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THE EAGLE SOCIETY is dedicated to the memory of EAGLE - Britain's National Picture Strip Weekly - the leading Boy's magazine of the 1950s and 1960s. We publish an A4, quarterly journal - the Eagle Times.

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Wednesday 28 February 2024

THE GUINEA PIG

 Steve Winders analyses this unusual strip from the sixties EAGLE.

In the mid sixties, many of EAGLE's heroes had special powers beyond those of ordinary people and faced equally supernatural and powerful enemies. The 'Iron Man' looked human, but was actually an immensely strong steel robot with an advanced computer brain. Major Grant was given the ability to change into smoke by benevolent alien allies. Even the schoolboy heroes, Billy Binns and Mickey Merlin, had remarkable powers. There is no doubt that these stories proved popular with readers at the time. EAGLE's rival comics were full of such stories and American comics were even more dependent on heroes with super powers.

Into this culture of heroes and villains with extraordinary abilities came a new story, which began in January 1965, that took an ordinary person and placed him in a range of different situations, giving him different powers and different challenges for each one. This was 'The Guinea Pig', a strip about a man employed to test new discoveries at a Dartmoor Research  Centre. Unlike the stories of heroes with special powers, where the powers were invariably beneficial, those bestowed on Mike Lane as a human 'Guinea Pig' were usually the cause of the problems in the stories. The strip took the popular comic theme of super powers and explored their potential risks and it questioned the popular view that scientific exploration is necessarily good, by showing many of the experiments having catastrophic results. 

The Dartmoor Centre was run by Professor Cornelius Dee, the only other regular character in the stories and the inventor of almost all the discoveries that Mike Lane tests in the strip. The professor must have been a remarkable man as his work covered every area of Science. Mike Lane tested drugs, radiation treatments, weapons, armour and a whole range of transport vehicles for him. Perhaps if he had specialised more, there might have been fewer disasters! 

Professor Dee is a bald, bespectacled man who is confined to a wheelchair. His large cranium, coupled with the fact that he is permanently seated, invites comparison with the Mekon, but Dee is not a villain. However, he is not exactly a hero either. Indeed he is the most ambivalent regular character to appear in any series in EAGLE. Ruthless and uncompromising in his pursuit of scientific discovery, he nevertheless shows concern about Mike's safety during some of the experiments. Mike Lane is a much more traditional EAGLE hero. The introductory caption to the first episode says: "Mike had been many things in his time - fighter pilot, wrestler, even a revolutionary fighter in a South American war!" In appearance, he is again a typical EAGLE hero. Tall, athletically built, with short fair hair and no overtly prominent facial features, he resembles many other British comic heroes of the time. 

The real difference about 'The Guinea Pig' is in its often negative attitude to scientific discoveries. This was a new stance for EAGLE, which had consistently praised and supported science. Its most popular and endearing character 'Dan Dare' was a space pilot whose adventures took place in a brighter and better world of the future, enhanced by technological advances. EAGLE's famous cutaway drawings of technological marvels were a popular feature from its start to the end and the comic regularly ran other series about new innovations, which were always enthusiastic in tone. 

Originated by William Patterson, who wrote the famous 'Jeff Hawke' daily science fiction strip for the Daily Express, 'The Guinea Pig' began in EAGLE, Volume 16 No. 2, in January 1965 and finished in EAGLE'S penultimate issue, Volume 20 No. 16, dated April 19th, 1969. After appearing on two pages in black and white for the first four episodes, the strip then occupied one-an-a half black and white pages until September 1967, when it moved to the centre pages in colour. The first two episodes were drawn by Colin Andrew, who was replaced by Brian Lewis in early February and then by Gerald Haylock, who took over in the issue dated November 27th 1965 (Volume 16 No. 48). The early artwork by Colin Andrew, with its gloomy backgrounds, recalled his work on 'What is Exhibit X?' an eerie science fiction strip he drew for Boys' World. His style suited 'Exhibit X' very well, but was a little too dark for 'The Guinea Pig', which although often pessimistic about the success of science, was not as frightening or unsettling as the Boys' World story. Brian Lewis' style was more appropriate, with its sharper and more detailed backgrounds and effective depiction of action scenes. However, the artist who had the longest run on the strip was Gerald Haylock, who illustrated the strip for more than three years. Haylock had previously drawn almost the whole run of 'Knights of the Road' in the early sixties for EAGLE. His line work was much sketchier than Lewis', but his backgrounds were quite detailed and his depiction of movement and facial expression was good. In 'The Guinea Pig' he used sharply angled frames reminiscent of Frank Bellamy's work, to convey action and movement more dynamically. He was a reliable and consistent artist who served the strip well. Most stories ran for between four and eight episodes, with occasional shorter and longer ones.    

