Rip Solar

(* Here's another feature from the prolific pen of Jeremy Briggs as he investigates...)

RIP SOLAR : Not Just Ranger’s Inter-Planetary Investigator

Ranger was one of Look and Learn’s siblings. Launched in September 1965 it had a larger number of comic strips than its older brother, the best known being "The Rise And Fall Of The Trigan Empire". After forty issues Ranger was amalgamated into Look and Learn taking Trigan Empire and several other comic strips with it, including "Space Cadet" painted in colour by Geoff Campion.

Yet "Space Cadet", featuring the character of Jason January, was not Campion’s only Ranger strip. From 19 February to 30 April 1966, Ranger also ran a two page black and white science fiction strip illustrated by Campion entitled "Rip Solar, Inter-Planetary Investigator". It told the story of Major Solar of Space Control and his assistant, Quartermaster Burke, as they battled the climatic damage wrought on Earth by the Shining Planet. Yet any Ranger readers who had read Lion comic six years earlier may have found the story hauntingly familiar. In June 1960, "Captain Condor and the Planet of Destruction" told the story of Captain Condor of Space Patrol and his assistant, Quartermaster Burke, as they also battled the climatic damage wrought on Earth by the Shining Planet.

Captain Condor was Lion’s spaceman character. Created by Frank S Pepper as a rival to Eagle’s Dan Dare, Condor had been appearing in Lion from its first issue dated 23 February 1952. Initially illustrated by Ron Forbes, his art chores passed through the hands of a number of different artists over the years but for the story entitled "The Planet Of Destruction" beginning in the issue of Lion dated 11 June 1960, Geoff Campion was his artist. The story ran for fifteen weeks until the issue dated 17 September 1960 and was to be the last Condor story that Geoff Campion illustrated.

Ranger’s Rip Solar version began at part 2 of the of the original Lion story, and remarkably would skip the fifth original episode and then combine parts 12 & 13 from four pages down to two as well as parts 14 & 15, also reduced from a total of four pages down to two. So the fifteen episode Lion story became an eleven episode Ranger story. Also changed was the lettering. Ranger as a magazine used typed lettering on its strips and therefore the original Lion hand written text boxes and speech bubbles had to be changed. Since the type font was justified, it required a straight line down both the left and right hand sides of the speech and this caused the new bubbles to often be larger than the originals and so cover more of the original art.

While it may seem unusual now, it was not the only time that such renaming and reprinting had taken place in British comics titles over the years. Perhaps the biggest identity crisis happened to Super Detective Library’s Rick Random who became Nick Martin in the Valiant Picture Library reprints of his stories and then changed his name once again to the rather more outlandish Dair Avalon when the same stories were reprinted in the Space Picture Library Holiday Specials.

Perhaps this renaming of characters is what Rip Solar should have really have been investigating.

(* Rip Solar images from Lion, 18 June 1960, and Ranger, 19 February 1966 © IPC Media.)

Comic Firsts: Ron Smith

Yet again, this isn't a first but, like the recent entry on Eric Bradbury, I believe this is the first adventure strip drawn by Ron Smith. This strip dates from 27 January 1951: Smith had already drawn some humour strips for Knockout but the strip below set him on a course that was to see him become one of D. C. Thomson's most prolific adventure artists and, later still, earn him a lot of fans as a regular on Judge Dredd in 2000AD. Wikipedia has a brief list of some of Ron's work for the latter.

(The Flame and the Arrow © IPC Media.)

Mark Trail

Mark Trail was an American newspaper strip, one of a number that were reprinted in British comics in the 1950s. Although enjoyable, the reprints never seemed to quite work -- pasted up they looked like a normal British comics page (which had a rather regimented look at that time) but the pacing of a daily strip was slightly off, something you adjust to if you're reading a reprint that admits to its newspaper origins; I've been reading the latest volumes of James Bond reprints from Titan over the past few evenings and haven't noticed a problem.

Mark Trail appeared featured in three adventures published in Knockout in 1951, the opening storyline seeming to concentrate on Andy rather than Trail's job as a forest patrolman. This doggy theme was continued with the second story, 'Billy's Dog Wagger'...

