Striker creator Pete Nash still hopes for TV series

Striker © Pete Nash

Pete Nash, creator of the long-running football strip Striker for The Sun newspaper, still has hopes the strip will jump from the printed page to TV.

Answering fans questions on the StrikerWorld forum (membership required to view), Pete, who successfully secured sponsorship for the strip in the past, said that in order for Striker to be a real success, it needs to evolve from being just a newspaper strip.

"It has been produced with 3D animation software since 1999 because I believe animation is the future for Striker, whether as a TV series or film," he said. "The costs are significant but I am optimistic it will happen before I kick the bucket!"

Pete Nash has been writing Striker since 1985, first as a line art strip for The Sun, then moving to its current 3D presentation. In 2003 he withdrew the strip form the paper following a dispute over intellectual property rights then launched Striker comic, which closed after an impressive 87 issues in 2005.

Striker returned to the pages of The Sun, but it was dropped in 2009 and found a home in Nuts, then eventually returned to The Sun earlier this year.

It's clear from questions asked that many fans of Striker were supporters of his attempt to turn it into a news stand comic and hanker for its return, but Pete knows this would be no easy journey, even with the ability to promote such a title through social media and with the online support and promotion by the stripe's many fans. 

"Production costs would only be lower if we operated as an online comic without a print issue," he argues. "Would an online comic have been profitable, or could it be? Who knows. The Dandy has ended its print run after 70 odd years but only time will tell if it will thrive online.

"Having said that, the online platform does offer opportunities in the areas you've suggested - for instance, one activity that will be launched in the near future is an iPad app and mobile app for past issues of the comic and newspaper strips. The overheads are quite low so hopefully this can generate some reasonable revenue, but we will have to see how they sell."

At present, it seems really promoting the title online is a little hamstrung: Pete revealed "certain contractual issues"currently prevent him from forming an official website and Twitter feed or Facebook page –  "but at least Striker is back in the country's biggest-selling paper and being enjoyed again by millions of readers.

"One interesting aside about Facebook and Twitter is that Striker's return to The Sun generated thousands of posts and tweets around the country," Pete revealed. "It certainly shows the strength of Striker's appeal and following but it's frustrating that it's been so difficult to reflect that popularity with the emergence of spin-off activities. We must keep the faith, though!

"For Striker to evolve creatively, more money needs to be generated. The Sun will be trying to generate extra revenue through new opportunities and possibilities so we will have to see how these develop."

Pete also says he still hopes the whole strip will be collected, perhaps aiming for release in time for the strip's 30th anniversary in November 2015. Meanwhile, plans are afoot for new merchandise.

It's clear he is still thinking long term about Striker, in terms of the strip and its possible adaptation in other mediums. Clearly a man who has fought long and hard to make the best of his creation, we wish him every success.

Lobey Dosser: A Very Surreal Glaswegian

(Updated with GI Bride pictures and extra information): I've been discussing the ephemeral nature of newspaper strips and newspaper strip characters with friends this week, so it seems apt that my attention was drawn to a character and artist whose many fans who are clearly determined should never be forgotten.

Most Glasgow residents know about this statue in Kelvingrove Park - but outside of Glasgow, some comics fans may be unaware of the comic characters it's based on has worldwide cult status.

"Lobey Dosser" was a strip by Partick-born Bud Neill, which ran in the Glasgow Evening Times between 1949 and 1955. Capitalising on the interest in Westerns of the time - and an outlet for the artist's childhood love of westerns - it's the surreal adventures of the Sheriff of Calton Creek, a township in the Arizona desert populated by Glaswegians.

"Lobey Dosser" and his two legged horse (yes, you read correctly, two legs) "El Fideldo" or "Elfie" for short were regularly pitted against his arch nemesis, the forever black masked "Rank Bajin" (a right bad one in the Glaswegian vernacular). With a villain named that how can you go wrong?

It's a funny and at times surreal strip with many well-known characters besides Lobey, including the G.I. Bride - who frequently featured in Bud's pocket cartoons, and became a long running character in the Lobey Dosser series.

The strip was extremely popular with Glaswegians in its day (and continues to be), merging the adventure style of the silent era western movies with traditional Glasgow stage humour, particularly pantomime. The outrageous puns and surrealistic drawings have endured over time and now attract a cult following.

The G.I. Bride was always found standing in Arizona with her "wean" in her arms (her baby, prophetically called Ned), invariably trying to thumb a ride back to Scotland with plaintive cries like "Ony o’ youse blokes goin’ the length o’ Pertick?" or simply the plea: “Pertick?”. Like many real-life Scottish women of the time, she had married a GI and followed him to America, only to discover disappointment in the land of plenty.

Neill, who died in 1970, was a regular theatregoer, and this character was probably inspired by Tommy Morgan's popular stage character, Big Beenie, the G.I. War Bride. The popularity of the Glasgow stage comedian's pantomime-style parodies of the city's culture was not lost on Neill, and was to influence his best known cartoon strip.

Funded by public subscription, the Lobey Dosser two-legged equestrian statue created by sculptors Tony Morrow and Nick Gillon in Woodlands Road as a tribute to Neill during Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture in 1990 (although some sources say it didn't actually get put in place until 1992).

Earlier this year, commuters at Partick Interchange, the rail/underground/bus station, found themselves greeted by a companion statue of the GI Bride, a work the Evening Times reported had been scheduled to return to Partick in time for the Homecoming celebrations in 2009, but her arrival was much delayed.

