The Christmas TIGER AND JAG (1969)

Most adventure comics tended to avoid Christmas stories as they interfered with continuity or were an awkward fit for serials, but Tiger and Jag editor David Gregory was happy to accommodate the festivities (as did Barrie Tomlinson when he was promoted from sub-editor to editor in 1970). This cover by John Vernon was always a favourite of mine, as it managed to fit in Santa, Christmas decorations, presents, snow, a special festive logo, and still find time for the story. 

The Skid Solo story continued inside with more winter adventure. The scriptwriter was Fred Baker, a very busy and talented creator who also wrote Billy's Boots, Hot Shot Hamish,  and many other strips...

Roy of the Rovers and his team were also celebrating, with a slap-up feed. art by Yvonne Hutton...

Splash Gorton (name inspired by Flash Gordon, look inspired by Sixties hippies) was a strip about a swimmer, with art by Joe Colquhoun ten years before he'd draw Charley's War...

War and football were the two mainstays of British adventure weeklies and Tiger combined them into one strip with The Barbed Wire Eleven, about British P.O.W.s forming a football team. Art by Jim Bleach. 

The centre page strip was a delight. Football Family Robinson was always entertaining, and John Gillatt's artwork was fantastic. The strip was originally drawn by Joe Colquhoun, a hard act to follow, but John did a superb job.

An advert for that year's annuals, plus a notice about the impending change to decimal currency that would come into force 14 months later...

Nosey was Tiger and Jag's single humour strip. The art looks a lot like the work of Chas Sinclair but I'm not sure if it is his or not. (At that time he was freelancing for TV Comic on Basil Brush.)

Another snowy strip ending with a Christmas feed, Typhoon Tracy was drawn by Graham Allen, who had previously illustrated many humour pages for the Odhams comics. A skilled artist who could do both funnies and light adventure. 

There'll be another Christmas comic tomorrow! Visit the blog again to unwrap it!

The Christmas JAG (1968)

Jag was Fleetway's attempt to mimic Odhams' Eagle with a big 12 inch x 15 inch format and a mixture of strips and features. The cover strip, Football Family Robinson, shown here was illustrated by the great Joe Colquhoun (eleven years before he'd embark on drawing Charley's War for Battle). The surprising thing about this episode is how they got away with showing the weapons of football hooligans on the front cover. 

The strip continued onto the back page, which it shared with the team of the week photo...

Inside, the editor's Christmas message is full of optimism for the future of the comic. Quite sad really, as with IPC taking over the company shortly after, Jag was to swiftly merge into Tiger at the end of March the following year.

Jag only featured one humour strip page; Ghouldilocks, drawn by Stan McMurtry. Unfortunately Stan, better known as Mac, is known more for his controversial cartoons for the Daily Mail these days. (See here.)

Apart from the cover strip, the adventure serials in this Christmas issue of Jag didn't reference the festivities but it's worth showing a few pages anyway as they're so good. First up, The Indestructible Man, drawn (and signed) by Jesus Blasco, who was also the artist on The Steel Claw in Valiant of course...

The centre pages had full colour, and the high quality web offset printing allowed Geoff Campion to do some nice colour work on Custer...

On the inside back page of this 16 page comic was Boy Bandit, superbly illustrated by Tom Kerr...

Sadly this was the only Christmas issue of Jag. Despite having some of the best artists in the industry working on the comic it only lasted for 48 weekly issues. Personally I thought it was one of the best comics Fleetway ever did, and copies are worth tracking down, although they can be expensive. You can find out more about the comic in this old post of mine from eight years ago here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/remembering-jag.html

What year will this blog visit next for Christmas? Find out soon! 

Colquhoun in colour!

We're probably all in agreement that the late Joe Colquhoun was one of the greatest artists of British comics. He was a master of black and white strips as evidenced from his work on strips such as Roy of the Rovers and Paddy Payne in the 1960s and Charley's War in the 1980s. In 1968 Fleetway gave Joe the opportunity to produce a strip in full colour when Football Family Robinson debuted on the covers of Jag dated 27th July 1968.

Most comics of the time were printed on cheap newsprint, where the only colour would be added by the art department as basic flats due to the limitations of the printing method. However, Jag had the luxury of web offset printing by Steel Bros. of Carlisle, which meant that artists could colour their own work with an unlimited palette to suit the superior paper and printing. For most of its short run, Jag was also a big tabloid comic, so the artwork really stood out.

Here's the second episode of Football Family Robinson, from Jag dated 3rd August 1968...

...and episode three from Jag dated 10th August 1968...

Sadly, Jag didn't last, and when IPC took control they merged it into Tiger in 1969. Joe Colquhoun continued on the artwork though, with the strip now running as a centre spread every week. This episode is from Tiger and Jag 17th May 1969... 

IPC tended to shift artists around at times and by late 1969 Joe Coloquhoun had been replaced on Football Family Robinson by John Gillatt. (Colquhoun was put onto a new Tiger strip, Splash Gorton, in black and white.) However, in 1970 IPC's new humour comic Cor!! was launched, which initially featured an adventure strip in its centre pages; Kid Chameleon. The strip was illustrated by Joe Colquhoun in full colour.

