Nick Jolly,the Flying Highwayman

This brilliant comic strip character Nick Jolly-the Flying Highwayman was a firm favorite of mine from the 70s.He first featured in the Hotspur way back in 1973 but I would have encountered him a little later on around 1977 from the Annuals.The image above is taken from Hotspur Annual 1977.He was drawn by Ron Smith who of course also drew King Cobra for Hotspur.

Series 1 Hotspur Nos 714(23/6/73)-728(29/9/73)
In this first series of 'Nick Jolly-the Flying Highwayman', to give the strip its full title, the eponymous hero is an 18th century Robin Hood figure who steals from the rich to give to the needy while being stalked by the corrupt constables and Bow Street Runners of the period. And it is during one of his encounters with the authorities, when his death seems to be the certain outcome that fate intervenes in the shape of a time-travelling spacecraft piloted by a race called the Oregans who to save Nick's skin transport him through time to the year 1973.
Once in 1973 Nick finds that not only have his sword and pistol been transformed into weapons of astonishing power but that his trusty steed Bess has been transformed into a jet-propelled mechanical horse with the ability to fly all because the Oregans have decided to strand him in the future, temporarily, as a kind of sociological experiment and as can be imagined Nick rises to the ocassion by becoming a modern day fighter for justice on the side of the honest and the down-trodden.
At the end of the story the Oregans return Nick to the 18th century with the idea of maybe repeating the experiment again one day, which they do in two further series.
The art for the first series was provided by Ron Smith Nos714-724,726,728
and Jim Watson Nos725,727.
Second Series Nos 781(5/10/74)-792(21/12/74)
In this series Nicks main adversary is a master criminal named Scarza who is descendant of Scarza the Alchemist a foe of Nick's from his own time.
All art for this series by Ron Smith.
Third Series Nos 802(1/3/75)-819(28/6/75)
In this final series Nicks main adversary is the Black Magician, Simon Death.
The art for this series was provided by Ron Smith Nos 802-814, 819
and Dave Gibbons Nos 815-818.
All three Nick Jolly series were front page strips.
Nick Jolly also featured in four editions of the Hotspur Book
1975 7pgs Ron Smith
1976 7pgs Ron Smith and book cover also drawn by Ron Smith.
1977 8pgs Ron Smith
1986 9pgs Felix Carrion and book cover drawn by Ian Kennedy.

Journey To The Stars

Journey To The Stars was a firm favorite of mine when it appeared in the first Issue of Speed back in 1980 and the only reason I bought it!The full color artwork and cliffhangers had me enthralled!It was like an old time matinée.

The strip opened with Sam Redford,his son Andy,Daughter Gina and dog Digger in his observatory where for a few nights he had been sighting some unusual occurrences in the atmosphere.Little did they expect but they were about to get a very unexpected visit by Aliens!

Blasted by a stun ray,they awaken aboard the spacecraft where the Aliens inform them that they are an expedition team studying Earth for a possible invasion.Oh yeah,they also intend to "study" the Redfords!However,Andy's two pet mice,Laurel and Hardy(not kidding!)whom he has concealed up his sleeves frighten the Aliens onto a teleportation device when he accidentally presses an activation button,getting rid of their abductors.One problem,the spacecraft is traveling at the speed of light and no one knows how to pilot it :-)

However,Gina comes across a Robot who has been hiding on board.He apparently was the ship's slave.Andy nicknames him "Spidey",much to the annoyance of the egotistic android!He proves a boon to the Redfords on their journey as he can pilot the ship and talk to the computers.

There are a lot of funny scenes between Spidey and the family whom he refers to as Redford 1,2 and 3(figure it out!).The father repeatedly shows his ignorance of future technology by his inability to handle most machines,which usually finds them in some precarious situations...to be rescued by Spidey each time,of course!

After a few visits to various Planets,the Redfords decide they would much rather go home and cajole Spidey into figuring out how they can chart a course.Spidey's ego and nonchalance in the face of impossible odds is infectious.

A typical cliffhanger ends with the Redford's ship,which they have named "The Flying Frog",coming under attack from a strange missile.

As with all cliffhangers,there is a twist just at the end,with Gina discovering a hidden chamber.Just what was in that chamber?Did the missile blow up the ship?What time is supper?

Sadly I had given up buying Speed into its 12th Issue and so never found out what had happened to our intrepid explorers!The art looked like the work of Ron Turner.Any other info or indeed scans of the last strip would be welcomed.I know Speed eventually joined up with Tiger,but whether or not the strip followed suit or was resolved beforehand is unknown to me.What I do know is that I thoroughly enjoyed it and with hindsight wished I had followed it through to its conclusion.

