JANUS STARK returns!

Great news for fans of the popular Smash! strip Janus Stark. Rebellion are releasing a 48 page comic reprinting some of his classic adventures later this month! Available exclusively via mail order. Written by Tom Tully, with art on most episodes by Francisco Solano Lopez... although Tom Kerr drew some early episodes too, as seen in these samples below. 

Here's the PR direct from Rebellion with all the info...

Treasury of British Comics announces new special perfect-bound magazine featuring the first adventures of the rubber-boned Victorian escapologist!

“Behold, Janus Stark! Master of illusion, son of the unknown! No lock can fetter me … no rope or chain can bind my limbs!”

Prepare to be astounded and amazed as Rebellion Publishing brings a long-forgotten master of the uncanny, Janus Stark!

Art: Francisco Solano Lopez.

The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark is a perfect-bound 48-page magazine showcasing one of the forgotten heroes of the heyday of British comics – a rubber-boned Victorian escapologist capable of incredible feats of agility and able to squeeze through the smallest gaps!

It will be available exclusively from the Treasury of British Comics webshop from 27th November, with online pre-orders from 4th November. Early preview copies will be available from the 2000 AD stand at the Thought Bubble convention in Harrogate this weekend (Tables 10-12, Comixology Originals Hall).

This is first in a series of specials from Rebellion bringing classic British heroes out of the archive and back onto the page. It follows the company’s acquisition of the vast IPC back catalogue in 2017, creating the world’s biggest archive of English-language comics and encompassing more than a century of comic book publishing.

Art: Tom Kerr.

The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark collection begins with his very first adventure in the pages of Smash from 1969. Written by Tom Tully and drawn by Francisco Solano López, the series ran in syndication until 1971 and was one of the few to survive Smash’s merger into Valiant in 1971.

Janus Stark is an escapologist in Victorian London who appears to be a simple music hall act, but who privately uses his extraordinary abilities to battle crime and injustice. With an unusually flexible bone structure, Stark is able him to get out of an astonishing variety of tight situations at will, all the while either dressed in a three-piece suit or with his shirt off – a unique, unusual, and quintessentially British character.

Born in 1840 as the orphan Jonas Clarke, he was sent to an orphanage where he was mistreated, but escaped and lived in the streets. There he befriended a beggar, Blind Largo, who taught him pickpocketing but also trained Clarke to use his unique gift. As an adult, Clarke became Janus Stark, escapologist and private detective!

Art: Tom Kerr.

Oliver Pickles, editor at Rebellion Publishing, said: “Janus Stark is such an interesting character, but perhaps more beloved abroad that at home, after all his adventures continued with original stories in his own comic in France which culminated with his death in 1990, and none of those tales have been translated back into English. But this is a chance to restore his profile as a mainstay of classic British comic characters in the start of this series of affordable collections of his adventures.”

The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark 48-page perfect-bound magazine is out on 27th November and available to pre-order now from www.treasuryofbritishcomics.com.

The Christmas SMASH! (1969)

In past years on this blog I've shown pages from all the previous festive editions of Smash! comic so I thought I'd complete the 'set' with this one. (There was no 1970 Christmas issue because the comic was on hiatus for several weeks due to a printer's strike.)

When Smash! was revamped by IPC in March 1969 (after its three year run under Odhams) it became more of a traditional adventure comic and its covers reflected that, with art by Geoff Campion, and later by Eric Bradbury. This is the only issue in the IPC run that sported a humour cover. The artwork is by Mike Lacey, and features many of the humour characters from the interior strips.

Not every strip in this 40 page issue had a Christmas theme, but the final chapter of the latest Janus Stark story didn't disappoint. With art by Solano Lopez, we get a traditional slap-up feast panel at the end.

This Big 'Ead half pager was a reprint from Buster from nine years earlier. Art by Angel Nadal. What I found more interesting was the ad on the other half of the page, announcing the end of the halfcrown coin. This was a large coin that was the value of 12 and a half pence in decimal currency. I can't say I really missed it when it went. 

Although primarily an adventure comic at this time, Smash! still featured a few humour pages. Bad Penny was a popular character that had begun way back in issue 1 in 1966. Leo Baxendale returned to the character when IPC took over, and this is one of his...

Another great strip by Leo was The Swots and the Blots, which he'd taken over with the first IPC issue. An excellent, fast-paced, daft, funny strip. Some of his best work of the period.

The next strip doesn't feature a Christmas theme but I thought you might be interested in seeing it. Tri-Man was one of IPC's attempts to do a superhero. It didn't last long, despite nice artwork by the Solano Lopez studio.

More Christmas comics soon! 

Classic Action Holiday Special (1990)

In early summer 1990, Fleetway released the Classic Action Holiday Special, a 52 page one-off reviving several of their old characters in brand new stories. 

