Egmont Classic Comics

Back in November 2012, Egmont UK announced the expansion of their Classic Comics imprint, which was the imprint being used by the company to reprint a wealth of classic comics from the Egmont archives. Four volumes of Roy of the Rovers appeared as e-books in June 2012 and the latest launch added a fifth, plus The Thirteenth Floor from Eagle, Johnny Red, Major Eazy and Charley's War from Battle and material from Misty.

I believe the experiment came to an end a year later—in November 2013—when Charley's War Book 16, taking the story up to March 1917, appeared. Over that year there appeared Kindle editions of Tales From The Mist (1 vol.), The Thirteenth Floor (2 vols.), Major Eazy (2 vols), Rat Pack (2 vols), Hook Jaw (1 volume) and Thunderbirds (5 vols).

It's a shame that the experiment seems to have come to an end. At the time, David Riley, Managing Director of Egmont Publishing Group, said: "Roy, Battle, Misty... these are iconic magazines which still have a place in the national consciousness. They deserve to be brought back; their appeal also has the potential to transcend the generation gap and reach an entirely new, younger audience. With the limitless possibilities offered up by digital publishing, there has never been a better time to bring these comics to the fore."

Despite Riley's belief that the Classic Comics titles could attract two audiences, the series seems to have fallen squarely between the two: attractive to the (relatively small number of ) fans of the original comic who wanted to read these adventures on paper and younger warriors of the digital revolution who read digital books but were not drawn nostalgically to forty-year-old characters.

When the second wave of titles was launched in November 2012, Egmont accompanied the press release with four promo postcards featuring comics from their archive. It's a shame there was no attempt to publish any humour in digital form.

 

 

 

Upcoming Releases: March 2011

An annotated round-up of forthcoming books relating to or reprinting British comics and cartoons, along with some selected original graphic novels. Please note: All dates are subject to change. The regular listing of upcoming titles for 2011 can be found here.

 MARCH 2011 

Darkie's Mob by John Wagner & Mike Western.
Titan Books ISBN 978-1848564428, 25 March 2011, 112pp, £16.99. [£9.99 on Amazon]
In the hellish, humid jungles of Burma, renegade Captain Joe Darkie leads a rag-tag squad of British soldiers behind Japanese lines, transforming them into the brutal 'Darkies Mob'! Narrated in diary form by hapless Private Richard Shortland, Darkie's squad face hardship, horror and vicious combat at every turn, as their Captain's mania threatens to engulf them all. But what is Darkie's terrible secret, and how many will have to die before his bloodlust is finally sated? Acclaimed writer John Wagner ("A History of Violence") and legendary British artist Mike Western ("The Sarge") present the most uncompromising war comic ever published!

• Order from Amazon.

Hurricane & Champion: Companion Papers to Valiant by Steve Holland
Bear Alley Books ISBN 978-1907081538, 21 March 2011, 48pp, £8.99.
Hurricane and Champion: The Companion Papers to Valiant details the histories of both papers and reveals—some for the first time—the names of many of the creators behind the classic comic strips that filled their pages. Heavily illustrated throughout, Hurricane and Champion also includes title and creator indexes covering both papers, a gallery of annual covers and has a full-colour cover scanned from original artwork. In his introduction, Steve Holland describes how Hurricane (1964-65) went through four phases during its lifetime and reveals the many problems faced by Champion (1966) during its brief 15-issue run.

• Order from Bear Alley Books.

The Taxidermist by John Wagner, Cam Kennedy, Steve Dillon & Ian Gibson.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1907519840, 17 March 2011, 128pp, £14.99. [£12.74 on Amazon]
In Mega-City One, aged citizen Jake Sardini practices a delicate art. Human Taxidermy is a highly skilled craft and has been a sport in the Mega-Olympics for several decades. Saradini used to compete internationally and even won a bronze medal in the 2082 Mega-Olympiad, but that was years ago, when he was younger. In 2116 the Mega-Olympics on in Katmandu, Nepal. All the typical sports of the 22nd century are represented: insulting, staring, housework, mountaineering, sex and of course Human Taxidemy. From the pages of 2000 AD!

• Order from Amazon.

Korkeajännitys – Modern Finnish Commandos

Korkeajännitys – Modern  Finnish Commandos

by Jeremy Briggs

With Steve’s recent run of posts on Trigan Empire around the world I thought that it was worth taking a look at a Finnish title that tends to get mentioned a lot when foreign publications of Commando are being discussed.

Korkeajännitys is the title published by Egmont Kustannus that reprints D. C. Thomson’s Commando comics in Finland. The name is often translated as “High Voltage” due to the lightning flash logo and the subtitle of “Iskee Kuin Miljoona Volttia” which translates as “Hits Like a Million Volts”, however “High Tension” may be a better translation into English remembering that electrical high voltage power lines are also known as high tension power lines.

