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By L Ashwell Wood<\/strong>, edited by Denis Gifford (Webb & Bower) It seems inconceivable today, but one of the most popular features in the most popular comic of the 1950’s wasn’t a comic strip at all. When Eagle<\/em><\/strong> launched on April 14th 1950, it was a black and white, tabloid-sized periodical, combining strip and prose on good paper with a fuller-than-full-colour front, back and inner cover. The same high quality photo-gravure was used on the centre sheet; four more glorious colour pages for drab, grey, austere post-war Britain.<\/p>\n Across the very centre of those was a painted spread depicting ‘The New Gas Turbine-Electric Locomotive – The 18000’. That was a magnificent train with the engine and operating system exposed, pertinent points numbered and an explanatory block of text explaining all the details. Boys (and, I’m sure, girls) and their dads were transfixed and continued so for the next nine hundred and ninety issues. Each week a new technological marvel of the Space Age and an emergent Modern World would be painted in mind-boggling detail and breezy efficient clarity to captivate and fascinate the readers.<\/p>\n Most of them were crafted by the marvellous L Ashwell Wood (of whom precious little is known; for what there is you should go to Steve Holland’s wonderful and informative Bear Alley<\/a> website) and although not a new concept, they have become part of the shared psyche of British comic fandom. Ever since then, the fascinating allure of cutaway drawings has bewitched readers, from TV21<\/em><\/strong> to 2000AD<\/em><\/strong> and every comic in between.<\/p>\n This grand book reproduces 46 of the very best, from that aforementioned wonder of the rails through other trains and boats and planes and even to that Marvel of a future Age, Dan Dare’s rocket-ship Anastasia<\/em> (originally revealed on February 7th 1958). This book commands some pretty terrifying prices – and even though I’m prepared to say that it’s worth it, the best solution would be for some enterprising history or popular culture publisher to get the thing back into print immediately \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if not sooner.<\/p>\n Illustrations \u00c2\u00a9 1988 Fleetway Publications\/Syndication International. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By L Ashwell Wood, edited by Denis Gifford (Webb & Bower) ISBN: 0-86350-285-7 It seems inconceivable today, but one of the most popular features in the most popular comic of the 1950’s wasn’t a comic strip at all. When Eagle launched on April 14th 1950, it was a black and white, tabloid-sized periodical, combining strip … <\/p>\n
\nISBN: 0-86350-285-7<\/p>\n