British Action Heros.
Created | Updated May 27, 2016
An American, I think they went under the psydonyme: Kyle Katara, he/she threw down the challenge on here, have we Briton superheros?
Here are the few I know:
Spring-Heel Jack.
He bounds over walls, fences, and murders people who think their safe, the people he kills are rich, but the twist is how did they get rich before their respectability? All the victims are tied in a conspiracy, their joint fortune was the proceedes of a Circus robbery.
Spring-Heel Jack actually existed, and may well have been a circus preformer, as to wheather his assistant was the post attack lame Ring-Master is anybody's guess?
Another Victorian character was the:
Mask.
Also a murderer, a top hat, domino mask, suit wearing cat burglar, but he came to a sticky end. They even made an opera about him.
Fords Towel has reminded me of H. Rider Haggard's:
Quartermain.
Its writer Rider Haggard was related to the great Arthur Conan Doyle who brought us the World's Greatest Detective:
Sherlock Holmes.
And Conan Doyle's brother-in-law Hornung created the anti Sherlock Holmes:
Raffles, the Gentleman Thief.
Holmes featured in the Illustrated London News.
The Raffles copyright went across the Atlantic where he was popular on the stage, and stared in a silent film then talkies.
Finally a Detective Stories magazine bought it.
I have no idea of the mountains of other characters there must have been, the first two would have been in the Penny Dreadful era which begun before the term was termed in 1866, they were:
"Weird fantasies of macarbe fantasy."
The America banned them from entering their country post their world leading Education Act, as they were more popular than their own home product, thus cowboy stories entered the main stream.
Zorro is proportedly the model for why Superman has a secret identity and a cape.
Britain in the mid 19th Century had the Factory Acts, which stopped child slavery and meant childhood now existed, our own Education Act aping the Americans, ensured at least Primary Education for all children.
The first childrens comic as such was:
The young Gentleman's Magazine.
Published 1830. It lasted for seven issues only because it was dry, it had no school stories to begin with education and strong religious concerns.
By 1899 Penny Dreadfuls were dead, and the school magazines that were based strongly on:
Tom Brown's School Days.
They stopped featuring cruelty, bullying and flogging and became:
'Amusing without being vulgar.'
This information I gleaned at my local second hand book store in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England:
Treasure House.
There I looked at there stock, and saw a comic smaller than the American ones, about 5 by 7 inches if that:
The Gem and St. Jim's.
The writer was:
Charles Harold St.John Hamilton.
Pen name for the Gem:
Martin Clifford.
The Gem debutted on the 16th March 1907, it had a poor reception to begin with until it went over exclusively to school stories.
Charles Harold St. John Hamilton then wrote for the Gem's sister comic:
The Magnet.
It published from 1918 to 1939.
His pen name for it:
Frank Richards, which he eventually preferred over his own given name.
The Magnet featured his most famous creation:
Billy Bunter.
They had summer annuals, that dealt with their school trips to the continent where they seem to run into spy stories, one cover showed a bespectacled boy doing up his shoe laces on the River Seine embankment and a trench coated foreigner or British spy tripping over him, there was another cover of a swarthy Johnny Foreigner grasping the lapels of a St. James boy, and his friends looking on, thinking of pitching in to defend him. Another showed their school tour Jinty broken down and the bye line was their rivalry with another school was being waged away from home turf. It made me think the school days of James Bond could have actual period penned serious contenders if the publishing houses look in their back catalogues.
I actually started with the Beezer in the early 1960's and in it was a family of equal sexes, a husband and wife with a boy and girl child, they travelled around Britain in an articulated, all terrain R.V., that was able to float on water and submerge. I forget the families name, it may have been Robinson?
Our British comics in format were broadsheet in the main, American comics A4 in size, except for the 1930's pocket Gem I found.
We had story comics, and picture story comics, in the story comics we had Super/Sporting heros that were Empire inspired, though it was dwindling in my time. One of the stories had a wizard Indian batsman leading a mixed colonial team of Australians and Africans, I think his name was:
Hurree Jamset Ram Singh.
Looking on the net, I find due to American Comics no longer being available British comics began to feature superheros such as:
Jack Flash.
An alien with wings on his feet.
In 1937, the longest running British comic came out:
Dandy.
It featured:
Zog the Wizard.
Zog was able to cast spells, he has long hair, and an even longer beard, he wears a stars and syckle moon print gown.
The second lonest running British comic came out in 1939:
Beano.
Jimmy and his magic patch.
Jimmy Watson heading to school one day stopped to rescue an old gypsy Lady's tabby cat from a dog, his short's bottom is torn out, the kindly gypsy Lady repairs his shorts with a piece of magic carpet material. Later at school he learns about Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada, after the lesson he wishes he could have lived in those exciting times, and the patch on his shorts whisks him back to those times.
In the newspaper strips, Garth first appears, his origin seems to be rather like Superman's from space, the Kents of Kansas, Smallville adopt him, Garth though is adopted by Scottish parents. He seems in the illustration to start off dark haired as Superman is, but somewhere down the line he becomes a blonde wavy haired, super muscel pumped up individual, my Grandmother seems to have had everyone of them, I think to mark the time my father left Britain in the war.
The Rover.
Started in 1922, in 1949 it introduced an eighteen year old:
Tough of the Track.
Originally he lived with his Aunt Meg in Anchor Alley, Greystone, in a one up/one down, he slept on the kitchen floor, earned £1.5 shillings a week.
Spring-heel Jack is dusted down and becomes:
The Spring-heel spy.
My brothers friends had 50's annuals that had stories of schoolboys who had been shrunk and were having to survive against the trials and tribulations of the school cat hunting them.
One of the books covers featured the ITV police series:
No Hiding place.
The cover scene depicted one of the Detectives doing a flying rugby tackle to the Perp's waist.
At the start of the 50's there was a:
TV Comic Cuts.
Benny Hill featured as a funny character, he was not a menopause old fart chasing tail here, there, and everywhere.
The early 60's in newspaper strips we had Bond, James Bond already, Modesty Blaze with her sidekick Willie Gavin, rather like the film bearing her name went from Pop Art to Pop Art envoirment.
In space or more accurately in the Daily Express was:
Jeff Hawke, First Citizen of the Space Age
By Sydney Jordan.
It introduced people unversed in technical terms such as:
Anti-matter.
In 1961, the Victor came out, so named because it featured the true story of Victoria cross winners on its front cover.
It had on their inside pages:
Tough of the Track.
He had come over from the Rover, still a welder and amatuer track athlete, I think he was pre Zola Budd in running in bare feet, for sure he survived on Fish and Chips in newspaper, the best food in the world. When I was at Brighton College someone believed the hype and lived only on Fish and Chips and died of lack of certain important chemicals in their diet.
Morgan the Mighty.
Started in the writen comics but he was in picture form in the Victor, when I saw him, a sort of blonde Tarzan, a Welshman gone native in Africa.
