The CLOAK - The FIRST And The LAST...

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The CLOAK first appeared in POW! #18 on May 13th (cover-dated 20th) 1967, drawn by Birmingham-based artist MIKE HIGGS.  It had a different look to other strips in the comic and, given its spy/mystery/horror-themed stories (albeit in a comedy vein), proved popular enough to last nearly two years.  It started in Pow!, continued in POW! & WHAM!, then SMASH! & POW!, and finally ended in SMASH! (Incorporating FANTASTIC) #162, March 1st (dated 8th) 1969.  I remember the strip mainly because I fancied LADY SHADY, the Cloak's EMMA PEEL-style sometimes sidekick.  (Wotta bod!  Makes me want to marry a drawing.)

Anyway, for all you Cloak fans out there, here's his first and last appearances from the swingin' '60s.  He's turned up at least a couple of times in recent years - first in the back of a self-published comic by a former assistant of Mike Higg's, and then in the pages of CRIKEY!, a (now defunct) mag devoted to British comics and their creators.

Here, though, is how it all started - and finished - so very long ago.

Above - The Cloak's debut issue - unheralded on the cover

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The cover to his final appearance in Smash!  I've included the second page
of The Swots & The Blots strip so that you don't feel short-changed