Labour Of Love

[moose]

thanks captain, labours of love, all of them. i'm considering tornado next, but i know little about it, except it wasn't that good.

[Captain Storm]

Wasn't Steve Gibbons the Editor?He appeared dessed as the Big "E" on the cover replete with camp superhero costume.BTW Tornado featured The Angry Planet drawn by Massimo Bellardenelli,possibly a leftover from Starlord after that stellar tome got shanghai'd by 2000ad despite having greater sales(sniff) .Interestingly Tornado was the same as Starlord only lasting 22 Issues before being eaten by 2000ad.Also have PM'd you.

[moose]

dave gibbons!

i have scans of all the tornado issues, but have never read them...something for the future i think.

pm box is empty btw, so may be a problem there.

[Lew Stringer]

Wasn't Steve Gibbons the Editor?He appeared dessed as the Big "E" on the cover replete with camp superhero costume.

You're thinking of Dave Gibbons. He wasn't really the editor. They just got him to dress up for the part. British comics have a tradition of creating fictional editors remember.

Lew

[colcool007]

In my opinion, it was a rock solid comic. Read only one meagre issue first time round but got the whole lot as a download and it was fantastic. Angry Planet blew me away with Bellardini's art. It was beautiful and still looks as good today as it did when I first got my paws on it. Wagner's Walk has also stood the test of time but Drago never got me excited. But then again, I have never been a big fan of any detective story.

[Lew Stringer]

Drago never got me excited. But then again, I have never been a big fan of any detective story.

Victor Drago was originally intended to be Sexton Blake, and drawn as such, but then IPC found they no longer had the rights, hence the name change to Victor Drago at the last minute.

Lew

[Captain Storm]

Hi Lew,yeah,typo there...Dave was the big "E".Also they had SB on Victor Drago's car registration plate.Crafty cobbers...

[Shaqui]

Victor Drago was originally intended to be Sexton Blake, and drawn as such, but then IPC found they no longer had the rights, hence the name change to Victor Drago at the last minute.

Didn't they actually use an old Sexton Blake strip for one of the annuals, relettered? You could tell it a two page serial compiled by the filled in masthead areas!

[Kashgar]

Victor Drago was originally intended to be Sexton Blake, and drawn as such, but then IPC found they no longer had the rights, hence the name change to Victor Drago at the last minute.

Didn't they actually use an old Sexton Blake strip for one of the annuals, relettered? You could tell it a two page serial compiled by the filled in masthead areas!

'Victor Drago and the Curse of Graveways Abbey' in the 1980 annual was a Sexton Blake reprint from Valiant 25/1/69-15/3/69. Mind you most of the Eric Dadswell Valiant SB strips were actually redrawn versions of Eric Bradbury's Maxwell Hawke strips from Buster in the first place.

[BH]

Yes, Dave Gibbons was Big E, the fictional editor. The idea was to be like Tharg in 2000AD and the same thing was done with Starlord.

I remember the photos being taken and the fun everyone had dressing up...well Dave anyway, hehe. For all his protestations I think he loved it!

I have a picture from that day of Dave lifting me up in his Big E outfit. I'll try to scan it in and post it if anyone wants a laugh.

Don't grass me up to Gibbo though. Oh, wait...I wonder what it's worth to him 'not' to post it?

The Victor Drago thing...IIRC wasn't meant to go in Tornado but it had to. Can't remember if it was because everything was done in a rush or if another strip was late and we neeeded space filling. It was a long, long time ago and my memory isn't that sharp. sorry.

[chrissmillie]

I thought it was great. Victor Drago was Sexton Blake, Wagner's Walk was Hellman of Hammer Force and the Angry Planet was incredible. Captain Klep was faster than Annadin (allegedly).

And fortuitously, I'm selling the full collection with free gifts at http://www.superherostore.co.uk/ for 99p!

Chris

[Captain Storm]

BH,would love to see that photo of you in the Big E's arms