Valiant and TV21 - 1st Jan 1972

Lets have a random dip into me back issues box and see what we come up with shall we chums?
Starting off with the usual dreary cover which put me right off buying it in the first place, we have the following:
CAPTAIN HURRICANE. Never, ever read this strip. Think back then, even as a 9 year old, i'd decided war was war and comedy was comedy. And its a talented strip that can combine the two. And this ain't it.
YELLOWKNIFE OF THE YARD. A strip that started this week and i've never heard of before. And i can see why - a pretty duff tale of an American Indian becoming a detective at Scotland Yard with even duffer artwork. And the usual for the period racism - on the level with Little Plum, but in a dramatic setting. Can't ever see this being given a graphic novel.
JANUS STARK. Much more like it. The start of a new tale and here he is taking "... time to show his incredible feats to more humble communities cut off from the main world. In a tiny crofters village in the Scottish Highlands..."
And show off he does, interrupted by a hermet who the villagers reckon is a werewolf. Thats the first page. Here's the second, where Janus is attacked by the Wolfman. I've never read this strip and don't have part two but i'm reckoning, even though the beastie is wearing the hermits clothes, its all a deception. As far as i know, the supernatural never truely appeared in this strip. But i may be wrong. What's incredible here is that we have the set-up, characters introduced, a mystery, a bit of action and a setup for the next episode all in two pages.
RAVEN OF THE WING. A tale of a gypsy footballer. Not for me.
STAR TREK. An incredibly duff two-pager, with appalling art. Tssk.
THE SWOTS AND THE BLOTS. How i loved and still love this strip. Even when Baxendale was on the Bash St Kids, he never showed the sheer lunacy on display here. Brilliant, genius stuff that SO needs collecting. My children love this strip, though they find the usual ending of the teacher whacking the heck out of one of the kids backsides rather puzzling.
THE RETURN OF THE CLAW. Deeply into Crandell's SF phase now, with him battling alien robots. Not too good.
KELLY'S EYE. Rather a good tale this, where Kelly and the prof have travelled to an alternative Earth where their counterparts are nasty bad guys. Lovely art and a nifty sound efecct. "Spluunch" indeed.

My Biog Living Axe

Not a ramble on a comic true, but the big 2000AD site is having a show us your alien from the comic contest, so thought i'd dig this fella out from the back of the display cabinet and put him in.
Made it in the first place as, and i've mentioned this often enough here, when the Prog started Dan Dare was my favourite strip - and it was down to Belardinelli's brilliant design work, especially of the Biogs.
A stunning creation, worthy of a ressurection.

Best Of Battle - Rat Pack

Ahhh, this is where i settle down and REALLY start enjoying the book.
I've mentioned this strip quite a bit already here, so there's not a lot more to say on my thoughts for it.
What's interesting here is that we have the first few episodes and how quite crude Carlos Ezquerras art is. No idea how long the fella had been an artist before taking on this project but here, while the layouts are great, the faces and hardware really aren't up to scratch. Its curious - they're recognisably Carlos' work but look almost half finished.
No matter, it doesn't detract from the enjoyment - and there's a lot to be had. Highlight for me is Turks almost Wulf Sternhammer utterances as he dispatches Nazis - here we have him advancing on the German machine gun post holding a massive boulder above his head (as you do), havign enough breath in him to blurt out "Tremble Germans!" before flattening them, and choking a soldier to death with a lovely "Squirm German". Never noticed these before. Will have to have a look out to see if they crop up any more.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH: An "Aieee!" from one of the machine gunners squashed by Turks boulder (serves him right - a great big bear of a bloke advancing on you with a rock held above his head and you can't hit him????)
Another "Aieee!" from a bloke blown up.
A rather cut short "Aiee!" from a guard.