The title actually predates Commando having begun in 1953 as against Commando's 1961 and the various versions of the title over the years have reprinted many different war digests including the IPC titles of War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library. Since the comics market has contracted in Finland in the same way as the UK, the title has been reformatted to meet more modern publishing and purchasing methods.

This particular issue is a Korkeajännitys: Erikoisnumero, which translates as a Special Issue and contains 4 Commando stories reprinted over the issue’s 260 pages with the theme being winter combat – Nelja Hyytavaa Toimintatarinaa! translates as “Four Freezing Action Stories!”

The four Commando issues reprinted in order are –

4186 Baltic Battleground (March 2009) which gets translated to Taistelukenttana Baltia
4217 The Silent Strike (July 2009) which becomes Kylmaa Kyytia or “Cool Ride”
4194 Old Scores (April 2009) which gets translated to Vanha Kalavelka
4228 Norwegian Nightmare! (September 2009) which gets translated to Norjalainen Painajainen.

The book uses the cover of this final Commando.

The most striking thing on first getting this copy of Korkeajännitys: Erikoisnumero is that it is not published as a digest comic but it is actually a paperback book complete with ISBN. As such it looks more like what the UK would consider a manga paperback to look like rather than anything published in the UK under the Commando title.

There are six Erikoisnumero books published per year with this particular issue being 1E/10, the first special for 2010 while the standard Korkeajännitys is published once every 6 weeks for a total of 8 issues per year also in same the 4 stories per book format. Erikoisnumero specials published in 2009 included themes of air combat, armoured combat and stories from the German perspective.

There are more current details (in Finnish) at the Egmont Kustannus website for Korkeajannitys and Korkeajännitys: Erikoisnumero.

There are more details of older issues of Korkeajännitys on Mike Eriksson’s excellent Where Eagle’s Dare website which covers not just Commando and Korkeajännitys but many other military themed picture libraries from all over the world and includes a 2004 interview (in English) with Korkeajannitys editor Asko Alanen.

There are more details of the original British Commando which is still being published at the rate of eight per month on the official DC Thomson CommandoMag website.


(* With thanks to Commando editor Calum Laird. All Commando illustrations are © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)

Phantom Patrol: The 2000AD Reprints

Over at Bear Alley Books we're taking a look at how The Phantom Patrol was abridged and adapted when it was reprinted in the 2000AD Annual back in the late Seventies and early Eighties.

Trigan Empire The Collection

In 1965, one of the finest of all British comic strips began with a bang… or, rather, a crash. On 18 September, in the debut issue of Ranger, readers were introduced to ‘The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire’ in one of the most bizarre openings of any comic strip. A spacecraft of alien design crashes in the Florida Everglades… the inhabitants are humanoid but twice the height of the average human. The craft and its dead pilots are studied intensely, as are a collection of records written in a wholly alien language. One man, Richard Peter Haddon, spends seventy years on the task before he is finally able to translate the first of these records, the first book that related the founding of the Trigan Empire.

Ranger was absorbed into the educational magazine Look and Learn after only 40 weeks, but the adventures of the Trigan Empire were to continue until 1982, a run of 17 years.

The story was written by Mike Butterworth, a thirteen-year veteran of comic scriptwriting and long-time editor at Fleetway Publications, the publishers of Ranger. Butterworth, who had recently turned freelance, worked with Leonard Matthews—head of the juvenile publications department—to create a range of strips for the new paper. It was Matthews who found an artist to provide the two colour pages each week. Don Lawrence had produced a story in colour for the 1964 edition of Lion Annual which led to a colour strip for Bible Story. Impressed, Matthews asked to meet the artist and Lawrence was invited to draw the strip. With the occasional break, Lawrence drew the strip until 1976.

The story was set on the distant planet of Elekton where a war was about to break out between the technologically advanced Lokan race and its neighbours on the continent of Victris. The heroes of the story were three brothers who led one of the nomadic tribes that wandered the harsh deserts and mountain passes of Vorg. Trigo, Brag and Klud were each very different in personality: Klud was a schemer, Trigo a dreamer and Brag a plodder with little imagination. It was Trigo who had the vision to see that the nomadic life of the disparate tribes was soon to be threatened from beyond the borders of Vorg. He also saw a solution: bring together the tribes and create a city, gaining strength and security from unity.

Trigan City was built after many setbacks, thanks in part to the aid of a scientist fleeing from neighbouring Tharv. Peric, who is also an architect, helps create the mighty city and assists when Vorg is attacked by the Lokans. By capturing the Lokan air fleet, Trigo averts disaster, foils the invasion and—as they now have a strong military presence on Victris—begins expanding his empire. Not through military might but by offering protection to, and trade with, other nations. Trigan City becomes the hub of the globe-spanning Trigan Empire.