In September 1967, during Haylock's tenure, EAGLE altered in size and the strip moved to the colour centre pages. It occupied these pages until the issue dated 10th August 1968, when 'The Circus Wanderers' took over the centre spread. 'The Guinea Pig' then continued on two black and white pages per week. However, the strip occupied the front page eight times during EAGLE's final year, as the comic introduced a policy of rotating the principal strips on the cover. On these occasions, the second page of the strip was printed in colour on the back page or in black and white on page two. 

Gerald Haylock stayed with the strip until the issue dated 4th January 1969. By this time the fateful decision to close EAGLE had been taken and the strip was drawn by several artists until the end of its run. These included Carlos Pino, whose work on the final story means that he is one of a handful of artists who have contributed to both versions of EAGLE. 

Although William Patterson wrote the first story and several others, many other writers worked on the strip at different times. This was unusual for EAGLE, even in the sixties, but 'The Guinea Pig' was an unusual story. With only two regular characters to write for, it was not difficult for new writers to take over and as the strip depended so heavily on their ability to devise new and interesting experiments, it benefitted from changing writers, because each one brought new ideas. Among the contributors to the strip were Robert Bartholomew, Tom Tully, David Motton, Frederick Smith and Alfred Wallace. 

The first story, drawn by Colin Andrew and Brian Lewis, shows Mike Lane testing a formula which enables him to pass through solid objects. Once the formula begins to take effect, he cannot hear sound as his ear drums are not solid, so sound waves cannot vibrate against them, which is scientifically correct. However, Professor Dee does not start to explain the risks that Mike faces until after he has taken the tablet and fails to warn him about the fact that he may start to become solid again at any time during the next half hour. If he becomes solid while passing through a concrete wall then he will die!

While the professor's late warning sets up the dramatic thrust of the story, it is ridiculous that he would not explain the potential effects and risks to Mike before he took the tablet. But Dee's irresponsible management is quickly matched by Mike's, who sets off on a tour of the research centre. Causing panic in the building, which he floats through like a ghost, Mike goes outside and explores the rocket launching area, just as a rocket is about to take off. Unaffected by heat, gases and the force of the missile, Mike examines the launch at a very close quarters. The rocket then explodes on the launch pad and a moment later, Mike begins to revert to solidity. Suffering from a few minor burns, he returns to the anxious professor, who sacks him for behaving irresponsibly! However, when he explains that he saw a fuel tank in the rocket spring a leak as it was taking off, he is immediately reinstated. His observation will save millions of pounds. 

The second experiment is really part of the first story, as there are strong links between the two. This time, Mike tests an anti-gravity suit. This resembles a space-suit in appearance, which is just as well, because it defies gravity to take him into space. It has a control panel on the chest, which allows Mike to direct it and he floats off to the Moon! On arrival, he explores a crater which turns out to be a large tentacled creature resembling a jelly fish, which has the power to transform itself into its surroundings. The creature engulfs Mike and he cannot break free from its clutches. Desperately he activates the anti-gravity suit and brings the creature all the way back to Earth with him. 

On this occasion, the professor has fortunately fitted Mike with a radio and so armed troops are ready when he and his strange passenger arrive back at base. The soldiers disable the creature with gas shells and it releases Mike from its grip. Professor Dee thinks it is dead, but the creature transforms itself into a building and begins to engulf people inside itself. If the professor uses explosives to destroy it, then the people inside it will be killed. 