... although the third storyline was concerned with grizzly bears rather than grizzly children. The character in the original storylines wasn't a forest patrolman, per se, but a photographer and writer (for Woods and Wildlife magazine) who has to deliver a dog (Andy) to 'Doc' Davis and his daughter, Cherry, who live at a wildlife sanctuary called the Lost Forest.

The Mark Trail strip was syndicated by the New York Post and was created by Ed Dodd, first appearing in April 1946 and initially appearing in 45 newspapers. According to Dodd's entry on Wikipedia, the strip was scripted by Dodd and drawn by Tom Hill, enjoying its greatest success in the 1960s when it was syndicated to around 500 newspapers. This brief description is expanded upon by Steve Gurr (in the New Georgia Encyclopedia), which reveals that "Dodd's syndication success created the need for assistants. He hired Jack Davis (who later became famous for his Mad magazine art), Tom Hill, Rhett Carmichael, and Jack Elrod. Dodd turned chiefly to writing the narratives while his assistants did the artwork." Elsewhere (here, in fact, at a gallery exhibition of Mark Trail artwork), we learn that "Tom Hill joined Dodd on the Mark Trail adventure strip in 1948 as an illustrator. In 1950 Jack Elrod joined the team."

It would be interesting to know if anyone recognises the period from which the above strips date (1946-51... that much I can guess myself!) and whether these are indeed drawn by Ed Dodd or by one or other of his assistants.

The New Dan Dare

One door closes...

... another one opens.

Wakefield Carter has posted information and images relating to the new Dan Dare series from Virgin Comics. A long feature by Gary Erskine explains some of the thinking behind the new monthly comic. Talking of the look he has created for Dan, he explains: "Dan Dare himself was tricky. We all had a lot of ideas of how he should look and the expectations were high. The fans also have a particular idea of what Dare should look like! The story is set ten years after the Frank Hampson era (although comic story timelines are notoriously vague) so we had an older Dare to contend with too. After various sketches and actor influences (George Clooney to Gregory Peck) we settled on a stylized hero face indirectly referencing ALL the previous suggestions. The zig zag eyebrows are still there, as is the slicked back hair and chiselled features. And the strong jaw! It wouldn't be Dare without that strong chin and British resolve?"

You'll find much more from behind the scenes by following the above link.

(* Dan Dare © Dan Dare Corporation; images from the new Dan Dare comic © Virgin Comics. The top pic. is from Eagle v.3 no.22 (September 5, 1952), a period when Chad Varah was writing and Harold Johns drawing.)

Chad Varah (1911-2007)

Edward Chad Varah, best known to the world as the founder of the Samaritans organisation in 1953, died yesterday at the age of 95. Born in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, on November 12, 1911, Varah was the eldest of nine children of the Rev. William Edward Varah and his wife Marie (nee Atkinson). His father was the vicar of Barton and his son was named after St. Chad, the founder of the parish.

He studied at Worksop College, Nottinghamshire, and Keble College, Oxford, where he took a degree in politics, philosophy and economics. He was ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1936. As the priest of various parishes in London and in the north of England, he became aware of the isolation and ignorance that children suffered. His first funeral as an assistant curate at St. Giles, Lincoln, was for a 13-year-old girl who had committed suicide, thinking that her menstruation was some awful disease. Varah became a forthright supporter of sex education for children -- against the prevailing attitudes of the time -- and was accused of being a dirty old man before the age of 25. In later years he was a contributor to the sex magazine Forum and Penthouse Forum.

He was curate of Putney (1938-40), marrying Doris Susan Whanslow in January 1940 shortly before becoming curate at Barrow-in-Furness (1940-42). The young couple had a daughter, followed soon after (in 1944) by the birth of triplets, all sons; a fourth son followed. By now, Varah was vicar of Blackburn (1942-49) and to help earn extra money had taken on editorship of the diocesan magazine, The Crosier, which brought him into contact with the Rev. Marcus Morris. The two helped found Interim, through which they were able to buy first-class articles for syndication.

Morris had notions of creating a national boys' weekly comic and Varah was one of his keenest supporters, writing article for free for Morris's magazine The Anvil so that money could be saved for the new project. Relocated as vicar of St. Paul, Clapham Junction, in 1949, Varah was in London when The Eagle was launched and he became one of the paper's most prolific contributors, working late into the night after a full day of parish work and as Chaplain of St. John's Hospital, Battersea.

