Sydney Jordan & Jeff Hawke at the Cartoon Museum, 21st Oct 2021

Last Thursday (21st October 2021) saw the Cartoon Museum play host to a one-off evening devotes to the art of Sydney Jordan - the artist behind the renowned newspaper strip Jeff Hawke.

You can read a full write up here

Here are my photos from the evening...

From an abandoned project in 1960

From an abandoned strip for a children's comic

early newspaper strip artwork

From an abandoned strip for a children's comic

From an abandoned strip for a children's comic

early work

early work

early work

early work

Steve Marchant (of the Cartoon Museum) and Sydney himself

Jeff Hawke's Cosmos - the Epilogue

I’ve been a reader of the magazine of the Jeff Hawke club, Jeff Hawke’s Cosmos, ever since its launch nearly 20 years ago (yikes!). With a title like “The epilogue” it is perhaps not a surprise that this new publication marks the end of the Jeff Hawke strip. It’s not the end of publications from the club (more on that in a bit) but there is no longer a ‘regular’ magazine being produced.

Back to The Epilogue though. At over 150 A4 pages it’s a bumper issue. As ever there are a number of complete stories – in this case A message for Medusa, Times Jest!, Out of the ecliptic and the few episodes of the final story, Song for Methuselah, that were published before the strip was ignominiously cancelled. Full colour covers are by editor William Rudling. There are a number of smaller articles that, and I mean this in a positive way, have the feeling of having been taken from the “...this must get published before we run out of issues to publish stuff in” folder. So we have Sydney Jordan with his fleeting memoir of Fleet Street; Sydney talking to Chris Tubb; the final count-up of the number of strips; guest appearances in the strip; a history of the club; a look at those that have contributed so much to the club and more besides. This is all in addition to the usual features The sky above you and the most detailed set of notes about a comic strip that you’ll ever read – the inimitable Hawke’s notes by Duncan Lunan. A really interesting selection of articles and some rare vintage photos too – all the sort of stuff I love! 

It seems unlikely that anyone will be coming to the strip ‘cold’ at this point and in some ways I’d advise you not to. As much as possible Cosmos has tried to publish the stories in chronological order so these strips here are in some ways NOT where I’d recommend starting. I’d really recommend going back to the beginning (via those two Titan books reprints perhaps) and ‘dipping your toes in the water’ there and if you like what you read then come back to Cosmos for more. Lots more. 

In fact you might want to come back for the next Cosmos publication – Devil’s advocate. This will feature all the strips which are introduced by the Devil along with an entire index of Jeff Hawke stories all cross-references to the Cosmos issues. Look out for this in 2021. The art style in these classic stories is much more detailed and much more my cup of tea than the stories in Epilogue (and other later issues of Cosmos) which definitely feature some gratuitous images of the lead female character and her skintight jumpsuit. Anyway, don’t let that put you off, Jeff Hawke is an intelligent SF story with incredible plots fitted, somehow, into three panels a day in a national newspaper. I doubt we will see the like again. It’s been a pleasure spending 20 years getting to know Jeff Hawke and William Rudling is to be congratulated on bringing the complete Jeff Hawke canon to us all – without him there would just be those 2 Titan Books reprints.

There are also (in colour) some prints, see below, that Sydney has drawn – again, contact the editorial office for more details.

You can contact the club via:

Editorial Office

The Jeff Hawke Club

6 The Close

Alwoodley

Leeds

LS17 7RD

United Kingdom

 

www.jeffhawkeclub.co.uk

William@williamrudling.co.uk

There is a one-off entry fee to join the club of £2.50

Back issues are available via the above addresses

There are also other volumes available - Lunar 10, Martian quartet and Jeff Hawke jnr

You can also purchase original Jeff Hawke direct from Sydney Jordan himself – again details are in the magazines.

Full disclosure – I received a free copy of ‘The Epilogue’ to review

 

Jeff Hawke's Cosmos - the penultimate issue!

The new issue of "Jeff Hawke's Cosmos" (volume 10, issue 3) has just been released. Editor William Rudling has revealed that this is the penultimate issue. There will be a final issue next issue (priced at £14, 120 pages). Even when the last issue is published the Club won't close it will continue to exist as a place for people to acquire back issues and (for 2018 at least) as a place for 3 exciting new projects that are planned.

Before the Cosmos ends there is the little matter of this penultimate issue to get cherish....

Highlights are as follows:
cover by Sydney Jordan
'and even death may die' strip (plus accompanying notes)
'virus' strip (plus accompanying notes)
plus the usual selection of 'news' from space, artwork for sale and a club dinner report.
92 pages, A4, mainly b+w illustrations but a few colour pages as well

We've been lucky to have Cosmos and I'll certainly miss it when it's gone.

More details about the club can be found here

Jeff hawke's Cosmos - latest issue now available!

Volume 10, issue 2 of Jeff Hawke's Cosmos is now out!

Two complete stories from the Lance McLane story era

• Pharoah's army got drownded
• Sails in the red sunset

(accompanied, as ever, by Duncan Lunan's meticulous notes about each story)

As well as the usual roundup of club news, original art for sale, an obituary for John Glenn and other items of space interest.

There are more details on the club website here including subscription rates. The current issue is A4 sized, nearly 90 pages long - and you get all this three times a year for £26 (UK subscribers).

Back issues are also available as well as a number of special edition books - plus new Sydney Jordan art for the cover.

Jeff Hawke Club - more details

Following o from yesterday's post, more details about membership of the Jeff Hawke Club can be found here


http://www.jeffhawkeclub.co.uk/jhcmember.html

Mission

The Jeff Hawke club was formed in 2001 with the aim of bringing the Jeff Hawke science-fiction stories to a wider public. The club is a unique and very successful publishing venture, re-printing for the first time ever the entire run of Jeff Hawke stories, probably the greatest sci-fi comic strip of the 20th century. Created and drawn by Sydney Jordan, Jeff Hawke ran consecutively as a syndicated strip in two British newspapers from 1954 until 1988 and was a sci-fi strip aimed at an adult audience. Its themes are subtle and thought provoking  - its artwork mature and realistic.  The entire corpus comprises 111 stories and until the JHC began its work only six of these were available in reprinted form in English.  To date, since its formation, the club, with the full co-operation and encouragement of Sydney Jordan, has re-published 93 of the stories in a series of large format books, which reproduce the strips (from originals in the newspaper archives) at their original size. Accompanying each story are extensive notes, both by Sydney, and by well known science author and collaborator Duncan Lunan . 
These books are published three times a year and are exclusively available to members of the Jeff Hawke club. The membership fee is paid annually and for this you will receive the next three books as they become available. Membership also allows you to purchase all the other books in the series and thus to obtain the entire collection of Jeff Hawke stories to date.  This is a unique opportunity to own and read this groundbreaking sci-fi series available nowhere else.

How to join the Jeff Hawke Club

Subscriptions are by the current volume and not by the date you join, it makes it easier for us to make sure you receive your copy of the club magazine on time.

Subscription details

UK subscription £28.50. ( £26 if you pay by cheque)
European Membership:  £34 GBP.
World-Wide membership by post:  £39 GBP, Paypal subscription:  £41 GBP, IBAN:  £38 GBP.


A typical cover...