Comparisons with Rome are inevitable: the title itself was inspired by Edward Gibbon’s 18th century study, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; if the title hasn’t stuck, most people remember it for its mixture of horse-riding warriors, Roman and Greek architecture, slave, gladiatorial games and modern war machines.

Although Trigo was not a warmonger, he never backed off from a fight and, over the next few years, the Trigan Empire would have to contend with spies in their midst, battles against rogue states, the ever-present Lokan underground, who emerged regularly to attack the empire, and alien invaders; it was probably the first science fiction epic in British comics in which the hero gets married and has children (with, of course, disastrous consequences when one falls under the thrall of an alien). To broaden the scope of the stories, Butterworth and Lawrence introduced the Emperor Trigo’s nephew, Janno, and his two friends, Roffa and Keren, all three pilots in the Trigan Air Fleet.

For eleven years, with the occasional break, Butterworth and Lawrence charted the rise of Trigo’s empire. And, despite many pitfalls, it was a rise that saw the look of Trigan City change dramatically over the years. As story followed story, readers were able to see how the empire was developing, from its relatively humble horse-riding—or kreed-riding as it was on Elekton— beginnings to the development of motorised transport, roads and monorails criss-crossing the once desolate plains. Tower blocks rose in parts of Trigan City, blocking from sight the villas that dotted the hills. Nuclear power and space travel were amongst the scientific advances made by Trigan scientists.

Lawrence filled his frames with imaginative detail, whether it was a crowded marketplace or a sun-drenched landscape. More importantly, he was a master of archetypes when it came to drawing people: his elderly patriarchs had brows furrowed by the weight of years, the enemies of the empire looked evil, sneaky, angry, greedy and cunning; the heroes, by contrast, were virile in the Hollywood tradition of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn.

The partnership between Lawrence and Butterworth was one of the finest ever in British comics. The two men only ever met twice—which was perhaps for the best as their second meeting ended in a heated, drink-fuelled argument, thankfully some years after the partnership was dissolved. Lawrence departed in 1976 after discovering that the Trigan Empire strip was being syndicated successfully around Europe; neither of the creators received a share in this success and Lawrence, despite having won an award sponsored by his publisher acknowledging him to be their finest artist, was offered a meagre pay rise. Impulsively, Lawrence quit.

The latter years of the strip were produced by a succession of artists. Ron Embleton, Miguel Quesada and Philip Corke had all stepped in other the years to fill-in when Lawrence required a holiday, but Oliver Frey was the first permanent replacement, drawing the strip until 1978 when Gerry Wood took over. These final stories were penned by Ken Roscoe, under whom the Trigan Empire became more of a galactic empire with many stories taking place off-planet.

‘The Trigan Empire’ remains one of the most popular comic strips ever to appear in the UK. Its appearance in Look and Learn, purchased by parents with ambitions for their children rather than out of the pocket money of the intended audience, meant that it was one of the most widely seen of all picture strips; Look and Learn could be found in many schools and waiting rooms; being an educational magazine, copies were often kept, sometimes in the binders offered by the publisher, for years. The occasional reprint—by Fleetway in 1973, Hamlyn in 1978 and Hawk Books in 1989—has kept the story alive for a newer generation. Abroad, most notably in Holland, it is still possible to buy the complete series in album form. An ambitious project to release the complete Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence era stories as a set of twelve deluxe volumes, begun in 2004, should see completion in 2009.

Over twenty-five years after its demise, The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire remains as magnificent and glorious as ever, one of the finest stories ever told.

Trigan Empire 1: The Invaders from Gallas. Oosterhaut, Don Lawrence Collection, Jan 2009.

The Trigan Empire 2: Revolution in Zabriz. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Mar 2007.

The Trigan Empire 3: The Reign of Thara. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Nov 2006.

The Trigan Empire 4: The Three Princes. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, May 2006.

The Trigan Empire 5: The Red Death. Oosterhaut, Don Lawrence Collection, Apr 2008.

The Trigan Empire 6: The Puppet Emperor. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Nov 2007.

The Trigan Empire 7: The Rallu Invasion. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Aug 2006.

The Trigan Empire 8: The Prisoner of Zerss. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Aug 2004.

The Trigan Empire 9: The Curse of King Yutta. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Dec 2005.

The Trigan Empire 10: The House of the Five Moons. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Jun 2005.

The Trigan Empire 11: The Sun-Worshippers. Oosterhout, Don Lawrence Collection, Feb 2005.

Trigan Empire 12: The Green Smog. Oosterhaut, Don Lawrence Collection, Jan 2009.

(* Trigan Empire © IPC Media.)