Varah's contributions ranged from the serial adventure 'Plot Against the World', which began in the first issue to back-cover biographical strips about St. Patrick (1951), Alfred the Great (1953-54), the conquest of Everest (1954), David Livingstone (1957) and others. Some of his best work can be seen in 'Mark the Youngest Disciple' (1954-55), drawn by Giorgio Bellavitis, and 'The Travels of Marco Polo' (1959), drawn by Frank Bellamy and Peter Jackson.

Varah also worked on the paper's front cover strip, Dan Dare, describing his contribution as "scientific and astronautical consultant," scrutinizing the artwork to make sure that Dan did nothing that was scientifically impossible. He was the scriptwriter on the Dan Dare adventure Marooned on Mercury. (1952-53).

Varah also found himself working on other items, "doing scrappy bits or short stories which didn't give me the satisfaction of the back page." One such was the Ripley's-style feature 'It Couldn't Happen... But It Did!' (1951): "It was an immense labour finding incidents which could be scripted under this heading, as they had to be verdical. I remember my favourite one was of someone who had jumped out of a blazing aircraft at 20,000 feet and landed unharmed in a deep snowdrift."

When Girl was launched in 1951, Varah became a heavy contributor there, scripting the back-cover biographies for ten years. His last contributions appeared shortly after the takeover of Hulton Press by Fleetway Publications and the departure of editor-in-chief Clifford Makins.

Makins, whose wife died in 1993, is survived by four of his children, one son having died in April this year.

A lengthy biographical article about Varah can be found at the website of the Samaritans.

Further information: BBC News (8 November), Daily Telegraph (9 November), Guardian (9 November), The Independent (9 November), Down the Tubes (9 November).

Obituaries: The Times (10 November), Daily Telegraph (10 November), The Independent (10 November), The Guardian (10 November).

(* Photo and quotes are from Varah's autobiography, Before I Die Again, London, Constable, 1992; Eagle illustrations are © Dan Dare Corporation)

Comic Firsts: Eric Bradbury

In what's becoming the grand tradition of 'Comic Firsts', the strip below isn't the first strip drawn by Eric Bradbury by a long shot -- but it is, I believe, his first adventure strip. Lucky Logan, the happy-go-lucky cowboy, first appeared in Knockout no. 756 (August 22, 1953).

At 4 pages a week, Lucky Logan was twice the length of most adventure strips in Knockout and a second artist came in a couple of issues later to alternate with Bradbury. Mike Western was already a friend of Bradbury's, the two having worked together at G.B. Animation; when the latter closed down, Mike went off to join Halas & Batchelor to work on Animal Farm whilst Bradbury went to the Amalgamated Press, working with Ron Clark on humour strips. His first job was a filler called Blossom and here, as a bonus, is the very first Blossom strip, published in Knockout no. 612, undated but printed in August 1950.

(* Lucky Logan and Blossom are © IPC Media)

Inside Information [Leslie Ashwell Wood]

Back in March I wrote a brief piece about Leslie Ashwell Wood which opened up a little can of worms regarding how little was actually known about him and his work. One aspect of his later career that came in for discussion was his work for Benwig Books, which Ashwell Wood owned around 1970/71.

Richard Shaef has recently sent me some scans of the final four Benwig books produced by Wood which I'm reproducing here as they seem to be quite scarce -- I don't recall ever seeing them; mind you, in 1970 I was more likely to be lurking around the fiction shelves of our local library than the non-fiction.

These were the last four published, undated but probably in 1971. It is known that Benwig filed their last returns in 1970/71 and probably went out of business following the publication of these last books. The company remained in existence, although inactive, until 1995. Ashwell Wood died in 1973.

(* My thanks to Richard for the scans. Two further titles can be seen in the original post, linked above.)

Captain Kidd, Buccaneer

We're trying to identify a few last mystery strips that appeared in some of the 1950s British pocket libraries and I'm appealing for help with this one.