Best Of Battle - Day Of The Eagle

Moving on, we come to the much more enjoyable adventures of Mike Nelson. Can remember enjoying this back on its original run, partly due to a 13 year-olds spy obsession with the Man From Uncle and Bond shenanigans and partly by the crimingly over-looked art of Pat Wright.
His art stills holds up here in these representitive tales but reading as an adult, i can tell now how much its swiping from Day Of The Jackal.
Still, rollicking good fun.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH: None at all, not suprising as it has a curiously low body count. He is a covert ops guy after all.

Next up, "The Bootneck Boy", a tale i didn't take too back then - and things aren't changing now. Of interest to me only as being a prototype for Charleys War

Best Of Battle - D-Day Dawson

The book kicks off with one of my not-so favourite strips but an excellent, informative intro for it by then editor Pat Mills.
STUNNED that Dawson was the top character for a good while over the likes of Rat Pack.
Onto the strips and the first is the first. And here we hit the "went with it as a kid, but the adult in my goes huh?" wall (WWIAAK from now on). Dawson is shot on the D Day Landings and gets a bullet near his heart which'll reach it within a year right?
But who tells him this?
Some medical bod on the beach (we don't even know he IS a doctor - he just has the red cross armband) who tells him that.
How does the guy know?
Its a warzone, they're in a landing craft, he has no equipment to do any such examination. And if he did - cleanliness is right out the window (if the boat had them) so Dawson'd be dead a lot sooner than a year once the infections spread.
Anyway, passing over that, we have Dawson's first displaying of noticing something no-one else can spot, despite being shot and (presumably been opened up by the quack) - the boats going to be shelled.
Up he gets and out he jumps and off he swims.
Now, its the end of the world for me if i stub my toe but this guy is some sort of superhuman - gawd, what'd he be like if he hadn't been shot?
The first strip ends with him beginning his whole "i've nothing to lose i'm on borrowed time" mantra that he spouts every week. I suppose it meant to be noble but really comes across now as whiny. If you feel that bad about it, tell folk and get shipped back home you twonk.
Really, not too much pleasure from this batch, aside from Dawson machinegunning down a bunch of American troops who turn out to be Nazi's in disguise, spotting them because "their uniforms were too neat".
"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
A slightly shortend "Aieee!" in episode one.
A 100% "Aieeee!" from a paratrooper officer as he's shot and falls down a well.

Best Of Battle - at last

Stunned to actually find its finally out - waiting for its been like reading first run Miracleman all over again.
But, the waits worth it.
A bumper soft cover edition featuring a nice diverse selection of strips from the titles history,along with looks like nice informative introductory pieces, all other reading material has been put aside for now.
So expect ramblings on it quite a bit here.
I'll start though by just saying how nice it was to go into my local bookshop and see multiple comics.
I wish it, and the proposed solo collections, every success.
Titan i salute you.

Lew Stringers comic Blog

May i direct across the page here to "Sites Of Note" and the link to Lew's excellent site.
An authority on boys comics, a talented artist and a downright nice guy.
I hate him.

2000AD TV Advert

Like to watch this from time to time - partly as a reminder of my yoof, partly a reminder of how the comics evolved, and partly a reminder of what Tharg sounds like.
Very posh, these Beltugese.

