THE FIRST CHRISTMAS EAGLE by John Culshaw

Not surprisingly, EAGLE always celebrated Christmas and particularly so in the 1950s when it was edited by the Rev. Marcus Morris. The very first Christmas EAGLE set an impressive precedent, with the front page bordered with holly and the action in Dan Dare's long running Venus saga taking a short break as the characters aboard the Ranger spaceship reflected on the fact that it was Christmas, which led into scenes back home on Earth. The strip, produced by Frank Hampson and his studio team, continued on page two where Sir Hubert Guest, Digby and Professor Peabody also reflected on Christmas back home, despite the fact that they were prisoners of the Mekon. The episode ended with Dan himself in the land of the friendly Therons, planning a rescue mission.   

Inside the issue, PC 49 continued his adventures on page three and made no mention of the season as it would have clashed with the storyline, where 'Fortynine' is on the trail of a dangerous gang who have killed a fellow officer. PC 49 originated as a weekly radio series by Alan Stranks, who also wrote the EAGLE strip, which was then drawn by Strom Gould and would later be drawn by John Worsley, who took over in August 1951 and drew the strip until it ended in March 1957. On pages four and five, the text serial Thunder Reef , about smuggling on the Brittany coast, written by Adrian Seligman continued and again, not surprisingly, there was no mention of Christmas. The 'drop in' illustrations for this story were by John Worsley. Page six was divided into a half page Football Hints strip by Billy Wright, the England captain, which focussed on proper maintenance of kit and two short features on collecting. The first provided ideas for making scrap books and the other was for stamp collectors, with neither relating to Christmas. 

The colour page seven marked the very first episode of Riders of the Range, from the popular radio serials by Charles Chilton. Although Christmas played no part in Jeff Arnold's first episode, his arrival in EAGLE was quite special. The strip would run for more than eleven years. The first episode was drawn by Jack Daniel, who would illustrate the first two adventures before Angus Scott took over for the next three until Frank Humphris became the regular artist from 1952 to the strip's end in 1962, later illustrating Blackbow the Cheyenne until EAGLE's merger with Lion in 1969. The cutaway drawing on the top half of the centre spread was of the underground railway operated by the Post Office to carry mail between Paddington and Whitechapel, with the text emphasising the Christmas mail. The cutaway was drawn by Leslie Ashwell-Wood, who was the most prolific of EAGLE's cutaway artists. On the bottom half of the centrespread was an imported French strip called Skippy the Kangaroo, which had no connection with the later Australian TV series. This Skippy, drawn in a basic cartoon style, was a continuing story and did not relate to Christmas. It was credited to Danay, Dubriscay and Genestre and described as an Andre Sarrut production, which seems like a lot of people to produce such a simple strip, but this team were then in the process of making a cartoon feature film in France based on a Hans Anderson story, with the hope of building up a cartoon film studio to rival Disney. Unfortunately problems beset the company and while the film was shown unofficially against the director Paul Grimault's wishes in 1952, disagreements between Sarrut and Grimault resulted in it not being released properly until 1980! Consequently it never had the opportunity to succeed. Possibly Skippy was to have been their next film project. 

On the next page (ten) also in colour, two half page strips told the story of the Glastonbury thorn bush which reputedly flowers on Christmas Day and the origin of the Christmas tree, which was brought by Prince Albert from Germany, but was actually originated by an English missionary St. Winfred (also known as St. Boniface). Page eleven included the Editor's letter to readers and Marcus Morris used it to wish them a happy Christmas. He apologised that the issue was unable to provide more pages than the usual sixteen, writing that paper was still very scarce and continuing: 

"..but we have done what we can to give it a Christmassy look and to include a number of features telling you about Christmas traditions and customs. Most important of all, you will find on the back page the reason why we keep Christmas at all - the story of the birth of Jesus Christ over nineteen hundred years ago in the stable at Bethlehem." 

He was referring to The Great Adventurer, the long running serial on page sixteen about the life of St. Paul, where Christmas was cleverly included in the strip as Paul told his audience at Philippi the story of Jesus' birth. This strip was still being produced by Frank Hampson's team, with Jocelyn Thomas as principal artist. They would hand over briefly to Alfred Sindall early in 1951, before Norman Williams took over as the regular back page biographies artist in February 1951. 

Meanwhile, back on page eleven still, Norman Thelwell's weekly three frame Chicko comedy strip featured Christmas and there was also a half page Competition Corner with a series of Christmas based puzzles and activities. Due to paper shortages EAGLE never wasted space and Readers' Letters also appeared on this page, although none related to Christmas. Page twelve was a one off Christmas text story Bagpipes for the Gallant, about a young Scots lad who gets the set of bagpipes he had always wanted after saving his sister's life and his family cottage by putting out a fire. It was written by E. Vincent, who was Ellen Vincent, the Assistant Editor of EAGLE. The 'drop in' pictures were by Will Nickless, who had illustrated the Worzel Gummidge books of Barbara Euphen Todd during the 1940s and would later produce illustrations for many children's books, including EAGLE and Swift Annuals. The top half of page thirteen was a Sporting Personalities strip about the showjumper Lt. Colonel Harry M. Llewellyn O.B.E. This was drawn by 'Ross' who we now know was really Ron Smith, who would go on to have a long career in comic strip illustration. His future work would include many strips for D.C. Thomson's comics and Judge Dredd in 2000 A.D. weekly thirty years later. 'Ross' had also illustrated the short strip about the origin of the Christmas tree in the same issue. The bottom half of page thirteen featured advertisements for Rolo, Subbuteo Table Soccer and Philidyne Cycle Dynamo Lighting Sets. 

