EAGLE TIMES Vol.36 No.2 SUMMER 2023

The Summer issue of EAGLE Times has arrived early. It features a report on this year's EAGLE Society Gathering in York, by Reg  Hoare, an article on 'Spaceships -  from Buck Rogers 1928 to Dan Dare 1950' by David Britton and the final part of David's long running series 'Charles Chilton and the Indian Wars'. There are two pieces by Steve Winders about EAGLE's back page biographies in this issue. The first is the final part of  'The Baden Powell Story', about the founder of the Scouting Movement and the second is Part One of 'The Great Charlemagne', about the famous Frankish Emperor. The issue also includes Steve's article about the short lived 1958 - '59 strip 'Cavendish Brown' and the text of his speech 'Infinite Possibilities', given at the York Gathering. Finally, there is the  second and final part of 'the Archie Berkeley-Willoughby adventure 'The Case of the Providential Puncture'. Copies are available from Bob Corn at the address on the right.

The latest issue is reviewed on the Down The Tubes site: 

 https://downthetubes.net/latest-eagle-times-explores.../

EAGLE TIMES VOL. 36 NO. 1 SPRING 2023

The first EAGLE Times of 2023 is out now. Issues can be ordered from Bob Corn at the address on the right and a four issue subscription is just £30. The lead article by Eric Summers was inspired by a readers' book review featured in EAGLE in 1952. Readers had been invited to review their favourite books and eight were chosen for publication. Eric read all these books and reviewed them himself for EAGLE Times. This edition continues with a tribute to the late Joan Porter, who was the last surviving member of Frank Hampson's team, written by Darren Evans. Steve Winders reviews the fourth Luck of the Legion novel, Sergeant Luck's Secret Mission and David Britton continues his long running feature on The Indian Wars as they were covered in Riders of the Range. Two of David's short Tail Pieces are also included in this issue, focussing on Captain Future, an American space hero of the 1940s and the 'Last Three of Venus', the mysterious 'Mekonlike' beings who appeared in Dan Dare. The Spring issue also features the first part of Steve Winders' latest Archie Willoughby adventure The Case of the Providential Puncture and a new front cover illustration by Carol Tarrant of Archie in his original incarnation as PC 49 alongside his latest role as a Detective Sergeant references the story. An In and Out of the EAGLE by myself, covers the several 'Mekons' in popular music. Steve Winders then continues his examination of the back page biographical strips with the first of a two part look at Baden Powell. Peter Barr then looks at the life of Freddie Mills, the boxer, who featured regularly in the early EAGLE. A short piece by David Britton looks at an image from The Man From Nowhere and provides a new version of it by Berislav Krzic, with the EAGLE masthead and the speech bubbles removed. Finally the issue ends with a Letters page. 

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 40

In 2002 the B.B.C. held a poll among viewers to find the One Hundred Greatest Britons. While polls give different results every time they are taken, it is interesting to note how the 2002 poll compared with the great Britons who featured on the back page of EAGLE in the 1950s. Top of the poll was Winston Churchill, who appeared on the back page in The Happy Warrior in 1957 - 58. Also in the top ten was Horatio Nelson at number nine, whose story was told in The Great Sailor in 1956 - 57. At number thirteen was Baden Powell, the founder of the Scouting Movement, who appeared on the back page in 1954 and at number fourteen was King Alfred the Great, featured in 1953 - 54. We then have to wait until number eighty eight and Bernard Law Montgomery, the Second World War General whose story was actually featured on EAGLE's centre pages in 1962 and was the last of EAGLE's serialised biographies. At number ninety three was the Elizabethan hero Walter Raleigh, featured in The Golden Man on the back page in 1961 and finally at number ninety eight was David Livingstone, the Victorian missionary and explorer, who featured on EAGLE's back page in 1957. Many of the back page heroes weren't British, so obviously didn't qualify for the poll, but there were two back page Britons who didn't make the hundred. These were St. Patrick, featured in EAGLE in 1951, who some people don't realise was British and Wilfred Grenfell, the Labrador doctor and missionary, featured in 1952 - 53, who is less well remembered in Britain today than he was in the 1950s. 

The B.B.C. top ten also included Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2), Diana, Princess of Wales (3), Charles Darwin (4), William Shakespeare (5), Isaac Newton (6), Queen Elizabeth I (7), John Lennon (8) and Oliver Cromwell (10). Princess Diana wasn't born when most of the back pagers appeared in EAGLE and John Lennon was not quite ten years old when EAGLE was launched.