Comics UK

He didn't as far as I know, not that that means an awful lot! All of the above were DCT characters retitled when reprinted in the Dandy and Beano (Owen Goal, Jimmy's Green Genie, and Olaf the Madlander) many years later.

AndyB wrote:Not the first time though - see the DCT and IPC characters called Dinah Mite, who were a lot closer together timewise.

AndyB wrote: IPC will have been aware of Dinah in the Dandy, but I think both companies routinely retitled strips when reprinted in another comic anyway according to evidence on this forum - Cannonball Kid,.....

OK, Andy, I do seem to have misunderstood the point you were making in the second quotation above, understandable though, in my view, because the general thrust of that section of the thread was looking at IPC characters who had the same name as DC Thomson characters, and vice versa, an interpretation clearly reasonable in the light of your first quotation above. I would still like you to give me sufficient information if you can, to allow me to track down Owen Goal, which I assume you are saying is a rerun of one of the series of Cannonball Kid. I have never previously been made aware of this link, an important one as far as my own research is concerned.

Phoenix wrote:I would still like you to give me sufficient information if you can, to allow me to track down Owen Goal, which I assume you are saying is a rerun of one of the series of Cannonball Kid. I have never previously been made aware of this link, an important one as far as my own research is concerned.

Here's one to start off with:

http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot. ... -goal.html

I believe he had a similar story to Fred's Bed - started off as space-filling reprints of ancient material, but became so popular with the new generation of readers in his own right that when the original series ran out new material was commissioned in its place.

I think he was cancelled about halfway through the currency of the Dandy's 2004 revamp.

Thanks, Swirly. I don't think I need look much further. There is clearly nothing of Cannonball Kid in Owen Goal, if that strip is representative of the whole. What's more, we can now add Dandytown to Beanotown and Whizztown. I suppose Sparkytown will be revealing itself next.

Sorry - Owen Goal started as reprints of Cannonball Kid from Nutty, drawn by Rob Lee. It became popular, they ran out, Nigel reinvented.

Phoenix wrote:I'm just curious about your Cannonball Kid reference, Andy. In which IPC comic did this character appear, and roughly when? I'd like to track it down.

Not IPC - Cannonball Kid was in Nutty, and became Owen Goal for reprints in The Dandy.

Thanks, Andy and Raven, for directing me to Cannonball Kid in Nutty. I only have one issue, and it's in a dreadful state, possibly picked up by one of the children at a school fete for 20p the box! In any case, as it's from 1982 it would be too early. The only sport strip is called Sports Fan, Fan being a girl's name. I think that, on balance, I'll stick to the more realistic versions in The Hotspur and in Scoop.

Phoenix wrote:The only sport strip is called Sports Fan, Fan being a girl's name. I think that, on balance, I'll stick to the more realistic versions in The Hotspur and in Scoop.

What you should be reading, Phoenix, is Raven on the Wing from Valiant - a weird sports strip you can't go wrong with!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E5TzljhMCJc/S ... /raven.jpg


EDIT: Oops, sorry for answering about Cannonball Kid when it had already been answered several times! I mustn't have noticed there was another page to the thread, so I missed the earlier replies.

On the beano website they had an interesting piece on the characters creation. with pictures of the character from the early design stages.



http://www.beano.com/characters/dennis- ... s-designs!

Design #6 is the one they went with. So it was originally going to be Danger Dan? I wonder why they changed it to Dangerous Dan? There's an old TV show called Danger Man about a secret agent, which is clearly where the name came from.

swirlythingy wrote:

Phoenix wrote:I would still like you to give me sufficient information if you can, to allow me to track down Owen Goal, which I assume you are saying is a rerun of one of the series of Cannonball Kid. I have never previously been made aware of this link, an important one as far as my own research is concerned.

Here's one to start off with:

http://nigelparkinsoncartoons.blogspot. ... -goal.html

I believe he had a similar story to Fred's Bed - started off as space-filling reprints of ancient material, but became so popular with the new generation of readers in his own right that when the original series ran out new material was commissioned in its place.

I think he was cancelled about halfway through the currency of the Dandy's 2004 revamp.

No, he was in Dandy Xtreme.

Raven wrote:What you should be reading, Phoenix, is Raven on the Wing from Valiant - a weird sports strip you can't go wrong with!

Is this not just a perfect example of my claim on the DC Thomson cover stars thread that Real people can only get into Beanotown by being transformed into cartoon versions of themselves? For Beanotown read Valiant. It would certainly not surprise me if Raven's appreciation of the character Raven in Raven On The Wing led to his decision to choose that character for his comicsuk username. After all, my username, Phoenix, is a tribute to my favourite DCT story paper character, Pickford, the hero of The Goalmaker in The Wizard. I was fascinated by the idea that, not only was he a master footballer but he was also a member of the order of the Phoenix, people who never died, or, more accurately, were reborn every time they did die. It hasn't happened to me yet but my expectations are high enough for me to will my comic collection to myself.

Being serious for a change, Raven, I have heard of Raven On The Wing but, largely I think because Valiant isn't a Thomson comic, I have not read any instalments nor do I have any issues. If you will list the various series with issue numbers and/or dates of the first and last issues in each case, I will buy some from eBay or Border Bookshop in Todmorden. Come to think of it, if you can let me have this information by this Wednesday, I could get some at 30th Century Comics because I expect to be in Putney on Saturday morning.