More Picks for 2008

I covered a few reference books last week, so today its the pick of the reprints. 2008 has been one of the best years for reprints of classic British comics ever, with titles covering most of the major genres: football (Roy of the Rovers, Hot-Shot Hamish), science fiction (Rick Random—Space Detective, Jeff Hawke, the latest Dan Dare), historical adventure (Robin Hood, King Arthur, Karl the Viking), war (Commando: Bandits at 12 O'clock, Against All Odds, Let 'Em Have It!, the latest Charley's War), crime (the ongoing James Bond and Modesty Blaise reprints), western (High Noon) and even hospital romance (Love on Ward B).

Notably missing from this mix is humour and girls' comics (although there was a Best of Boyfriend). With the exception of The Broons & Oor Wullie and the annual gathering of old Beano & Dandy material, there's a distinct lack of humour collections. Even the obvious choices (gatherings of strips by Leo Baxendale or Ken Reid, a book of Dudley D. Watkins' Desperate Dan or David Law's Dennis the Menace) seem to have been missed by the reprinters to date. Maybe they've tried and been rebuffed.

It's difficult to choose "the best" from this year's crop because my choice would include some of the books I've been involved in putting together. I was especially proud of the Karl the Viking books: four volumes which can be picked up individually (Karl the Viking Vol. 1: The Sword of Eingar, Karl the Viking Vol. 2: The Powers of Helvud, Karl the Viking Vol. 3: Island of the Monsters, Karl the Viking Vol. 4: Quest of the Long Ships) or as a box-set in a slipcase. Took years to complete this one (as long-time readers will know from the various delays) and I'm proud to have a box-set of 'em on my shelves. The Robin Hood and King Arthur books are, despite glitches, two more I'm very pleased with. I want to see sales of both the Rick Random and High Noon volumes soar so I can do more of them.

Of the ones I've not been involved in, I'd say the second Jeff Hawke volume (Jeff Hawke: The Ambassadors) and the The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s were the most welcome arrivals—the Jeff Hawke for the odd reason that I'd read half of one of the stories (the title story) and have spent years wondering how it ends and the Roy volume because it covered a period when I was reading the originals and, in nostalgia terms, it probably had the biggest impact. Most of the stories reprinted I never saw first time round; the first time I read them was because I was planning to write something about them. Roy I read purely for entertainment and both Hot-Shot Hamish and Charley's War fall into that same read-for-pleasure area (although I was reading Hot-Shot only after he teamed up with Mighty Mouse).

Where do draw the line at what's 'classic' British comics? 2000AD was launched over thirty years ago, not long after Battle Picture Weekly, and now falls into that category. I didn't think much of The Best of 2000AD volume—a missed opportunity if ever there was one—but Rebellion have kept up a steady output of classic reprints. The Judge Dredd volumes probably lead the pack, although I'd also include Nikolai Dante in my list of favourites, mostly on the grounds of John M. Burns' gorgeous artwork.

So that's a rough idea of my own favourites from the year. A bit of a random selection admittedly but each chosen for different reasons—some because I'm like everyone else and love re-reading great old stories that I read years ago and others because I'm excited by the opportunity to present them to readers who might not have seen them before. I'll also add a little caveat that I've not seen all the books that have appeared this year; review copies seem to be getting scarcer as publishers start to look after the pennies. If your book hasn't been included, give your publisher a nudge and get them to send over a copy for review.

High Noon

Released by Prion Books on 6 October 2008. I'm especially proud of this one. Unlike the war volumes which I've edited this year, I've tried to highlight the work of a handful of artists in the pages of High Noon, so the contents are heavily biased towards Gerry Embleton, Jesus Blasco and Alberto Breccia, with 4 stories each from Embleton and Blasco and 3 by Breccia, plus a story apiece by Sergio Tarquinio and Jorge Macabich.

My thanks to Gary Dobbs for permission to reprint the review he wrote for his Tainted Archive blog.

Order your copy from Amazon.co.uk.

HIGH NOON
Reviewed by Garry Dobbs
(originally published at Tainted Archive)

I've been eager to get this book—I love comic books and it's been years and years since I've been able to buy a new western comic book, apart from the odd western centric Commando title of course. I visited Borders for this on the day of publication but they didn't have it. Strange when they had other titles from the publisher out the same day. Maybe they think western titles—even comic book ones—are out of fashion and won't sell with the graphic novel buying audience. If so they are fools: this book is aimed at the adult reader yearning for nostalgia and there are loads of us who'd want this book. As soon as I heard of plans for this book months ago I've been longing to get in into my hands.

Several more visits and still nothing and in the end I ordered from Amazon. I've got it now but am disappointed that it wasn't available in store. I really want this title to do well so there are more and more volumes.

The cover's a bit naff—the fellow with the yellow shirt looks like he's been badly photoshopped in and seem out of perspective with the rider on the reared horse behind. The yellow shirt guy is also on the spine but works better placed here. The back cover picture is okay and sums up the danger and excitement of the comic book wild west.

