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

Action #1

14 Feb 1976; Cover price 7p.
32 pages. B&W contents.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Edited by Pat Mills.

Cover by UNKNOWN.

Free "The Red Arrow" plane.

Contents:

.2 Look Out! Action is Deadly! introduction. / Win Prizes rewards for letters, jokes, and drawings. On offer is Skimmer Disc, £1 Postal Order, Action Tee Shirt, Tiger Tank (Hasegawa 1/72 scale), and Thunder Chief plane (Monogram 1/72 scale) / The Red Arrow free gift flying instructions. / The Money Man's Throwing ££££'s Away

.3 Dredger UNTITLED [Hasan Gadazi] w: UNKNOWN; a: UNKNOWN.

.6 Hellman of Hammer Force UNTITLED [First Across the Frontier] w: Gerry Finley-Day; a: Mike Dorey.

.9 Blackjack UNTITLED [A Left Jab to the Head] w: John Wagner; a: Trigo.

12 Knowall readers' questions feature. / Guess What? picture puzzle. / Action Mouse UNTITLED [Box Your Shadow] w: UNKNOWN; a: Joe Collins.

13 Play Till You Drop! UNTITLED [First Game of the Season] w: UNKNOWN; a: Barry Mitchell.

16 Hookjaw UNTITLED [The Killer Still Has the Hook in its Jaw] w: Ken Armstrong; a: Ramon Sola.

20 Sports Stars of the Future Les Collins (half page). / Soccer Session with the Boss The Throw-In / Twit of the Week reader feature. / Vote in Action

21 Sport's Not For Losers! UNTITLED [Crippled] w: Steve MacManus; a: Dudley Wynn.

24 The Coffin Sub UNTITLED [The Mediterranean, 1941] w: UNKNOWN; a: Angelo Todaro.

27 Action Packed! Next Week (half page) / UNTITLED [Hi. The name's Steve... Steve McManus].

28 The Running Man UNTITLED [Manhunt for Cop Killer as Fifth Policeman Dies] w: Steve MacManus; a: Horacio Lalia.

32 In Action Next Week!

Once again I'm missing the free gift, for reasons that should be obvious. The absence of these items usually doesn't bother me, but this plane - with handy catapult to sent it flying at speed - looks like a perfect way to waste an afternoon. It's frustrating that so many ridiculously fun items are missing, yet more mundane gifts - postcards, posters, badges, trading cards - are routinely present and correct.

But I'm meant to be dealing with contents, so without further ado:

Beneath an average cover, despite not really playing to Action's strengths, there is a lot to like. At publication the most enticing editorial content must have been The Money Man's Throwing ££££'s Away - every Saturday Money Man would turn up in a different town to give money to readers. On Saturday the 14th, between 11am and 12 noon, he made an appearance at Whitgift Centre, Croydon, and if challenged with "You are the Money Man of Action," he would hand over five pounds. Only for the first reader to do so, mind you, though an additional five readers would receive £1.

Absolutely a product of the seventies, Dredger is often described as the title's Dirty Harry. Presaging The Professionals prominent use of an agency designation (D16 in the case of the strip, CI5 in the case of the series), Dredger also used a tough, no-nonsense figure who refused to bow to regulations when they interfered with his agenda. After serving five years in the Royal Marine Commandos, Dredger had been discharged for brutality, thereafter becoming a mercenary, then joining DI6. It is a fascinating back-story, yet isn't elaboated upon.

In 1973, Hasan Gadazi, Prime Minister of Kuran, is returning home after signing an oil deal with Britain. Targeted by Arab assassins, he is wounded by gunfire when boarding his flight at Heathrow - despite being guarded by Agent Breed of DI6. Dredger manages to stop the shooter by ramming the man's car with a forklift. Dredger accompanies Breed to ensure there are no more attempts on Gadazi's life, but once in the air terrorists armed with sub-machine guns take passengers hostage, threatening to execute Gadazi. Dredger leaps into action, takes out the terrorists, and learns that the pilot is also involved.

