THE THIRD CHRISTMAS EAGLE by John Culshaw

Having spent the first Christmas issue of EAGLE on Venus and the second on Mars, Dan and Digby were on Mercury for the third, dated 24th December 1952. As in 1951, there was just a single reference to Christmas in the strip. Dan and Digby are prisoners of the Treens and Digby comments on the fact that it is Christmas back on Earth in a single frame on page two. Dan Dare's creator Frank Hampson was suffering from a breakdown caused by overwork, so this story was illustrated by his team, led by Harold Johns and written by Chad Varah. The issue itself acknowledges Christmas in the title box, which has a decorative Christmas trim across the top and down the left hand side. There is a circular picture of stars behind the eagle image and the title letters are in yellow, instead of the usual white and have snow on them. This layout is exactly the same as the previous year's Christmas issue. 

The start of a new 'PC 49' adventure on page three provided the opportunity to reference Christmas strongly, with the episode devoted to the Boys' Club Christmas party and including a seven verse poem about the party extending down the middle of the page. Written by Alan Stranks and illustrated by John Worsley, the strip would run in EAGLE until 1957, although the radio series would end in May of 1953. Page four and a quarter of page five are occupied by the latest episode of the text serial 'The Adventure Club' by the prolific veteran writer J. Jefferson Farjeon, which does not relate to Christmas. However, there is a small 'EAGLE Window' advertising box in the bottom right hand corner of page seven which highlights the 'EAGLE Window' stand at the Schoolboy's Exhibition, being held in the Horticultural Hall in Westminster. Each week for several years, EAGLE included an 'EAGLE Window', which highlighted a different EAGLE related product. This one is number 77 and there were many more to go, indicating the vast amount of merchandising that the weekly spawned. The 'EAGLE  Window' stand at the exhibition featured many of the toys, clothes and other merchandise that were available. The rest of page five is occupied by a Christmas puzzle corner, an advertisement for a book about stamps, a request for donations to the N.S.P.C.C. and a short information piece sponsored by the tyre manufacturer, Dunlop. This is actually the seventeenth issue of the 'Dunlop Dispatch' and includes very short articles about Barrage Balloons and Paddle Wheels (from Paddle Steamers). It is not Christmas related. 

The next page is the 'Sports Page' and under the headline 'This was my Thrill of the Year', several of EAGLE's sports contributors have written about their most memorable sporting moments during 1952. These include E. Macdonald Bailey's recollection of Jamaica's success in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the Helsinki Olympics and Geoff Paish's celebration of Colin Gregory's fine performance in Tennis' Davis Cup  in the final set against Yugoslavia to give Great Britain victory. Gregory was actually replacing Paish, who was injured. Kenneth Wheeler, who was EAGLE's Sports editor recalled a fine performance by Arsenal's reserve defence to beat 'star studded' Blackpool and Jack Crayston witnessed the 1952 F.A. Cup Final from among a 'cross section' of Newcastle and Arsenal fans, a situation that would sadly be unthinkable today. Newcastle won, but Crayston's praises were heaped on Arsenal, who played much of the game with ten men. Although it was created by northerners, EAGLE was necessarily based in London, which is presumably why so many Arsenal supporters were employed on the Sports Page! The page also managed to include a small advertisement for the first EAGLE Sports Annual. 

Page eight is the first of the four colour centre pages and is occupied by 'Riders of the Range'. Now illustrated by its most celebrated artist, Frank Humphris, the heroes, Jeff , Luke and Jim Forsythe are in the early stages of 'Jeff Arnold and the Lost Bonanza', about an ornate Mexican saddle that Jeff buys which leads him and his friends into a series of perilous adventures. There was no Christmas reference in this episode. Written by Charles Chilton, at this time, 'Riders of the Range' was still on the radio, but it would finish there before next Christmas. However, Jeff's adventures in EAGLE would run for another nine years, produced by Chilton and Humphris. 

The top half of the centrespread is a 'cutaway' drawing by L. Ashwell Wood of the stage and backstage area of a theatre during a Christmas Pantomime. Like all Ashwell Wood's cutaways, it is highly detailed and obviously provides another Christmas element to the issue. Below the cutaway is 'Luck of the Legion', featuring in only his second serial adventure 'Death by the Dawn'. Written by Geoffrey Bond and illustrated by Martin Aitchison, the story is set in Syria and in this episode, Luck and his men narrowly escape death, when a bridge ahead of them is blown up by rebels or freedom fighters, depending on your point of view. As an ongoing serial, there is no mention of Christmas in this episode. 

