Eureka, the young world weekly (1998)

Eureka was an effort by ex-Eagle editor Derek Lord to launch a comic for young people in a similar vein to Eagle all those years before. There may have been more than one dummy produced (it was a project that had a long gestation period) but this is a copy of the dummy I have, A4 sized, full colour, 16 pages

page 2 has a tiny signature - WMS - which is for Bill Storie.

Here Derek Lord sets out his vision for Eureka

Show horse rustlers, by, it looks like the signature says, Nigel Park______ but the speech bubble (in frame 4) obliterates most of the surname. Very frustrating. The signature MUST be that of Nigel Parkinson but it's very unlike his usual cartoon-y style. This is the best art in the whole thing and is very much in the style of someone like Harry Lindfield or Mike Noble. 

Here's a close-up on that signature

John Ryan supplied this Captain Pugwash drawing

William Rudling drew Chloe

William Rudling also wrote & drew The Adventurers

I've since found this link to ace cartoonist Nigel Parkinson's blog for a strip that was intended for Eureka (but wasn't included in the dummy, above)

instead the dummy had this (below) version of Hadrian's Heroes in it instead...art by GM (this was Gordon Matthews) 

I prefer Nigel Parkinson's version!

Jeremy Briggs covered Eureka for Down the Tubes here and here - both the articles are well worth a read as they give a more detailed look at Eureka.

original Eagle autographs

There's a (pricey!) but interesting item currently for sale on ebay (here) of a selection of autographs of original Eagle contributors...

I suspect that the Hampson autograph is quite early in his career as it doesn't look like his 'normal' autograph from when he was signing items in the late '70s and early '80s - the Dragon's Dream reprints or items from Eaglecon 80. The 'F' and the 'H' are curlier than normal, compare to the signature on this item for instance...

Talking of autographs - here are some signatures that one dedicated fan collected at Eaglecon 80 from...Macdonald hastings, Marcus Morris, Frank Hampson, (art editor) Arthur Roberts, Keith Watson, Charles Chilton, Frank Humphris, Derek Lord, Chad Varah and Richard Jennings

I've tipped the above signatures in my 'signed by lots of original Eagle people' book - here we can see Roy Cross, Derek Lord, Chad Varah, John Batchelor, Greta Tomlinson, John Ryan, Ray Bailey, Gerald Palmer, John M Burns and Paul Trevillion. 

On this page Charles Chilton, Jack Daniel, Peter Jackson, Martin Aitchison and Marcus Morris's 3 daughters (Ruth Williams, Sally Morris and Jan Hallwood)

Here...Joan Porter (Frank Hampson assistant), Don Harley, Ian Kennedy, Peter Hampson and Margaret Walker (Frank Hampson's sister)