Too late to save the co-pilot and flight engineer, Dredger is forced to take control of the plane. Talked down by air traffic control, the flight ends with destroyed tyres and the under-carriage caved in, although the passengers are saved. Breed acknowledges that Dredger, in spite of his rough edges, managed to get results. A very topical story for the era, when standing orders for pilots were to cooperate with terrorists hijacking their flights. For a comic, especially even one aimed at young readers, it concludes slightly too neat and clean to be believable.

Dredger is a fascinating character, even here. Completely at ease in even the most pressing circumstances, he shows little regard for accepted protocols and displays the kind of action hero behaviour which would dominate films a decade later. There is a tension with the more reserved Breed, continuing through the dramatic rescue, which promises to deliver future disagreements. There is a slight hint of ITC's formula here, and this would make for a highly entertaining adventure series - just in case any television producers are reading this.

Published a year before the release of Cross of Iron, Gerry Finley-Day's Hellman of Hammer Force opens on the first of May, as Germany's blitzkrieg on the West begins, with panzer commander Major Kurt Hellman leading the Hammer Force's charge across the Belgian border. He differs from stereotypical representations of German officers in British comics, stating that he kills tanks but not men if it can be helped. The progress of the advance is halted until Reichscommissar Gauleiter Kastner can join the unit to witness their effectiveness firsthand.

Hellman considers the Nazi officer a slimy toad, and his thoughts on the man don't improve when told to murder British soldiers. Instead of obeying orders, he sends his men in to capture the British instead. Stating that he considers himself a soldier and not a butcher, Hellman insists that there be honour in battle. Kastner, disapproving the lack of respect from his subordinate, prepares to send a report to SS headquarters in Berlin. It's surprising how quickly the strip gets into a rhythm, with Hellman trying his hardest to keep the fighting as clean as he can. It is a very impressive beginning, with the characters' personalities are clearly depicted from the start.

The first sports story stars Jack Barron, a young up-and-coming heavyweight known in the ring as Blackjack. The fourth round of his seventh fight in the World Championship finds him seemingly coasting to an assured victory against "Irish" Tom Tully, but just before the bell rings Barron takes a hit to the face. Yank Kraski, Jack's American trainer, seals the cut on his brow, and he concludes the fight with a resounding victory. A few weeks later Jack gets himself checked out, as he's been having trouble with his sight ever since the fight.

A Harley Street doctor informs Jack that a fragment of bone is affecting the optic nerve, and if he keeps fighting he will go blind within one year. Wandering the streets, attempting to process the prognosis, Jack encounters a group of young men attacking kids and wades into the fight. After ensuring their safety Jack hands them tickets to the fight, deciding that he is going to be world champion even if it blinds him. A great set-up, with a likable lead facing a massive disadvantage should he continue on his path. Intelligently handled, with enough edge to fit alongside the more aggressive material.

Play Till You Drop!, the ubiquitous football strip, follows Alec Shaw, striker for Rampton City. After a dirty tackle Alec is taken to the treatment room where he encounters Vernon Grice, a newspaper reporter for the Daily Comet. The reporter tells him that proof has been uncovered that Alec's father, City player of note Tom Shaw, accepted a bribe to throw a match. Outraged, Alec refuses to accept the allegation - until he sees a photograph of his father with bookmaker Bernie Wallace. Grice demands payment in order to keep the information out of print, and Alec agrees in order to preserve his late father's reputation.

A simple enough start, with a mystery to be solved (circumstances of the photograph), an injury to overcome, and a crooked reporter to take down. It feels as if the strip is working on plotting-by-numbers at this point, and not much characterization is present, but the strip works on its own level.

Hook Jaw is the star of Action, a great white shark roaming the sea looking for fresh meat. At an oil drilling platform it bites a diver's leg off and slashes the air hose of another. Chief diver Rick Mason is powerless to intervene when Bannion, struggling for air, drops his weight belt. When Bannion hits the surface he explodes thanks to nitrogen narcosis. Mason, furious with the Red McNally, the rig boss, for drilling in a shark's nursery, accuses the man of putting profit before safety.

