Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

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Kashgar
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Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Kashgar »

Over the last few days I've been thinking of strips and stories in which the past and the present or the present and the past have coalesced for comic or thrilling effect and have come up with the following list. ( This is just me remembering and quite possibly misremembering stuff without access to notes, files etc hence the 'Pub Chat' part of the title)
Firstly we have the time-travel genre which includes Jimmy and his Magic Patch, Danny Jones Time-Traveller, Back-Tracker Jack, the Legend Testers and sizable chunks of the Kelly's Eye and Robot Archie series with the travelling through time achieved by means as diverse as 'Time-castles' and off-cuts from magic rugs.
Next up we have what I'll call the suspended animation brigade and this includes Rip Van Wink in the Beano, Rip Van Plank aka the Flying Dutchman and Dreamboat Bill and his pirates from the past all sailing into the present in the pages of Topper, the frozen in ice Cecil - the Stone-Age Scrapper and his contemporary Ugg in Victor and Hornet respectively, the Spellbinder in Lion, the Indestructible Man in Jag and Kid Pharoah in Valiant. There was also 'The Return of the Stormtroopers' which had a unit of Nazis revived after a 100 years sleep to terrorise the 21st Century.
Lost worlds were also a popular means of having the past clash with the present in such yarns as 'From the Vaults of Time', 'The Days of the Dinosaurs', 'The Monsters of Loch Neill', 'The Menace from the Mud' and 'The Reign of the Last Dragon'. Not forgetting that great DC series from the US 'The War that Time Forgot' which wouldn't have been out of place as a theme in a D C Thomson boys paper as evinced by 'The Island in U-Boat Alley'.
More to follow.

Raven
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Raven »

Let us not forget Valiant's Danny Doom, the 13th century sorcerer's apprentice who finds himself in the world of 1974, accompanied by his companions, a rat and the Hand of Orloff.

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tony ingram
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by tony ingram »

What about Charlie Peace, who escaped the noose in Victorian London by conveniently stumbling into a time machine and resuming his criminal career in the 1960's?

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Muffy
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Muffy »

It's interesting that story's from the past often get a re-working to appeal to new audiences. I wonder if HG Wells 'Time Machine' is the first of these time travel type stories. With his 'Invisible Man' also being very original (even story's like 'Disappearing Trix' must owe a lot to this. 'War of the Worlds' being one of the very first alien invaders story's.

Robert Louis Stevenson also did, 'Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde' though was this a re-working of Kane vs Abel? In the humour comics we see this good versus evil all the time - Ivor Lott and Tony Broke; Dough Nut and Rusty etc.

'Frankenstein's monster' is supposed to be one of the first ever horror story's - their must be so many book and comic genre's that adapt 'classic' works.

Hmmmm maybe this post is a bit to 'A' level English literature. :shock: Not even pub chat :?:

I'll have a vodka and tonic - Kashgar's round
Last edited by Muffy on 27 May 2009, 16:17, edited 1 time in total.

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colcool007
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by colcool007 »

We also had Phantom Patrol, which was a group of soldiers in a Landing Craft time-hopping from one era to another with the help of their Space Age gadgets that they had found.

Don't know if this one counts, but there was a serial in 1970's Victor where a squad of soldiers were 'kidnapped' by a black cloud to help these peaceful aliens learn how to fight. Played for laughs with the artwork done by C D Bagnall if I remember correctly. The guy that dealt with it best was the dreamer that was always reading Sci-Fi comics.

And who could forget Nick Kelly, the flying highwayman from the Hotspur?
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by STARBOY »

Wasn't Adam Eterno (Thunder / Lion) also a time traveller ? and theres also Freds Bed in the Beano . In the US DC had many time travellers including Rip Hunter - I think Harvey comics had a strip called something like "Timmy the Time Traveller" (one of those 2- 3 issue strips inthe Richie Rich family of comics) and Archie Comics had Jughead of the Time Police (I think that was the title , I have it in an Archie digests book and drawn by the excellent Gene Colan) - On reworkings of course there is Ken Reids Frankie Stein (Frankenstein of course), The Incredible Sulk (a reworking of a comic book, the Hulk which was based (seemingly)on a book (Jeykle and Hyde), and I recall Martin Baxendale doing a strip based on a vampire that looked like Dracula??!??!! and a Shelock holmes UK humour strip I cant recall (well drawn though)I'll have another pint thanks! :cheers:

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philcom55
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by philcom55 »

Kash - you may be interested to know that a load of Bob Kanigher's original 'War That Time Forgot' stories can now be found in one of DC Comics' 'telephone directory' style Showcase Presents volumes, currently available from Amazon for about £9. However, leaving aside stories inspired by The Lost World, I can think of several direct adaptations of Conan Doyle's classic that appeared on both sides of the Atlantic.

