Hibernia Books, who
have previously published licensed reprints of 1980s IPC strips Doomlord
from new Eagle and The 13th Floor from Scream, are back with a factual
fanzine about the weekly
IPC comic Valiant and its links with 2000AD entitled One-Eyed Jack And
The Death of Valiant. Writer David McDonald has created a 36 page
magazine with a black and white cover, and black and white and colour
interior images about Valiant comic and its Dirty
Harry style cop character who foreshadowed Judge Dredd.
Split
into five sections, the magazine gives an brief overview of Valiant
weekly from its origins in 1962 before focusing on the revamp it was
given by writer and editor John Wagner when
he was tasked with revitalising the title in 1975. While this revamp gave the Sixties comic a more modern Seventies look, it did not
halt the declining sales figures enough to prevent the title being
amalgamated into its sibling title Battle Picture
Weekly in 1976. David interviews John on the subject of his
editorship of Valiant which makes a refreshing change from the more
normal interviews with him which inevitably concentrate on his creation
and writing of Judge Dredd.
One of the strips
introduced in the revamp of Valiant was about Detective Jack McBane, the New York cop
known as One-Eyed Jack, written by John Wagner and illustrated by John
Cooper. While Wagner took his
inspiration from TV series such as The Streets Of San Francisco as much
as movies, it was Cooper who based the visuals of the character on
Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. David focuses on this proto-Dredd
character and interviews the now retired John about
his art on One-Eyed Jack as well as talking about the rest of his
career from Thunderbirds in TV21 in the 1960s to his recent Armitage
strip in the Judge Dredd Megazine. John Cooper has rarely been interviewed before so
it is a treat to be able to read what he has to
say.
The magazine concludes
with an interesting piece on the background role of the Art Editor
focusing on Jan(et) Shepheard who worked on Valiant, 2000AD, Starlord
and Tornado amongst many other
IPC titles, with contributions both by herself and former 2000AD staffers,
editor Kelvin Gosnell and art editor/artist Kevin O'Neill. While this may
sound like the least interesting section of the magazine, covering as it
does the work of people who are rarely if ever
mentioned, I found this a fascinating read which highlights a side of
the comics that readers simply take for granted.
One-Eyed Jack And The
Death of Valiant is available as a digital edition but I would think
that the majority of readers will be from a background where they want a
paper version in their hands
and the print version is no let down. Professionally printed on matt
paper that is just slightly shorter than A4, this is an impressive
publication both from a production, a design and a writing perspective and is the
first of a potential series of semi-regular titles
covering older UK comics entitled "Comic Archive".
As I said when the
title was initially plugged on downthetubes, most of the writers here on DTT
come from a factual fanzine (as opposed to a stripzine/small press)
background and so we know what
it is like to produce this sort of title and how difficult it can be
getting interviews and 'new' hard facts that have not previously been discussed to death.
One-Eyed Jack And The Death of Valiant is one of the best factual fanzines that I
have read in a long time and I can't recommend
it highly enough to both those interested in the general history of
British comics as well as those who choose to focus on 2000AD alone.
One-Eyed Jack And The
Death of Valiant is available to buy via Comicsy with the printed
edition costing £3.99 plus £1.50 postage while the digital version is
only £1.50. Copies of the Doomlord reprint magazine are also available.
There are more details of all Hibernia titles on their blog.
• Over on his brilliant site Bronze Age of Blogs, Pete Doree has 