The opening of his first story, leads with an antelope rutting around in long grass, suddenly becoming apprised by sixth sense something was wrong and running, out of the bush trying to capture with his bare hands the Springbok for the pot it is our boyo: Morg from Glamorgan.
A hero with a gimick:
The Spider.
On his back a spinnerette, he travelled in a sphere, he had pointed ears, I think he came from space and he was hunting a criminal from his own planet, he was a guard not a criminologist so he caught a thieving trio, one had the brains to think of schemes to steal, the other two executed the crimes, the Spider was clever at manouvering them, he always cheated his team of their stolen goods, once it was gold and they couldn't pack it away with the Police arriving, but they had cheated the Spider's planetman of his booty, all the metals and jewels were to make some device.
Dr. Hyde.
Four writen pages, near blind he only went out at night, his walking stick, albert chain had devices in them that helped him in his strange activities, he got intellegence of robberies and would lay traps within the envoirment that they struck, he wasn't into responding to crime, his bag was prevention, so he got in without tripping alarms and placing additional defences inside.
General Jumbo.
Had a toy army, air force, fire brigade, even a navy. They would get into battles with other model armies, save people from burning buildings, there was nothing his minature robots wouldn't, couldn't do.
The Black Archer, a quasi Robin Hood reincarnation.
The Viking, a sort of Thor clone even down to having a war hammer but when the North wind blew he'd loose all his powers, so he was more often stuck in a jam, hanging onto a Church steeple, then having the lead tiles go out from under his feet, so his alter ego would be getting a tearaway reputation. Today he couldn't be a hero for ASBOs.(Anti Social Behaviour Orders, an idea we have adopted from Holland)
For super-strength, both were all brawn and no brains, the differences were the Tiger's, Captain Typhoon was in the present day and in the Merchant Navy.
Valiant.
Had the Second World War:
Captain Hurricane.
And listed below is the rest of their pantheon of characters:
Kelly's Eye.
He was a fortune-hunter in South America near to death with a tribe hot on his heels hunting him for trespassing their territory, pre-Indiana Jones, he finds an ancient city, and a statue untouched by the wear of time and the masonry that must have fallen upon it, to the horror of the ensuing tribe he is violating the statue with his hunting knife taking its diamond eye out, the tribe throw their jungle javlins, fire their arrows, and toss stones but he's invicible, the tribes people now bow and scrape to him and help him back to civilisation. Kelly wears the jewel as a pendant, it features in press stories and jewel thieves steal from Kelly in hospital and he has to retrieve it. From being a instrument that helped his survive life, he learns it brings responsibilities with it.
The Kelly's Eye concept is still around renamed:
Starman.
The diamond becoming a piece of obsidion, and rather like DC comics Atom's dwarf star that gave him shrinking powers, also came from space.
The Valiant's centre pages story was:
The Steel Claw.
The Nick Fury, Agent of Shield writer and illustrator Jim Steranko saw it and took it back to the states where the character became:
Spy Hand.
They both had guns in their fore fingers, pick locks in their middle fingers, drills in their ring fingers, and I forget what for their pinkys? Both had radio mikes as the heels of their thumbs, and the thumb first joint housed a telescopic aerial. Spy Hand's hand was made of perspex, and he only lasted for four issues when the comic company it belonged to went belly up.
Spy Hand's base of Ops was the Statue of Liberty.
The Claw's extra wrinkle aparts from being made of steel was through contact with a high electricity charge he would be rendered invisible bar for the claw of course, so ussually his hands would be bound and he had escapeology adventures first to get free, then to find an electricity source, the prison cell's electricity bulb, a power point external to the cell. And the charge he received determined how long he would be invisble, so he had a ticking clock race, it was all very inventive, multi-levels. He underwent the transformation from being an office jockey to a more real spy, tailing people in a London Hackney Carriage Taxi cab, instead of suits he wore jeans, sweaters, T-shirts, and a favourite donkey jacket, in the boot of his cab he had a chain mail suit so that any electrical chanrges he got he would keep within his body for longer, also in the boot was a generator, in the event his enemy had some remote H,Q, in the country, or his stronghold was a castle. I think this character ws strongly influenced by the Avengers and was able to out do them with the scale of its implausible, impossible things.
Jack O'Justice.
A nineteenth century, criminologist, latterly they maybe rehashed the self-same stories but set them in the present day with his 20th Century relative:
Jack Justice, the only person I remember with a blonde gamine haired girl-friday.
to save civilisation lived in our small isles.
Dolmann.
Personally was my favourite, he was going to be named Dollman but an 8-inch American superhero comic had the name and copyright.
Dolmann was a London puppeteer, and puppet maker, with a bow, bottle glass window fronted shop on a cobbled narrow side street, even at this time such a nostalgic Old London street would have been rare, his sign said he went back generations.
He fought against once a jet skateboarded, leather jacket thug gang, or he'd investigate a spate of jewel thefts, the thieves were all top of their trade and incaserated, but they were getting out of their cells at night making their getting out nest eggs.
Dolmann's assistance were child size, GI Joe puppets, each one he threw his voice into, and being a Punch and Judy man he imbuded them with disperate characters of their own.
His puppets were:
Tracker.
On reflection, a Golum like character as he was naked and wore only a loin cloth, he had headlight beam like eyes that illuminated footprints, handprints, ect. He had a printer in his back that would record the evidence. It was posting this evidence that got Dolmann into the Secret Service, or:
Secret Criminal Investion?
Mole.
A spade handed puppet.
Tojo.
The Strong man, naked but for a Sumo thong.
Commando.
A camouflage wearing multi gun totting, gung ho character.
All the characters he took around in the sidecar of his combi motorbike so that limited him to only five characters to take along with him on his missions, later though when the Secret Criminal Investigation Service found him, he had built into his basement a Danger Room where he could rehearse pin point accuracy manouvers with his remote control robots. The S.C.I.S. or whatever it was supplied with a transit van that he could effect extensive repairs inside if the emergency called for it. His Controller looked like the Alfredo Celli villian from Thunderball in a trechcoat, and Fedora.
In the 1970's Valiant would merge with:
TV Century 21.
Bar from Agent 21, all its stories were based on Gerry Anderson's string of Supermarination shows:
Fireball XL5.
Staring:
Steve Zodiac.
Robbie the Robot.
Venus.
A professor rather like his Supercar formular one.
And for humour, Loony the space monkey.
Stingray.
Troy Tempest.
Phones.
Marina, the deaf-mute, Tempest at sea girlfriend.
Atlana, the World Aquatic Security Patrol, Tempest land interest and daughter of:
Commander Shore, the beetle eye browed, hover chair bound boss.
Thunderbirds.
All the pilots were named after the American Space Programme pilots:
The Father, Mr. Tracy, the billionaire who had the gumption to put together a group of Supervehicles with the one purpose to rescue people in dire exergencies.
