HAPPY BIRTHDAY EAGLE - SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OLD

It is now seventy five years since EAGLE was launched, on April 14th 1950. A huge success for its first decade, it ran until 1969, when it was absorbed by its rival paper Lion. Created by the Rev. Marcus Morris, a Southport Vicar, its early success was primarily due to the work of artist Frank Hampson and his creation 'Dan Dare Pilot of the Future'. The popularity of Dan Dare cannot be overstated. The strip made science fiction acceptable and respectable at a time when many older people dismissed it as ridiculous and EAGLE was read by a lot of older people as well as its principal audience of 7 - 16 year olds. It also promoted interest in outer space and the possibility and credibility of space travel. Stephen Hawking cited 'Dan Dare' as the reason he became a Cosmologist. EAGLE also made comics acceptable to many adults, although it would never admit to being a comic! The fact that the editor was a Vicar and that EAGLE promoted a 'muscular Christianity' in its pages brought parents and teachers onside. The early issues of EAGLE also included the popular radio character 'PC 49', written by Alan Stranks. Initially drawn by Strom Gould it was illustrated for most of its seven year run by John Worsley. There were three other strips by Hampson in the first issue: 'Rob Conway', 'Tommy Walls', an advertising strip for Walls Ice Cream and the life of St. Paul, but he quickly passed these on to other hands to enable him to focus on the runaway success of 'Dan Dare'. 'Captain Pugwash' by John Ryan also made his first ever appearance in the first EAGLE. The centre pages featured 'cutaway drawings' of aircraft, cars, ships and other technological marvels. The most prolific 'cutaway' artist was Leslie Ashwell Wood. The 'cutaways' would run for the entire life of  EAGLE and Ashwell Wood illustrated the first and the last. The early issues also included an informative science strip called 'Professor Brittain Explains' and a regular sports page, which featured contributions from well known sportsmen. Over the next few years, other popular strips joined 'Dan Dare'. 'Riders of the Range' was by Charles Chilton and was based on his radio series about cowboys in the American west, This strip began in the Christmas issue in 1950 and was originally illustrated by Jack Daniel and then by Angus Scott, before Frank Humphris took over in 1952. The strip ran until 1962. 'Luck of the Legion' (1952 - 61) was written by Geoffrey Bond and illustrated by Martin Aitchison, 'Jack O' Lantern' (1955 - 59) told the adventures of a boy in the early nineteenth century and was written by George Beardmore, with illustrations by Robert Ayton. 'Storm Nelson - Sea Adventurer' (1953 - 1962) was written by Guy Morgan and drawn by Richard Jennings and 'Harris Tweed Extra Special Agent' (1950 - 62) by John Ryan, replaced his 'Captain Pugwash' who went on to greater success in books and on television. Another comedy strip was the three frame weekly 'short' 'Chicko' (1950 - 62) by Norman Thelwell. The famous Belgian cartoon hero Tintin also made his first ever appearance in English in EAGLE (1951 - 52). The back featured biographies of saints and famous Britons, including Saint Patrick, Saint Louis of France, Alfred the Great, Lord Nelson, David Livingstone and Baden Powell, illustrated by Norman Williams. Many of these biographies were written by the Rev. Chad Varah, who founded the Samaritans. Later, Frank Bellamy illustrated the life of Winston Churchill and King David for the back page, before taking over the 'Dan Dare' strip for a year and subsequently drawing 'Fraser of Africa' (1960 - 61), the life of Field Marshal Montgomery (1962) and finally the celebrated 'Heros the Spartan' strip in the early 1960s. In 1960 - 61, Frank Hampson illustrated the story of Christ for the back page. Sadly, this was his last major work for EAGLE.  

EAGLE featured more than strip cartoons. It had its own 'Special Investigator', Macdonald Hastings, who wrote articles on a wide range of subjects and even performed several dangerous feats to amuse the readers. George Cansdale wrote many half page strips about wildlife and Anthony Buckeridge created Rex Milligan's prose adventures for EAGLE, which would later serialise some of his 'Jennings' stories. Peter Ling wrote school based stories about 'The Three 'J's' before creating Crossroads and writing a Doctor Who adventure for television. EAGLE engaged well with readers. It featured reader's letters and organised competitions. Douglas Adams' first published work was a poem he sent to EAGLE and Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney won prizes in an art competition. EAGLE encouraged acts of charity, selflessness and consideration for others with monthly awards for nominated readers. It ran its own club for readers, arranged trips to sports matches, Adventure Holidays with the Y.H.A. and an annual national Table Tennis competition, along with its companion weekly 'Girl'. Each year readers voted for their 'Sportsman of the Year'. Every Christmas EAGLE invited readers to Carol Services, held around the country and usually led by Marcus Morris. It produced many books on a range of interests in addition to its annuals and even published novels about several of its characters. Its popularity gave rise to a great deal of licensed merchandise with everything from toys to clothing based on its most popular heroes. It even had its own weekly radio programme. There was also a daily Dan Dare radio serial, which ran for five years on Radio Luxembourg. In the 1950s it was not so much a comic, more a way of life. 