Mike suggests that he takes another of the non-solid pills, so that he can pass into the creature and find its heart or a nerve centre that can then be attacked. The professor agrees and Mike manages to get inside the 'building' that the alien has become. He succeeds in finding the heart of the creature, but then begins to turn solid again. Some of the creature's 'walls' are transparent, so the professor can see Mike through a telescope from his cover position. Mike points in the direction of the creature's heart and the troops blast it with shells. This time the creature does die, but Mike has been injured by it. Fortunately, the blasting did not hit him and he recovers to be hailed a hero. The professor announces that he has another job lined up for him, but Mike declares that he has a headache and in a rare, but justifiable moment of rebellion, calls him a "slave driving old goat,". The professor accepts this with good grace, but tells Mike that his next job will be a tough one and not like the simple ones he's had so far! 

These first two experiments contain some highly dubious science. When Mike becomes ethereal he loses the ability to speak and hear, but surely he would also lose the power to move himself around. The anti-gravity suit has a 'control panel' but no propulsion unit, yet Mike is able to control his movement through space and presumably at considerable speed, because he manages to propel himself all the way to the Moon and back in very little time. The Moon is 238,855 miles away from Earth. The issue of propulsion is briefly explained by saying that Mike can direct his movement by moving his arms about, but this is not a satisfactory explanation as there is nothing for him to push against in space. While a comic story cannot be expected to get bogged down with scientific explanation, the issues could have been better explored. 'The Guinea Pig' provided an excellent opportunity for a little science education 'without force'. Nevertheless, the story was well received and thanks to a wide variety of themes in the following stories, 'The Guinea Pig' quickly established itself as a popular strip. 

Prominent in the early stories was one where Mike travels fifty miles beneath the Earth in 'The Braxby Mole', a craft which drills through rock. There, in a huge subterranean cavern he and his companions encounter the descendants of English and Spanish sailors from Elizabethan times, who still dress and speak as their ancestors did. The Spaniards live on a galleon which somehow made its way into an underground river four hundred years ago and became grounded in the cave. The two groups are still at war with each other, so Mike and his team from the Mole try to negotiate. However, this fails and the Mole undermines the galleon, which collapses. Mike and his team find a treasure hoard on the now wrecked ship and take it back to the surface along with a friendly Elizabethan called Trelawny, who has helped them. 

Drawn by Brian Lewis, this exciting and memorable story ran for thirteen episodes, between March and June 1965. Unfortunately, once again adequate explanations for several important aspects of the story are not forthcoming. Mike speculates as to how exactly the Spanish galleon got into a cavern fifty miles below the Earth's surface. He suggests that the river, which is now fed by an immense waterfall, may "once have been navigable all the way to the Earth's surface..." and that "there must have been a huge rock fall." But this does not make much sense. It lacks any detail or logic and recalls the unsatisfactory lack of scientific explanation in the first stories. Perhaps a massive localised collapse of the river bed has created the waterfall and caused the river to now flow underground, but this is not what is suggested. Also, no explanation is proffered for the presence of the English people in the caves, except the lure of treasure aboard the galleon, but how did they get there? 

When Mike and his friends return to the surface, neither Professor Dee, nor Trelawny, offer any further explanation. The professor is just delighted to get the treasure, which will pay for the whole cost of the Mole. Despite his intriguing background, the rescued Trelawny makes no further appearance in the strip after the story ends and we are never told why the Mole is called 'The Braxby Mole'.