Albion - Origins

I've got real mixed feelings about this publication.
When Albion was announced i was over the moon - my favourite characters were coming back.
But, although the project was obviously done with a lot of research and enthusiasm, it wasn't what i was hoping for.
So, when this follow-up reprinting tales of some of the characters was announced, again i was over the moon.
Again i was disappointed.
Why?
Lets start with the cover shall we?
Brian Bolland is a God in my opinion, everything he does is pure genius - whether his very early work on Dez Skinn's Hammer magazine, through his 2000AD work, his move to US publishers and into his computer generated work.
But here? Dunno. Cursitor Doom, Dollman and his puppets are spot on. Tim Kelly dosn't quite look the cherub faced buffon of the strips. And Janus Stark. Just WRONG. He's got the hair, nose and eyebrows just right. But he's just not strange enough in my mind, this is just a guy with odd hair, eyebrows and a big nose, nowhere the etherial, downright odd character in the strips.
Onto the contents and first up, Kelly's Eye. I've said before that i never took to the strip, thinking him a bit of a drip.
And it doesn't change with the story presented here. And an odd choice to represent him, being a tale set in the South American jungle rather than the more suitable city set one's.
The House Of Dollman. Never read the strip first time out as it was in Valiant, a comic i never bought (think it was the naff covers putting me off). So i'm reading it as an adult, which isn't helping as the childlike acceptance of the preposterous has long gone. And, boy, there's some odd stuff here.
We have a guy who works for the secret service - fine. He has a bunch of robot dolls as his allies - far-fetched, but in keeping with 60/70's boys comics. No problem there. He controls them from a device on his belt - fine, no probs. He can control said dolls when he can't see them or even nowhere near them - er... He uses ventriloquism to put words in their mouths - deep psychological problems with the guy, but i can accept that. And he uses said voice throwing to make them speak EVEN WHEN HE'S NOWHERE NEAR THEM...
Oh dear, oh dear. Think if i had read this strip, the 8-year old me would have given up on it being too absurd.
After Janus Stark come s Cursior Doom. Again a character i never read, but wish i had - lovely stories with brilliant creepy artwork from Eric Bradbury (HOW scary is the good guy????) - and sure it would've made a real impact, as well scaring the crap out of me.

Janus Stark - a recurring theme

Re-reading his exploits, the same notion keeps cropping up again and again.
Namely, the story begins with him boastful, egotistical, vain and really rather self-centered.
But at the end he's usually to be seen leaving behind something to aid the folk he's helped that week, either watching from the sidelines or, as in these two very similar cases, wandering off without waiting for praise or accolades.
I'm sure its a case of, as in Adam Eterno's invulnerability and D Day Dawsons dodgy ticker, having to establish week in and week out a characters traits for potential new readers.
As i've said before, it can make for a bit of a slog when reading a number of episodes if a strip in one go, but this one is really rather charming.

2000AD Covers Blog

Here you go with a link to Pete Wells' excellent Blog devoted to Tharg's covers. Very informative and great fun.
Well done Pete.

http://2000adcovers.blogspot.com/

Janus Stark - ashcan edition

I'm going to start looking at Mr Stark with this oddity.
I bought it quite a few years ago on eBay and its a collection of strips, shrunk down to about half the size of a British comic, with a card cover and the title crudely glued on.
The seller maintained he didn't know the origin of it, having bought it at a boot sale. Think he was telling porkies there - he was selling quite a few of these of various other characters both when i bought mine and after.
Anyway, despite it origins, its a handy way of getting a Janus fix all in one go. First strip is an origin tale but i'm unsure if its the very first episode, or a retelling from later.
Its quite along episode for its time, clocking in at 5 pages and has, in quick succesion, the staples of future tales: Janus' lock picking skills, his elastic body, his public performing, putting himself through ghastly ordeals to escape,his massive ego and - quite a regular occurance - bringing a crook to rights then distributing his wealth to those who need it while walking off into the distance.

Janus Stark

About time i got round to this fella.
After Black Max, he's my favourite British comic character and, like Max, its down to the effect the incredibly evocative b&w art had on me back in the early 70's.
With Janus and Adam Eterno, they were my first introduction to stories in Victorian settings and they're responsible for my interest in all things from that period, be it Sherlock Holmes, Dickens, the Jack the Ripper murders, the writings of Henry Mayhew etc.
So where to start with Janus? Of course its the art by Solano Lopez, excelling himself here both with the moody vistas of London and the downright strangeness of Stark himself.
First the street scenes.
I'm constantly stunned as i re-read these tales at just how much detail Lopez puts into just one panel - you'll have buildings, cobblestones, mist effects, people and all the other details. All accurate, all brilliant.
And then there's Janus. Reading the stories he comes across as very much a Holmes character and with the ego to match. But physically he's more a caricature of Holmes - the forehead is even higher, the widows peak more pronounced. But his hawk-like nose and arched eyebrows make him really rather unearthly and etherial.
And then there's the ordeals he puts himself through.
I'll be detailing these at length but, for now, i'll just say that the appeal of this strip was waiting to see just what he had to endure week after week. As an 8 year old i found them both unsettling and fascinating, and they still have that effect on me today.
The mark of a good strip is that it leaves a mark.