On page fourteen, John Ryan's Harris Tweed Extra Special Agent 'solves' (if that's the right word!) The Case of the Two Father Christmases in a complete whole page adventure and on page fifteen Tommy Walls, a full page strip sponsored by Walls Ice Cream also had a one off Christmas adventure about turkey thieves, illustrated by Richard Jennings and despite the cold weather, Tommy continued to encourage readers to eat ice cream. Although this was essentially an advertising strip, Tommy Walls was extremely popular with readers, especially after it changed from one off stories to continuing ones in May 1952. Tommy was actually granted a four page colour strip in the second EAGLE Annual, produced for Christmas 1952 - the only occasion that he didn't eat or refer to Walls Ice Cream. First drawn by Frank Hampson in Issue One, the strip was later drawn by Eric Parker (of Sexton Blake fame), John Worsley, Walter Pannett, Harold Johns and Richard Jennings. Jennings also wrote many scripts for Tommy Walls and he would continue working for EAGLE after Tommy Walls ended, drawing and eventually writing the Storm Nelson-Sea Adventurer strip. Later he would be well known for his Dalek strips in TV Century 21 and Dalek books. 

In subsequent years the issues leading up to Christmas would feature a lot of adverts for EAGLE related merchandise, but despite its overnight success, EAGLE's publisher, Hulton Press and other companies were not yet ready to cash in, although Hulton did release an EAGLE Diary for 1951 and The EAGLE Book of Adventure Stories, but there was no EAGLE Annual until the following year. This might suggest that Hulton and Britain's toy companies were slow off the mark,  but there were still shortages of many commodities as a result of the War and some rationing was still in progress. EAGLE's success had exceeded all expectations and annuals were significant publications in the 1950s and 60s, so additional staff had to be appointed to build on the initial success. In fact Dan Dare would be Britain's first heavily merchandised fictional character, with toys, clothes, filmstrip projectors, books, tooth powder, brushes, watches, cups, card games, Easter eggs and transfers being produced.    

Although EAGLE's huge popularity ensured that commercialism seemed to dominate the publication, in later years, the religious significance of Christmas was always promoted in the Christmas issues throughout the editorships of Marcus Morris and his successor, Clifford Makins. Perhaps ironically, it was only in the 1960s when the declining popularity of Dan Dare and EAGLE meant that they were no were no longer being heavily merchandised, that the religious aspect was overlooked. 

I am grateful to Lew Stringer for allowing me to use his scans of the front page of the Christmas EAGLE and the Chicko strip and to Richard Sheaf and Steve Winders for providing and clarifying some information.

EAGLE TIMES Vol.35 No.4 Winter 2022

The Winter issue of EAGLE Times is out now. This edition contains a tribute to our late Queen Elizabeth II by David Britton, who also contributes the final instalment of his series about the Canadian Pacific Railway and the final part of his detailed examination of the Riders of the Range adventure Last of the Fighting Cheyenne. Also in this issue is EAGLE and the Changing Face of Christmas by Andrew Newman, The Day I Met Frank Hampson by John Liffen, another In and Out of the EAGLE by Jim Duckett, the final episode of my latest Archie Willoughby adventure and my short appraisal of the third Luck of the Legion novel Carry On Sergeant Luck. The issue also contains details of our next annual gathering, which will be held at York from April 11th - 13th. 

JOAN PORTER (1926 - 2022) A tribute to the late EAGLE artist by Steve Winders

Joan Porter (nee Humphries), the last surviving member of Frank Hampson's original team who worked on the creation of Dan Dare and several other strips for the EAGLE has died aged 96. Joan was employed as a colourist, photographer, researcher, secretary and costume maker. She was there at the beginning, from late 1949, when Frank and his team worked in the old Bakehouse in Churchtown, Southport and there at the end of his time on EAGLE, remaining with him in 1959 when he gave up the Dan Dare strip to assist him on his final strip for the paper, The Road of Courage, which ran in EAGLE until Easter 1961. An unassuming versatile lady with a fine sense of humour, I met her only once and then briefly, at the opening of the 1990 Dan Dare Exhibition in the Atkinson Arts Centre in Southport. However I did converse with her by e-mail when I was researching an article for EAGLE Times on Frank's back page strip The Great Adventurer and she was most helpful and enthusiastic, kindly providing me with many details of its production. In his quest for perfection, Frank used members of his team to pose in costume for photographs of scenes that could then be drawn more accurately and on The Great Adventurer, Joan made costumes, coloured pages, assisted with research and filed information garnered by the research. Her role in the production of the Dan Dare strip was the same. In the interests of accuracy and consistency, significant research was carried out and references for all aspects of the strip were kept and Joan organised and catalogued this. She also became the principal photographer. Her organisation was a key factor in the high quality and success of the strip. 

She will be greatly missed. Her passing marks the end of an era in the Dan Dare story.

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 33

Dan Dare encountered the 'Sargasso Sea of Space' in Reign of the Robots  and The Ship That Lived, but two years earlier in 1955, the American writer Alice Norton,under her pseudonym of 'Andrew North', wrote a novel which used the name, although not the idea. Dan Dare's Sargasso was a dead zone in space where damaged spaceships drifted and gathered. Norton's book features a planet from which a group of wreckers use sophisticated equipment to pull in ships, so that they can capture and loot them. The book was later reprinted and credited to Norton's more familiar 'nom de plume' of Andre Norton. Her book was not the first Sargasso of Space though. 

