True Stories Of Men At War

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 15 Aug 2007, 10:07

colcool007 wrote:
Kashgar wrote:Interesting question Col. I think the answer is that they used reference books rather than trawling through their newspaper files though. In fact by the time Victor came along they even had a fair amount of single page features on various war heroes culled from their boy's papers Wizard, Rover etc they could use for reference and then adapt accordingly.
That's not a bad alternative theory considering all the reference stuff that they have in the Commando office, but would love to have it confirmed. Would you care to cast an eye over the article that I am doing for Crikey and see if I have made any obvious goofs on this subject. I have tried to make it a more serious piece with physical proof rather than just 'Do you remember...' articles.

grumpy old man wrote:Did they ever cover the cricket commentator Brian Johnston?s MC? If so anyone got any details?
Haven't come across it yet, but they [Victor staff] seemed to shy away from using famous people, best bet would be to trawl through Hornet covers or the biographies that they did of famous people. The Ken Dodd one was interesting to say the least! Another comic did 2 page bios of famous sports people but the name escapes me at this moment.

Currently at 660 covers done only 740 to go! Plus have still got a pile of over 100 Victors to work through so should break the half way mark this week.

More than happy to cast an eye over your article Col. The two page sporting bios were also featured in the Hornet, they alternated with the more general celebrity ones. The Victor of course did publish about 100 'When he was a Boy' two page features of famous people in its early issues starting in No 1 with, if memory serves, Lester Piggott.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 17 Aug 2007, 19:08

Halfway mark reached! 700 stories indexed and I am amazed at how many of them are reprints. Still, there are some truly astonishing stories behind some of the citations.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 20 Aug 2007, 20:31

Thanks to the lot that I won off Dickybuzzflop on Ebay, I have managed to work my way painfully to 807 covers indexed and that the work that I have carried out has hopefully borne fruit in the fact that I am currently preparing an article that should be published in either issue 2 or 3 of Crikey. I have tried to stick as much as possible to giving hard facts with only 2 bits being theorised and I have marked them with the caveat that they are theories. Also thanks go to Cap Storm for his scans, even though they gave me deja-vu as one of his scans was the original printing of a story that I catalogued in a later edition!

I am aware that this thread is starting to turn into a blog, but I can't thank the people that have helped me get this far enough. The stories stun me into awe as I read of men that constantly put themselves into harm's way without thought of how that act would be perceived.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 25 Apr 2008, 20:28

Just bringing an old thread out of the vault.

At the last, I had completed my article for Crikey! and I was happily sat at 811 covers indexed with 577 to go, but then disaster struck and my PC died. Without warning, I was back at 620 indexed and a load of Victors to be re-indexed. I was not a happy bear.

Now one Ebay lot later and I am now up to 885 covers indexed with the potential to index another 120 plus which leaves me only 360 comics to collect to have the full run of Victor covers indexed.

So if anyone can help, it would be really helpful if anyone could give me any information on Victor issue 819 dated 30 Oct 76 as that would then mean that I have the full details of all covers from issue 777 to 1002 available to me. I have a small run gap from 1003 to 1024 to fill (19 issues out of 22) but once I fill that, I will have the full run from issue 777 to the final issue. God bless Ebay and all who sail in 'er!

felneymike · Post by **felneymike** » 26 Apr 2008, 10:27

There where also these stories in the annuals. I have a few at home if you want me to send info along, though it might not be for a month or so. One i remember was some commandos attacking a small island, and after beating off the hardcore SS decided to dig in as it was far too dark to see anything. In the morning they looked out and saw Germans mere inches from them, who had also dug in! but the survivors where bored Wehrmacht who had stopped caring, so surrendered

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 26 Apr 2008, 21:48

Felney,

You're right. At first, these were an integral part of the annual as this was a chance to expand the true story from two pages to maybe 10 or 12 pages depending on the story as could be seen in the annuals up to about 1975. And then the true story became less and less a part of the annual to the stage in the late 80's, a cover story from one of the back issues of the Victor became the inside covers of the annual in much the same way that the true story became Action Stations! in the comic. More shall be revealed in the next issue of Crikey! I hope.