The newspaper reported that Colin Beattie, publican and patron of the arts, organised and financed the GI Bride project with support from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

“I think Bud Neill might have been amused at the GI Bride finally making her journey home to an integrated transport hub in Partick," he said. “I hope it will bring a smile to the millions of people who will use the station each year.”

The artist for the project was Ranald MacColl, a cartoonist, who is an authority on Neill’s life and works. and who has edited various collections, including Lobey's the Wee Boy!, published in 1992, containing five of his adventures; and Lobey Dosser: Further Adventures of the Wee Boy!, published in 1998.

Randall also charted Bud's other work in books such as Bud Neill's Magic!: A Collection of Bud Neill's Pocket Cartoons.

"The cartoon strip is an ephemeral creature and it is precisely this hit-and-run quality which sorts the wheat from the chaff," notes Ranald of the strip in his introduction to Lobey's the Wee Boy!. "Prosaic and glib cartoon art is consigned along with yesterday's newspaper, to the bin and oblivion; the few great strips lodge themselves in the public's psyche.

"A decade after Lobey's last ride into the sunset Bud was still receiving a steady drip of global correspondence from the little sheriff's aficionados offering what amounted to substantial bribes in return for copies of the scarce books reproduced here. And four decades later the Dosser admiration society flourishes-a testament to the enduring popularity of Bud Neill's Indian ink cowboy character."

- With thanks to Chris Barnett for the original tip about 'Lobey Dosser'

Web Links

• Lobey Dosser Fan Site

• Lobey Dosser feature on Bear Alley by Jeremy Briggs

• The Glasgow Story: Budd Neill

• SPT News: Home at Last!

• Other comics related statues in the UK -

Desperate Dan, Minie The Minx and Dawg in Dundee

Andy Capp in Hartlepool

Giles' Grandma, Vera, the Twins and Butch the Dog in Ipswich

Dan Dare bust in Southport (originally outside Cambridge Arcade now in Southport College library)

British Newspaper Strip Club changes hands

There's a change of command at the All Devon Collectors Club, longtime archivists of British newspaper strips.

An offshoot of the old South West Comic Collectors Club, the ADCCC, mainly centred on the Exeter area, has members far and wide - and continues the relentless search for prime quality images for the (complete) British story booklets that is their raison d'etre.

The desire of elder members to see old newspaper strips again, linked with the poor quality of the yellowing photocopies that were doing the rounds, provided the impetus for the club to decide to track down and reprint 'lost' Garth strips. A search for other British titles naturally followed, such as Romeo Brown and Paul Temple.

Unfortunately, longtime co-ordinator Dave Westaway's health has deteriorated recently and as a result, he is no longer able to continue his duties with the ADCCC.

Luckily another member of the ADCCC, Paul Trotter, also editor of the the bi-monthly Newspaper Strip Gazette, has taken on  the administration role and is as enthusiastic as Dave about the old newspaper strips.

"Although I will see through to the end any correspondence, already started all future orders for the club's limited edition newspaper strip collections (listed here on the main DTT site), suggestion and offers of help should now be directed to Paul," Dave tells us.

"The club will continue to run very much as it has done for the last few years," he adds.

"I would like to thank all members for their enthusiastic support and help over the last eight years. Many of them have given time in searching, cleaning, providing colouring and artwork... I've been very grateful and would much appreciate it if you can give the same support to Paul."


Dave has long supported our work at DTT and offered help on British comic collections I've edited on a freelance basis for Titan Books. I wish him all the very best and offer a heartfelt thanks to him for his dedicated service preserving our British comics heritage.

• To contact the ADCCC, write to Paul Trotter, ADCCC, DSC Publications, 20 Wreake Drive, Rearsby, Leicester LE7 4YZ or email him via dsccomicsATaol.com

Pass the cheese Gromit, while I listen to our podcast!

This week's Panel Borders, now available as a podcast, continues this month’s theme of shows about newspaper comics, with Alex Fitch talking to a couple of creators working on newspaper strips featuring popular British science-fiction characters.

Richy K Chandler is a member of a writing team penning new adventures of 'Wallace and Gromit' for The Sun newspaper, drawn by Mychailo Kazybrid, including this week’s story ‘Paper Hound’ and talks about his interest in humour strips and writing licensed characters.

Alex also chats with writer / artist Huw J Davies, who was approached by the Daily Mirror in 2007 to update their classic adventure strip 'Garth' for the 21st Century and he talks about his problems in achieving this goal and how it lead to a re-imagining of the character in his graphic novel Freeman.

• Panel Borders: British Newspaper Strips is podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Garth returns to the Mirror

Garth - The Mirror's newspaper strip hero returns to the national British newspaper next week.

(Updated, 23/2/11): National newspaper The Mirror has announced it will be reprinting some of the best of Garth stories featuring the time-travelling British hero who featured on its pages for over 50 years, and whose creators included Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury.

Garth will again flex his rippling muscles to battle evil from next Monday – after what the paper says have been "countless requests" from readers.

Garth, the brainchild of Stephen Dowling, made his Mirror debut in July 1943 when, with his ship torpedoed, he was washed ashore with amnesia on to a remote island.

And, long before the last of his 165 adventures in 1997, he had become firmly established as one of Britain’s most iconic fictional heroes, reprinted in France, Norway, Australia, India, Spain and many other countries.

The strip was revived briefly a couple of years back by artist Huw-J and featured on the Mirror's web site, but the revamp appears to have proved unpopular with his fans, who clearly hankered for the swashbuckling, daring do original.

Over the years, Mirror readers learned he had been adopted by a Scottish couple who found him on a Shetlands beach. Garth went on to become a navy captain and military genius, then discovered his ability to travel through time after finding a ringed helmet that gave him that power.

