Eagle [Vol.21] #1

27 Mar 1982. Cover price 20p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W contents.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Edited by David Hunt.

Cover by Gerry Embleton.

Free Space Spinner.

Contents:

 2 Eagle Hotline Eagle is Back! text introduction by David Hunt. / A Welcome from the Stars comments from John Craven, Peter Davison, Roy Castle, Ian Botham, Lenny Henry, and John Bond; photographs (uncredited). / How Times Change the new artists - the men who capture the action on film for our exciting photo-stories! Introduction to John Powell, Dave Watts, and Gary Compton. / Wanted! reader feedback requested. / Ernie UNTITLED [Eagle's Official Eagle Mascot] w:/a: Dave Follows.

 3 Doomlord An Alien Stalks the Earth, part one, w: Alan Grant; photography by Gary Compton.

 7 Kids are Tough! Darren Defies Thugs! text feature about Darren Daly by UNKNOWN (uncredited); photograph (uncredited). / Big Mouth readers' mail. / Eagle Interview Peter Davison by UNKNOWN (uncredited); photographs (uncredited), illustration by Dave Follows.

 8 The Whole Town's Popping! advertisement for Waddingtons Pop-Aways.

 9 Personality Plus Bryan Robson pin-up and mini-bio (uncredited). / Fifty Freebie Man. United Books Up for Grabs! competition.

10 Thunderbolt and Smokey! UNTITLED [Two players don't make a football team], part one, w: Tom Tully; photographs by John Powell.

14 Sgt. Streetwise The Police Had Need of Men Like Him... Men Who Stayed Streetwise!, part one, w: Gerry Finley-Day; photographs by Dave Watts.

16 Dan Dare Return of the Mekon, part one, w: Barrie Tomlinson; a: Gerry Embleton.

18 Sgt. Streetwise The Police Had Need of Men Like Him... Men Who Stayed Streetwise! cont.

19 Eagle Fun Spot School Report - Jim Davidson; photograph (uncredited), illustration by Dave Follows.

20 The Tower King UNTITLED [A Gutted City, Haunted by Crazies], part one, w: Alan Hebden; a: Jose Ortiz.

24 Squadron Leaders advertisement for Humbrol 1/48 and 1/72 scale models.

25 Eagle Data File F-15 Eagle fact file; illustration (uncredited).

26 Daley's Diary Strange Names! / Arnold's Dilemma / Great Mates / 'Picca-Dilley'! / A marathon a day... text features by Daley Thompson.

27 The Collector Eye of the Fish w: Roy Preston; a: Pat Wright & Ron Smith, photography by Gary Compton.

31 Read Mike Read UNTITLED [I'm the strange character who struggles in to London at the crack of dawn] (half page) text feature by Mike Read; photographs (uncredited). / Shopwatch UNTITLED [Kensington board game; The Puffin Adventure Sports Series] shopping feature (uncredited); illustration by Dave Follows.

32 Dan Dare Return of the Mekon, cont.

A messy cover, with Embleton's art covered by redundant lines of text, half of the space given over to promoting a free gift... which would have covered the announcement that there was a free gift. Sheer genius. The messy appearance is continued inside, with Eagle Hotline, a catch-all editorial page appearing to have taken some design hints from early eighties magazines. It is nice to see Eagle's past remembered, with Dan Dare and Digby, Harris Tweed, and Jeff Arnold represented, though this, for the moment, is all the Eagle relaunch has to say about its illustrious original incarnation.

How do you compete with one of the most celebrated and beloved titles to bear the Eagle name? By changing everything which made the original so compelling, and to promote photo strips over traditional comic strips.

Midnight. A fireball streaked down over the sleeping town of Cranbridge -

The only witnesses were P.C. Bob Murton and Howard Harvey, a reporter from the Cranbridge Argus -

Officer Murton is immediately killed by Doomlord, having his knowledge absorbed, and is soon disintegrated with a beam from the alien's ring. Howard Harvey is rendered unconscious, before Doomlord takes the physical appearance of Murton. When Harvey awakens, he travels to the police station to report Murton's death, but is brought face-to-face with Murton, very much alive, and wearing the alien's ring.