Thunderbird 1, Scott.
Thunderbird 2, Virgil.
Thunderbird 3, the Mole, a black and Decker drill on caterpilla tracks, ussually Virgil doubling up, but it might be Brains, if he were along in a supervisory capacity.
Thunderbird 4, a submersible Robin Reliant, its pilot alternated with the Communications Spacestation:
Thunderbird 5, Glenn and Alan.
Brains was the youngest brother, genius inventor of the vehicles, and equipment.
They had a Bonanza like Chinese manservant who wore silk gowns, and had a daughter that lived with them all.
External to Tracy Island, their secret agent extraordinare, a slinky, glamourous Barbara Cartland pink wearing:
Lady Penelope.
The Lady's do-it-all, breaking in and entry burglar, chauffeur, butler, cook, bottle washer, and in some saterical cartoons father-figure lover:
Parker.
Captain Scarlet.
Anderson's unashamed swipe of Marvel's indestructable agent of Shield.
The show has been dusted down for the C.G.I generation, Colonel Green has changed sex, Colonel White is Colonel White, Captain Blue is no longer an Australian.
TV Century 21.
This magazine may well have been the first to have a full-clour cover picture instead of story, the Gem had had a magenta pen drawing and black content titles.
They too had a girl's version, I think it featured Lady Penelope on solo mission stories, and the Spectrum:
Angels.
The late 60's was the time of the Adam West camp Batman show, so the tabloids here bought the newspaper strip Batman, and Penguin republished the strips in a paperback, possibly the first graphic novel. So a rival took up an option on Spiderman in newspaper strip form.
Marvel had had gotten a foothold here with Tales of Asgard being published in the comic:
Eagle.
The Eagle, was a highly respected comic, who's aim had been to give children a christian ethic that is remembered today in the highly presdigious:
Eagle Awards.
Of which I believe Marvel has been a recipient of on many an occassion, it goes to innovations in comics, storylines and characters.
The Eagle gave us:
Dan Dare, Pilot of the future.
Its creator, Frank Hampson was an arts teacher at Epsom Art School, he could have made a fortune out of the character merchandising had he let them make the gamut of toys and nick knacks.
I remember well in my first digs away from home had Dan Dare wallpaper in the hall, up the stairs and onto the landing, it showed his spacecraft the Anastasia.
If you want to read more about Dan Dare then I suggested you read:
A774407
Dan Dare, Pilot of the future
On the back cover of the Eagle, was:
Blackbow.
He was an orphaned baby white boy who was the sole survivor of a burnt down settlers log cabin, Cheyenne Indians found him and brought him up, relatives of his biological family found him and financed him through medical school, he came back to resentment from his Indian brothers, he was the chief's eldest, maybe not of the Chief's blood. Thus he became Blackbow the Indian in the Chief's headress, who rubbed berry juice on his skin to be a redman, he parlaied between the white and Indian world as Blackbow, stopping wars between his two peoples, by settlers who wanted to get mining rights, it was not a one way white man evil, Indian not, the coin would flip the other way too. He was a Red Indian one-man detective, that had white man's science, he'd take plaster casts of hoof prints and such like, heap clever fellow. In fact the town that was his base of operations got poluted and in a shocking story line Blackbow had to kill his alter ego's best friend, Seth to bring peace.
Inside the Eagle was:
The Human Guine-Pig.
Latterly shortened to:
The Guine-Pig.
He was as his title suggested a test subject for colds, but he went to a laboritory on Dartmoor, run by a scientist in a whelchair, who would send him into the future, where computers ran everything and herded humans around in the most energy efficient way, en mass they'd go to the cinema, en mass they'd eat, they had no free will what they did and when, the regimented life.
In America they had wound up the long running Fugitive series, a Producer was in Britain and read of the Guinea-Pig taking a mind altering drug that made him think he was back in Korea fighting for his life, in actual fact he was fighting against lab security men who were trying to help him.
In America the idea premise was stolen but drugs had not induced the behaviour, it was some brain blood clot pressure within the head of the character Ben Gazzara played, he was then informed his condition was life threatening, the first episode he was a bear of a bastard charging down Route 66 on a suicide mission, but he meets his beautiful hospital nurse who makes love with him, and she gives him a new outlook on his remaining life, enjoy it as much as you can, see the people you may have crossed, lost contact with, ect. So he becomes a non shining, modern knight that helps those people and other cross life people on the way,women fall for him in larger numbers because he is now a new feelly touchy. So about now we should have the head right Ben Gazzara clan runnning a California pshyical therapy Centre.
One of the Eagles characters, he was a robot:
Ironman.
His twist was he was trying to keep secret what he was from people, a Robot, and yet serve them in a Red Adare sort of way, but not exclusively dealing with oil fire blow-outs. He had a human assistant, business manager, confidant and repairman.
Odhams had published the Eagle, but sold the comic to Fleetway who removed Dan Dare from the front cover and put him in the centre fold, he featured in the Eagle Annual now with photocover, formerly it had had a black drawing of an eagle, the self same picure that had featured on the Eagle's sister paper for girls:
Girl.
Dan Dare had featured in eight colour pages the story had been split into two four page segments at the third way points in the annuals, at the centre of the annual it had had a cross section drawing of a train, tank or some vehicle. With Fleetway Dan Dare was reduced to a four page colour feature, Hampton finally jacked Dan Dare in and they started reprint Dan Dare from his first story up.
The front cover was taken over by:
U.F.O. Agents.
They were sort of Man from Uncle clones, earthling agents of aliens, the aliens flying saucer used to rendeavous with them and issue them with specialised equipment, one or two one-off inventions to accomplish their missions against:
E.O.S.
(Enemies Of Society)
It was non-violent fare, ussually clever.
Fleetway though made Boffin, the blonde bespectacled one the weaponeer, the Zeta had to go to their sector of space for a Star War, so the resourceful Boffin adapted their weapons and tools for their misions, then on one of their missions, the Napoleon Solo, short on brains, long on courage look alike got too close to some device that blew up vapouriseing him, Boffin was able to reverse the vapourisation with a control belt, at will he could now become Smokeman, it sounds a joke, and it did fold, he was able to be invisible and pass evaporated into vehicles, and condence inside.
Replacing it was:
The Buccaneers.
The Bucaneers were pirates, matelo sweaters, beanies all the cliche clothes but instead of a galleon their seacraft was a submarine, the Bucanners were two pilots that flew the plunder scout, V.T.O.L. Harriers, often they found not only their piracy at sea, and would being thieves with golden hearts investigate larger crimes that were being committed, an odd concept when you think about it.
Odhams having had that success with "Tales of Asgard" went completely over to Marvel story reprints in black and white, zoomed up to Broadsheet size, the comics were called respectively:
Terrific.
Fantastic.
Marvel had a foothold, Odhams folded and they published in the 1970's:
Marvel.