A 1931 novelette by Edmond Hamilton also used the title and in Hamilton's story the Sargasso is a dead zone in space full of wrecks of damaged ships. A ship commanded by a Captain Crain drifts into the zone when its fuel tanks leak and just like Dan Dare, Crain and his crew escape by taking fuel from another ship in the zone. It is quite possible that this story inspired the Sargasso incident in Reign of the Robots. Hamilton's story first appeared in the American Astounding Stories magazine which was imported into Britain and Australia before the War, so either Frank Hampson or the writer Alan Stranks (in Australia) might well have read it. The real Sargasso Sea is an area of the north western Atlantic where several currents meet and deposit marine plants and refuse. It is named after the Sargassum seaweed, which is found there in abundance. An old tradition of sailing ships becoming becalmed there is merely due to the calm winds of the Horse Latitudes. 

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 32

In 1982, the year that the new version of EAGLE was launched, a pop group called Loose Talk released a single called Dan Dare, about our hero. Written by band member Ray Walton, it was heavily promoted in EAGLE and was played on Radio One, where it was Tony Blackburn's Record of the Week. A video was made featuring the band wearing costumes previously used in the James Bond film Moonraker and the TV series Space 1999 and incorporating frames from the Return of the Mekon strip from EAGLE, drawn by Oliver Frey and Ian Kennedy, but it was not a hit. Although associated with Dan's Great Great Grandson as featured in the 1980s EAGLE, a reference in the  song to 'Satellite XQY' recalls the original Dan's adventure Prisoners of Space which Ray Walton had read when it was reprinted in EAGLE in 1967. 

The group followed the song up with one about 2000 A.D.'s  Judge Dredd. However I.P.C. Magazines were unhappy with some of the lyrics and placed a High Court Injunction on the record. I.P.C. lost the subsequent case and the record was eventually released. The phrase that particularly offended IP.C. was 'Judge Dredd, he's bad'. It was argued that 'bad' actually meant 'good' in the context of the song. 

Another song entitled Dan Dare was recorded by the Punk Rock group The Mekons in 1978 and featured on their debut album The Quality of Mercy is Not Strnen (not a misprint!). As the group's name indicates, they were fans of Dan Dare. Although they have undergone significant changes in personnel and musical styles over the years and ceased activity for a while, they still perform to this day, with their latest album being released in 2020. 

Back in 1975, Elton John released his own Dan Dare song, written by himself and Bernie Taupin, on his Rock of the Westies album. Elton wanted to release the song as the album's first single, but he was overruled and Island Girl was chosen instead. His Dan Dare was never released as a single, but it resurfaced in 2002 when it was used as the closing music for the computer generated Dan Dare TV series.  

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 31

The Web of Fear was a ten part Dan Dare adventure which began in EAGLE in the issue dated October 20th 1962. Written by David Motton and illustrated in black and white by Keith Watson, it featured an invasion of Earth by giant spider-like creatures which covered huge areas with dense destructive webs. Not one of Dan's most memorable adventures, it nevertheless had a memorable title, which was taken up six years later by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln for a six part Doctor Who serial, beginning on February 3rd 1968. 

Set principally in the London Underground, it did not feature spiders, but the Yeti creatures they had created for their Abominable Snowmen serial for Doctor Who some months earlier and which were controlled by a being that called itself 'The Great Intelligence'. The 'web' of the title referred to a deadly web-like fungus which engulfs much of London, necessitating a mass evacuation of the city. This story is regarded by many Doctor Who fans as a classic. It marks the first appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (then a mere Colonel) who would prove to be one of the Doctor's longest serving and most popular companions. The title was used again three years later, for an episode of another B.B.C. science fiction series - Doomwatch. This story was broadcast in February 8th 1971 and did include spiders. A vaccine experiment goes out of control and results in hundreds of spiders carrying a deadly virus. It was written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, who had also contributed stories for Doctor Who and would certainly have encountered the title when used on that programme. Whether they had encountered Dan Dare's Web of Fear is not known, but Kit Pedler had been a Dan Dare fan in his boyhood. 

In the interests of completion, there was also a Spanish/French contemporary thriller film called Web of Fear, directed by Francois Villiers in 1964, but clearly David Motton used the title first on Dan Dare.  

EAGLE TIMES Vol.35 No.3

 The Autumn issue of EAGLE Times is out now. Articles cover Dan Dare's lesser known rivals, girls in EAGLE, Luck of the Legion, the Canadian Pacific Railway and a report on our 2022 Gathering in Greenwich. There are also tributes to our late member, Adrian Perkins, who was greatly involved in Dan Dare fandom for over forty years, including being a key member of the EAGLE Times editorial team. There are two instalments of In and Out of the EAGLE, about the artist Fortunino Matania and the radio hero Dick Barton. A Letters' Page, the first episode of a new Sergeant Archie Berkeley-Willoughby adventure and the text of Steve Winders' talk at the Society's Gathering complete the issue. 

EAGLE TIMES Vol. 35 No. 2

 

The Summer edition of EAGLE Times is out now. It features an impressive cover by Alan Langford of Captain Condor, Dan Dare's rival from Lion weekly, who appears inside in an article by John Freeman. Also in this issue are the latest episodes of David Britton's study of the Riders of the Range adventure Last of the Fighting Cheyenne and his ongoing story of the Canadian Pacific Railway. There are the final parts of Steve Winders' examination of EAGLE's back page strip about David Livingstone and his Archie Willoughby story The Case of the Coveted Coffin and the first part of a new series by Steve about the Luck of the Legion novels. Dan Dare model figures are explored in an article by Gerald Edwards and there is a new In and Out of the EAGLE by me. A subscription to EAGLE Times costs £ 30 including postage in the U.K. and it can be ordered from Bob Corn at the address on the right.     

