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| Copyright REBELLION |
You're looking at an interesting 'one-off' published at the end of 1972 - JET ANNUAL 1973. What makes it interesting is that the comic which spawned it had ceased publication over a year before, making the release of an annual somewhat surprising. It must have been prepared well in advance of when most annuals are put into production, which is usually several months before appearing in newsagents and bookshops.
JET comic (below), released on April 24th 1971 (dated May 1st), was a replacement for the failed THUNDER which had preceded it. Thunder lasted for only 22 issues, but Jet fared just as badly, likewise lasting for 22 issues before being consumed by BUSTER.
The comic contained a mixture of action-adventure and light comedy strips, such as VON HOFFMAN'S INVASION, The SLUDGEMOUTH SLOGGERS, PATRIDGE'S PATCH, SERGEANTS FOUR, The DWARF (which made its debut in ish #2), PADDY McGINTY'S GOAT, CRAZY CAR CAPERS, ADARE'S ANGLICANS, KESTER KIDD, BALA The BRITON, and CARNO'S CADETS. The traditional offering of mad scientists, football, police, war, crime, friendly aliens, car races, sporting marvels, and ancient warriors that U.K. kids comics were so fond of. Outright humour was taken care of by the likes of The KIDS Of STALAG 41, FACEACHE, and BERTIE BUMPKIN.
Although Jet must be considered a failure, one of its characters enjoyed a successful quarter-century run in the comic it moved to when Jet bit the dust. Face-ache, drawn by KEN REID (with occasional fill-in strips by other artists), appeared in Buster right up until the artist's death. In fact, an unfinished Faceache strip was on Reid's drawing board when he died, and I still recall reading the letter from his family to editor ALLEN CUMMINGS, explaining that they'd like to keep it as a memento of Ken. As far as I'm aware, no one outside of Reid's friends and family have ever seen it.* Just think - an unseen Ken Reid strip - what an amazing collectors' item that would make, don't you think?
Jet may have lasted for only 22 issues and one annual, but - with Faceache - it still managed to make its mark on the U.K. comics scene far beyond its published lifespan.
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*Update: I've now seen the page, which consists of only one pencilled panel. I've got a copy of it, and may show it one day if you all behave yourself. (And once the person who gave me it has used it for a project he's working on.)
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6 comments:
Lovely anecdote.
Faceache was always a favourite of mine.
I take it the same artist drew Jonah?
Not just Jonah, but also Rodger the Dodger, Frankie Stein and loads of other strips.
I have to admit that I never was a big fan of Jet, I think a lot of it was due to the strip "Adares Anglicans", I'm afraid the "wee Scot" in me was a bit miffed with the concept of that strip
(despite at the time me supporting England in the 70s WC) - I did like Von Hoffman strip and Faceache of course from the great Ken Read - still have a soft spot for Thunder - McScotty
Funnily enough, I'd just been looking at Thunder #1 seconds before receiving your comment - how strange is that? Jet appeared to be a bit of a rush job, created to fill Thunder's place in the schedules. No doubt it's more complicated than that, but that's what it seemed like. Patridge's Patch was a nice little strip. Hard to believe it was over 40 years ago now, eh?
Annuals continued long after their "parent" died, presumably for trademark retaining reasons. Thunder Annuals dutifully appeared until 1974, for example, and there were still Lion Annuals into the 1980s -- some 10 years after the comic slipped off its mortal coil.
It's been alleged that Thunder was created solely to fold into Lion -- which was why almost all of its features carried on in the combined comic. I wonder if Jet was always destined for a similar fate albeit with Buster?
True, but most of those other comics' first annuals were issued when the comics were still running. One assumes that the annuals continued after the comics were merged because the previous ones had been good sellers and there was a demand for them.
In Thunder's case, the first annual would have been prepared before the comic was merged with Lion - presumably it sold well. (As an example of when annuals are prepared, I remember working on the 2000 A.D. and Judge Dredd Annuals for 1986 in January or February of '85.)
However, in Jet's case, it had merged with Buster in September of 1971 (cover dated October 2nd) so the comic had ceased publication a good few months before (under normal circumstances) work would have begun on the annual. This suggests the possibility that work on the annual had begun earlier than usual, or perhaps that Fleetway had to meet a quota. (Perhaps the contents had originally been intended for a Holiday Special.)
If it wasn't actually prepared until several months after the comic's demise, then that seems somewhat 'curious' to me.
Thanks for your interesting and thought-provoking comments.
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