When the Ferry met Dan Dare and arrived on our door mat ...... a thank you to Tricia

Now I had no idea that the Woolwich Ferry would fall through our letter box today.

I say the Ferry but it was one of those cut away diagrams which featured in the Eagle Comic.

All of which made it a nice double whammy because as everyone knows I have a “thing” for the Ferry, but also because The Eagle was and still is my comic.

It was launched in 1950 and around 1959 I discovered it in the classroom of 3B in Edmund Waller School on one of those wet playtimes, and I was hooked and I spent a chunk of the ‘90s buying up copies, eventually splashing out on whole volumes.

But Vol 13 No. 32 which came out on August 11 1962 wasn’t one of them although it will have been one I read.

And now it has joined the collection which is all due to Tricia who knowing my fascination for the Ferry found it on eBay and the rest was a click of the mouse and a trip to the post office.

It arrived today and I am a very happy chap.

The cutaway diagram was one of the most popular features of the comic and week in week out we would be treated to the workings of the Routemaster Bus, the Spitfire, endless submarines, railway locomotives and even a series on atomic powered vehicles, including an aircraft and rocket.

It fitted the optimistic 1950s when all things seemed possible, including the fact that the top test pilot for Space Fleet would Dan Dare who had been born in Manchester and the head of the organization would not be an American or a Russian but Sir Hubert Guest.

That said Space Fleet was under the direction of the United Nations.

By the time the Woolwich Ferry appeared Dan Dare had been bundled away to the inside and LT. Hornblower, RN carried the front page while the cutaway now sat at the back.

None of this has diminished my pleasure at re-reading an old friend after fifty-six years.

And yes I have poured over the cutaway and even fancy I have located my favourite seat.

So here for all is the cutaway with special thanks to Tricia and links to stories about the Eagle Comic*, Comics of the 1950s**, and Eagle Times***, which is the journal of the Eagle Society

Location; Woolwich, 1962

Picture; The New Woolwich Ferry and the front cover of the Eagle, Vol 13 No.32 August 11 1962

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

**Comics of the 1950s, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Comics%20of%20the%201950s

*** Eagle Times, Annual subscription UK £29, overseas £40, and as a start you can visit the site https://eagle-times.blogspot.co.uk/

A happy Christmas from the 1950s

It's not often you get a Christmas card from the 1950s dropping through the letter box.

Anyone who regularly read the Eagle comic will recognise the rocket ship and the names Digby and the Meakon.*

At which point l shall not say any more about the two or the Christmas decorated ship hurtling through space.

Instead l will just confess that the card was no time travelling bit of Christmas cheer, instead it came from The Eagle Society that society of like minded happy bunch dedicated to keeping the memory of the Eagle alive.**

It was this years contribution.

And of course l have been one of those happy members for four decades and an "Eagler" since 1957.

Picture; Christmas card from the Eagle Society, from the front page of the Eagle comic, December 22, 1950, No. 37

*The Eagle, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Eagle

**The Eagle Society, https://eagle-times.blogspot.com/

Stories of Easter ………..

I have always been fascinated by how comics have told stories of events from the past.

And that in part is due to the fact that I grew up in the 1950s with the Eagle, and its companion comics, Girl, Swift and Robin.

Together they presented young people with highly professional comics, which were well drawn, didn’t talk down to their readers and supplied a mix of entertainment and knowledge.

So, whether it was Dan Dare or the Four Mary’s, the stories produced by some of the best artists and story tellers were of the highest quality.

And along with factual cut away diagrams, and the tales of adventures, there would be biographical accounts which portrayed  living people as well as those from the past.

Given that this was the 1950s, they tended to be white, European, and in the case of the Eagle very male.

From what I know of the editorial policy of all four comics, I suspect that if they were still being published today they would reflect multi cultural Britain in their story lines, and in the individuals they featured.

But in 1950 and into the 60s, society and the media were slow to recognise the changes which were already underway.  These included  the Windrush, and those who arrived from different parts of Europe, after the war often from “displaced persons camps”, and a little later those from the sub continent.

Added to which there was that shocking collective amnesia which pretty much “forgot” the vital role that women played in fighting the war, whether it was in the services, in the factories or on the land.

I would be well into my teens before I fully appreciated what mother and other women did in the services, and later in war time factories, none of which appeared in the stories of heroic soldiers, sailors and airmen.

I wish it were otherwise but in 1960 it wasn’t, and that leads me to "The Road of Courge, The Story of Jesus of Nazareth", which appeared in the Eagle on the back page from March 1960 for 56 episodes, ending over Easter Week in 1961. 

It was drawn by Frank Hampson and it fitted well into the ethos of a comic which was the creation of the Rev Marcus Morris.

Not that I was particularly religious back then  and nor am I now.  But what I like about the comic strip is both its clear story line and above all the art work which at times has a feel of the cinema.