Page eleven is split into two informative strips. The first is 'Their Names Made Words' and this is about William Banting, a nineteenth century undertaker who ate so much that he became unhealthily overweight, so he gave up beer, milk and all fatty foods, eating only meat, fish and dry toast. Christmas is quite cleverly contrived into this strip which begins by showing how many people ate huge Christmas meals in Victorian times and then leading in to Banting's dieting. Banting gave his name to dieting and the strip says "Women still say they are banting when they diet to get slim".  But this strip was produced in 1952 and while the word survived till then, it is no longer used today. The lower half of the page features a strip called 'Strange Animal Adventures' and references G.K. Chesterton's poem 'The Donkey' about the donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem and then after the birth of Jesus, to safety in Egypt. As in Chesterton's poem, the strip ends with the same donkey being the one that carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, thirty three years later. When I first read Chesterton's poem, I looked up the life span of donkeys to find out if this was credible and it is. Donkeys can live for over forty years. Apart from the star of Bethlehem behind the eagle on the cover and a brief reference in the 'Banting' strip to Christmas meals celebrating the birthday of Christ, this is the first significant reference to Christmas being about Jesus' birth in this issue, but it is not the last. The Editor's Letter from the Rev. Marcus Morris, on the next page promotes a strong Christian message: We should give and receive presents, but we do it in remembrance of Christ. After referencing the other Christmas elements in the issue, the Editor goes on to introduce the new back page biography, which begins in this issue. This is the life of St. Vincent De Paul, the sixteenth century French priest and champion of the poor and Morris uses his example to promote his 'muscular Christianity' ideal. He says "there is nothing namby-pamby about being a Christian.... it's a man's job." He goes on to quote St. Paul, so this editorial is unequivocal in its message. 

The rest of the page is split into several sections as usual. There is a Christmas crossword competition with prizes of Ingersoll 'Dan Dare' pocket watches, a 'Readers' Letters' section, with one from Roy Dinning of Glasgow, suggesting that EAGLE Club badges should be polished daily. There is more news of the Schoolboy's Exhibition in Westminster, where there was an EAGLE stand in addition to the 'EAGLE Window' one mentioned earlier. This was the largest stand in the exhibition and was built in the form of Dan Dare's spaceship! EAGLE was not just a boy's weekly. It was a major part of juvenile culture in the 1950s. Also on the page is a short report on an EAGLE Club visit to Chessington Zoo, some photographs of prize winners from a previous competition, an advertisement for Marcus Morris' record about the forthcoming Coronation and the three picture humorous strip, 'Chicko' by Norman Thelwell. This had a Christmas theme. Chicko notices a sign in a shop window, saying 'We wish You a Merry Christmas' and he writes underneath 'Thank You! The Same To You!'

Page twelve and a quarter of page thirteen contains a complete text story 'Ron's Christmas' which is about a boy who finds a bag of stolen jewellery. Knowing that his widowed mother cannot afford to buy him and his siblings the presents they would like for Christmas, he toys with the idea of trying to sell them before his conscience leads him to take them to the Police. Worried that he will be punished for his delay, he is finally rewarded by the Jeweller who gives him enough money to buy presents for the whole family. The writer was Guy Daniel, an Anglican clergyman, who later scripted 'The Road of Courage' (the story of Jesus) and the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, for the back page. While these strips would be attributed to Marcus Morris, the scripting was by Daniel. No less than three Anglican vicars contributed to this Christmas issue, with Morris as editor and Chad Varah as scriptwriter of 'Dan Dare'. A corner of page twelve contains an advertisement for a small 'Ever Ready' hand held vacuum cleaner, while the rest of page thirteen includes a self examination Christmas quiz about unselfish behaviour, with three possible answers to each question, only one of which is correct. The rest of the page contains adverts for a club run by Cadbury's chocolate manufacturers, Newmark watches and 'Golden Arrow' stamp albums.

