Of heroes and villians and Captain Pugwash

I still read the comics of my youth.

 I guess it’s partly because they take you back to a safe comfortable past which was pretty much my experience of growing up in the 1950s.

But it is also that the best of these comics had good stories and above all wonderful art work which has stood the test of over sixty years.

And for me the comic that stands out above all the others is the Eagle and a little later its companion comics Girl, Swift and Robin.

At this point I do have to confess that as much as I thrilled to the stories of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, I was always drawn to the villains he encountered.

These he would always eventually defeat but do so playing a straight bat, never resorting to their low methods.  For to do so just made you like them.

They were a rare and exciting bunch, but for me it was always the Mekon and the Treens who caught my imagination.  They inhabited the northern hemisphere of Venus and under their cruel leader the Mekon had developed into a cold unemotional bunch which elevated science and logic to a supreme level, and were hell bent on dominating the Universe.

All of which is by way of a link to another blog, and another child hood figure. http://loiselden.com/2012/10/07/my-hero/

Tom the Cabin Boy was the long suffering and very wise hero in  Captain Pugwash which was one of the early animations shows on TV. 

Looking at the series again and reading Lois’s post is to be reminded of the gentle humour and delightful stories that made them so popular back then.

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Eagle

Picture; from Marooned on Mercury, Eagle Vol3 No 13, July 4^th 1952 from the collection of Andrew Simpson