There will be those who criticise the portrayal of Jesus as heavily European which I would agree, and  perhaps sixty years on, if he were alive Mr. Hampson would draw him differently.

And that is about it.

Location, Easter

Pictures; from The Road of Courage, 1961, Frank Hampson 

Look and Learn ............. a grand way to discover a shed load of knowledge

Now for reasons I don’t fully understand I wasn’t a great reader as a child.

And that was odd because both mum and dad devoured books which they got from the public library and the private lending library.

In any one week both would have two or three on the go but I despite being a junior member of the library rarely got past chapter one.

All of that changed sometime around my thirteenth birthday, but before that I was content to fall back on comics and picture history books.

They ranged from the Eagle to a succession of other comics and to those wonderful books by R J Unstead.

And in 1961 or possibly 1962 I fell across Look and Learn which for the rest of that decade and into the next came into our house.

It was a fine mix of useful knowledge, adventure stories and offered the work of some of the best artists.

None of the earliest copies have survived but we have something like a 100 from the early 70s.  By that time I had left home for Manchester but on the regular visits back I would slide into reading the editions which fell through the door.

And very recently I asked and got a compendium book of the best of Look and Learn as a Christmas present.

Now none of this is nostalgia but more a simple reflection that in a pre internet age Look and Learn and indeed the Eagle comic were a magnificent way of picking up knowledge in a way that appealed to me and countless others.

Picture; cover of Look and Learn no. 613 October 13, 1973 ..... Every Monday Price 10p

Knowledge ...... "the new colour magazine which grows into an encyclopædia"

I remain surprised at how much of my childhood has survived the passage of nearly 60 years.

No. 71 Masks

The cherished books, comics, and magazines I lovingly read and reread have had a more that a few near misses, when house moves, and requests to spring clean could have resulted in their loss.

Some like my Eagle annuals and comics are regularly brought out and  perused, and I am never quite sure if this is a testimony to their quality or that tendency to slip back into a less complicated time.

And today it is the turn of Knowledge which was a weekly educational magazine for children. 

It was launched by Purnell and Sons on January 9th 1961, cost two shillings, and was designed to build into an encyclopaedia.

There were 192 issues, spread out into sixteen volumes.  I still have almost all of the first 116 editions, although sadly somewhere along the way the bound volumes have been lost and I am left with just the covers.

But these alone are a fascinating read, containing a full page illustration and descriptions and explanations across the remaining three pages.

No.1 Architecture

“The majority of the covers of the first 192 issues) were the work of illustrator Alessandro Fedini, but the covers of the additional issues 193-216 (volumes 17 and 18) depicted twentieth-century events and news headlines.

Knowledge was a British version of the Italian magazine Conoscere published by Fratelli Fabbri Editori of Milan.

The concept of a British edition had first been pitched to Fleetway Publications Ltd who turned it down, fearing it would damage sales of their own The Children's Encyclopædia and The Children's Newspaper. 

Following the success of Knowledge, Fleetway brought out Look and Learn in 1962.

Knowledge sold 400,000 copies  and ceased publication in 1966.*

I can’t remember when I stopped getting the magazine but it will have been sometime around 1964, when at the age of 14 I deemed such stuff had had their day.

But our Stella saw their potential and carefully saved them, which is how they eventually came back to me.

No.6 The Atom

By one of those odd twists, the magazine Conoscere was collected by the Italian side of the family and were until recently still on the bookshelves.  

The style and in particular the illustrations are recognizably the same.

And it is the artwork of Alessandro Fedini, which still draws me in, from his cover illustrating a piece on masks to that of covers for Flags, the atom and architecture.

In this digital age where so much knowledge is accessibale in an instant I still like the idea of Knowledge, and that other trail blazer which was Look and Learn.

Back then the alternatives to these was the library or expensive and formiddalbe encyclopedias.

So I continue to have a soft spot for how we got our information on everything from entomology and ethnology to Orders in Architecture and publishing.

But that is where my 116 editions ends.

No. 30 Flags

Leaving me just to add that long before Knowledge and Look and Learn there was Eagle, but that is another story.

For those who want to see all the front covers I suggest you follow the link.**

I will close by remembering the newsagents on Mona Road, just round the corner from our house on Lausanne Road. 

It was a magical place, but alas has long since gone.

Just when that happened I have no idea.  

We left for Well Hall in 1964 and I had no reason ever to go back, which is a shame given that so many of the Christmas annuals, comics and magazines, we still have knocking around will have come from there.

But I guess there are some things Knowledge will never deliver an answer to.

No.11 Bread

Location; the 1960s

Pictures, covers from Knowledge, 1961-1962, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Knowledge (partwork), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_(partwork)

*british comics, https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/knowledge/

Silly History …..the series where you get to choose …… no.1 comics, films, and howlers

Now, there is always the danger that you can get too serious about the past and sometimes it is fun to take the silly approach.

