Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy award-winning actor who created and starred in 1960s TV shows The Prisoner, was born 19th March 1928 and died on 13th January 2009, aged 80, after after a short illness. His TV work remains legendary for many, and Danger Man, another show he starred in, and The Prisoner, span off into comics.
First coming working on the stage – in 1955, he featured in a West End stage production of Serious Charge, as a Church of England vicar accused of being homosexual – he soon moved into television and film work. His first small screen appearance as Charles Stewart Parnell in “The Fall of Parnell”, for the series You Are There (1954). He cited the lead for Ibsen’s play Brand, for which he received an award as a favourite, also playing the role in a BBC television production in August 1959.
Patrick McGoohan’s first comic strip appearance was in a promotional comic strip for the 1957 film Hell Drivers, which ran in various newspapers at the time of its release. The film’s pitch was “They fight to the death – and the weapons are ten-ton trucks!” with truckers battling truckers, the cast including Stanley Baxter, a pre Bond Sean Connery, and a pre Doctor Who William Hartnell. The strip is included as an extra on the DVD, but it has to be said that the likenesses aren’t very consistent!
It was his role as John Drake in Danger Man, launched in 1960, that made him internationally famous, becoming the highest paid actor on British television when the series was revived in 1964, after McGoohan had turned down the role of James Bond on the big screen.
The show’s small screen success spawned a variety of tie-merchandise, including annuals in the UK, a number of novels, and comics in the US, France and Spain.
“Danger Man” text stories also appeared in TV Express comic in 1962.
Little known to some fans, however, is the series brief appearance in the British adventure comic, Lion, running for just 13 weeks, previously featured here on downthetubes, from the issues cover dated 11th June to 3rd September 1966, the strip, drawn by Jesus Blasco, writer unknown appearing directly after Lion merged with another weekly adventure comic, Champion, to become Lion & Champion.
“I am not a number – I am a free man!”
While Danger Man was a success, it was his next role, as the title character Number Six in the short lived surreal drama The Prisoner, which aired on ITV in the UK, for which he will always be remembered, despite his outstanding work both before and after it aired, in other projects. In the series, originally commissioned for seven episodes but became seventeen, he played a former spy who is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape. Forming Everyman Films with producer David Tomblin, he also executive produced the series, and wrote some of its episodes himself, under a different name, and directed some, too.
“The Prisoner” was, we’re told considered as a possible strip in the pages of TV Century 21, too, home to Gerry Anderson’s “Thunderbirds” and “Captain Scarlet” .
“Supposedly, Alan Fennell cast his eye over several TV scripts to decide on its suitability in the comic,” says Fred McNamara, who runs the “Sequentially 21” web site, referring to an interview with former comics editorial man Milton Finesilver in the short-lived fanzine, Portal 31, who worked at Century 21 Publishing, on TV21.
“Obviously [Alan] decided a very firm ‘no’, but can’t help but think which scripts exactly he was exposed to…”
Who might have written and drawn that strip, we can’t help but wonder? An intriguing “road not taken”.
The Prisoner series pilot episode was adapted into comics by Marvel Comics, the strip written by Steve Engelhart, and some pages were drawn by Jack Kirby and Gil Kane, but never published. Milton Finesilver mentions however, that Marv Wolfman and Len Wein had approached Century 21 in an effort to contact Frank Bellamy and Frank Langford, in connection with Marvel’s planned The Prisoner comic.
(Finesilver also worked at Longacre Press, publishers of Eagle before joining Century 21, and, thankfully, retained copies of some of Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson’s “lost” character designs. Later, at IPC, his many other credits included the “Knowall” column for Action, and he also worked on IPC’s Disney titles. At one point, he also published The Bowler, a comics fanzine).
The Prisoner eventually made its comic debut more than a decade later when DC published a sequel, The Prisoner: Shattered Visage. Titan Comics published the aborted Marvel project in The Prisoner: Original Art Edition in 2018, and published The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine, a new take on the mythos, written by Peter Milligan and Colin Lorimer
Dr Syn
There was also a “Scarecrow” strip in the short-lived TV Century 21 stablemate title, Solo, continuing the adventures of Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow, as seen in the 1963 Disney film. Solo reprinted the earlier American Gold Key comics featuring the character, “complete with crazy quilt covers, somehow making the Scarecrow look even weirder,” notes Dan Greenfield over at The 13th Dimension.
