Comics UK - Tornado

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					First Issue:	24th March 1979
					Last Issue:	18th August 1979
					Copyright:	IPC Magazines Ltd
					Genre:	Boys Action and Adventure
					Incorporated Titles:
					Incorporated By:	2000AD

By 1978, the huge success of 2000AD prompted IPC Magazines Ltd to expand their boys comic market with the introduction of Starlord. A comic similar in content to its elder sibling but produced in an entirely different format. Starlord was printed on top quality paper and had lavish colour on 8 of its 32 pages. The stories were of the highest order but the price may have been a little bit steep for the already stretched pocket of the young reader. Starlord cost 12p whereas 2000AD at the time was still only 8p. This 50% extra money may have proved to be the comics downfall and after 22 issues, Starlord merged with 2000AD.

So, five months after the demise of Starlord, IPC tried again and gave us a comic that went by the name of Tornado. Tharg, from 2000AD, welcomed us on page 2 and introduced us to the new editor. In the words of the great green one himself, Tharg told us how, over the past months he had been grooming and training an Editor. His mind capacity was 50 times that of a normal human; his physical strength was limitless and he had the amazing powers of mind and body that he needed to edit a comic of many worlds. He gave us Big 'E' (E for Editor of course). Big 'E' was the fetchingly spandex and lycra attired artist Dave Gibbons. Back in the 1970's gimmicks were in and the future co-creater of Rouge Trooper volunteered to don the cape with the Big 'E' on it and became the UK's first real-life super-powered hero.

The first story in Tornado was set in 1929 and starred a tough private detective who never gave up on a case, Victor Drago and his able assistant Spencer. Drago was the embodiment of a hero from yesteryear who went by the name of Sexton Blake! That great super sleuth created by Harry Blyth way back in 1893 and who appeared in old story paper titles such as the Halfpenny Marvel, Illustrated Chips, Penny Popular and his own Sexton Blake Library publications. Rumour has it that the Tornado story was intended to be called Sexton Blake but an eleventh hour editorial decision was made to rename him Victor Drago. Maybe because Sexton Blake was deemed to be too 'old-fashioned' for a character appearing in a comic closely related to the modern sci-fi comic 2000AD. Anyway, for all those Sexton Blake fans, this story was an excellent swansong for their hero. As indeed it should have been because writer, Bill Henry, and artist, Mike Dorey more than did the character justice. And in case there are any doubts about the Sexton Blake association, take a look at the number plate of Drago's Rolls Royce. It reads SB 192. Just coincidence???? In some issues the Victor Drago story went back to its roots as they were told in traditional text story format and some weeks Victor would present his Black Museum Of Villians, which told the story of real life gangsters like Adolf Hitler and George Jeffreys - The Hanging Judge. The Mind Of Wolfie Smith was a very popular story and was one of the three titles that actually made the transition over to 2000AD. Written by Tom Tully and drawn by Vano, it starred Ernest Patrick Smith and started with him as a 9-year-old at the dinner table realising that he could move objects with just the power of his mind. As time went on, he realised that he could determine what was inside cases just by touching the case and he could swot for an exam in minutes because of his photographic memory. Wolfie was born with Extra Sensory Perception. He earned his nickname of Wolfie because of his piercing wolf-like eyes and the way he used to silently prowl around his school. Because no one believed his power he decided to run away, and this is where the story really starts. Wolfie would use his powers with good intentions but they would usually have a knock-on effect of getting him into trouble. A really excellent story that made you wonder what you would do if you had E.S.P. Angry Planet, written by Alan Hebden and drawn by Belardinelli, was the first story to occupy the coloured centre pages. While drilling for the recently discovered valuable mineral supplies, the drills - owned by Mars Incorporated - struck something that wasn't oil, it was pure oxygen. For the next 25 years the planets surface was oxygenated so that by the middle of the century, Mars could support life. In 2062 the first Martian was born, his name was Matthew Markham and he could never live on Earth because of his physical make-up. Matthew became a farmer and our story picks up when he realises that he's being fleeced by Mars Incorporated, the company that buy and sell everything on and off the planet. Fed up with the way he and his fellow Marshys are being treated, he decides to rebel and the company retaliate by cancelling his water deliveries. That's when we see Matthew make his way to Earth to expose the atrocities to the United Nations. This is where we're introduced to the real villians of the piece, Mars Incorporated's President Hugo Kray (interesting surname) and his Security Chief known as the Samurai. The following weeks see Markham return to Mars and set up a rebellion against the Earthies. Kray counteracts this with a drought order and so it goes on. A real rags verses riches saga which ended in the final issue with Markham being triumphant.