New Dogbreath & Zarjaz

Glad to say the latest issues of these excellent 2000AD fanzines are now available. Really, to call them that is to do them a huge disservice.
To me "fanzine", 2000AD especially, brings back memories of the photocopied, really rather crude affairs of the late 70's/early 80's such as "Friends Of Tharg".
Both them and these share the common passion for the strips and characters that prompts the creation of the titles, but with Dogbreath and Zarjaz, everythings been notched up a huge degree, producing very slick, very polished looking publications.
And, with Art Droids guesting from now and then, they come across as kid sisters to 2000AD rather than fan titles.
Very much recommended (apart from the strips wot i wrote).
Linky:

http://thequaequamblog.blogspot.com/

Crikey! Issue 10

Got issue 10 and 11 the other day and have just finished 10.
Two highlights for me.
Captain Britain. Well, he did debut within my 1968-1978 remit and he was supposed to be British. He wasn't though was he? Hideous, crappy scripts and plots with even more hideous, crappy art. It wasn't till Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis came on board and revamped it that things for me got interesting. Even more when Moore arrived on the scene. But that's after '78 so i'm not going to witter on.
Other feature is Axa. Again, only just falling within the remit, starting as she did in 1978. I followed of course for Romero's brilliant, beautiful artwork. It couldn't be for the scripts, which were the most obvious, derivitive, cliche plots going. But entertaining in a pervese way as we waited to see how the gal would loose her clothes this time.
It was like a serious, SF version of Cupid Stunt.
Lovely, indepth feature by Tony Ingram.

Octopusses playing football

As promised, here's the utter genius of one-eyed octopi playing football with a diving bell.
In a couple of panels, the sumnation of why i love these comics.

Battle 27 Sept 1975

What a fantastic cover - worthy of an Airfix box in my opinion - shame the strip it comes from isn't anywhere near as exciting and dramatic.
Other strips here include the usual set-up from D-Day Dawson. Now, i don't remember each week being pretty much the same through neccisity (must've been my age) but i'm thinking, should it ever be collected in a graphic novel one day, its going to get very boring very fast.
"Return Of The Eagle" stands out solely for the appalliness of the artwork - as bad as the baddest Dredger ever got over in Action. And, looking at it, it could be the same *ahem* "artist" responsible.
Much better is "Rat Pack" which, although its a pretty dull tale of the retrival of an unexploded bomb, has the usual lovely art from Carlos Ezquerra. Now, THIS needs the graphic novel treatment - a hardback Titan affair a la "Charlies War", collecting all the Ezquerra and Belardinelli tales? I'm first at the queue.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
A 100% "Aieeee!" from Mike Nelson's victim in "Return Of the Eagle" as he falls backwards over a table.
A rather over the top "Aiee!" from a Nazi officer who'd been dazzled by a motorbikes headlight in "They Can't Stop Bullet!" Wimp.
And then a double-whammy in "Sergeant Without Stripes" as a Japanese guard exclaims "Aiee! he throws bomb!" as he sees whats about to happen, then the fully furnished "Aieeee!" as he's blown up by it. Sterling work nameless guard, you're the first i've come across to have two utterances in one strip.