A LOOK AT LOOK-IN

 JIM DUCKETT EXAMINES THE POPULAR TELEVISION TIE IN MAGAZINE WHICH RAN FROM 1971 TO 1994.

In January 1971 a new weekly for young readers appeared on the news-stands. Described as the ‘Junior TV Times’, Look-In was published by Independent Television Publications, like its parent ITV listings magazine. It also carried two pages of listings of ITV programmes that should appeal to its target audience of 8 – 14 year olds. Originally edited by Alan Fennell, who had previously edited TV Century 21 during its most successful period, it was produced on glossy paper with eight of its twenty four in colour. Comic strips occupied just eight pages initially, with much of the publication devoted to features about television shows and their stars and other features such as sport, linked to TV programmes or their presenters. However there was a slight increase in the strip content as the weekly became established. The strips were almost all based on ITV programmes or TV personalities. In the earliest issues the main strip was Timeslip, from the children’s serial about time travel. This was illustrated by Mike Noble, whose first strip work was drawing Simon and Sally in EAGLE’s companion paper Robin. Mike later became an established adventure strip artist, drawing Fireball XL5 and Captain Scarlet for TV Century 21. Timeslip occupied two colour pages. Another early adventure strip was Freewheelers, drawn by Vicente Alcazar and later Jorge Badia, in black and white. Also in early issues were a two page black and white strip of Please Sir! a popular TV comedy series set in a school. This was drawn by Graham Allen, whose previous work included cartoon strips for several of Odhams’ Power Comics and Typhoon Tracy for Tiger. He would later draw some episodes of the Please Sir! spin off, The Fenn Street Gang. A historical strip adapted from a serial called Wreckers at Deadeye was drawn by C.L. Doughty who had replaced Robert Ayton as artist of Jack O’Lantern in EAGLE.

The free gift given in the first issue was a press out model of the Magpie TV studio. Magpie was ITV’s answer to BBC’s long running educational ‘magazine’ programme Blue Peter and originally it was planned to name the magazine after the programme, but having its own title freed Look-In to develop its own distinct style. It also outlived Magpie by nearly fourteen years, so the decision was undoubtedly the right one. The model included press our figures of Magpie’s presenters, one of whom was Susan Stranks, the daughter of PC 49’s creator, Alan. The early issues carried photo covers, but these were soon replaced by painted ones by the poster artist Arnaldo Putzu, which made Look-In instantly recognisable and visually appealing for the buyer seeing it on a news-stand.  

Many ITV programmes only ran for one or two series, so Look-In featured a lot of different strips during its twenty three year life. Mike Noble worked on the paper until the mid 1980s and in that time drew The Famous Five, Follyfoot, Worzel Gummidge, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Space 1999, Kung Fu, The Man from Atlantis and Robin of Sherwood, among others. Look-In also featured the work of many other talented artists. These included John Burns, who had illustrated Wrath of the Gods for Boys’ World and EAGLE in the mid sixties and The Fists of Danny Pike and a Dan Dare adventure for the new EAGLE in the 1980s. He drew Magnum, The Bionic Woman, Space 1999, The Tomorrow People, Smuggler and How the West Was Won. Brian Lewis, who had drawn Mann of Battle, The Guinea Pig and the humorous strip Blunderbirds for EAGLE, drew a humorous strip based on a character played by the comedian Les Dawson. He also drew the adventure strips Freewheelers and Mark Strong, a strip based on an action figure. Gerry Embleton, who drew a few Riders of the Range episodes in the original EAGLE and the early Dan Dare episodes in the new version, drew Catweazle for Look-In. Tom Kerr, who drew Oddball Oates in the combined Lion and EAGLE in 1969, drew Crowther in Trouble in early issues and later Doctor in Charge and The Fenn Street Gang. 

An artist who first came to prominence in Look-In was Arthur Ranson, who drew strips as diverse as the fantasy adventure Sapphire and Steel and the cartoon Dangermouse. He illustrated The ‘A’ Team and a series of biographical strips about popstars, including The Beatles and ABBA. Artists on Look-In tended to move around strips and Ranson also worked on Doctor in Charge, The Bionic Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century and Robin of Sherwood. John Bolton also drew The Bionic Woman and Martin Asbury also drew Buck Rogers and Kung Fu. Asbury contributed many strips to Look-In over the years, including Battlestar Galactica, Dick Turpin and The Six Million Dollar Man. Harry North illustrated On the Buses, Supergran and ALF (Alien Life Form),  Phil Gascoine drew Knight Rider and Robin of Sherwood and Bill Titcombe, who came to Look-In after years of experience on TV Comic, drew Inspector Gadget, Dogtanian, Scooby Doo and strips based on comedy characters played by Cannon and Ball and Benny Hill, although the Benny Hill strip was first drawn by Andy Christine. The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman teamed up in 1979 in a strip called Bionic Action, which was drawn by Ian Gibson, Ron Tiner, John Richardson and Mike White.   

