Here we are at Issue 2, one i remember only for the free wallet, which was a really flimsy red plastic - little tougher than those red fish you used to get in Christmas crackers that curled up in the palm of your hand if you were lying.
Anyway, turn the page and we're into some lovely Ian Kennedy art on "Smasher". Ian's rightly acknowleged for his stunning war artwork, but his SF work seems to always be over-looked. Here, his style is very similar to what he'll be doing a coupla years later on "Timecrash" over in Starlord, and is very nice indeed.
Shame the tale isn't up to it - Smasher blows up Red and Ferrets boat, knocks over the Golden Gate Bridge and kicks a tank. And that's it. The blurb says Doctor Doom is "power mad" but we've not seen anything so far in the way of giving ultimatums. If this was a strip from even just 3 years before, we'd have had that by page 3 of the first issue i reckon.
What else do we have? "Survivor" has Dick struggling to stay alive up that mountain, "Twisty" continues the off the rails kid making good and "3 Men In A Jeep" is still the comics take on Rat Pack. Both really dull.
"Fireball" was fun though and a good example of how stories could still whizz along, packing a lot in a short amount of space (unlike "Smasher").
By page 2 we've seen the hardman "trying to knock the stuffing out of "Katsoo", get a new mission and start off for Dover.
By page 4 he's missed the ferry, nicked a mates boat, crossed the channel, bought a bike and caught up with the train the kid he's trying to rescue is on.
Three more pages of pretty good action follows, leaving Fireball to neatly finish things off and end on: "I've got a power-boat waiting for me at Calais and its full speed back home to finish my duel with Katsoo!".
And with a thumbs up to us kids, he's off.
Two more things of note - "Wonder Mann" is a curious M.A.C.H 1 derivitive, who seems to use his computer agumented powers to battle bullies and be good at sport, while the back page shows us Issue 3's free gifts. And i remember those planes well - soapy plastic with propellers that fell off with the slightest suggestion of a breeze on them.
"AIEEEE" Watch: Still looking like its an IPC exclamation.
2 comments:
i agree ian kennedy was a great sci-fi artist - don't forget he did the Blake's 7 strip for marvel for a while.
I inherited a whole pile of Bullets from my cousin back in the late 70s and enjoyed going through them. I recall Twisty and obviously Firelord. I think I liked Survivor more than you did...
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