“The time-travelling side of Garth influenced Doctor Who without a doubt in my opinion,"  former Mirror cartoon editor Ken Layson told the Mirror.

Layson says that his popularity even saw fans christened their daughters Dawn, the name of one of Garth's many girlfriends down the years, out of their love for the comic strip.

Garth really became a hit in the early 1970s, when Frank Bellamy, whose credits include Dan Dare, Thunderbirds and Doctor Who illustrations for the Radio Times, took over the strip.

“When Bellamy took over, the character of Garth took off," Ken recalls. "His artwork was dynamic with strong shadows and beautifully sculpted figures.”

 “Garth is synonymous with the Daily Mirror," feels artist Martin Asbury, who brought him to life between 1976 and 1997. "And he’s the stuff of legend because he goes back so far. He evolved from an enormously strong hero used to inspire troops during the war to a time-traveller with psychic abilities who could influence history.

“He’s essentially a good character, always fighting evil and one of England’s only pure homegrown superheroes.”

Update, 23/2/11: In terms of the strips that will feature, we're told the Mirror plans to focus on the Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury periods, the strips chosen by the paper's current strip editor. It's unlikely that the more SF-oriented stories from earlier periods will feature.

Spaceship Away will conclude its colour reprint of 'The Bubble Man' in their next issue, out in March. The team there are already working on colouring up another Garth story.

• Martin Baines is interviewed about his work on Garth and other projects here on the Blimey! It's Another Blog About Comics blog


• There's more on Garth's return on The Mirror's web site here - the online version of a full page feature in the paper published on 18th February 2011

Wallace & Gromit find a place in The Sun!

A new newspaper strip featuring Aardman Animations' Wallace & Gromit, launched last week, is getting good feedback from the characters legion of fans.

Replacing the long-running 'strip-com' George and Lynne, the new comic is being produced by Titan Comics and is appearing daily.

Launched Monday 17th May, each story will run over six days (Monday-Saturday) and will feature the world famous duo in all-new adventures starring hapless inventor Wallace, who's keen on creating labour saving gadgets, even though they don't always go to plan, and best friend and loyal dog Gromit... Expect Gromit to be saving Wallace from various scrapes and a number of mischievous characters. It's no wonder he's happiest reading the paper in a nice comfy chair.

Titan Magazines is now regarded as the largest publisher of licensed entertainment properties in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand and the debut of the Wallace & Gromit strip marks another step in the company's ongoing development, builing on its suite of magazines that include the Batman Legends Comic, Simpsons Comics, Transformers and more.

• For more information on Wallace and Gromit, visit: www.wallaceandgromit.com


• For more information on Titan Comics, visit: http://titancomicsuk.com

Happy Birthday, Peter O'Donnell - 90 Today

(With thanks to David Westaway): Happy Birthday today to veteran British comics creator Peter O'Donnell on attaining his 90th birthday today (11th April).

Born in 1920 in Lewisham, Peter, who began writing professionally at 16, is, of course, most famous for his wonderful Modesty Blaise strips and books, but he also wrote newspaper strips such as Romeo Brown and the best of the Garth stories.

In a three-part article about O'Donnell, Kristy Valenti notes O'Donnell's body of work, featuring bold and capable heroines — primarily in the genres of spy thriller and gothic romance, and in the forms of comic strips, short stories and novels — has had millions of readers. Quinten Tarantino counts among O'Donnell's fans, but his most loyal audience is women and, especially and to this day, girls.

"As such, it makes a curious sense that the catalyst for his greatest creation, the criminal-turned-spy Modesty Blaise, was a girl," says Valenti. "In 1942, among the refugees fleeing from German troops through the mountains bordering Iran, was 'a little girl no more than seven.'Posted nearby was a unit of the Royal Corps of Signals, of which O'Donnell was a member.

"The war ended, and O'Donnell freelanced on projects like writing serials for women's magazines and a few comic strips — Garth, Tug Transom and Romeo Brown — for the next 21 years, while carrying with him a mental image of this child, who became a symbol for a 'tough survivor.'"

After a first failed attempt with Dan Dare artist Frank Hampson, O'Donnell paired with his Romeo Brown collaborator Jim Holdaway — and unleashed Modesty Blaise as a daily comic strip in the pages of the The Evening Standard on 13th May 1963. The strips are currently being collected by Titan Books, with the latest volume, Modesty Blaise: Death in Slow Motion, on sale on 23rd April.

The official web site for Modesty Blaise offers Peter's best advice for aspiring writers. "In 1948, I was working freelance and, amongst other things, was writing two, 3,000 word stories a week for Film Fun," he recalls.

"The editor was a tough but fair man, a big horse racing enthusiast always reading his racing paper, even when we were discussing stories. I used to go into his office each Thursday morning, about 10, with the ideas for that week’s stories. He would be sitting behind his desk reading his racing paper.

"I would give him the general plot of each of the stories, he would OK them and go back to his paper. I would then write one of the stories during the rest of that day, the other one on Friday and deliver both to him by Friday evening.

"On one occasion, I had been very distracted. My wife was giving birth to our second daughter by caesarean section, not a common occurrence in those days, and I was very worried about her. On that Thursday, when I went into his office I had no ideas in my head. I told him I had been very distracted due to personal circumstances and said that I really needed a little bit of help. I asked if we could go around a few ideas.

He lowered his paper slowly, fixed me with a stony eye and said: 'You’re supposed to be an author aren’t you?'