Danny Doom

Danny Doom was the assistant to a 13th Century Sorcerer who during th course of a weird experiment got hauled through time to the present day along with the sinister crypt which contained all of his Masters spells.He would have to meet certain conditions to enable him to return,which were to help people in need!He was not alone though.Along for the ride were his giant white rat Madgewick,a sort of familiar and the Hand of Orloff,a completely disembodied hand,which he usually kept in a glass cage and acted as his bodyguard in times of trouble.For additional help he also possessed the Star of Astorath.So he had a pretty impressive arsenal to aid him in his fight against crime!

I loved the artwork in this series and one could almost smell the mustiness of the ancient corridors emanating from the very pages.Here we see a typical bedding down for the night scene.

Madgewick watches over his young Master while he sleeps and raises the alarm if danger ensues.

And then the Hand of Orloff responds in a terrifying fashion,smashing through anything that stood in his way to reach his Master and assure his safety!

No wonder I loved this strip as a kid!Again,not sure when it started or ended,just that i enjoyed dipping in and out of it when I got my hands on copies of Valiant.Would make a great bound collection!Any info or additional scans are welcome.

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Update 14th June 2008

Thanks to Paul who graciously sent me the first and last strips of this august strip!

First Appearance

Last Appearance

Kid Pharaoh

Kid Pharaoh was another comic strip character from Valiant that I loved.It wasn't so much his athletic abilities but rather his origin and his strange curse that intrigued me as a youngster reading his tales years later in old copies of Valiant.


Kid Pharaoh was actually an Ancient Egyptian King called Zethi,who had been placed in a deep coma after being cursed by a High Priest named Thotek to "sleep while darkness reigns".In 1972,Frank Jennings,an archaeologist,uncovered his tomb in Egypt and transported him back to England.On board the passenger ship was a rich businessman-Baron Munsen and his burly butler Kramp.Zethi considered him to be the reincarnation of Thotek and would battle with him for many years to try and make him lift the curse.


The story revolved around Zethi's oath to fight crime in England and to help him make a living,Frank set about promoting him as "Kid Pharaoh"where he would take on huge opponents.Baron Munsen meanwhile had fallen on hard times and resorted to all sorts of evil schemes to relieve various organizations of their money!He and Kid Pharaoh would meet many times where his evil ways were always thwarted,much to the Baron's chagrin.


Of course,part of the appeal of the strip was Zethi's unease with some of Modern Day England's machines!Not to mention the plot device of his falling instantly asleep whenever anybody turned the lights out!


Of course,in between fighting crime,there was always time for a friendly "grapple".This scene is from Valiant 12th October 1974(as are all proceeding images)and picks up where Zethi has befriended another injured grappler-Jerry.On a train,they meet some Scottish Soldiers guarding a cash consignment,one of whom is a champion wrestler.


Little do they know,but Baron Munsen intends on robbing the train with the help of a helicopter!Not sure how long this strip ran for or if Kid Pharaoh's curse was ever resolved!

Kelly's Eye

I loved the adventures of Tim Kelly.Possessor of the Eye of Zoltec,his best adventures occurred when he teamed up with Dr. Diamond and time traveled through history in a giant clock!My memories of this are vague and rely mostly on reading copies of Annuals later in the 70s.Below are some scenes from Valiant 1974.




It was fairly obvious that the Doctor was in no hurry to get back to their own time and that Kelly was along for the ride,whether he liked it or not!


Below are some scenes from a 1972 issue of Valiant,where they travel to the time of Robin Hood and Kelly inadvertently tackles Little John!



I am not too well informed of this particular story arc only having dim memories from childhood but I did enjoy those that I read.Kelly's Eye started in Knockout comic in 1962 and featured in a couple of Valiant Space Specials and Annuals,but it is his strips with Dr. Diamond and the time clock that interest me.Can anybody enlighten me or share some scans?Artwork looks like Solano Lopez.Have no idea who scripted the stories.

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Update 11 June 2008

Here is a cover of Knockout from 1962 featuring Tim Kelly scaling the Idol in South America to extract the "Right" Eye of Zoltec.Some nasty Villain had already scarpered with the other one!


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Update 14th June 2008

Some additional info on the history of the story arc from Kashgar over at ComicsUK.My sincerest thanks to the comics guru!

Kelly's Eye - Doc Diamond's Time Clock. Valiant (24/6/67-18/5/74)
The longest of all Fleetway's time-travel sagas ( maybe too long). Tim Kelly, the owner of the life-preserving Eye of Zoltec, had first met the mad inventor Doc Diamond in Oct 1966 and after an encounter with his own savage alter-ego, conjured up by the Doc, Kelly is then lured into the the Doc's Tardis-like time travelling device for seven years of ages-hopping in the gargoyle-like inventor's compeny.
Most art for the series was by Solano Lopez and his studio but the first episode was the work of John Catchpole.

Planet of the Damned!