Despite the limited number of strips in each issue, Look-In managed to include a great many different ones in its run. Other strips I have not mentioned include Pathfinders, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Bless This House, Man About the House, Just William, Mind Your Language, Terrahawks, Charlie’s Angels, The Fall Guy and Magnum P.I. There was also a fictional adventure strip about the actor and popstar David Cassidy!

Although Look-In employed many of the best strip artists available, most of the stories were written by one man. This was Angus P. Allan, the son of Carney Allan, who had written Mann of Battle for EAGLE. Angus had never written for EAGLE, but he wrote the New English Library’s 1977 novelisation of the very first Dan Dare adventure. His scripts for the Dangermouse strip were enjoyed so much by the TV cartoon’s makers that they were adapted for television and he wrote several new ones for television too. Angus had first worked with Alan Fennell on TV Century 21 in the mid sixties. Fennell left Look-In in 1975 and was replaced by art editor Colin Shelbourn. Geoff Cowan, the son of Edward Cowan the author of many strips for the sixties EAGLE, including Blackbow the Cheyenne and Cornelius Dimworthy, was chief sub editor on Look-In and wrote several comedy strips including the Benny Hill and Leslie Crowther pages. Finally Scott Goodall, who wrote Manix, Walk or Die and Invisible Boy for the 1980s EAGLE, wrote On the Buses. 

Due to licensing arrangements, Look-In commissioned an unusual number of unused strips. A proposed strip about the robot Metal Mickey never appeared because the character's creator objected to its depiction in Bill Titcombe's pilot episode. Subsequently plans for the strip were dropped, following continuing difficulties. Other unpublished pages exist, including a proposed colour opening episode for The New Avengers and this series never appeared as a strip in Look In. Initially only two episodes of a strip about the American Police series CHIPS appeared in the weekly (in 1979) because a licensing agreement broke down. However an agreement was eventually reached two years later and a CHIPS strip then ran for nearly two years. 

In September 1972 Look-In introduced a four page ‘Pop Pullout’ and subsequently much more emphasis was placed on popstars, particularly those who appealed to young teenage girls. This proved popular with its target audience and kept sales high, but was less appreciated by the male readership, as evidenced by comments from its former and now adult readers, such as comic artist Lew Stringer, who wrote an interesting Comics Blog called Blimey! for several years. He wrote “Look-In had always been aimed at both sexes but now it felt like it was turning into Jackie.” Comics enthusiast Norman Boyd replied on Lew’s blog: “I too had the first couple of years and gradually got cheesed off with the Donny Osmond type stuff.” However the strip content was maintained and despite losing some male readers, it clearly gained some female ones. 

Over the years, Look-In included some excellent informative features which would not have been out of place in EAGLE.  A good example is Survival, which took its name from a television show that explored wildlife under threat. There were also science articles, written by Peter Fairlie, who was the Science editor for Independent Television News. World of Sport and On the Ball, named after the ITV sports programmes, featured articles by Brian Moore, the ITV sports commentator and various sports personalities. The disc jockey and children’s TV presenter, Ed Stewart wrote a regular page for the magazine from the first issue until 1980. This took several forms, including a news page and articles about his work in radio. How? was named after the TV show which explained in clear terms how things work and the magician David Nixon showed readers how to perform simple tricks.

Like Fennell’s earlier weekly, TV Century 21, Look-In was undoubtedly influenced by the early EAGLE. On TV Century 21 he had engaged some of EAGLE’s best former artists to produce a high quality weekly of EAGLE’s size, with eight pages in colour and printed in photogravure by Eric Bemrose, EAGLE’s printer. The front page was presented as a future newspaper, using an idea which had also originated in EAGLE, on the Dan Dare strip. In Look-In, high quality printing was first provided by Southernprint of Poole in Dorset and later by Carlisle Web Offset. Fennell also included a lot of well written educational and informative features, along with high quality strips and he wrote signed editorials to his readers, just as EAGLE’s Marcus Morris and Clifford Makins had done. 

I believe that in its turn Look-In influenced the 1980s EAGLE. In his book Comic Strip Hero, Barrie Tomlinson, the new EAGLE’s originator and group editor, wrote that one of the aspects of the old EAGLE that he was keen to include in the new version was the involvement of well know personalities to write for the weekly. While some famous people had made contributions to the original EAGLE, notably on the sports pages, the involvement of personalities was much greater in Look- In. Barrie Tomlinson recruited the disc jockey and children’s TV presenter Mike Read to write for EAGLE, just as Look-In had employed Ed Stewart. He also praised the way that the original EAGLE engaged with readers through the Editor’s letter and clubs, competitions and offers. Accepting that the first EAGLE was his inspiration, he must have been greatly encouraged to say the least by the fact that a contemporary magazine whose editor also engaged with the readership and provided a blend of strips, features and competitions had proved such a success.

Look-In was a major success at a time when comics sales were in steady decline. Launched twenty months after the original EAGLE was absorbed into Lion, it continued for the next twelve years when there was no EAGLE and then lasted throughout the life of the new EAGLE, outliving it by two months. None of the I.P.C. comics which already existed when Look-In was launched were still running when it closed. Sales were undoubtedly stimulated by its strong links to television, but there were several other weeklies devoted to television over the years and only TV Comic, which began at a much healthier time for comics (in 1951) ran for longer, but it folded a decade before Look-In.

Clear indications of Look-In’s quality are the three Facebook groups devoted to the magazine, the two books published about it and the prices it sells for on Amazon and e-bay. Like EAGLE it is fondly remembered.