Doomlord, the first of this issue's photo strips, attempts to present a dramatic SF tale with all the limitations of its photography undermining any credibility. Doomlord's introduction, it must be admitted, is fairly impressive given that he appears to be wearing a discarded duvet, with a mask which is far more convincing that that used in photos of Tharg. It isn't a perfect introduction to Doomlord, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as some complaints about the revived series would have you believe.

The world really wasn't calling for a mix of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and The Day the Earth Stood Still, but Alan Grant provides enough interest to keep things moving along without getting caught up in extraneous detail.

A mandatory sports strip for Eagle, Thunderbolt and Smokey!, is a run-of-the-mill school-based photo strip.

The educational record of Dedfield School was second-to-none! But when it came to getting results on the sports field, it was a very different story...

Losing seven-nil, Dedfield - nicknamed 'Dead-Loss' - are a football team without support from their teachers, though Colin Dexter (Thunderbolt) is determined to turn the team's fortunes around. When he learns that Smokey Beckles, recently transfered to the school, isn't going to play for a losing team, his hopes seem dashed.

That the only black character is named Smokey should tell you all you need to know.

On a more positive note, the strip presents a problem, shows a partial solution, and throws a few wrenches in the works. From a purely storytelling standpoint, this is a fairly strong opening, though presented in dreary grey, page after page of photographs, this can't quite overcome its appearance. If this had been a traditional comic strip its plot might have been enough to make a success of the concept, yet there is nothing here worth getting excited about.

Sgt. Streetwise is slightly better, being the adventures of Detective-Sergeant Wise of Special Undercover Operations. Wise operates on his own, without a radio, cuffs, or weapon, even going so far as to forgo identity papers, and after his homeless disguise is blown has to take on a new identity to continue his work.

Snow-covered streets add slightly to the feel of the strip, though this is a pale imitation of detective television shows, and requires a great deal of suspended disbelief at the frankly ludicrous set-up. As with all the photo strips, the reproduction isn't sharp enough to justify such an elaborate means of creation, and there's no real sense of drama despite a well-staged opening.

Splitting the strip, so that Dan Dare could take the colour centre-pages is annoying, and completely unnecessary, displaying a lack of

The return of Dan Dare comes in Return of the Mekon.

It appeared to be the final confrontation between two beings whose adventures had thrilled a generation. Colonel Dan Dare, valiantly fighting to save Earth from the sworn for of mankind... the cold, merciless mastermind of Venus - the Mekon!

The Mekon surrenders after an intense battle, vowing that one day he will get his revenge on Dare. The World Supreme Court, highest judicial body on Earth, passes judgement, sentencing the Mekon to be placed in a life support capsule, enclosed in a meteor, then set adrift in space. Forever. Because a slap on the wrist and a fine isn't going to deter such a heinous villain as the Mekon. Preparations are duly made, and a meteor, with the Mekon imprisoned inside, is sent off into space.

In such a prison, time became meaningless. Was it a month, a year, or a century before other beings approached the meteor?

Aliens pick up the meteor hoping that valuable ore will be discovered within it, and cut it open - despite getting a life-reading from within.

The inhabitants of the planet Korzak were a meek race... and the sight of the green-skinned being terrified them!

Informed that Treens have lived in peace for many years, leaderless and abandoned, becoming farmers and traders, the Mekon is outraged. Deciding to exact his revenge on Dare, he orders his rescuers to take him to the location of his enemy, beaming down to the planet to continue his battle - only to discover that Dan Dare died hundreds of years before. A gravestone states that he died before his battles with the Treen Empire, puzzling the Mekon, and though he cannot defeat a dead man, he can take his revenge on the planet Earth.

Another strip split to take advantage of colour pages, this time continuing on the back page, Dan Dare is a decidedly odd return. Focusing on the Mekon rather than the titular hero, the story goes so far as to kill off Dare on the final panel. This can be taken as a statement of intent for the revived title - don't expect things to remain as they were. It is only partially successful in bringing back Dan Dare's world, feeling slightly too rushed to properly establish a timeline of events.

The solar power satellite was the most important result of the American space programme of the 1980's. A vast array of solar panels had been placed in stationary orbit above the equator...