And due to the success of the Hulk TV series brought out:
Hulk Stories.
Marvel's publishing and developement branch here in Britain's address is:
Marvel Enterprises International Ltd
7 Portland Place
3rd Floor
London
W18 1PP
You may have read recently of Marvel under licence spreading into the Indian market, and creating an Indian Spiderman whilst also having their New York based Spiderman.
Stan the man's wife is English and he visits Europe for his holidays, Stan himself is an immigrant of Poland. Quite a few of its artists are British, Alan Moore the writer is Britsh, the writer of Marshal Law is British, his artist assistant is a New Zealander and has a credit on Hercules and Xenia the Warrior Princess is the costume designer.
In the 1940's Marvel or Timely Comics as I think it was then brought out in '41 the super soldier Captain America, he fought alongside Miss America, the Sub-Mariner and as a token to us their allies Captain Britain, Fords Towel tells me he flew and used a sceptre, he has additionally given me this address where you can read more about Captain Britain:
http./www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/captainbritain.htm
Captain America originally had a triangular traditional shield but it became round and he was able to sythe and deflection strike his enemies.
Marvel having a publishing arm in Britain revived Captain Britain with a new uniform, and maybe with American appreciation of our helping them in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo are, or have revived the character once more, see this space for future developements and possible review.
If you want to read a British comic in America then 2000 AD, is it, it is printed in Canada as the ban is still in force against British comics, the first President Bush offered to Prime Minister John Major to remove it, but our grey man didn't take up the offer.
Warlord.
Published 1974 was notorious for keeping alive the Huns and us debate, it was dead history wasn't it, 31 years after conflicts had ended, it showed bodies realistic explode with blood when they got straffed, it was the height of violence in films and the comic reflected that, school children were copying the swearing at Germans in the street:
"Flthy huns."
"Swine dogs."
It sounds funny now, but must have been intimidating in its way, so much so that the German Ambassordor complained to the Goverment about it, and the Ambassador was interviewed on the BBC's Nationwide programme, a copy of America's 60 Minutes, Nationwide pulled all the regional news programmes under one tent. Also in the debate with the German ambassor the National Front hate stirring raised its head, in quiet Suffolk you would see bright orange cards in bus shelters telling you how unsophisticated the Islamists were killing their meat, I hope I have not communicated the pure vile malice venom of it, it introduced rules of how you could express yourself in print, start of PC.
2000 AD.
First appearance 1977, it is famous for introducing the work of Alan Moore.
If you want to read more about Moore then read on this site:
Alan Moore-Sequential Artist.
Writen and researched by Sparky.
2000 AD's main man is Judge Dread, who Sylvester Stalone played in a movie, the funny thing being the good Judge's face was based on photographs of the British tough man actor, Oliver Reed, but this is not an unheard of thing for Batman's butler, Alfred Dunsworth, in the comics after the first Batman film, somewhere in the 1940's became based on the actor playing his part in looks and English accent.
Alan Moore would bring out for DC comics:
Vertigo label:
"V" for Vengenge.
Prime Minister, Margret Thatcher it was predicted was leading us into a new dictatorship era. I don't wanna work on Maggie's farm A slogan from that time:
I don't wanna work on Maggie's farm.
Its the story of an escapee from a 1980's facist rule British Concentration Camp. (the first Concentration Camps were in the Cuban War) Were they in the camp because they contravened the Clause 31 Act, exempting gay people from education jobs. Moore sets up more questions than he answers. Were the hormone injections V received meant to be a kill or cure solution? It killed the other test subjects, V though was left with heightened fitness and intelligence, and maybe sociopathic tendancies. V's name seems to have come from their cell, V being five in Roman numerals.
The above information was supplied by:
Intelligent Moose
Additional data supplied by him is V the movie in is production and you may view information about it at this website:
hht.//uk.imdb.com/title/tt6434409/
There was a predecessor to:
V for Vengence.
In the original Wizard's post World War Two story, there was no single character called: V, but in his stead there were:
The Deathless Men.
A group of ex-concentration camp inmates who were seeking German War Criminals, they wore Grey masks, black coats, left V for Vengence cards on their assassinated victims, it they were caught they bit on cyanide tables thus not revealing who would follow up on their vengence bid.
DC had before the Batman TV series redesigned the character because his sales were dropping, Robin had at the start been a ten year by the look of him, he set the fashion for juvenile sidekicks, but now he was a young man, and he would have a split from Batman, he would exhibit individual view points of his own, no longer the Boy-Wonder with the quip, more the adolescent with an attitude.
DC like Marvel have tried to launch a British office, even a Southern Ireland one but i don't think they currently have any links here?
Kat who is going to act as the editor on this at the end correcting the spelling mistakes I may have made, has asked:
What about Dangermouse?
Look-in.
Published between 1983 to 1992, originally as a junior TV Times, which meant back then a weekly Independant Television programme guide for 8-15 year olds. The BBC due to them being in the fore-runner medium to TV magazine was and is:
Radio Times.
Look-in featured comic strips, pop and celebrity posters and exclusive interviews, it had a tie-in to:
Gosgrove Studios.
One of Gosgroves productions was an albino Danger Mouse, and his sidekick: Penfold, it was a popular kidult show, pitched with jokes the adults could laugh at, and children enjoy at the same time, much like Shrek today.
Dangermouse was voiced over by David Jason, the could-have been Monty Python, and the 1948 Show, I understand he went to the same uni as John Cleese and quite a few other British comedians but somehow kept missing his opportunities, he had been a radio voice star on Roy Hudd's News headlines, and latterly called:
The News Huddlines.
Roy Hudd would take the papers apart and write sketchs, much as:
Not the Nine O'clock News.
Drop the Dead Donkey.
Would later, and:
That was the week that was.
The Frost Report.
Had done in the 1960's.
It was David Jason's big break, his foil the clueless, naive, put upon Hampster assistant, Penfold, was voiced over by the established comedy actor:
Terry Scott.
The comic script was writen by:
Angus Alan.
His writing was so good that Gosgrove Studios used him to help write the TV scripts too.
The artist was:
Arthur Ranson.
Not to be confused with the Victorian artist Arthur Rackham who illustrated many beautiful books with Fairies, Elves, Hob Goblins, Dwarfs, ogres and Monsters.
Dangermouse featured in the American:
Marvel Duckula.
Duckula was the cartoon show Gosgrove came out with after Dangermouse, published by Marvel they had no feeling for Penfold, so they erased him from the later art work altogether, although all the animal villians as Silus the toad remained.
Dangermouse and Penfold were a play on the Abott and Costello double-act, the idiot and the complete idiot, but with Dangermouse the polarity dynamic was always swinging, Dangermouse was the smug, arrogant one who thought he was all-knowing, Penfold was the wiser one, knowing admitting ignorance was intelligent. Dangermouse would put down Penfold's bleeding obvious observations, and if he wasn't so vain would have have thanked him in the last reel instead of sermonising on the meaning of life. But they say Americans do not understand sarcasm.
