Back in 1956, Junior Express Weekly, a weekly comic from the Daily Express, produced a batch of Jeff Hawke-inspired cards with a scientific background.

The settings are those in which comic strip hero Jeff Hawke works, all with reference to Sydney Jordan‘s stories: the solar system, the spaceships, the various moments in the daily life of astronauts in space.

Produced in simple primary colours, suitable for the audience of youngsters to whom they were addressed, the complete series ran to 25 items.

Aimed at educating while having fun, each image represented a spatial topic, completed on the back by a concise but exhaustive explanation.

There are many more details on the Jeff Hawke Space Gen cards, when they were released and what Junior Express Weekly readers needed to do to get them in the Jeff Hawke Junior publication from the Jeff Hawke Club, which we publicised a while back here on downthetubes.

• To join the Jeff Hawke Fan Club visit www.jeffhawkeclub.com| Follow their blog here | For ordering information contact jeffhawke@williamrudling.co.uk

Jeff Hawke © Daily Express

John Freeman

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. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek 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 - Newspaper Strips, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: downthetubes News, Jeff Hawke, Jeff Hawke Club, SF Comics, Sydney Jordan Jeff Hawke Space Gen Cards