Captain Kidd, Buccaneer was the title when it appeared in Thriller Comics #96 and we think it may have been an American newspaper strip although that's something of a stab in the dark. Can anyone identify the strip or the artist? The only firm information I can offer is that this reprint appeared in August 1955 and, presumably, the original dates from some time in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

UPDATE (10 December 2007)

Mark-André has dropped Bear Alley a line -- see Comments -- with the answer... it's not an American newspaper strip at all but a strip from the French comic Vailant called "Le Cormoran". Serialised in 1948, it was drawn by Lucien Nortier and written by Jean Ollivier.

Mark-André also sent over the above scan of the strip as it originally appeared. So much better than the chopped up version that appeared over here. Many thanks to Mark-André.

Comics Britannia Rule! at the ICA

The series of talks at the ICA yesterday (Sunday, 4 November) were a great success, I'm pleased to say. A small but perfectly formed audience were on hand for three talks. Having planned the trip down to the last second, I managed to arrive late and missed the first half of the opening act about girls' comics which proved to be quite a lively discussion judging by the latter half.

We -- that's David Roach, David Kendall and myself -- were up next and after a battle with the laptop, which kept crashing when we tried to load pictures, we managed to jabber on for 70 minutes about war comics, mostly concentrating on the old war libraries but rambling over various other aspects of war comics from their use as propaganda to why they're still popular today. I doubt if we managed to shed any great light on the subject but it was far less nervewracking than I expected.

Having wandered off to chat to people and sign anything that needed signing we subsequently missed the first half of the next panel which was Pat Mills and Gerry Finley-Day talking about their time on comics, both girls' and boys', and then Pat and Kev O'Neill talking about pretty much the same subjects. There were some fascinating insights into the editorial workings of putting comics together and it proved so popular that they managed to overrun by half an hour.

From the reaction in the bar later I think everyone enjoyed the event and the only regrets I have are (a) not having enough time to talk to everyone who came, although it was great to see Charlotte Fawley, Ramon Sola, Simon Jowett, Richard Sheaf, Rufus Dayglo and others, and (b) that I forgot to dig out my camera when Pat, Gerry and Kev were talking so that I had some photos to show off. But those regrets aside, it proved to be an interesting experience as it's the first time I've been on a panel for years (I think the last time was at one of the Glasgow Comic Conventions about 15 years ago, or maybe one we did at one or other of the Paperback & Pulp Book Fairs).

Jeremy Hardy

Tonight's gig saw the return to Colchester of Jeremy Hardy and a full house. I apologise for the worse than usual photo but we were at the back of the hall and I hate to use the flash when somebody is in full swing.

Anyway, Jeremy Hardy. Brilliant comedian. Love his stuff on radio -- he's best known for appearing on The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue but has also produced a long-running series of almost-monologues called Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation; all of these turn up regularly on BBC7 so there's no excuse for you not to try and catch some of his genius.

Trying to figure out why I particularly like Hardy I discover that we're almost the same age (nine months difference), we're both left of centre politically, both non-religious and we've both written for The Guardian, although I suspect he was paid more and on time while I'm still waiting to be paid for something I wrote eleven months ago. And there's the difference: if I make a complaint I sound belligerent, where Jeremy Hardy would make it funny. I simmer with indignation and he would be able to turn that into a sharply-barbed one-liner. That's why he's a comedian and I've got high blood pressure.

As he spends most of his act talking about politics and religion you might expect some fire and brimstone. These are, I suspect, quite deeply held beliefs for Hardy -- not every observation that he makes has a punch line -- but he doesn't need to stalk around the stage, shaking his fist and battering your ear drums, delivering his beliefs as The True Nature Of Things; he stands, centre-stage and talks calmly and smiles and fluffs his lines sometimes and loses his place because he's wandered off the original subject and that's fine; it's almost like he's explaining something over the dinner table. Maybe some of that calm will sink in, although I know for sure that the only gag people will actually be able to repeat to their friends will be the last one he told. (Which I won't spoil by telling here.)

Two comedy shows in two nights both very different and both very good. An excellent way to relax before tomorrow's talk. (And if you ask, I might tell you that joke.)

Commando on the cheap

Our local Book Works remainder shop has just had the latest offerings from SevenOaks, an arm of Carlton Books that release cheap editions of some of their titles. The two titles of interest not long out are Commando: The 12 Toughest Commando Stories Ever (ISBN 9781862004597) and Commando: The Best 12 Aussie and Kiwi War Stories Ever (ISBN 9781862004764).