Here are the few I know:
Spring-Heel Jack.
He bounds over walls, fences, and murders people who think their safe, the people he kills are rich, but the twist is how did they get rich before their respectability? All the victims are tied in a conspiracy, their joint fortune was the proceedes of a Circus robbery.
Spring-Heel Jack actually existed, and may well have been a circus preformer, as to wheather his assistant was the post attack lame Ring-Master is anybody's guess?
Another Victorian character was the:
Mask.
Also a murderer, a top hat, domino mask, suit wearing cat burglar, but he came to a sticky end. They even made an opera about him.
Fords Towel has reminded me of H. Rider Haggard's:
Quartermain.
Its writer Rider Haggard was related to the great Arthur Conan Doyle who brought us the World's Greatest Detective:
Sherlock Holmes.
And Conan Doyle's brother-in-law Hornung created the anti Sherlock Holmes:
Raffles, the Gentleman Thief.
Holmes featured in the Illustrated London News.
The Raffles copyright went across the Atlantic where he was popular on the stage, and stared in a silent film then talkies.
Finally a Detective Stories magazine bought it.
I have no idea of the mountains of other characters there must have been, the first two would have been in the Penny Dreadful era which begun before the term was termed in 1866, they were:
"Weird fantasies of macarbe fantasy."
The America banned them from entering their country post their world leading Education Act, as they were more popular than their own home product, thus cowboy stories entered the main stream.
Zorro is proportedly the model for why Superman has a secret identity and a cape.
Britain in the mid 19th Century had the Factory Acts, which stopped child slavery and meant childhood now existed, our own Education Act aping the Americans, ensured at least Primary Education for all children.
The first childrens comic as such was:
The young Gentleman's Magazine.
Published 1830. It lasted for seven issues only because it was dry, it had no school stories to begin with education and strong religious concerns.
By 1899 Penny Dreadfuls were dead, and the school magazines that were based strongly on:
Tom Brown's School Days.
They stopped featuring cruelty, bullying and flogging and became:
'Amusing without being vulgar.'
This information I gleaned at my local second hand book store in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England:
Treasure House.
There I looked at there stock, and saw a comic smaller than the American ones, about 5 by 7 inches if that:
The Gem and St. Jim's.
The writer was:
Charles Harold St.John Hamilton.
Pen name for the Gem:
Martin Clifford.
The Gem debutted on the 16th March 1907, it had a poor reception to begin with until it went over exclusively to school stories.
Charles Harold St. John Hamilton then wrote for the Gem's sister comic:
The Magnet.
It published from 1918 to 1939.
His pen name for it:
Frank Richards, which he eventually preferred over his own given name.
The Magnet featured his most famous creation:
Billy Bunter.
They had summer annuals, that dealt with their school trips to the continent where they seem to run into spy stories, one cover showed a bespectacled boy doing up his shoe laces on the River Seine embankment and a trench coated foreigner or British spy tripping over him, there was another cover of a swarthy Johnny Foreigner grasping the lapels of a St. James boy, and his friends looking on, thinking of pitching in to defend him. Another showed their school tour Jinty broken down and the bye line was their rivalry with another school was being waged away from home turf. It made me think the school days of James Bond could have actual period penned serious contenders if the publishing houses look in their back catalogues.
I actually started with the Beezer in the early 1960's and in it was a family of equal sexes, a husband and wife with a boy and girl child, they travelled around Britain in an articulated, all terrain R.V., that was able to float on water and submerge. I forget the families name, it may have been Robinson?
Our British comics in format were broadsheet in the main, American comics A4 in size, except for the 1930's pocket Gem I found.
We had story comics, and picture story comics, in the story comics we had Super/Sporting heros that were Empire inspired, though it was dwindling in my time. One of the stories had a wizard Indian batsman leading a mixed colonial team of Australians and Africans, I think his name was:
Hurree Jamset Ram Singh.
Looking on the net, I find due to American Comics no longer being available British comics began to feature superheros such as:
Jack Flash.
An alien with wings on his feet.
In 1937, the longest running British comic came out:
Dandy.
It featured:
Zog the Wizard.
Zog was able to cast spells, he has long hair, and an even longer beard, he wears a stars and syckle moon print gown.
The second lonest running British comic came out in 1939:
Beano.
Jimmy and his magic patch.
Jimmy Watson heading to school one day stopped to rescue an old gypsy Lady's tabby cat from a dog, his short's bottom is torn out, the kindly gypsy Lady repairs his shorts with a piece of magic carpet material. Later at school he learns about Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada, after the lesson he wishes he could have lived in those exciting times, and the patch on his shorts whisks him back to those times.
In the newspaper strips, Garth first appears, his origin seems to be rather like Superman's from space, the Kents of Kansas, Smallville adopt him, Garth though is adopted by Scottish parents. He seems in the illustration to start off dark haired as Superman is, but somewhere down the line he becomes a blonde wavy haired, super muscel pumped up individual, my Grandmother seems to have had everyone of them, I think to mark the time my father left Britain in the war.
The Rover.
Started in 1922, in 1949 it introduced an eighteen year old:
Tough of the Track.
Originally he lived with his Aunt Meg in Anchor Alley, Greystone, in a one up/one down, he slept on the kitchen floor, earned £1.5 shillings a week.
Spring-heel Jack is dusted down and becomes:
The Spring-heel spy.
My brothers friends had 50's annuals that had stories of schoolboys who had been shrunk and were having to survive against the trials and tribulations of the school cat hunting them.
One of the books covers featured the ITV police series:
No Hiding place.
The cover scene depicted one of the Detectives doing a flying rugby tackle to the Perp's waist.
At the start of the 50's there was a:
TV Comic Cuts.
Benny Hill featured as a funny character, he was not a menopause old fart chasing tail here, there, and everywhere.
The early 60's in newspaper strips we had Bond, James Bond already, Modesty Blaze with her sidekick Willie Gavin, rather like the film bearing her name went from Pop Art to Pop Art envoirment.
In space or more accurately in the Daily Express was:
Jeff Hawke, First Citizen of the Space Age
By Sydney Jordan.
It introduced people unversed in technical terms such as:
Anti-matter.
In 1961, the Victor came out, so named because it featured the true story of Victoria cross winners on its front cover.
It had on their inside pages:
Tough of the Track.
He had come over from the Rover, still a welder and amatuer track athlete, I think he was pre Zola Budd in running in bare feet, for sure he survived on Fish and Chips in newspaper, the best food in the world. When I was at Brighton College someone believed the hype and lived only on Fish and Chips and died of lack of certain important chemicals in their diet.
Morgan the Mighty.
Started in the writen comics but he was in picture form in the Victor, when I saw him, a sort of blonde Tarzan, a Welshman gone native in Africa.
