Comics UK

Original `I. Spy` artist, Les Barton also produced two `one-off` strips for the series in Sparky books dated 1971 and 1972.

The 1971 effort was very much in Les early I. Spy style with less of the intricate detail and darker shading he later applied to the strip!

This eight page tale features early villian `Slinky Snitchovitch` who has stolen a UK space rocket for his own ends! The story is very humerous and features the early `device` of I. Spy leaving his suit-though readers only see a hand, foot or two eyeballs in the bush he is hiding in!

As Sparky books were compiled over a year before they came out, this story would have been compiled by Les in mid spring 1969, only a couple of months after the I. Spy strip began! I would think as in the first few comic strip stories-before Peter Clark took over writing duties from Les Barton- that Les wrote this story himself. The 1971 Sparky book came out in Sept 1970.

The 1972 tale is a beauty! "Someone's Stealing The Moon" This nine pager features top villian Mr X who, like Slinky the previous year, has put a Space Rocket to evil use!

This time, it is only discovered by I. Spy to be a rocket late on in the tale! Previous to this, Mr X had stated it was his "Moon Eating Bird" (He disguised the rocket to resemble such a beast) which was biting great chunks out of Earth's natural satellite.

Crafty Mr X had stolen tons of black paint which his Bird/Rocket was firing on the Moon's surface every few hours thereby giving the impression the Moon was bieng `eaten!`

Mr X almost got away with gleaning a ransom from the world-but yet again, I. Spy was too good for him!

One of the best parts of this story was where I. Spy and Boss face the assorted `traps` guarding Mr X' hideout. I. Spy's `Metal Softening Spray` famously used in "The Ghost of Mr X" came into use in this part of the tale!

Les Barton's work really outstanding here! Peter Clark most likely the writer this time!

A lovely bonus foe I. Spy fans in the 1972 book was the two page `I. Spy` game where our hero has to make his way, across a path trail of 60 squares to Spy H.Q avoiding various foes!

He has to contend with the naughty `Aye McSpy` the villianous `Mahairee Yogi` `Mr Tempest` ` Mastermind` and `Mr X` Worse than all these rogues combined is `Granny Spy` who`se `help` is more a hindrance really! The `Fantasmagorian` device gets a look-in here as does Masterminds deadly `Vending Machines`

One fault-or is it a deliberate `ruse` is square 54. It tells you (I. Spy) you have earned a three place move foreward! This `good news` is misleading as the square you move to (57) is a mine that blows you permenantly out of the game! Hmmm! Is it a fault?

Anyhow,-a great bit of fun is the game; making Sparky Book 1972 a must for I. Spy fans!

The 1973/4/5 books, saw Brian Walker helming the artwork duties for the strip in these offerings!

The 1971 Sparky annual----alongside the 1969 BEANO book------are my two favourite annuals ever, and who knows how many endless hours I pored over them as a kid.

[Especially the production values in the SPARKY book: deluxe colour and quality printing compared to the bog-standard newsprint of D C T weekly comics in those days].

I got the 71 Sparky annual for my 9th birthday.........I distinctly remember it was a Saturday.....and as ever, I turned to the I SPY story whilst still walking on the way home from the newsagents. I was delighted to see that the original artist had penned the story inside [I wasn't familiar with the name LES BARTON until the early '90s ]: I was fairly disappointed with the early WALKER pensmanship early on, and this BARTON effort is one of my favourite-ever I SPY stories, with quite possibly the finest depiction of I SPY ever, in any incarnation.

The weekly comic had a lot of detail crammed in by neccessity, meaning a lot of simplification in the drawing department [this in itself being one of the strip's charms], but in the annual, larger, almost MAD MAGAZINE-like images abound, creating a greater epic sense of space to the anarchic proceedings.

'Case of the Disappearing Rocket' also benefits from a deliciously manic script, with a first-rate star villain role from Slinky Snitchovitch..........though visually, this impresses with great extreme close-ups of the characters in some frames, and a fantastically chaotic final frame, in the shape of a long-shot of the retrieved bent rocket having smashed clean through SPY HQ.


First-rate material, and I hope to include imagery once I locate the annual...it's here somewhere!


The 1972
entry will be covered neckst.

