Need help identifying a comic

[steelclaw]

Your right Kashgar,'The Clutching Hand' was in the 1970's Wizard, it started in Issue No.13 - May 5th 1970 and Ended in Issue No.25 August 1st 1970.
I think a second series started later.

[Phoenix]

I think a second series started later.

It was called Return Of The Clutching Hand and it started in issue 55 of the same paper in 1971. The germ of the idea was The Clutching Hand, a text serial in The Rover in 1953.

[Sir-L]

Thank-you-very-much for that Kashgar, steelclaw and Phoenix, your help is much appreciated.
As I said earlier I'm going through my collection of Swedish comic books and indexing them as I go along. And there are plenty of UK comics in them, most of them without any mention of original titles or creators. (And I'll be sure to mention your names as the information will be available on the web.)

So without further ado, I'll bring out the next one:



Title reads Lawless Town and is about two childhood friends who joins the police force. One of them chooses the righteous way and the other one gets bent and ends up in the mob. They both make a career in their respective organizations.

As always: What's the name of the feature? AND who are the creators? AND Where was it published?

[steelclaw]

Sorry I don't recognise the above Strip I dont think it was in Wizard from the 1970's.

As Phoenix says 'The Return of the Clutching Hand' started in Issue No.55 February 27th 1971 and Ended in Issue No.64 May 1st 1971.

I had a look to see if I could compare your strip you posted to one in the Wizard but it doesn't match any, so could their be a 3rd Clutching Hand Strip?

[Phoenix]

What's the name of the feature? AND who are the creators? AND Where was it published?

It was called The Hoods Are Here!, and it started in issue 943 of The Victor in 1979. I would give you the dates of the run but I cannot currently reach my collection of The Victor without risking a broken leg. However, according to my brief notes, the serial is about A cop's fight against crime in Winton City in 1928, which would seem sufficient to identify it.

[colcool007]

What's the name of the feature? AND who are the creators? AND Where was it published?

It was called The Hoods Are Here!, and it started in issue 943 of The Victor in 1979. I would give you the dates of the run but I cannot currently reach my collection of The Victor without risking a broken leg. However, according to my brief notes, the serial is about A cop's fight against crime in Winton City in 1928, which would seem sufficient to identify it.

This is where the Victor thread comes in useful as it ended in issue 954. I am looking at the art provided by Sir-L and am aghast that I have provided any piccies for that story. I will attempt to rectify that error this weekend. The bottom panel artwork looks to be in the same style as the one printed in the Victor, but the top panel looks to be totally different.

[Sir-L]

What's the name of the feature? AND who are the creators? AND Where was it published?

It was called The Hoods Are Here!, and it started in issue 943 of The Victor in 1979. I would give you the dates of the run but I cannot currently reach my collection of The Victor without risking a broken leg. However, according to my brief notes, the serial is about A cop's fight against crime in Winton City in 1928, which would seem sufficient to identify it.

Thank you for that!

This is where the Victor thread comes in useful as it ended in issue 954. I am looking at the art provided by Sir-L and am aghast that I have provided any piccies for that story. I will attempt to rectify that error this weekend. The bottom panel artwork looks to be in the same style as the one printed in the Victor, but the top panel looks to be totally different.

Dammit! I thought I scrutinised that thread, but I totally missed that one. Sorry for that.

The top panel is a magnified version of a panel later on, I would guess page 8 or 9 in it's original.

Nearly every feature was published re-edited here in Sweden. A blown up panel that's put first is the most common, I think that started with daily strips mounted to look more like comic book features. Other examples showing the opposite, shrunk down to... well, to make space i'll guess.
I could provide some other examples if anyone would be interested.

[...]
I had a look to see if I could compare your strip you posted to one in the Wizard but it doesn't match any, so could their be a 3rd Clutching Hand Strip?
[...]

spoiler alert
The strip ends with Carnaby smashing the transmitter who controls the hand. The hand then chases Marsden and tries to choke him, dragging him under water as they disapear.

[colcool007]

The Hoods are Here picture is now on the Victor site and can be seen by using the link here -> The Hoods Are Here

As we can see the first panel in the Victor is almost exactly the same as the bottom panel from the first page in Lawless Town. I haven't found the other panel yet, but I will keep looking!

[Phoenix]

There are three more appearances of The Clutching Hand in The Wizard but all are repeats. The first is a text serial running from May 31 1975 to July 12 1975, which is a repeat of the text story in The Rover 1452 (Apr. 25 1953) - 1458 (Jun. 6 1953), which I mentioned earlier. The next one runs from January 22 1977 to April 16 1977, and is a repeat of the first picture series from 1970. The final one, which runs from December 24 1977 to February 25 1978, is a repeat of Return Of The Clutching Hand from 1971, although here its title is simply The Clutching Hand. There is no third serial. The uncertainty over the page posted by Sir-L has arisen because it looks like a title page in the Swedish version but is actually the third and final page of the seventh episode of the 1970 serial in the English version, and in an identical position in the 1977 repeat.

[Kashgar]

Thanks for clearing that up Derek so that I didn't have to. Also, congratulations on reaching your 1000th post. The Wizard Index's loss...........

[Sir-L]

Ok, I'm back with some more old comics.

First off is a pirate story that neither the French nor the Danish, or the Americans for that matter, want to acknowledge. So that leaves you British.
(Though it could be Spanish come to think of it.)

The title reads "The prisoners/captives of the pirates". Below follows a plot summary.

It's the year of 1596. A Dutch ship, "Santa Barbara", is on it's way to San Martin, aboard we find Lieutenant van Hoff and his friend Carl. Outside Puerto Rico they are attacked by pirates, it's the feared "coast pirates" under the lead of Captain Mc'Guire. The crew of "Santa Barbara" is overpowered and held captive for ransome on the small island of Baruda. Carl manages to sneak aboard the pirates ship, "Cristobal", before it sets sail to Curacau to deliver the ransome demands.

All delivered in 18 pages, and below is the first one.
It was published here in Sweden in the comic book "Seriemagasinet" #13/1955.



--------------------

Second we have a weekly by the name of "Vicky in the ballet". It was published
in 1956 in Sweden.

[Sir-L]

Ok, got another one.

Does anyone recognize the comic on the cover below? Can't really say it looks British but I thought I'd give it a go.

All I know about this is what says on the covers.
Michael Brandt is IB-agent 006, "secret agent from the information bureau. One hand on the gun and one on the gaming table". One of his foes are Marko, with a mission to "stop IB-agent 006 once and for all", his weapons are his "hands and a M-7 grenade launcher".

[Sir-L]

[...]
What is it with IPC and frogmen?
Yet another pair of scuba divers, Mark Barwood and Andy Clyde in "Den sjunkna staden" (translation: "The Sunken City").

Usual questions: When was it published and was it a "one-shot" or did they appeare in other adventures?

As always, scans will be available if needed.

It took me a couple o'years, but here's the scan on the above mentioned comic

[felneymike]

There was a strange picture library in the 60's or 70's that would have a different title and coloured bar every month, with different types of stories. One of these "themes" was spy stories. Those IB-Agent stories may be translations of those.

[Sir-L]

There was a strange picture library in the 60's or 70's that would have a different title and coloured bar every month, with different types of stories. One of these "themes" was spy stories. Those IB-Agent stories may be translations of those.

Ok, I'll check that out.