Review: MARNEY THE FOX

The weekly comic Buster presented its readers with a good variety of stories over the years, from laugh-out-loud humour strips such as Clever Dick by Leo Baxendale, to gripping adventure serials such as Maxwell Hawke. One strip that had a unique quality of its own was Marney the Fox by Scott Goodall and John Stokes than ran in the weekly from 1974 to 1976. Now, Rebellion have collected the entire series into one quality hardback graphic novel.

Buster was a comic aimed at both boys and girls, although I suspect the majority of its readers were boys. Marney the Fox was unusual in that it was the sort of strip that would typically be considered solely for a girls' comic. The story of an orphaned fox cub, struggling to survive in a hostile environment, is one that provokes an emotional response from readers; something quite different to Buster's usual action-orientated adventure strips. However, that was part of Marney's appeal, - it was different for a Buster strip, and that made a refreshing change. Respect to editor Len Wenn on taking the risk.

The quality of the script and artwork helped of course. Scott Goodall was one of the best comics writers of the 1970s, producing tightly written, compelling scripts that hooked the readers week after week. John Stokes was the perfect choice of artist, depicting the Devon countryside in wonderful detail, and making Marney a truly sympathetic creature. 

It has to be said though that Marney the Fox did provoke a divided reaction. Some readers loved it as their favourite strip, while others hated it, but response was balanced. In the end, it only ran for two years, but perhaps that was enough. Any longer and the strip could have become stale (as many long-running series did). 

Rebellion's collection of Marney the Fox gives us the entire series within hardback covers (with a new cover and introduction by John Stokes). It's Rebellion's best book yet of their Treasury of British Comics series and should appeal to old and young alike. (Unless they're foxhunters or farmers, in which case they might have a different opinion on the wandering cub.) Animal lovers and children will love it though, as will fans of quality comics art, making the book a fine present for Christmas. 

You can order it directly from the publisher here:
https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCA-H0003

Marney cover and logo design

I showed John Stokes' cover artwork to Marney the Fox a few months ago, and now here's how it'll appear complete with logo and credits. As you can see, Rebellion are using the original logo from the comics, cleaned up and adapted to suit. Quite right too, as it's a smashing design. 

For those of you who missed previous posts about it, Marney the Fox was a strip that ran in Buster weekly in the 1970s about a lonely fox on the run, avoiding the dangers of predators of the four legged and two legged kind. This is the book I'm looking forward to most out of Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line. 

You can pre-order Marney the Fox from Amazon now by clicking here.

You can read a sample strip of Marney the Fox here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/more-about-marney-fox.html

More about Marney the Fox...

The news that was announced the other day (see here) that Rebellion are to publish one book every month reprinting classic comic strips has been warmly welcomed by UK comic fans. However, although everyone is eager to see it, Marney the Fox appears to be the one that's an unknown strip to some. 

Just to cover the basics; Marney the Fox appeared in Buster weekly from the issue dated 22nd June 1974 to 11th September 1976. This fictional story of a wandering fox cub was written by Scott Goodall and illustrated by John Stokes. The artwork was absolutely superb and many consider it to be amongst Stokes' best work. (The artist himself regards it as some of his best too.) 

One thing that made Marney the Fox exceptional is that, unlike most other Buster adventure strips, it played up the emotional content. In that respect it was written more like a story for the girls' comics, as opposed to something like Von Hoffman's Invasion (also in Buster) that was very action orientated. It's an interesting technique to build up the emotional aspects because it enables the reader to sympathise with the character and become more involved in the story. With the technique Goodall used, the readers were privy to Marney's inner thoughts, again a style much used in girls' comics. 

Marney the Fox must have achieved a good response from Buster's readers for it to run for two years. I'm very pleased that it's being collected in book form at last. 

Looking through the issue of Buster and Cor!! that I scanned these pages from got me wondering what other strips might be suitable for reprinting. We already know that Ken Reid's Faceache is coming in December of course, but what for further in the future? (By the way, the Faceache in this particular issue wasn't by Ken Reid but was written by Dez Skinn and drawn by Keith Robson.)

Leo Baxendale's Snooper was a funny strip, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough to carry a book on its own. It'd be good to see it as part of an anthology though...

Clever Dick, also by Baxendale originally, might work as a stand alone book I think. It had a long run (1970 to 1982) so a selection of the best strips would be good.

I quite like Sammy Brewster's Secret Ski-Board Squad, mainly for the artwork by Joe Colquhoun. This ran for three years (1973 to 76) so there's more than enough to fill a book. Kids on motorised skateboards might appeal to today's readers perhaps? I dunno. Objectively, I think there are a lot more strips that are likely to be reprinted before this one, but Joe Colquhoun's art is always worth revisiting. 

That's just speculation of course. Focusing back on this year, we have plenty to look forward to from the first launches in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line. One-Eyed Jack! The Leopard of Lime Street! The Dracula Files! Marney the Fox! Misty Book 2! Faceache! All well worth supporting!

Faceache, Marney, Leopardboy, One-Eyed Jack... coming back!

Marney the Fox © Rebellion A/S. Art by John Stokes.

I've known about this for a while but was sworn to secrecy, but now the news is out there. Rebellion have announced which classic Fleetway strips they're bringing back to print this year, and they're all glorious. The collective name for the books is The Treasury of British Comics...

You already knew about One-Eyed Jack by John Wagner and John Cooper, but today Rebellion have announced that other books will include:

Misty Book 2: The Sentinels and End of the Line. 

The Leopard from Lime Street drawn by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury.

Marney the Fox: the wonderful adventure strip from Buster by Scott Goodall and John Stokes. 

...and... just drink in this great news...

Faceache by Ken Reid, from Jet and Buster. 

Are you excited yet? For more info, check out this link:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/2000-ad-revive-childrens-comics-70s-and-80s-496121


UPDATE 28/2/17: Comics journalist Heidi MacDonald now has expanded details of the books, and more artwork, on her excellent blog The Beat:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2000ad-launches-the-treasury-of-british-comics-line-with-classic-brit-comics/