These are new editions of Commando: True Brit and Commando: ANZACS At War, the former released last year and the latter also sharing a 2006 copyright date although I have an idea it wasn't released until earlier this year in Australia/New Zealand; it only appeared over here around August time.

Jeremy Briggs gave me the heads up to these a few days ago and pointed out a couple of points of interest: The True Brit reprint (which does note the previous title it was issued under) is in its 4th printing and the ANZACS book in its second. But the very first Commando book they put out, Commando: The Dirty Dozen has had at least 10 printings -- 7 as Dirty Dozen (Carlton), 2 from SevenOaks and a softcover BCA edition.

The other bit of good news (for me) is that, although we're still waiting for Death or Glory to come through, I'm seeing the Unleash Hell volume all over. It keeps mysteriously appearing in prominent places in various bookshops around Colchester as does The Bumper Book of Look and Learn. Curious, eh?

Comic Cuts

Back in August I did some digging around into current circulation figure for comics. I'm going back to the well because I've just taken a look at the latest circulations (Jan-Jun 2007) for D. C. Thomson titles. The combined circulation of Beano and Dandy is now 99,987 (but with an estimated readership of 664,000 -- or 6.64 readers for every copy sold). This is down on the figures for Jul-Dec 2006, which was a combined circulation of 112,980, a drop of 11.5%, which is a pretty sharp decline.

When I started compiling these figures, the Beano was selling 66% of the combined figure, which equates to a circulation of 66,591. For Dandy the figure is 33,396. I think these figures are probably in the right ballpark; the figures don't take into account the relaunch of Dandy as Dandy Xtreme which occurred in early August 2007.

It's when we turn to the BeanoMax that things get really interesting. Thomson have announce a real circulation figure for once: 60,490 (and an estimated readership of 116,000). Why this is so interesting is that it is higher than the 45,000 circulation I estimated last July. Indeed, the combined circulations of the three titles has risen, from 157,980 (Jul-Dec 2006) to 160,477 (Jan-Jun 2007) and it seems the BeanoMax is responsible, increasing its circulation by a third in six months. It also means that the monthly BeanoMax is selling nearly as many copies as its elder weekly sibling.

So there's some light in the gloom that usually comes from playing around with sales figures. Will the new magazine format and longer (fortnightly) shelf life of the Dandy Xtreme help sales? One would expect so but we shall just have to wait until we can crunch some numbers.

* The Comics Go To War Tour 2007: yes, David Roach and I are live at the ICA tomorrow afternoon. In fact, the whole afternoon is given over to British comics from 2.30 to 7.00 pm. Here's the line-up:

I Love Girls' Comics: From School Friend to Photo-Love (2.30 to 3.30pm)
Writer and performer Stella Duffy, Jane Purcell, author of the Radio 4 play 43 Years in the Third Form, Unskinny cartoonist Lucy Sweet and others relish the heydays of Girl, Bunty, My Guy and more and reflect on their lessons and legacies. Hosted by Dr Mel Gibson.

Achtung! Commando!: The Art of War Comics (4.00pm to 5.00pm)
Gung-ho but blood-free, the pocket-sized Commando has been winning the war for over 4,000 issues. Experts Steve Holland and David Roach consider the artistry and evolution of war comics with those who created them. Hosted by David Kendall, editor of The Mammoth Book of Best War Comics.

The Seventies Revolution: From Tammy to 2000AD (5.30pm to 7.00pm)
Weirder, grittier, darker, British comics changed radically in the Seventies. Pat Mills talks with fellow writer Gerry Finley-Day, creator of the revolutionary Tammy, and then with artist Kevin O'Neill to set the records straight from Whizzer & Chips and Battle to Action's censorship and the origins of 2000AD, 30 years strong this year. Chaired by Paul Gravett, co-author of Great British Comics.

Presented in association with Carlton Books, Mammoth Books, Titan Books and The Book Palace. Authors will be signing their books after each talk.