 

  

THE GORDON AND GOTCH STORY

 JOE HOOLE EXAMINES THE REMARKABLE STORY OF EAGLE'S PRINCIPAL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR.  

Their name appears in every single issue of Eagle, Girl, Swift, Robin and Boys’ World and in every issue of the 1980s Eagle and countless other British comics and magazines, although most readers probably never saw it. Along with the title and Dan Dare, Gordon and Gotch and the Central News Agency of South Africa are the only other constant names in the two versions of Eagle. Gordon and Gotch appeared at the bottom of a page in the publisher’s details as the ‘sole agents for Australia and New Zealand’ and the Central News Agency as agents for South Africa. These two companies were independent of each other, but had worked closely together since 1904 when they reached an agreement that Gordon and Gotch would become sole agents for C.N.A. in Britain while their branches in the Cape and Natal would be taken over by C.N.A. 

Born in Kettering Northamptonshire in 1829, John Speechly Gotch was a dentist, who sailed from Liverpool to seek his fortune in the U.S.A. in 1849. While in New York to learn about the manufacture of false teeth he heard about the discovery of gold in Victoria and in 1853 he sailed on the clipper Peytona, bound for Australia. However the ship was wrecked off the coast of Mauritius and Gotch escaped with only his nightshirt on his back and penniless. He worked as a dentist in Mauritius for eleven weeks to earn enough money for his passage to Melbourne and on arrival he made for Fryer Creek near Castlemaine where the latest gold strike had been reported. The above painting from 1855 by Edwin Stocqueler shows gold digging in Australia. Unfortunately all Gotch found was a small nugget worth about £3 before he ran out of money and provisions. He also injured his foot with a pick. He returned to Melbourne on the back of a teamster’s wagon, because he could hardly walk and he was almost penniless again – he actually had tuppence ha’penny left. There he met a Scotsman called Alexander Gordon who ran a market stall which sold newspapers and was also an advertising agent for the Melbourne Argus. He initially offered John a job selling papers and organising advertisers, but Gotch proved so adept that a few weeks later Gordon offered him a partnership which depended on his ability to sell as many newspapers in the diggings as Gordon sold on his stall. Both men flourished and the partnership was duly established. It was suggested that they should have an agreement drawn up by a lawyer, to which Gordon responded “If we are honest men we do not need a lawyer; and if we are dishonest, no lawyer can make us honest.”

Although at this time two principal newspapers were published in Melbourne, imported British publications like The Illustrated London News, Home News and Lloyds were more popular as colonists were eager for news of home. Consequently there was great competition among newsagents to acquire the most recent editions and the arrival of a ship was always eagerly anticipated in the town. When a ship was arriving it would send a semaphore signal to a lookout station on the coast. A messenger then hurried to a hill known as Flagstaff Gardens and hoisted a flag which indicated the ship’s departure point. When Gotch saw the red and white flag which indicated that a vessel was arriving from London, he would hurry by hansom cab to the port ready to collect his parcels and race his rivals back to town. The new firm was able to move from their market stall to permanent offices in 1856 and when Gordon sold his interest in the company to Gotch in 1859 to return to Scotland, the firm was pre-eminent in Melbourne as news and advertising agents and as distributors of newspapers and periodicals from Britain. In 1860 John’s brother William joined the business and the following year his brother in law Alfred Jones also joined. Branches were opened in Sydney in 1861, London in 1867 and Brisbane in 1875. Each involved a partnership in which John held at least a half share and was directly involved in their management. In 1874 John travelled to London personally to tackle a crisis created by a defaulting clerk. 

The branches were not uniform in their activities, which ranged from the import and distribution of newspapers, printing supplies and stationery, printing and publishing of books such as The Australian Handbook, advertising and a press telegraph service. Well before the turn of the century, the London Office extended its work to general exports and the Australian Offices extended to the importing of such items as machinery and pianos. New branches were opened in Perth in 1894 and Wellington in New Zealand in 1899. John died in September 1901, but a small group of his relatives continued to exercise a considerable degree of control. The Company thrived, extending operations to the U.S.A. and Canada. American publications began to be imported, but the Company always imported significantly more British ones. Despite the problems created by two World Wars, which included the London Office being bombed in the Blitz and imports of publications to Australasia being restricted in favour of more vital supplies, the Company managed to survive and when Eagle began in 1950, Gordon and Gotch were the agents for most British publishers in Australia and New Zealand. Consequently when Eagle’s publishers changed, their agents in Australasia remained the same. The success of Eagle in Britain and Australia led to the creation of an Australian version, which ran from 1953 to 1955 by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper, under licence from Hulton Press. Printed on cheap newsprint and with less colour than the British original, it ran for eighty six issues, but like many Australian based children’s weeklies of the time, it struggled because the market was not large enough. It also competed with the imported original. In the final issue, the editor John Collins assured readers that arrangements had been made for more copies of the British version to be available from newsagents all over Australia and indeed Gordon and Gotch rose to the occasion and more copies were imported to meet demand.

 The Company was still operating when the new Eagle was launched in 1982 and were again listed as sole agents for Australia and New Zealand. Although the Company is now part of PMP Limited, it still operates as Gordon and Gotch in Australasia. In Britain, the Gordon and Gotch name survives as Gordon and Gotch Publishing following a management buyout from Rupert Murdoch’s ownership in 1992. They produce a wide range of software for publishers. So the name of Gordon and Gotch lives on and if yet another version of Eagle ever appears, it is quite possible that once again Gordon and Gotch may be ‘sole agents for Australia and New Zealand’.                     