Wagner's Walk, written by R.E. Wright and drawn by Lozano, followed the story of tank commander Major Kurt Wagner just as WW2 had finished, but for the German prisoners the ordeal has just began. These soldiers were forced to make good the devastation wreaked by Hitler's invasion and many became slaves to the Russians in their attempt to rebuild mother Russia. The years past and the ex-prisoners were sent to Siberia to continue their enslavement. Then, one day in 1948, Wagner met up with some old friends, Big Karl and Gruber. Wagner happened across a childs atlas and realised that India was only two-and-a-half-thousand miles away. He turned to his friends and said we will walk to freedom, and there we have the nucleus of the story. On their trek they encounter vicious Timber Wolves, a helicopter (for the first time), Russian tanks, a double-cross tactic, minefields and many more obstacles. The walk (aided by aircraft and road-vehicles) ended in issue #19. The Triple T spot, which stood for Tornado's True Tales was a series of sagas about unusual heroes in amazing feats of heorism that actually happened. These stories didn't appear every week, they would run until a story completed, have a couple of weeks off, then come back with a new story. These were The Tale Of Benkei (#1 - #3), Warrior (#8 - #10), The Man Behind The Gun (#20 - #22).

Storm, written by Scott Goodall and drawn by Musquera (later S.Kennedy), started in issue #3 and was set in the Ardnasheen Mountains in the Scottish Highlands. Andrew Kane had been frustrated by city life and had given up his brilliant career as a research chemist and had moved North just a few months earlier to become a sheep farmer. It was while he was attempting to move his flock to more sheltered pastures that Bracken, his dog, in trying to herd two stray sheep to the rest of the flock, toppled off the edge of the hillside and laid dormant on top of a rock. This is when Storm made his entrance. Bounding along the hillside and diving into the freezing water, he swam to where the dog lay and gently rescued it. Kane wanted to find out more about this strange lad but all that Storm would tell him was his name. The story moves on and Kane discovers storms diary and realises that he was a gypsy whose sisters had died after illness. It seemed that every time Kane tried to help Storm, it would always backfire so that it appeared, to Storm, that Kane was out to trap him. Eventually, his trust was won over, but Storm's secret was out, the press had got wind of it and people jumped in their Land-Rovers in an attempt to catch a glimpse of this wild boy. By issue #9 Kane realised that Storm's life would never be the same again and he hit upon the idea of trying to turn his new friend into a champion athlete and the story moved on from there until the very last issue. Storm did not make the transition into the sci-fi comic 2000AD.

Black Hawk, written by Gerry 'Rogue-Trooper' Finlay-Day and drawn by Azpiri, started in issue #4 and was set in the year 50BC in the African desert. Rome rules the world and it seizes natives of all colours to become the raw material of her empire...slaves. A tall black, muscular Nubian slave walks through the desert, chained and shamed that he did not fight to the death like a true warrior. During this walk his Roman captors notice a hawk circling in the sky. They decide to have some sport with it and release Zeus the legionaires eagle mascot. The Nubian notices that the hawk is gaining height in preparation for the Stoop - the killing dive of the desert hawk, which it duly does and both birds plummet to the ground. The centurians attempt to kill the hawk but the Nubian fights them off and sees the hawk fly off. The soldiers were just about to kill the slave when a senior Roman soldier appears and brings a halt to the preceedings. The Nubian is later put onto a ship that is unfortunately, just about to be mutineed by some native troops, who were also going to kill all the slaves. As they approached the chained-up Nubian, he used all his strength to break free and used the chains as a weapon and set about twarting the mutineers. The dying Roman Governor saw what had happened and ordered a scroll and seal so that he could appoint the Nubian as an officer of these native troops - called Auxiliary Troops. This was that Governors final action because he immediately slumped to his death and dropped the scroll. This was when Crassus - the baddie - attempted to pick it up, only to see a Hawk swoop down, grab it and perch himself on the Nubian's shoulder. The Nubian is later told that he needs to recruit 100 men to set sail with him, but when he attempts to do so, he realises that no one wants to fight under a black slave. He is ridiculed wherever he goes, even by the beggars who shout out, "Look - Black Hawk", and hence Black Hawk was born. By issue #10 Black Hawk had commandeered the coloured centre pages and he was the leader of a bunch of cut-throats, bandits and thieves whose skills Black Hawk would often call upon. The story lasted all the way to the final issue and was one of the three that made the transition to 2000AD. One error that I did notice with this story was that it was originally set in the year 50BC but swiftly moved on to the first century AD, and Black Hawk and his bird didn't really appear to have aged by 50+ years.

