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Samaritans founder Chad Varah’s Eagle and Girl comic rarities included in latest Phil-Comics auction

By John Freeman on November 9, 2023

Original art, British comic rarities and some fascinating Eagle and Girl comic ephemera, owned by one of the original Eagle comic team of the 1950s, are on offer in the latest Phil-Comics auction on eBay, which closes this weekend.

The Eagle and Girl items, which include comics, Eagle Society items and much more, come from the personal collection of the late Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, who worked as a sript writer for both weekly titles throughout the 1950s.

An integral early member of the Eagle and Girl team, Chad died in 2007 and now his collection has been consigned to Phil-Comics by his daughter, Felicity Varah Harding OBE, whose wishes are for all proceeds to be donated to Worksop College for their bursary scheme. The auction house has added “CV” to the title of each of the lots from the estate, to indicate they come from Chad’s collection.

Eagle 30 Year Awards Plaque from 1980, which was given to Chad Varah at the Eaglecon in 1980. This was one of at least 19 plaques that were given away as awards the event, as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Eagle comic, believed given away to key contributors of the comic in the 1950s and 1960s. (Thanks to Richard Sheaf and the Astral Group newsletter #5 for this info). This item comprises a lovely wooden base measuring 6 x 6 inches and a felt base. The wood is 3/4 inch thick with an angled slot along one edge. In this sits the 6 x 6 inch perspex / plastic square with the attractive design. The plastic is 1/8 inch thick. Apart from a few light scuff lines the whole item is in very nice shape.

The 40 page full colour booklet (approx 8 x 8 inches) that accompanied an exhibition held at the British Cartoon Centre, in London, to celebrate the 50th birthday of Dan Dare. Many pictures and very informative item. The exhibition ran from 25th Jun to 8th September 2000. Also included in the lot is an A4 single sided poster / flyer advertising the event. There’s also two personal correspondance items with Chad Varah – one from Paul Gravett and Howard Smith (Curator of the exhibition), dated 4/9/2000. The other is from Revd John Eldrid, of Havant, who seemed to have sent the booklet to Chad. In the letter he references seeing some of Chad Varah’s Eagle proofs back in 1958.

Chad first met Eagle’s founder, Marcus Morris, in 1947. They were both young priests and Chad was the rector of Holy Trinity Blackburn. Marcus was the editor of The Anvil, breaking new ground in terms of Christian publicity. Chad became one of Marcus’s closest friends and his most active ally in writing for The Anvil and in the creation of the Eagle comic, especially after Chad moved from Blackburn in 1948 to St John’s Church, Battersea. Marcus later described Chad as extremely intelligent, highly strung and dynamic.

When the Eagle was founded in 1950, Chad described his role on the ground breaking comic. He said he was Marcus’s most trusted adviser, the fiction editor of the Eagle, the scientific advisor and the main script writer and visualiser for a series of back page stories.

Chad wrote most of the Dan Dare story, “Marooned on Mercury”, after Hampson wrote and drew the first two weeks’ continuity, before succumbing to the first of his two long absences with overwork. Varah took over the writing for him and the art was by Harold Johns and Greta Tomlinson. (This continued until the end of the story, after which Hampson returned to start “Operation Saturn“, before succumbing a second time, this time leaving Don Harley to take over).

Chad supplemented his income by working as a scriptwriter not only for Eagle, but its three sister publications, Girl, Robin and Swift, until 1961. Some of his other stories included “Lone Mission” (the story of Gladys Aylward), “Bride of Ireland” (the story of St Bride), “Angel of Mercy” (the story of Florence Nightingale) and “Marie Curie”, all drawn by Gerry Haylock, and “The Travels of Marco Polo”.

Girl comic Editorial Letter to Chad Varah dated 2nd October 1959 on Girl headed paper. A rarely seen letter from a staff member on Girl - Jane Meredith - in correspondence with script writer Chad Varah. It gives a fascinating insight into the workings of the comic, and the ownership of the company, at the time. Dated 2nd October 1959, the letter measures 10 x 8 inches and is folded in half and then into thirds. A 1 x 1/8 inch stain to the right hand centre crease line, visible from the front and slight foxing type stains across this centre line to the rear. — Girl comic Editorial Letter to Chad Varah dated 2nd October 1959 on Girl headed paper. A rarely seen letter from a staff member on Girl – Jane Meredith – in correspondence with script writer Chad Varah. It gives a fascinating insight into the workings of the comic, and the ownership of the company, at the time.

He also performed a valuable service for Marcus as each week he painstakingly got through 1/4 million words of unsolicited manuscripts. Chad, too, found and commissioned a certain science fiction writer to do some work for the Eagle. He was, of course, Arthur C Clarke.

In 1953 Chad founded Samaritans, an organisation to befriend the suicidal and despairing; the world’s first telephone help line which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. In Chad’s own words, the service was just “a man willing to listen, with a base and an emergency telephone”.

Chad took the first call on 2nd November 1953 and the service was born. It has grown from very humble beginnings into a national treasure with 200 branches in the UK and Ireland and 23,000 volunteers. Every 10 seconds a Samaritan answers a call for help representing one million hours of listening in 2022.

