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| Images copyright REBELLION |
Here's a treat for you all - the full-colour ROBOT ARCHIE strip from the LION Annual for 1968. As you're no doubt aware, when Archie first appeared in Lion way back in the '50s, the strip was called The JUNGLE ROBOT. His colour has differed down through the years, sometimes being red, sometimes grey - and perhaps even various other hues of the spectrum as well.
I'll be featuring other strips from this book in future posts, so don't forget to check back from time to time.
6 comments:
Hi Kid, I caught you message, unfortunately, I've not too much time at the moment to accommodate the requested revisions. However since it's Bank Holiday, I might be able to tinker with it this afternoon, other than that it's probably a case waiting till next weekend.
Don't worry about it, DSE. I just thought that, as you seem to enjoy doing this sort of thing, if you had the time you might be up for it. No sweat.
Thanks, Kid. I briefly scanned the Robot Archie pages with my eyes and my first thought was this looked very very dated! I remember you posted a Superman cover and pages from 1967 and they appeared so much older than contemporary Spider-Man comics. This Robot Archie story was probably drawn in the latter part of '66 and looks so much more antiquated than the Superman of the period. The style is very much typical of British adventure strips from the mid 50's. But, despite that, I was drawn in and I followed the story, yes it was a little predictable, but nevertheless it was entertaining. I have to admit I have not cast more than a glance at the other British scans you have featured recently; Fireball XL5, Frankie Stein and certainly Johnny Future!!! Maybe those would be considered to be the upper echelons of British 1960s comic art, but for me I need a hook to pay attention, not just a reputation. Maybe if you were a exposed to those artists as a kid you would form a connection to them and want to read more of their stories or collect them. I wonder if I would have read the story if it was drawn by Mike Noble or another slick British artist. You did not need to read the words to follow the story, it worked visually.
RA looked great on the cover, I suppose the grey colour is more menacing. I would certainly enjoy seeing more of this annual, especially the Spider.
Texas Jack is a character I have never heard of. I don't care much for westerns, but again I know this genre was popular in the 50's and 60's.
The Archie strip could possibly be a reprint from an earlier annual. Anyone know?
Re Archie's colour: I knew there were a bunch of colour Dutch collections of Archie's adventures, so i did a swift net search to see what colour they used. Judging by the images I found (see http://www.google.com/search?q=archie+de+man+van+staal&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=wHcbUtWcIpGg7AbH74H4AQ&ved=0CEAQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=698) they couldn't seem to decide between grey and yellow.
While there, I also came across this link http://www.moorereppion.com/tag/archie-de-man-van-staal/ to a proposed new Robot Archie site.
Anonymous: The Texas Jack stories in Lion were, if I remember rightly, renamed reprints from Sun, Knockabout or Comet, I think of Buffalo Bill stories.
And finally, Kid, the art on the colour Archie story doesn't look like a reprint to me; mind, it's by regular Archie artist Ted Kearon, who had rather a stolid style.
David Simpson
It's hard to tell with reprints from earlier annuals, because they fit right in, whereas with resized weekly strips, the 'drawing-up' is usually obvious. However, it may well be an original. I'll take a look at those links - thanks for providing them.
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