I recently picked up this Mike Higgs-created “Moonbird” strip on eBay, one of several three-tier strips he created for the German market, which was published in colour.
The colour for the strip created on a separate overlay…
“Moonbird” first appeared as daily strips in the UK various Associated Newspaper titles. In the early 1980s, creator Mike Higgs regenerated the flighty fellow into a children’s picture book character, first as a series of stories, followed by a “Learn with Moonbird” series in the mid-1980s.
His assistant on some was none other than Beano artist Lew Stringer, who inked four of the strips, and penciled, inked and coloured about 16 of the Learn With Moonbird books, with Mike pencilling/inking Moonbird himself. (Inker Mark Farmer also worked with Mike, colouring some the books, too).
Mike lettered this strip in English, and there’s a logo in English, too, under the German variant, but all the strip’s original lettering has been whited out before the German text was added.
Moonbird lived on the moon in a colony of similar moonchicks and moonhens, protected by the all-seeing Moonhawk. No two moonbirds were the same, each having their own unique colour and pattern, but even in Germany, star Moonbird was just plain old white.
As part of the strip’s premise, Moonbird regularly travelled to Earth (on a moonbeam, of course!), to experience all the quirks and quandaries of modern existence…
It’s intriguing to see an independent comic creator gaining an interest in his character from overseas, to the extent that new strips were created and translated into German.
Now retired, Mike Higgs is also known, of course, as the creator of the super-spy The Cloak for Pow! in the 1960s, and his subsequent work on strips such as “Space School” for Whizzer and Chips, an experience that led him to move into creating newspaper strips, including “Moonbird” and “Baz & Co.”, before returning to comics later in his working life on strips such as “Thundercap” for Buster in the 1990s.
He also produced books for Patrick Hawkey’s company, Hawk Books, editing and designing the books himself, and usually coming up with the concept as well. As Lew Stringer has detailed on his Blimey! blog, these included his Giant Holiday Comic Albums, and more.
• Mike Higgs’ Moonbird books on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
• Lew Stringer charts the arrival of “The Cloak” by Mike Higgs in POW!
• Check out Lew’s items on the work of Mike Higgs charting his career
With thanks to Lew Stringer
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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 - Newspaper Strips, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Any further plans on releasing “The Cloak” in a collection? I recall reading some episodes when younger. I know John Ryan, the Australian comic historian, loved Mike’s work, and had an original drawing in his collection (that his daughter once proudly showed me).