A rarely seen Christmas card "Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from the Editor and Staff of EAGLE". It measures 7.25 x 5.5 inches and has no writing. The cover artist is Sheila Robinson (1925-1988), a Nottingham born artist who was a student of, and later teacher at, the Royal College of Art. There is, or at least was, the Sheila Robinson Drawing Prize in her honour. She produced much work in the 1950s including several transport posters in the 1950s. Richard Sheaf has kindly helped date this to 1950-1956, since Hulton Press were located at the 43-33 Shoe Lane address until early in 1957. — A rarely seen Christmas card “Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from the Editor and Staff of EAGLE”. It measures 7.25 x 5.5 inches and has no writing. The cover artist is Sheila Robinson (1925-1988), a Nottingham born artist who was a student of, and later teacher at, the Royal College of Art. There is, or at least was, the Sheila Robinson Drawing Prize in her honour. She produced much work in the 1950s including several transport posters in the 1950s. Richard Sheaf has kindly helped date this to 1950-1956, since Hulton Press were located at the 43-33 Shoe Lane address until early in 1957.

Chad’s work with Marcus Morris founding Eagle meant he had numerous contacts in Fleet Street and a network of interested journalists to write about this new charity. Indeed the Daily Mirror wrote an article about “The Good Samaritan” in the City of London listening on the telephone to those in despair and hence the idea for the name Samaritans.

Chad was educated at Worksop College. Each year the college awards scholarships and bursaries worth more than £1 million to children who would not otherwise be able to benefit from what the school has to offer.

Their ambition is to enhance this provision by awarding at least one Transformational Bursary (fully funded) per year, the Chad Varah Transformational Bursary – an opportunity for talented, hard-working children to realise their potential, regardless of financial situation.

The money raised by this auction lot will go towards the Bursary.

With 300 lots on offer, including both British and American comics, here are just a few of the other items in this auction that caught our eye. There’s some original art, and a lot of Black Bob, Magic Roundabout and Rupert Bear items on offer, so if you’re a fan of either character, you should check this auction out.

Run by Phil Shrimpton, award-winning Phil-Comics specialises in vintage comics and related items such as annuals, holiday specials, free gifts and original artwork.

Head to ebay.co.uk/str/philcomics for the full catalogue

*Black Bob Book / Annual 1951, one of several annuals on offer this week featuring The Dandy’s much loved sheepdog*

*Black Bob Original Comic Artwork by Jack Prout published in a Dandy Book, date unknown*

Knockout comic IPC Negative Print for a circa 1973 "Barry and Boing" comic strip. The Phil-Comics team found this negative tucked inside the publisher file copy of Knockout from Jul-Dec 1972. It measures approx 6.5 x 4.5 inches and is some sort of photographic negative showing a page of artwork, or a page directly from the comic. It's quite possibly a negative of the original artwork as it has the measurement written along the bottom as is often seen on the artwork. Notes at the top include "10 Jun '73 Penultimate", "Knockout Print DIW/G/U" or similar. — Knockout comic IPC Negative Print for a circa 1973 “Barry and Boing” comic strip. The Phil-Comics team found this negative tucked inside the publisher file copy of Knockout from Jul-Dec 1972. It measures approx 6.5 x 4.5 inches and is some sort of photographic negative showing a page of artwork, or a page directly from the comic. It’s quite possibly a negative of the original artwork as it has the measurement written along the bottom as is often seen on the artwork. Notes at the top include “10 Jun ’73 Penultimate”, “Knockout Print DIW/G/U” or similar.

A single page of original artwork making up the full story of a “Joker” strip drawn and signed by Sid Burgon for the pages of either Whizzer and Chips or Buster in, presumably in the mid 1980s. Art by Sid Burgeon, with his signature to the last panel.

*A single page of original artwork making up the full story of a Sid’s Snake strip, believed to have been drawn by Mikey Lacey for Whizzer and Chips cover dated 26th April 1986*

*2000AD Comic Rare Flyer 1980 Free Gift Judge Dredd Badge Prog 178*

*Leo Baxendale Autobiography Book A Very Funny Business. Published by Duckworth in 1978*

*Andy Capp Spring Tonic Comic Book 1959 No. 2 Daily Mirror Reg Smythe*

*Bimbo No. 1 cover dated 18th March 1961 with Rare Free Gift Balloon*

*Buster No. 1, cover dated 28th May 1960*

*This copy of the Magic Beano Book 1948 is one of the best copies Phil-Comics has ever offered*

*Rocket Space-Age Weekly No. 1 cover dated 21st April 1956*

*Roxy No. #1 cover dated 15th March 1958 with Rare Free Gift Tommy Steele’s Lucky Guitar*

*One of plenty Rupert Bear items in this auction, this is a rare Rupert and Edward and the Circus Cut Out and Story Book circa 1940s on offer, publisher unknown*

*A festive issue of SMASH, cover dated 27th December 1969*

Tiger comic Free Gift Star Footballer cards of 1963, a collector wallet given away with the issue cover dated 28th September 1963. It’s believed approximately 12 cards also came with wallet and then in the next three or so issues, the remainder of the cards were gifted. A total of 50 cards made up the set.

*TV Comic Holiday Special 1966, featuring Doctor Who*

*The Victor No. 1, cover dated 25th February 1961*

Holding monthly eBay auctions, often with a huge number of listings, they aim to bring a diverse array of items – and are always on the lookout for vintage comic collections, either to buy or auction on commission.

• All listings in this eBay Phil-Comics auction end on Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th and Monday 13th November 2023 from 18:30 hours UK time, respectively.

• Head to www.ebay.co.uk/str/philcomics for the full catalogue

With thanks to Martin Crookall for additional information on the creation of “Marooned on Mecury”

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.