Eagle (comic)
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The Eagle was a British weekly comic, which ran in two main incarnations over the period of 1950 to 1994 (with accompanying annuals). It is strongly associated with its flagship character, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, (created and illustrated by Frank Hampson in the earlier photographic format), doing battle against the Mekon and other interplanetary foes.
Up until this time, comics had been aimed at both boys and girls, but a definite gender split began to open up, with the Eagle and Girl (1951 – 1964), clearly aimed at different markets.
Original Version
The Eagle was the creation of the Reverend Marcus Morris, who intended it as a Christian antidote to what he saw as the bad influence of American comics during the post-war period. He strove to produce high quality, inspirational literature unlike any existing at the time, involving the work of teams of graphic artists such as Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy - even creating mockups of spaceships to use as reference for Dan Dare. The Eagle and its sister papers Girl, Swift and Robin were read by millions throughout the 1950s and 1960s and it became the most popular comic in British history, selling over 2 million copies per week.
This first version ran from 14 April 1950 to 26 April 1969, when it merged with Lion. Originally published by Hulton Press, it was taken over in 1960 by Odhams, which was renamed Longacre Press. The following year Odhams was taken over by the Daily Mirror Group (now IPC), who produced The Eagle until 1969.
Strips during the original version included:
- Blackbow the Cheyenne
- Blunderbirds
- Chicko illustrated by Norman Thelwell
- Cornelius Dimworthy
- Dan Dare, created by illustrator Frank Hampson
- The Guinea Pig
- Fraser of Africa illustrated by Frank Bellamy
- Heros the Spartan illustrated by Frank Bellamy
- The Iron Man
- Jeff Arnold and Riders of the Range, written by Charles Chilton, illustrated by Frank Humphris
- Knights of the Road
- The Life of.... illustrated by Frank Bellamy and others
- Luck of the Legion illustrated by Martin Aitchison
- Harris Tweed illustrated by John Ryan
- PC49 illustrated by John Worsley
- Storm Nelson illustrated by Richard Jennings
- Tommy Walls
- Captain Pugwash created by John Ryan
- Waldorf & Cecil
- Jack o'Lantern illustrated by Robert Ayton
The back page of The Eagle was usually devoted to depicting the life story of a (usually) historic character, told in the normal strip format over many months. These included The Happy Warrior (the life of Winston Churchill), The Shepherd King (the life of the biblical King David), Gordon of Khartoum (the life of General Gordon), Montgomery of Alamein (the life of Lord Montgomery), all drawn by Frank Bellamy; and The Road of Courage (the life of Jesus Christ), drawn by Frank Hampson.
As well as strips there was heavy factual content, including regular reports from The Eagle's own "Special Correspondent", former war correspondent Macdonald Hastings (father of Max Hastings, the newspaper editor), cutaway drawings of vehicles and machinery (by artists such as L. Ashwell Wood, reader contributions, and items of interest such as how to perform magic tricks.
Revived Version
The Eagle was re-launched by IPC (later Fleetway) on March 27 1982, aiming for the same quality end of the comic-reading market.#redirect The marketplace had matured considerably over the intervening years since the first Eagle, with readers seen as disenchanted by a largely stagnant boy's comic industry. John Purdie had recently revitalised photographic-based strips in Fleetway's girls comics, and this tactic was extended to create the relaunched Eagle's Unique selling point; most of the early strips were produced in photographic form, extending the medium to include science fiction, football, westerns, and so on.
This second volume ran from March 1982 until January 1994, with several relaunches/incarnations, however the comic had become a monthly anthology by this point with little new material.
Initial photo-strip incarnation
As stated above, originally many strips were produced in photographic format, and printed on heavy-duty magazine paper. This had the double-edged effect of increasing a strip's visual impact, but not only was it more expensive than producing drawn strips, the medium limited the range of stories, and led to unconvincing action sequences.Dez Skinn characterised this period as "Photo strips and action stories are an ill-met pairing. No extremes, no tension. Just embarrassed amateur actors (ie office staff) wearing silly expressions and even sillier masks." [link]
The strips were accompanied by factual articles, cartoons, and reader contributions similarly to the first volume.