The last three pages are all strips, with 'Harris Tweed Extra Special Agent' occupying page fourteen. This humorous strip has a Christmas theme, with Tweed accidentally thwarting a robber's plan to use an anaesthetic gas to put everyone to sleep so that he can steal their jewels at a Christmas party. Tweed's whole page stories must have been a challenge for cartoonist John Ryan, for they each contained five rows of detailed strip artwork and they were consistently funny. Page fifteen featured 'Tommy Walls', the strip sponsored by Wall's Ice Cream. Since May, the strip had become a serial story instead of weekly self contained stories and it had also become extremely popular with readers. Illustrated by Richard Jennings and often written by him as well, this episode makes a brief reference to Christmas in the final frame of the strip, when Tommy, swimming in the Thames in an attempt to stop an evil megalomaniac from destroying the Houses of Parliament, thinks "What a way to spend Christmas Eve," and imagines himself succeeding and celebrating Christmas with a Wall's ice cream. With the introduction of serial stories, the 'Tommy Walls' strip moved into Dick Barton Special Agent territory, with fast paced action, which made it more difficult to honour its contract to include Wall's ice cream in every episode. Nevertheless, it did and the unlikely plots involving evil geniuses and secret service commandos proved a major success. Wall's must have been delighted. 

The final page marks the start of 'Man of Courage' about St. Vincent De Paul. Written by 'R.B. Saxe' whose real name was Francis John Dickson, it was illustrated by Norman Williams. Like most back page biographies, the strip begins with incidents from the subject's boyhood. These were usually fictional and in the case of Vincent, it gave Dickson the opportunity to include Christmas. The story begins on Christmas Eve and Vincent and his family go to the "Christmas Eve Service at Church" (presumably Midnight Mass) and they look at the crib before returning home. Vincent was an ideal subject for EAGLE, because he led an eventful life, which involved being captured and enslaved in North Africa, before escaping and later volunteering to take another man's place as a rower on a prison galley. He created an order of nuns to serve the poor that still functions to this day and he inspired a lay person's group which also provides for the needy and again is still active all over the world. Dickson wrote three back page biographies for EAGLE and although all three led genuinely action packed lives, he embellished them all with fictional villains and events in the finest traditions of Hollywood. 

This issue focuses quite successfully on the religious and charitable aspects of Christmas and avoids a strong emphasis on merchandise, despite the fact that EAGLE initiated so much. However, the issues leading up to Christmas were full of advertisements for EAGLE related products and other potential presents for boys, with special four page advertising supplements from late November to mid December. 

With the arrival of Frank Humphris and 'Luck of the Legion' and the change of 'Tommy Walls' to a serial story, EAGLE was continuing to improve. Despite the temporary absence of Frank Hampson from the 'Dan Dare' strip, the publication as a whole was far better than it had been at its launch two and a half years earlier and it would continue to improve for several years. 

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. 

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.     

EAGLE TIMES - WINTER 2019

The Winter EAGLE Times is out now and contains a range of articles about our favourite weekly.
Luck of the Legion and the Phantom Story by David Britton. A planned story about the Foreign Legionnaire that was never published. 
Pop Goes The EAGLE by Will Grenham. A look at Pop music in EAGLE.
Patrick- Fighter for Truth by Steve Winders. An examination of EAGLE's back page strip from 1951.
EAGLE's Annuals by Joe Hoole. The first of a three part series about all the EAGLE Annuals.
Sergeant Luck's Christmas Quiz. 
Charles Chilton and the Indian Wars Part Seven by David Britton. A look at the Riders of the Range story The Cochise Affair.
The Case of the Counterfeit Constable by Steve Winders. The final part of Steve's Archie Berkeley- Willoughby story about art forgery.
In and Out of the EAGLE (40) by Jim Duckett. This edition focuses on Harris Tweed .
Tailpieces by David Britton.
Postbag: Readers' Letters. 
     REGULAR SUBSCRIBERS ALSO RECEIVED A FREE EAGLE TIMES CALENDAR FOR 2020.

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.  

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 5

WITH JIM DUCKETT 

When EAGLE began, radio was still king and two of its most popular strips originated as BBC radio series. PC 49 began in 1947 and 112 half hour adventures of the London policeman, played by Brian Reece, were made before the programme ended in 1953. PC 49’s adventures began in the first issue of EAGLE and ran until 1957. The radio adventures of Riders of the Range, featuring Paul Carpenter as Jeff Arnold, began in 1949 and six serials were broadcast between 1949 and 1953, with the EAGLE version beginning in December 1950 and running till March 1962. Unlike strip versions of later television series in other comics, which were invariably notably inferior to their originals, the EAGLE versions of both these radio series compared most favourably, probably because they were written by their creators and illustrated by excellent artists in John Worsley and Frank Humphris, who made the strips their own. Their success is evidenced by the fact that both outlasted their radio counterparts by several years.