That's just a minor niggle but the cover doesn't come across as well deigned as Steve Holland's War Picture Library collections. With comic books the art is half the story after all. A more serious moan is that the book doesn't contain original publication dates nor artist and author details. I know the writers and artists were not credited in those days so perhaps the information was lost to time. I recognised some of the art as similar to that seen in both Battle and Warlord comics so the artists here must have been jobbing around a lot of publications.

There are 13 stories in all and following a great introduction from the editor we are thrown into the thick of the action with the first story, “Davy Crockett and the Paddleboat Pirates”.

To my mind this was the weakest story in the book as it's not western enough. Apart from the inclusion of Crockett, a western icon, the story is basically a naval battle tale. It's a good story but could have been left out in favour of a more traditional Crockett strip. Still I enjoyed it and it does add variety to the mix.

Next up, “The Gun Crew”, is excellent. Two brothers Fletcher and Martin Lane are part of a posse in pursuit of the vicious Keegan gang. The brothers have more reason than most for wanting to stop the gang as they were responsible for the death of their folks. When the posse are forced to turn back after the gang robbed their replacement horses, the brothers go on alone and are soon working for the Kansas Kid crew gathering cattle after learning that the gang are to rob the town bank after the cattle crews pay their money in at the end of the season.

This story is the traditional western in its perfect form and contains some great gunfights, stampedes and a final thrilling showdown in the Hollywood style. There are some evocative scenery shots and moody character scenes within the black and white frames. Shows how skilled UK comic book artists (who unlike their American counterparts didn't have colour to play with) were in using shadow and shading to create atmosphere. The writing style too is pacey and typical of the British writers of the period. I'm guessing these tales come from the mid to late Seventies as I recognise some of the styles and I was a voracious comic book reader back then.

“Kit Carson and The Man Who Hated Redskins” is the third offering. When the army captures Swift Arrow, son of Cherokee chief Many Clouds, Kit Carson says they should let the young brave go as they are on the verge of peace with the indians. However Colonel Dexter refuses and then his own son is kidnapped by the Cherokee. The Colonel is willing to deal a son for a son until a riverboat trader comes in and informs the colonel that his son is dead. Kit Carson doesn't trust the trader and feels he is provoking an Indian war for his own ends. Carson goes renegade and finds himself at odds with both the army and the indians as ne battles to avert a major indian war. This is another great all action story. The real Kit Carson is a legendary figure and his comic book adventures surely must equal anything the great man ever faced in reality.

Story number four is “The Kansas Kid and the Frisco Racketeers”. The Kansas Kid featured as a character in the second story, The Gun Crew. I'm thinking maybe that story was the character's first appearance and that he proved so popular that he was brought back as a titular character. This Kansas Kid adventure is once again excellent.

Before the fifth story, “Buck Jones and the Apache Manhunt” there is a three page feature called Wild West Scrapbook which is a collection of facts—one entry says that John Chisum, the cattle king of New Mexico always slept on a blanket on the floor. His expensive bed was just for show and much too soft for the outdoors man. Another tells us of the danger gopher holes would present to the cowboys on the range and were responsible for a lot of horse's breaking their legs. These little snippets were originally intended as filler material but they often offer quite priceless snippets of trivia.

Which takes us into the fifth story—Buck Jones, Sheriff of Alkali City is dismayed to discover that a band of rustlers have been stealing cattle from the local Apache group. Worried that this will upset the fragile peace between the whites and the indians, Buck goes out to capture the rustlers before the indians start another war. The plot thickens though when the army sends out an assassin in the shape of old timer Virgil Salt to kill Black Knife who is leading Apache war parties in retaliation for the rustling.

This story is a thrilling adventure featuring outlaws and indians there is a sub-plot running through the narrative about growing old and becoming useless in a hostile land. This is another of the longer stories, split into chapters, and provides a great read.

There also indian trouble in the next story “Kit Carson and the Cheyenne War”. This one's sees a new commander come into the fort and Carson is dismayed to find that the man is an indian hater and wants to stir up a war so he can claim more indian scalps.

The strip unfolds in the usual pacey fashion and there is much action as Kit Carson goes between both sides in order to prevent a full scale Cheyenne war. As in evident from the images here the artwork is all incredibly detailed and yet the guy's drawing these pictures were jobbing artists who had to turn work out at supersonic rates in order to make ends meet. Quite often an artist would be working for two or three publications at the same time. The writing is also top knotch and the fact that the Cowboy Picture Library were the one story each issue spread over the entire digest sized book meant that there was room to tell a good story.

This story is surprisingly violent in sections. The scene where the army commander starts off a war by whipping an indian chief is a case in point.

In his introduction to the book editor, Steve Holland, talks about the days when Buck Jones, Tim Holt and Gene Autry were the western stars of the silver screen. And these tales are all of the ilk that could have fitted into the confines of those old B-westerns. There are never any shades of grey. The good guys wear the white hats and the bad guys the black. And a redskin could never win against a white and were made to do what the white man told them because he knew better. It may be simplistic by the standards of today but if the reader can get in the correct mind set then this book provides some thrilling western reading.

