Great news for fans of the incredible 1950s British newspaper strip Carol Day – there’s a new web site focusing on this much-admired newspaper strip.
“Carol Day”, the creation of writer and artist David Wright, was published in the Daily Mail between 10th September 1956 and 25th May 1967. It was syndicated in around 70 newspapers around the world – but not the United States.
According to Patrick Wright, David’s son, “even though the Hearst Newspaper did attempt to head-hunt my father in the early 1950s, it was felt ‘Carol Day’ was too sophisticated for the American market!”
The beautifully-realised strip featured the every-day adventures of a young blonde model, Carol Day, who had a wealthy uncle in the Caribbean, Marcus, who serves as her guardian and help.
An earlier site dedicated to the strip was a regular port of call for fans, but disappeared some time back, only partially archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. But now, original site runner Roger Clark and Chris Killackey have launched a new site, currently focused on a particular Carol Day story, “Lance Hallam“, which ran for 84 episodes from 9th January through 19th April 1957.
The hunt is still on for art, or good quality copies of the strip – and indeed any Carol Day strips, a mission we’ve reported on many times.
“‘Carol Day’ is a wonderful comic strip by a great artist,” Roger Clark has previously enthused. “With its combination of sophisticated themes and stories, multi-dimensional characters and always magnificent art, ‘Carol Day’ transcends even the best American strips of the time.”
“Lance Hallam” is one of the most popular ‘Carol Day’ stories of the run, generally recognised as a masterpiece of the medium both in story and art.
“A while back noted Carol Day collector Chris Killackey decided to try to put this magnificent story back together, and he has been pursuing the art he didn’t already own with a vengeance!” Roger says. “He enlisted my help and along with Guy Mills, we decided to bring back the Carol Day website to provide the focal point for the project.
The new Carol Day site aims to bring together admirers and collectors of David Wright’s ravishingly illustrated strip and post either original artworks or newsprint clippings of whole stories.
“As the site stands now, it is exclusively devoted to the Lance Hallam project,” says Roger. “We hope to bring back other Carol Day material if there’s demand.”
Well there’s demand from me – and I’m not alone! Let’s hope the rest of the archive amassed from Roger is again made available. It would also be wonderful to see collections of this incredible strip. (Previous digital collections are, sadly, no longer available).
Patrick Wright, son of David Wright, is the current copyright holder of Carol Day.
• Please send an email to Chris Killackey at ckillackATgmail.com if you have any information about the strips needed to complete the Lance Hallam project
• Check out the all-new Carol Day web site at www.carol-day.com
• “The Hauntingly Beautiful Carol Day”, by Christopher Killackey (PDF)
For the Winter 2015 issue of the CFA APA, Chris Killackey wrote an excellent, informative article on the rediscovery of the Carol Day art and how it made its way to the US. The CFA APA has a limited circulation, so most Carol Day fans probably haven’t seen it
With thanks to Paul Gravett for the heads up
- About the Author
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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.
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