IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 9

A significant contributor to both Eagle and Girl was George Cansdale, the zoologist, writer and TV presenter who wrote half page strips about wildlife for seven years for Eagle, which included series called Around the Countryside, British Birds, Prehistoric Animals, Our Pets and Nature Had It First. Impressively ilustrated by Backhouse, Tom Adams and George Bowe, these informative strips promoted readers’ interest in animals and the natural world. But George’s involvement in ‘education without force’was not confined to Eagle and Girl. He wrote several successful Ladybird books, notably The Ladybird Book of Pets and British Wild Animals. From the early 1950s he featured in several wildlife series on television and made regular appearances on Children’s Hour on the radio. After Eagle, he was a frequent guest on Blue Peter on television through the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.    

               

Geoffrey Bond wrote six Luck of the Legion novels in the fifties and sixties and two were translated into French. These were Les Tigres de Chai-Fang (Sergeant Luck Takes Over) in 1968 and La Garnison Fantome (Carry On Sergeant Luck) in 1969. They were published by Alsatia with cover illustrations by Pierre Joubert. Sergeant Luck was created for Eagle and his adventures ran from 1952 to 1961 and occupied the lower part of the centre spread, below the 'Cutaway' drawings. The strip was illustrated by Martin Aitchison.  

Martin Aitchison (1919-2016)

The well-known and respected Eagle and Ladybird Books artist, Martin Aitchison, died peacefully on 22 October 2016 at the age of 96. He had a full life, remaining fit and well until 6 months before his death. He will be best, and most fondly, remembered by Eagle readers as the artist who drew the strip 'Luck of the Legion' from 1952 until 1961.

Born in Birmingham in 1919, after an early education at Ellesmere College in Shropshire, he attended Birmingham School of Art and the Slade School of Art. During World War II he enrolled with Vickers Aircraft at Weybridge, Surrey, as a technical illustrator and afterwards he became a free-lance commercial artist. 

His first published work was for Hulton Press' Lilliput. This was followed by work for Girl, when he was called upon to fill in for artist Ray Bailey on two pages of 'Kitty Hawk', and to draw 'Flick - and the Vanishing New Girl' for Girl Annual No 1. 

He became one of Eagle's major non-'Dan Dare' artists. For nine years he produced weekly strip artwork for 'Luck of the Legion', which was scripted by Geoffrey Bond. 'Luck of the Legion' was one of the few strips in Eagle that had the same artist throughout its run. He also drew for Swift and Swift Annual. When 'Luck' was dropped from Eagle, Martin drew a further three strips for Eagle, plus one for Eagle Annual, before leaving in 1963 to work for Ladybird Books. He became one of their principal artists and produced artwork for around 70 titles, until 1990. 

For members of the Eagle Society, their first acquaintance with the man, rather than his work, was when in 1996, Martin attended an Eagle Society Annual Dinner at Sparsholt, as Guest of Honour.

From 1998, although "retired", he teamed again with writer Geoffrey Bond and drew 'Justin Tyme - Ye Hapless Highwayman', a humorous strip, which ran for over 5 years in Eagle Times.

There is a list of Martin's Eagle work and references on our earlier blogpost: Eagle Artists - Martin Aitchison (from which some of this post has drawn).

Eagle Artists - Martin Aitchison

Martin Aitchison (1919 - ) was born in Birmingham. After early education at Ellesmere College in Shropshire, he attended Birmingham School of Art and the Slade School of Art. During World War II he enrolled with Vickers Aircraft at Weybridge, Surrey, as a technical illustrator and afterwards he became a free-lance commercial artist. His first published work was for Hulton Press' Lilliput. This was followed by work for Girl, when he was called upon to fill in for artist Ray Bailey on two pages of 'Kitty Hawk', and to draw 'Flick - and the Vanishing New Girl' for Girl Annual No 1. He became one of Eagle's major non-'Dan Dare' artists. For nine years (1952 - 1961) he produced weekly strip artwork for 'Luck of the Legion', which was scripted by Geoffrey Bond. He also drew for Swift and Swift Annual. When 'Luck' was dropped, Martin drew a further three strips for Eagle, plus one for Eagle Annual, before leaving in 1963 to work for Ladybird Books, becoming one of their principal artists and producing artwork for around 70 titles, until 1990. He is now retired although, from 1998, teamed again with writer Geoffrey Bond, he drew 'Justin Tyme - Ye Hapless Highwayman', which ran for over 5 years in Eagle Times.

The picture shows Martin as an honoured guest of the Eagle Society at Sparsholt, in 1996.

Eagle strips:

• Luck of the Legion (Vol 3 No 5 – Vol 12 No 37)
• Danger Unlimited (Vol 12 No 33 – Vol 13 No 9)
• The Lost World (Vol 13 No 10 – Vol 13 No 29)
  
• Hornblower R. N. (Vol 13 No 28 – Vol 14 No 9)
  

Eagle Annual strips:

• Luck of the Legion Eagle Annual No 3 – No 10 [1961]
  
• Warrrior with Tin Legs Eagle Annual No 11 [1962]

Eagle Times strip:

• Justin Tyme - Ye Hapless Highwayman Eagle Times Vol 11 No 4 (Winter 1998) - Vol 17 No 1 (Spring 2004)

Links:

• Martin Aitchison’s own site
• Wikipedia's biography of Martin Aitchison
• Martin Aitchison Artwork on Nicholas Hill's site
• Martin Aitchison information on Nicholas Hill's other site
  
• Lambiek's artist information on Martin Aitchison

ET Refs:

• Aitchison, Martin. My Story – part 1. Eagle Times Vol 16 No 2 p p 4 – 9.
• Aitchison, Martin. My Story – part 2. Eagle Times Vol 16 No 3 pp 14 – 18.
• Rudling, Bill. Martin Aitchison in conversation. Eagle Times Vol 4 No 3 pp 9 - 12
• Rudling, Bill. Martin Aitchison in conversation. Eagle Times Vol 6 No 4 pp 4 - 5.