagle Vol 13/9 was reprinted in the Hawk
series (vols 1-11) and vol 12 (the best of the rest) reprints
four of the remaining 15 stories between 13/10 and 19/3.
For refeence see: www.2000ad.nu/spacefleet/dandare.html
Two of the 11 that have not can be found here:
Operation Earthsaver: http://members.aol.com/nicholashl/oes.htm
Operation Fireball: http://members.aol.com/nicholashl/fireball/fireball.htm
Ministry of Space
Created by Warren Ellis and Chris Moore, there are plenty of Dan Dare references in this SF tale set in a univese where
Britain wins the space race. You can buy the collection from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here.
The script for the first issue is available from Warren Ellis's official web site and makes a few
Dan Dare references for the styling: http://www.warrenellis.com/wfile/ministryofspace01.rtf
(Rich Text Format document)
(from 2000AD)
Semi-official: www.simonfraser.net/simonfraser
A guide to the character by his creator, Simon Fraser.
Official: www.carol-day.com
This web site is an absolute gem, working in conjunction with the original
creators to clearly detail the strip and offer many examples of the art.
It's clear, easy to navigate and to top it all off the stories are terrific
works of newspaper strip genius.
Running in the Daily
Mail for
over 10 years from 1956 to 1967, Carol Day, a
series centring on the eponymous fashion model, was syndicated in around
70 papers around the world, this high-spot of the newspaper comic strip
has never been collected, and it never appeared in the US. According to
Patrick Wright, artist David Wright's's son, "even
though the Hearst Newspaper did attempt to head-hunt my father in the
early 1950s, it was felt Carol Day was too sophisticated for the American
market!"
"Carol Day was in many ways Britain's
response to other well-drawn American soap opera comic strips like The
Heart of Juliet Jones, On Stage and
Apartment 3-G," argues an
anonymous fan on comicstripfan. "Carol herself was a fashion model, with a wealthy uncle,
who was endlessly searching for love and never quite finding the perfect
man. Within this framework, Wright, with scripts from Peter Meriton,
was able to explore all manner of subjects and locales, from high society
to the darkest slums, and even the supranatural.
•  Death's
Head
Comprising Death's Head Mini-series, No.
1-4", "Maxi-series, No. 1-12" (Paperback)
The cult British mechanoid anti-hero Death's Head
returns in a collection of his greatest adventures that take him
into the far future and into the past as he locks blasters with
a host of enemies both villainous and noble, including the Fantastic
Four and the corrupt Iron Man of 2020.
This edition includes an exclusive introduction by the characters'
creator Simon Furman.
• Order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
• Order it from Amazon.com: Go
 • Death's
Head Volume 2
by Simon Furman; Walter Simonson; Steve Parkhouse
The cult British freelance peacekeeping agent, Death's Head returns
once again in a collection of his greatest adventures. Reprints
Death's Head #8-10, The Sensational She-Hulk #24, Fantastic Four
Vol.1 #338, Marvel Comics Presents Vol.1 #76, Strip #13-20 and
What If... Vol.1 #54.
• Order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
• Order it from Amazon.com: Go
 • Death's
Head 3.0: Unnatural Selection
(Paperback)
By Simon Furman
This is a collection of one of Death's Head stories
featuring a later version of Death's Head, which first appeared
in Amazing Fantasy No.16-20.
Set one hundred years in the future the now-benevolent organization
known as AIM has been fighting a non-violent conflict with the
fascist government it wishes to change. But there's a splinter
group that's ready to return to its violent roots with "Death's
Head 3.0". The problem is the killer robot. It isn't sure
what side it wants to be on.
• Order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
• Order it from Amazon.com: Go |
I edited Death's Head II for
much of its near two-year run for Marvel UK in the early
1990s.
Death's Head I and II are Marvel UK's single most
successful characters, and Paul Neary's inspired reinterpretation
of the character, whose tales were scripted by Dan Abnett
and drawn by Liam Sharp, Simon Coleby and others, were
Marvel UK's best-selling US comics: it sold over 200,000 copies at the peak of its poularity.
• This page features a detailed guiide to the charcater which will shortly be published in a Marvel Comic character collection
• This
fan site includes a complete chronology of the character,
plus links to sites about Marvel UK's Transformers and Action Force titles.
Official: Go
Launched in early 2004, Moonface
Press kindly sent me a copy of their collection of six dark tales, Devilchild
Volume II: Freakshow, plus their first Devilchild book.
