Pat Williams

[suebutcher]

Would someone kindly post some samples of Patrick Williams' "Avengers" strip? I've got the Gold Key reprint (Roman Invasion), but those mid-Sixties TV Comics are really hard to find.

[Lew Stringer]

Would someone kindly post some samples of Patrick Williams' "Avengers" strip? I've got the Gold Key reprint (Roman Invasion), but those mid-Sixties TV Comics are really hard to find.

There are some samples of individual panels at this site, Sue. I'll see if I have any of those issues to post some full page scans later:

http://wingedavenger.theavengers.tv/com ... ep_era.htm

[suebutcher]

Thanks. Apart from the Gold Key, the only example of Williams "Avengers" I have is the episode in TV Comic 722.

[philcom55]

Here's a nice seasonal episode from January 1st (#733). I could never understand why the Avengers didn't get the full-colour centrespread instead of the comparatively obscure Orlando - a TV series that few people even remember today!

[Lew Stringer]

I remember Sam Kydd in Orlando but don't recall any of the plots. Yes, an unusual choice to be given the centrespread.

I only have one example of Pat Williams' Avengers strips and have just posted it on my blog:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/ ... -1966.html

[suebutcher]

Here's a nice seasonal episode from January 1st (#733). I could never understand why the Avengers didn't get the full-colour centrespread instead of the comparatively obscure Orlando - a TV series that few people even remember today!

Perhaps someone thought the Avengers didn't need colour, and Pat Williams' art does work well in black and white. It's very vigorous and springy. John Canning, although he had a similar "sketchy" style, looked quite messy when he was confined to monochrome.

[suebutcher]

I assume most of you have seen the Wall's Sky Ray Dr Who cards, but I'm posting this one because because it's so typically 1960s Pat Williams; note the "Dutch angles" and the jumping-jack pose of the figure in motion.

[philcom55]

I think Williams based his version on early promotional shots of Patrick Troughton as the Doctor - even though the BBC dropped the weird hat after the first couple of episodes.

[suebutcher]

That's also the outfit John Canning drew right up to 1970. Obviously he liked the hat!

When the cards were designed Williams was instructed not draw Patrick Troughton's face, because Wall's had bought the rights to use the character, the Tardis and the Daleks, but not the likeness of the actor. The costume looks to me like a deliberate compromise between Hartnell's and Troughton's, possibly for the same reason.

[philcom55]

I think that hat turned up a lot in the Troughton annuals as well.

[stevezodiac]

I bought the Sky Ray album at the time and still have it but have none of the cards.

[suebutcher]

I bought my set of Dr Who cards (but no album) years ago when they were still cheap. I wasn't so lucky with the Captain Scarlet bubble gum cards, and I've still haven't got enough of these to see that great Ron Embleton poster the backs of the cards make when you put them all together. My brother gave up trying to get all the cards, and sent off for the poster, but that's long gone.

[stevezodiac]

You could try The London Cigarette Card Co Ltd website. They have hundreds of sets for sale. They have a Thunderbirs/Stingray/Captain Scarlet set from 1993 for £8.

They have 29 of the Sky Ray cards (from 36) for £87.00. Quite a few Avengers sets.

[suebutcher]

Here's the Anglo Captain Scarlet poster. Fab, is it not?

I wasn't a big fan of the series myself, Thunderbirds was more my thing, but all the same I loved the way it looked.

[philcom55]

I seem to remember that they did the same with Joe 90 and UFO. Somebody really ought to start a website to catalogue Ron's work - few comic artists of his calibre can have been so prolific and published in so many obscure formats and places! (though I think a lot of the cards might have been drawn by his brother Gerry)