Book Palace Books has announced plans for a Limited Edition collection of the Biggles strips published in TV Express Weekly, featuring stories credited to the character’s creator, W. E. Johns, with art by Ron Embleton and Mike Western.
Full details will be announced soon, but the book, due for release this Spring, will include the complete full colour strips from Express Weekly and TV Express Weekly, presented for the first time in a deluxe premium hard cover collection.
James Bigglesworth is a wartime air ace and peacetime Sergeant in the Special Air Police, know to his friends and some of his enemies as ‘Biggles’. Born in India in 1899 Biggles has become one of the most enduring figures in childrens fiction of the last century.
Biggles was created by former Royal Flying Corps pilot and W.E. Johns in 1932, whose own life – which included being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war – was pretty colourful itself.
As he told The Sunday Times in an interview in 1965, he was editor of an aviation magazine, Popular Flying, and looking for someone to write flying fiction. Nobody had thought of it, so he wrote some short stories himself. A publisher then commissioned him to turn them into a book.
“They gave me orders on what to do. I had to have no sex, no expletives and no drinking. I haven’t changed that in all these years. I did let drop one expletive the other day for the first time. Someone says, What the hell’s going on here.’ Not Biggies. He wouldn’t say anything like that.”
After the first Biggles story, “The White Fokker”, appeared Popular Flying in 1932, the first Biggles book, The Camels Are Coming, a collection of the magazine stories, appeared later that year.
The character proved a hit and still has a loyal following today. Johns went on to write 96 Biggles books over the next four decades, continuing until his death on 21st June 1968. As this article by Neil Clark for the Daily Express notes, he had finished writing page eight of his latest story, Biggles Does Some Homework, when he went upstairs to take his wife a cup of tea. He sat down in his chair, but then collapsed and died.
Some of the Biggles books were illustrated by Alfred William Sindall, who also drew the daily strips “Paul Temple” (1951-54) for the London Evening News, and “Tug Transom” (1954-69) written by Peter O’Donnell) for the Daily Sketch. He also drew strips for the weekly Girl comic.
Biggles short stories appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including Junior Mirror and Look and Learn, and the first publication of two “Biggles” stories in EAGLE, serialised in 1953 – “Biggles in the Blue”, published before the book was released, and “Biggles in the Gobi”, the book published during its run in the weekly comic.
“Biggles” stories and strips ran in Express Weekly, starting with the illustrated story “Biggles Forms A Syndicate” by W.E. Johns, which started in Express Weekly Issue 274, cover dated 30th January 1960 and ran for ten episodes, ending in TV Express Weekly Issue 283, cover dated 2nd April 1960. A second story, “Biggles Goes Home” ran in Issues 290, cover dated 21st May 1960 to Issue 299, cover dated 23rd July 1960.
The title changed its name to TV Express Weekly with Issue 286, cover dated 23rd April 1960, through to its end in 1962, when it was merged with TV Comic.
Several “Biggles” comic strips appeared in TV Express Weekly from Issue 306, none, bar one, titled, although they did gain titles in their overseas reprints. The first three were drawn by Ron Embleton, with Mike Western taking over with the fiourth. All were new stories, not adapted from plots by W. E. Johns.
French publisher SAGE published translations of most of Express Weekly comic strips in their digest comic, Rin Tin Tin, from June 1962 to September 1963.
Another French publisher, Miklo, gathered most of the stories into two albums, published in June 2002 and July 2003, as part of their Biggles Héritage reprints of classic Biggles comics, available in French and Dutch.
Between 2007 to 2010, Express Publications put out a very limited run of 30 copies of the stories, compiled into three volumes, launching with the collection, Biggles Joins a Revolution and the Bullion Robbers. As you can imagine, these collections sell for quite a price when offered at auction.
In addition to Biggles comic strips published in Britain, strips have also been published in Europe, Australia and Scandinavia, some further information below.
• Biggles (Limited Edition) page at Book Palace
Author: W. E. Johns
Artists: Ron Embleton, Mike Western
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due Spring 2026
Code: BIGGLES
Extremely rare edition Limited to 400 copies worldwide
The TV Express Weekly Strips
All titles as published in overseas reprints
“Biggles vs Dr Zanchu” | TV Express Weekly Issues 306 – 316
“Biggles vs von Stalhein” | TV Express Weekly Issues 317-326
“Moon Rocket X7V” | TV Express Weekly Issues 327-331
“Biggles and the Galilean Chalice” | TV Express Weekly Issues 332-337
“Biggles and the North Africa Gang | TV Express Weekly Issues 338-344
” Biggles on the Cornish Coast | TV Express Weekly Issues 345-357
“Biggles and the Missing Atom Man | TV Express Weekly Issues 358-365
“Biggles and the Film Wrecker” | TV Express Weekly Issues 366-374
“Biggles Joins the Battle of the Giants” | TV Express Weekly Issues 375-376
This final strip has never been reprinted and is the only one given a title in the weekly comic
“Biggles in the Bahamas” – TV Express Annual 1962
Biggles Comic Strips Abroad and At Home
Beyond Biggles’ Express Weekly run, the adventurer has enjoyed plenty of success as a comic character. In May 1955 for example, The Cruise of the Condor, based on the second Biggles novel, described as a “strip book”, was published by British publisher Juvenile Productions, illustrated by Pat Williams.
Brockhampton Press Ltd. also published two picture books, adapting Biggles Breaks the Silence (published in 1953) and Biggles Hunts Big Game.