These entertaining but flawed early stories do not speculate too much on the potential hazards of scientific enquiry and experimentation. They simply use the tests and experiments which Mike undergoes to tell exciting stories. However, as the strip progressed, the writers seized on the opportunity to encourage readers to reflect on more challenging issues. In a later adventure in the black and white era, Mike travels to the year 2070 in a prism shaped time machine. Here he finds that Dartmoor houses a city, in a crowded world where everyone's life is ordered and rigidly timetabled. He is forced to undergo 'citizenship' training, but he escapes and meets another fugitive who has rejected the discipline and rules of the society and this man helps him to return to his own time. An interesting feature of this story is its depiction of the future world. There were many speculative stories of the future produced in the twentieth century and many predicted an overcrowded world. However, other stories that predicted order and over population took a clear pessimistic tone, whereas 'The Guinea Pig' is more ambiguous. The major tension of the story is created by Mike's attempts to return to his own time and not by the horrors of the future society. Consequently it is able to show people happy with their ordered lives. It shows that there are reasons for the excessive control exercised by the authorities and that this order produces many benefits. 'The Guinea Pig' in no way advocates such a system, but it does not show the future world in simple terms of good and bad. For this reflective approach it must be applauded. 

One of the best stories to convey the limitations of science was a relatively simple two part story, in which Mike, exhausted after yet another experiment, is sent to a totally computer operated hotel to rest and recuperate. Unfortunately the hotel is the brainchild of Professor Dee and no human staff are employed there. When thieves break in during Mike's stay, they cause some wires to short circuit and everything starts working at once. Mike is forced to break out to avoid being killed in the mechanical mayhem which ensues. The message of the story seems clear: Without human management, machines cannot be trusted to function properly. But again the message is not so simple. The mayhem was really initiated by human thieves breaking in and ultimately the real blame for the disaster lies as usual with Professor Dee. He could easily have incorporated adequate security measures in his hotel to prevent the break in. 

In one of the later stories, when Mike's skin becomes as tough as steel following an accident, the professor outlines his philosophy to a new assistant.

"Let's hope there's no mistake this time, professor!" says the assistant. 

"Burton, you have not been in my employment very long, so I will ignore that remark. I do not make mistakes! I delve into the unknown - and the answers are not always predictable!" replies the professor testily. 

When Dee delves into the unknown , the answers are never predictable, except when disasters are expected. In one adventure, the professor tries to transfer mike's law abiding thought patterns into the mind of a criminal, recruited from the nearby prison. At the start of the experiment, Mike comments "It sounds fine - so long as it doesn't work the other way round on me!" which anticipates exactly what is going to happen in the story. 

Like the other popular sixties characters, 'Blackbow the Cheyenne' and 'The Iron Man', 'The Guinea Pig' only ended to make way for EAGLE's merger with Lion in April 1969. The final adventure, which was written by Alfred Wallace, ended with Professor Dee gaining new funding for his experiments from a rich Arab sheik. Whether the British Government has withdrawn its support is not made clear, but if it has, then in my view it has acted wisely! Quite apart from the chaos that Dee's experiments cause in the towns and villages of Dartmoor, in one story, the evil side of Mike's nature is physically separated from his good side and the evil Mike kidnaps the prime minister and uses a shrinking ray to reduce him to toy soldier size! This adventure takes place just a few weeks before the one where Professor Dee is seeking new funding and it seems reasonable to assume that the two are connected. 

Professor Dee may have been a genius, but he was also a liability. His surname surely comes from Doctor John Dee, the famous Elizabethan astrologer and alchemist, for like the alchemists of old, Professor Dee also tried to turn base metal into gold on several occasions and was always ultimately disappointed. His first name may come from the German alchemist, Heinrich Cornelius, who was a contemporary of John Dee. If the professor was named by William Patterson, who wrote the first story, then this is quite likely. In his 'Jeff Hawke' stories for the Daily Express, Patterson often linked events in the story with events and discoveries from the past. 

Writing in Speakeasy magazine in 1990, in his introduction to an interview with Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes about their version of 'Dan Dare', Nigel Curzon recalled 'The Guinea Pig' as an anti-authoritarian story. Presumably he saw Professor Dee as the unreasonable authority figure and Mike as the suffering victim. Dee certainly makes unreasonable demands of his employee and most of the drugs and treatments that Mike is subjected to would never be sanctioned in real life. However, on several occasions, Dee shows sympathy and concern for Mike. In a levitation experiment he ruins valuable equipment when he switches on the levitation ray to save Mike, who is falling from the top of a high ladder. He does this knowing that the machine will overload and his work will be wrecked. 