The lead strip in both albums centres on a reluctant Anti-Christ figure. His father Satan seems to be losing his grip on power in Hell and in the second volume, some strange genetic misfit appears to have killed God. Andrew Winter writes all the strips, with art from a variety of artists, including Natalie Sandells (artist on the Devilchild strip, whose work reminds me of early Steve Rude), Sean Azzopardi and Keith Burns. The war in Hell draws some wry analogies to the War on Terror being waged by Bush and Blair, and definitely puts Princess Diana in a new light as Satan's personal assistant!
This is a quality package of stories, with the five accompanying short
stories providing some terrific storytelling. "Underground Girl", drawn by Azzopardi is probably my favourite,
as an arrogant record executive recives a Twilight Zone-style punishment for making
promosies he has no intention of keeping. "Steven Scully's Skeleton Army",
drawn by Duncan Nimmo, is a comedy gem of a tale, in which said Steven
raises the dead to destroy civillisation, but the dead don't seem very
keen on the idea!
The script for Volume III: Heaven's Prisoners is complete and being illustrated now, to be released at the Bristol Festival in 2005. It will feature a significantly longer Devilchild lead story than the one in Volume II
For just £6.99, Devilchild Volume II: Freakshow is well worth giving a try. Available from Amazon.co.uk.
First Appearance: 1964
Currently published in: Battles in Time, Doctor
Who Adventures, Doctor Who Magazine
Reccommended Links:
Stripping Down
Link:www.strippingdown.co.uk
Not advice on wallpaper removal or something more x-rated, this is a great strip
by strip guide to Marvel/Panini's Doctor Who strips
Gallifrey One
Link: www.gallifreyone.com
Simply the best unofficial Doctor Who site on the web
The Official Doctor
Who Site
Link:
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
The official site, which includes an interview with
the man who created Doctor Who Weekly, Dez Skinn
Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer
Link: www.dalek-killer.net
A small tribute site to Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer.
For masochists, here's more info on the infamous Dalek Killer record
by the Slaves of Kane on this site: www.millenniumeffect.co.uk
Strips inspired by the BBC time-travelling character have
been published in a wider variety of titles down the years, including TV
Comic, Countdown,
Doctor Who Weekly (now Doctor
Who Magazine)
and others. In fact, the character has enjoyed a continuous existence
despite the cancelation of the show by the BBC back in 1989 (boo!) right
up to the modern revival (hurrah!). The ratings success of the new show,
duplicating that of the original at its height, has prompted a slew of
tie ins, including the BBC's own comic based on the show, Doctor
Who Adventures.
 Doctor Who: The Iron Legion
Pat Mills, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-904159-37-0
Collects the first ever Marvel Doctor Who strips
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Buy it from Amazon.com: Go |
 Doctor
Who: Dragon's Claw
Pat Mills, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-904159-81-8
Contains the remaining Fourth Doctor strips
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Buy it from Amazon.com: Go |
 Doctor Who: Tides of Time
Mick Austin, Dave Gibbons
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-904159-92-3
The complete comic strip run of Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Buy it from Amazon.com: Go
Read a review on this site: Go |
 Doctor
Who: Endgame
Alan Barnes, Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-905239-09-2
Featuring the Eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Not listed on amazon.com as of July 2006
|
 Doctor
Who: The Glorious Dead
Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty, Roger Langridge
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-905239-44-0
The remaining black and white Eighth Doctor strips
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Not listed on amazon.com as of July 2006
|
 Doctor Who: Oblivion
Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty
Panini Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1-90523-945-9
TO BE PUBLISHED: September 2006
The third of four volumes reprinting the complete comic strip adventures of the
Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann), the wandering Time Lord and his companion Izzy find
themselves pitted against the callous Destrii and her cunning Uncle Jodafra,
plus there's a return for the deadly Daleks and a terrible ordeal for Izzy!
Pre-order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
Pre-order it from Amazon.com: Go |
•  Doctor
Who: Voyager: 1 (Paperback)
by Steve Parkhouse; Alan McKenzie
The first of two volumes featuring the Sixth
Doctor's complete comic strip run from the pages of Doctor Who
Magazine. Featuring the epic stories: The Shape-Shifter, Voyager
(simply one of the best Doctor Who comic strips ever written),
Polly the Glot, Once Upon a Time Lord, War Game, Funhouse, Kane's
Story, Abels' Story and Frobisher's Story.
