did anyone buy Hurricane comic at the time

[Peter Gray]

did anyone buy Hurricane at the time.or later.don't own one yet......



loved the image so much......
adventure comics today could learn from this cover..

[philcom55]

I did - largely on the strength of its 'Companion paper to Valiant' byline. I wasn't all that impressed though as it was all a bit too 'sporty' for my taste (I think the earliest free gifts included a 'Famous Footballers' album and a referee's whistle!). Things did improve considerably when it combined with Tiger however.

Incidentally, early issues of Hurricane experimented with some spectacular painted covers by the same artists who worked on Fleetway's War Library titles. Unfortunately poor reproduction made these look really murky but I've got the original artwork for the issue dated 25th April 1964 and it's absolutely stunning in 'the flesh'!

I loved the cover to that 1969 Annual too by the way. I was only looking at it a couple of weeks ago and wondering who the artist was. Does anybody have any suggestions?

- Phil R.

[philcom55]

Double Post!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I AGREE--the above cover is a total stunner.

[felneymike]

Hurricane annuals like the one above are always good value, and the artwork is fantastic! plus you seemingly get more pages that the average annual (or maybe there's more text stories and articles and the comic strips are smaller, what would fit 5 pages in a 70's/80's Valiant fills just two here).

I do have that actual annual and the actual Iron Teacher story it is based on is considerably less exciting than the cover makes out XD. He's a 'little' smaller too

[Kashgar]

Too young to have sampled Hurricane as a seperate title Peter. By the time I was old enough to really appreciate boy's picture papers it was part of 'Tiger & Hurricane'. This combined title lasting for over 200 issues (1965-1969) compared to Hurricane's original 63 issue run (1964-1965).
Number 1 of Hurricane saw the beginning of Typhoon Tracy (1964-1970) and Skid Solo (1964-1981) the two longest lived of all Hurricane originals. In it's life Hurricane featured three comic strips Sir Hector the Spectre and the two 'with it' titles Rod the Odd-Mod' and 'Birk'n'Ed - the Mersey Dead-Beats, these latter two having been drawn by an artist whose identity has eluded me these many years, he having also drawn 'Kup - the funny man from the flying saucer' a most memorable strip (for me at least) that featured in the 1963 Beezer Book.
As to free gifts the first three issues gave away , a flying model of the TSR2, the Hurricane Howler and a bar of Sharp's Toffee while in Sept 1964 came the Hurricane Football Album. The Wembley Whistle that Phil refers to was actually given away with the first combined issue of Tiger & Hurricane in May 1965.

[philcom55]

I do have that actual annual and the actual Iron Teacher story it is based on is considerably less exciting than the cover makes out XD. He's a 'little' smaller too

Although there were various iron/tin teachers in British comics over the years the towering robot depicted on the cover of the 1969 Hurricane Annual was actually The Juggernaut from Planet 'Z' - and give or take a few buses he was every bit as large as he appears there (the bridge scene actually appears inside!). This series, drawn initially by Brian Lewis, had a relatively short run in the weekly comic from 4th July to 31st October 1964, but the friendly metal behemoth went on to appear exclusively in the Annuals for years after Hurricane had been swallowed up by Tiger.

- Phil R.

[Kashgar]

Given that the original picture paper lasted only just over a year it's quite astonishing that the Hurricane annual was published for a whole decade (1965-1974) although admittedly the four year amalgamation with Tiger (1965-1969) helped keep it in the public eye.
As to its format and page count it mirrored all the other Fleetway/IPC boy's annuals available. The 1969 edition mentioned had 160 pages but then so did the Valiant, Tiger and Lion annuals for that year too.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I'VE mentioned on COMICS UK before that many 1960s ROBOTS looked like men-in -suits, and on 'DOCTOR WHO' on telly they had an excuse [low budgets]---but in COMICS, where bending anatomical rules is not a problem, ROBOTS still often continued to look like 'men in suits' ['KLANKY' was another, though his arms bent like coiled steel]....

the above cover, too, falls into this category, but takes absolutely nothing away from the artwork; I personally regard this cover as one of the very best of the era, it is a superior offering from the period.

It wasn't really until '2000 AD' came along in 1977 that ROBOTS in comics started looking like they definately didn't resemble 'men in suits'.