From the pages of Starlord back in 1978 came another great sci-fi/time travel saga-Planet of the Damned!The story was based on events surrounding the disappearances of airplanes over the Bermuda Triangle.In this telling,people didn't disappear-they were sucked through a vortex and stranded on an alien planet.Two of the passengers are Lew Kerr,business tycoon and Stan Hackmann,well known science fiction writer.The two would become adversaries not long after.

After the plane has crashed on the alien world,the group begin exploring their weird surroundings.One of the first inhabitants they meet are the "Ab-Humans"-diabolical creatures who just happen to spit acid!


The group finally meet Bo'sun Flint,who has been here some time and become like a savage to survive.He agrees to be their leader and lead them to "Sanctuary"but warns them it may be too kind!Once there people get lazy and don't want to return home.Along the way,many of the band are killed,a lot of them women!Three "memorable" scenes include a woman eating some delicious fruit only to drown to death in it's juices;another whose face gets eaten off and finally a poor unfortunate who slides down a subterranean steam into a lake of acid!There's a lot of acid here,the Ab-Humans spit it,the lakes are full of it and it even rains acid!

Flint eventually leads them to Sanctuary after many amazing adventures including Hell's Angels fighting Germans in a mountain top stranded U-Boat!Once there the group are treated to pure luxury and soon forget about Earth.

However,Stan Hackmann learns of a Professor's plans to build a time-machine that can turn the Vortex back on itself and return everybody home.In a final showdown between the Abs and the Humans,the time machine feeds on the energy of the Abs(now lead by the previously thought dead Lew Kerr!)and opens a vortex and everybody is returned back to Earth.This brilliant series only lasted for 10 Issues.The last episode looked hurried and contrived as if it were being cleared for something else.Definitely a series that should have lasted far longer than it did and one of the best from the Starlord stable.

The Sentinels

Back in 1978,a new girl's comic Misty arrived.This was a horror and supernatural anthology published weekly by I.P.C.(Fleetway).The flagship strip that scared the life out of me was "The Sentinels".The story was centered around Jan Richards and her family who had just been evicted from their home.As it happened in the town was a block of tower flats,one perfectly normal,the other deserted,people too frightened to live there because of strange apparitions and goings on..these were known as The Sentinels.The family having no where else to go decided to squat in the empty block.

Jan,being an inquisitive young girl decided to do some exploring in the derelict tower.Unfortunately for her she entered a gateway into an alternative Britain where everybody here had an exact double-one where the Nazis had won the war and Britain was now a Colony!


Unwittingly Jan's double was also crossing the gateway,causing much confusion for the family and Jan!One night when Jan had gone "missing",her Father had gone looking for her and unfortunately had crossed over only to be captured by the Nazis who thought him be his double-a known terrorist.Jan together with the help of Partisans hatched a plot to break him free and return him and Jan back to their own world.Once there,the Partisans would blow up the tower block in their own world closing off the gateway forever and carry on the war to free Britain.

This was a very clever piece of comic writing exploring the anomalies that can occur when two parralel worlds collide.The series only ran for 12 Issues from Misty No.1 4th February to Misty No.12 22nd April.However it will stay in my mind forever!

Timequake!

In 1978 a brilliant new sci-fi comic emerged-StarLord!Printed on glossy paper with a lot more color than most comics and populated by awesome stories-such as Timequake.This was based around Jim Blocker,who gets caught up with Time Control who police the timelines averting anomalies and keeping Earth history on course.

The comic series which ran for the full 22 Issue run basically only had 3 story arcs.The first concerned the Droon-8ft Giant toads in armour who in the future decided the only way to conquer mankind who had by that time colonized the Stars was to travel back in time and kill them there!Of course Blocker and Time Control saved the day

The next story arc blew my mind!In this tale,the Nazis had won the war(through dubious time travel means of course)and Jim found himself pursuing Martin Boorman through vaious time jumps,while all along the way being treated to the glory(sic)of a Nazi world in the future.

The last story arc in Starlord before it teamed up with 2000ad was The Aztecs.In this time travel version they were the ones who had mastered technology and traveled the stars!Watch out Conquistadors!All in all a brilliant series and one of my fondest memories from childhood!

Hemlock's Legacy....what?

In October 1970 a new British comic published by Fleetway/I.P.C. called Thunder arrived on the newsstands.Inside was a remarkable strip featuring an even more remarkable story-Adam Eterno!Thus began one of the strangest and most heart wrenching tales ever told!
In 1580,the Sorcerer Erasmus Hemlock cursed Adam Eterno for drinking the Elixir of Life(which gave him eternal youth)with the "gift" of everlasting life.Only a mortal blow by an object made of solid gold could return him to his normal self!In time Adam would be blown into oblivion where he would emerge time and again in another era,there to right some wrong before being returned to a dreamlike state in limbo.Such was Hemlock's Legacy!



Adam Eterno Forever tribute site
Adam Eterno forum