{"id":33113,"date":"2025-06-16T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33113"},"modified":"2025-06-16T14:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:52:09","slug":"eagle-classics-the-adventures-of-p-c-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/06\/16\/eagle-classics-the-adventures-of-p-c-49\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagle Classics: The Adventures of P.C. 49"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Alan Stranks<\/strong> & John Worsley<\/strong> (Hawk Books -1990)
\nISBN: 978-0-948248-17-7 (album TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eagle<\/em><\/strong> is 75 years old this year and the reason we old farts remember it so fondly are many and various. Here\u2019s just one of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

On 14th<\/sup> April 1950 Britain\u2019s grey, postwar gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a glossy new comic that seemingly gleamed with light and colour. Eagle<\/strong> was the most influential comic of the era, running until 26th<\/sup> April 1969, and its legions of mesmerised readers were understandably enraptured with the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future<\/strong>: a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day. However it also carried a plethora of traditional genre strips, fact and prose regulars. These included both original features and further exploits of some of their favourite radio shows and cinema heroes – and even best beloved gustatory treats!<\/p>\n

It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was worried about the detrimental effects of US comic books on British children. He advocated a good, solid, Christian antidote. Seeking out like-minded creators he jobbed around a dummy to British publishers for over a year – with little success – until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company producing general interest magazines such as Lilliput<\/strong> and Picture Post<\/strong>. The result was a huge hit that spawned in-house clones Swift<\/strong>, Robin<\/strong> and Girl<\/strong> – targeting other sectors of the children\u2019s market – whilst generating crucial radio series, books, toys and other sorts of merchandising. The Eagle<\/strong> phenomenon reshaped the industry, compelling UK comics colossus Alfred Harmsworth to release cheaper imitations through his Amalgamated Press\/Odhams\/Fleetway\/ IPC group such as the far longer-lived Lion<\/strong> (23rd<\/sup> February 1952 – 18th<\/sup> May 1974) and many companion titles like Tiger<\/strong> and Valiant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on Eagle<\/strong>, and although Dan Dare<\/strong> is deservedly revered as its star, many other strips were as popular at the time, some rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value. At its peak the periodical sold close to a million copies a week, before changing tastes and a game of \u201cmusical owners\u201d killed Eagle<\/strong>. In 1960 Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. Due to multiple episodes of cost-cutting, many later issues carried Marvel Comics reprints rather than home-originated material. It took time, but the Yankee cultural Invaders won out in the end. In 1969, with the April 26th<\/sup> issue, Eagle<\/strong> merged into Lion<\/strong>, before eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations revived the title, but never the initial blockbuster success.<\/p>\n

In its youth, heydays and prime, Eagle<\/strong> was tabloid sized with photogravure colour inserts, alternating with monochrome pages of text and comic features. Tabloid is a big page, and you can get a lot of material onto each one, so – at the start – something of equal merit deserved almost as much space. One of the biggest draws to Eagle<\/strong>\u2019s mighty pantheon was family radio\/film attraction P.C. 49<\/strong>. Although latterly eclipsed by BBC radio colleagues Jeff Arnold\/Riders of the Range<\/strong> (whose comic exploits were handled by Charles Chilton & Frank Humphris), and John Ryan\u2019s TV sensation-in-waiting Captain Pugwash<\/strong> and the inimitable Harris Tweed<\/strong>, the unflagging beat copper pre-dated the comic, bringing an established (and frequently older) audience with him. All of them became darlings of other media too via promotional tie-ins such as books, puzzles, toys, games, apparel and comestibles as well as and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising – although the PC had his share of that boodle too…<\/p>\n

Dare<\/strong> of course soon overtook them all, especially after acquiring his own weekly radio serial on Radio Luxembourg. The Adventures of Dan Dare<\/strong> played out five nights a week from July 1951 to May 1956…<\/p>\n