I've just had a look at the entry for Raven On The Wing in Denis Gifford's Encyclopedia Of Comic Characters and I've noticed a couple of things of interest. Firstly, the new manager of Highboro United is called Baldy Hagan, clearly a ripoff from Baldy Hogan, the manager of Burhill United in Adventure from 1946 to 1952. Baldy discovered Raven when he was sent by the club chairman to sort out a gypsy tribe camped out on the club's training ground. Pickford was a gypsy and lived in a caravan, as had his earlier incarnations right back to the late 1800s, or as far back as the serial needed to take these incarnations, and on one occasion he brought his horse and caravan and parked up in his Redstoke club's stadium. Raven is saved by Baldy from his bullying Uncle Joe. Joe is the name of Pickford's horse, and also the one owned by all his previous incarnations. In the last sentence, Gifford describes Raven as a Lengro lad. In the final serial about The Goalmaker, which was a picture strip in Scoop, the football ace was called Pengro. There are enough coincidences here, Raven, to interest me enormously. I just might find lots more.

Phoenix wrote:

Raven wrote: Being serious for a change, Raven, I have heard of Raven On The Wing but, largely I think because Valiant isn't a Thomson comic, I have not read any instalments nor do I have any issues. If you will list the various series with issue numbers and/or dates of the first and last issues in each case, I will buy some from eBay or Border Bookshop in Todmorden. Come to think of it, if you can let me have this information by this Wednesday, I could get some at 30th Century Comics because I expect to be in Putney on Saturday morning.

I've just had a look at the entry for Raven On The Wing in Denis Gifford's Encyclopedia Of Comic Characters and I've noticed a couple of things of interest. Firstly, the new manager of Highboro United is called Baldy Hagan, clearly a ripoff from Baldy Hogan, the manager of Burhill United in Adventure from 1946 to 1952. Baldy discovered Raven when he was sent by the club chairman to sort out a gypsy tribe camped out on the club's training ground. Pickford was a gypsy and lived in a caravan, as had his earlier incarnations right back to the late 1800s, or as far back as the serial needed to take these incarnations, and on one occasion he brought his horse and caravan and parked up in his Redstoke club's stadium. Raven is saved by Baldy from his bullying Uncle Joe. Joe is the name of Pickford's horse, and also the one owned by all his previous incarnations. In the last sentence, Gifford describes Raven as a Lengro lad. In the final serial about The Goalmaker, which was a picture strip in Scoop, the football ace was called Pengro. There are enough coincidences here, Raven, to interest me enormously. I just might find lots more.

You've pointed out a few things I didn't know there, Phoenix (though Scoop was a few years post-Raven).

Raven on the Wing started in Valiant in the 2nd March 1968 issue and is very entertaining, with highly distinctive Solano Lopez art and strong storytelling from Tom Tully, from the start - and those very early instalments have a special charm. Raven is indeed spotted on that training ground by Hagan. He's a gipsy lad with uncanny footballing skills, who always plays in bare feet - but is beset with superstitions which his rivals and enemies use against him. The strip took some bizarre turns over the years - sometimes into horror, sometimes humour - and finished on 18th May 1974, returning for a less impressive six instalments from 14th December 1974 to 18th January 1975.

If you're buying your first Valiants, I'd recommend getting a few consecutive issues between 23rd May 1970 to 25th September 1971 when a fantastic strip The Ghostly Guardian, beautifully drawn from the start by Julio Schiaffino, is also running. (This involves an orphan boy who runs away to Masthead Manor, a creepy old house in the form of a pirate ship, where he teams up with the insane ghost of an old pirate.) If you get one of the Valiant and Smash issues from 1971, several other classic strips are running, too, including the Gothic Janus Stark, plus double page The Swots and the Blots spreads by Leo Baxendale.

Raven wrote:Raven on the Wing started in Valiant in the 2nd March 1968 issue..... and finished on 18th May 1974

Was this continuous from beginning to end, Raven, like Roy Of The Rovers, a new story beginning the week after the previous story finished, or were there gaps between the stories? If it's the former I know exactly what issues to buy. However, I really prefer to read complete stories, so I still need you to tell me where the stories started and ended, gaps or no gaps, unless it is just one long story, which it doesn't sound as if it is from your earlier comments. The other issues you raise, those of artwork and other recommendable stories, are not at the moment as important to me as Raven On The Wing. It does, of course, go without saying that I will read all the other serials in every issue I buy, and consequently I might eventually end up buying issues for those stories as well - unless Raven On The Wing is continuous for the six years, in which case I will end up with them whether I want them or not.

Phoenix wrote:

Raven wrote:Raven on the Wing started in Valiant in the 2nd March 1968 issue..... and finished on 18th May 1974

Was this continuous from beginning to end, Raven, like Roy Of The Rovers, a new story beginning the week after the previous story finished, or were there gaps between the stories? If it's the former I know exactly what issues to buy.

Yes, it ran continuously from March 1968 to May 1974 with a new story beginning the week after the previous one finished.

Phoenix wrote:so I still need you to tell me where the stories started and ended, gaps or no gaps

I won't be able to go through Raven's six year run listing story starts and ends; I couldn't, actually, as my collection's far from complete, with many instalments already well into their storylines.

Storylines and themes could develop and continue over quite a long period. It's enjoyable wherever you dip in.

Raven wrote:I won't be able to go through Raven's six year run listing story starts and ends; I couldn't, actually, as my collection's far from complete, with many instalments already well into their storylines.

OK, Raven. Thank you for the information you have given me, which is certainly enough to get me started. I'll begin as close to the beginning as I can get, and continue from there. I'll report back as and when.