First Issue: 27th March 1982
Last Issue: January 1994
Copyright: Fleetway
In March 1982, IPC Magazines re-launched the ‘Eagle’ comic attempting to recapture the golden age of its previous incarnation. The first issue was a departure from traditional boys’ comics in that it included photo strip stories, an idea used quite successfully in modern girls’ publications such as Jackie. The first issue of Eagle comic came with a free gift of a ‘Space Spinner’ and the stories were a combination of photo strip stories and hand written strips which were as follows: Photo strip Stories The Collector, Doomlord, Fred, The Invisible Boy, Joe Soap, Manix, Saddle Tramp, Sgt. Streetwise, Walk or Die, Thunderbolt and Smokey! Traditional Comic Strips Gil Hazzard, Crowe St. Comp, Dan Dare, Ernie, The Fifth Horseman, The Hand, The House of Correction, The House of Daemon, Jake’s Platoon, The Tower King, The Amstor Computer, Avenger, Bloodfang, The Brothers , Computer Warrior, Comrade Bronski , D.A.D.D. , Detective Zed , Dolebusters, The Fists of Danny Pike , Ghost Squad , Ghostworld, The Hard Men , Kid Cops , Legend of the Linkits , Manta Force , News Team , Roadblasters, Robo Machines, Shadow, Soup Squad, S.O.S., Survival, Timespell and Toys of Doom.
Paul Smith from Acocks Green, Birmingham emailed in to say that he was a big fan of “Sgt. Streetwise” and another favourite story of his was “Thunderbolt and Smokey!” which was a photo story written by Tom Tully. In a storyline that was reminiscent of “Tommy’s Troubles” in Roy of the Rovers the story followed the exploits of two young schoolboys, Colin “Thunderbolt” Dexter and Leo “Smokey” Beckles and their attempts to bring back under 14s football team to their school Dedfield. The school had been previously nicknamed Dead Loss due to the losses sustained by the previous under 14s football team. Much of the storylines were the typical trials and tribulations of schoolboy football as seen in “Billy’s Boots”, “Nipper” from Scorcher and Roy of the Rovers. Paul noted that after a year or so the story returned to the old comic format of artist drawn strips. Maybe the cost of employing actors and photographers was too prohibitive in terms of cost. Paul also mentioned in his email that one of his favourite stories was “The Hand” and that it was gripping (pardon the pun). “The Hand” was a story about a photographer who lost his hand in accident. Modern technology allowed him to have his hand replaced from a donor. Unfortunately the hand had belonged to a dead gangster and now began to control its new owner. You have to ‘hand’ it to these writers for their imagination ha ha.
Paul remembered that there was some controversy in the media about Eagle comic and the storyline of “The Hand”. It wasn’t uncommon for the British media at the time to express concerns about children’s comics and how they were damaging the children etc. This was most noticeable in an article in The Sun newspaper who lambasted Action comic calling it the “Seven Penny Nightmare”. “The Hand” was singled out for criticism by the breakfast television station TVAM for a recent storyline where “The Hand” had created a firebomb which the editor at the time pointed out was impossible for children reading the story to copy or recreate (see below).
Eagle Comic In The News
TV AM article about Eagle Comic