IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 56

 

One of the many 'Dan Dare' products produced during the 1950s was the Wallis Rigby 'Anastasia' Presso Book. This provided press out cardboard parts which made up into a model of Dan's spaceship, named in honour of Digby's Aunt Anastasia, who was instrumental in preventing the Treens from conquering Earth. Brian Hayes, an EAGLE Society Member and collector recently acquired a copy of this book and has made up the model as shown below. Brian placed a Kentoys 'Dan Dare' figure for scale.  

Normally when these books become available, collectors are reluctant to spoil the book by making the model, but Brian found a poor quality book with browned and brittle text pages, but perfect metallic model pages, so he was happy to make up the model.  

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This is the front page of D.C. Thomson's Hotspur story paper dated August 23rd 1947 and the 'eagle' picture is notably similar to our own EAGLE symbol which adorned the weekly from Issue One in April 1950. Our own symbol was created by Frank Hampson and was based on an 'eagle' shaped inkwell on Marcus Morris' desk. The choice of the name EAGLE for the weekly was inspired by the 'eagle' lectern in Morris' parish church, St. James' in Birkdale, Southport. 

The Hotspur was launched in 1933 as a weekly for boys, which contained text stories, not comic strips. It was the last of D.C. Thomson's 'big five' boys' story papers, after Adventure (1921), Rover (1922), Wizard (1922) and Skipper (1930) to be launched The first issue sold over 350,000 copies and my father bought one, which I still have. During the Second World War it became a fortnightly publication due to paper rationing, increasing to three issues a month in 1946 and back to a weekly in 1949. It ran for 1,997 issues until October 1959, when it was relaunched as a comic strip paper and initially retitled The New Hotspur. It then ran for another 1,110 issues until it merged with Victor in January 1981. 

Like many boys' papers, The Hotspur stories and later strips covered school, sports, detective, war, spy, science fiction and historical adventure stories. 
 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 38 No. 3 Autumn 2025

The new EAGLE Times is out now. In this issue are articles about Willie Patterson, Ron Embleton and John Burns' strip 'Wrath of the Gods', which joined EAGLE when it absorbed Boys' World; Luis Bermejo's work on 'Heros the Spartan', and the second part of the back page strip about Winston Churchill 'The Happy Warrior'. There is also the latest part of David Britton's 'Me Too' series about female artists of the 1950s, which looks at the art of Daphne Bevis Rowles, whose work included the 'Nicky Nobody' strip for Swift. The issue also includes two more 'In and Out of the EAGLE' pages by Jim Duckett, the first part of a new Archie Willoughby story 'The Case of the Brand New Hat', a page looking at some of the readers' letters that appeared in EAGLE and four pages of our own readers' letters. Copies can be obtained from Bob Corn at the address on the right. 

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Although there were EAGLE Annuals every year, several character annuals and several novels about EAGLE characters, 1954 brought a unique book. This was a 'Riders of the Range' strip book, Jeff Arnold and the Bozeman Trail which today would be called a graphic novel. Written by the strip's creator and regular writer Charles Chilton and illustrated by Pat Williams, the book featured the war with the Sioux and Cheyenne in the 1870s and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It was published by Juvenile Publications, who also published the early Riders of the Range Annuals. Just three and a half years later, the same events would be covered in the weekly EAGLE in the 'Riders' serial 'The War with the Sioux', but there were significant differences between the two stories. The later version was much longer than the strip book and featured many more historical characters and exciting action. The biggest difference was Jeff Arnold's involvement in the battle itself. In The Bozeman Trail , Jeff was not with Colonel Custer's group who were massacred, but with Major Reno's group, who were forced to take up a defensive position away from the fight with Custer and survived. In 'The War with the Sioux', he was with Custer to the end and escaped the massacre by being knocked unconscious and saved from death by Running Bear, a Sioux warrior who he had beaten in single combat some months earlier and spared his life. While these events were more exciting for readers, the Bozeman version is more credible. Both versions contain historical inaccuracies, but both are more accurate than Hollywood film versions of the events. The weekly serial was illustrated by Frank Humphris, who researched and captured accurate likenesses of General Crook, Major Reno, Custer, Sitting Bull and others. In a previous post on this blog, Steve Winders wrote about the different studies that Humphris illustrated in different media of the battle, after he visited the battlefield and saw an original painting of it by Humphris, in the Trading Post next to the site. David Britton also examined the weekly strip in his detailed series for EAGLE Times. 