Strips during this period included:
- The Collector - one-off morality tales based around items owned by The Collector
- Crowe St. Comp - the adventures of a group of comprehensive schoolchildren
- Dan Dare, often illustrated by Ian Kennedy - notable for being a drawn strip, in lavish colour
- Doomlord- Eagle's most popular strip, a saga about a shape-changing alien sentencing humanity to death, but being replaced by another alien who served as Earth's protector
- Ernie - the Eagle's mascot
- The Fifth Horseman - a drawn strip, initially about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, becoming a story about an alien computer attempting world domination
- Fred- another half-page cartoon featuring a Charlie Chaplin-type character
- Gil Hazzard (Scorpio) - a drawn strip about a 'hard man', with the gimmick of its initial run in Stereoscopic 3D
- The House of Correction - set in a Nazi concentration camp
- The House of Daemon - a strip involving characters trying to escape a haunted house
- The Invisible Boy - about a schoolboy who could turn invisible
- Jake's Platoon - set in World War II
- Joe Soap - a comedy strip about an incompetent private detective
- Manix - an action strip about a robot secret agent
- Saddle Tramp - a western strip featuring a bounty hunter
- Sergeant Streetwise - an undercover sergeant who used disguise to catch criminals
- Thunderbolt and Smokey! - about two schoolboys creating their own football team
- The Tower King - set in a modern-day London reduced to medieval anarchy
- Walk or Die - a survival story about children in a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness
Revert to drawn format
With issue 79 (dated September 24 1983), Eagle reverted to a more traditional drawn-strip format, which allowed the use of cheaper paper stock, and also gave the strips more creative freedom. Some existing photo-strips continued in the drawn format, and the non-strip elements were largely removed. This was Eagle's most stable and successful period; although in 1987 a mini-relaunch occurred, as the comic's size and paper stock was again changed (resembling the original incarnation) and a slew of strips were replaced.During this period, Eagle absorbed several other titles:
- Scream! on July 7 1984
- Tiger on April 6 1985
- Battle Picture Weekly on January 30 1988
- M.A.S.K. on October 29 1988
- Wildcat on April 8 1989
Original strips during this period included:
- The Amstor Computer - a 'story of the week' strip where readers sent in codes that loaded that week's story
- Avenger - a vigilante with a day job as a teacher
- Bloodfang - initially a naturalistic tale relating the life of a Tyrannosaur, who was later captured by time-travelling bounty hunters and shipped to a zoo in the 22nd century
- The Brothers - the tale of two twins, one regressed to a 'caveman' state due to an industrial accident, trying to locate their family
- Computer Warrior, initially known as Ultimate Warrior - a popular and long-lived strip featuring a boy who could play computer games for real using a 'real life code'
- Comrade Bronski - yet another incarnation of the 'hard man' formula, this time with the central character as a member of the KGB rooting out internal corruption
- D.A.D.D. - Dial A Dawn Destructor, a group of rock stars, Dawn Destruction, who solved crimes during the night
- Detective Zed - a humourous strip about a robot detective in 22nd Century London
- Dolebusters - a strip about three young would-be entrepreneurs who will do anything for ready cash
- The Fists of Danny Pike - about an amateur boxer overcoming adversity to become world champion
- Ghost Squad - a spin off of Death Wish, about a squad of ghost detectives
- Ghostworld
- The Hand - about a man who gets the implanted hand of a Mafia don, which explicably forces him to commit criminal acts, petty revenge, etc. Criticised for its violence
- The Hard Men (comic strip), also known as Clovis and Chowdhary - generic 'hard men' strip about two M.I.5. agents blackmailed into performing secret missions
- Kid Cops - a science fiction strip where, as all future wars are fought on the Moon, Earth is largely deserted and children must become the police
- Legend of the Linkits - a toy merchandising tie-in, about a war of robots built from building blocks similar to Meccano or Lego
- Manta Force - a toy merchandising tie-in, about a group of space colonists who end up in a civil war on their new home. The strip was notable for the colony ship/toy appearing roughly the size of a supermarket yet supposedly containing thousands of troops, tanks and equipment stowed away for the duration of its voyage
