Tom Atkins has been steadily documenting the incredible writing career of David Motton for over two years, tracing his work across British comic publishers Fleetway Publications/IPC and DC Thomson, and beyond. Occasionally, that research, encompassing for example, his writing for “Dan Dare“, “Doctor Who“, early issues of Commando and more, throws up a mystery – and one of them is a girl’s comic strip, “Valerie on Venus“.
In the case of this science fiction adventure, however, David, now in his nineties, not only kept a carbon copy of his script: he also had copies of some of the artwork created for his story, believed to be the work of Bill Lacey, better known for his work on boys comics such as Tiger, Valiant and the comic-magazine, Look and Learn, although he also worked on Buster, Mickey Mouse Weekly and TV Comic.
However, as yet, we don’t know if the strip, set on a lush version of Venus, was ever published – but the feeling of two expert comic archivists is that this was a story that fell in the early stages of creation, its development abandoned.
Based on what we know about David’s career, we believe “Valerie on Venus” (described on the script itself as “Valerie of Venus”) may have been commissioned for the first iteration of Fleetway’s Princess comic, published between January 1960 and September 1967.
At present, Tom has unearthed two episodes of the strip, some the artwork prepared for Part One, and sample script pages, below…
While Bill Lacey is better known for his strips such as an adaptation of “Mytek the Mighty” for Valiant and “Eagles Over the Western Front” for Look and Learn, the latter a Biggles-inspired World War One series recently collected by Bear Alley Books, he also worked on “The Circus Ballerina” for Princess, written by Ron “Nobby” Clark, published in the issues cover dated 30th January 1960 through to 12th October 1963, later drawn by Charles Paine.
“I’m sure I’ve not seen this before, so my suspicion is it was unpublished, for whatever reason,” comic archivist and artist David Roach, author of Masters of British Comic Art and A Very British Affair, says of the strip, talking to downthetubes. “There is a bit of wash on this so it looks like it might have been intended for Princess or perhaps even June, definitely from the early 1960s.
“The artist is definitely Bill Lacey – looking rather like his ‘Circus Ballerina’ style, so again, early 60s, and among some of the nicest work I’ve seen by him.”
“What a lovely discovery!” comments Bear Alley Books publisher and archivist Steve Holland. “I’d say that the one and a half pages make up a complete episode, so it may have been intended for a girls’ weekly comic, or perhaps drawn for a dummy that never went the distance.”
There could be another reason the strip did not progress, too.
“Around the time I suspect this was drawn, June started running ‘Vanessa from Venus'” David Roach notes, “who I’ve recently been drawing for Rebellion, so perhaps it was decided there was only room for one mention of ‘Venus’ in their comics?”
Is there a sub editor of June or Princess out there who might possibly shed more light on this strip? If so, please comment below!
• A Very British Affair: The Best of Classic Romance Comics compiled by David Roach is available from all good book shops | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
• Read our 2011 interview with comics writer and author David Motton
• Book Palace Books: Bill Lacey biography
“The Circus Ballerina”
“The Circus Ballerina appeared in Princess during 1962, drawn by the much under appreciated Bill Lacey (1917 – 2000).
“Bill Lacey was with the RAF during World War Two, and after the war he became a technical artist in the Ministry of Aircraft,” comic and comic art collector Peter Hansen noted back in 2019. “He did his first comics work in 1950 with ‘Robin Alone’ story in Mickey Mouse Weekly. While continuing this comic until 1956, he also began to work for Cowboy Comics Library and Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Blackshirt Picture Library, John Steel Picture Library, and Valiant, on strips including ‘The Sludge’, ‘Mytek the Mighty’, ‘Rat Pack’, ‘Chafik’, ‘John Steel’, and ‘Rick Random’.
“He also worked later in his career for DC Thomson on the ‘Tasker’ strip in Bullet and on ‘The Wilde Boys’ and ‘Q Bikes’ in Buddy, as well as doing illustrations in Express Weekly, Valiant, and ‘Bill Hanley and Rick Slade’ in Lion, and the superb ‘Eagles Over the Western Front’ in Look and Learn.
“His work in Girls comics is virtually unexplored, but what I do know is that he did ‘Circus Ballerina’ for Princess and it is a stunner, I think. But judge for yourself…
Our thanks to Tom Atkins for the strip and script images, and David Roach, Steve Holland for their detective work, and Peter Hansen for the scans of “Circus Ballerina” art
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News
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