BLUNDERBIRDS by Brian Lewis (1966)

I've shown an example of this strip before (see here) but I recently bought a couple more issues that it appeared in, and any reason to show art by Brian Lewis is a good one. This is actually the first episode of Blunderbirds, which appeared in Eagle Vol.17 No.27, dated 2nd July 1966. 

According to Irmantas, who commented on my previous post about the strip, Blunderbirds was Ken Reid's concept:

"The idea of Blunderbirds was created by Ken Reid and he was paid a weekly fee for each episode (for idea only!). The most exciting thing about Blunderbirds (for me) is that Ken also wrote the script and drew the pilot episode of the strip and sent it to B.Bartholomew of Eagle. By coincidence, I spent the last week or so trying, unsuccessfully, to track down the issue of Eagle where the episode was printed but it looks like for some reason the Editor chose not to use it in Vol. 17 in 1966. It is also not one of the two episodes in Eagle 1968 annual, so there is a strong chance that the episode was never used. Ken got paid for it, though."


What happened to Ken Reid's version is unknown but this first episode by Brian Lewis doesn't 'sound' like a Ken Reid script, unless Bob Bartholomew (Bart) severely re-wrote it. 

Here's another episode. This one is from Eagle Vol.17 No.38, dated 17th September 1966...

The next issue I have for that year is from early December, and the strip had vanished by then, so it was a very short-lived series. Still, it gave us some fantastic pages by Brian Lewis, a master of both straight and cartoony artwork. 

Here's the cover to the Eagle where Blunderbirds first appeared, in case you wanted to track down a copy for yourself. (Can anyone identify the cover artist, please?)