My Son's 9th Birthday

My Son will be 9 next month so i thought a little bit different present, seeing as he pours over all my old annuals, is to buy up some British titles from 1971 to give him an idea of what i was into at the same age.
First two to arrive are the 8th May Lion and Thunder and the Beano of Feb 27th.
As usual, the highlight of Lion (wonder if it'll be for him?) is the Black Max. Loads of aerial action in this episode - basically Max shooting Wilson and co on the ground but missing every time, Germans shooting Max and hitting him and Wilson flying back to base in Max's convenient spare plane in yet another hidden cave. Hardly any Bats this time, which is a real shame.
Next best strip for me, again, is Adam Eterno, this time in the far future where "gold is as common as lead" (though its not explained why) and fighting the magnificently named Grunn The Grimm.
But there's a moment in another strip that i must mention, which is a classic example of the quirkiness, barminess and brilliance of British Boys Comics that's endeared me to them so much.
It happens at the opening of "The Jigsaw Journey". The heroes have decended into the oceans depths to find a lost diving bell only to find it USED BY GIGANTIC OCTOPUSES AS A MONSTER FOOTBALL. I kid you not. The artworks just brilliant for it but, alas the batteries gone on my camera so no pic yet.
Onto the Beano, which falls outside of this her sites remit (shame, as i'd love to wax lyrical about Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid) except for Billy The Cat. I loved Billy The Cat - it gave me a superhero fix once a week, when i couldn't readily get any American titles. And i loved the clean, uncluttered artwork, a good example of which is here. And i loved that we could easily be him. He was just like us, looked like us, lived in a street like us and had no powers at all. How i wanted a motorbike helmet to convert.
"AIEEEE!" RATING: Sadly, none.

I'm back - and so's Johhny Red

Sorry i've been away so long - circumstances have had me in a place where i just haven't had the time to persue nor read anything really.
Hopefully coming out of that now, so expect updates soon.
Bit old this snippet, but i'm really looking forward to it, especially as its the Joe Colquhoun run, rather than the somewhat dull and silly John Cooper stint:

http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2009/05/reprints-from-battle-front.html

My Black Max original art

Its a dream to own a piece of original art of my favourite ever British character but have never, ever seen any up for sale (do they still exist?)
So, only way i figure i can have one is to commission one so turned to top bloke and top artist Chris Weston.
He's a fellow fan and has already proven he can do WW1 aerial sequences with his stunning work on Enemy Ace.
So he was a natch and, boy, didn't disappoint.

Spring 1972, Black max dims, Adam Eterno shines

Just got these 3 copies from March and April of that month.
What a let-down with my favourite strip - a dull, ploding affair which has over the course of the three issues,Wilson held captive on a German Destroyer, freed by Max who intends to kill him himself, who then loses him. And that's it. THREE ISSUES to do that. Pffff...
Much better here is Adam Eterno. I've said before that the attraction of this strip for me is the wonderful, evocative artwork and the audacious way gold happens to appear to put the big guy in peril, rather than the character himself or the situations he's in.
And, boy, here that artwork sure is stunning stuff. The plant creatures are rendered brilliantly and the moodiness of the setting is top-notch stuff. If i ever could own a page of Eterno artwork, it'd be from this tale.

AIEEEE! Watch:
Plenty of "aaagh!" and "uuurgh", but no "Aieeee!" here.

Crikey! Issue 9

Picked this up in Forbidden Planet while in Manchester last week. Its a nice read, highlights for me being the first part of an overview of Marvel UK, a nice piece by Pat Mills on the influence Tammy had on future titles (despite suffering from doubling up of some text due to a printing error) but the best of all is a nice interview with Enrique Romero. He's mainly spending his time doing commissions now, and how i'd love an Axa or Modesty Blaise from him.