"I started to mumble an apology but he broke in: 'Well f*** off and auth' and raised his paper."


• More about Peter O'Donnell on the official Modesty Blaise website: www.modestyblaiseltd.com

• 'Girl Walking: The Real Modesty Blaise' - Peter O'Donnell on Modesty Blaise for Crime Time Magazine.

• Peter O'Donnell - Modesty Blaise Check List 

• Kristy Valenti's three-part article on Peter O'Donnell - Part One; Part Two and Part Three at comiXology

In Review: Crikey! No.14

The latest issue of British comics magazine Crikey! is out now and comes packed with a huge range of articles, including an interview with top comics creator Bryan Talbot and a timely tribute to the origins of Eagle comic, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next month.

Behind these 'headline grabbing' items (and a great cover from Bryan) are features on the wonderful The Perishers (which the Daily Mirror has begun reprinting, ousting Pooch Cafe), an enjoyable celebration of Alfred Bestall's Rupert and an interview with ace creator and comics expert Lew Stringer, although Lew himself notes the choice of images chosen to illustrate the pice are odd, despite being sent a variety of scans of his work.

As usual, it's a mixed bag but while the loss of a colour section is the regrettable result of losing Borders as a distributor, the magazine's editorial team try hard to please. For me, the biggest failing is its final chapter of a potted history of Marvel UK which glosses over the company's huge success on UK news stands with titles such The Real Ghostbusters (which helped to launch the careers of Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and many others) in favour of concentrating on some of its least successful titles.

While many of these, like the original Knights of Pendragon fully deserve their limelight, the article is disappointing. As with many features in this title, it could have benefitted from more interview material.

Despite my gripes, the Talbot and Stringer interviews and the Eagle tribute - and a feature on the much-maligned 1980s Eagle - more than make it a magazine to track down if you're a British comics fan.

• Crikey! No.14 will be available from many comic specialist shops or you can order it directly from the publishers via www.crikeyuk.co.uk/sub.html

More Carol Day newspaper strip stories online

Fans of the classic  Carol Day newspaper strip may be interested to hear that the strip's official web site,  www.carol-day. com has recently updated with new stories and art. The new stories are "Money Matters" and "Jimmy Hayes".

Carol Day ran from 1956-1967, and was created by David Wright:  it was syndicated in around 70 papers around the world, but this high-spot of the newspaper comic strip has never been collected, and it never appeared in the US.

According to Patrick Wright, David's son, "even though the Hearst Newspaper did attempt to head-hunt my father in the early 1950s, it was felt Carol Day was too sophisticated for the American market!"
 

They've also added a few new pieces of original art for sale from Dangerous Currents (www.carol-day.com)
Roger Clark, who runs the site, has also been able to put together about half the episodes of the story from the first Carol Day story, "Charles Logan" .  

"I think it's enough that you can make sense of the story even with the gaps, and the art is so nice to look at that it seems well worth putting up, even  in incomplete form."

This site is a real labour of love and a great archive of a classic British newspaper strip that fully deserves wider attention.

In Review: The Misadventures of Jane

The Book: Charts some of the cartoon (mis)adventures of Britain's first and best-loved World War 2 pin-up - the scintillating, blue eyed, blonde-haired, clothes-phobic cartoon legend that is Lady Jane Gay. This collection features two full strips (no pun intended) - "N.A.A.F.I. Say Die!" and "Behind the Front", first published during the second world war, and some bonus features from the magazine Jane's Journal, including pin up art and an eight page full colour adventure.

The Review: When we interviewed collection editor David Leach last month it was clear then that The Misadventures of Jane - hopefully the first of a series if sales are good - was a labour of love. We're not disappointed: not only does this hardback collection offer two full stories, including Jane's first full 'strip' for her thousands of adoring fans who followed her adventures avidly in the Daily Mirror; the bonus features, which include a delightful, whimsical colour section and a fascinating contemporary feature n the strip's creation are a delight.

Created by Norman Pett for the Daily Mirror in 1932, using Christabel Leighton-Porter as the model (named Chrystabel or Crystabel Leighton-Porter on some sites, if you're the kind of person who will go off looking), the ever patriotic Jane wasted no time in joining up following Britain's entry into the war. It is two of these adventures that take up the bulk of the book, offering a fun, often fast-moving and comedic adventure as Jane battles spies and Nazis in her own inimitable, often chaotic but much-loved fashion. Modern political correctness may balk at the star's regular state of undress, sometimes caused by the most unlikliest of circumstance, but Jane herself more than proves she's a match for any of the men she's pitted against, be it at a sleepy army camp where the local handyman looks like Hitler (because he had his moustache before the dictator and is damned if he's shaving it off) or on the front line in more, shall we say, active service.

Jane is fun, joyous whimsy, and a fine example of British newspaper adventure strip - a creation that held its four-million strong audience for over 25 years, the original strip running until October 1959, and reportedly provoked outrage against the newspaper that published it when it tried to axe it.

This first volume stories is well chosen, and the quality of reproduction is much better than their previous appearance some years back, in Jane At War, although of course there are the usual, inevitable problems from greyscale drop out and muddying of line due to the age of the source material. Perhaps some collector of the original strips will step forward and remedy this minor issue - which does not diminish the enjoyment of the stories - for future volumes.

The inclusion of items from the rare and much sought-after Jane's Journal is also welcome, as this material has not been widely circulated in print for over 60 years. The quality of these pages is superb and a real bonus.

While the content of the book is of course what fans will buy it for, there are some wonderful touches to the finished product: remove the dust jacket, for example, and you'll find a gorgeous embossed Jane image on the deep red book cover, a hidden delight.