Tickets: Each talk: £6, £5 Concs, £4 Members
Tickets: All three talks: £14, £11 Concs, £9 Members
Where: Nash Room, ICA
When: Sunday, 4 November 2007

Tickets can be booked via the ICA website. Please come along, even if you're just turning up early hoping to get a look at Gerry Finley-Day. We'll try and keep things lively with some pretty pictures and there's always entertainment value in watching so-called experts struggling to answer questions when they've no idea of the answers.

Pat Mills' and Kev O'Neill's support act... how cool is that!?

Adam Hills

Just back from seeing Adam Hills at the Colchester Arts Centre which is pretty much the home of comedy as far as Colchester is concerned (although Punt & Dennis filled the Mercury Theatre last year which was pretty good going).

Good gig with a wide ranging audience: the front row alone included sixteen-year-olds and a couple in their fifties, a Mormon and an atheist, all of which we know because Adam Hills works the crowd very well. He stepped out from behind the curtain with enthusiasm and confidence and dove straight in exuding warmth and friendliness.

You might know Hills as the Aussie guy with the artificial leg on Mock the Week; although that fact has only been mentioned once on the show... but it's a bit of a show-stopper and you tend to remember it. It's a unique selling point (as we used to say in the magazine trade) and one he exploits superbly in the second half of his act which ended with him dancing to 'Footloose' (the most obvious gag of the whole set) on the bar with the younger members of the audience joining in the dancing and the older members sitting there thinking, "Should we... maybe... Yes, let's... or maybe not... oh, he's finished." Liberal by politics, conservative by nature, that's Colchester.

Comic Firsts: Jim Holdaway

Like the strip from Joe Colquhoun yesterday, this story isn't the first tale from the pen of Jim Holdaway, but it is an early one drawn in his first year as a comic strip artist. Like Colquhoun, Holdaway started in the independent comics that were published in the decade after the end of the Second World War before the big two -- Amalgamated Press and D C Thomson -- began launching new titles regularly. Some of the better artists, Colquhoun and Holdaway amongst them, quickly left the independents for the better pay of A.P. but left behind a number of early strips where you can see their talents beginning to emerge.

Jim Holdaway will hopefully need no introduction. He went on to have a successful career drawing for comics and newspaper strips, tragically cut short by his early death in 1970 when he was still in his early forties. His fame rests on his seven years as the artist of Modesty Blaise which was, from 1963 to 1970, one of the best comic strips published in the UK -- a perfect synthesis of writing and artistry that happens all too rarely.

All of the Modesty strips drawn by Jim are in print thanks to Titan Books and all are available with a 30-40% discount on Amazon. (And I'm starting to sound like a salesman.) Jim Holdaway's contributions are contained in the first six volumes and all six are highly recommended.

• Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up. ISBN 978-1840236583, 26 Mar 2004.
• Modesty Blaise: Mister Sun. ISBN 978-1840237214, 25 Jun 2004.
• Modesty Blaise: Top Traitor. ISBN 978-1840236842, 22 Oct 2004.
• Modesty Blaise: The Black Pearl. ISBN 978-1840238426, 17 Dec 2004.
  
• Modesty Blaise: Bad Suki. ISBN 978-1840238648, 25 Mar 2005.
• Modesty Blaise: The Hell Makers. ISBN 978-1840238655, 24 Jun 2005.
• Modesty Blaise: The Green-Eyed Monster. ISBN 978-1840238662, 23 Sep 2005.
• Modesty Blaise: The Puppet Master. ISBN 978-1840238679, 24 Feb 2006.
• Modesty Blaise: The Gallows Bird. ISBN 978-1840238686, 30 Apr 2006.
• Modesty Blaise: Cry Wolf. ISBN 978-1840238693, 20 Oct 2006.
• Modesty Blaise: The Inca Trail. ISBN 978-1845764173, 3 Jul 2007.
• Modesty Blaise: Death Trap. ISBN 978-1845764180, 13 Nov 2007.

Our story for tonight is, however, from an earlier decade -- almost exactly a decade, in fact -- when Holdaway was drawing for the independents. This strip appeared in Spaceman no. 7 (1953) published by Gould-Light and edited by Norman Light. The quality of the scans is a bit patchy, especially the final page, which was printed in blue ink, as this was scanned from a photocopy of the comic.

The story is simplistic but has a certain charm -- and fans of Dan Dare will quickly recognise some of the spacesuit designs.