Despite the differences, Charles Chilton wrote both versions of the story. Pat Williams' artwork is much more stylised than Humphris' and some of his backgrounds are sketchy. While he produced accurate likenesses of General Crook and Custer and a reasonable likeness of Sitting Bull, other historical characters were not accurately portrayed. His work is nevertheless appealing. He captured movement well in many frames and he created vivid images which captured the epic scale of the events in his large frames. The book is entirely in colour and contains several full page and double page images. Juvenile Publications also produced another strip book, illustrated by Williams the same year. This was not EAGLE related, but an adaptation of the 'Biggles' novel, Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor. 

Below is a frame by Williams from The Bozeman Trail, showing the Sioux and Cheyenne attack on Custer's Seventh Cavalry. It is taken from the original artwork.

(The owner of this artwork is willing to sell it for an offer in the region of £400. He also has the original of the wrap around front cover which he is willing to sell for around £600. If you are interested then message me on Facebook or in the comments section here and I will put you in touch with him.) 

 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 38 No.2 SUMMER 2025

 

The 150th edition of EAGLE Times is out now. Featuring a cover by Graham Bleathman showing Dan Dare's spacecraft 'Anastasia' and several other craft flying over a future London and the back page with black and white studies of EAGLE characters by Keith Page, it celebrates the occasion in style. The contents include articles about 'Jack O' Lantern' and his creator George Beardmore, by Eric Summers; 'Blackbow the Cheyenne' by David Britton and 'Montgomery of Alamein' by myself. Reg Hoare's report on our  recent Gathering in Plymouth and my own speech about EAGLE and the radio from the Annual Dinner are also featured, along with the final part of the latest Archie Willoughby story 'The Case of the Elusive Elvis'. Copies can be obtained from Bob Corn at Mayfield Lodge, Llanbadoc, Usk, Monmouthshire, NP15 1SY.  

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From its first issue, dated 26th January 1963 until its last, dated 3rd October 1964, EAGLE's companion paper Boys' World ran a full colour strip based on Greek Mythology called 'Wrath of the Gods'. Illustrated first by Ron Embleton and later by John M. Burns and written by Willie Patterson, it joined EAGLE when the two papers were hurriedly combined and it ran for six more issues, until the current serial story was completed in the issue dated 14th November. There were four 'Wrath of the Gods' serials in total. The hero was a young Greek called Arion, who was sent on perilous quests by the gods and faced gods and monsters in his adventures. The first, third and fourth adventures occupied the middle page spread and the second occupied the back page. 

The Book Palace have recently produced a high quality reprint album which includes all the 'Wrath of the Gods' serials and the science fiction strip 'Ghost World', also from Boys' World. This single page weekly serial was illustrated by Frank Bellamy and written by the celebrated science fiction novelist Harry Harrison. The album is available in two versions - a De-luxe hardback Collectors' Limited Edition of 450 copies, retailing at £75 and a Super De-Luxe Collectors' Limited Edition of 50 copies, retailing at £130, which is enclosed in a hardback clamshell case and also includes a sixteen page booklet, which reprints the three 'Wrath of the Gods' strips from Boys' World annuals as well as prints scanned from original artwork by both Burns and Bellamy. These include a print of an original unpublished pencil sketch of Arion by Burns. The high prices reflect the high quality of the books, which reproduce all the double page spreads as fold outs, to avoid the problems caused by the guttering between pages which invariably result in a loss of art from the middle of the spread in other reprint books. The reproduction quality of the pages is excellent. The books are available from: 

https://bookpalace.com/info_ghostwrath

https://bookpalace.com/info_ghostwrathclam

 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 38 No. 1 SPRING 2025

The latest edition of EAGLE Times is out now. It has a strong Frank Bellamy theme, with the first parts of articles by myself on both 'The Happy Warrior', about Winston Churchill and 'Montgomery of Alamein' about the famous wartime General. Both strips were illustrated by Bellamy and written by Clifford Makins. The issue also includes articles by David Britton about 'Blackbow the Cheyenne', 'Riders of the Range' and the artist June Mendoza, Peter Barr's latest piece on 'EAGLE's Sporting Heroes', two of Jim Duckett's 'In and Out of the EAGLE'  pieces and the first part of a new Archie Willoughby story by myself. With a cover by Carol Tarrant, the issue can be obtained from Bob Corn at the address alongside. As the first issue of the year, this is a good time to subscribe for four issues and to join the Society.