Ron Smith rediscovered

[geoff42]

I was actually listening to "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" at the time of posting... yeah... "Beetles of Doom". I stand corrected

[geoff42]

hi, col, that's an interesting fact you imparted there as regards "beetles of doom". Were many old serials redrawn for the likes of Hotspur, Wizard, or Victor? By the way, Ron Smith's version ended with Christmas issue of Hotspur - 949. It began between 939 - 943 (I've yet to procure these issues).

[colcool007]

hi, col, that's an interesting fact you imparted there as regards "beetles of doom". Were many old serials redrawn for the likes of Hotspur, Wizard, or Victor? By the way, Ron Smith's version ended with Christmas issue of Hotspur - 949. It began between 939 - 943 (I've yet to procure these issues).

The only reason I knew about that one is that the original run is that it was mentioned in the Dan Dare site.

As to stories being republished and redrawn? There are loads. The Wilson stories in the Hornet and Buddy are redrawn serials that originally appeared in the Wizard. The first six or so serials of Alf Tupper in the Victor were retreads of the Rover stories. The Deathless Men stories in the Hotspur in the 1970's were published in Hornet (drawn by Philpott) in the 60's and in text form in the Wizard.

There are many, many more and I have just plucked the best known ones from my head. I'll try and get some more examples later but now to work I must go!

[colcool007]

And to pick up where I left off this morning, we have Braddock being drawn by Keith Shone for Victor whereas he first appeared in Rover. J P Slade and the Pony Express stories were again text stories that were given a new lease of life in being illustrated for the Hornet.

Smasher made an early appearance in Victor before being re-imagined for Bullet by Ian Kennedy and Terry Patrick. Union Jack Jackson's first appearance was as a text story in Hotspur, before being posted to Warlord as a pictorial story.

Pickford was also redrawn for Victor as was Kublai The Great (a showjumping story with Ian Kennedy doing some of the spot illustrations)with Kublai being redrawn by Ted Rawlings. There are many, many more and this is why when Phoenix of this parish announces that his book on Wizard is ready, I will be buying a copy to see what other stories I can connect .

There is another western story where a town moved 50 miles overnight to another state, but I am chuffed if I can remember the story title. The picture version was in 70's Hotspur but as to the source comic? I am currently at a loss.

[Phoenix]

J P Slade

J. A. Slade first appeared in Pony Express in The Wizard between February and October 1937, with artwork by Richard 'Toby' Bains. The Smasher started life in the same story paper even earlier, running between May and July 1931, artwork by Jack Gordon. Kubal The Great was in Adventure between January and April 1958. The Wild West tale I think will be the Jubal Smith story The Town That Died At Dawn, that appeared in Rover And Adventure between September and November 1961. To be fair, it has been influenced by the Trig McFee serial The Search For The Shadow of A Town from The Wizard in 1941, artwork by James 'Peem' Walker.

There are many, many more and this is why when Phoenix of this parish announces that his book on Wizard is ready, I will be buying a copy to see what other stories I can connect .

The book has been ready for over two months but despite having a printers waiting for it I have not so far been able to get the 268 pages converted to pdf files, which is the format required by the printers. It is extremely frustrating, although just this afternoon I have had an encouraging phone call. I'm saying no more in case my hopes are dashed again.

[Phoenix]

It's another of those totally mad stories with an creature growing to gigantic size and causing havoc. It was published in 1960 in the rebooted Hotspur

The serial The Beetles Of Doom which appeared in The New Hotspur 33 (Jun. 4 1960) - 42 (Aug. 6 1960), has nothing to do with creatures growing to a gigantic size, Colin. It is about a group of Orientals led by Kato, who plan to conquer Great Britain with some amazing beetles that eat steel. When they are unleashed onto the Forth Bridge they bore holes into it as they eat, after which the bridge inevitably collapses. Then, they move on to other targets such as the Scotland to England railway line, so causing The Flying Scotsman to crash, and then Britain's biggest ocean liner Carania, which they sink. Scientist Jim Thorne leads the fightback.

The story was seriously influenced by the text serial The Worms Of Doom in The Wizard 604 (Jun. 30 1934) - 613 (Sep. 1 1934), in which the voracious little creatures are let loose by Thok, an unhinged Tibetan lama intent on world domination. Casualties include the Forth Bridge, a Sheffield steelworks and several London landmarks. That fightback is led by Clarke Wilson who prepares a spray that kills the worms.

