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stevezodiac wrote:Did the Americans do strips like that with the text beneath the picture? Now that you've mentioned Jack Kamen it looks even more American to me - shades of Milton Cannif.
Perhaps it was an American strip they edited and resized for the UK format?
It's interesting that it's a contemporary adaptation rather than a period piece. There was a more faithful version published in the Thriller Library apparently: http://www.paulsroom.co.uk/139616235
I have the Great Newspapers Reprinted issues of The Sunday Times (I think). It reprints the complete issues from the time probably of the court case.
Just found an image of it:
I forgot to mention I went to the Comic Mart on Sunday and picked up 16 issues of Mirabelle plus one free gift booklet from the late 60s (£100) and also Essentials volume 1 of Sgt Fury & His Howling Commandos (£9).
That was in TPL # 171, May 1957. Art credited to Robert Forrest. I don't have that issue. As for the Red Star strip, as you all know, this sort of text strip was very common in Britain - Black Bob being a prime example. The format was used extensively in Dutch comics, e.g. Eric de Noorman, Kapitein Rob, Aram etc. but I'm sure it was rare to see it in American comics, although some newspaper strips might have used the format. While the art does look American, it could be a translation of a Dutch strip, but the figure work doesn't seem too well done at times.
I'm really curious to read more opinions on this. Thanks for bringing it up.
stevezodiac wrote:Did the Americans do strips like that with the text beneath the picture? Now that you've mentioned Jack Kamen it looks even more American to me - shades of Milton Cannif.
Here's the only other two pages I have. Sadly the eight page strip section wasn't in the 1956 or 1957 issues so was probably short lived. Shame but then it was a ladies magazine rather than for kids.
When I saw it I thought of John Forte who I knew for his work on Bizarro and then later the Legion of Super Heroes in Adventure comics. Some of those awkwardly posed panels look just like his work. I was confused because I thought there was too much background but who knows maybe the circumstances at DC meant he went minimal? Thanks for sharing Steve
stevezodiac wrote:I have the Great Newspapers Reprinted issues of The Sunday Times (I think). It reprints the complete issues from the time probably of the court case.
I have that set somewhere, Steve, and I am prepared to be shot down in flames if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that the series consisted of a lot of different newspaper titles from various years or decades, each one reporting in its normal style an important event, a scandal, a murderer such as Buck Ruxton being caught, having been sure he'd got away with it, the 1923 FA Cup Final, which was the first at the new stadium in Wembley, that kind of thing, rather than a series of sequences of the same paper following a topic through from beginning to end.
I had no intention of implying that but looking at the image I included it doesn't mention that that particular issue contained three (I think) copies of the Sunday Times which is what I meant by following the court case. Yes I collected the series when it was published as well and was sad to have missed out on the Jack the Ripper number. But I came across that issue a few years back in the Junk Shop at Greenwich as well as a couple of others so I am now only about two or three short of the full set. I think the Jack The Ripper number also had three papers inside but this time it was The Illustrated Police News (or similar title). What was nice about the series were the wraparound covers which gave more information about the story and the newspapers and also contained readers letters about previous GNRs. All for 15 - 20p!
stevezodiac wrote:I had no intention of implying that but looking at the image I included it doesn't mention that that particular issue contained three (I think) copies of the Sunday Times which is what I meant by following the court case.
It's all so long ago, Steve. Perhaps I just bought them, and then stored them in mint condition without reading them. I certainly did that with my complete collections of The War Papers and The Royal Papers which, if I remember correctly, were on sale at the same time as each other.
I picked up a huge bundle of Royal Papers reprints from a second hand shop about ten years ago for £2.50 but sadly the didn't keep up the practice of reprinting complete newspapers but instead reverted to "scrapbook" issues with just the Royal bits reprinted from several different newspapers. Luckily The War Papers reprinted complete issues throughout its run which seemed to go on forever. When it was first published it promised to run for around 50 weekly parts but looking online I see it ran for 90 issues!
I bought Terrific #2, even though I don't think much of Terrific, I already have a rough copy of #2, and Prince Namor is a prat. However, this issue is important to me because it was the first place I saw Ditko's "Dr Strange", and it's one of those comics which inspired me to draw.
It didn't seem fair that Terrific was the same price as Fantastic when the paper was so inferior.
Namor was a prat wasn't he. I could never understand what Lady Dorma saw in him (and I loved the fact that his adoring subjects promptly upped sticks and moved Atlantis without telling him at the end of FF Annual #1!).
Yep, Fantastic was better value, and had Thor and X-Men, two strips I actually liked. I don't think I ever spend my pocket money on a Terrific, #2 arrived secondhand. And it claimed to be "The Best Of British Comics"! Shame on you, Alf and Bart!!
I don't know if you are still trying to identify the artist but the graphic style reminds me furiously of Johnny Craig.
stevezodiac wrote:I received some Red Star Weeklies that i won on ebay a couple of weeks back and the 1958 issues had a nice eight page comic section in the centre. Here is one of the strips but I cannot identify the artist. Not even sure if it isn't a syndicated strip as there are some American strips in the eight pages.