Next up the Kansas Kid returns for the “Brand of the Double D”. Unlike Buck Jones (played by Charles Gebhart in scores of movies) and Kit Carson and Davy Crockett, the Kansas Kid was a wholly fictional character created in the pages of Cowboy Comics which, for many years, was the most successful western comic in the UK.

Buck Jones returns in the next story “The Man from Montana”. Another all action story starring the silver screen's tough cow hand. I noticed from this story that the artwork is darker than the tone used in the rest of the book and on the art stakes it is one of the stand out storys.

This is followed by another of the Wild West scrapbook features. This time a four page section with some good, I didn't know that, snippets.

And then we are straight into the return of Davy Crockett and “the Duel with Danger”.

This is very much the Davy Crockett from the Walt Disney action movie, King of the Wild Frontier. A tall heroic man wearing a coonskin hat and carrying a musket and not the complicated and often cruel loner and patriot that he was in reality. Thankfully the setting for this story is much more traditional than the Crockett story that opened the book and, to my mind, works all the better for it.

If I want to read Crockett I want him out on the wild frontier, befriending good indians and taking on hostile ones, battling the dangers of nature, exposing crooked soldiers, prospectors etc and basically making sure all is right with the world. Thankfully this tale is of that ilk and provides a rollicking, boy's own adventure in the early days of the West.

The next story, “Kit Carson Indian Tamer”, gets my vote for the best art of the entire collection. Click on the image from this story to see the frames in full size and marvel at the incredible detail in the shading of the black and white images. Carson himself, in this story, looks like a world weary man and the entire tale has a very sombre tone.

The story sees the Tonto Apaches in a state of transition. The great chief, Yellow Shirt has died leaving the tribe leaderless. There are braves who want to take his place including Burning Lance, Yellow Shirt's son, who has a hatred of the whites and wants to see his people become warriors again. Most of the tribe think they need to make peace with the whites now that the great chief is dead but his son is furious and says that his father's war against the white invaders must continue.

Kicking off and it's another Buck Jones tale but this time the sheriff is a supporting character and the story centres on deputy Buck Armstrong. Again the artwork is brooding and the action fast and furious.

Davy Crockett returns in “Ricaree”. Crockett is on the trail of Josiah Cannon, an arms trader who has been selling arms to the indians. When Crockett catches up with the desperado he is sheltering with the Ricaree indians. Crockett is friendly with the tribe but since Cannon has married a Ricaree squaw he is now a Ricaree himself and the indians will only hand him over to another Ricaree. Not fancying the idea of marrying a squaw, Crockett instead elects to take the endurance test to see himself become a Ricaree which will enable him to capture Cannon without provoking an all out war. Crockett starts out on a series of tasks, each more dangerous than the one before. These involve being thrown into a torrential river with one's hands bound, racing two horses while bound between them and scaling a deadly mountain in order to get an eagle's feather.

It's all very exciting and keeps up the high standard set by the rest of this collection .

Kit Carson rounds off the book with the final tale, “The Trail of Treachery” in which Kit finds himself pitted against Gilt Halliday and Rod Clanton as he tries to help a wagon trail through hostile indian territory.

This is a perfect story to end the collection since it contains all of the ingredients so important to a truly classic traditional western. It's all here—buffalo hunts, bush fires, full scale indian attacks and at one point Carson is captured by the indians who blame the people of the wagon train for killing the chief's son.

All in all High Noon is a brilliant collection, all the better for how rare it is that these old western tales are printed. One of the comments on an earlier part of this review said: now we can read the comics our father's used to read.

And isn't that just wonderful!

High Noon is a great collection of 13 tales drawn from the dim and distant past—reprinted larger than their original size they can once again shine. And boy do they illuminate a brilliance in retro storytelling of the mythical wild west we all grew up with.

In conclusion I love this book and the selection of stories cover pretty much all of the genre conventions remembered from the B-movies and pulp novels. When these stories were originally written the second world war was not that far gone, Television was in its infancy, John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Roy Rogers were cinema stars, much of the once wild west was as it had been back in the day and that's incredible. This book is not only great entertainment for anyone wanting a nostalgic view of the western but essential for anyone wanting to know more about the history of the comic book.

I stated that I had problems finding the book instore but it is available at Amazon for a price cheaper than the cover price.

So buy it—you'll be glad you did.

Order your copy from Amazon.co.uk.

