Eagle Times v.31 no.3 (Autumn 2018)

As I have a fascination with the inner workings of British comics, my favourite article in this, the Autumn issue of Eagle Times, is David Britton's 'A Glimpse Inside the Inner Workings of Eagle'. This is part 2, the first part having looked at Marcus Morris's instructions to artists about what colours artists were allowed to use for the Infra Red process used to reproduce pages of artwork.

In this second episode, Britton reproduces some invoices and correspondence between Morris and artist Walkden Fisher about his model-making for the Frank Hampson studio. One invoice breaks down in remarkable detail the costs he incurred for the Dan Dare Space Ship built by Fisher in 1952, including the £3 1s. 8d. it cost for Fisher to take a 3rd class return from Southport to London to deliver the finished model.

Fisher, a designer with a toy firm, was taken on the Eagle staff in 1950 and was almost given the push in 1955 when Hulton's bean counters tried to tighten up the costs associated with Hampson's studio. He did eventually leave and his non-Eagle work included pin-ups (I'll post an example below).

David Britton has a second excellent feature on the realism of Charles Chilton's Jeff Arnold strips, and I'm looking forward to the next few episodes which will cover the Battle of Little Big Horn.

My other favourite from this issue is Joe Hoole's reassessment of 'Seth and Shorty', which debuted in the first issue of Eagle and was, therefore, Eagle's first Western strip – to be overshadowed by 'Riders of the Range', which only appeared eight months later. It was not an especially good strip and lasted only 16 weeks, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be studied.

Jeremy Briggs (occasionally of this parish) looks at the Eagle's extended family, the later incarnations of Eagle, Girl and Robin and also reviews A Concise Guide to Eagle Plastic Kits by David Welsh; Andrew Coffey looks at the Dan Dare story 'The Big City Caper'; and Steve Winders has the first of a two-part study of the Chad Varah & Norman Williams back page biography of Alfred the Great.

Wrapping up the issue, we have Will Grenham's look of SF movies from 1966-67, and the first episode of a new PC-49 short story. It's a busy, fun issue covering a lot of ground and even after three decades, there's still plenty of new discoveries to be made about the famous old 'National Strip Cartoon Weekly'.

Anyone who has fond memories of the Eagle might want to give the magazine a try. The quarterly magazine is the journal of the Eagle Society, with membership costing £29 in the UK, £40 (in sterling) overseas. You can send subscriptions to Bob Corn, Wellcroft Cottage, Wellcroft, Ivinghoe, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 9EF; subs can also be submitted via PayPal to eagle-times@hotmail.com. Back issues are available for newcomers to the magazine and they have even issued binders to keep those issues nice and neat.

"Pin up Girl, indeed! Really Flight Lieutenant! I always use Elastic!"