Eagle Times v.31 no.4 (Winter 2018)

The latest issue of Eagle Times arrived shortly before Christmas but became a casualty of family visits and walking to work off the extra eating. I've only just had a chance to sit down and read what is always an enjoyable magazine. Too young for this to be a trip down memory lane – usually – I have the utmost admiration for the editorial team who always managed to dig up some new facts and offer some fresh impressions of the weekly comic that inspired so many to become fans and, in many cases, professionals.

Take Lionel Jeans, for instance. In an interview by Jeremy Briggs published in this very issue, he cites the Eagle's cutaway drawings as one of his inspirations to take up technical illustration at college, which led to work in West Germany. Returning in 1981 and seeking freelance work led him to Practical Householder and then to its unlikely stablemate (both were published by IPC), the recently relaunched Eagle. Jeans provided only a handful of cutaway drawings for their 'Eagle Data File' feature, but it's nice to put a face to yet another name (he signed his work 'Jeans') and discover more about their background and career.

Briggs also provides an overview of the 'Data File' series and, along with Richard Sheaf, a checklist covering the weekly, the specials and annuals where they appeared.

Famously the home of D. C. Thomson, Dundee is the subject of Eric Summers' article 'Dundee Folk'. But, of course, it is an article about the city's Eagle connections. The connections, whilst slim, are entertaining, and any excuse to talk about Frank Bellamy's 'Happy Warrior' (Winston Churchill being MP for Dundee for a while) is an excuse worth taking.

Steve Winders' look at Chad Varah's and Norman Williams' back-page biography of 'Alfred the Great' reaches its conclusion, as does his 2-part short story featuring PC49. Will Grenham's long-running look at space fiction movies produced during the lifetime of the Eagle also comes to an end.

Meanwhile, Jim Duckett looks at crossover stories that have introduced Dan and other Eagle characters to other fictional folk. He's met Judge Dredd and other 2000AD characters, various Doctors and his own great-great-grandson. Mostly the article covers frivolous Christmas or charity crossovers, but does mention The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Rupert Bear's encounter with Sherlock Holmes along the way.

David Britton wraps up the issue with two articles, one an episode of his series on 'Charles Chilton & The Indian Wars', whilst the other is a review of the current Frank Hampson centenary exhibition at The Atkinson, Southport, which runs until 16 March 2019 - visit their website for details.

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.

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 15

Comic Cuts - 5 January 2019

This is my first post of the year. I hope you're all feeling relaxed and chilled after the holiday break and looking forward to 2019. I don't make new year's resolutions, but it is my wish to keep BA going over the next few months while I'm in full-time work.

Taking a week and a half off after only three weeks of work was bliss, although the time sped by and the break was over all too soon. But I've slipped back into work mode very easily and I'm enjoying the experience greatly. I haven't worked in an office for any length of time since the early 1990s, but it turns out to be like riding a bike: you don't forget. There's an office dynamic you need to fit yourself into and I've hopefully managed to infiltrate unnoticed... I wonder if I can get away with not leaving?

My work schedule means I'm getting up at six in the morning and collapsing into bed around ten or ten-thirty in the evening, which doesn't allow me much time on the computer at home. My email browser (I use Thunderbird) started to fill up during December, most of which (but not all) I cleared  during the days between Christmas and New Year. Now it's starting to build up again. I have a couple of magazines to review, which I'll hopefully get to over this weekend, but there are other things that I had hoped to cover – most notably the death of Terry Bave in December – that I haven't had a chance to research or write.

That said, I have a piece from Robert Kirkpatrick that I'll be running next week and the regular Rebellion and Commando releases should be back to normal as of this week.

So... I had a great Christmas and partied through to the New Year and that's pretty much all the news I have. We watched a few films over the holiday, including Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Tyne and The Darkest Hour, and we've started watching The Good Place, which everyone has been raving about... and, judging by the first couple of episodes, deservedly so. For our comedy entertainment we've watched the latest DVDs by Bill Bailey, Sarah Millican, Jon Richardson and Richard Herring. We're keeping an eye out for Joe Lycett's latest – the once comprehensive stand-up section at our local HMV has all but disappeared – and there are a few others that we'll pick up eventually from Go Faster Stripe, most notably Mark Thomas and Austentatious.

There were some fine programmes over Christmas: we like Gordon Buchanan's tale of grizzly bears and the snow wolf, and we've still got the Spy in the Snow penguin spy cam show to watch. The ABC Murders was an interesting interpretation of Agatha Christie's novel, with John Malkovich with a neatly trimmed beard rather than Kenneth Branough's outrageous and thoroughly distracting moustaches. I'm not sure that it was necessary to give Poirot a whole new origin story, but I'm not so wedded to the books that I dislike every attempt to move away from them.

I'm looking forward to watching Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which strikes me as the most innovative bit of TV that has been broadcast in quite a while. The new year has brought with it new seasons of The Orville and Death in Paradise, so we'll be happily curled up on the sofa during what is likely to be a cold snap over the next week or two. Vera is back next week, but we're avoiding Scandi-noir for the moment in favour of something a bit warmer and a bit more cheerful.

And that's where I'll leave it for now. I hope you've all enjoyed the Paul Temple serial. I wish these were available in book form, but I still haven't quite figured out the copyright situation. I'll keep posting them until somebody tells me to stop!

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 14

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 13

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 12

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 11

Rebellion Releases (2000AD)

Rebellion releases for 2nd January 2019.

2000AD Prog 2112
Cover: Tiernan Trevallion
Welcome to the space-year 2019, Terrans, as we surge into another scrotnig twelve months of ghafflebette goodness courtesy of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!
    This Prog, alongside the continuing adventures for Skip Tracer, Brink and Fiends of the Western Front we have a complete Judge Dredd thriller from Rory McConville and Dan Cornwell, and the start of another of my 3rillers, the highly topical The Scorched Zone, by Eddie Robson and Nick Brokenshire.
    Given that members of your species were only recently offering dire warnings for the future of the planet thanks to climate change, this story should resonate with you all. I have to say, I’ve been predicting humanity’s fate within these pages for forty-two years now so these stark expectations don’t come entirely as a surprise...
    But let’s not start the new year on a gloomy note — there’s Thrill-power to channel, and a stunning line-up of strips awaiting you in 2019!
JUDGE DREDD: THE ETERNITY HOTEL by Rory McConville (w) Dan Cornwell (a) Jim Boswell (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
BRINK: HIGH SOCIETY by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
SKIP TRACER: LOUDER THAN BOMBS by James Peaty (w) Paul Marshall Dylan Teague (c) (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
THARG'S 3RILLERS: THE SCORCHED ZONE by Eddie Robson (w) Nick Brokenshire (a) Gary Caldwell (c) Ellie De Ville (l)
FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT by Ian Edginton (w) Tiernen Trevallion (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 10

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 9

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 8

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 7

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 6

Paul Temple and the Erasers part 5