Comics UK

As I said Sir-L I was quite willing to be proved wrong on this. Spy 13 was the only espionage, secret agent type strip that I could think of that had a link with Reg Bunn.
Some of the TPL certainly contained more than one story but as I don't personally have any of the issues in question, I couldn't say whether this is the case in the editions containing Reg Bunn's work. BTW how long is the 'Vicious Island' strip, as I wonder if it could have been adapted from an annual strip rather than a TPL?

Kashgar wrote: ...
Some of the TPL certainly contained more than one story but as I don't personally have any of the issues in question, I couldn't say whether this is the case in the editions containing Reg Bunn's work.
...

Ok, so it could very well be Spy 13.
I'll check if a simular comic appears in any other of my Swedish comic books, maybe that could give us another clue.
BTW, there was a Swedish comics book named Spion 13 that had Spy 13 as the main feature. I have no issues myself though.

Kashgar wrote: ...
BTW how long is the 'Vicious Island' strip, as I wonder if it could have been adapted from an annual strip rather than a TPL?

It's 8 pages, but I don't know if it was edited (or how much).

To be honest I'm starting to think more in terms of an Annual story too - particularly because of the wash effect. Normally Bunn tended to fill his weekly comic pages with almost obsessive amounts of cross-hatching!

- Phil Rushton

Finally found a picture of the aforementioned "Simon Smart". As Sir-L pointed out to me earlier, it's most probably a Swedish translation of "Charlie Peace".



(It is Charlie Peace, isn't it? Who is the artist?)


/ola

I'd say it's almost certainly one of the early Charlie Peace stories by Eric Bradbury who drew him for the first six months or so.

- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:I'd say it's almost certainly one of the early Charlie Peace stories by Eric Bradbury who drew him for the first six months or so.

- Phil Rushton

Thanks, philcom.

/ola

Certainly Eric Bradbury so definitely early. If I get the chance I'll try to tack down the specific date on which it first appeared.

I've managed to have a check and the Charlie Peace/Simon Smart (far too neat and tidy a name for the villainous old scruffbag in my opinion) example shown was first printed in Buster dated July 11th 1964 making it his third Buster appearance and his fourth overall counting his 'preview' strip in Valiant prior to his first Buster outing.
In fact it's the character's 45th birthday this week.

Thanks, Kashgar.

I agree with you about the "tidiness" in the translation (a "translation" that was completely unnecessary to begin with, I think). But it's an old Swedish tradition to translate names in English into other names in English. The Thing from Fantastic Four used to be called "Big Ben" over here.

These days, they don't even translate names that logically ought to be translated, like "Superman" and "Spider-Man". Which I think is even worse. Ah, well. I'm getting old...


/ola

On to the next one
"Fasornas ö" (translation "Island of Terror") featuring 2 journalists, Bill Hanely and Rick Slade. They are sent to an island to investigate the disappearance of movie maker Van Hagen. They discover that the stars of his four biggest films all have been invited to the island by the missing director.

Can this be the "Island of Terror" that was in The Dandy?

Oh, in that case when was it published and was it a "one-shot" or did Bill Hanely and Rick Slade appeare in other adventures?

Wouldn't you know, yet another one
Found another pair of frogmen, Jeff Barton and his younger brother Collin, in an adventure called "Havsdjupets djävul" (Roughly translated: "Devil of the ocean depth").

Usual questions: When was it published and was it a "one-shot" or did Jeff and Collin Barton appeare in other adventures?

What is it with IPC and frogmen?
Yet another pair of scuba divers, Mark Barwood and Andy Clyde in "Den sjunkna staden" (translation: "The Sunken City").

Usual questions: When was it published and was it a "one-shot" or did they appeare in other adventures?

As always, scans will be available if needed.

Without seeing it I'll take a guess that 'Devil of the Ocean Depths' might well be the Lion strip from the early 1960's titled (I think) 'The Monster of Monako Deep'. If so it was drawn by Pat Nicolle.
I very much doubt if 'The Isalnd of Terror' will be the Dandy strip by Paddy Brennan which featured an island populated by outsize creatures. Still you never know. I'm away this weekend so I'll have a check when I get back on the others assuming that no one else comes up with the answers meantime ( I fully expect that Phil will have cleared the rest up by then).

I've had a look and from the descriptions alone (scans would certainly be a help) the only one of the three I can positively identify is 'Island of Terror' which was actually the third and final series featuring the characters Bill Hanley and Rick Slade. It originally appeared in the pages of Lion in issues dated (25/10/65) to (29/1/66) under the title 'Sinister Island' and was drawn by Bill Lacey.
BTW the Dandy strip was actually titled 'Island of Monsters'

colcool007 wrote:Well, there are two clues there. The first is the (C) D C Thomson on the first page and the second is that the agent chasing Chameleon is Jim Lennox. I would hazard a guess that we are either looking at Wizard, Hotspur or Bullet for this story. Also with the styles involved (hair, clothing, etc) I would peg it circa mid to late 70's. (The date line of 1982 doesn't hurt either!) It is reminiscent of the Jake Jeffries stories, but I don't have enough Wizards to know of any story other than The Frozen Man or The Secret Of Black Island. It also reads like an extended version of Steelhead Sam (which appeared in the Victor) but the Steelhead Sam stories were at most only one or two episodes long.

After a brainwave, I have even checked one of the best sources for Denis' comicography, but even that hasn't helped. Here's the link for everyone anyway.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6569/DenisMc/

Sorry about the late update to this one, but I can confirm that it is a Bullet story and ran from issue 89 to 98 as The Hunt For The Chameleon. The character names are the same for both versions.

Ok, I'm back!

In 1979 the Swedish comic book Helgonet (The Saint) published the comic "Flygande handen" (The Flying Hand), see picture below. The hero is Tim Carnaby and he's trying to capture the Flying Hand, whom is controlled by a crook by the name of mr Marsden.

I'm aware of two adventures, both published in Sweden in 1979, the picture is from the second part of the first one.

As always: What's the name of the feature? AND who are the creators? AND Where was it published? AND Was there more than two episodes?

I'll have to check but I'm fairly certain this is a strip from the revamped Thomson paper Wizard in the early 1970's. It was called something like 'The Clutching Hand'.
The artist is certainly Bill Mainwaring.