In Australia, Action Comics published their The Adventures of Biggles series from 1952 onwards, some 75 stories credited to Captain W. E. Johns, initially by Albert De Vine and, later, John Dixon and Jeff Wilkinson. There is evidence that Johns approved the stories, or at least endorsed their production, but research by Kevin Patrick suggests he did not write any of them himself.
Between 1963 to 1968, French publisher Artima – renamed Aredit in 1965 after they were bought by Presses de la Cite – published 22 pocket digest Biggles albums, most adaptations of Johns novels but some comprising several comic strips which were adaptations of Johns short stories, as well as non-Biggles stories.
Early albums were drawn by Guicha, Roger Melliès taking over as artist in 1966, assisted by Maurice Rondepierre . They also published Biggles stories in albums of other series, including Temeraire, and reworked some of the material, as noted here on the Biggles Fandom Wiki.
Belgian publisher Studio Vandersteen, founded by Willy Vandersteen (considered the most famous, influential and productive Flemish comic artist of all time) began publishing Biggles stories from 1965 until 1970, first appearing as serials in the Antwerp daily newspaper, Der Standaard; some adaptations of W.E. Johns novels.
The series was mostly drawn by Karel Verschuere and Karel Biddeloo. Biddeloo eventually continued the series on his own until 1970.
Swedish publisher Semic Press published several Hergé-styled Biggles stories, the first written and drawn by acclaimed Swedish artist Björn Karlström (1921 – 2006), who also provided covers for various translations of the Biggles books in Sweden; the series was continued by Stig Stjernvik and Jerk Sander. Ola Ericson is credited as providing covers for these albums.
Björn Karlström was a well known aviation artist, whose work was published across the globe in a wide range of magazines, including Model Ariplane News and Aviation Age. He created two Biggles strips, the first published in the 1940s (a weekly strip, further details welcome), the second, more widely known, in the 1970s, He also drew Leo Falk and the Swedish science fiction series, Johnny Wiking. He also drew Dotty Virvelvind , the first Swedish superhero series.
Down the years, some but not all of these stories have been reprinted in English here by Hodder and Stoughton, Red Fox, in English in India by Euro Books and Cinebook. Although no longer in print, you can find copies on Abe Books, AmazonUK, eBay, and other online sources.
In addition to reprints of European comic stories a five-part comic strip advertising the British-made Biggles: Adventures in Time movie was published in various comics back in 1986, drawn by Arthur Ranson, that strip covered here on downthetubes by Jeremy Briggs.
Head downthetubes for…
• Biggles (Limited Edition) page at Book Palace
W.E. Johns wrote and released a total of 96 Biggles books in his lifetime. A further two were published posthumously, one a collection of previously published short stories the other an incomplete story he was working on at the time of his death. This site documents them all, and recent reprints
• W.E. Johns – Fan Site | Biggles.com
Superb unofficial guides to Biggles and Johns himself
• GCD: Biggles Comic Stories in Chronological Order
• Biggles Euro Comics in English: A Guide
• Jeremy Briggs delves into The Cruise of the Condor on Bear Alley | Copies are available via AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
• downthetubes: Comic Creator Spotlight: Pat Williams, EAGLE and TV Comic artist
• Boys Adventure Comics: Biggles Red Fox Cover Gallery
• Boys Adventure Comics: Cinebook Cover Gallery
• downthetubes: Biggles: Adventures in Time – Film Strip Recalled – feature by Jeremy Briggs
• 2D Gallery: Biggles Original Art
• GCD: Biggles Comic Strip, Publishers by Date – Checklist
• Miklo and Lombard Biggles Albums
Biggles: The Adventures of Biggles
• Biggles Fandom: The Adventures of Biggles Checklist
• Who wrote ‘The Adventures of Biggles’? An article by Kevin Patrick
• W.E. Johns Site: The Adventures of Biggles | British Reprint Details
Biggles: Biggles i Borneo
Göte Göransson (1st March 1921 – 8th March 2015) drew a Biggles series for the Swedish magazine Teknikens värld, between 1955 and 1956, “Biggles i Borneo”, presumably an adaptation of the eponymous novel?
Biggles: Artima comic series
• Biggles Fandom: Artima comic series Checklist
• Bedetheque.com: Biggles – Artima-Aredit Guide
Biggles: Studio Vandersteen
• Biggles Fandom: Studio Vandersteen Comic Checklist
Biggles: Semic Press
• Biggles and the Saragasso Triangle (1977) by Björn Karlström (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Biggles and the Golden Bird (1978) by Björn Karlström (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Biggles and the Tiger (1978) by Björn Karlström (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Biggles and the Menace from Space (1979) by Björn Karlström (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Biggles in the Kalahari (1982) by Stig Stjernvik & Jerk Sander (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Biggles and the Gibraltar Bomb (1983) by Stig Stjernvik & Jerk Sander Hodder & Stoughton (reprinted by Hodder & Stoughton)
• Den Hemliga Eskadern (“The Secret Squadron”) (1984) – not reprinted
• Biggles Fandom: Biggles Semic Press Checklist
• Wikipedia Sweden: Björn Karlström (in Swedish)
• Boys Adventures Comics: Hodder and Stoughton Biggles Gallery Part One
• Boys Adventures Comics: Hodder and Stoughton Biggles Gallery Part Two
Biggles: Adventures in Time
In addition to reprints of European comic stories a five-part comic strip advertising the British-made Biggles: Adventures in Time movie was published in various comics back in 1986, drawn by Arthur Ranson, that strip covered here on downthetubes by Jeremy Briggs.
The copyright in all of W.E. Johns work is owned by the estate of W.E. Johns, represented by W. E. Johns (Publications) Limited. Literary agent Curtis Brown represents the interests of the estate
- About the Author
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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, British Comics - Collections, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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