Writer Michael Stewart and artist Brett Blevins also delivered new Scarecrow adventures for issues of Disney Adventures Magazine, and TOON ZONE, as Brett recounts here on his blog, back in 2007.
McGoohan would go on to win two Emmys for detective drama Columbo, playing different characters, with the first coming in 1974 and the other 16 years later.
McGoohan’s later roles included King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film, Braveheart, the Phantom’s father in The Phantom (1996) and the voice of Billy Bones in Treasure Planet (2020), his final film role.
He married actress Joan Drummond on 19th May 1951, and they had three children, including actor Catherine McGoohan. His son-in-law is film producer Cleve Landsberg.
He remains Number One in the eyes of many…
• Danger Man: The Complete Collection is available from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
A runaway success for ITC in the 1960s, Danger Man showcased a compelling performance from Patrick McGoohan that cemented his fame on both sides of the Atlantic and paved the way for him to make his undeniable tour de force cult classic: The Prisoner.
McGoohan is John Drake an exemplary agent for British Intelligence who is sent into situations too tricky or dangerous for normal spies to undertake. Showcasing a superb soundtrack from Edwin Astley, this classic drama series features intriguing storylines from key writers including Brian Clemens, Ralph Smart, Donald Jonson, Philip Broadley and Tony Williamson. Guest stars include Donald Pleasence, Patrick Wymark, Robert Shaw, Patrick Troughton, Warren Mitchell, Honor Blackman, Ian Hendry, Dawn Addams, Sylvia Syms and Donald Houston.
• The Prisoner: The Complete Collection is available from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Five decades on from its first UK broadcast, The Prisoner remains as fresh and dynamic as when it was first unleashed upon an unsuspecting world in 1967. This set presents the complete series, stunningly restored, together with a wealth of special features.
• The Prisoner Original Art Edition
By Steve Englehart, Jack Kirby and Gil Kane
An oversized and beautiful hard back book, which features the original and unfinished The Prisoner comic strip art from Jack Kirby, and Gil Kane, from the late 1970s.
Drawn by two of the true great comic book legends, this is a facsimile collection of a ‘long-lost’, unpublished legendary comic book based on the cult classic 1967 British TV show, The Prisoner, co-created, written, directed and starring Patrick McGoohan.
The first six pages of the Jack Kirby strip were inked and lettered by Mike Royer. The Gil Kane pages are pencils only.
• The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine
By Peter Milligan and Colin Lorimer
The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine sees a return to the world of The Village where Breen, codenamed No. 6, is trapped in a seemingly bizarre parallel world, unlike anything he has ever experienced before. There he must race to rescue his fellow spy before he loses his very grip on reality. But to save the day, Breen must also confront the arch controller of The Village, a person known only as Number One…
Danger Man & The Prisoner ™ and © ITC Entertainment Group Limited
Special tanks to Fred McNamara and Reuben Willmott for additional information
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, Comics, downthetubes News, Events, Features, Other Worlds, Television
In Pictures: Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 Exhibition at the Cartoon Museum 
Sneak Peek: Doctor Who: Origins #1, out in June, starring the Fugitive Doctor
Something worth checking out from his film days is “Hell Drivers”, a British film noir about a trucking company, Stanley Baker is the main star, with Patrick playing the villain, and there are lots of familiar faces who later became famous in other roles including Sean Connery, William Hartnell as the boss, Sid James, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, Herbert Lom and Jill Ireland. It’s available on DVD – well worth watching
Thanks. Yes, it’s available here on DVD on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link), but beyond the cracking posters for the film, for example one by
Angelo Cesselon and Eric Pulford, I don’t think there are any specific comic strip adaptations? But there are some wonderful behind the scenes productions photos – and that poster – here.
So – I stand corrected! I’ve added a panel from the “Hell Drivers” newspaper strip, and information about it, to the feature above.