As I said, it's clear that a lot of work has gone into making this a memorable and well-presented collection and the result is a fine book that will appeal to many newspaper strip fans, setting a benchmark for the the presentation of such material for the future. Let's hope further collections follow.


More Reviews:


• Lew Stringer


"Edited by David Leach, The Misadventures of Jane is another top quality book from Titan that is sure to appeal to aficionados of newspaper strips, glamour art and wartime memorabilia."

• Steve Holland on Bear Alley


"Overall it's a nice selection. Even the strips that have appeared before are reproduced better (and on far superior paper) than in the Jane at War collection. An excellent feature from the pages of the Canadian magazine The Maple Leaf (18, 19 & 24 July 1945) offers a detailed background to the strip and an excellent introduction to Pett and his work."

Web Links


• Let's Talk About Jane

An interview with collection editor David Leach

• Lambiek: Comic Creator Norman Pett


• Norman Pett at Work

Videos from Pathe, published on Bear Alley

• Wikipedia: Jane


• Go Comics: The Unforgettable Jane

• The original GI Jane


A good short biography of Christabel Leighton-Porter

• Daily Telegraph Obituary for Chrystabel Leighton-Porter: The Death of Jane, the model who helped win the war


• New York Times Obituary


"When she reflected on the comic strip's popularity, Mrs. Leighton-Porter chose not to dwell on the risque. 'I think it was because Jane was a bit girl-next-doorish, a bit of England for the boys,' she said. 'Jane became a cult thing really, and I think wives and girlfriends were glad that their boys had something to get a kick out of.'

• CNN Obituary

Em joins The Sun

(with thanks to David Baillie for the tip): The cartoon strip Em, the creation of Swedish cartoonist Maria Smedstad, joins The Sun on Tuesday.

"Yes, it's true," says Marie. "Em will be packing her little messily drawn bags and move to The Sun for two days a week. And to those of you who have asked - no, she will not be on page three."

First published in the free thelondonpaper for three years, which is closing, Em was created as an autobiographical side project, depicting life as a young (semi) professional in a shared London house.

"It was picked up by thelondonpaper in October 2006," Marie outlines on her web site. "Since then the often acerbic portrayal of Em’s life has received a hugely positive response and has struck a chord not only with Londoners, but with people worldwide who sympathise with her and her friends’ daily struggle to keep their wine intake down, fight broadband service providers and find that special someone to keep them warm at night."

Marie has hinted that a collection of Em strips is in the pipeline. Any publishers reading this...?

• EmCartoons on the Web at: www.emcartoons.com


• Follow EmCartoons on Twitter

Let's Talk About Jane

Titan Books will be releasing The Misadventures of Jane, an eagerly-awaited collection of the classic strip and other material featuring the World War 2 pin up heroine, later this month.

Charting the cartoon (mis)adventures of Britain's first and best-loved World War 2 pin-up - the scintillating, blue eyed, blonde-haired, clothes-phobic cartoon legend that is Lady Jane Gay - the book, edited by David Leach, looks set to be one of the best archive titles of British newspaper comic strip in recent years.

Created by Norman Pett for the Daily Mirror in 1932, using Chrystabel Leighton-Porter as the model, the ever patriotic Jane wasted no time in joining up following Britain's entry into the war. Following a brief stint as a chauffeur, secretary and with the W.A.A.F.S. Jane finally joined Army Intelligence in 1941 where she stayed off and on for the remainder of the war battling 5th columnists and Nazi spies. The original strip ran until October 1959 and has been revived and adapted into other media several times, but it's Jane's war record that is remembered most fondly by her fans: there are even rumours that after the character first stripped in full for the first time in 1943, her actions inspired the British forces in North Africa to advance five miles!

downthetubes caught up with the ever-busy David Leach for a quick chat about a project that has proven a real labour of love...

downthetubes: If you’re talking to a comics fan who’s never heard of Jane and needs convincing to buy the collection, how would you pitch it?


David: Jane was the world’s first super-model, Page Three girl and pin-up. She predates the Vagas girls, Betty Gable, Rita Haworth and Lana Turner as the military’s pin-up of choice by a couple of years. Pilots painted her on the nose cones of their aircraft, she received wedding proposals, and van loads of knickers.

The Ministry of Defence recognised her importance as a troop morale boaster, so much so, advance copies of her adventures were printed so submariners could carry on reading her adventures, even at sea. She was read by over four million readers every day!

Jane was the envy of the American GI and the German high command and was the first cartoon character to go not only topless but nude in a national newspaper and yet she was never smutty or crude. Indeed there’s a strange chaste innocence about Jane and her penchant for losing her clothing at the drop of a hat.

downthetubes: How did you first come across the Jane strip (no double entendre intended...)?

David: As a lad aged 13 I brought the Jane at War book and read up about her. The then editor of the Daily Mirror was a friend of my parents and I talked to him about her. Then at Titan 33 years later I was made the editor of a new collection and started to do some new research.

downthetubes: What does this new Titan collection contain?

David: The great thing is, there’s nothing new in it! I went the other way and discovered material that’s not been seen in over 60 years!

I discovered that Norman Pett, the artist had published several full-colour, war-time booklets called Jane’s Journal filled with glorious pin up art and full colour cartoon strips. I got permission to reuse some stunning artwork and cartoon strips.

Then I found an article written for the Canadian Armed Forces newspaper – The Maple Leaf – written about Norman Pett and got permission from the Canadian government to reprint that! And illustrated it with photos of Norman at work in his studio, sketching his model, Christabel Leighton-Porter.