Likewise, Mike is certainly not a rebellious anti-authoritarian figure, although he does justifiably complain about the professor's unreasonable demands at times. One story which demonstrates Mike's willingness to take part in the experiments is when the professor puts an obedience drug in his tea. Mike is then ordered to undergo a series of extreme endurance tests, including a fight with a local boxing champion, to test the drug. He obeys all the orders enthusiastically and the professor declares the drug a success, only to find that Mike didn't drink the tea and hasn't taken the drug! 

The fact that Mike is often an enthusiastic participant in the professor's experiments does not mean that he is not the victim, but if the writers had intended the strip to be anti-authoritarian, I believe they would have made Professor Dee much worse and Mike much more complaining. One of the best aspects of 'The Guinea Pig' is that it avoids taking a clear position on the issues it covers, preferring to present stories in such a way that readers can draw their own conclusions. The idea that the strip is anti-authoritarian possibly comes from the reprint of the first and the linked second stories in 2000 A.D. Annual 1979 where a new opening text box removes references to Mike having been a pilot and a revolutionary in South America and describes him simply as out of work because of his hot temper and a habit of telling his boss that he's wrong. It is likely that this change was made to make the character more like other heroes in 2000 A.D. and to be fair, this story does feature the incident where Mike calls the professor an "old goat". 'Guinea Pig' strips were reprinted in the 1980 and 1981 2000 A.D. annuals and another appeared in the 1981 Starlord Annual

Although unique in so many ways, 'The Guinea Pig' was very much a child of the sixties EAGLE . Marcus Morris would never have entertained the idea of such a story when he was editing the paper. Quite apart from its flawed science, the idea of the 'hero' character being used for dangerous experiments which sometimes change his personality, making him the problem and not the solution, would have appalled EAGLE'S creator. Nevertheless, 'The Guinea Pig' was an imaginative and thought provoking series, with a clever premise and and two strong central characters, which challenged the simplistic view of the world presented by most comic stories and more importantly , challenged the equally simplistic notion that science has all the answers.

I am grateful to David Gould for confirming and clarifying some information for this article.

Sunday 14 January 2024

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 49

As this is my forty ninth page it seems only right that it should focus on PC 49 or at least the actor who played him so successfully. EAGLE TIMES has often covered the radio, film and stage career of Brian Reece, but he also appeared as a regular character in two television series. The first was The New Adventures of Martin Kane in 1957, about an American private detective based in London and working all over Europe. It starred William Gargan who had previously played the part on American radio and TV, hence the ‘new’ title. Brian Reece played  Superintendent David Page – at last getting promoted from PC and a significant promotion at that! He appeared in thirteen of the series’ thirty nine episodes, which were produced by Towers of London Productions and broadcast on ITV and in syndication in America.  His other series was a six part comedy called Don’t Do it Dempsey! which provided him with the starring role of James Dempsey, a man of eternal optimism and ‘an eye for the girls’ who leapt headlong into any promising romantic situation. Written by Patrick Campbell and Vivienne Knight, it was a B.B.C. production, made and broadcast in 1960. Brian also appeared in many one-off comedy and musical plays, often adapted for television from West End productions. These included a production of the musical Bless the Bride in 1956, which Brian had played in the West End. His performance in a radio adaptation of this play back in 1947 had won him the part of PC 49. Among his other parts was the leading role of Charles Battle in W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Breadwinner in 1960.

It is an indication of Brian’s fame as an actor, presenter and personality that he appeared twice as the celebrity ‘castaway’ on the long running radio series Desert Island Discs. These came in July 1953 and April 1961. Sadly he died in April 1962 of a bone disease, but despite serious illness he continued to present the radio series Movietime until shortly before his death.

