Weather-related strips!

[Phoenix]

And then there is the villain that can whip up a storm at sea at will via his Tornado machine. Beautifully lush art by Matias Alonso. That was in the 1970's and was reprinted in the 1980's.

The serial referred to here is The Whirler, which appeared in The Victor 381 (Jun. 8 1968) - 392 (Aug. 24 1968). The villain was called Marx, the man who took him on was Spike Rugg. The story is a pictorial retread of The Yellow Whirlwind, which appeared in text form in The Wizard in 1932.

[Raven]

In an attempt to verify this, I downloaded 60+ issues of IPC's Knockout, but none of them contain Sonny Storm, although a couple of the IPC Knockout annuals do have Sonny strips (maybe he was restricted to annual appearances only?). Could someone please confirm in which version of Knockout Sonny first appeared. I'll update my post to credit anyone who can help. Ta!

Sorry, yes, as Phil says, he was in Cor!!, not Knockout, starting in the 25th September 1971 issue. The strip was still running in early July 1972, but had gone by late September that year (I have a little gap in my collection for that period.)

[Raven]

Thanks to Phil and Phoenix for those latest Black Arrow and Wonder Man dates; Phoenix, do you recall how Wonder Man finally defeated Mr. Simpson?

Now we just need to make sure that that the snowball robots weren't just a strange cheese dream that colcool007 once had.

[Phoenix]

I'm trying to remember the name of the strip (from the Victor) when snowball robots (I kid you not) tried to take over the world by freezing it for their masters. Drawn by Philpott, I believe, but I am beggared if I can remember the name of it. The artic weather robots were defeated by the means of sonic waves.

I don't remember this story, Colin. Could you give me the names of some characters, please, and your guarantee that the serial did appear in The Victor, as opposed to say The Hotspur or The Hornet. The only memory stirred so far is Hork The Hunter from The Victor in 1975 and 1984, and I'm in no way convinced by it. It is a sci-fi serial set on the planet Laneen in the 25th century, recently colonised by Earth, but there are no robots. However, the entire population of the planet has been kidnapped, frozen and placed in individual underground compartments on the planet Asturia to take over the fight against the Vorl when the Asturians are finally too weak to continue. No, it can't be that one. More help, please.

[Niblet]

Thanks to philcom55 and Raven for the clarification re Sonny Storm's origin. I have now updated my blog post.

http://cheekyweekly.blogspot.com/2011/1 ... storm.html

[Phoenix]

Right, I've looked a little further afield. A serial that matches most of Colin's plot elements is The March Of The Ice-Men, which appeared in The Hornet 313 (Sep. 6 1969) - 325 (Nov. 29 1969). The inspiration for this serial was unquestionably The Lost Legion Of Tartary, which appeared in The Wizard in 1934. It is possible that Colin has mentally relocated The March Of The Ice-Men to The Victor because he will have read there in 1970 The Lost Warriors Of Tartary, the picture repeat of The Lost Legion Of Tartary. The similarities at the basic plot level will not, however, have caused him any confusion.

The plot of The March Of The Ice-Men does not contain snowball robots, nor are they defeated by sonic waves. In every other aspect, it looks promising.

Mike Manning and Andy Chase, two young archaeologists, are looking for lost Inca treasures in the Andes when they stumble upon the awakening, from thousands of years of sleep within their personal blocks of ice, of strange, seven-foot-tall giants with abilities and weapons way beyond those possessed by humans. Incidentally, the ice is not cold to the touch. They can cause varying degrees of pain, from mild to excruciating, just by pointing their finger at someone and releasing a ray. Other methods of control at their disposal include hypnotism, telepathy and thought control. The principal use of their main weapon is to freeze people and, when necessary, their houses or other surroundings, something they do quite regularly. This facility gets them lots of slaves. Under the guidance and inspiration of their accepted leader, Vooran, they aim to seize the Earth. These leaders, Vooran's lieutenants, then awaken their band of warriors. Their task then is to go and waken what they call The Million, followers who are buried elsewhere, also embedded in ice. They never achieve this task because, despite their formidable abilities, they are vulnerable. For example, one of them goes into a river and is actually eaten alive by what I take to be piranha. However, what ultimately kills them all, one or two at a time, is German Measles, against which they have no immunity whatsoever. Plans are being prepared at the end of the story to destroy The Million by means of atomic charges.

Of course, this may not be the serial that Colin has tried to recall. If that is the case, we are back to square one. We may be there anyway, even if this is the correct story, because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the weather as such.

[matrix]

Fran of the Floods, which ran in Jinty and Lindy for a while, similar to the Great Flood of London strip.

Thanks for that one. Don't suppose you know which issues? Do you recall what caused the floods? (Were all these comics predicting global warming way back?)

There is a global warming theme to the story, where the Earth heated up, affecting the weather, in this case floods.

I do not know the exact date it started, it was running in early May 76 and ended in issue dated 11/9/76.

[matrix]

Proffessor Crabbe, in Crabbes Crusaders used a machine that had an effect on the weather, causing tidal waves and lightning.

In Drive for your life, Count Von Dracca uses a machine that creates a giant dust twister.

[Raven]

Thanks again, matrix. Comics weren't 'alf ahead of their time with the global warming themes.

I love Crabbe's Crusaders, but, alas, only have a few 1969/70 issues of Buster and a couple of serials reprinted in a Frankie Stein annual. I've wanted my own Crabbocraft ever since discovering it. The only weather device in the strips I've got appears in the 12th July 1969 issue, where the Crusaders are fighting Twenties-style gangsters, and Smiler uses Professor Crabbe's "Patent Wind-Lasher" which creates a sandstorm by shooting "tremendous blasts of air"; I'm not sure where the sand comes from! The device?