Jane in a strip published on 9th May 1945. © The Mirror

downthetubes: How long has it taken to put this collection together?


David: Over a year! We’ve tried really hard to find the best source of material to scan from and the amount of correction we did was at times nothing short of heroic.

downthetubes: Are any of Norman Pett’s family or descendants still alive? Did you contact them?

David: No, alas not, however we did talk to ‘Don’ Freeman’s (the writer’s) family. They pointed out that Don was abbreviated from Gordon and not Donald.

downthetubes: What was the hardest thing when it came to sourcing material?


David: Finding good quality strip material, we had to use existing scans of the strips and also the Mirror’s own impressive digital archive.

downthetubes: What’s your favourite element of the collection?

David: The pinup art: I was so proud to have discovered it, I hadn’t realised it existed, I’d seen black and white reprints in a book about Christabel and went on to do some digging. Also, visiting the Mirror’s comic archive in Watford, I sent three blissful days just reading old archived comic strip. It’s as close to heaven as I’ve ever gotten.

downthetubes: There’s a lot of Jane material that has never been collected – are there plans for further volumes?


David: Well, if the first book does well, then there’s more than enough material to do more volumes, I’ve recently found another period feature on Pett and Freeman which I’d love to reprint and I’ve got lots more lovely pin-up art to use up. We’ve only scratched the surface of Jane – she started in 1932 and went on until 1959! That’s 27 years of material to reprint. And not forgetting the fact she, came back in the 1980s, although in a far more raunchy strip.

downthetubes: If Jane returned today, which British comics artist would you hire to draw it?


David: Well, John M. Burns drew her in the 1980s and no one draws comely women quite like John.

Jane strips bare for the first time - a first for a national newspaper. © The Mirror.

downthetubes: Do you think it’s true the British army advanced five miles in North Africa after Jane stripped in full for the first time in the Mirror?


David: Of course I do! Jane was a thoroughly decent gal and would never lie!


• The Misadventures of Jane is on sale from 24th September.

• The Unforgettable Jane: online article on GoComics

Frears to direct Tamara Drewe

Stephen Frears director of films such as The Grifters, Roddy Doyle's The Van and The Queen is set to take the director's chair for the big screen adaptation of Posy Simmonds Guardian comic strip Tamara Drewe.

Variety reports Frears has officially signed on to direct the film from a script by Moira Buffini, with British actress Gemma Arterton confirmed in the role of vivacious Drewe, a sexy flirt who returns to her small country village and stirs up dark passions among the locals.

The cast will also include Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Luke Evans, Bill Camp and Tamsin Greig.

The film, which will begin shooting at Pinewood Studios later this month and is Frears latest since directing Cheri, which starred Michelle Pfeiffer, is to be produced by Ruby Films and BBC Films and will get development and production coin from the U.K. Film Council's Development and Premiere funds.

People are drawn to Tamara Drewe, male and female. In the remote village where her late mother lived Tamara arrives to clear up the house. Here she becomes an object of lust, of envy, the focus of unrequited love, a seductress. To the village teenagers she is 'plastic-fantastic', a role model. Ultimately, when her hot and indiscriminate glances lead to tragedy, she is seen as a man-eater, a heartless marriage wrecker, a slut.

Inspired by Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, and first appearing as a serial in the Guardian, in book form Tamara Drewe was recently enlarged, embellished and lovingly improved by Simmonds.


Web Links


• Read our review of the Tamara Drewe graphic novel.


• Apart from the first episode - go figure! - the newspaper version of Tamara Drewe can still be read on The Guardian's web site

• Guardian Video: Posy Simmonds on creating Tamara Drewe


Posy Simmonds talks about the origins of Tamara Drewe and the processes by which she ends up on the printed page.

Titan Books Announce Bond Omnibus

Titan Books has put together an omnibus collection of some of James Bond newspapers strips they originally released in shorter albums.

On sale next month, The James Bond Omnibus Vol.1 collects the first time eleven of the Bond strips first published in the Daily Express, which were adapted from Fleming’s novels, before the film adaptations were made.

The first bumper volume of its kind from Titan, ‘Volume 001’ presents Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever, From Russia With Love, Dr. No, Goldfinger, Risico, From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only and Thunderball.

Collected together with an introduction by Sir Roger Moore, this slick volume features over 300 pages of beautiful women, thrilling action, incredible gadgets and the odd Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred..

• The James Bond Omnibus Volume 1 is released by Titan Books on 25th September 2009

"Sober Dog" Comes To An End

Top comics creator Nick Abadzis' strip The Trial of the Sober Dog, which started its run back in June last year (see news story), finished its run in the British daily newspaper The Times yesterday. If you missed it, the entire story is now free to read online on his blog.

Times readers have lapped up Nick's strip and more comics are in the offing thanks to its success. "The reaction has been really positive," Nick told downthetubes, "The biggest fan being Mr Editor-of-The Times himself, James Harding. Basically, he's happy because his readers are and my immediate editor (of T2) told me that she thinks they've turned the readers of The Times onto comics which is cool. That's nearly a million people!

"Looks like they're going to do more - [New York Times contributor] Rutu Modan [author of the critically acclaimed Exit Wounds] will be next." (View Rutu's online protfolio here on TheArtWorks)

As for whether Nick will appear in The Times again, he tells us he's busy with several projects at present, including organising an expanded, rejigged collection of Tale of a Sober Dog and finishing his next tale, Skin Trouble, for First Second before doing anything else. "I'm keeping a lot plates spinning right now!" he notes.