EAGLE fell into decline in the 1960s. Its steady downfall was primarily due to changes of publisher and cuts to its budget. It dropped all its reader activities, except the 'Readers' Letters' page and the Y.H.A. Holidays. Marcus Morris left in 1959 and his successor Clifford Makins left in 1961. A new editor, Bob Bartholomew arrived in late 1962 and managed to make improvements, but the downhill slide in sales was impossible to stop. Nevertheless, there were still shining moments. In addition to 'Heros the Spartan' (1962 - 1966), which was written by Tom Tully, there was 'Blackbow the Cheyenne', written by Edward Cowan and drawn by Frank Humphris, which joined EAGLE when it absorbed Swift in 1963 and ran until 1969. There was also 'The Iron Man' by Ken Mennell and others, which joined in 1964 when Boys' World was absorbed and ran until 1969. It was illustrated by Martin Salvador and later by Miguel Quesada. 'The Guinea Pig', (1965 - 1969) was written by various hands and drawn by Colin Andrew, Brian Lewis and finally by Gerald Haylock.  'Dan Dare' continued with stories by David Motton and art by Keith Watson. The 1960s EAGLE also featured some new informative features, including 'The Futurescope' which began in 1967 and speculated about life in the future. It was written by Dr. Lyall Watson, who would later write the bestselling book Supernature.  

 Despite its decline and fall, EAGLE made such a strong impression that a new version was launched in 1982 and ran until 1994. At a time when comics were generally in decline, it was a notable success for many years. EAGLE fandom survives to this day with the EAGLE Society celebrating the anniversary year with a Gathering in Plymouth, later in April. Our quarterly magazine EAGLE Times celebrates its own 150th issue this year too and Spaceship Away magazine, which began in 2003 continues to feature new adventures of Dan Dare. Fans of the 1980s EAGLE have a podcast 'Where EAGLES Dare' and a Facebook page. Dan himself featured in a B.B.C. radio series in 1990 and an audio series in 2021 and 2022, which was later broadcast on B.B.C. Radio Four Extra and a CGI television series which was broadcast on Channel Five in the U.K. in 2002.             

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.

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 20

Published between 1961 and ’63 was Signal comic, a free publication to promote the toothpaste of the same name. As far as I have been able to discover, the comic ran to just five issues and was supplied to dentists and chemists to give to their young customers. Clearly inspired by the layout of the original EAGLE, its cover strip was illustrated by Don Harley and it also included strips drawn by Pat Williams and John Ryan.         

Printed in photogravure, it contained a mix of strips and educational features. It was printed on smaller paper than EAGLE and contained just eight pages, but it was a real comic with quality contents. In 1963 it was replaced by Gibbs Ivory Castle Arrow, a similar publication, which ran for eleven issues until 1966 and was produced by EAGLE’s publisher Odhams. Edited by George Beal, John M. Burns drew the cover strip, which was written by Keith Chapman and John Ryan also contributed a regular strip.

John Ryan Retrospective

John Ryan in 1993

A retrospective exhibition showing about 50 works of the late John Ryan will open at the Stormont Studio, Rye Art Gallery, Rye, East Sussex at 2 pm on 19th November, 2011. The exhibition is planned to run until 12th February, 2012 and celebrates John's life and work through his art. If planning a visit, however, please check the Gallery Opening Hours (see below) as it is not open very day and closes for lunch.

John Ryan is unforgettable to Eagle readers as the creator of 'Captain Pugwash' (which first appeared as a comic strip in Eagle in 1950) and the longer running strip cartoon series 'Harris Tweed', which ran for twelve years.

During his long career, he created many characters and produced a large body of work including numerous books and artworks. 'Captain Pugwash' he turned into a very successful series of illustrated books and an animated series on BBC television. A cartoon strip of 'Captain Pugwash' ran in Radio Times for eight years. He created 'Lettice Leefe' for Eagle's companion paper Girl, and 'Sir Boldasbrass' for Swift. He also devised 'The Adventures of Sir Prancelot' and 'Mary, Mungo and Midge'.

More information on the exhibition is available on the Rye Art Gallery website.

More biographical information on John Ryan can be read in his Eagle Times obituary.