The opening of his first story, leads with an antelope rutting around in long grass, suddenly becoming apprised by sixth sense something was wrong and running, out of the bush trying to capture with his bare hands the Springbok for the pot it is our boyo: Morg from Glamorgan.
A hero with a gimick:
The Spider.
On his back a spinnerette, he travelled in a sphere, he had pointed ears, I think he came from space and he was hunting a criminal from his own planet, he was a guard not a criminologist so he caught a thieving trio, one had the brains to think of schemes to steal, the other two executed the crimes, the Spider was clever at manouvering them, he always cheated his team of their stolen goods, once it was gold and they couldn't pack it away with the Police arriving, but they had cheated the Spider's planetman of his booty, all the metals and jewels were to make some device.
Dr. Hyde.
Four writen pages, near blind he only went out at night, his walking stick, albert chain had devices in them that helped him in his strange activities, he got intellegence of robberies and would lay traps within the envoirment that they struck, he wasn't into responding to crime, his bag was prevention, so he got in without tripping alarms and placing additional defences inside.
General Jumbo.
Had a toy army, air force, fire brigade, even a navy. They would get into battles with other model armies, save people from burning buildings, there was nothing his minature robots wouldn't, couldn't do.
The Black Archer, a quasi Robin Hood reincarnation.
The Viking, a sort of Thor clone even down to having a war hammer but when the North wind blew he'd loose all his powers, so he was more often stuck in a jam, hanging onto a Church steeple, then having the lead tiles go out from under his feet, so his alter ego would be getting a tearaway reputation. Today he couldn't be a hero for ASBOs.(Anti Social Behaviour Orders, an idea we have adopted from Holland)
For super-strength, both were all brawn and no brains, the differences were the Tiger's, Captain Typhoon was in the present day and in the Merchant Navy.
Valiant.
Had the Second World War:
Captain Hurricane.
And listed below is the rest of their pantheon of characters:
Kelly's Eye.
He was a fortune-hunter in South America near to death with a tribe hot on his heels hunting him for trespassing their territory, pre-Indiana Jones, he finds an ancient city, and a statue untouched by the wear of time and the masonry that must have fallen upon it, to the horror of the ensuing tribe he is violating the statue with his hunting knife taking its diamond eye out, the tribe throw their jungle javlins, fire their arrows, and toss stones but he's invicible, the tribes people now bow and scrape to him and help him back to civilisation. Kelly wears the jewel as a pendant, it features in press stories and jewel thieves steal from Kelly in hospital and he has to retrieve it. From being a instrument that helped his survive life, he learns it brings responsibilities with it.
The Kelly's Eye concept is still around renamed:
Starman.
The diamond becoming a piece of obsidion, and rather like DC comics Atom's dwarf star that gave him shrinking powers, also came from space.
The Valiant's centre pages story was:
The Steel Claw.
The Nick Fury, Agent of Shield writer and illustrator Jim Steranko saw it and took it back to the states where the character became:
Spy Hand.
They both had guns in their fore fingers, pick locks in their middle fingers, drills in their ring fingers, and I forget what for their pinkys? Both had radio mikes as the heels of their thumbs, and the thumb first joint housed a telescopic aerial. Spy Hand's hand was made of perspex, and he only lasted for four issues when the comic company it belonged to went belly up.
Spy Hand's base of Ops was the Statue of Liberty.
The Claw's extra wrinkle aparts from being made of steel was through contact with a high electricity charge he would be rendered invisible bar for the claw of course, so ussually his hands would be bound and he had escapeology adventures first to get free, then to find an electricity source, the prison cell's electricity bulb, a power point external to the cell. And the charge he received determined how long he would be invisble, so he had a ticking clock race, it was all very inventive, multi-levels. He underwent the transformation from being an office jockey to a more real spy, tailing people in a London Hackney Carriage Taxi cab, instead of suits he wore jeans, sweaters, T-shirts, and a favourite donkey jacket, in the boot of his cab he had a chain mail suit so that any electrical chanrges he got he would keep within his body for longer, also in the boot was a generator, in the event his enemy had some remote H,Q, in the country, or his stronghold was a castle. I think this character ws strongly influenced by the Avengers and was able to out do them with the scale of its implausible, impossible things.
Jack O'Justice.
A nineteenth century, criminologist, latterly they maybe rehashed the self-same stories but set them in the present day with his 20th Century relative:
Jack Justice, the only person I remember with a blonde gamine haired girl-friday.
to save civilisation lived in our small isles.
Dolmann.
Personally was my favourite, he was going to be named Dollman but an 8-inch American superhero comic had the name and copyright.
Dolmann was a London puppeteer, and puppet maker, with a bow, bottle glass window fronted shop on a cobbled narrow side street, even at this time such a nostalgic Old London street would have been rare, his sign said he went back generations.
He fought against once a jet skateboarded, leather jacket thug gang, or he'd investigate a spate of jewel thefts, the thieves were all top of their trade and incaserated, but they were getting out of their cells at night making their getting out nest eggs.
Dolmann's assistance were child size, GI Joe puppets, each one he threw his voice into, and being a Punch and Judy man he imbuded them with disperate characters of their own.
His puppets were:
Tracker.
On reflection, a Golum like character as he was naked and wore only a loin cloth, he had headlight beam like eyes that illuminated footprints, handprints, ect. He had a printer in his back that would record the evidence. It was posting this evidence that got Dolmann into the Secret Service, or:
Secret Criminal Investion?
Mole.
A spade handed puppet.
Tojo.
The Strong man, naked but for a Sumo thong.
Commando.
A camouflage wearing multi gun totting, gung ho character.
All the characters he took around in the sidecar of his combi motorbike so that limited him to only five characters to take along with him on his missions, later though when the Secret Criminal Investigation Service found him, he had built into his basement a Danger Room where he could rehearse pin point accuracy manouvers with his remote control robots. The S.C.I.S. or whatever it was supplied with a transit van that he could effect extensive repairs inside if the emergency called for it. His Controller looked like the Alfredo Celli villian from Thunderball in a trechcoat, and Fedora.
In the 1970's Valiant would merge with:
TV Century 21.
Bar from Agent 21, all its stories were based on Gerry Anderson's string of Supermarination shows:
Fireball XL5.
Staring:
Steve Zodiac.
Robbie the Robot.
Venus.
A professor rather like his Supercar formular one.
And for humour, Loony the space monkey.
Stingray.
Troy Tempest.
Phones.
Marina, the deaf-mute, Tempest at sea girlfriend.
Atlana, the World Aquatic Security Patrol, Tempest land interest and daughter of:
Commander Shore, the beetle eye browed, hover chair bound boss.
Thunderbirds.
All the pilots were named after the American Space Programme pilots:
The Father, Mr. Tracy, the billionaire who had the gumption to put together a group of Supervehicles with the one purpose to rescue people in dire exergencies.
Thunderbird 1, Scott.
Thunderbird 2, Virgil.