Solar energy from the sun was converted into microwaves and beamed down to a huge receiving station on the ground, where the microwaves were reconverted into electric power and fed into a grid.

It should have been the start of a new era.

Instead, it was the beginning of a disaster!

The microwaves had disrupted the balance of the Earth's atmosphere, making the generation of electricity in any form impossible. Without it, aircraft fell out of the sky... Ships drifted helplessly... Road traffic ground to a halt...

...and nuclear power stations melted down!

Without electricity there was no radio or TV... No telephones or newspapers... No form of transport... Nor was there heat or light.

In the days that followed, panic swept the world as nobody knew what was happening.

Without electricity food production and distribution broke down, forcing starving mobs out to the countryside in a desperate bid to find some.

Finally, after panic and starvation, came disease and death on a scale unknown since the black death.

Small bands of survivors formed tightly-knit groups to defend themselves and continue life in the ruins of civilisation. In London, within the walls of the Tower of London, such a group was led by a man named Mick Tempest.

There's a lot to like in The Tower King, and much back-story to deliver, which it does as rapidly as possible. The extended sequence of reported information, which builds up to the appearance of the titular character, may take up two whole pages, but as it is essential to everything which follows it is a justifiable journey. The city of London, seen only partially in the vignettes, may not be the most original choice of location to place the series in, though the concepts are interesting enough to overcome this lack of imagination.

Its primary selling point, a modern world deprived of power, had already been visited in the television series The Changes, based on Peter Dickinson's books, though in a slightly different form.

The strip's introductory text is slightly over-playing the reality of such a situation - heat can be provided from fires, and printing presses of old did fine without electricity. Regardless, one has to hand it to Hebden - the text boxes prefacing the story is very dramatic and attention-grabbing manner in which to begin the story. The close of the story proves that there are forms of transport in the new landscape of London, though given that the strip had already shown us horses...

Eye of the Fish, a complete story, is introduced by The Collector.

"Welcome. I am known as The Collector! Some of my exhibits may seem a little out of the ordinary to you. But then so, too, are the reasons why I keep them!"

Terry Lansberry and his father go fishing near a sign which prohibits such activity, but their illicit sport is soon brought to a halt by darkening skies. Terry disappears in a flash of light, swiftly followed by his father, thereafter learning an important lesson...

Yes, it is a slight, and incredibly silly, variant on a well-worn theme, but it doesn't really need to be brilliant. A complete story, however well crafted, is essential to giving readers of an anthology value for money - you never know if they are going to purchase the next issue, so as long as they get one full story then their purchase has been validated.

With a superb beginning from The Tower King, an intriguing question (or two) lingering in Dan Dare, and Doomlord's inherent possibilities, this is a solid, if unexceptional, beginning. Or, if you prefer, it is a rather subdued revival with much potential.

Eagle [Vol.21]

#02

Tornado #1

[24 Mar 1979]. Cover price 10p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W contents.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Edited by Roy Preston.

Cover by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

Contents:

 2 Welcome to the World of Heroes! 2000 A.D. Productions Present - Tornado introduction by Tharg; photographs (uncredited). / Introduction by Big E. / Enjoy Your Turbo-Flyer Safely! Free gift instructions; illustration (uncredited).

 3 Victor Drago The Terror of Troll Island!, part one, w: Bill Henry [Chris Lowder]; a: Mike Dorey.

 9 The Mind of Wolfie Smith UNTITLED [Departure from Mason Street], part one, w: Tom Tully; a: Vanyo.

15 The Angry Planet UNTITLED [No Water for Markham], part one, w: Alan Hebden; a: Massimo Belardinelli.

21 Tornado's True Tales The Tale of Benkei, part one, w: Steve Moore; a: Xavier Musquera.

26 Wagner's Walk UNTITLED [A Child's Atlas], part one, w: R.E. Wright [Pat Mills]; a: Lozano.

31 Next Week - Your Chance to Join Team Tornado preview. / Indicia

32 Captain Klep UNTITLED [Strangest Visitor from Another World] w: Dave Angus & Nick Landau; a: Kevin O'Neill.

The launch of a title is an opportunity to show the readers something they haven't seen before. An opportunity to break free of tradition and stretch out into concepts and designs which haven't been attempted. Launch issues are, in short, the perfect place to show off. No matter the budgetary restraints, editorial constraints, or possible audience complaints, there is no reason to hold back on great ideas or artwork.

