The Eagle Flies Again. 34 years ago this month, classic British adventure comic the Eagle was relaunched under the stewardship of Barrie Tomlinson and David Hunt. It featured an enviable lineup of characters and creators and ran for nearly 12 years, creating a new generation of Eagle fans. Now, the Eagle is back!
Hibernia – who have published a number of British strip collections in recent years, regularly covered on this site – has just announced its first Eagle Adventure Special, an anthology reprint of classic stories from the Eagle featuring tales from writers like John Wagner, Alan Moore and Alan Hebden and artists as varied as Ian Kennedy, Jim Baikie, José Ortiz and John Burns.
The line-up of strips included – led by a terrific Dan Dare story, “Mekon Minefield”, drawn by Ian Kennedy – is an excellent mix from the much-loved comic, with a splendid mix of carefully chosen stories from editor David McDonald, lovingly restored with considerable skill by Richard Pearce.
While not comic strip, the photo strip is a bit of a gem – “The Collector – Trash” is written by Alan Moore. Also well worth a look is “If You Go Down to The Woods Today”, a humorous one page story featuring splendid, mind-bending art by José Cassonovas.
I hope there will be more of these – I’d long ago suggested to several publishers that they should consider reprinting, at the very least, some of the ‘new’ “Dan Dare” Eagle strips, so I’m delighted is dipping its toe in the water on that front with this Special.
This is a great looking collection – buy it while stocks last… and Bring Back Doomlord!
• Buy Hibernia Comics collections from www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia
• Follow Hibernia on Twitter @hiberniabooks • Find Hibernia on Facebook www.facebook.com/HiberniaComks
• Read Ian Wheeler’s review of this book
The Strips
The Eagle Adventure Special and some of its contents are reproduced with the kind permission of the Dan Dare Corporation Ltd.
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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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Reviews
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Thanks John, glad you enjoyed it!