Alan Stranks - John Bull magazine, 1952

Care of friend of the blog Norman Boyd here's a couple of pages from John Bull magazine (dated 17 May 1952) all about scriptwriter Alan Stranks. Stranks worked as a scriptwriter for PC49 and Dan Dare in Eagle. His daughter was TV presenter Susan Stranks. 

Eagle annual #5 - pay copy

A real one off here. Yes it's a 'pay copy' of Eagle annual #5. That is, it's a copy of the annual marked up with who was paid (and how much they were paid) for each page of the annual. I've seen copies of comics that were 'pay copies' but this was the first time I'd seen an annual.

Anyway, for posterity, here are some images from the annual. Sometimes the writer/artist is credited and sometimes it's their agent.

All images are c/o Gray Newell [with thanks to Norman Boyd for reminding me]. 

John Ryan's Harris Tweed in sporting action here 

The Imperial War Museum, R. Taylor and Frank Bellamy all contributed here

Art by Desmond Walduck; script by Alan Stranks

Art by Harry Bishop; script by Charles Chilton

More John Ryan (script & artwork)

David Langdon art (and script presumably)

Art by John Worsley; script by Alan Stranks (again)

Dan Dare transfers (2)

I'm always happy to feature unusual bits of Eagle merchandise on the blog. 

There were...

Dan Dare roller skates here

Dan Dare hairbrush here

Dan Dare tie clip here

Eagle stationery here

Eagle club notebook here

With the compliments of the Eagle club here

Eagle / Girl table tennis medals here

Eagle club cycle pennant here

Dan Dare gyro jeep here

Dan Dare space shooting here

Dan Dare rocket ball here

Dan Dare beach ball here

Dan Dare bagatelle here

Eagle report to members (1951) here

Dan Dare field glasses here

Dan Dare interplanetary dominoes here

Dan Dare space-ship construction game here

Dan Dare draughts here

Dan Dare transfers (1) here

and now, thanks to this website we have some more transfer from Tuck's. This is early Eagle merchandise. Great to see appearances from Chicko and Harris Tweed on this merch.

Brian Reece, PC49

Here's an unusual Eagle related item...yes, it's Brian Reece (as PC49) fishing Arthur Askey out of a pond. 

The Stage golfing society still exists today and you can see further example of past programmes here

All other mentions of PC49 on the blog can be found here

UPDATED: Eagle club notebook - happy birthday Eagle

In honour of it being the 74th birthday of Eagle today I thought I'd share these images of an Eagle club notebook that was up for sale on ebay recently. 

I like these images, not just for the notebook (which I'd never seen before) but because the original owner has filled the notebook with transfers.I think the transfers were produced by Tuck's and I'm not sure I've seen an unused set of them. 

Anyway, this notebook gives you a good idea of what the transfers were like. You can see Dan Dare characters, Riders of the Range characters, PC49 (possibly for copyright infringement reasons just referred to as 'the man in blue'), Harris Tweed & Chicko. I don't think I've ever seen any Chicko (who was crated by Norman Thelwell) merchandise before.

UPDATE: the letter below (swiped from ebay) now confirms that the notebook was a free gift for early joiners of the Eagle club (in 1950)

Eagle club notebook - happy birthday Eagle

In honour of it being the 73rd birthday of Eagle today i thought I'd share these images of an Eagle club notebook that was up for sale on ebay recently. 

I like these images, not just for the notebook (which I'd never seen before) but because the original owner has filled the notebook with transfers.I think the transfers were produced by Tuck's and I'm not sure I've seen an unused set of them. 

Anyway, this notebook gives you a good idea of what the transfers were like. You can see Dan Dare characters, Riders of the Range characters, PC49 (possibly for copyright infringement reasons just referred to as 'the man in blue'), Harris Tweed & Chicko. I don't think I've ever seen any Chicko (who was crated by Norman Thelwell) merchandise before.

John 'PC49' Worsley - maritime art for sale

I'm used to thinking of John Worsley as the artist on the PC49 strip in the original Eagle comic, of course as a professional illustrator he worked in a number of different fields - he worked as a courtroom artist and illustrated Wind in the Willows books - so that's not a bad range.

What we see less often is, as his Wikipedia entry (here) highlights, the work that led him to be president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. Luckily there's a stunning painting currently on sale on ebay here (auction ends Monday lunchtime) that shows this side of his work off perfectly...

Bidding starts at £2,000 for this painting of the Royal Yacht Britannia (and 2 initial water colour trials).

It's a world away from the grime and crime of PC49's London but it's a fantastic piece. Price is a bit high for me but if you've got the cash to splash then good luck to you.

Some of the PC49 annual that John Worsley provided illustrations for...

I met John Worsley at the Eagle Society annual 'do' in 1997 - here's his autograph...I must have some photos of that somewhere, will see if I can dig them out...