GARTH...

Copyright relevant owner

For a number of years now, I've owned The DAILY MIRROR BOOK Of GARTH for 1975 (issued at the end of '74), but I've only very recently gotten around to reading it.  I enjoyed it so much, I bought the follow-up for 1976 from eBay, which arrived yesterday (Saturday).  The second book is smaller, height-wise, and only accommodates two strips per page (reprints of the newspaper strip from The Daily Mirror), whereas the first book has four strips per page.  Both have 128 pages and cost 60p, so the second gives you only half your money's worth than the first.  (Swizz.) 

I saw the first book in a local (long-gone) shop by the name of W. & R. HOLMES back in either '74 or '75.  It could've been both years, because they sometimes sold old stock from the year before that hadn't shifted.  I recall seeing the 1972 TV21 Annual (issued in '71) on a table of books in '72 or/and '73, though I didn't purchase it at the time.  (It was around 11 or 12 years later that I picked one up from another source.)

So I associate those two publications with Holmes (as we called it), along with the SUPERMAN and BATMAN volumes From The '30s To The '70s, and the MARVEL Annual for 1973 (and other books).  I'm sure I also saw the 1973 TV21 Annual there, but again, didn't buy it at the time.  It was because I remembered seeing the Garth book in the shop that I eventually bought it decades later, mainly because it reminded me of one of my very favourite shops from my childhood and teenage years.

But that's enough about me (you'll be glad to know) - let's talk about Garth.  He was co-created by STEVE DOWLING and GORDON BOSHELL and first appeared in The Daily Mirror on July 24th 1943 and ran until March 22nd 1997, making it the longest-running UK action-adventure strip in newspaper history.  After 59 adventures, JOHN ALLARD, who had worked on the strip from the beginning, took over the art chores from Dowling until 1971, whereupon the esteemed FRANK BELLAMY became the artist, with Dowling writing the scripts, followed later by other writers.  Almost every basic Garth plot had been established by DON FREEMAN.

However, let's not get bogged down in detail.  For those who want to read more, jump over to this link and soak up the strip's history to your heart's content.  In the meantime, enjoy looking at the very first Garth strip and the covers to the two Daily Mirror books.

Are you a fan of Garth?  Tell your fellow Crivvies what the character means to you in our ever-lovin' comments section.