I'm not entirely convinced that episode one of Kid Chameleon was coloured by Joe as it doesn't look like his technique, but anyway here are the first three episodes of the strip from Cor!! Nos.1 to 3, dated 6th, 13th, and 20th June 1970...

Truly a brilliant artist!

This week in 1969: TIGER AND JAG

It's been a while since I featured Tiger on this blog so here's a quick look at the issue that was on sale from 19th to 25th April 1969. This was the 4th combined issue of Tiger and Jag, with IPC having taken over the Fleetway comics and trimming back the weaker selling titles. The Roy of the Rovers cover is by Yvonne Hutton, whose linework still looks fresh and modern even today. Tragically, Yvonne died in a car accident in the early 1990s. 

The following Skid Solo story is drawn by John Vernon. It's a significant episode because it introduces 'Sparrow' Smith, who became a regular supporting character. (Click on all pages to see them much larger.)

The Nosey half-pager at the end of the Skid Solo story was drawn by Alf Saporito, who a year later became the regular cover artist on Gus Gorilla for Cor!! 

Since its merger with Jag, Tiger had inherited that comic's web offset printing process which was a higher standard of printing, and allowed artists to paint their colour pages instead of relying on the flat colour overlays that the newsprint comics used. Just look at the quality of this full colour Football Family Robinson centrespread by Joe Colquhoun...

Tiger later became an all-sports comic, but in 1969 it still featured a variety of subjects. One such strip was Saber, King of the Jungle, illustrated by the excellent Denis McLoughlin...

Here's a few snippets of some of the other strips in Tiger and Jag that week, starting with Typhoon Tracy drawn by Graham Allen using a less cartoony style than that which he'd used on The Nervs for Smash!

Custer by David Sque...

Black Patch the Wonder Horse by Sandy James...

...and the long-running Johnny Cougar by John Gillatt.

Finally, to add to the flavour of the year 1969, here's a few of the adverts that appeared in that issue, including one of the legendary "Great News, Pals!" announcements for two comics joining forces...

By the way, - you can see more classic ads from other comics in previous posts on this blog. Here's a few links:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/junk-food-and-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/seventies-nostalgia-adverts-in-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/seventies-nostalgia-more-adverts-from.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/more-ads-from-1970s-comics.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/ads-from-comics-of-1960s.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/advertisements-for-comics-of-past.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/anti-smoking-strips-of-sixties.html

This week in... 1969

Forty three years ago today the final issue of Jag appeared on the stands. Fleetway had launched the comic as a tabloid sized title in April 1968, clearly hoping that it would make an impact by mimicking Eagle's format with its size and extra colour pages. Sadly the writing was on the wall for Eagle, so no imitator, no matter how good, really stood a chance.

With the 22nd February 1969 issue, Jag had shrunk from 16 tabloid pages to 32 A4 pages, ready for its merger into Tiger. After just 48 weeks, Jag was being cancelled. IPC were in charge now and anything considered dead wood was eradicated as they streamlined the comics.

With a cover by Joe Colquhoun, the topline of this final issue promises "Exciting News for all readers" which was always a death sentence for a comic. Sure enough, a full page inside told us that "Two great papers join forces" - which basically meant that some of Jag's most popular strips were being shunted over to Tiger.


One of the good things that came out of the merger was that the combined Tiger and Jag inherited Jag's better quality paper. It also inherited the Star Portrait and Star Team soccer photos, which always seemed like a waste of colour pages to people like myself who had no interest in competitive sports.


Want to see that prose story in a more legible size? Here you go...


One of the strips that would survive the merger was Custer, embroidering the legend of General Custer. Originally Geoff Campion was the artist, but by this time someone else was drawing the strip. It looks like the work of Mike White to me. Anyone agree / disagree?


One of the many strips that reached its final episode this week was The Indestructible Man. Illustrated by Jesus Blasco (artist of The Steel Claw in Valiant) the lead character had the attributes of both The Steel Claw (invisibility, electric charges from his fingertips) and Tim Kelly of Kelly's Eye fame (invincibility). Perhaps this lack of originality led to the strip's demise, but it had featured some top quality artwork.




One of the annoying things about final issues of British comics is how serials were often hastily wrapped up. In Castaways of Shark Island (which was a 1964 reprint from Tiger) the drive of the serial was the question of whether the stranded boys would ever get home. Here, a speech balloon in the final panel has obviously been added to provide some optimism but it still leaves the reader wondering if the castaways will be rescued. A very inconclusive and unsatisfying ending.


This was a time of big changes for British comics due to IPC taking over the Fleetway and Odhams line. Within a few weeks, Jag and Eagle had been axed, Smash! had been revamped into a standard adventure title, and comics were being segregated into humour and adventure divisions. The exuberance and diversity of sixties comics was ending, to be replaced by a much more formal tone to the publications.

Earlier blogs about Jag:

Remembering Jag

Tiger and Jag merge