Of the characters who were specially created for EAGLE, Dan Dare featured in a hugely successful series of radio serials on Radio Luxembourg between 1951 and 1955, where he was played by Noel Johnson, who had originated the popular Dick Barton character in 1947, for BBC radio. The BBC produced their own four part Dan Dare serial in 1990 to mark EAGLE'S fortieth anniversary, which featured Mick Brown as Dan and Donald Gee as Digby. In 1954, EAGLE began its own promotional programme on Radio Luxembourg, called Spread Your Wings and this featured a six part Luck of the Legion serial, narrated by Norman Shelley as an old legionnaire. Sergeant Luck also appeared on the commercial Springbok Radio in South Africa in 1979 in his own series, written by his creator Geoffrey Bond, twenty years after the strip ended in EAGLE.  

Eagle writers - Geoffrey Bond (1920 - 2009) aka Alan Jason

Geoffrey Bond, who died after a long illness on 27th December, 2009, is best known to Eagle readers as the writer for nearly ten years of the successful picture strip ‘Luck of the Legion’, but his career was far more adventurous than that might infer.

Geoffrey was born in Eltham (in what was the metropolitan borough of Woolwich), in 1920. His father was a bank manager who took an interest in show business and entertainment, and, as Geoffrey took an early interest in music, his father bought him a saxophone. At school he did well at both English and Art. After his father was transferred to Epsom, Surrey, Geoffrey attended the City of London Freeman’s School, Ashstead, where at the age of 15 he had an article, ‘The History of Tiger Rag’, published in the school magazine.

On leaving school at 17, Geoffrey found work in a band and for the next couple of years they toured the country, until the Second World War broke out. He joined the Army, but was invalided out and returned to being a musician with the Sandy Powell Roadshow. As well as playing with the band, he wrote and played in sketches.

In 1947 he went to South Africa where he worked with Alan Dell at the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Durban. He appeared in an Edgar Wallace play, The Ringer. Other acting parts followed, and in 1948 he was asked to take the lead role in a film called The Snake Skin Belt, which was filmed in Rhodesia and showed in UK as a serial at the Saturday morning children’s clubs.

Returning to England in 1949, Geoffrey joined the BBC Drama Repertory Company. He made appearances in radio dramas such as PC49 and Paul Temple. He also wrote radio plays, features and adaptations. His BBC writing credits include a nine month stint on Mrs Dale’s Diary. In 1950 he played the role of a Walsham Bay police sergeant in the Rank/Independent Artists’ film The Dark Man. In another film,The Lady with the Lamp he played an army sergeant.

In 1950 or 1951, his agent, Max Kester, told him the editors of Eagle were looking for ideas for a new strip. After much consideration, he came up with the idea for a French Foreign Legion story and its lead character Sergeant ‘Tough’ Luck. An artist friend produced a dummy of the first episode of ‘Luck of the Legion’. Eagle’s Editor, Marcus Morris, liked it but Geoffrey heard nothing for some time - the dummy was lost in a drawer at Hulton House. When it was rediscovered plans were made to bring ‘Luck of the Legion’ to Eagle’s centre pages for a trial period, which began in the issue dated 9th May, 1952, drawn by Martin Aitchison. The strip was a big success, and it was soon running second to 'Dan Dare' in a Hulton readers’ poll. Other stories soon followed, and the strip ran for nearly ten years: 16 stories comprising 482 weekly episodes. The strip also featured in Eagle Annual and briefly in 1952 as single-page stories in ABC Film Review, all scripted by Geoffrey and drawn by Martin. In 1953 Geoffrey wrote the Eagle Playlet ‘Salem Raschid’s Revenge’, which was offered to Eagle readers at 6d a copy in time for them to put on a play for Christmas. In 1954 he wrote a six-episode 'Luck of the Legion' story which went out as part of Hulton/Eagle’s Spread Your Wings programme on Radio Luxembourg , narrated by Norman Shelley.