Contents

Davy Crockett & the Paddleboat Pirates (CPL 323, Sep 1959) Art: Gerry Embleton.
The Gun Crew (CPL 439, Feb 1962) Art: Alberto Breccia.
Kit Carson and the Man Who Hated Redskins (CPL 353, May 1960) Art: Jesus Blasco.
Kansas Kid and the 'Frisco Racketeers (CPL 396, Mar 1961) Art: Gerry Embleton.
Buck Jones and the Apache Manhunt (CPL 402, May 1961) Art: Alberto Breccia.
Kit Carson and the Cheyenne War (CPL 389, Feb 1961) Art: Jesus Blasco.
Kansas Kid and the Brand of the Double-D (CPL 332, Nov 1959) Art: Jorge Macabich.
Buck Jones and the Man from Montana (CPL 386, Jan 1961) Art: Jesus Blasco.
Davy Crockett and the Duel With Danger (CPL 331, Nov 1959) Art: Sergio Tarquinio.
Kit Carson—Indian Tamer (CPL 349, Apr 1960) Art: Gerry Embleton.
The Hunter (Buck Jones) (CPL 410, Jul 1961) Art: Alberto Breccia.
Davy Crockett—Ricaree! (CPL 339, Jan 1960) Art: Gerry Embleton.
The Trail of Treachery (Kit Carson) (CPL 401, May 1961) Art: Jesus Blasco.

Synopsis

Whooping Injuns, wandering cowpokes, grizzled prospectors, mysterious hombres in sombreros and masked outlaws—this is the untamed West of our childhoods, where the heroes are rugged and honest, the villains are yellow-bellied cowards and only the toughest survive. From the Great Plains to dusty Texan trails and lawless prospecting towns, every thrilling story in this book is jam packed with gunfights, jaw busting saloon punch ups, racing stagecoaches and tomahawk throwing varmints. So saddle up partner, grab your six-gun and prepare to ride into town.

Publicity

full bleed, front & back covers

Promo cover for Carlton sales catalogue

Reviews

Links to Gary's original review at The Tainted Archive (part 1, part 2, part 3)

Flagrant self-promotion: The Art of War

(* With Christmas approaching I'm planning to flagrantly promote some of my own books over the next few days just in case there are newcomers to Bear Alley who may not be aware of them and oldcomers who may still be wondering which books they want from Santa. Rather than just re-post the original columns for each book, I've expanded them with some mini-essays and other bits 'n' bobs which I hope you'll enjoy.)

The Art of War

Fifty years ago, Fleetway Publications let slip the dogs of war and unleashed a phenomenon. The year was 1958 and Britain's biggest publisher was the Amalgamated Press who, since the lifting of paper restrictions after the war, had been expanding the number of titles they published each month. One of the first had created a whole new way of printing comics: the pocket library. This was a handy format, about the size of a paperback and slim enough to slip into your jacket pocket during school. The A.P. had used it for many years for reprinting text stories from their story papers but never for comics… until 1950 when they wanted to launch a new title and found that the only printing machine with spare capacity was the one used for their romance and crime libraries.

Thus was born the “picture library”, launched without any publicity with the first issue of Cowboy Comics, which proved so successful that others—Thriller Comics, Famous Romance, Super Detective—soon followed.

Thriller was a notable success. Originally it had concentrated on the historical adventures of Robin Hood and Dick Turpin and adaptations of many classic novels. By 1956, tastes had veered away from historical yarns and a new band of adventurers were introduced, starting with Battler Britton, a World War II flying ace. Before long, he was joined by Dogfight Dixon of the Royal Flying Corps, who was essentially a Battler for the Great War, and wartime special agent Spy 13.

The popularity of these stories meant that tales of war began to dominate Thriller Picture Library. It wasn’t long before a new title, War Picture Library, was released to cash in on their popularity. It was an immediate success and was followed over the next couple of years by Air Ace Picture Library (January 1960), Battle Picture Library (January 1961), Commando (published by rivals D. C. Thomson from June 1961) and War at Sea Picture Library (February 1962). The monthly schedule for these titles—bar War at Sea, which folded after only 36 issues—also began to leap: starting with only two titles per month, War Picture Library expanded to four per month in February 1960, rose to six a month in 1968, eight per month in 1971, 10 per month in 1974 and peaked at 12 titles a month in 1975-80. To put this into perspective, in 1962 the libraries editorial team were responsible for 44 new issues a month containing over 2,500 pages of artwork.

The men behind the launch of War Picture Library included Editor Alf Wallace who had been with the firm for around twenty years, rising from the ranks of sub-editor on titles like Radio Fun and Comet. Val Holding, until 1957 to be found walking the floors at Gamages department store, added his first-hand knowledge serving with the Parachute Regiment to the team which also included ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot Trevor Newton who was responsible for the design of the new books.

They were soon joined by Ted Bensberg—a Sergeant with the Royal Signals during the war—who was the guide the War Picture Library through its heyday as editor and managing editor until the title folded nearly thirty years later.