Thunderbird 3, the Mole, a black and Decker drill on caterpilla tracks, ussually Virgil doubling up, but it might be Brains, if he were along in a supervisory capacity.
Thunderbird 4, a submersible Robin Reliant, its pilot alternated with the Communications Spacestation:
Thunderbird 5, Glenn and Alan.
Brains was the youngest brother, genius inventor of the vehicles, and equipment.
They had a Bonanza like Chinese manservant who wore silk gowns, and had a daughter that lived with them all.
External to Tracy Island, their secret agent extraordinare, a slinky, glamourous Barbara Cartland pink wearing:
Lady Penelope.
The Lady's do-it-all, breaking in and entry burglar, chauffeur, butler, cook, bottle washer, and in some saterical cartoons father-figure lover:
Parker.
Captain Scarlet.
Anderson's unashamed swipe of Marvel's indestructable agent of Shield.
The show has been dusted down for the C.G.I generation, Colonel Green has changed sex, Colonel White is Colonel White, Captain Blue is no longer an Australian.
TV Century 21.
This magazine may well have been the first to have a full-clour cover picture instead of story, the Gem had had a magenta pen drawing and black content titles.
They too had a girl's version, I think it featured Lady Penelope on solo mission stories, and the Spectrum:
Angels.
The late 60's was the time of the Adam West camp Batman show, so the tabloids here bought the newspaper strip Batman, and Penguin republished the strips in a paperback, possibly the first graphic novel. So a rival took up an option on Spiderman in newspaper strip form.
Marvel had had gotten a foothold here with Tales of Asgard being published in the comic:
Eagle.
The Eagle, was a highly respected comic, who's aim had been to give children a christian ethic that is remembered today in the highly presdigious:
Eagle Awards.
Of which I believe Marvel has been a recipient of on many an occassion, it goes to innovations in comics, storylines and characters.
The Eagle gave us:
Dan Dare, Pilot of the future.
Its creator, Frank Hampson was an arts teacher at Epsom Art School, he could have made a fortune out of the character merchandising had he let them make the gamut of toys and nick knacks.
I remember well in my first digs away from home had Dan Dare wallpaper in the hall, up the stairs and onto the landing, it showed his spacecraft the Anastasia.
If you want to read more about Dan Dare then I suggested you read:
A774407
Dan Dare, Pilot of the future
On the back cover of the Eagle, was:
Blackbow.
He was an orphaned baby white boy who was the sole survivor of a burnt down settlers log cabin, Cheyenne Indians found him and brought him up, relatives of his biological family found him and financed him through medical school, he came back to resentment from his Indian brothers, he was the chief's eldest, maybe not of the Chief's blood. Thus he became Blackbow the Indian in the Chief's headress, who rubbed berry juice on his skin to be a redman, he parlaied between the white and Indian world as Blackbow, stopping wars between his two peoples, by settlers who wanted to get mining rights, it was not a one way white man evil, Indian not, the coin would flip the other way too. He was a Red Indian one-man detective, that had white man's science, he'd take plaster casts of hoof prints and such like, heap clever fellow. In fact the town that was his base of operations got poluted and in a shocking story line Blackbow had to kill his alter ego's best friend, Seth to bring peace.
Inside the Eagle was:
The Human Guine-Pig.
Latterly shortened to:
The Guine-Pig.
He was as his title suggested a test subject for colds, but he went to a laboritory on Dartmoor, run by a scientist in a whelchair, who would send him into the future, where computers ran everything and herded humans around in the most energy efficient way, en mass they'd go to the cinema, en mass they'd eat, they had no free will what they did and when, the regimented life.
In America they had wound up the long running Fugitive series, a Producer was in Britain and read of the Guinea-Pig taking a mind altering drug that made him think he was back in Korea fighting for his life, in actual fact he was fighting against lab security men who were trying to help him.
In America the idea premise was stolen but drugs had not induced the behaviour, it was some brain blood clot pressure within the head of the character Ben Gazzara played, he was then informed his condition was life threatening, the first episode he was a bear of a bastard charging down Route 66 on a suicide mission, but he meets his beautiful hospital nurse who makes love with him, and she gives him a new outlook on his remaining life, enjoy it as much as you can, see the people you may have crossed, lost contact with, ect. So he becomes a non shining, modern knight that helps those people and other cross life people on the way,women fall for him in larger numbers because he is now a new feelly touchy. So about now we should have the head right Ben Gazzara clan runnning a California pshyical therapy Centre.
One of the Eagles characters, he was a robot:
Ironman.
His twist was he was trying to keep secret what he was from people, a Robot, and yet serve them in a Red Adare sort of way, but not exclusively dealing with oil fire blow-outs. He had a human assistant, business manager, confidant and repairman.
Odhams had published the Eagle, but sold the comic to Fleetway who removed Dan Dare from the front cover and put him in the centre fold, he featured in the Eagle Annual now with photocover, formerly it had had a black drawing of an eagle, the self same picure that had featured on the Eagle's sister paper for girls:
Girl.
Dan Dare had featured in eight colour pages the story had been split into two four page segments at the third way points in the annuals, at the centre of the annual it had had a cross section drawing of a train, tank or some vehicle. With Fleetway Dan Dare was reduced to a four page colour feature, Hampton finally jacked Dan Dare in and they started reprint Dan Dare from his first story up.
The front cover was taken over by:
U.F.O. Agents.
They were sort of Man from Uncle clones, earthling agents of aliens, the aliens flying saucer used to rendeavous with them and issue them with specialised equipment, one or two one-off inventions to accomplish their missions against:
E.O.S.
(Enemies Of Society)
It was non-violent fare, ussually clever.
Fleetway though made Boffin, the blonde bespectacled one the weaponeer, the Zeta had to go to their sector of space for a Star War, so the resourceful Boffin adapted their weapons and tools for their misions, then on one of their missions, the Napoleon Solo, short on brains, long on courage look alike got too close to some device that blew up vapouriseing him, Boffin was able to reverse the vapourisation with a control belt, at will he could now become Smokeman, it sounds a joke, and it did fold, he was able to be invisible and pass evaporated into vehicles, and condence inside.
Replacing it was:
The Buccaneers.
The Bucaneers were pirates, matelo sweaters, beanies all the cliche clothes but instead of a galleon their seacraft was a submarine, the Bucanners were two pilots that flew the plunder scout, V.T.O.L. Harriers, often they found not only their piracy at sea, and would being thieves with golden hearts investigate larger crimes that were being committed, an odd concept when you think about it.
Odhams having had that success with "Tales of Asgard" went completely over to Marvel story reprints in black and white, zoomed up to Broadsheet size, the comics were called respectively:
Terrific.
Fantastic.
Marvel had a foothold, Odhams folded and they published in the 1970's:
Marvel.
And due to the success of the Hulk TV series brought out:
Hulk Stories.