And I now have a complete set of Annuals so I shall be culling the info from them in the very near future. Just a shame that I can't say the same for the Specials, but I am getting there (10 down 12 to go)

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 30 Apr 2008, 10:28

Hi Col,
The cover story in Victor No 819 (30/10/76) was concerned with the sinking of the German cruiser Konigsberg in Bergen harbour by a force of Skua dive-bombers of the Fleet Air Arm on 10th Apr 1940. The artist on the strip was Mattias Alonso.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 30 Apr 2008, 12:23

And reprinted in issue 1353 (dated 24 Jan 87)

That now gets the indexing up to a massive 911 covers indexed with another 43 here in the house to take me over the 950 mark which leaves a mere 438 to go! Thankfully, I have all the 900's in the UK, but that will only cover another 76 issues. So just got to wait until my next trip to the UK to get that information! Still leaves another 300 plus to go!

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 24 Sep 2008, 18:47

Again, dusting this thread off after its consignment to the vault for the last 5 months, my indexing has done a meagre 9 covers since April. But on the plus side, most of you have seen my article in Crikey 6.

Just been able to get a few more early Victors and I am working through them slowly, but RL keeps interrupting my comic experiences!

Another positive is that I have seen one of the few signatures that made it past the DCT checkers. For those interested, it is in issue 394 and is in the bottom right hand corner of the main frame. Once I dig the scanner out, I will scan this signature and mooch for help to identify the artist.

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 25 Sep 2008, 12:22

No need to mooch Col. The signature is that of M (Mattias) Alonso. Well spotted though.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 25 Sep 2008, 15:51

His signature has changed a lot over 10 years as it looks nothing like his squiggle in the issue of Battle where I found another example of his signature. I did think it was Alonso's artwork but the signature looks like T H Diouto instead of M Alonso!

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 26 Oct 2008, 22:02

Again, I have been hard at work cataloguing and I have just broken through the 1000 mark. More of a pyschological barrier than anything else, but I can't believe that I have made it this far. With another 20 odd comics in the house, I should break the 1030 mark in the very near future.

I am surprised at how long this has taken me as it is now more than 3 years since I started this self-imposed project and I am normally a bit faster than this at getting things done. I hope to get a major boost to the project in the very near future as there is a lot that I am watching on Ebay that should give me a massive boost of another 150 covers to work through if I am lucky enough to win it and someone with pop star money doesn't beat me to it!

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 01 Feb 2009, 08:54

Well, the big lot that I was chasing back in Oct slipped through my fingers, but happier news is that I am well on my way to breaking the 1100 barrier of catalogued stories. Current list stands at 1075 done with about another 20 to go. Some of those are to cover stories that I have already doen through scans etc, but it is nice to fill in those gaps so that I can read the stories without hitting that 'bump' when you miss a week's instalment. Currently looking at almost a full run from Jan 76 to that last issue.

Once I have covered those stories, I think the next step will be to identify all the artists and which covers were theirs.

PS Kash, did you get my email? PM either way!

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 02 Feb 2009, 11:23

Sorry Col, I didn't get your PM or rather overlooked my PM's altogether. My wife June has been in hospital since New Year's Day so I'm rather winging it when it comes to comic related stuff at the moment.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 08 Mar 2009, 19:14

Well, the 1100 barrier has been broken and I am now slowly moving onto the 1150 mark. Currently got another 19 issues to go through (but at least 3 of them are doubles, if not more) and I am expecting another 10 through the post.

I was tempted by the lot that I saw on Ebay where a guy was selling most of the Victors from issue 1 to 623, but I didn't have Â£600 to throw at him!

Which was a pity as it would have filled in most of the gaps in my collection as well, not to mention the covers that I could have indexed!

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