By 1979 IPC already had a solid run of successful launches (along with a few troublesome titles), so it would make sense that creative personnel had studied those achievements, taking away all the lessons available. It would have been natural to emulate massively popular characters, to grow under-appreciated ideas into thrilling strips, and show up the rest of IPC's output with top-notch strips. A newly-launched title ought to take every advantage available in order to succeed.

Which is why this issue is such an infuriating read.

The cover is, admittedly, not as bad as some contemporary launches, yet it doesn't scream quality. The mass of conflicting lettering is an eye strain, and dainty stars sprinkled over the left side of the cover bring to mind a style more commonly associated with girls comics - at least the space beneath the free gift hasn't been wasted, though it is still important space casually wasted. The most intriguing aspect of the launch straddles the bottom of the cover, where we are promised "the U.K.'s First Real Live Superhero!"

Many attempts at bringing superheroes to British comics had already been attempted, though this was something different. Unlike Marvelman or Captain Britain, Big E (who should have been dusted off in the nineties for the acid house crowd) was a real superhero, as seen in photographs throughout the title's run - though his credibility is diminished firstly by looking like a young Jim Belushi, and secondly by having an a ridiculously poor costume. It is, of course, Dave Gibbons in the ill-fitting superhero garb rather than a professional model, which shows how little thought had gone into the depiction.

It is surprising, looking back, that no touching up had been attempted on the photographs. Numerous talented airbrush artists were working in London during the late seventies, any one of whom could have taken rough photographs and transformed them into spectacular - and extremely life-like - depictions of a fantastic nature. Of course, that would have shown up the ugly Tharg mask for the piece of tat it was, and undermined the authority of the esteemed editor of 2000 A.D..

London - February, 1929!

A bitter wind sweeps over the chill waters of the river Thames, hurling a white fury of snowflakes before it in savage gusts!

On such a night as this, there's no honest profit to be made out of doors!

On the other hand - for those who seek a dishonest profit...

...Such a night has many advantages!

From out of the darkness steps a formidable figure, a pipe set firmly in his mouth - Vincent Drago.

A name that struck terror into the most hardened of evil-doers - from the slums of London's East End to the teeming waterfront of Shanghai, Drago was the private detective who never gave up a case - often succeeding where the toughest policemen failed!

His associate Spencer, and his dog Brutus, soon have the majority of the ne'er-do-wells under control, and Drago himself deals with the remaining two, before the authorities arrive to cart away their prey. Leaving the police to wrap things up, Drago heads home, finding his 'phone ringing upon arrival - Philip Moffat, of Troll Island (off the North Cornwall coast) requests assistance, but the call is cut off before he can relate more. Drago and Spencer race through the night in his car, the Silver Lady, hoping to arrive in time...

Opening with a relaunched version of a vintage character might have worked for 2000 A.D., but Sexton Blake (under an assumed name here) isn't Dan Dare, and - worse - the time period is preserved for this outing. Unlike the BBC series Sherlock, there's no sense of untapped possibilities being exposed and expanded. There's little point in bringing a character back to print if things aren't altered, and this is, sadly, simply too old-fashioned to capture an audience led into the title by Tharg's recommendation.

I'm not sure I've ever got to the end of a Sexton Blake novel, and I can't imagine the character's appeal was significantly greater during the time of this issue's launch.

Colossal brain-power is not exclusive to adults. Even as a child, Leonardo da Vinci... the legendary Italian scientist and painter... had a profound knowledge of mathematics...

At the tender age of 7, the Austrian composer, Mozart, went on a musical tour, playing minuets that he had written himself...

And by the time he was nine years old, Ernest Patrick Smith, of No.11, Mason Street, Humberton, could make a pepper-pot move, ust by thinking about it!

Able to remember facts by reading them only once, able to move objects with his mind, and possessing the ability to know the contents of a bag without opening it, "Wolfie" Smith checks his local library to see what is happening to him, and reading about psychic abilities, he learns he has E.S.P. - Extra Sensory Perception. When he arrives home, ready to tell his parents what he has learned, he finds Mr. Venner has accused him of cheating on a test, and that his class photograph has been ruined by what others consider a trick - which Wolfie knows is caused by his psychic aura.

