After radio DJ Kenny Everett left BBC Radio 1, he landed at London’s brand new commercial station Capital Radio, which came on air in 1973, where his love of reel-to-reel tape recorders and his amazing arsenal of sound effects reached full fruition with his very own weekly sci-fi serial – Captain Kremmen.
Inspired in part thanks to Everett’s love of Dan Dare, Captain Kremmen spawned a cartoon series produced by Cosgrove Hall within his Thames TV series, a comic strip, books, videos, cassettes and even a single of the theme music.
It was also broadcast on a number of other ILR stations and abroad – but few people seem to recall there was a “Captain Kremmen” strip that ran in the Evening Standard, published in 1978 and running for just under 130 episodes, which were collected at the time by Alan Jeffries, who has sent us some in the hope of finding out more about it.
The strip is the work of Roger Wade Walker, creator of “Eric the Punk Cat“, who also drew Captain Kremmen and the Krells, a comic album published by Corgi in 1977, written by Chris Browne, designed and drawn by Roger with lettering by Chris Welch.
You can buy a copy from Amazon if you’re rich (there’s a copy of Eric the Punk Cat there, too), although be advised that this is a story riddled with contemporary stereotyping.
Roger Wade Walker‘s background was in illustration but he did occasional uncredited work for Fleetway’s aerial warfare comic Air Ace Picture Library in the early 1960s. According to an article on the University of Exeter blog by Paul Gerard Williams, he was included in the project because of his friendship with Everett. As the comedian’s neighbour, the artist had spent time in Everett’s home studio and observed him recording the Kremmen serials.
“Walker, who shared Everett’s love for the Eagle, first depicted Kremmen in a visual style whose realism was akin to that comic’s Dan Dare strip,” Paul notes. “The artist recollects that the final, cartoonish version came about because Kremmen needed to resemble the character depicted in the animated shorts, and Cosgrove Hall could not produce an animated version of Walker’s Eagle-inspired pencils in time for broadcast on the Kenny Everett Video Show.
It seems a shame that the “Captain Kremmen” newspaper strip has been forgotten – there doesn’t seem to be any mention of it on the terrific Ultimate Kenny Everett Sketch Site. We hope you enjoyed this look at a lost story.
• Does anyone out there know if the newspaper strip is an entirely new story, or is it a representation of Captain Kremmen and the Krells, the dim-witted space hero’s battle with one of his arch enemies? Let us know!
Captain Kremmen’s vital statistics
Full name: Captain Elvis Brandenburg Kremmen
Born: December 25th 1944
Height: 6’10”
Physical attributes: supreme athlete, concert pianist, Concorde pilot and an IQ of 498
The name of Captain Kremmen came from Superfun, a library of comedy “drop-ins” (very short audio recordings used on radio shows) produced by Mel Blanc, the voice actor, and his son Noel
WEB LINKS
• Ultimate Kenny Everett Sketch Site
• Captain Kremmen and the Krells – An unexpected Underground Comic?
With much thanks to Alan Jeffries for the scans of the newspaper strip!
- 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.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Wow – never heard of this strip before – would love to see the rest of it !
From the the few examples shown here, the loose style is very like that of the book though missing the colour obviously, it looks like the start of a whole different story to the Krell Invasion adaptation drawn for the book
Thanks, Mark – it does seem to have been overlooked