Bear Alley: Eagle Times v.32 no.2 (Summer 2019)

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"The narrative is packed with action and I think readers will have a lot of fun with [Hercules, Esq.] and there are some genuine moments of laugh out loud humour. I can understand why the film rights for this book were snapped up and even today I could envisage it being a very enjoyable one-off TV series." — Cross Examining Crime.
"Although there’s some criminous stuff going on and Bill often finds himself vying against or working with various lawbreakers, the stakes are never really life and death in this book ... There is some slam-bang action, though, as well as a smart, really likable protagonist and a lot of really clever plot twists, but what really makes HERCULES ESQ. work is Evans’s style, which is consistently breezy, fast-paced, and funny." — James Reasoner, Rough Edges.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Eagle Times v.32 no.2 (Summer 2019)

A little on the late side due to problems out of my control, I've had the new issue of Eagle Times for some while but haven't had a chance to write a review.

All you need to know is that Eagle Times is still an essential companion to the original Eagle comic, offering reviews of strips and features from that much-revered publication of the 1950s and (for some) the 1960s. The magazine has been running for over thirty years, but there are always new angles and new ways to approach strips and stories that might have been covered in previous volumes.

This issue, for instance, has the (penultimate) fifth episode of a multi-part look at how Charles Chilton handled the Indian Wars in the Riders of the Range strip. There is also a (concluding) look at the travels of Marco Polo and how the back-page biography by Chad Varah matched the known history of the great explorer.

There are reports on the Eagle gathering in Dundee, along with the text to Steve Winders' talk, given at the annual get-together. Slightly left of field, Eric Fernie offers a detailed introduction to the world of Walt Kelly's Pogo.

The most interesting article this issue is a look at some items from the Dan Dare studio's "Ideas Book", which contained sketches of various craft and machinery relating to the stories Rogue Planet and Reign of the Robots. This first episode looks at a Phant forklift. Although brief, it is another fascinating insight into the effort that went into creating visuals for Dan's epic space stories.

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 membership@eagle-society.org.uk. Back issues are available for newcomers to the magazine and they have even issued binders to keep those issues nice and neat.