- News Team - a group of investigative reporters undertaking adventures in war-torn countries and similarly dangerous locations
- Roadblasters - a toy merchandising tie-in, about organised racing across an entire planet
- Robo-Machines - a toy merchandising tie-in, about the battle of good and evil by sentient shapeshifting robots, similar to Transformers
- Shadow (comic strip) - a strip about a wandering police dog, similar to Lassie but with more violence
- Soup Squad - a secret division of Scotland Yard dedicated to investigating supernatural crimes
- S.O.S. - a strip from the back catalogue of Battle about a group of crack undercover soldiers, continued with new material
- Survival - a science fiction strip about a group of children struggling to survive in a world where every adult has died of plague. The strip is remarkably similar to Kids Rule O.K., which got its parent comic Action banned due to its continual and senseless violence
- Timespell
- Toys of Doom - a sequel of a frequently-reprinted multi-part horror strip originally seen in Buster in 1966, involving toys that could be controlled similarly to General Jumbo
- Ant Wars - a slightly silly action strip involving battle with enormously mutated South American ants
- Gaunt - set in World War II, about an unbalanced 'hard man' given a superhumanly strong artificial hand to replace one lost during Nazi torture
- M.A.C.H. 1 - an action strip about a British super-agent
- M.A.C.H. Zero - a prequel to M.A.C.H.1
- The Thirteenth Floor
- The Monster
- Billy's Boots - about a boy football player who owned the boots of the legendary Dead-Shot Keen, which made him an unbeatable player
- Death Wish - about disfigured race driver Blake Edmonds, who undertook extremely dangerous adventures and stunts as he felt he had nothing to lose
- Golden Boy - an extremely gifted athlete who grew up in a feral state on isolated moorland
- Star Rider - an alien who stayed on Earth to compete in BMX championships
- One-Eyed Jack - yet another 'hard man' cop, set in New York and wearing an eyepatch
- Charley's War - a critically acclaimed, and meticulously researched, fictionalised account of World War I
- Johnny Red - a World War II Russian fighter pilot
- Storm Force - a non-stop action strip about a squad of elite anti-terrorist warriors, inspired by Action Force
Strips absorbed from Wildcat included:
- Joe Alien
- Kitten Magee
- Loner
- Turbo Jones
- Wildcat Complete
Glossy relaunch
Around 1991, Eagle relaunched yet again due to falling sales caused by the changing market. The relaunched comic contained fewer strips, all in colour, with large amounts of celebrity and pop music-related content. Oddly, strips seemed to either be aimed at infant school children, involving slapstick and simplistic humour, or mature adolescents similar to 2000 AD's Crisis tackling homelessness, sex, and profanity.Strips during this period included:
- A rebooted Dan Dare, attempting to return to the thematic roots of the character
- Beast! - a short-lived horror strip about a demonic creature terrorising a fairground
- The Eagle One-off - another 'story of the week' strip
- Dark Angels - a mature strip about teenaged skateboarding vigilantes
- Mask of Evil- another short-lived strip about a mask that forced its wearer to commit immoral acts
- Mowser
- My Pet Alien
- Rat Trap - a childish strip about a serial burglar, Dr. Ratty Rat (though exactly what he was a doctor of was never revealed), who looked like a rat, with a powerful sonic rasp --- readers would send in extravagant plans to trap him (e.g. 'feed him enough chocolate so he can't move so you can arrest him'), which would be executed by B.I.F.F.F. (British Institute For Foiling Felonies) but always failed (e.g. he would use his rasp to blow open the doors of the police van and escape)
Monthly Anthology
Around 1992, Eagle moved to a monthly anthology format after being unable to shore up sales. There was very little new content, consisting mostly of reprinted Eagle strips. Publication quietly ceased in January 1994.External links
- [Site about the first volume]
- [Another site about the first volume]
- [Marcus Morris's account of the beginnings of the Eagle]
- [The Eagle Archive]
- [An illustrated history of the Dan Dare character from both volumes]
- [Various characters from the second volume at the International Hero site]
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