[colcool007]

J P Slade

J. A. Slade first appeared in Pony Express in The Wizard between February and October 1937, with artwork by Richard 'Toby' Bains. The Smasher started life in the same story paper even earlier, running between May and July 1931, artwork by Jack Gordon. Kubal The Great was in Adventure between January and April 1958. The Wild West tale I think will be the Jubal Smith story The Town That Died At Dawn, that appeared in Rover And Adventure between September and November 1961. To be fair, it has been influenced by the Trig McFee serial The Search For The Shadow of A Town from The Wizard in 1941, artwork by James 'Peem' Walker.

There are many, many more and this is why when Phoenix of this parish announces that his book on Wizard is ready, I will be buying a copy to see what other stories I can connect .

The book has been ready for over two months but despite having a printers waiting for it I have not so far been able to get the 268 pages converted to pdf files, which is the format required by the printers. It is extremely frustrating, although just this afternoon I have had an encouraging phone call. I'm saying no more in case my hopes are dashed again.

Of course, J A Slade. Alas, I get the character confused with one of my old bosses who was J P Slade...

Jubal Smith sounds about right. The sequel ended up going down Mexico way if I recall correctly.

I wondered if there had been an earlier version of Smasher, but I have not had any of the comics to delve that deeply into the history of that character.

As to the growing or being larger than normal, I could have sworn that the beetles were definitely a bit bigger than normal. But as it has been a few years since I read it, then I think I can be forgiven the odd lapse of memory.

[Phoenix]

I wondered if there had been an earlier version of Smasher, but I have not had any of the comics to delve that deeply into the history of that character.

You must just have forgotten, Col, but quite a few details about the character appeared in the thread called The Phantom, which can be found in the World Comics forum.

[Robbie Moubert]

I've featured a lovely colour story by Ron Smith from the 1962 Topper annual in my latest blog entry.

http://robertmoubert.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... phins.html

[geoff42]

damn, from the previous posts, there is so much history to be garnered. There really is a need for source books to be available for such history. What a nightmare for cross-reference, though. Good luck for anyone or group who can revise such history into a chronological index.

[geoff42]

On bagging some old Warlord comics from 1975 I came across "Drake - Eboat Alley" and instantly recognized the art - none other than Ron Smith. What a joy when you come across an artist that you admire quite unexpectedly. It would be nice for someone to provide a checklist for this artist's eclectic work - what an index that it would make and so many titles involved across both Fleetway and D C Thomson.

[colcool007]

When you consider that Ron drew for Hotspur (text and picture versions), Hornet, Rover, 2000AD, Daily Star (Daily Dredd), Warlord and Topper, it would be an interesting index indeed. Not only would you have to index the story, but the republishing of his work as well.

And that really would be an index from hell to create.

[geoff42]

But what a joy, col, that would make. I would love to checklist every story in every title of every British comic. So much history to be garnered. Ron Smith would definitely be in the top ten of notable artists: King Cobra, Judge Dredd... Beatles of Doom, Drake of Eboat... ok, I'm getting silly now. Wait! I never mentioned Chronos Carnival! A 2000 ad classic... not. Oh dear, sorry about that, Ron, it wasn't the best of scripts given to you. More bizarre is that Hilary Robinson, the same writer, gave us Medivac 318 which was pretty good.

[colcool007]

OK folks, I am about to take the plunge and do a comic creators spotlight on Down The Tubes on Ron Smith and any help that you guys can provide will help a lot.

Thanks to Paw Broon, I already know about his Lone Wolfe strips in the Beezer annuals and I have spotted a few of the featurettes that he did. But I really need help on the adventure stories that he did in the weeklies at that time.

I have also captured some data from the Hotspur on Wild Bill Hicock, Nick Jolly, Cowboy Cricketer, The Boy With The Wooden Collar, King Cobra, Boys of Rocket Academy, The Beetles of Doom and Flying Fury.

I have also picked up on The Menace in Pit 19 from the Victor.

I now need to check the first 130 issues of Warlord for the Drake of E-Boat Alley series and for the occasions when he did Code Name Warlord.

Now this is where I need your folks' help. I do not need help on the 2000AD stuff as there is plenty of information out there, but I do need help on any Ron Smith work that you know of but has not been highlighted as of yet. So it may be as simple as Ron Smith worked on the Red Dwarf magazine in the early 1990s. Again, something I have been lucky to find or as detailed as which issues of Rover he did spot illustrations for specific stories or any of the work he did for the girls' comic as I am woefully ignorant there.

Crikey! You lot have got most of my article here! But seriously any help will be appreciated and as an added bonus, I can guarantee that Ron Smith will have the article read to him!

[geoff42]

Look forward to that, col. The only help I could offer is from Warlord 1975 but I believe you already have these issues.