The Christmas EAGLE (1964)

There's not a lot of festive material in this issue of Eagle for 1964 but I've found a bit to show you. Adventure comics mostly avoided festive themes in their stories as it would throw an awkward plot into the serials that would look forced. Some Dan Dare serials managed it (such as the first one in 1950) but they didn't bother with this episode. Dramatic artwork by Keith Watson, although focusing on a lot of close ups and silhouettes. Still, it couldn't be easy turning out work of that quality every week so we'll forgive him cutting corners to meet deadlines.

The Pop Pick of the Week focused on "Christmas Greetings from the Stars", complete with autographs. I did a quick Google search and they look convincing compared to genuine autographs. I believe Max Clifford worked for Odhams at the time so it's likely he arranged this. 

Reg Parlett's Fidosaurus the Prehistoric Poodle may look familiar. It was reprinted a few years later in Buster as Pongo the Prehistorioc Pooch! Christmas in the Stone Age? OK, some Christmas traditions are nicked from Pagan beliefs but this is stretching it. Still, if we can accept that a dinosaur dog existed at the same time as human beings then reality has already sailed. :) 

Can You Catch A Crook? Well, can you? See if you can spot the clue in this Christmas story illustrated by Paul Trevillion...

Finally, a nice colour cutaway by L. Ashwell Wood, depicting London's hidden railway for the Royal Mail. (These days a tourist attraction.)

There'll be another retrospective of a bygone Christmas comic soon!

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Preview... WILDCAT: LONER

The second volume of stories from the short-lived 1980s comic Wildcat is coming in a few weeks from The Treasury of British Comics. Wildcat: Loner is a fabulous collection of strips illustrated by David Pugh and Eric Bradbury, from scripts by Barrie Tomlinson. 

This is some of David Pugh's most imaginative and detailed work, and of course you can't go wrong with Eric Bradbury who takes over the Loner strip later in the book. Barrie Tomlinson's scripts keep the story moving along at a fast, exciting pace, with clearly-told plots... the way good comics should be! Wildcat merged into Eagle, and the chapters from that comic are included as well, along with a full colour cover gallery.

• CREATIVE TEAM: Barrie Tomlinson (w) David Pugh, Eric Bradbury (a)
• RELEASE DATE: 5th September 2019
• PAPERBACK, 224 pages
• PRICE: £14.99 (UK)
• ISBN: 9781781086841

The second volume in the complete stories from Wildcat! Silver age comics meets Alice in Wonderland in this weird and Crusoe-esque absurdist science fiction! Ex-mercenary Loner always works alone. Even if it means being on an alien planet as the sole member of one of the spacecraft Wildcat’s exploration teams! With only his customised six-shooter, “Babe”, and some alien fur balls as company, Loner must contend with psychic aliens, subterranean monstrosities, and angry shapeshifters. He might be the toughest, but can he survive being shrunk, melted, and transformed on a planet that seems to want him dead? Join humanity’s last surviving ex-mercenary on a surreal and grotesque adventure down the alien rabbit hole…, 

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and UK comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

The Christmas EAGLE (1966)

By 1966, Eagle was nearing its end (it would merge into Lion in 1969) but it was still a pretty good comic at this point. I don't know who the cover artist is of this Christmas issue but it's festive enough to make it into my festive comics selection for this year.

Ah, the days before the Internet. How to send a message around the world? By Telegram of course. This marvellous page by L. Ashwell-Wood explains how it all worked. How much simpler things are today!

Sadly, Dan Dare was definitely past his best and this was the penultimate episode of his final adventure before the strip went to reprints. Art by Keith Watson who, although a great artist, seems to have taken some shortcuts with this page as it's mostly close ups. 

The centre pages featured one of the UK's forgotten superheroes, - Smokeman, the UFO Agent. Art by José Ortiz, who would still be around to illustrate stories for the new Eagle 20 years later...

Can anyone identify the artist of this historical strip? 

This issue of Eagle also carried adverts for two movies that were out that Christmas, 1966. Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. and Norman Wisdom in Press For Time. 

Another Christmas comic tomorrow! Which year will we visit next?


By the way, you might want to visit my other blog too, where I'll be posting a few of my own Christmas strips from the past 35 years...
http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com

The Christmas EAGLE (1950)

Scanned directly from the actual comic, this first Christmas Eagle might not have snow on the logo but the decorative holly around and between the panels gives it a nice festive look. Surprisingly for a serial, it manages to include references to Christmas Day within the story too. A wonderful Dan Dare strip by Frank Hampson and his team. 

Even the centrespread by L. Ashwell Wood that issue had a festive connection...

A festive feature/strip on Christmas trees. The latter drawn by 'Ross'. Anyone know who he was?

A Christmas Chicko mini strip by Normal Thelwell...

An advert in the issue...

A brilliant Harris Tweed page crammed with detail by the distinctive John Ryan...

...and on the back page, nothing could be more appropriate for a Christmas issue than the episode of The Great Adventurer reaching the point of the birth of Christ. Written by Chad Varah and drawn by Frank Hampson and Norman Williams...

There'll be one more Christmas flashback tomorrow, on Christmas Day! Drop by whilst eating a mince pie and find out what year our final destination is!

The Christmas EAGLE (1956)

Here's what you've been waiting for; kicking off this blog's traditional look back at selected pages from Christmas comics of the past! Today, a few pages from the festive issue of Eagle that went on sale 61 years ago in 1956!

I bought this issue recently as I was attracted by the unusual Christmas trimming of the logo. Instead of the usual "snow on the logo" approach favoured by most comics, this edition of Eagle gave the illusion of having seasonal parcel tape stuck across it. Real tape similar to this was available back then, and might still be for all I know. Anyway, a very unique festive touch!