Fearing that he will be turned into a human guinea pig, Wolfie goes on the run.

With his each of his name containing a first letter reading ESP (though jumbled), this maintains IPC's tradition of handing its characters meaningful names, and the set-up, while containing more than a few well-worn scenes, is visually arresting and well-paced. Not quite SF enough to justify Tharg's presence in the title, but an interesting take on some themes which were strongly represented in fiction during the late seventies.

Mars... the fourth planet of the solar system, with an average surface temperature that was colder than an Antarctic winter... An atmosphere of deadly carbon dioxide... and no surface water!

An unprotected man would be dead in seconds!

When the first manned missions discovered vast mineral deposits, the great multi-national companies of energy-starved Earth formed Mars Incorporated to mine it and ship it back home.

Then, in the first years of the 21st century, as Mars Inc. was drilling for oil in the desert-like Arcadian region...

The drills struck something... and it wasn't oil!

It was oxygen... PURE OXYGEN!

For the next 25 years the planet's surface was "oxygenated" so that by the middle of the century, Mars could support life.

When their contracts expired many of the Mars Inc. employees elected to stay on their adopted planet and settle it... or die in the attempt.

Many died... But more lived. In 2062 the first human child was born on Mars.

Narrow-boned, because of the weak gravity and large-lunged, because of the thin air, he was the first of a new generation that could never live on Earth... The first Martian.

Matthew Markham, the first Martian-born human, now with a family of his own to care for, awaits a water delivery, though discovers the price has increased for the third time in six months, doubling its cost in under a year. As Mars Inc. has a monopoly on the planet there is no choice but to pay up, though with decreasing payments for his farm's produce the prospects of continuing to exist as they are look bleak. Matthew learns neighbouring farmers are abandoning their homes in search of work elsewhere, and when he returns home finds Mars Inc. prospecting for copper deposits on his land.

Getting into a fight with the Earthmen on his property, Matthew chases them away - but when he checks his computer finds his water supply has been cut off.

If The Angry Planet was an attempt to channel Heinlein's vision of man's future, then it lacks a certain believability. Yes, corporations are inherently against individuals (the bottom line always comes first), though the degree to which the persecution of an individual is handled in a cartoonish and patently unbelievable manner. Stopping a person's water supply on a planet where such a resource is unavailable elsewhere is pretty much a death sentence, and something which ought to be handled through a robust legal system - which is entirely absent in the narrative.

There's much potential in telling the story of Martian colonisation, yet all of the interesting possibilities are brushed over in favour of a simplistic revenge story.

And now, welcome to our 'Triple T' spot, that's Tornado's True Tales... a series of sagas about unusual Heroes in amazing feats of Heroism that ACTUALLY HAPPENED! The first saga occurred a long time ago, in a world very different from our own. It tells...

The Tale of Benkei

Japan, 1179 A.D.: Few travellers crossed the Gojo bridge at night... and none crossed it sword in hand...

There's a warm place in my heart for this strip, but once more the title looks to the past rather than exploiting Tharg's presence in promoting the comic. Telling the story of the warrior monk Saitō Musashibō Benkei, and it is a fairly standard version which is repeated here. While it would have been more attractive without the border, the art is superb, and it performs its role as an educational element well.

Wagner's Walk is a post-WWII tale of Major Kurt Wagner, and his discovery of an atlas which gives him the notion to walk to freedom, out of Siberia. It isn't a story which I'm particularly fond of. Captain Klep is, likewise, a very difficult strip to like, being a parody of Superman, in particular, and superhero conventions in general. It isn't as funny or as biting as it could have been, and pales when compared to Marvel's own satires.

This is a comic without a clear personality. Or, rather, it is in possession of more than one distinct personality, preventing a quick and simple identification of what a Tornado strip ought to be. With Misty, Battle Picture Weekly, or 2000 A.D., the strips fit the title's personality perfectly, and it is possible to identify recurring elements linking those strips. Here... anything goes.

A very poor launch issue.

Tornado

#02