Preceded by fantastically informative pictorial essay \u2018The Many Adventures of P.C.49 – An introduction by Norman Wright\u2019<\/em>, this epic oversized (330 x 238mm) tribute edition provides background on the radio episodes, both films and all iterations of the comic and prose publishing incarnations of Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby<\/em> AKA \u201cFortynine<\/em>\u201d. That specifically includes how the radio hero progressed from ambitious affable \u201cplod\u201d to proud father and family man after marrying his sassy, smarter, fianc\u00e9e\/crimebusting rival\/competitor Joan Carr<\/em> in the broadcast world, as well as how all that was shunted aside and ignored in comics. Instead from August 1951 Joan vanished and was replaced by an international kid\u2019s gang of juvenile sidekicks – the Boys Club<\/em> – who would help Fortynine solve crimes if not actually get his longed-for promotion to plainclothes detective…<\/p>\n

Initially illustrated by illustrator\/gallery artist Charles Sidebotham \u201cStrom\u201d Gould (Storm Nelson<\/strong>) – who limned the first four cases – The Adventures of P.C.49 – from the famous radio series by Alan Stranks<\/strong> began on page 3 of Eagle<\/strong> #1, and ran until March 1957, long after the radio show finished. It featured the daily travails of genial posh berk turned keen as mustard Police Constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby as he sought to make progress from beat copper into the serried ranks of plainclothes detectives. This all occurred in Q Division, the sleeziest parts of a major modern metropolis where, despite many weekly triumphs and his immediate uniformed superiors being utterly convinced that \u201cFortynine\u201d did not have \u201cwhat it takes\u201d, he proved he did…<\/p>\n

Collected here are three yarns by originator Stranks and the strip\u2019s most beloved co-creator. In 1903, Australian Alan Stranks (Dick Barton, Special Agent<\/strong>, Dan Dare- Prisoners of Space<\/strong>) was born in Brunswick, Victoria. Beginning his career in the 1920s as a lyricist – he penned Britain\u2019s very first Eurovision entry \u201cAll\u201d – Stranks became a crime reporter before moving to England. He continued in the field but added feature writing and gradually moved sideways into drama; writing novels, radio plays and serials, as well as movies and comics. He died suddenly and without warning from a cerebral haemorrhage in 1959.<\/p>\n

The radio Adventures of PC 49<\/strong> ran (intermittently thanks to Stranks\u2019 increasingly busy schedule) on the BBC Home Service from October 27th<\/sup> 1947 to Summer 1953, just as the astounding John Worsley was making the comic strip one of the most entertaining and enthralling pages in the periodical with his charmingly informative and sublimely expressionistic cartooning style.<\/p>\n

Illustrator\/Naval war artist, police sketch artist, commercial designer, president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and certified war hero John Godfrey Bernard Worsley was born on 16th<\/sup> February 1919 in Liverpool and raised in Kenya. After studying at Goldsmiths College of Art he became a travelling artist and portraitist before joining the Royal Navy in WWII. For a fuller assessment of this incredible man go to John Worsley (artist) – Wikipedia<\/a> or track down John Worsley\u2019s War<\/strong>… or watch the film Albert RN<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

For all his other artistic endeavours Worsley is rightly renowned, but we\u2019re here for the comics. His cartooning career began with Tommy Walls<\/em> in Eagle<\/strong>. An advertising campaign for the ice cream company masquerading as an adventure strip serial, it led to him taking over P.C. 49 from Strom Gould and handling ancillary strips and illustrations for Annuals and Archie\u2019s own line of books. This led to more strips: Daughter of the Nile<\/em> and Belle Of The Ballet<\/em> in Girl<\/strong> – reprinted as Lindy of Latmyer Grange<\/em> in Princess Tina<\/strong> – and the delightful Wee Willie Winkie<\/em> for Treasure<\/strong> as well as ads, military recruitment materials, books such as The Little Grey Men<\/strong> and The Wind in the Willows<\/strong>, and – his personal favourite – a lavish cartoon interpretation of A Christmas Carol<\/strong> created to support a major television special in 1970. Aged 81, Worsley died on October 3rd<\/sup> 2000.<\/p>\n