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 30

In 1986, twenty one years before Virgin Comics launched their seven part series of Dan Dare comics by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine, Virgin Games created a Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future video game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 home computer systems, with the Commodore 64 version being significantly different in gameplay from the other two, although based on the same premise. Virgin's interest in Dan Dare comes from the company's founder Richard Branson, who was an EAGLE reader in his boyhood and is a keen Dan Dare fan. In the game, the Mekon threatens to destroy the Earth with a huge hollowed out asteroid unless our leaders submit to his terms. Dan and Digby journey to the asteroid in Anastasia and realise it is inhabited when they see artificially built structures there. Dan enters the asteroid to fight the Mekon and his Treen followers and to face a number of tasks. In the Spectrum and Amstrad versions he is armed with a laser gun and has to pass through levels collecting five pieces of an explosive device, with each piece enabling him to move on to the next. Dangers include armed Treens and floor and wall guns. If he is shot, Dan loses energy and if that reaches zero, he is captured and put in a cell. Although he then escapes, the cell is some distance from the key parts of the complex and this causes a time loss. If Dan runs out of time before he can assemble the five parts, then the Mekon wins.

Dan is unarmed in the Commodore 64 version. He has to combat his Treen assailants with his fists. Accompanied by Stripey, Digby's pet, he must first travel through the asteroid's surface and subterranean lakes, solving various puzzles and collecting items that will allow him to enter the Mekon's base. Here he must fight Treen guards and free a captured Digby and Professor Peabody before destroying three computers with a giant laser. Finally he fights the Mekon in a grenade battle and on defeating him, he has two minutes to return to his ship, the Anastasia before the base explodes. This version of the game takes place in half an hour of real time.  

Both versions of the game proved highly popular and were praised for their graphics and the challenges they posed for players. In 1986, Dan Dare's adventures were appearing weekly in the new version of EAGLE, although their hero was the great great grandson of the original, so the character was familiar to young gamers. The success of the game, which reached number two in the U.K. sales chart spawned two sequels, Dan Dare II - The Mekon's Revenge and Dan Dare III - The Escape, but these were not as well received, with reviewers widely considering them to be no improvement on the original.         

EAGLE TIMES VOL.35 No.1

The first EAGLE Times of the new year is out now and now is the best time to subscribe for the four issues of 2022. The subscription remains at £30 and should be sent to Bob Corn at the address on the right. In this issue are articles about the back page strip The Great Explorer (David Livingstone), the Riders of the Range adventure Last of the Fighting Cheyenne, a Frank Hampson Studio feature about the Dan Dare story Rogue Planet, a look at the life of Roy Romaine, who was featured as one of EAGLE's Sporting Heroes, a short article about the EAGLE Club album Famous Men of Today and a feature about the Canadian Pacific Railway. Our former editor Will Grenham also reports on an interesting discovery of a short story published in EAGLE in 1950, which proved to be copied by its 'author' almost word for word from a story by Captain W.E. Johns. Finally there is part one of Steve Winders' new Archie Willoughby story, The Case of the Coveted Coffin, which isn't copied from anyone!   

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 29

Only a small number of artists and a single writer worked on both the original EAGLE and the 1980s revival. This was principally because of the thirteen year gap between the end of the original and the start of the new version. The writer was Tom Tully, who wrote Heros the Spartan for the original between 1962 and 1966 and some Guinea Pig stories. He   wrote Thunderbolt and Smokey, Robo Machines, The Avenger, the later adventures of Dan Dare's great great grandson and subsequently the adventures of the original Dan for the 1980s EAGLE.

The work of three of the artists was featured in the very first edition of the 1980s version, despite the fact that there were only two illustrated strips and one that was partly illustrated as the others were photo strips. Gerry Embleton illustrated the Dan Dare strip, having illustrated a few episodes of the Riders of the Range adventure Last of the Fighting Cheyenne in the original in 1961. He also illustrated a four page strip about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police called The Royal Riders for the EAGLE Annual 1963. The second artist whose work appeared in the first issue was Jose Ortiz, who drew The Tower King. He had illustrated most of the U.F.O. Agent / Smokeman saga for the original EAGLE from 1966 - 1968 and then Sky Buccaneers, the strip which replaced it. For the 1980s EAGLE he also drew The House of Daemon, The Fifth Horseman, News Team, The Thirteenth Floor (initially in Scream but then for 130 episodes in EAGLE), Survival, Kid Cops and Kitten Magee (initially in Wildcat but then in EAGLE). The final artist was the veteran Ron Smith who drew part of The Collector, a photo strip which included some illustrated aliens! These were drawn by Smith, who later drew MASK and Wildcat for those comics which were subsequently absorbed into EAGLE and he continued to draw some of those strips for EAGLE. He also drew a single page feature Max's Fly Game for the EAGLE Annual 1987. His contribution to the original EAGLE was a series of half page strips about Sporting Personalities which appeared right back in 1950! He signed his work on this strip as 'Ross' and I am grateful to Richard Sheaf and David Slinn, who identified him as artist.

The prolific artist John M. Burns illustrated Wrath of the Gods for Boys' World and then for its final six episodes in the original EAGLE when the two papers combined. He also drew a few non fiction strips for the original, including several instalments of Bids for Freedom. For the 1980s EAGLE he drew The Fists of Danny Pike, Dolebusters and a single Dan Dare adventure. Luis Bermejo, who illustrated a Mann of Battle story in 1962 and several Heros the Spartan adventures between 1963 and 1966 for the original EAGLE, alternating with Frank Bellamy before taking over the strip, also drew two episodes of U.F.O. Agent in 1966. He later took over the News Team strip from Jose Ortiz after the first seven episodes, in the 1980s EAGLE. With Vicente Alcazar, Carlos Pino illustrated the final Guinea Pig story in EAGLE in 1969. Later he drew the second series of Bloodfang for the 1980s EAGLE and also some MASK strips, when EAGLE absorbed the MASK comic. 