Do you recall what Hermit Crabbe used his lightning/tidal wave creator for (seeing as he's a goodie and all)? And any idea which issues he used this gizmo?

There's quite a lot of positive reaction to Fran of the Floods online, though I haven't found any good quality images anywhere yet - just one rather fuzzy little page reproduction that's distinctly undramatic - and no 1976 Jintys on eBay to have a peep at a few front covers, unfortunately.

What was Drive For Your Life?

[colcool007]

It's not the March of the Ice Men. But it had the strange sound effect of Onkle associated with these bizarre robots. Obviously robotic arms and legs but for a body it had a snowball. The first encounter was in Northern Canada by two fur-trappers who became the world experts on these Invaders from space. They would land in scout spaceships which would begin to lower the temperature of the surrounding area to below freezing so that they could colonise the area. Normal explosives had no effect on the scout ships, but it was eventually discovered that a sonic barrage would cause the scout ships to explode. First print was in the 60's circa '64 to '66, the reprint was in the 70's circa '72 to '75 ish and I think it was reprinted a second time in the early 80's. I have tried to dig out my comics but this house is best described as a disaster waiting to happen! so pulling out my comics could cause it to implode.

[colcool007]

And then there is the villain that can whip up a storm at sea at will via his Tornado machine. Beautifully lush art by Matias Alonso. That was in the 1970's and was reprinted in the 1980's.

The serial referred to here is The Whirler, which appeared in The Victor 381 (Jun. 8 1968) - 392 (Aug. 24 1968). The villain was called Marx, the man who took him on was Spike Rugg. The story is a pictorial retread of The Yellow Whirlwind, which appeared in text form in The Wizard in 1932.

Is that the desert one? As there are two Whirler style stories. One is in the desert and the other is at sea.I believe the Spike Rugg story is not illustrated by Matias Alonso, but without a piccie, I can't say for certain.

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, do you recall how Wonder Man finally defeated Mr. Simpson?

Yes. H.K. Rodd breaks into the headquarters of the mad scientist, gets captured and is taken into a room where Simpson is demonstrating the sheer power of his weather-controlling weapon to some mega-rich potential associates. They are watching Simpson wipe Birmingham from the map within 24 hours by using constant rainfall. It's actually a good job H.K. was on the ball to prevent the catastrophe as I was living there at the time! Anyway, Rodd is securely strapped into an electric chair, and electrocuted. Rodd is apparently dead when the straps are finally removed but he is, of course, still alive, and quickly turns the tables on the conspirators. However, Simpson escapes into his secret laboratory and, before anyone can figure out how to get in, but not before they can get to a protective shelter, he blows up his machine, his life's work he calls it, so that nobody will ever get to know his fantastic discoveries. Everything in sight is liquidated but inevitably H.K. lives to fight another day.

[Phoenix]

Did the story...[The Purple Comet Passed This Way]...get its own front cover at any point, Phoenix?

No, the front and rear covers were given over to true-life war exploits at that time.

[Phoenix]

It's not the March of the Ice Men. But it had the strange sound effect of Onkle associated with these bizarre robots. Obviously robotic arms and legs but for a body it had a snowball. The first encounter was in Northern Canada by two fur-trappers who became the world experts on these Invaders from space. They would land in scout spaceships which would begin to lower the temperature of the surrounding area to below freezing so that they could colonise the area. Normal explosives had no effect on the scout ships, but it was eventually discovered that a sonic barrage would cause the scout ships to explode. First print was in the 60's circa '64 to '66, the reprint was in the 70's circa '72 to '75 ish and I think it was reprinted a second time in the early 80's. I have tried to dig out my comics but this house is best described as a disaster waiting to happen! so pulling out my comics could cause it to implode.

Knowing your house and your comics room intimately, Colin, I can assure you that your description of it is excessively favourable! Your memory, on the other hand, is now proving to be far better that your earlier sketchy synoptic effort indicated. I'm sure you can appreciate that if you had been a bit more forthcoming in the first place, I would not now be regretting the amount of time I wasted yesterday searching for robotic snowballs. However, despite even now being puzzled by the word Onkle, I will start searching again and get back to you.

[Phoenix]

I have not been able to turn this story up, Col. I have consulted my notes on The Victor, The Hotspur and The Hornet for 1964 to 1969. For each story comic my notes on every individual story, whether a serial or a complete, essentially consist of the year, the title, the issue number of the opening instalment and a few words about the plot. I also categorise them as A, B or C. Category C is for stories that do not appear to have a great deal to recommend them, category B is for all the stories that I have identified as repeats from the text story comics, or extensions of them, category A is for stories that exude quality, but do not appear to have had a previous existence.

For the purposes of my search this afternoon for evidence of your snowball robots tale, I treated the category C titles with the same respect that I automatically give to the rest. Where I felt that my notes might have missed the point about the snowball robots, and where I had not written any notes at all but felt that the title might just be worth checking out on the offchance, I pulled them out of their respective cupboards and had a good look at them.

Now it is, of course, quite possible that I have missed the story either because the title does not hint strongly enough about the major plot aspects, or because I do have it listed but my notes are inadequate. But granted those possibilities, what I really don't understand is why I have absolutely no recollection of the story. I have not read absolutely every serial from start to finish but I have engaged with them all at some point. It is my considered opinion, allowing for all the possibilities of my having missed it or somehow completely forgotten it, that it isn't in any of those Thomson papers, which would suggest that it must be in one of the Fleetway story comics.

At this point I am going to ask Kashgar if he can shed some light on things. He is certainly the most likely person to dig it out if it is in the opposition's half of the field. Over to you, Ray. Sorry!!