Writer credits on many past British comics published by, among others, IPC and DC Thomson are often notoriously difficult to locate, but we do know Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel wrote many stories featuring “The Spider” between his creation for Lion in 1965 by Ted Cowan and Reg Bunn, through to 1969. But, after his fallout with DC Comics in 1966, when Siegel and Joe Schuster again fought, unsuccessfully, for their rights to the Man of Steel, he’s also credited as scripting Lion‘s superhero-inspired strip, “Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid“.
For those unfamiliar, Gadgetman was the secret millionaire businessman and head of the Travis Corp., Burt Travis. Aided by lab apprentice Gary Stewart, a.k.a. Gimmick-Kid, the two used various inventions and devices of their own creation to battle crime and colourfully-named villains such as King Zombie, the Mad Mummy, the Trickster and his Brain Men, and the mysterious Doom-Boy and Doom-Girl.
“Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid” debuted in the issue of Lion cover dated 4th May 1968, which also featured the penultimate chapter of Siegel’s seventh “The Spider” story, “The Spider vs The Sinister Seven“, on the cover. The same issue included episodes of stories such as “Carson’s Cubs” a football strip, “Rory Macduff“, the tales of an ex-film stuntman, “Serpent’s Revenge“, starring flier Mike Masters, “Robot Archie’s Time Machine“, the mechanical man by now emulating Doctor Who, motor racing strip “The Speed Kings” western story, “Texas Jack and the Golden Nugget“, the ever observant “Zip Nolan” and “The Phantom Viking“. Whether Siegel was writing any of these other strips in an effort to pay the bills is, it appears, unknown. (The issue rounded off with the wonderful comedy strip by Reg Parlett, “Mowser“).
The regular “Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid” strip, the characters’ origin story slowly revealed over the first few episodes, was, initially, the work of Italian artist Renato Polese (27th April 1924 – 9th May 2014), according to Professor Chris Murray, an artist perhaps better known for his work on Italy’s Il Giornalino. In the UK, he also drew stories for titles such as Thriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library, Comet and Valiant and Lion.
Other artists credited as working on the strip are Carlos Pino and Vicente Alcazar, who at the time worked jointly under the pseudonym, Carvic.
Despite the space devoted to their debut, “Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid” didn’t make the cover with that first appearance, but did by the end of May, staring down the Taunting Titan, a waterskiing robot (no, really…), on the cover of the issue of Lion cover dated 25th May 1968. The redoubtable Geoff Campion (19th November 1916 – 18th December 1997) is credited as the artist on some of the dramatic Lion covers featuring the superheroes.
Sadly, the utterly bonkers stories, realised with relish by the artists assigned, tales of alien invaders, mutant monsters, and villains such as Doom-Boy and Doom-Girl, who had their own secrets to tell by the series end, drew to a close with Lion cover dated 26th October 1968, replaced by the return of wartime air ace “Paddy Payne“. Siegel’s run on “The Spider” ended soon after, too, concluding with the end of his ninth story, “The Fantastic Spider”, in the issue cover dated 1st February 1969.
Despite its short run, the strip might make for a good collection, running to some 96-plus pages overall, including an annual appearance. After all, Rebellion has collected the equally bonkers “10,000 Disasters of Dort“, which was published in Lion at the same time, and the Jerry Siegel connection might make for a good selling point, marketed alongside the continuing release of “The Spider” stories by Rebellion the next, The Spider vs. the Crime Genie, heading our way in August!
• International Hero: Gadgeman and Gimmick-Kid
• Siegel & Schuster: The coming of Gadgetman! by Michael Bradley
• Wikipedia: Jerry Siegel | Gadgetman and Gimmick Kid
• Lambiek: Renato Polese | The Book Palace | Art for sale on the Book Palace | Wikipedia
• Lambiek: Carlos Pino | Follow Carlos Pino on Facebook
• Lambiek: Vicente Alcazar | Follow Vicente on Facebook
• Chris Murray’s Guide to “The Legion of British Superheroes” (Open Access PDF)
• British Superheroes is a research project that grew out of Professor Christopher Murray’s 2017 monograph, The British Superhero, first published in 20217 by University Press of Mississippi. The project is a collaboration between Murray and several comics artists investigating the narrative and visual techniques of British superhero comics.
The British Superhero (AmazonUK Affiliate Link) was the first study of the history of these comics, revealing a largely forgotten history of British superhero comics and exploring the relationship between British and American comics industries. British Superheroes built on this, and became a practice oriented research project in its own right
Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid © 2024 Rebellion Publishing Ltd
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, Creating Comics, downthetubes News, Features
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Yes, I remember Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid… To put it as nicely as I can, it was crap.
I have fond memories of this strip. I would certainly snap up a Rebellion collection.
Not sure about the rest but from what I have read elsewhere the Texas Jack feature reprinted stories that had appeared under a different name previously in Sun. Thus it is unlikely Siegel had any involvment with that one. I also know that one point he was writing stories for the Italian publisher of the Walt Disney comics. The publisher of Gold Key referred Siegel to him as they were primarily using reprints at this time and Siegel was looking for work. The Italian publisher was very happy to have the creator of Superman doing work for him.