Geoffrey suggested writing 'The Baden Powell Story', about the founder of the Boy Scout movement for Eagle’s back page. To avoid the same author’s name appearing twice per issue he wrote it under the pseudonym Alan Jason. It was drawn by Norman Williams. He also collaborated with Cyril Holloway on ‘For Bravery’. The same year, 1954, he played Spada, the evil Vultan leader in the Radio Luxembourg science fiction serial Dan Dare, sponsored by Horlicks and based on Eagle’s by then established front-page feature. After 'The Baden Powell Story', Geoffrey was asked to write the story of 'Lincoln of America', which appeared on Eagle’s back page in 1955, again under the pseudonym Alan Jason, and again drawn by Norman Williams.

Geoffrey wrote three 'Luck of the Legion' novels which were published by Hutchinson (illustrated by Cyril Holloway) and later, two further 'Luck of the Legion' novels for Hulton’s Eagle Novels series. The latter were illustrated by Martin Aitchison. Later, Max Parish published another: The Return of Sergeant Luck.

Beginning in 1957 Geoffrey wrote ‘Claudia of the Circus’, a strip that appeared on the centre pages of Eagle’s sister paper Girl, drawn by T. S. La Fontaine. Later, for the same magazine he collaborated with the artist C. L. Doughty on ‘The Untold Arabian Nights’. He also wrote a number of strips for Girl Annual, and a ‘Claudia of the Circus’ book in the Girl Novels series. For Swift, Eagle’s younger brother paper, he teamed again with Martin Aitchison for a comedy strip ‘Arty and Crafty’.

Geoffrey wrote numerous books for other publishers, including two on Baden Powell, published by Staples, a number of books on historical characters, including Ned Kelly, Geronimo, Kit Carson, Lawrence of Arabia, Evans of the Broke and Chaka the Terrible, all published by Arco, and The Ship’s Little Secret for Max Parish. His book on the Lancastria disaster was published by the Daily Express under their Oldbourne imprint and was serialised in John Bull, beginning in September, 1959, where it was illustrated by John Worsley. Another maritme disaster was Lakonia. He also wrote a novel, Arena, which was published by Macdonald.

In 1965 Geoffrey and his wife Stella emigrated to Rhodesia. He spent three years as a Provincial Information Officer and did some freelance broadcasting, before joining the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation full-time as a producer and announcer. For a year he wrote and often played in the first Rhodesian soap opera The Jacaranda People. After a brief stint in New Zealand with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, where he had his own programme, Focus, he and Stella returned to to a politically troubled Rhodesia. He wrote a number of scripts for the Rhodesian Ministry of Education, which were sent out on tape to schools across the country, and for a while he joined the army as Public Relations Officer. While in Rhodesia he wrote two books relating to Rhodesian military history, and two series of religious educational books for Longmans.

In 1989 Geoffrey and Stella returned to England. In 1995, after reading an article in the Daily Telegraph about Eagle and the Eagle Society, Geoffrey wrote to Eagle Times. Consequently he was approached for an interview and was invited, along with Martin Aitchison, to the Eagle Society’s Annual Dinner at Sparsholt (1996).

In 1998, Geoffrey, teamed again with artist Martin Aitchison, created a new comic strip called 'Justin Tyme - ye Hapless Highwayman'. 'Justin Tyme' appeared in Eagle Times for over five years, scripted for 3 years by Geoffrey, and latterly by his son, Jim.

Eagle strips (writer)

• Luck of the Legion (Vol 3 No 5 - Vol 12 No 37)
• The Baden Powell Story (Vol 5 No 17 - Vol 5 No 45)
• For Bravery (Vol 5 No 50)
• Lincoln of America (Vol 6 No 24 - Vol 6 No 52)

Eagle Annual strips (writer)

• Luck of the Legion Eagle Annual No 4 - No 11/1962

Links

• Luck of the Legion info at Dan Dare info.com

ET Refs

• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 1 The Early Years' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No1 pp 2-5 & 11)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 2 Luck of the Legion' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 2 pp 16-19)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 3 Salem Raschid’s Return - Eagle playlet' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 3 pp 18-24)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 4 Express Weekly, Girl and the Novels' (Eagle Times Vol 9 No 4 pp 30-34)
• Harpole, Harold. 'Geoffrey Bond, Part 5 Rhodesia and Back' (Eagle Times Vol 10 No 1 pp8-12)

The picture shows Geoffrey Bond at the Eagle Times Dinner/Weekend at Sparsholt in 1996

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.