Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities, a new book by JZ Ferguson and Alan Hayes exploring stage, radio and comic spinoffs of TV’s The Avengers, is available to preorder now from publisher Quoit Media.
Mexican wrestlers fight the Cybernauts! Invisible women threaten world governments! Steed and Gambit take on an army of ants! Killer dolls stalk Emma Peel on the Costa Brava!
And you thought the stories told by The Avengers on television were outlandish…
Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities delves deep into a selection of offbeat projects from Avengerland and beyond, analysing stage, radio and comic book adaptations of the series; independent productions that attempted to transplant The Avengers magic to such far-flung locations as Germany, Mexico, Spain and the United States of America; and unmade scripts starring John Steed and partners familiar and new – intriguing projects that are a testament to the show’s popular appeal and endurance as a creative property.
Written by Avengers enthusiasts J Z Ferguson and Alan Hayes, the cover the work of Robert Hammond, and with a foreword by author Roy Bettridge (Avengerworld, The Avengers: The Official Quiz Book), Escapades shines new light upon eleven fascinating and hitherto mysterious curiosities. Its in-depth chapters answer the burning questions about these Avengers scripts, spin-offs, revivals and homages that you have always wanted to ask.
• Order Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities direct from Quoit Media for a pre-order discount here | ‘B’ Format Paperback – 352 pages | Cover artwork by Robert Hammond
J Z Ferguson, who lives in Canada, is an enthusiast of British popular culture with a particular affinity for television series of the sixties and seventies. She has been a fan of The Avengers since 1998, when she discovered the series shortly after seeing the infamous film adaptation.
She contributed chapters to all five volumes – and was joint-editor of the last two volumes – of The Avengers on film series, which consists of Bright Horizons; Mrs. Peel, We’re Needed; Anticlockwise; Avengerland Regained; and Avengerland Revisited. She has also written for the Classic British Television Drama series, penning chapters on shows such as The Saint, Danger Man, The Persuaders!, and Gideon’s Way. She wrote about sexual liberation and representations of gender in the context of 1960s television series for Rodney Marshall’s Swinging TV; The New Avengers and Zodiac for the 1970s-centric follow-up, Survival TV; and Cuffy for the 1980s-themed volume New Waves. She wrote a guest essay for Man in a Suitcase: A Critical Guide, and contributed chapters to the Hidden Tiger titles Avengerworld: The Avengers in Our Lives, edited by Alan Hayes, and Tis Magic! Our Memories of Catweazle. She has also written for the website The Avengers Declassified.
Alan Hayes has been fascinated by TV since the 1970s, and fell in love with The Avengers in 1976 when he was introduced to Steed, Purdey and Gambit – still his definitive Avengers team. He has co-written several books with awkwardly long titles including Two Against the Underworld – The Collected Unauthorised Guide to The Avengers Series 1 (with Richard McGinlay and Alys Hayes) and Dr. Brent’s Casebook – An Unauthorised Guide to Police Surgeon (with Richard McGinlay).
He has edited three charity anthologies, Avengerworld – The Avengers in Our Lives, Tis Magic! Our Memories of Catweazle and, for Quoit Media, Playboys, Spies and Private Eyes – Inspired by ITC (with Rick Davy). He has also produced a series of official reconstructions of lost Series 1 Avengers episodes for StudioCanal, lending his voice as narrator to four of these. Alan has also been known to dabble in graphic design, producing book, DVD and CD artwork for Quoit Media and Hidden Tiger, also a publisher of a range of cult TV books. Additionally, he has designed print materials for the theatre group Dyad Productions, which have been displayed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at national and international venues. He lives in St. Albans, England, is very happily married, and both he and his wife are in servitude to a madly skittish but gorgeous cat called Katy.
Quoit Media is a bespoke publishing company, based in Wales, specialising in printed books, DVDs, and Audio CDs. Their book catalogue includes Free for All – Rediscovering The Prisoner, The Callan File, and Playboys, Spies and Private Eyes – Inspired by ITC.
• Order Escapades: An Exploration of Avengers Curiosities direct from Quoit Media for a pre-order discount here | ‘B’ Format Paperback – 352 pages | Cover artwork by Robert Hammond
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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.
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