Although he did not contribute to the original EAGLE weekly, Wilf Hardy drew covers for The EAGLE Book of Modern Wonders, published in 1958 and The EAGLE Book of Cars and Motor Sport, published in 1963, before illustrating Data Files, which were the equivalent of the old Cutaway Drawings in the early issues of the 1980s weekly. Jim Baikie drew the Dan Dare strip in the 1974 EAGLE Annual and illustrated the first series of Bloodfang which ran from issue 116 to 127 in the 1980s EAGLE.

When the original Dan Dare was revived for the 1980s EAGLE in 1989, Keith Watson, one of the original Dare artists from the 1950s and 60s EAGLE was employed to bring him back. He drew two full adventures and the first episode of a third. He had been employed as a member of Frank Hampson's team producing the Dan Dare strip from the mid fifties, before taking over the strip himself from 1962 until 1967. Another member of Frank Hampson's team, Don Harley, who joined in 1951, remained with the strip to assist Frank Bellamy when Hampson left in 1959 and took over the strip himself a year later, working with Bruce Cornwell until 1962. Although he did not produce any artwork for the 1980s EAGLE weekly, he illustrated a Dan Dare strip for the 1991 Dan Dare Annual. 

Finally, Ian Kennedy, who illustrated the Dan Dare strip in the 1980s EAGLE from 1982 - 1985 and later drew MASK and Wildcat strips when those comics were absorbed by EAGLE in 1988 and 1989 respectively, did not work on the original EAGLE weekly, but produced 'drop in' pictures for a text feature Quick on the Draw' for EAGLE Annual Number 5, produced in 1955. He was credited as Charles I. Kennedy for this work.  

THE 1980S EAGLE IS 40

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the 1980s EAGLE, which was launched on March 20th 1982. Featuring the adventures of Dan Dare's great great grandson in strips illustrated by Gerry Embleton, Oliver Frey, Ian Kennedy, Carlos Cruz, John Gillatt and Manuel Carmona, it also included several photo strips in its first year, notably Doomlord, about an alien sent to judge humanity's right to exist. Unfortunately he judges us unfit, but is killed in an act of self sacrifice by the hero. A later Doomlord judges humanity favourably and becomes mankind's protector. Other strips included Sergeant Streetwise,about an undercover police officer and Manix, about an android working for British Intelligence. In a mostly successful effort to capture the spirit of the original EAGLE, it ran several features, such as a sports page and cutaway drawings of planes, tanks and other vehicles. From issue 79 the photo strips were wholly replaced by illustrated ones, with Doomlord, illustrated by Heinzl and then Eric Bradbury, continuing to be popular with readers. A later popular strip was Computer Warrior, in which a young boy was absorbed into his computer and forced to play computer games for real. Over the years EAGLE featured a wide range of strips. It ran school based stories, war stories, supernatural stories, sports based stories, superhero stories and even a western 

EAGLE ran until 1994, absorbing several other comics during its life. It absorbed Scream in 1984, Tiger in 1985, Battle in 1988, Mask in 1988 and Wildcat in 1989. 

(The picture above shows artists' agent Tony Kelleher as Dan Dare and the wrestler 'Big Daddy' with Pip Warwick's ceramic sculpture of the Mekon at the press launch of the 1980s EAGLE at the Waldorf Hotel on March 17th 1982)

In 1989 Dan Dare's great great grandson's adventures were replaced with new stories of the original Dan. Keith Watson, who had illustrated the strip in the original EAGLE, drew two stories and part of a third, which was completed by Andrew Skilleter. Keith Page, John Ridgway and John M. Burns also illustrated new Dan Dare strips before David Pugh took over as artist, with some stories drawn by Jon Haward.

By the late 1980s, the heyday of British comics was well and truly over, as young readers embraced computer games. The number of other comics that were merged into EAGLE reflects this decline. In May 1991 EAGLE changed from weekly to monthly and apart from new adventures of Dan Dare and Computer Warrior, was mainly filled with repeats of popular strips. These included Charley's War, the celebrated First World War strip which had come from Battle weekly when it merged with EAGLE. Finally in January 1994, EAGLE's last issue appeared and the decline in sales of comics is made clear by the fact that there was no similar publication for it to merge into. Apart from 2000 A.D. which by then was aimed at a much older audience, EAGLE was the last survivor.

Writers who worked on the 1980s version included Pat Mills, John Wagner, Tom Tully, Alan Grant, Alan Hebden, Fred Baker, Scott Goodall, Gerry Finley-Day and Barrie Tomlinson. Contributing artists not mentioned earlier included Rex Archer, Mike Western, Robin Smith, Sandy James, John Cooper, Carlos Ezquerra, Jose Ortiz, Luis Bermejo, Mike Dorey and Mike White. The 1980s EAGLE is fondly remembered today by its readership and celebrated by several Facebook groups and a regular podcast called Where EAGLES Dare, run by Dave Ronayne and Pete Adamson. There was also an excellent fanzine, EAGLE Flies Again produced by Ian Wheeler in the early years of this century.