By Denis Gifford (Webb & Bower)
ISBN: 978-0-86350-345-0
Cartoonist and comics historian Denis Gifford scored another hit with this collection of snippets from the first nine Eagle Annuals. Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and the seasonal hardback compendiums released each year for the Christmas market were in every way the equal in quality of the landmark weekly. Here Gifford has selected a wonderfully representative sampling of the comic strips that graced those pages. (Being a much cleverer time, with smarter kids than yours, the Eagle had a large proportion of scientific and sporting articles as well as prose fiction, but those gems have been left for another time.) Another huge bonus, and one seldom found in compilations of British comic strips, is a full list of creator credits so you know who to thank if you’re a fan and who to envy if you’re an aspiring creator.
There are four complete Dan Dare adventures: ‘Mars 1997’ by Frank Hampson and Harold Johns from 1951, ‘Mars 1988’ (by Johns and Greta Tomlinson) from 1952, ‘Operation Plum Pudding’ (by Desmond Walduck – 1955) and ‘Operation Moss’ (by Hampson and Don Harley from 1958) as well as two crime-busting PC49 yarns, ‘The Case of the Circus Comes to Town’ and ‘The Case of the Tiny Tec’, both by John Worsley and Alan Stranks, from 1952 and 1956 respectively. Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range makes two appearances from 1952 and 1954 with art by John Andersen and Harry Bishop, and, as always, written by Charles Chilton.
Within these 130 pages you can find work by L Ashwell Wood, John Ryan, Norman Thelwell, Michael ffolkes, George Hickson, Richard Jennings and a host of others, illustrating gags, historical, scientific and fact features as well as the adventures of such lost legends as Storm Nelson, Luck of the Legion, Tommy Walls, Harris Tweed, Cavendish Brown and Waldorf and Cecil. These may not all resonate with modern audiences but the sheer variety of the material should sound a warning note to our contemporary, insular publishers about the fearfully limited range of comics output they’re responsible for.
But for us, it’s enough to see and wish that this book, like so many others, was back in print again (even though it is readily available through many internet retailers!)
© 1989 Fleetway Publications, London. All Rights Reserved.