Sunday, 20 March 2022

40 YEARS AGO - THE EAGLE FLIES AGAIN...


Copyright REBELLION

Difficult to believe that it was 40 years ago today when the new Eagle comic was launched, though March 20th was a Saturday back then.  I slightly damaged the cover when removing the Space Spinner, so I trotted out to the shops on the Sunday and purchased a second copy.  I bought it faithfully every week for quite a few years, but I was never much of a fan of the photo stories and was glad when the comic eventually ditched them for 'proper' comic strips.  How could I know that a mere three years or so later, I'd be lettering the Death Wish strip in Eagle and meeting editor Dave Hunt, who was an all round good guy?  Ah, happy days.

40 years though, eh?  Seems nowhere near as long as that.  Did any of you Crivvies buy the new Eagle back in the day, and if so, what did you think of it?  Incidentally, in the photo below, from left to right is Dave, Barrie Tomlinson, and Gil Page, looking at the artboards for the first issue's Dan Dare strip.

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6 comments:

  1. Rip Jagger20 March 2022 at 14:37

    Is this Dave Hunt the one who inked so many pages for DC back in the Bronze Age?

    Rip Off

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  2. Kid20 March 2022 at 17:15

    A different Dave Hunt, RJ. British as opposed to American.

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  3. McSCOTTY20 March 2022 at 21:28

    I didn't buy the new Eagle as I had stopped reading UK comics and most Marvel and DC at this time but I picked up the odd issue of the "Best of Eagle " monthly which reprinted a lot of strips from this comic and I have to say it was pretty good. I actually picked up 3 copies of the New Eagle weekly last month (£1 each) when on a wee visit to the seaside (Troon) and it looked like a really good comic with great art (Jose Ortiz etc) surprised it didn't last longer than it did.

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  4. Kid20 March 2022 at 22:01

    It lasted into 1994, McS, which was a good run for a 'modern' comic (nearly 12 years), though in its last few years it was a monthly that contained chiefly reprint material. I stopped getting it regularly after a number of years, but I still have all the original issues I bought at the time. Who knows - maybe it will be relaunched again at some point?

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  5. McSCOTTY20 March 2022 at 23:03

    Was it 12 years ?wow seemed like 3 years to me . As you say 12 years is pretty good.

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  6. Kid21 March 2022 at 00:37

    And scary, considering just how fast it seemed to go by, McS.

    ReplyDelete

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