The writers—ranging from Norman Worker, who spent his war years with the Royal Armoured Corps, to Colin Thomas, a colonel with the Ghurkha regiment in the Far East—brought their experiences to the page which added a level of authenticity not often found in modern war stories. The most prolific writers were Donne Avenell, A. Carney Allan (who had served with the Black Watch in World War I), Roger Clegg and Douglas Leach, all of whom turned out countless stories of astonishing action.

The artists were drawn from across Europe but particularly Italy where Nevio Zeccara and Gino D'Antonio set the standard for the many artists who followed. And who can forget the extraordinary talents of artists like Giorgio De Gaspari, Nino Caroselli and Allessandro Biffignandi whose artwork graced the covers of War Picture Library, capturing in a single image the pain and the glory that every Tommy endured to bring victory to the Allies in those dark years.

The success of these books was astonishing and it is worth examining them in the context of the times. The youngsters spending their pocket money on these books—which were quite pricey at one shilling (5p) each—were the baby boomers born during the increasingly affluent 1950s. It took almost a decade for wartime rationing to be dismantled and it was not until the mid-1950s that books began to appear in any number relating to events during the war. It is little wonder that children whose fathers and grandfathers had been through the war would be keen to get a taste of the action themselves. Every issue of the war libraries contained a complete thrilling adventure which, when finished, could be swapped for other issues.

The Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway Publications and, later still, IPC Magazines) eventually folded their range of titles in the mid-1980s, a reflection on the falling sales of all comics at that time. Higher production costs and more competition for pocket money meant that even reprinting old stories two or three times was uneconomical. Commando, from rival D. C. Thomson, continued and is still going strong, with over 4,000 issues under its utility belt.

In 2005, a reprint volume of old Commando stories entitled The Dirty Dozen became a surprise hit and has led to a steady stream of other reprints taken from the pages of Commando, War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library. The latest titles, Against All Odds, Panic at 12 O’clock and Let ‘Em Have It! are in the shops now and there seems to be no end in sight, with further new titles already planned for 2009.

Twenty years after the last of the IPC war libraries folded, a stockpile of original cover artwork was found in a warehouse; the artwork accompanying this article shows is from the original boards, photographed soon after their rediscovery. The artwork has subsequently been used as the basis for two books, Aarrgghh—It’s War and The Art of War.

Unlike a great many more modern war comics, quality and accuracy were the watchwords of the war libraries. Editors and sub-editors always strove to make sure that the right soldier was holding the right gun for the theatre of war they were in. Staff artists armed with photographs, file copies of Illustrated London News and copies of Jane's made changes where necessary. This attention to detail, the quality of the writing and the skill of the artists all combined to ensure that the war libraries contained some of the best comic strips ever published in the UK.

Comic Cuts

Last week seemed to be an unending round of proofing and rewriting that did finally come to an end late on Sunday night. The good news—and I presume it's good news because I've not heard anything since—is that the latest books from Don Lawrence Collection are now at the printers. These include the Karl the Viking box-set and the next two Storm—The Collection books. That's six books in all.

What else...? I've been chasing up a few last pictures for the Sci-Fi Art: A Graphic History book and am doing a couple of short pieces for another upcoming Ilex project due next March, called War Stories: A Graphic History.

The big task for the next couple of weeks is putting together the introductions for the next two Trigan Empire—The Collection volumes, namely volumes 1 and 12, which will complete the set reprinting all the strips by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence. We've been working on this since the summer of 2003, so it's the culmination of five years hard slog. That's a story for another day but I will just say that I've spent all day trying to explain how a tiny moon of Elekton was actually a space ship. For long-time fans of the strip, it all has something to do with the image at the top of the column... for everyone else, you'll just have to buy the book.

Talking about books you must buy...

The Hot-Shot Hamish Annual 2009. Black & White Publishing ISBN 978-1845022112, 2 October 2008.
Hot Shot Hamish is one of Britain's all-time most popular football comic heroes. For twenty years, the adventures of Hamish Balfour - the gentle giant with the hottest shot in the game - appeared in world famous comic strips in "Scorcher", "Tiger" and "Roy of the Rovers". It was the golden age of British comics and this brand new annual relives his greatest moments. When Hot Shot Hamish was brought from a remote island to play for big-time Princes Park FC, he soon became famous for hitting the ball so hard that it broke the net. With his massive frame, a football shirt that barely fitted, a slightly eccentric father and a pet sheep called McMutton, Hamish's adventures soon established him as a favourite on the terraces and beyond. And with other colourful characters like club manager Ian McWhacker and Scotland manager Mr McBossy, Hot Shot Hamish and his pals became football legends and heroes to the legions of fans who followed their every move both on and off the pitch."The Hot Shot Hamish Annual" relives Hamish's highlights in glorious technicolour for the very first time.
__Each comic strip has been hand-coloured to make this a unique and nostalgic must-read annual for football fans everywhere.