Marvel's publishing and developement branch here in Britain's address is:
Marvel Enterprises International Ltd
7 Portland Place
3rd Floor
London
W18 1PP
You may have read recently of Marvel under licence spreading into the Indian market, and creating an Indian Spiderman whilst also having their New York based Spiderman.
Stan the man's wife is English and he visits Europe for his holidays, Stan himself is an immigrant of Poland. Quite a few of its artists are British, Alan Moore the writer is Britsh, the writer of Marshal Law is British, his artist assistant is a New Zealander and has a credit on Hercules and Xenia the Warrior Princess is the costume designer.
In the 1940's Marvel or Timely Comics as I think it was then brought out in '41 the super soldier Captain America, he fought alongside Miss America, the Sub-Mariner and as a token to us their allies Captain Britain, Fords Towel tells me he flew and used a sceptre, he has additionally given me this address where you can read more about Captain Britain:
http./www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/captainbritain.htm
Captain America originally had a triangular traditional shield but it became round and he was able to sythe and deflection strike his enemies.
Marvel having a publishing arm in Britain revived Captain Britain with a new uniform, and maybe with American appreciation of our helping them in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo are, or have revived the character once more, see this space for future developements and possible review.
If you want to read a British comic in America then 2000 AD, is it, it is printed in Canada as the ban is still in force against British comics, the first President Bush offered to Prime Minister John Major to remove it, but our grey man didn't take up the offer.
Warlord.
Published 1974 was notorious for keeping alive the Huns and us debate, it was dead history wasn't it, 31 years after conflicts had ended, it showed bodies realistic explode with blood when they got straffed, it was the height of violence in films and the comic reflected that, school children were copying the swearing at Germans in the street:
"Flthy huns."
"Swine dogs."
It sounds funny now, but must have been intimidating in its way, so much so that the German Ambassordor complained to the Goverment about it, and the Ambassador was interviewed on the BBC's Nationwide programme, a copy of America's 60 Minutes, Nationwide pulled all the regional news programmes under one tent. Also in the debate with the German ambassor the National Front hate stirring raised its head, in quiet Suffolk you would see bright orange cards in bus shelters telling you how unsophisticated the Islamists were killing their meat, I hope I have not communicated the pure vile malice venom of it, it introduced rules of how you could express yourself in print, start of PC.
2000 AD.
First appearance 1977, it is famous for introducing the work of Alan Moore.
If you want to read more about Moore then read on this site:
Alan Moore-Sequential Artist.
Writen and researched by Sparky.
2000 AD's main man is Judge Dread, who Sylvester Stalone played in a movie, the funny thing being the good Judge's face was based on photographs of the British tough man actor, Oliver Reed, but this is not an unheard of thing for Batman's butler, Alfred Dunsworth, in the comics after the first Batman film, somewhere in the 1940's became based on the actor playing his part in looks and English accent.
Alan Moore would bring out for DC comics:
Vertigo label:
"V" for Vengenge.
Prime Minister, Margret Thatcher it was predicted was leading us into a new dictatorship era. I don't wanna work on Maggie's farm A slogan from that time:
I don't wanna work on Maggie's farm.
Its the story of an escapee from a 1980's facist rule British Concentration Camp. (the first Concentration Camps were in the Cuban War) Were they in the camp because they contravened the Clause 31 Act, exempting gay people from education jobs. Moore sets up more questions than he answers. Were the hormone injections V received meant to be a kill or cure solution? It killed the other test subjects, V though was left with heightened fitness and intelligence, and maybe sociopathic tendancies. V's name seems to have come from their cell, V being five in Roman numerals.
The above information was supplied by:
Intelligent Moose
Additional data supplied by him is V the movie in is production and you may view information about it at this website:
hht.//uk.imdb.com/title/tt6434409/
There was a predecessor to:
V for Vengence.
In the original Wizard's post World War Two story, there was no single character called: V, but in his stead there were:
The Deathless Men.
A group of ex-concentration camp inmates who were seeking German War Criminals, they wore Grey masks, black coats, left V for Vengence cards on their assassinated victims, it they were caught they bit on cyanide tables thus not revealing who would follow up on their vengence bid.
DC had before the Batman TV series redesigned the character because his sales were dropping, Robin had at the start been a ten year by the look of him, he set the fashion for juvenile sidekicks, but now he was a young man, and he would have a split from Batman, he would exhibit individual view points of his own, no longer the Boy-Wonder with the quip, more the adolescent with an attitude.
DC like Marvel have tried to launch a British office, even a Southern Ireland one but i don't think they currently have any links here?
Kat who is going to act as the editor on this at the end correcting the spelling mistakes I may have made, has asked:
What about Dangermouse?
Look-in.
Published between 1983 to 1992, originally as a junior TV Times, which meant back then a weekly Independant Television programme guide for 8-15 year olds. The BBC due to them being in the fore-runner medium to TV magazine was and is:
Radio Times.
Look-in featured comic strips, pop and celebrity posters and exclusive interviews, it had a tie-in to:
Gosgrove Studios.
One of Gosgroves productions was an albino Danger Mouse, and his sidekick: Penfold, it was a popular kidult show, pitched with jokes the adults could laugh at, and children enjoy at the same time, much like Shrek today.
Dangermouse was voiced over by David Jason, the could-have been Monty Python, and the 1948 Show, I understand he went to the same uni as John Cleese and quite a few other British comedians but somehow kept missing his opportunities, he had been a radio voice star on Roy Hudd's News headlines, and latterly called:
The News Huddlines.
Roy Hudd would take the papers apart and write sketchs, much as:
Not the Nine O'clock News.
Drop the Dead Donkey.
Would later, and:
That was the week that was.
The Frost Report.
Had done in the 1960's.
It was David Jason's big break, his foil the clueless, naive, put upon Hampster assistant, Penfold, was voiced over by the established comedy actor:
Terry Scott.
The comic script was writen by:
Angus Alan.
His writing was so good that Gosgrove Studios used him to help write the TV scripts too.
The artist was:
Arthur Ranson.
Not to be confused with the Victorian artist Arthur Rackham who illustrated many beautiful books with Fairies, Elves, Hob Goblins, Dwarfs, ogres and Monsters.
Dangermouse featured in the American:
Marvel Duckula.
Duckula was the cartoon show Gosgrove came out with after Dangermouse, published by Marvel they had no feeling for Penfold, so they erased him from the later art work altogether, although all the animal villians as Silus the toad remained.
Dangermouse and Penfold were a play on the Abott and Costello double-act, the idiot and the complete idiot, but with Dangermouse the polarity dynamic was always swinging, Dangermouse was the smug, arrogant one who thought he was all-knowing, Penfold was the wiser one, knowing admitting ignorance was intelligent. Dangermouse would put down Penfold's bleeding obvious observations, and if he wasn't so vain would have have thanked him in the last reel instead of sermonising on the meaning of life. But they say Americans do not understand sarcasm.
