Comics UK

Hi All

I read comics in the late 70's & early eighties. I am trying to find out the name of a publication. Thing is I don't no the name of the comic, the name of the strip or the characters involved. Needle in Haystack springs to mind. Here goes.....

The main character was a boy who got taken into a temple and taught martial arts, he then escaped the temple by going through various trials of strength and intelligence. The last one where to avoid being crushed he had to burn his arms with the mark of the monestry. That's all I can remember. It's like a song you hear and you only know 1 line and you hum it to yourself for days. This has been popping into my head for as long as I CAN REMEMBER.

Imagine you only know one line of The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight Fit and you've been humming it to yourself for years and you'll understand my pain completely!

It definately isn't 2000ad, The Eagle, The Crunch, Starlord or the Tornado as I have complete collections of all of them.

If I can find out what the comic is I will buy the damn thing. PLEASE try and answer this for me

Thanks

reker1701

Strangely this sounds very much like the 'Kung Fu' television series so I'm wondering if you're recalling the colour comic strip which ran in 'Look-In' but this would have been more 1974...

I was only four in 74. The comic was a paper one, not a magazine etc that much I remember.

Thanks Anyway

Cheers

reker1701

Reker,
welcome to the site.

What you are hunting for sounds strangely like 'The Swamp Rat' stories that ran in the Hotspur and Hornet. If not, a dim and distant bell makes me think that there was a Commando, with art by Dennis McLoughlin , titled "The Fighting Monk" or something of that ilk which had a similiar type of picture.

Either way, I think you need to investigate the D C Thomson side of comics instead of the Fleetway comics.

Boys paper comic from late 70's early 80's. Could be Hotspur or Buddy. Am really at a loss. If I saw a picture of it I am sure I would recognise it immediately

Cheers

reker1701

It wasn't a reprint of Shang Chi Master Of Kung Fu or Iron Fist, which would have been in Mighty World Of Marvel or Avengers weekly?

Kev F

Wish it was! It was definatley a British comic, paper not glossy because it was in black and white. Out in the very late 70's or reasonably early 80's

It really is annoying me!

Thanks Anyway

reker1701

reker1701 wrote:Wish it was! It was definatley a British comic, paper not glossy because it was in black and white. Out in the very late 70's or reasonably early 80's

It really is annoying me!

Thanks Anyway

reker1701

The comics Kev mentioned were British and in black and white.

Sounds like the origin of Iron Fist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Fist

which was very much inspired by the Kung Fu tv series.

Lew

That's what I thought then didn't think it could be but just realised that he originally appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu. A black'n'white strip in a mag with glossy cover. It's actually US but looks like a British comic. Try google images.

Could it be Kenji The Samurai from the Hotspur? I simply cannot find a picture of this character on google. Anyone help?

I read lots of different comics from 77 - 83, it's about that sort of time frame. Then I pretty much stopped only buying 2000ad and Eagle.

thanks for everyone's help and advice

reker1701

It could have been a Marvel UK reprint of Iron Fist or MOKF but I have a hazy memory of a Kung-Fu hero in Buddy or Spike and my aged brain has just nudged me with 'The Fists of Jimmy Chang' !? Is this a comic? If memory serves it ran in Battle around 1980.

tonyodonnell wrote:It could have been a Marvel UK reprint of Iron Fist or MOKF but I have a hazy memory of a Kung-Fu hero in Buddy or Spike and my aged brain has just nudged me with 'The Fists of Jimmy Chang' !? Is this a comic? If memory serves it ran in Battle around 1980.

That's right. Battle had a revamp as strips about World War 2 were finally becoming unpopular by 1980 and they started including more adventure strips. Can't remember much about Jimmy Chang but you have the name right.

Lew

Not Jimmy chang-standard fare with no gimmicks.I would go with Iron Fist

brian

The character in question had tattoo's / burns on both arms as in the final act of escaping the monstary before his training was complete he had to grip a burning pot which put the marks on both forearms. I have never read anything like Iron Fist so I am not sure, unless it was a reprint, that this is correct.

I did however read Buddy and the like. I have just purchased an almost complete collection of Buddy for ?30 off e-bay and have had a flick through various ones. Not sure it's Buddy either.

This is like looking for a needle in a haystack but without a magnet.

Thanks for everyone's input!

reker1701

O yeah and if it helps the main character wasn't asian he was caucasian. Long hair I think, it's like i've said before, one line of a song over and over again.

e oo e oo o we oo we oo we um bum baway! (Lion sleeps tonight)

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Thanks

reker1701