Yes! Slinky's finest hour is this strip! It is most representative of Les' early period of I. Spy before he started using darker shading from around the Mr Tempest story!

The only Sparky book I ever got for me Birthday- My Birthday was 8th Sept and Thomson books came out about that time- Was the 1969 book in Sept 68! Awful Dudley Watkins Religous `C**P` ruined it!

To be fair Alan although the 'Road to Calvary' strip was maybe a tad long, as had been the previous years DDW story of the biblical David, I do think they are both beautifully rendered and beautifully produced and I personally liked the way that the Sparky Book followed Thomson's full colour annuals Topper and Beezer in including such features to differenciate them from the Beano and Dandy books.

Kashgar! I have no complaints over the actual `look` of that strip! As a Roman Catholic, I objected then-and now to one persons views, Dudley Watkins, bieng `foisted` on mr via a `Fun Book` I tore all those pages out in my original copy and my Mom wrote Thomsons a very strong letter! She got an apology back from them!

If I want religious indoctrination I buy religious books! The act of inserting it in a book (Sparky Book) where readers would not realise beforehand what they were getting, is what galled me!

alanultron5 wrote:Kashgar! I have no complaints over the actual `look` of that strip! As a Roman Catholic, I objected then-and now to one persons views, Dudley Watkins, bieng `foisted` on mr via a `Fun Book` I tore all those pages out in my original copy and my Mom wrote Thomsons a very strong letter! She got an apology back from them!

If I want religious indoctrination I buy religious books! The act of inserting it in a book (Sparky Book) where readers would not realise beforehand what they were getting, is what galled me!

Do you feel the same today as you did when you had the book for your 13th birthday? I hope I'm not offending your faith but I would have thought that as your beliefs were/are so strong you could ignore any differences and appreciate good artwork despite the context? (For example I'm an Atheist so I can read a religious strip with no fear of "indoctrination" and just appreciate the artwork. Can people of faith not read strips based on other faiths with the same indifference?) If you bought a 1950s Eagle from eBay would you tear off the back page because it featured a religious strip?

Not having a go Alan, just very curious.

I feel the DD Watkins' colour 'Biblical' strips in one of the late 60s Sparky annuals is notable for the fact that it meant that Thomson's star artist actually officially made it to a SPARKY title.

The material appears to be a reprint, however.

Watkins was well-known as having a religious persuasion, and all I can say is his great talent benefitted the comics industry of my youth, so as far as I'm concerned if he believed his gift came from somewhere devine, then who am I to argue with him?

I was an atheist in my rebellious youth, Lew, and I took a lot of stick from this from my mates, but now I'm probably agnostic.

If God exists, it's beyond my comprehension: I don't even know how my tin-opener works, to quote Woody Allen.

I try and not knock anyones' religious or other beliefs, however.

Lew! To an extent-yes! W"hy should any Catholic. Muslim, jew etc have one man's religious viewpoint hoisted on them by the `underhand` as I see it, method of putting Religious `education!?` into a `Fun` book!

I have no objections to such material in any book, magazine etc where the buyer `knows` what they are in for-so to speak! but to find this `foisted` on me-as I saw it then, and today- really peed` me off! My mother sent a very hard letter to Thomsons! OTT! perhaps in many persons views we were/are. But I have no regrets tearing those pages out back then. I don't do that today, though I feel like it now! - i just ignore them! I think i've said enough on this now as it bugs me a bit! My fault for mentioning it in earlier posting I suppose!

On a happer note- maybe Rab has a comment on the "Someone's Eating The Moon" 1972 book strip! I feel it was the finest I. Spy book strip of all and it featured the debut of his `Metal Softening Spray` to boot!

plus! The 1972 book contains that fabulous I. Spy game!

These strips aren't reprints Rab although the frequency with which Watkins' signature appears throughout them may make it seem so. The fact is that they had been drawn several years before they were used. Willie Mann, the first Sparky editor, had commissioned them from Watkins for inclusion in the Sparky comic itself but had never used them. And I still think they are a valuable, if obviously contentious, aspect of Watkins' output. Well, 'The Road to Calvary' more so than 'The Story of David' which is basically a good yarn that just happens to come from the Bible.

I'm more interested in the I. Spy strips in the books-but only have myself to blame for mentioning Watkins `sermonising` in the thread! Serves me right!!