• Order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
• Order it from Amazon.com: Go |
• Doctor Who": The Flood: v.
4
by Scott Gray, Gareth Roberts, Martin Geraghty,
and Mike Collins
• Order it from Amazon.co.uk: Go
• Order it from Amazon.com: Go
 • The
Doctor Who Storybook 2007
Panini
• Buy
it from Amazon.co.uk
• Click
Here for a complete list of Panini's Doctor Who collections
|
In the dystopian year of 8162 Greater Britain desperately
needs heroes; warriors willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard
mankind. Consequently, the shadowy government agency N.U.R.S.E. (National
Union of Retired Sports Experts) reinstates "the greatest
game players in the world" to bring order to chaos.
Marvel UK's first regular "US-size" comic, Dragon's
Claws has been colected by Panini. The elite law enforcement team
of the far future returns!
• Buy
Dragon's Claws from amazon.co.uk
First UK Appearance: Thunder #1
Subsequent Appearances: Lion, Valiant.
In Wildstorm's recent title Albion,
in #1, character Danny is holding an issue of Valiant which
features Adam Eterno in an adventure entitled "Island of Doom".
Foreign Reprints: Includes
France
Origin: Adam was
the assistant to an elderly sixteenth century alchemist who blended the Elixir
of Life. Adam impatiently drank it before it had finished brewing properly,
becoming immortal and invulnerable. His master cursed him to live forever
unless struck a fatal blow with a weapon made of solid gold and he became
doomed to wander through time, fighting evil wherever he found it.
Creators: Originally
drawn by Tom Kerr,
there remains some dispute as to who created Adam Eterno. It is believed Tom
Tully scripted the early strips and may have created
the character. Colin Page took over from Kerr for
most of the initial run in Thunder, then Argentinian
artist Francisco
Solano Lopez' "Lopez Studio" drew
Eterno from Thunder #17
onwards. (He also drew Kelly's Eye).
Responding to appeals for more information on Adam in February
2007, Dez Skinn, former editor
of Comics International and
Warrior and who worked
at IPC Fleetway, offers this opinion on the 'origin' of such characters at
the company:
"Created" is such a nebulous concept
in comics, it would appear. Editors can have varying amounts of input,
some happy just to shuffle paperwork and leave on time, others burning
the midnight oil to improve the end product.
But Fleetway was definitely old
school. While it had its share of paper shufflers, even they couldn't
keep their hands off (and quite rightly too IMHO. They got the editor
title for their ability to... edit!). I think the distinction is really
that many, especially in the US, are production editors. You only have
to look at their ages to realise they're not the most experienced contributor,
and with strongly opinionated older freelancers "working
for them" are often in unenviable positions... Some creatives
don't take criticism, even though it's meant to be constructive, and
if a freelancer is alienated and threatens walking away, whose side
will the publisher take?
But Fleetway? Miss the deadline by a day and you'd
lose that week's money, because a reprint would be slapped in, or an
inventory ghosted strip. Even Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid had such a
threat hanging over them. So, given the editor's power in this context,
obviously they had a huge amount of input in creating new strips. Often
the actual writer wouldn't even be decided before the strip was pretty
well shaped up.
Steel Claw is a good example, with
assistant managing editor Sid Bicknell (who also edited Valiant)
being very hands on, and deservedly getting co-creator credit in the
more definitive listings.
'Course, I ran across the same "problem" with
the high profile V for Vendetta. Was I a co-creator or just doing an
editor's job of assigning and sitting back?
With Adam Eterno,
I've no first hand knowledge, but I can't imagine for a second that Thunder editor
Geoff Kemp, his assistant editor Chris Lowder or managing editor Jack
LeGrand would not be very very involved in the creation of a character
for a brand new title. When you consider that they were looking at
TV advertising and wanting sales in excess of 250,000 a week firm,
their jobs were on the line if they got it wrong. Freelance writers
could simply move on, losing only a small piece of their income. Tom
Tully was Jack's favourite, so he'd have been brought in fairly early,
but very much to only flesh out their thoughts. Least that's my educated
guess."