Trial of a Sober Dog centres on the person everyone knows or knew: the person at school who was thought most likely to succeed. A chance encounter at a private view sees friends Marco and Petra encounter their old school rival Joe Chase again after many years. It seems he has indeed lived up to his potential… but things aren’t always what they seem. No matter how it seems to observers, nobody can have it all…

Told through observations, anecdotes, flashbacks and musings by different narrators, each episode shows a different aspect of Chase and multiple reasons why he might still be nicknamed The Sober Dog…

New Garth on MyEBook

The first new adventure of longtime Daily Mirror hero Garth, which has already been published on the British newspaper's web site, have now been collected and are available in an online format from British e-publisher myebook.com.

As noted in an interview with artist Huw-J on the main downthetubes web site, Garth returned after a long retirement in August 2008 - albeit only on the Mirror's web site.

The return of Garth, a newspaper strip adventure hero first created in 1943 by Stephen Dowling for what was then The Daily Mirror, is the work of Hayena Studios, and in particular, the determined efforts of artist Huw-J.

The new Garth project revamps the often time and space travelling hero for a modern audience in several different formats. The first strip, now on myebook, The Gold of Ragnarock, finds Garth summoned to the Arctic for a mission of dangerous exploration.

Speaking to downthetubes last year, Huw-J describes the story as "more of an online graphic novel, possibly the first of its kind in an official way as it's full page colour toned, and will run for 65 pages.

"It was originally conceived as a strip," he revealed, "but the guys at the Mirror's syndication department looked at it and really liked the way it read but felt it lacked something 'extra' for the re-launch, so it was decided to vamp it up and ramp it up to the format you see online at the moment."

Reaction to the new interpretation of Garth has been mixed - no surprise considering the original featured the work of artists such as Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury, and some scripts by Modesty Blaise creator Peter O'Donnell.

Some longtime fans have openly stated their preference for the original, while younger readers have welcome Huw-J's distinctive take on the square-jawed hero.

"We have tried hard to create something for old and new readers alike," notes Huw-J in response to comments about the strip posted on myebook, "but we know we cannot please everyone."

Also available on myebook is The Art of Garth, offering some behind the scenes designs and an insight into the remaking of the character.

• Read the downthetubes interview with Garth's new keeper, Huw-J

Andy Capp, Jane and More Now Available Online

Newspaper strips from a range of British daily newspaper strips are now available to view online as part of the newly launched UK Press Online web site, a vast subscription-based PDF archive.

The archive features PDF versions of the Daily Mirror from 1903 to the present day, and issues of the Daily and Sunday Express and the Daily and Sunday Star but for these papers only from 2000 onwards (details here).

While resolution is not high quality, the archive offers a pay per view opportunity to read some of Britain's best newspaper strips such as Jane, which began in 1932. by Norman Pett and whose artists during its run include John M Burns; the recently revived science fiction and fantasy adventurer Garth, which began in 1943 and was drawn by the likes of Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury; and humour strips such as Andy Capp by Reg Smythe, The Fosdyke Saga by Bill Tidy and the ever wonderful The Perishers by Maurice Dodd.

Further back in time are strips such as the 1920s strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, written by Bertram J. Lamb and drawn by Austin B. Payne, which was one of the first British comics to gain a huge fan following, the Wilfredian League of Gugnuncs; Ruggles, written by Frank Dowling and Ian Gammidge, drawn by Steve Dowling, which lasted from March 1935 until August 1957; and Humours of History by Arthur Moreland, one of the first strips published by the Daily Mirror.

Comics creator Lew Stringer has given the archive a guarded thumbs up in a review for his Blimey! It's a A Blog About Comics, although he notes that the search function doesn't seem to allow you to run through issue by issue, which means reading consecutive strips is difficult. (I found the basic search facility offered to those who don't register is pretty uelsess).

"I found one way of doing it, by advancing the date in the URL, but it's a laborious process and doesn't always work," he comments. "(Some issues seem to be missing, or perhaps there's a technical glitch.)

"Clearly the site is aimed more at people searching for specific reference keywords in articles rather than following daily strips," he notes. "However, it is fascinating to find old Mirror strips by putting in a search for The Flutters or [private investigator] Buck Ryan for example within certain time periods. Some pages are more pixelated than others, and the linework of strips isn't as smooth as should be, but they're still legible."

UK Press Online explains that the “pre-computer” pages in UKPressOnline – from 1900 to 2001 – are scanned from the original paper editions and have been ‘OCR’d’ (Optical Character Recognition) to make the text available, so images are dependent on the quality of the original. It also means the originals have probably not been scanned at a very high resolution since they are intended only for online viewing.

• UKPressOnline subscriptions are designed primarily for Education and Library institutions on annual contract, but Personal access is also available by short-term, monthly and annual contract. While many newspapers have now made their archive free to view, 48 hour personal access to the site costs £5.

• The full Daily Mirror archive 1903-current is presently restricted to Education and Library institution users. The Daily Express 20th Century archive is now under construction (180,000+ pages increasing daily) and is being offered free with Express Group 21st Century access (May2000 - current) until complete.

Mine's A Paul Temple!

Crime novelist and detective Paul Temple made his first appearance on BBC Radio in 1938 and went on to appear in novels, film, television and a daily newspaper strip. Now, there's even a cocktail named after him...

Created by Francis Durbridge, Paul Temple inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats – a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard usually needed Temple’s help with his latest tricky case.