Other time travel stories off the top of my head would have to include 'Dr What & his Time Clock' in Boys' World and 'The Arch of Time' in Beezer Annual. Of course most regular SF characters became involved in time travel sooner or later - for instance there was a memorable Mike Noble Fireball XL5 story in TV21 where Steve Zodiac and his crew were transported back to 20th Century Earth (long before the producers of Star Trek realized that such stories meant they could seriously economize on sets and costumes! ). Another nice one-off was 'Rick Random & the Mystery of the Time Travellers' which Ron Turner drew for Super Detective Library no.97.

...And so many more, including lots in the various Girls' titles. Does anyone else remember the 'Time Courier' who used to work for a company that promoted holidays in time?

- Phil Rushton

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tony ingram
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by tony ingram »

colcool007 wrote:We also had Phantom Patrol, which was a group of soldiers in a Landing Craft time-hopping from one era to another with the help of their Space Age gadgets that they had found.

Don't know if this one counts, but there was a serial in 1970's Victor where a squad of soldiers were 'kidnapped' by a black cloud to help these peaceful aliens learn how to fight. Played for laughs with the artwork done by C D Bagnall if I remember correctly. The guy that dealt with it best was the dreamer that was always reading Sci-Fi comics.

And who could forget Nick Kelly, the flying highwayman from the Hotspur?
Wasn't that Nick Jolly? Or am I getting confused? Anyway, I preferred Red Star Robinson and his android butler Mr Sirius Thrice...

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tony ingram
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by tony ingram »

STARBOY wrote:and a Shelock holmes UK humour strip I cant recall (well drawn though)
Sheerluck & Son?

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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Digifiend »

Jimmy's Magic Patch and Fred's Bed have been mentioned, but don't forget Tim Traveller, and The Dandy's Auntie Clockwise and Doctor Loo (which are both Doctor Who parodies).

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colcool007
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by colcool007 »

tony ingram wrote:
colcool007 wrote:We also had Phantom Patrol, which was a group of soldiers in a Landing Craft time-hopping from one era to another with the help of their Space Age gadgets that they had found.

Don't know if this one counts, but there was a serial in 1970's Victor where a squad of soldiers were 'kidnapped' by a black cloud to help these peaceful aliens learn how to fight. Played for laughs with the artwork done by C D Bagnall if I remember correctly. The guy that dealt with it best was the dreamer that was always reading Sci-Fi comics.

And who could forget Nick Kelly, the flying highwayman from the Hotspur?
Wasn't that Nick Jolly? Or am I getting confused? Anyway, I preferred Red Star Robinson and his android butler Mr Sirius Thrice...
Oh beggar! That'll teach me to operate PC without reference to comics! You are right Tony, but I must admit that to me Ron Smith always had the edge on Terry Patrick where my tastes are concerned.

I mention those two giants of comics as they were, to me, the typical style of each story. I mean a Nick Jolly without Ron Smith's artwork was just not cricket!
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Steve Henderson
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Steve Henderson »

The Viz did 'Doctor Poo' a one off comic by Simon Donald. Steve Donald animated it, heres the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahysN2sIIw

Its more about having a crap than travelling through time but its a good bit of fun!

Kashgar
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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Kashgar »

Curses, talismans, amulets and incantations didn't half stir things up either. Ancient Egypt giving us Oliver's Travels and its 'sequel' 'Jiffy and the Glyphs' both in Topper and then there was 'The Mummy's Curse' in Whizzer and Chips all three of these played for laughs which was in stark contrast to 'Vengeance with a Smile' and 'The Flaming Vulture' in which the ancient world menacingly reached out to the present for disturbing its rest. And similarly 'The Trouble Seekers' had to deal with an Egyptian curse during an oil drilling expidition.
There was also an old hermit's spell that saw 'The Gladiators' catapulted 2000 years into the future to fight the Nazis and the mild mannered teacher who donned the centuries old magic helmet to become 'The Phantom Viking'.
I also have a soft spot for a Victor strip titled 'The Island of Terros' in which a class of schoolboys are marooned on an island following an air crash and discover it is the abode of the Greek gods.

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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Raven »

Kashgar wrote: I also have a soft spot for a Victor strip titled 'The Island of Terros' in which a class of schoolboys are marooned on an island following an air crash and discover it is the abode of the Greek gods.
That sounds interesting! Which period was that in the comic?

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Re: Pub Chat - Now and then, then and now.

Post by Phoenix »

Raven wrote:That sounds interesting! Which period was that in the comic?
The Island Of Terros appeared in The Victor 940 (Feb. 24 1979) - 949 (Apr. 28 1979).

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