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 48

I have mentioned several actors who portrayed Dan Dare in previous posts, but here is a list of all the professional productions in radio, audio CDs, stage and television, with all the actors who have played Dan and Digby. The very first production was a radio series which ran from 1951 until 1956 on Radio Luxembourg. This was a daily serial which featured Noel Johnson as Dan and John Sharp as Digby. Johnson had previously played Dick Barton for the BBC and this series of long serials, split into daily fifteen minute episodes, followed the structure of the 'Dick Barton' serials. The next adaptation was a stage play, produced in 1972 at the then new Half Moon Theatre in Whitechapel. Written by Michael Irving, it starred Alex Leppard as Dan and Terrence Dougherty as Digby. 

Although several attempts were made to produce a major live action TV series in the 1980s, with James Fox and later Gareth Hunt mooted to play Dan and Rodney Bewes signed to play Digby, a series was never made. Dan's first appearance on television was actually for a series of three humorous adverts on ITV for Mobil Motor Oil in 1987. These featured Niven Boyd as Dan and Jimmy Yule as Digby. The next version was a four part BBC radio serial based on Dan's original Venus story, produced in 1990. This featured Mick Ford as Dan and Donald Gee as Digby. Also in the 1990s, Colin Baker, who had played Doctor Who on television, produced a short experimental 'Dan Dare' audio with the company who would later become Big Finish Productions. Colin played Digby and David Banks played Dan. Unfortunately, this was not developed into a commercial release.  A short TV pilot episode was made by Zenith Productions in 1994, with Robert Bathurst as Dan and Geoffrey Hughes as Digby (see picture alongside), but it was not commissioned. The pilot was screened at several Comic conventions and can be viewed on You Tube. Dan finally did get on television in a 26 part computer animated series in 2001, in which Greg Ellis voiced Dan and Julian Holloway was a cockney Digby! Aargh!

Dan was back on stage for a musical version of his story in 2003, produced at the Customs House in South Shields. Scripted by Tom Kelly, with music by John Miles, Dan was played by Joe Caffrey and Digby by Gez Casey. In 2008, Orion released an audio dramatisation of the first Venus story as Dan Dare: Voyage to Venus Part One. This was an almost exact reading of Frank Hampson's text from EAGLE and featured Tom Goodman-Hill as Dan and Rupert Degas as Digby. Degas played several other parts as well. Unfortunately sales were not encouraging enough for the second part to be recorded. Finally B7 Media released a series of six audio CDs in 2016 and 2017, with Ed Stoppard as Dan and Geoff McGovern as Digby. These plays have subsequently been broadcast on BBC Radio Four Extra.   

Essentially all these adaptations have been based on the original version of 'Dan Dare' in the 1950s and 60s EAGLE, with some being closer to the original than others. The Half Moon Theatre play, the Radio Luxembourg serials, the 1990 BBC version, the Orion audio and the Zenith pilot stuck very closely to the original. The Mobil adverts echoed Frank Hampson's designs, but as deliberate comedies they sent the characters up, although they managed this affectionately and successfully. The 2003 musical was also humorous, but parodied 1950s space fiction in general and in doing so, often ridiculed 'Dan Dare' unfairly and incorrectly. The 2001 CGI version changed Dan's appearance and failed to capture his personality, In attempting to update him, it presented him as a slightly pompous and even irritating character.  Acknowledging and accommodating our greater knowledge of the planets of the solar system, the B7 audios were  obliged to make significant changes to the stories. However, this was consistent with Frank Hampson's original, for he set Dan's adventures on what was then known of the planets. While changes were also made to several characters, such as Digby and Professor Peabody, Ed Stoppard's Dan was recognisably the EAGLE hero and this series successfully captured the spirit of the original. 

Saturday 13 January 2024

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 47

 

The image alongside of a never published Eagle was the mysterious issue that appeared at the end of an episode of Midsomer Murders called 'Electric Vendetta', which begs the question “Why didn’t they use a real Eagle?” I believe the answer lies in the picture of a ‘flying saucer’ from the same ‘issue’. The saucer closely resembles one featured in the episode, (shown below), so the page was specially drawn to link with the story. I don’t think the artwork would pass muster in the real Eagle, although to be fair, the pictures were photographed from a television screen. In the programme, several real back pages of Eagle are shown and these feature The Travels of Marco Polo, drawn by Peter Jackson. In this episode, Inspector Tom Barnaby reveals that he was a keen EAGLE reader as a boy and he still has his collection, so it is no wonder he is such a good detective.  