Vulcan - 11 October 1975

Got to admit, didn't buy this title when it came out. Think it was because i was already familiar with the characters, plus '75 was when Marvel UK was churning out tons of titles and that's where all me pocket money was going.
So, what do we have here?
MYTEK THE MIGHTY: Again, the colouring has ruined any atmos the strip had. What were they thinking? But its genius in that, with only two pages of strip, you have Mytek's hand demolish a building, pull a plane out the sky and then he emerges off-shore.
THE SPIDER: Left in black and white and much the better for it. This is why i love the Spider so much - up against "The Exterminator", he lunges towards his foe, only to activate a massive Rat Trap. Really. I mean, where'd you get one from? Acme? Or did the Exterminator go to all that trouble to build it himself? When that fails, he attacks with a drill on an extending tube that he "got the idea for this fiendish enemy-eliminator during my last visit to the dentist" And this is played straight. After that fails, the Spider is pinned down under the weight of a pile of "artificial giant diamonds"
Barking mad! Kids don't know what they're missing these days.
TRIGAN EMPIRE: An altogether more sensible, with lavish, beautifil artwork from Don Lawrence. This strip, above ALL others deserves a reprinting and to be seen on the shelves of Waterstones etc.
THE STEEL CLAW: Loevly moody art - but not much of a tale.
KELLY'S EYE: Again, lovely art, but the guys such a drip, its hard to connect with him. So a quick glance, then move on.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
Nothing, not even when The Steel Claw sticks his finer in the plug socket or touches the electric fence, nor when Tim Kelly gets blasted by a giant bat or blown up by a cannon.

Battle 5 June 1976 - Rat Pack.

Two strips here stand out SO much more than the others.
Major Eazy has the better of the tales, better written ("i thought booby traps were forbidden by the Geneva Convention." "That's right. But if the Krauts can do it so can i".) and, of course, Ezquerra is a God.
But Rat Pack has Belardinelli. How can the guy have been so overlooked in his career? And how can he have been lambasted for his anatomy depictions? What's wrong with them? Or the plane? (which looks dead accurate to me) and just LOOK at those blast lines! Brilliance.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
The Eagle Flies East: a shortend "Aiee!"from a looter in a hut.

Action - 15 May 1976 - Hookjaw

Inside a typically lurid cover (which looks like a panel blow-up but doesn't seem to be) we've got APPALLING artwork on Dredger. As i've said before, really can't understand how the art on one of the lead strips could deterioate so quickly. And boy has it here. So bad i'm not gonna show ya.
*how fun it is to slip into 70's speak again*
Green Grudge's War fairs best with the artwork by Belardinelli this issue (with his trademark self-portrait appearing more than once) but i've chosen to show two pages from Hookjaw. Again, the art has slipped but you've gotta admire a whole page devoted to a boy being eaten.
Odd too that one of the panels here was chosen for the hardback graphic novel over some truely stunning examples earlier in the run.

"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
Green Grudge's War: a truncated "Aieee!" from a German guard and a much longer "Aieeeee!" next panel as the oil tank blows (dunno if its the same guy).

Sorry i've been away

Like i say, sorry for any regular updates here - been a combination of work, home, modelling stuff and the Net taking up so much time. Also been catching up on American graphic novels, but we'll gloss ove that.
Anyway, will try and post a lot more from now on in.

2000AD - Prog 68

Here we are then, a little bit of spare time to have a delve at random through my back issues box - and its one of the last issues before my school leaving end post is up.

Nice cover by Dave Gibbons but, of course, his Artie Gruber isn't a patch on the Belardinelli version seen inside.

Mach Zero is the lead strip and its one i really, really didn't like back then, even less so now. Despite here having some very evocative b&w art from the shockingly over-looked Mike Dorey.

Judge Dredd takes the colour centre strip and of course its a classic - both in story (the first flashback to the Judges taking over is here) and the art from the McMahon Droid.

But my favourite at this time, as i'm sure i said before, was the Lost Worlds saga in Dan Dare. Okay, some of the plots were a bit naff - and some of the script even naffer - but it was a lot of fun. Here we have the Space Fortress forced to land on a planet that seems to be peopled by folk decended from Pilgrim Fathers abducted by aliens (yes, really). Of course alls not what it seems and think its the next issue that they're revealed to be mind reading alien slugs. Lovely art by Dave Gibbons ,with this action spread being just stunning. How i'd love these two pages.

Death Planet. Hmmm... think i read it once when i bought it and never since. Nuff' said.

Inferno - Artie Gruber on every page, so i'm a happy bunny.

AIEEEE! Watch: A derivitive "Graieee!" in Death Planet.