Taking to the air, McNally fires at Hook aw, injuring the shark enough to turn the other sharks against the maneater. The amassed sharks aren't enough to stop Hook Jaw, and he escapes to fight another day. Simple, brutal, and with a very dark sense of humour, Hook Jaw functions less as an adventure strip and more as horror. There is an aspect of the plotting - concerning an implacable killer which cannot be stopped - that anticipates slasher films, The colour printing makes the strip all the more visceral - red ink has rarely been used to such effect.

Dan Walker, the protagonist of Sport's Not For Losers, is an athlete with Barncastle Harriers, who, during the 110 metre hurdles, gets hit in the face. With a seriously damaged Achilles tendon, he is told by a doctor that his running days are over for at least a year - if he attempts to run, he might be crippled for life. After witnessing his brother running from a gang, and hurdling over a wall to escape, Dan gets the notion to transform Len into a top athlete - but first must convince him to give up cigarettes.

There's a few lines which feel almost as if this has been sponsored by one of the regular health initiatives which ran in comics over the years, yet the sense of (then-)contemporary social awareness is palpable. Dan's attempt to turn his brother Len's life around is, while not spectacularly original, at least presented in a realistic manner, with enough obstacles preventing this goal to provide a fair amount of antagonism. Sport's Not For Losers wasn't a strip I was looking forward to tackling, but it isn't as bad as the name suggests.

The Mediterranean, 1941. The periscope of British submarine H.M.S. Conquest spots two Italian destroyers approaching. Lieutenant Commander Mark Kane orders a torpedo strike against one of the vessels, but the second destroyer turns to engage the sub with depth charges. Five men are killed in the explosions, and Kane orders their bodies to be placed in the torpedo tubes along with some wreckage to convince the Italians that they have succeeded in destroying the boat. Having survived the encounter, Kane is dismayed to learn that the sub is filling with chlorine gas, and they are powerless to surface.

A leak shorts the electrical equipment, and an explosion rips through the submarine - the force of which assists Kane in opening the escape hatch, the outrush of air propelling him to the surface. Happily, this isn't Hook Jaw, so he doesn't explode when he reaches the surface, but he is the sole survivor of the incident. Kane considers himself a deserter, that he should have gone down with his ship. The submarine, having sunk in shallow water off the coast of North Africa, is soon recovered, and Kane is cleared of all blame by an inquiry.

Given command of his former ship, the Conquest, the crew are less than happy at the prospect of serving under him. Unnerved, Kane's crew view him as Captain of a sub brought back from the dead, and that they are now sailing in The Coffin Sub. Which is the coolest name imaginable for a series set on a submarine. Whatever problems I have with the miraculous survival of the main character, he's a wonderfully different protagonist. A very impressive beginning. It's a shame that the rush of air which pushed him to the surface didn't raise the corpses of his crew, for extra nightmarish imagery, but the extremely evocative artwork is good enough without ghoulish garnishing.

The Running Man starts in a bar on Seventh Avenue, New York. Vito Scarlatti is in the midst of a hold-up when a passing police officer enters the bar. He's shot and killed, and as Vito makes his escape another officer is killed. Young Vito has killed five policemen in the space of twelve weeks, and a manhunt is on for him. Carter, a runner in New York to take part in the 5,000 metres at Yankee Stadium, is blown up with a rigged champagne bottle, Awakening in what he presumes to be hospital, Carter discovers that he has been given plastic surgery. Removing his bandages, he finds himself with the face of another man.

Leaving his room, Carter finds himself on the docks rather than in a hospital. Relief at seeing a police car turns to fright when they open fire on him, believing him to be Vito Scarlatti. Forced to run like never before, a race for his very life, Carter must find out what has happened and why.

In many ways the weakest strip - an incendiary bomb which doesn't kill at such close range, easy plastic surgery, and a hospital set built in such an unlikely location - there's a fairly complex plot, helped by having The Godfather influencing the portrayal of the antagonists. Even by the era's standards, the behaviour of police - opening fire on an unarmed man - seems a little over the top, but it makes for an interesting predicament for Carter to deal with.

Much more entertaining than the cover suggests, Action may not be firing on all cylinders straight from the first issue, but there's more than enough to keep my hopes up for future issues.