The Dan Dare strip, Rogue Planet, is the series in its glory days. Incredible artwork by Frank Hampson and his studio, and memorable scenes such as the arrival of the Kruells.

Most of the strips, being partway through serials, didn't bother with a festive theme, but some of the articles did. L. Ashwell Woods' marvellous cutaway drawing this issue used the seasonal increase in electricity demand to show how power reached the home from a nuclear reactor...

The editor's page had a nice header featuring Father Christmas and a selection of news, plus the Chicko strip by Norman Thelwell...

Harris Tweed, by John Ryan (creator of Captain Pugwash), has a brief mention of Boxing Day but no other such reference. However, it shares the page with a very festive looking Christmas Carols competition. (Anyone know who did this striking woodcut styled artwork?) 

On the inside back page, a feature on caring for wild garden animals in winter, plus a short strip about the a career in the postal service back then...

Next time: A different Christmas comic, a different year. Where, and when, will the Blimey-Timey Machine take us to? Find out soon!

Look out! WHAM! is coming! (1964)

A few years ago I showed how Today magazine promoted Wham! comic in 1964 (see that post here) and today I'm showing how Eagle did it too. As this was a time before Wham! had spawned its sister titles Smash!, Pow!, Fantastic, and Terrific, it was up to Eagle and Boys' World to advertise the new comic.

The first mention of Wham! appeared in Eagle dated 13th June 1964, with a quarter page ad (above) showing kids excitedly rushing to a newsagent. (Artist unknown.) I'm including the full pages that these adverts appeared on to give them some context.

The following week, Eagle dated 20th June 1964, revealed the cover of Wham! No.1 by Leo Baxendale...

The week after, a glorious full page illustration by Leo Baxendale, promoting issue 2. Wham! was a relatively anarchic comic so it's great that such a pro-establishment comic as Eagle was featuring such a grotesque caricature and telling kids not to be afraid of teachers. (I think this page also appeared in Wham! No.1).

The following week, Eagle used the Humbugs strip from the previous week's Wham! to advertise issue No.3...

Even when the free gifts stopped, Eagle still carried the promotion over its next three issues to advertise Wham! issues 4 to 6. (The Fidosaurus strip has nothing to do with it but it was on the same page and is by Reg Parlett, so worth showing.)

The promos then stopped for a while, before resuming for one week with Eagle dated 26th September 1964 when Wham! No.15 had its free Whampire Bat gift...

As you can see, Wham! was promoted as "the funniest comic ever", and for many of us back then it most definitely was!

EAGLE promoting POW! in 1967

In my previous post the other day (click here) I showed a few pages from Pow! No.1 on the 50th anniversary of the comic. To follow up, here's how Pow! was promoted back in January 1967 in the pages of its companion comic Eagle. 

The irony is that when Hulton were publishing it in the 1950s, Eagle had been initially created as an alternative to American comic imports, and now here it was, published by Odhams, promoting comics that featured reprints of American comic strips. Even Eagle couldn't escape the fact that British kids loved American pop culture.

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?)

LION AND EAGLE - First merged issue (1969)

IPC Magazines were quite ruthless with some of the comics when they took control of them from Fleetway and Odhams in 1969. Within the space of a few weeks Smash! was changed beyond recognition, Jag was merged into Tiger, and Eagle was merged into Lion. 

The cancellation of Eagle was the end of an era for a title that in its heyday was the pinnacle of British comics. It was even more of a blow that it was merged into a comic that had been created to rival it, but by 1969 Eagle was way past its best. 

The first combined issue of Lion and Eagle was published on Saturday 26th April 1969, (cover dated a week later as was the norm, as 3rd May). The cover feature began the series What Would You Do? - which re-used ideas from the defunct Boys' World comic, redrawn by Geoff Campion.

Lion and Eagle's 36 newsprint pages featured Carson's Cubs, Robot Archie, Zip Nolan, Paddy Payne (reprint), and Mowser from Lion, and Dan Dare (reprint), Lightning Stormm, The Gladiators, and The Waxer from Eagle. 

It also featured three new stories that began that week. Let's take a look at them. First off was Turville's Touchstone (later retitled The Spellbinder) which introduced us to young Tom Turville discovering a family secret. The artwork was by Geoff Campion, one of IPC's finest illustrators...

The second new series was Gargan about a boy and his yeti. Artwork by Solano Lopez...

The third new story was Oddball Oates, drawn by the brilliant Tom Kerr, about an inventor who uses herbs to give him an advantage in sporting endeavours. Er, isn't that illegal? Hey, it was the sixties maaan. 

Before the merger, Eagle had been reprinting 1950s Dan Dare stories, but at least it was still in full colour. Therefore it must have been a blow to readers (and to creator Frank Hampson) to find that when the strip transferred to Lion it was published in black and white. Not only that, but the artwork had been considerably altered, with subtle shades of colour replaced by heavy Letratone, and panels cropped to fit Lion's proportions. A travesty, but there was no other option now that it was on cheap newsprint. 

Residing at the back of the comic was the long-running Mowser, the only humour strip in the weekly. Artwork by Reg Parlett...

Here's one of the adverts from the issue, back in the days when you could buy an ice lolly for 6d (2 and a half pence). Bespoke superhero Wall's Wonderman promoted the product...

On the back page, after all that excitement, readers were encouraged to buy a tin of Cocoa...

Do you have memories of this comic? Or is it new to you? Either way, feel free to post your thoughts below.

Further reading: The final issue of Eagle:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/1969-final-flight-of-eagle.html