Post by Pinwig on Sept 16, 2023 12:11:22 GMT
It's a big week for Eagle 40 years ago this week, and IPC in general. After a year and a half of publication Eagle switches to full newsprint art and drops the photo stories. This means the page count goes up by 4 and the number of stories each issue from seven to nine. It also comes with a free spud gun!
Having followed the comic's story weekly since issue 1, I'm more than ready for this now. The photo stories had had their day by this point I think; they're all pretty rubbish and would be much more dynamic with comic art. Photo stories work in girl's romance papers because the backdrops are just present day suburbia; when the Eagle tries to show you Wild West America of the 1880s or a Nazi bunker in WW2 it's much harder to make it believable. The last Manix strip, about an android secret agent, was ridiculous. A mad professor injects unwitting victims with a serum he thinks will make them into super humans, but instead it turns them into deformed monsters. Except this is actually several bit part extras wearing 'horror' masks bought from the local joke shop. For the first few issues I genuinely thought they were wearing rubber masks to disguise their identities, until I realised, no, this is them being super deformed.
Now it's a proper drawn comic I'm quite excited about what's to come. This week we have:
Dan Dare, still written by Mills and drawn by Ian Kennedy
Manix switches from photo to drawn and looks immensely better for it (jumping location from the back streets of London to central America)
The Fists of Danny Pike, a new boxing themed strip drawn by John Burns
Doomlord starts his fourth story, written by Alan Grant and drawn by Heinzl.
The Hand continues in black and white, having been colour art until now (and probably the worst thing I've ever read by Gerry Finley-Day)
The Amstor Computer is a new strip by Barrie Tomlinson and drawn by Ortiz, a precursor to Scream's Max (13th Floor) in which readers can program the computer weekly to tell a sinister tale by sending in their chosen code number.
Walk or Die, the story of British schoolchildren lost in the Canadian wilds after a plane crash now looks the part instead of pretending some dodgy bit of scrub outside Watford is actually the Rockies.
Crowe Street Comp, inexplicably popular rip off of Grange Hill continues.
One-Eyed Jack, by Wagner and John Cooper continues as the filler reprint strip.
This fortnight is an important point for IPC's comics. There's definitely an air of readership grabbing going on. Eagle's relaunch is looking to get them back up to the readership levels of 2000AD - but tooth wasn't sitting pretty. While Eagle was giving away spud guns, 2000AD gave away a large Ron Smith poster this week and produced it's own jumping on point issue to compete. It's an absolute belter:
Dredd begins The Graveyard Shift (Wagner/Smith)
Slaine gets his first awesome McMahon issue
Nemesis Book 3 starts with O'Neill drawing the fight between Chira and Magna
Strontium Dog returns after a long break with Grant/Ezquerra on The Moses Incident
Rogue Trooper begins From Hell to Eternity featuring Venus Bluegenes from Finley-Day/Ewins
That is absolute top tier stuff and possibly the best issue of the comic so far.
In retaliation, in two weeks Battle becomes Battle Action Force and relaunches with its new Action Force strips.
What a time Autumn '83 was to be a comic reader!
Having followed the comic's story weekly since issue 1, I'm more than ready for this now. The photo stories had had their day by this point I think; they're all pretty rubbish and would be much more dynamic with comic art. Photo stories work in girl's romance papers because the backdrops are just present day suburbia; when the Eagle tries to show you Wild West America of the 1880s or a Nazi bunker in WW2 it's much harder to make it believable. The last Manix strip, about an android secret agent, was ridiculous. A mad professor injects unwitting victims with a serum he thinks will make them into super humans, but instead it turns them into deformed monsters. Except this is actually several bit part extras wearing 'horror' masks bought from the local joke shop. For the first few issues I genuinely thought they were wearing rubber masks to disguise their identities, until I realised, no, this is them being super deformed.
Now it's a proper drawn comic I'm quite excited about what's to come. This week we have:
Dan Dare, still written by Mills and drawn by Ian Kennedy
Manix switches from photo to drawn and looks immensely better for it (jumping location from the back streets of London to central America)
The Fists of Danny Pike, a new boxing themed strip drawn by John Burns
Doomlord starts his fourth story, written by Alan Grant and drawn by Heinzl.
The Hand continues in black and white, having been colour art until now (and probably the worst thing I've ever read by Gerry Finley-Day)
The Amstor Computer is a new strip by Barrie Tomlinson and drawn by Ortiz, a precursor to Scream's Max (13th Floor) in which readers can program the computer weekly to tell a sinister tale by sending in their chosen code number.
Walk or Die, the story of British schoolchildren lost in the Canadian wilds after a plane crash now looks the part instead of pretending some dodgy bit of scrub outside Watford is actually the Rockies.
Crowe Street Comp, inexplicably popular rip off of Grange Hill continues.
One-Eyed Jack, by Wagner and John Cooper continues as the filler reprint strip.
This fortnight is an important point for IPC's comics. There's definitely an air of readership grabbing going on. Eagle's relaunch is looking to get them back up to the readership levels of 2000AD - but tooth wasn't sitting pretty. While Eagle was giving away spud guns, 2000AD gave away a large Ron Smith poster this week and produced it's own jumping on point issue to compete. It's an absolute belter:
Dredd begins The Graveyard Shift (Wagner/Smith)
Slaine gets his first awesome McMahon issue
Nemesis Book 3 starts with O'Neill drawing the fight between Chira and Magna
Strontium Dog returns after a long break with Grant/Ezquerra on The Moses Incident
Rogue Trooper begins From Hell to Eternity featuring Venus Bluegenes from Finley-Day/Ewins
That is absolute top tier stuff and possibly the best issue of the comic so far.
In retaliation, in two weeks Battle becomes Battle Action Force and relaunches with its new Action Force strips.
What a time Autumn '83 was to be a comic reader!