No, not Smasher the classic Dandy naughty kid (although he will be back later this year too) but the adventure strip of the same name. The huge Smasher robot, seen in the pages of Victor, and later Bullet, rises again in the current issue of digital comic magazine Comic Review.
As mentioned here a few weeks ago, the Glasgow League of Writers have permission from DC Thomson to resurrect some of the bygone adventure strip characters in new stories for a new generation. Each week a different strip appears in Comic Review (published by Future) and this week it's the turn of Smasher, written by Gordon Robertson and illustrated by 'Cuttlefish'.
I think it's the strongest of the revived strips so far, and I'd certainly like to see it continue as a regular series.
The five page preview is in Comic Review No.10, available for 99p when you download the free Comic Heroes app for the iPad and iPhone. Lots of other features in the magazine too, so it's well worth the price.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/comic-heroes-best-in-superhero/id451399751?mt=8
As mentioned on this blog last week (and covered in more detail on the Down The Tubes blog) the Glasgow League of Writers have been given permission by DC Thomson to revive several of their old adventure characters for a project outside of Thomsons. The first of those revivals, a revamping of Invisible Dick, was previewed yesterday in the digital comics news mag Comic Review No.7.
To avoid any innuendoes, the story is now simply titled Invisible. Written by Gary Chudleigh and drawn by Graeme Kennedy, the six page preview begins the tale of young Rick Dickson, who is bullied at school and suddenly discovers he has the ability to turn himself invisible. We learn that his father also had those abilities due to a magic bottle. This seems to be a nod to the original Invisible Dick from Rover in 1922 and the Dandy version of 1937, rather than the later 1960s Sparky version who used a torch to turn other things invisible. However, don't expect any strict continuity references. This is inspired by, rather than related to, any previous versions.
The story uses the slower pacing of modern comics, rather than the tight scriptwriting of the classic version. It's also very centred around the character of Rick himself, again using the modern technique of the hero narrating everything in floating captions. This may disappoint older readers expecting something closer to the old strip, but presumably the creators are trying to appeal to a new audience. That makes sense, as some older readers have already gone online to say they won't read digital comics. Which is ironic, considering they use the Internet to post those views, and are happy enough to read free scans of old comics. (Admittedly it'd be crazy to spend £200 on an iPad Mini solely to read comics, but a tablet has many more uses than that of course.)
The artwork of Invisible seems a bit raw in places. It's engaging enough, and easy to follow what's going on, but there are some inconsistencies in perspective (such as a window and the door that are built into the same wall having two different vanishing points). Things like that become a little distracting unfortunately.
However, it'd be unkind to be too critical of the strip. These old characters would not be revived at all without the enthusiasm of these creators. There are too few British adventure strips around these days, so I wish The Glasgow League of Writers all the best in this venture. Next Friday, Comic Review will publish another preview of a different strip. I'm already intrigued to see what we get.
To access the Invisible strip you'll need to download the free Comic Heroes app, and then buy Comic Review No.7 for 99p. The digital magazine also features lots of other comic previews plus, as the name suggests, many comic reviews.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/comic-heroes-best-in-superhero/id451399751?mt=8
As you'll recall, I mentioned the other day that the latest Comic Review had revealed that The Glasgow League of Writers were reviving some of the classic DC Thomson heroes for the digital magazine. Now John Freeman's excellent UK news blog Down the Tubes has more details on this project. See here for the news:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=14522
Today's issue of the weekly digital magazine Comic Review has revealed that several classic DC Thomson adventure strips are to be revived by modern-day creators.
With permission from DC Thomson, members of the Glasgow League of Writers have updated yesterday's heroes for a new readership. The initial strips to be revived are Invisible Dick (simply abridged to Invisible), The Smasher (the giant robot, not the naughty kid), Scarlet Star, Johnny Jett, and General Jumbo.
Each story has been written as a four part arc, and the first episodes of each strip will appear in upcoming issues of Comic Review. "Glasgow itself has been the stomping ground for giants of the industry today," said group spokesperson Gary Chudleigh, "with the likes of Frank Quitely, Mark Millar and Grant Morrison all hailing from this creative little hub. Our ambition is to be the next wave of creators and DC Thomson along with Comic Review has given us our surfboard. Guess we'd better get paddlin'."
You can find out more in Comic Review No.6, which is available for 99p when you download the Comic Heroes app. (Or free, if you subscribe to Comic Heroes.)
Comic Review is a 30 page weekly comics news magazine published every Friday afternoon which focuses mainly on American comics, with bonus content in the form of movie trailers and preview pages of the comics being reviewed. Well worth 99p. More info here:
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2014/03/07/comic-review-6-on-sale-now-just-99p/