Gallery Opening Hours:

Monday to Wed inclusive - Closed.
Thurs 10:30-13:30 and 14:00-17:00
Fri 10:30-13:00 and 14:00-17:00
Sat 10:30-13:00 and 14:00-17:00
Sun 12:00-16:00

Thanks to the curator, John's daughter, Isabel, for letting us know about the exhibition.

The picture of John Ryan was taken during the Eagle Society's visit to Rye in 1993. 

John Ryan (1921 - 2009)

John Christopher Gerald Ryan was born in Edinburgh on 21 March, 1921. His father being in the diplomatic service, he spent some of his early life abroad, but he received his education at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire. It was there he first gained an interest in cartooning (writing and drawing for the school magazine was offered as an alternative to a thrashing for a minor offence!)

During the second World War he served with the Lincolnshire Regiment, mainly in Burma, and when not otherwise occupied he sketched and drew caricatures, which were published in army magazines. After the war, he attended art classes in London at the Regent Street Polytechnic, following which, he joined Harrow School as Assistant Art Master. He had met his future wife Priscilla while at the Regent Street Polytechnic, and in 1950 they married. As a wedding present, a friend introduced them to Marcus Morris, then priest and editor of Anvil.

John produced some illustrations for Anvil, and was challenged by Morris to create a humorous strip for a new children's magazine, which would be Eagle. The result was 'Captain Pugwash', "the story of a bad buccaneer & of the many sticky ends which nearly befell him". The black and white strip appeared on the lower half of page 5 of the first issue of Eagle. Although later destined to become successful as an animated television series and a series of books, Captain Pugwash's life in Eagle was short. Deemed too young for the Eagle's target audience, Pugwash sailed away after his 19-episode first adventure. But John Ryan was a talent too good to waste, and Marcus Morris had already asked him to create a new strip, which he did - based on a skit of Priscilla's "ideal man". 'Harris Tweed' began in issue 15 of Eagle and ended, after twelve years of weekly episodes, in 1962. Along the way, John also created, wrote and drew successful strips for Eagle's companion papers, Girl ('Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in the School') and Swift ('Sir Boldasbrass'), and for all three papers' associated Annuals. After Girl folded, John continued to draw 'Lettice Leefe' for Princess - accomplishing a 16-year run of weekly episodes.

Foregoing Harrow School's offer of a job as Art Master, John remained Assistant Art Master until 1955, when he became a full-time freelance writer and artist. Although 'Captain Pugwash' had not been a success in Eagle, John Ryan worked on his beloved character, and drew and wrote the first of what was to become a series of Captain Pugwash books. In 1956, after many rejections, Captain Pugwash found a publisher in The Bodley Head. He also sold the idea for an animated series of 'Captain Pugwash' to BBC Television. His animation technique was innovative, using painted backdrops and cut-out, two-dimensional figures with movable limbs and mouths, made from painted card and held together with paperclips. Levers allowed him and his assistants to manoeuvre the figures and their expressions for real-time animation - and live transmission! A pilot production was so successful that it resulted in 1957 in a series of 58 black and white episodes, and for eight years he drew a weekly 'Captain Pugwash' strip for Radio Times. A 'Captain Pugwash' strip also appeared (briefly) in Swift (1958) and Playland (1974), also written and drawn by John. 'Sir Prancelot' (from another TV series) appeared in Playland in 1972. From 1963, for 43 years he drew weekly cartoons for The Catholic Herald, but it is for his children's publications and programmes that he is most fondly remembered.

In 1969 he created a 13-part series called 'Mary, Mungo and Midge' for BBC Television. He followed this with 'The Adventures of Sir Prancelot' (32 episodes), and in 1974 he returned to 'Captain Pugwash' again, producing a new series of 30 colour episodes. In the 1980s 'The Ark Stories' (on ITV) featured John Ryan in his studio to introduce each of his stories of animals from Noah's Ark with a sketch.

John and Priscilla moved from Kensington to Rye, East Sussex, in 1988, and John continued to work until shortly before his death in Rye hospital on 22 July 2009. It was at Rye that John was an Eagle Society guest of honour for our annual gathering in 1993. John allowed us a visit to is home and studio, provided us with a tour of Rye and joined the "Eagle Society Players" for a play reading of 'Harris Tweed'.

The illustration by John Ryan is from the Spring 1993 edition of Eagle Times

Obituaries:

• Steve Holland's Bear Alley (also contains a comprehensive bibliography)
• Links to various newspaper and magazine obituaries
  

Channel 4 newspiece on YouTube:

For other Captain Pugwash clips on YouTube Click Here

For an interactive storybook of Captain Pugwash and the Sea Monster click on the graphic below: