Need help identifying a comic

[Sir-L]

In Swedish comic books in the 1970's there was a comic called Red Gamler, it even had it's own title "Red Gamble - Mannen från Q" (Red Gamble - The Man from Q). It was copyright of IPC. Now, I can't seem to find anything about it under the name Red Gambler but when I was searching around for another UK comic (Jayson Wilde/Jayson Wylde, that's another thread) I stumbled on a cover of Top Secret Picture Library #28 witch featured John Havoc in "Iron Hand". By a coincidence the comic after Jayson Wylde, in the comic book I was going through, there was a Red Gambler episode entitled "Järnhanden" (translation: "Iron Hand") and I was wondering if anyone have have a copy of, or remember, John Havoc "Iron Hand" and could compare it with the scan below to confirm if it's indeed is the same comic.

[colcool007]

Could this be a re-issue of The Steel Claw? I know, as shown, by the current comic page each day that IPC would sometimes take the artwork for one story (see Roy Of The Rovers become Hurry Of The Hammers) and change the character's name. DCT also carried out this practice as can be seen from the occasional Commando being recycled to produce another version in a similair vein.

[Sir-L]

Could this be a re-issue of The Steel Claw?

No, it's not The Steel-Claw. Both Red Gambler and John Havoc (Gambler was published in Sweden between 1973 and 1977, and John Havoc from 1978.) was blackmailed to work for "avdelning Q" (translation "department/section Q") in hope to get their pilot licence back (atleast in the Swedish translation) and the "Iron Hand" in the story was a villain.

I know, as shown, by the current comic page each day that IPC would sometimes take the artwork for one story (see Roy Of The Rovers become Hurry Of The Hammers) and change the character's name. DCT also carried out this practice as can be seen from the occasional Commando being recycled to produce another version in a similair vein.

That I didn't know, that's interesting. So the name change could have come from IPC then, not necessarily the Swedish publisher?

[colcool007]

Hey! I said something useful. That alone is worth smiling about.

[Kashgar]

This certainly seems to be the same character that appeared in Top Secret Library. TSL was a pocket library published by IPC between July 1974 and Feb 1976 and 'Q' agent John Havoc appeared in all but 4 editions, these Nos 25, 26 29 and 30 featuring the character Jason Wilde.

[Sir-L]

Ok, do you know if the character was published anywhere else before that? (Since it appears in 1973 here in Sweden.)

Do you know anything more about that Jason Wilde character? When I look at one episode printed here in Sweden it seems that he also is with the "Department Q". (I assume it's the same character, a Mod/Hippie with a medallion round his neck and riding a motorcycle.)

I think it's a shame that there are so few sources about them "good" old adventure strips that came from england in the 1970's. Is there some books published, where one can read more about them? They represent a big part of the Swedish comic book scene in the 1970's as well.

[Sir-L]

Found some more information about John Havoc, appearently it was also published i India, both under John Havoc and under the name John Silver.

John Havoc was named as John Silver by Lion Comics for their Tamil Comics... Once Lion Comics has published John Havoc's story in English, in that they have given his name as John Havoc.

http://etrenalsunshine.blogspot.com/200 ... havoc.html

[philcom55]

I imagine that Steve Holland and David Roach will be covering this series in more detail for the final volume of their excellent Fleetway Picture Libraries Index (scheduled to include all the Romance and Adventure Libraries) when it appears.

As a matter of interest there were also a number of Top Secret Picture Library 'Holiday Specials' published between 1976 and 1984, and while the later ones each contained three reprints from Top Secret itself the first actually consisted of old stories from Thriller Picture Library where the original hero John Steel was simply renamed John Havoc! As Colcool has said this sort of thing became quite common at Fleetway/IPC during the 1970s.

- Phil R.

[Sir-L]

I imagine that Steve Holland and David Roach will be covering this series in more detail for the final volume of their excellent Fleetway Picture Libraries Index (scheduled to include all the Romance and Adventure Libraries) when it appears.

Ok, interesting. I've acually email Holland about the matter but haven't gotten any reply yet.

As a matter of interest there were also a number of Top Secret Picture Library 'Holiday Specials' published between 1976 and 1984, and while the later ones each contained three reprints from Top Secret itself the first actually consisted of old stories from Thriller Picture Library where the original hero John Steel was simply renamed John Havoc! As Colcool has said this sort of thing became quite common at Fleetway/IPC during the 1970s.

Ok, did I understand correctly that they republished some old John Steel material under the name John Havoc or was John Steel the original name for "the-hero-later-known-as-Havoc"?
(Dammit IPC/Fleetway didn't make it easy on comic historians did they?)

[philcom55]

Ok, did I understand correctly that they republished some old John Steel material under the name John Havoc or was John Steel the original name for "the-hero-later-known-as-Havoc"?

The former.

(Dammit IPC/Fleetway didn't make it easy on comic historians did they?)

Nope!

- Phil R. (Go easy on Steve by the way - he's got to be one of the busiest people I know!)

[Desdinova]

I need help in identifying a strip. It involved a man trying to reunite a suit of armour for some reason. I think it was set in the Pacific Islands.

Any clue?

[Kashgar]

Hi Des, Can you give us a few more clues yourself? What time-frame are we talking about here and what type of comic might it be? The more help you can be the more help we can be, hopefully.

[colcool007]

I need help in identifying a strip. It involved a man trying to reunite a suit of armour for some reason. I think it was set in the Pacific Islands.

Any clue?

It's a Victor strip and I think the artist was Ted Rawlings. This is now going to bug the daylights out of me. Kashgar, check out the period 1965 to 1975. It's in there somewhere. I know that I don't have the complete run, but the main character was a castaway sailor that was trying to reunite a suit of armour so that the tribe that had helped him could once again have a champion in the ?Games? where each tribe fought each other and the tribe whose champion conquered was the one that got to make the rules until the next time.

Classic underdog fights through kind of story. I'm not 100% sure that if the Pacific was mentioned by name, but it certainly was implied that the islands were in that general area.

I can say that it was definitely a DCT story and that I am 99.9% sure that it was in the Victor.

[Desdinova]

Yup. It was definately early to mid 70's British. That's as much of it I can remember sorry. I was the only strip that stuck in my head and I would love to track the issues down to see how it ended!

[Kashgar]

When I first heard the scenario images of Ted Rawlings artwork did spring to mind but thanks for confirming that fact Col. I even seem to see the strip, which is certainly from Victor, as appearing in the centre pages with the added addition therefore of red ink. If so, and we aren't both entirely deluded, I should be able to track this down by tomorrow.