Thunder Annuals Question (Re: Black Max)

[vonKlorr]

I'm an American, quite new to the British Comics experience. I found Charley's War, and it knocked my socks off. In the Hitler's Youth collection from Titan was a beautiful picture by Chris Weston of Black Max. I love the macabre, and WWI flight, so this is something I'm pursuing. Only it turns out there isn't a lot of information about Black Max on the Internet. Most of what I have found is from this forum.

From looking through the entries here, The Black Max appeared in all issues of Thunder as well as Lion (20th March 1971 to 21st October 1972), and three Thunder Annuals. Are the stories in the Annuals reprints, or are they original?

I understand that Lion: King of Picture Story Papers has an entry on Black Max. Does this cover just the Lion issues, or does it go into the stories from Thunder as well?

Thanks for the guidance.

[philcom55]

Hi vonKlorr!

Lion: King of Picture Story Papers is an excellent book but it doesn't cover Thunder and owing to the sheer number of strips featured I doubt if you'd find very much information on Black Max you don't already know.

I'm afraid my Thunder annuals aren't all accessible at the moment, but the 8-page Black Max story in the 1972 annual certainly seems to be original, as well as being featured on the cover (you should be able to view this in Comics UK's gallery section).

- Phil Rushton

[George Shiers]

If you're interested, I wrote a blog post about the Thunder annuals last year:

http://www.wackycomics.com/2013/06/the- ... nuals.html

I'm fairly certain all the Black Max strips were new.

[philcom55]

On the subject of WW1 flight you might also want to check out the issues of Thriller Picture Library that starred Dogfight Dixon. Though more conventional than Charley's War and Black Max it featured some excellent art and writing. Here's the opening sequence from TPL no.338, which is made all the more interesting by the fact that it was drawn by a German artist who'd seen the Great War from the other side as a boy, and even acted as Rommel's interpreter at one point during WW2!









- Phil Rushton

[colcool007]

Phil, that art is lush. Can you also tell us the name of the artist of whom you have given us the backstory to?

[philcom55]

...Kurt Caesar (born Kaiser).

- Phil R.

[vonKlorr]

Between Dogfight Dixon and the lovely-looking Eagles over the Western Front (http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/Eagl ... Front.html, it looks like there are a lot of well-illustrated RFC stories. Thanks for the information.

[Kashgar]

Hi VK.

If you'd like to check out some RFC strips from DC Thomson you could try 'The
Sky Tigers' from Adventure in 1959. A beautifully drawn strip by Ron Smith in full colour and possibly the first strip to cover this subject, and also 'in the New Hotspur 'Ruthless Ruff of the RFC' drawn by Jeff Bevan. I, or no doubt others, can supply you with more details if interested.