Comics UK

Would also like to add Rory Macduff to the list especially in the four years (1960-1964) that Reg Bunn was the artist. The thrill-seeking stuntman turned detective took on cases that involved the curious and the macabre with titles like 'The Village of the Lost', 'The Phantom Legion' and 'The Sargasso Sea Monster' and Reg Bunn's grey, misty, gossamer thin artwork perfectly suited the depiction of the perils encountered. And it was an interesting contrast to Eric Bradbury's dark and forbidding artwork on the the ghost hunter Maxell Hawke's strips in Buster being published at the same time. Similar themes but both expertly handled in contrasting fashions by two artists who had both been scouted by the Amalgamated Press in their 'artist hunt' in 1949.

I've a big soft spot for Robot Archie, especially the later stories when he developed a big headed personality.

With Robot Archie I could never quite work out whether he was being controlled by his handler's remote control panel all along (a bit like Dollman's creations in Valiant) or if he was capable of independent thought and action.

I remember really enjoying the Shadow of the Snake / White Eyes / Masters of Menace saga, although I haven't read it since back then. My dad used to enjoy it too, along with Adam Eterno and Black Max.

The early episodes of "Beware the White Eyes" in `Lion & Thunder` 1971-72 were just superb!! Only when arch criminal Ezra Creech was introduced did it become rather formulaic. Do you remember "Dr Mesmers Revenge" and "The Pillater Peril" Lew?

alanultron5 wrote:The early episodes of "Beware the White Eyes" in `Lion & Thunder` 1971-72 were just superb!! Only when arch criminal Ezra Creech was introduced did it become rather formulaic. Do you remember "Dr Mesmers Revenge" and "The Pillater Peril" Lew?

Yes, Mesmer was another great Lion strip. They did mystery and mild horror really well.

The Pillater Peril was in Smash! though, reprinted from an old Buster strip.

Oops! Forgot it was in `Smash` I think Smash ran a short lived `Spiderman` copy called `Tri-Man` Though the super powers were different, the character was `Peter Parker` in all but name!

Lion & Thunder ran a very entertaining strip in late 1973 called "Lost in Limbo Land" (I think!) About a youngster trapped in a world of giants, wizards, goblins etc! He had been reading a book on these in a library when he was hit with lightning and found himself there!

'Lost in Limbo Land' was an interesting strip - firstly because its hero was named after the British 'Conan the Barbarian' artist Barry Smith, and secondly because it was drawn by the Argentinian artist José Muñoz whose 'Aleck Sinner' series was a major influence on Frank Miller's 'Sin City'.

Lew Stringer wrote:

alanultron5 wrote:The early episodes of "Beware the White Eyes" in `Lion & Thunder` 1971-72 were just superb!! Only when arch criminal Ezra Creech was introduced did it become rather formulaic. Do you remember "Dr Mesmers Revenge" and "The Pillater Peril" Lew?

Yes, Mesmer was another great Lion strip. They did mystery and mild horror really well.

The Pillater Peril was in Smash! though, reprinted from an old Buster strip.

Pillater Peril wasn't a reprint from Buster Lew. It was original to Smash and drawn by Carlos Cruz. It appeared in Smash issues dated 7/2/70-20/6/70. Interestingly though it was reprinted, in part, in 'The Buster Book of Spooky Stories' for 1975. Can't remember offhand whether it also featured in the 1976 edition. I'll have to look.

I did think it was original as the fashions worn by female characters were about correct from 1970- but I forgot it was in `Smash` "Beware the White Eyes" got fantastic reader feedback in L& T The first two series were really good!

Kashgar wrote:

Lew Stringer wrote:

alanultron5 wrote:The early episodes of "Beware the White Eyes" in `Lion & Thunder` 1971-72 were just superb!! Only when arch criminal Ezra Creech was introduced did it become rather formulaic. Do you remember "Dr Mesmers Revenge" and "The Pillater Peril" Lew?

Yes, Mesmer was another great Lion strip. They did mystery and mild horror really well.

The Pillater Peril was in Smash! though, reprinted from an old Buster strip.

Pillater Peril wasn't a reprint from Buster Lew. It was original to Smash and drawn by Carlos Cruz. It appeared in Smash issues dated 7/2/70-20/6/70. Interestingly though it was reprinted, in part, in 'The Buster Book of Spooky Stories' for 1975. Can't remember offhand whether it also featured in the 1976 edition. I'll have to look.

Thanks Ray. I knew Dez had reprinted it in the Buster book and thought it had previously appeared in the comic. I stand corrected.

I always liked the `Lion and Thunder` era 1971-74. Felt it a much better read than `Valiant and Smash` combine! L& T really had some very good strips indeed!

Looking at the first instalment of The Pillater Peril, it's clear that the artwork has been extended at the bottom of each page. I wonder what was going on there? It looks as if the same thing has been done on the Toymaker strip.

I have already opened a similar `thread` regarding the one `Spider` story circa 1967-68 `The Spider V the Sinister Seven` but the strip had other interesting entries too! "The Crook From Outer Space" in late 1966 was an inventive tale where the Spider took on a crooked alien shape changer. The plot did rather meander a bit in it- but many great concepts were thrown into the mix!

1968's (It ran from May to Sept 68) V `The Snake` had a superb three episode finale set in the Snake huge underground redoubt and was one of the finest climax` to any Spider story.

Sadly, the following tale where Spider's flunkey `Ordini` turned against his master was an utter mess to me and must have been the death-knell for the strip as it only carried on with two rather low-key stories of four and eight parts! The last three Spider tales bore no individual titles; only the generic "The Fabulous Spider" affix!

Other memorable Spider series included The Android Emperor, The Exterminator, The Crime Genie and Spider-Boy. I particularly liked the way in which Jerry Siegel kept spinning his stories off on weird and unexpected tangents.

Of course, during his peak period there was also a run of self-contained Spider stories in the Fleetway Super Library - all with fantastic painted covers (though only the first of them was written by Siegel).