Lt Hornblower in action

It started when a friend told me she had posed with one of those “plastic gladiators” who patrol the foot of the Colosseum in Rome looking for tourists and a few euros.

And that made me think of how history was treated in the comics and films of my youth.

Lt. Hornblower, R.N. was a fictional sailor who served in the Royal Navy during the long years of war with Republican and Napoleonic France.

He featured in the novels of C.S. Forrester, and while the Hornblower and many of his contemporaries were fictional, the books were grounded in historical accuracy.

But not so Olac the Gladiator who appeared in the Tiger comic from 1957 till 1969.

Olac had been a Celtic slave from Cumbria, who won his freedom after a life as a gladiator, and as Cumbrian gladiators do, he went on to loyally serve the Emperor through many stirring adventures.

All of which is fine, if a tad far featured, but almost believable, until that is we came across his friend Ulf, who was a Viking, which rather messes up the historical timeline.

But this cavalier approach to accuracy pales into insignificance, when put up against the story of a group of children in 1950s Britain on holiday in the north east who come across  an entire Romano British community still living along a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall.

I think the series ran in the Lion comic around the same time that Olac and Ulf  were having their stirring adventures.

David slaying Goliath

Of course, there were many successful portrayals of historical figures in comics like the Eagle, and in Look and Learn which was a weekly educational magazine for children.

One my favourites was the story from the Eagle of The Life of David, - the Shepherd King, which for a nine-year-old was far more exciting than learning about it  during scripture lessons.

It was well drawn, stuck to the line, and was totally believable, but for every David, there was a Olac, and with that in mind I shall put out the appeal for silly historical pictures, even sillier historical films, or follies which pretend to be what they aren’t.

Pictures; Lt. Hornblower, R.N., Eagle Comic, August 11, 1962, and David slaying Goliath with a slingshot, Eagle Comic, November 29th, 1958

A ladybird …… an advert….. and a story of ecology

This is one of those fascinating pieces that appeared in the Eagle comic and its companions, Girl, Swift and Robin, which pretty much dominated British comics in the 1950s.

It had begun with the Eagle in 1950, and was quickly followed by Girl and Swift and Robin which were aimed at a younger age range.

All four offered a mix of strip cartoons, factual material, with adverts for everything from Walls ice cream to bicycles and breakfast cereals.

Often the adverts were presented in the form of an adventure story, where characters like Tommy Walls was pitted against all sorts of things, but always came out on top, and celebrated with an ice cream.

But the adverts could also be more sophisticated, like this one for Ladybird clothes, which managed to tell a story, advance an ecological message about the value of insects, and take a side swipe at the over reliance on pesticides.

And all the more remarkable given that this was 1960, and the advert appeared in the Swift Annual which was aimed at children still in Junior School.

Some might still criticize the use of adverts in children’s books and comics, and I would agree, but in this case, it is a neat little story, well-illustrated and with a topical message.

Picture; advert for Ladybird clothing, from the Swift Annual, number 6, and cover of Swift Annual, Number 4, 1958  from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Swift Annual Number.6, 1960

A gun, a gear, and an advert .......... the silly story

Now if you are a certain age and  watched 1950s television, the chances are you will remember the American TV series “Have Gun Will Travel”.

It was according to one source, the adventures of a man called Paladin"  who was named after one of the warriors in Charlemagne's court.

“Paladin is a gentleman gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a mercenary gunfighter for people who hire him to solve their problems for them. Although Paladin will charge steep fees to clients who can afford to hire him, typically US$1000 per job, he will provide his services for free to poor people who need his help. Like many westerns, the television show was set during a nebulous period after the Civil War.”*

It aired in the United States in 1957 and ran until 1963, and at some point in the early ‘60s it was shown on British TV.

I can’t now remember any of the episodes but the title has stuck with me, partly because for a long time it was a catch phrase.

And as such was adapted for the advert ....... “Have Gear Can Travel” which appeared in the Eagle comic in the August of 1962.

This I know because my friend Tricia found the comic on eBay, bought it, and sent it up from London.

It will have been a copy I will have read and that makes it a bit special.

But over and above that, it will also have been a product which was familiar to Ken Foster’s dad who opened his cycle shop in Chorlton in the mid 1950s.

Ken still runs the business from Barlow Moor Road and I rather hope he likes the advert.

I know I love the name of the firm who made it the “The mighty atom-a gearbox in a hub”.  They were Sturmey Archer who were established in 1902 by Henry Sturmey and James Archer.  The firm last through the last century until in 2000 the assets and trade mark were sold Sun Race of Taiwan.

So, yes a silly story, but one that allowed me to remember a favourite TV western, and to mention my friends Tricia and Ken.

So that is it.

Location; 1962

Pictures; advert from The Eagle,  Vol 13 no.32 August 11 1962

*“Have Gun Will Travel” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Gun_%E2%80%93_Will_Travel