Since Dez' comments, the Adam
Forever Group have done a
lot of research into the shady world of who-wrote-what for IPC, and based
on their investigations, the following credits list is now suggested:
"Created
by Chris Lowder, based on an idea by Jack Legarnd, first drawn by Tom
Kerr, first written by Tom Tully. Developed by Tom Tully, Chris Lowder,
Donne Avelle and Ted Cowan (writers) and Colin Page, Solano Lopez Studio
and Juan Giralt (Artists). Of course, there's also an assortment of
guest artists and writers along the way! This actually doesn't stray
too far from Dez's original hypothesis, save the removal of Geoff Kemp
but it does tidy it up a bit, and regards Jack Legrand not as the creator,but
an ideas man,with Chris Lowder getting full creator's honours."
Steve Holland points out that its next to impossible
to verify any of this unless a creator such as Tom Tully or Chris Lowder
comes forward to confirm it. "Snippets of information do turn up over
time which help nail one or two things down," says Steve, "but it's
a struggle now to get confirmation or denial for
anyone's involvement with anything." The debate rages on!
Links:
• Adam
Eterno Forever Fan Page
• Adam
Eterno - International Hero entry
• Sample
Strip pages on ComicsUK
• Yahoo
Adam Eterno Group
Garth is an adventure character created by Stephen
Dowling whose stories across time and space ran once in the Daily
Mirror (now, simply The
Mirror). In 2008, the strip was revived
under license by Hayena Studios and new adventures feature on
the Mirror's web site here.
Contributors down the years included Frank Bellamy while
Peter O'Donnell of Modesty
Blaise fame contributed some stories.
In spite of the acclaimed talent that worked on the strip,
until the Noughties just five official dedicated Garth books
have appeared over the years; a flip book (with Romeo
Jones on the reverse) in horizontal format in the late 1950s or
early 1960s; The Daily Mirror Book of Garth (1975;
a softback annual with Frank Bellamy art which had topless girls censored/bikini
tops added, and also in 1976; a horizontal format, Frank Bellamy art
uncensored, nipples aplenty) and two Titan Books collection in the late
1980s, Cloud
of Balthus and Women
of Galba.
John Dakin also reprinted some great Steve Dowling/John
Allard/Frank Bellamy complete strip collections in the 1970s.
• Garth on the Mirror web site
• The
Return of Garth
In August 2008,
after a long gestation period, adventure hero Garth returned
to British newspaper The Mirror - albeit, for now, only on the publication's
web site. Artist Huw-J talks to John Freeman about the new strip
and his many plans for the character's ongoing revival...
• International
Hero "Garth" Entry
• Complete Garth Story List
Link: www.tegneserier.org/indexer/mb_eng.html
Compiled by Geoffrey Wren and Ann Holmes
• The
All Devon Comic Collectors Club
E-mail: dave.westaway@homecall.co.uk
An offshoot of the old South West CCC, this is mainly centred on the
Exeter area and continues the relentless search for prime quality images
for the (complete) British story booklets that is their raison d'etre.The
desire of elder members to see old newspaper strips again, linked with
the poor quality of the yellowing photocopies that were doing the rounds,
provided the impetus for the club to decide to track down and reprint
'lost' Garth strips. A search for other British
titles naturally followed; Romeo Brown, Paul
Temple etc. and is very much
ongoing.
As a small club and having restraints from Mirror Group as to how many
copies per title can be made available to members they tend to struggle
with their cash flow a bit so have relaxed membership to allow 'remote'
members in.
The group has put out 10 booklets a year to full members
of which at least six are Garth. Click
here for a complete list of all their publications to date and more
information on the club.
First appearing in IPC Media's Smash,
Janus Stark is a Victorian master escapologist with bones like rubber,
able to contort in unbelievable ways and get through the smallest spaces
or out of the tightest bindings.
Strangely, Janus Stark -- created by Jack Legrand, written
by Tom Tully, with art by Argentinian artist Solano
Lopez -- is one of
several British characters to develop quite a following abroad, evidenced
by this detailed French site: janustark.free.fr.
Several strips were originated solely for the French "pocket" editions,
with authors Angus Allan and Marcus Scott Goodall (interviewed
on the same site) even writing the death of the character, an event
not portrayed in Smash because
the title had ceased to exist by then. They also created various descendants
of the character.
The French Janus Stark comic ran
for some 135 issues from 1973 to 1990.
• This French
web site on pocket library titles in
that country has some information on the Janus Stark edition, which also
featured reprints of characters such as Adam Eterno: www.pimpf.org/mjm/janus.htm
Billy's Boots
The Man From
Nowhere
Janus Stark