In lieu of a full P.C. 49 collection or other curated compilations, his gifts live on here as first seen here in seventh serial saga \u2018The Case of the Spotted Toad\u2019<\/em>. This began in the Christmas 1952 issue of Eagle<\/strong> and carried on into May 1953 as the cheery copper is hospitalised by ruthless gangsters Knocker Dawson<\/em> and Slim Jiggs<\/em> after saving homeless boy Dickie Duffle<\/em> and his dog Rip<\/em>. His eager young pals and Boy\u2019s Club prot\u00e9g\u00e9es Toby<\/em>, Mongatiki<\/em>, Snorky<\/em>, Gigs & Bunny<\/em> plus \u201cTerrible Twins\u201d Pat & Mick Mulligan<\/em> join forces to finish the job of capturing the murderous fur thieves and finding the well-hidden loot, with Archie back on his feet just in time to face the explosive final showdown…<\/p>\n

Nervous tyke Bunny and his pocket pet Victor<\/em> take centre stage in follow up \u2018The Case of the Magnificent Mouse\u2019<\/em> wherein the nosy nipper sees local tramp Tatty Bogle<\/em> kidnapped and a perfect duplicate beggar appear. Of course no one believes him but before too long it all unfolds as a major counterfeiting caper run by Lew Lupus<\/em> and Nix Nobbler<\/em>. When they snatch Bunny, the police are stumped until the Boys Club lead P.C. 49 to the impenetrable lair of the villains, but in the ends it\u2019s up to Victor to magnificently save the day…<\/p>\n

Concluding the casebook, \u2018The Case of the Old Crock\u2019<\/em> finds the Boys Club preparing for their annual hike\/unsupervised holiday at the seaside (because all us Boomer kids were utterly feral and fearless!). Seeing how worn out Archie is thanks to loads of compulsory overtime, the lads use club funds to buy the weary, footsore adult a \u201ccar\u201d. Sadly, their choice is not only an appalling fixer-upper, it\u2019s secretly the safe used by master thief Tiger Maggs<\/em> to stash a map to where he\u2019s buried his carefully hoarded loot. Guess which seaside beach it\u2019s stashed under?<\/p>\n

Of course Maggs\u2019 henchmen Junky<\/em> and Dandy<\/em> have no idea of the clunker\u2019s real value when they dupe the boys into buying it, but with Scots Boys Club recruit Tam Piper<\/em> unleashed on it, the junker soon seems roadworthy and eye-catching. Best of all, Bunny has found a map, but he can\u2019t convince anyone that it could lead to pirate treasure…<\/p>\n

When Maggs gets out of prison and goes to pick up his car, all hell breaks loose, leading to escalating excitement, another shockingly white-knuckle concatenation of circumstances and a brutally gripping denouement…
\n\"\"
\nBlending genuine tension with schoolboy thrills and genteel police procedurals, The Adventures of P.C. 49<\/strong> is a true lost gem of British comics, funny, warm, scary, inclusive (as any strip of that period can be), rollercoaster-paced and truly beautiful to see. I can\u2019t see how it will ever be reproduced in full, but I so very much wish it would be. Yet another one to add to \u201cThe Why Is This Not In Print?\u201d drawer…
\nP.C. 49 strip \u00a9 1990 Fleetway Publications. This arrangement and Compilation \u00a9 1990 Hawk Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alan Stranks & John Worsley (Hawk Books -1990) ISBN: 978-0-948248-17-7 (album TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Eagle is 75 years old this year and the reason we old farts remember it so fondly are many and various. Here\u2019s just one of them. On 14th April 1950 Britain\u2019s grey, … <\/p>\n

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