EAGLE has been mentioned and sometimes featured in several films and television programmes over the years. In the 1958 film Violent Playground which stars Stanley Baker and David Mc Callum, a young boy is shown buying a copy of EAGLE in a newsagent's and in the 1965 film Doctor Who and the Daleks, Peter Cushing as the Doctor is shown reading a copy. Not to be outdone, the Doctor Who TV series also features a character reading EAGLE in the 1987 adventure 'Delta and the Bannermen', which is set in a 1950s Holiday Camp in south Wales. (See the picture below). In the BBCs 1987 version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple story, '4.50 From Paddington', copies of EAGLE are prominently displayed on the newsagent's stand on Paddington Station at the start of the film and later in the story, two boys are shown reading EAGLE. The most recent mentions of EAGLE on TV were in two episodes of the 2024 series of Grantchester, which is also set in the 1950s. In the first episode, the Rev. Will Davenport, played by Tom Brittney, punishes his stepson for a minor misdemeanour by banning him from reading EAGLE for a month, which seems a gross overreaction to me! Later in the episode, the boy's mother mentions Dan Dare and Digby. In the final episode of this series, the young boy is shown reading EAGLE dated 23rd July 1960. 


In Michael Palin's 1989 travel series, Around the  World in Eighty Days, Michael is shown wearing a 'Dan Dare' tee shirt and Nicholas Lyndhurst, playing Rodney Trotter, wears a similar shirt in an episode of the comedy series Only Fools and Horses in 1981. The 1980s EAGLE appears in a 1983 episode of Coronation Street, being read by Eddie Yeats, played by Geoffrey Hughes. Geoffrey was a keen 'Dan Dare' fan and he played Digby in a short pilot film made in the hope of being commissioned for a TV series in 1994. EAGLE and Dan Dare are often featured on Quiz shows, but if you know of any other mentions of EAGLE and EAGLE characters in drama or comedy productions, then please let us know.  

  

Wednesday 10 January 2024

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 46

In 1956, EAGLE's publisher Hulton Press began to publish a series of novels featuring popular characters from the weekly. These included Dan Dare on Mars, Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard, Jack O'Lantern and the Fighting Cock and Luck of the Legion's Secret Mission. However, there were also two novels by the well known historical novelist, Henry Treece. These were The Return of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1958 and Wickham and the Armada, published in 1959. They were printed on better paper than the other EAGLE novels and did not follow the layout of their dustjackets. The earlier'character' novels all had yellow jackets with a large red eagle emblazoned on them and a small colour picture depicting a scene from the story set near the top of the page, whereas these pictures show that the Treece book covers were quite different. The Return of Robinson Crusoe contained several colour and black and white illustrations inside the book and Wickham and the Armada contained several black and white illustrations, whereas the character novels each contained only one black and white illustration inside. The Treece novels were also higher priced than the others, retailing at 12s 6d as opposed to 7s 6d. It is impossible to say whether the publication of other new novels was abandoned because of disappointing sales of the Treece books, because Hulton Press sold EAGLE to Odhams Press in 1959 and while they continued to publish larger annual style books, such as EAGLE Sports Annuals, the EAGLE Book of Trains and the EAGLE Book of How it Works, the only new novel they published was the Swift novel, The White Hart Lane Mystery (in 1960), about 'Dixon of Dock Green', who featured in a comic strip in the weekly, which had probably been commissioned by Hulton. Odhams (under their 'Longacre' label) made many changes to the way that EAGLE had operated, scaling back several initiatives, so it is quite possible that the Treece novels sold well. 
The Return of Robinson Crusoe brought back Daniel Defoe's shipwrecked hero, now free from his desert island and living in England in the late seventeenth century. Treece's novel takes him on a perilous search for Henry Morgan's treasure. Defoe himself actually wrote an almost forgotten sequel to his famous book, but Treece ignores the events of the second book and his own story takes place at the same time. As the title suggests, Wickham and the Armada is set in the reign of Elizabeth I and the hero, Giles Wickham undergoes a series of perilous adventures after he becomes a fugitive, following a poaching incident. He then becomes an actor, a soldier a highwayman, a reluctant pirate and a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, before capturing a Spanish Galleon in the Queen's name. 
   