The Lawless Touch, written by K. Goznell and drawn by B. Mitchell (amongst many others, including John Cooper), started in issue #11, starred thief, blagger and villian Johnny Lawless who took great pride in his chosen profession of burglary. It was while on one of his jobs that he met with a bit of stiff opposition from the security staff. They all seemed to be equipped with M-10 Machine Pistols and were very numerous. Lawless managed to make his escape by motor bike but had to stop when he realised that his main fuel feed had been fractured (or so he thought). He then decided to hitch a lift back to the smoke and was more then happy when a Rolls Royce answered his call. Inside was a French woman known only as Mother who introduced herself as a member of a group of elite specialist operators called the European Special Corps. These people operated outside of the law to ensure that all multi-national projects within the Common Market are handled, not by the individual nations police forces, but by the E.S.C. Lawless wasn't interested at first, but he was sort of blackmailed into it when he discovered the police outside his house looking at his motor bike which had miraculously appeared there. The police said that he needed an alibi and who should happen along, but Mother - who supplied it. The story was written in a style that suggested that Lawless himself was telling it and included some good humour. The Lawless Touch made it to issue #22 but not the transition to 2000AD.

Captain Klep was the comic relief of the comic. He was faster than Anadin, more powerful than a 13-amp socket and able to jump long queues with a single bound. Written by Angus and drawn by a few artists including Kevin O'Neill and P.Ailey, it was a complete send-up of the US comic-book hero - Superman. It starts on the planet Klepton and a baby is being placed into a space capsule while people around him are screaming, "Death and destruction to our planet". The capsule blasts off and the planet Klepton resumes to normality. They just wanted to get rid of the obvious little menace! This little menace was to grow-up into our spoof-hero Captain Klep. After many miles of travelling his capsule lands on a farm in the unsuspecting smalltown of Hicksville USA. He got adopted by a couple of farmers where the wife was doting and the father was constantly on the receiving end of their lads clumsiness. Eventually, after many years and when Klep is all grown up, his father suggested that CK plays "Over there - about 100 miles away in the big city of Miniololis, which he duly did. He became Clark Clep, part-time newspaper delivery boy and full-time pauper and dressed up as Captain Klep when he sensed danger. The arch villian of the piece was Jack Daw aka The Beak, who also donned a disguise and coincidentally also shared a room with Clark Clep. However, because they both wore costumes, neither knew of the others secret identity. The Captain Klep story proved so popular that it was one of the three which actually made the transition over to 2000AD.

Another good feature, from issue #13, was the "It's Your Turn" Tornado Cover Story feature which printed a picture on the front cover and invited readers to send in a written story relating to it. The covers had intriguing titles such as 'The Train Now Arriving At 14 Acacia Avenue...', 'Wembley Wonder Boy' and 'The Money Shop'. Inside would be a very brief description of the story line and then it was up to the readers to use their imagination. As I say, it was a good idea which never came to fruition in the Tornado comic because by the time they decided to print the results, the merger with 2000AD had occured. In fact, when I've looked at my 2000AD collection, I've been unable to find the results! Were they ever printed?!?!

All-in-all, Tornado had some great little stories but, like its predecessor Starlord, it always seemed to be playing second-fiddle to 2000AD, which it joined on the 25th August 1979. However, because of its short run, the comic is now becoming quite collectable. Have you got all yours yet?