Saturday 27 April 2013

PART TWO OF KALAK THE DWARF - A CURSITOR DOOM ADVENTURE...

Copyright relevant owner

And now it's time to once again wilfully wallow in pure nostalgia as we revisit one of the more fondly-remembered comic strips of yesteryear, in the days when the U.K. still had what could be realistically described as a thriving comics industry.  Apparently, SCOTT GOODALL authored most of the CURSITOR DOOM tales in SMASH!, though KEN MENNELL and CHRIS LOWDER also wrote some stories on occasion.  Unfortunately, I'm unable at this time to determine exactly who penned which adventures, but I think it's fairly safe to assume that Scott, who created the character, wrote this episode as it was only the second in the series and it's likely that he would have written the tale that kicked off the feature back in 1969.


As I mentioned in Part One, Cursitor appeared in a full-colour monthly magazine called SPELLBINDERS back around the mid-'80s, although he was renamed AMADEUS WOLF for this QUALITY COMICS outing.  However, he had previously popped up in the 1974 BUSTER BOOK Of SPOOKY STORIES under the equally eerie appellation SEPTIMUS DROOD, this time sporting a beard and moustache, while his loyal assistant - ANGUS McCRAGGAN - was renamed CURTIS BRONSON, having had his ginger locks 'dyed' black and having 'grown' a moustache.  (For the Spellbinders issues, Angus/Curtis had been rechristened JIMMY BRANNIGAN.)  In both publications, the stories were reprints from the weekly Smash!


ERIC BRADBURY was the regular artist, though GEOFF CAMPION illustrated several episodes as well, I believe.  (I'll know precisely which ones when I eventually get around to digging them out for scanning.)  In the meantime, enjoy the above strip - and be sure to join us in Part Three for another thrilling episode in the continuing case of KALAK The DWARF!

2 comments:

Goliath said...

Cursitor is a dead ringer for the actor Peter Vaughan in that first panel!

Kid said...

Except Peter had hair. I wouldn't say 'dead ringer', but I can see the similarities.



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