It's a bit of an oddity because although the comic is obviously partly targeted at readers who would remember those heroes from Valiant, Buster, Tiger, and Lion (readers who would be adults by 1990) the stories themselves are written for children. In most instances, children a bit younger than the audience the characters were originally aimed at. The end results are stories that feel too simplistic for the nostalgic crowd whilst being perhaps too old fashioned for kids of the 1990s. 

Whatever its drawbacks, it was good to see Fleetway attempting to revive those old heroes, and interesting to see different artists tackling them where the original artists were no longer available. The special kicked off with a four page Kelly's Eye story drawn by John Cooper...

Then onto a four page full colour Robot Archie story drawn by Sandy James. Curiously, Archie was back to his original silent self (as he was in the 1950s) which was a shame as the vocal Archie of the 1960s/70s had been quite amusing. 

Next, a four page Steel Claw story. Eduardo Vano Ibarra (Vanyo) is the artist here I think. (None of the strips are credited.) By 1990, and their audience getting younger, publishers were nervous about showing certain scenes in comics in the fear of kids imitating them. In the 1960's, when Fleetway granted its readers with more sense, Louis Crandell was often shown shoving the fingers of his Steel Claw into light sockets or grabbing live wires to activate his invisibility. This presented a problem for the revival of the strip. The solution? Have Crandell suddenly struck by lightning! Stretching credibility even for this strip, but the idea being that kids couldn't imitate an act of nature.

A three page Skid Solo reprint followed, and then a new five page text story featuring Galaxus with illustrations by John Cooper...

Next, a new episode of a very old strip; Jet-Ace Logan, drawn by John Gillatt, one of the original artists of the strip back in its Tiger days...

A six page Janus Stark story followed. Not sure who the artist is.

A four page full colour Johnny Cougar strip next, by Sandy James, one of its original artists...

Finally, a new four page Captain Hurricane strip by R. Charles Roylance, who had drawn the strip in its original run...

There were also a few reprint features and a couple of Norman Mansbridge Autograph Albert funnies in the special. Overall, an interesting package despite my reservations about the scripts, and worth hunting down if you were a fan of those classic characters. 

This week in 1970: SMASH! goes on hiatus

  
1970 wasn't a good year for IPC Magazines. Industrial action by printers had caused some of their comics to skip occasional weeks in the summer and worse was to come. This issue of Smash! dated November 14th 1970 would be the last one published that year. The strikes also affected Buster, Lion, Valiant, and some of the girls' comics. They would not return to shelves until the issues dated 6th February 1971. The strike had a devastating effect on sales and probably hastened the end of Smash! as it merged into Valiant in April 1971. 

As readers, we were unaware at the time that this week in 1970 would see so many favourite comics go on an enforced three month hiatus. 

This issue of Smash! once again featured a dynamic cover by Eric Bradbury, illustrating a scene from the Simon Test story inside. Annoyingly, these scenes were usually of the cliffhanger itself, so we had to wait a week to see them resolved... or three months in this case. 

Simon Test and the Curse of the Conqueror was the opening strip inside, again with artwork from Eric Bradbury. 

 
Master of the Marsh had been running in Smash! since the comic's revamp in 1969. Artwork by Solano Lopez.

 
Erik the Viking was a renamed reprint of the 1960s strip Karl the Viking, which had originally appeared in Lion. Great artwork by Don Lawrence. (Deluxe hardback collections of Karl the Viking strips can be bought online by clicking this link.)

The centre pages of Smash! was the home of The Swots and the Blots. Truly funny stuff by Leo Baxendale. Many collectors believe that Leo had always illustrated this strip but that's incorrect. He only became the artist when IPC took over the comic in 1969, - but his run on the strip is a real highlight of British comics.

A favourite strip by many, The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark was another that had joined the comic with its revamp. The dark, moody artwork of Solano Lopez was perfect for the grittiness and squalor of the strip's Victorian-era setting. He was excellent at giving his characters a distinctive look. The urchins are wretched, the Governor is weak, and the schoolmaster looks genuinely malicious. Lopez paints such a grim world of shadows and dirt that no one would wish to live there but it makes for compelling comics. Striding through it all is Janus Stark, like a cross between Oscar Wilde and an East End hard case.

 
Smash! had been the home of several superheroes during its run, from the Hulk reprints in the 1960s, to the home-grown adventures of Tri-Man in 1969. By 1970, another one graced its pages, albeit a rather daft one called Birdman of Baratoga. "By my feathers!"

Another Leo Baxendale strip, Sam's Spook, rounded off the comic. Reproduction wasn't too good on this page for some reason but here it is anyway...

Finally, a request for readers to "Order a regular copy today!" - not knowing that there wouldn't be another issue that year. So, sadly, no Christmas issue for 1970 but here's the closest thing; an ad for some of the Christmas games produced by Spears for that era...

When the comics did resume in February they picked up right from where they left off (as artwork would have already been produced before the strike hit). I'm sure that many, like me, were happy to see the comics return, but no doubt others had given up by then.