The Paul Temple newspaper strip, which appeared in the London Evening News, was published between 19 November 1951 and 1 May 1971 and was drawn variously by Alfred Sindall, Bill Bailey and John McNamara. On the continent, two short-lived comic-series by the Aachener Bildschriftenverlag and the Luna-Kriminalromane are rare collector's items. (More information and sample strips here).

MINE'S A PAUL TEMPLE... To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the first Paul Temple radio series, Edward Viita, Manager of the Artesian Bar at London's prestigious Langham Hotel, has created a new cocktail: The Paul Temple, which will feature on the Bar's new autumn menu from October. The cocktail is whisky-based to reflect Paul Temple's drink of choice and is a variation of the classic whisky cocktail 'Blood and Sand', originally created for the 1922 film of the same name and reflective of the Paul Temple era. The Paul Temple • 30ml Scotch Whisky (for best results use a smooth slightly smoky scotch) • 20ml Dubonnet Rouge • 20ml Crème de Peche • 20ml White Peach Puree • 20ml Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice • Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass • Rub a short sprig of rosemary between your hands (to release the aromas) and lay it as a garnish over the drink

The Paul Temple radio serials proved so popular that their creator Francis Durbridge was inspired to write a series of novels featuring the character. On 13th November, BBC Audiobooks will release News of Paul Temple read by Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Merlin), in a story which centres on Temple meeting vivacious actress Iris Archer at a cocktail party. After agreeing to write a play for her, he is most surprised when she suddenly decides to pull out of the lead role days before the play is due to open. He is even more surprised when he glimpses her in the Scottish hotel where the Temples are holidaying – after she had told him that she was going to the South of France.

Does her sudden appearance have anything to do with the mysterious letter passed to Paul Temple by an excitable young man, with explicit instructions to deliver it to John Richmond? What does the enigmatic Doctor Steiner have to do with events? And, most importantly, who is operating under the codename Z4? It is up to Paul Temple to find out...

News of Paul Temple follows on the heels of the July release of Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery, a re-recording of the drama starring Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson, based on the scripts for the original production first broadcast in 1949.

The BBC Scotland Drama team tracked down the original Paul Temple scripts and went into meticulous detail to re-record Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in an authentic vintage style. Producer Patrick Rayner explained that old pieces of recording kit, including period microphones were dug out and dusted down for a faithful recreation of the detective series and the team were able to retrieve period recordings of sound effects such as motorboats and the original incidental music to stay as true to the original dramas as possible.

In the story, the Temples enjoy the company of their fellow passengers on an ocena liner returning to England from America, only to find one of them dead the next morning – and when Paul and Steve get home to London, Sir Graham Forbes is waiting to plunge them into one of their most thrilling and dangerous adventures, the pursuit of a ruthless international gang of counterfeiters. As knives fly and bombs explode, the key to the puzzle seems to lie in a coin on the end of a watch-chain…

• Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery is available now. ISBN: 9781405678124
Duration 4 Hours on 4 CDs Download ISBN: 9781405608572

• News of Paul Temple will be published by BBC Audiobooks on 13th November 2008
ISBN: 9781405676960 Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes on 2 CDs
Download ISBN: 9781405679329

Peanuts for Free

(with thanks to Norman Boyd): Web site Drawn! reports United Features’ website has gone free to view, including 50 years of Peanuts.

Taking a nod from the webcomics world and in response to the declining sales of newspapers the syndicate has, like GoComics and ROK Comics, begun to offer all of its content (including years of archives) at comics.com online for free.

Drwan! also notes that not just that, but its RSS feeds which once only contained links, now contain the cartoons themselves.

Signing up for an account allows you to create your own custom RSS feed or homepage featuring whichever features you’d like. Drwan's Olly Moss recommends strips such as Dave Coverly’s Speed Bump, Jerry Van Amerongen’s surreal Ballard Street, Darby Conley’s Get Fuzzy, and editorial cartoons by Pulitzer-winner Mike Luckovich.

British Cartoon Library Gets Face Lift

(with thanks to Matthew Badham): The British Cartoon Archive based at the University of Kent is about to get a major facelift that includes, at last, the digitisation of the archive of the late, great Express cartoonist Carl Giles.

Ronald Giles - nicknamed “Carl” - worked for Reynolds News between 1937 and 1943, and for the Daily Express and Sunday Express from 1943 to 1991. He was self-taught, but became the most famous cartoonist of his generation, and had a considerable influence on the style of British social and political cartooning.

Giles died in 1995, but is fondly remembered, and a collection of his work is still published each year. In 2000, Giles was voted Britain’s favourite cartoonist in a public poll, and in 2005 the Press Gazette chose him as one of the forty journalists in its Newspaper Hall of Fame.

The Giles Archive, comprising some 6,500 original cartoons dating from the 1940s to the 1990s, but also image files and filing cabinets of business correspondence with the Daily Express and Sunday Express and others, and of “Studio Correspondence” with readers and admirers, has never been open to research. During Giles’ life he maintained close control of his originals and documents, and very little was open to outsiders and in the years since his death the material has been in storage, and the Giles Archive has remained totally inaccessible, the majority of the collection boxed, just as it was put into storage in 1995.

Now, tthanks to a grant by the Joint Information Systems Committee the BCA has begun to digitise the archive, perhaps the single most important archive of British newspaper cartoons, and a key resource for British political and social history.

The BCA's web site will also be relaunched on 5 November 2008, offering improved accessibility, usability and teaching-related resources.

All the existing content will be moved to www.cartoons.ac.uk when the site is re-launched. In addition, Over 12,000 new images from the Giles archive will also be available on the new site with more material and functionality being added in the months following the launch.

The existing database will remain for the time being, although content will not be updated after the end of October 2008.