Both books keep the reader's attention, with exciting narratives and both bring the periods they are set in to life. Henry Treece was a successful author of historical novels and particularly those for young readers and his skills in storytelling and conveying authentic period settings are evident in both of his EAGLE novels. 

    

Monday 1 January 2024

JOHN M. BURNS (1938 - 2023)

John Burns, who died on December 29th, aged eighty five, was one of Britain's greatest and most prolific comic strip artists. He was one of a very small group of artists who contributed to both versions of  EAGLE. For the original version he illustrated the famous Wrath of the Gods strip, which joined EAGLE from Boys' World in 1964. He also illustrated episodes of the non fiction series 'Bids for Freedom' and 'Roving Reporter'. For the 1980s EAGLE he illustrated 'The Fists of Danny Pike', 'Dolebusters' and a 'Dan Dare' adventure. But EAGLE forms just a small part of his contribution to comics. His work in comics began with illustrations for Girl's Crystal and School Friend in the 1950s. After completing his National Service, he illustrated strip versions of several classic novels for D.C. Thomson. He illustrated 'Wulf the Briton' for Express Weekly in 1961 and then several strips and story illustrations for EAGLE's companion paper Robin, 'Kelpie the Boy Wizard' for Wham! and in the late sixties and early seventies, many strips for the TV based comics TV 21, Lady Penelope, Countdown and TV Action. He subsequently contributed many strips for the long running TV based magazine  Look-In. He is well known on the continent for the Dutch sword and sorcery strip Zetari.


Excelling in both black and white and colour work, he also drew many newspaper strips, including 'The Seekers' for The Daily Sketch, 'The Tuckwells' for The Sunday Citizen, 'Jane' and 'Girl Chat' for The Daily Mirror, 'George and Lynne' for The Sun, 'Danielle' and 'Smythie' for The Evening News, 'Julia' for the German newspaper Bild and briefly, 'Modesty Blaise' for the Evening Standard. In recent years he became a major contributor to 2000 A.D. weekly, illustrating 'Nicolai Dante', 'Sinister Dexter', 'The Order' and 'Judge Dredd'. He also illustrated 'The Bendatti Vendetta' for the Judge Dredd Megazine.   

John had been in poor health for some time, finally retiring from illustration earlier this year. I was fortunate enough to meet him and his wife, Julia in 2005 at the Bristol Comic Expo and he kindly drew this pencil sketch of Arion, the hero of 'Wrath of the Gods' for me. Our condolences to Julia and his family. He will be greatly missed. 

Steve Winders










Friday 22 December 2023

EAGLE TIMES VOL. 36 NO. 4 WINTER 2023

The final EAGLE Times of 2023 is out now and as the cover shows, there is an article about the Classics Illustrated series in this issue. Written by Kevin O'Donnell, it examines this popular publication which told many classic stories in strip form. Also in this issue is the final part of Steve Winders' reviews of the Luck of the Legion novels; a detailed look at the first 'Dan Dare' who was an American detective, by David Britton; a new series about the great illustrators of the 1950s by Adam Goodman, with Milton Caniff being the first subject; an article by Harry Royle about the actress Shirley Cain, whose early career was featured in Girl Annual; a piece by Peter Barr about the cricketer Patsy Hendren, who was a significant contributor to the early EAGLE; a one off Christmas story of Archie Willoughby by Steve Winders and an article about the 1960 - 62 strip 'Knights of the Road' by myself.