[philcom55]

It wasn't really until '2000 AD' came along in 1977 that ROBOTS in comics started looking like they definately didn't resemble 'men in suits'.

Generally speaking I'd agree, but to my mind the one outstanding exception to this rule was the great Brian Lewis who coincidentally drew the first few episodes of Juggernaut from Planet 'Z'. In particular his work on the classic Captain Condor story "The Push-Button Planet" in Lion (Dec 30 1961- Jun 16 1962; reprinted Nov 23 1968 - Apr 26 1969) stands out as a veritable tour de force of the robot genre, containing some of the most impressive AI designs this side of the planet Skaro. Though he did subsequently work on some early issues of 2000AD and Starlord (and actually contributed to the legendary Judge Dredd epic "The Cursed Earth") his untimely death sadly prevented him from achieving the sort of superstar status he really deserved.

- Phil R.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Fascinating stuff, PHIL....sorry I missed the early 60s stuff you mention, ---it sounds right up my street!-----I am familiar with the DREDD saga 'CURSED EARTH', however [with it's long-'banned'- throug- copyright 'BURGER WARS and 'SOUL FOOD' sections], and this epic was penned by BOLLAND and McMAHON.....I assume that BRIAN LEWIS helped with some of the imaginitive sights within this strange, but memorable, saga.

[felneymike]

I do have that actual annual and the actual Iron Teacher story it is based on is considerably less exciting than the cover makes out XD. He's a 'little' smaller too

Although there were various iron/tin teachers in British comics over the years the towering robot depicted on the cover of the 1969 Hurricane Annual was actually The Juggernaut from Planet 'Z' - and give or take a few buses he was every bit as large as he appears there (the bridge scene actually appears inside!). This series, drawn initially by Brian Lewis, had a relatively short run in the weekly comic from 4th July to 31st October 1964, but the friendly metal behemoth went on to appear exclusively in the Annuals for years after Hurricane had been swallowed up by Tiger.

- Phil R.

Ah, yes i see it is the Juggernaut now. I had a spate of annual collecting last summer as i'd to Bury on the bus with my granny on wednesdays and there was several shops that sold annuals, plus a stall on an indoor market that did them. I must have got "crossed wires" in my brain with an Iron Teacher story in which he holds up a bridge which has been damaged by some "crooks" to prevent some circus trucks getting through. Which is rather less exciting than a huge earthquake setting an entire city ablaze XD.

There was a story called "The Robot Builders" from the 60's which had some 2000AD-ish, "out there" designs, like small boxes on wheels with tools or robots with no legs and very thin stick-like arms with spinning "polishers" on the ends

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

in the main, my memories of ROBOTS in 1960s comics had [for the central characters at least] mostly .humanoid' form, in the form of 'ROBOT ARCHIE' , who lamentably reminded me more of AUSSIE outlaw NED KELLY than of a design of a radically advanced society!

---Ironically, more imaginitive 'robots' often turned up in comics like 'BEEZER', in which BILL HILL contributed some late-60s ANNUAL work, entitled 'TOMMY'S TOYBOX', in which said lad constructed many miniature robotic wonders from a marvellous ALIEN TOYBOX....

central ROBOTIC characters took on a more non-human form in things like 'JUDGE DREDD', in which 'WALTER the WOBOT' loked more like a walking 1950s TV set, with coiled limbs that didn't work on the same principal as human bone structure.....'2000 AD' introduced these on an almost casual, matter-of-fact basis, which I felt was a noticable departure for UK comics at the time.

Even US MARVEL creations like 'IRON MAN' in the late 60s, had central robo-like characters that resembled the human figure.


However, it should be pointed out that many much earlier sci-fi mags, of the 'ASTOUNDING TALES' variety, often boasted ROBOTIC designs that were impossibly non-human [ie they had waists like insects, a clear impossibility for the 'man-in-a- suit' approach that typified much of 1960s comic-book ROBOTS.

[limpalongmick]

I must say I prefered the Valiant with Captain Hurricane, the steel claw and the one who had the lucky stone/eye still have about 9 annuals somewhere in my collection, from around 1965-1977 but none of them are in prime condition I must admit