I have just received the news  that JEFF HAWKE JUNIOR,  a book  containing all the collected Jeff Hawke strips from Junior Express weekly  is due to be published next month ( December 2016). It will be of the same large format  as the COSMOS magasine, but in full colour throughout  and will contain around 128 pages.  In addition to the strips themselves the book will include biographical information on the various artists  and writers that created it together with articles on the Jeff Hawke collector cards and club , with contributions from astronomer Duncan Lunan and the writer Jeremy Briggs  among others. Price will be around £26 and for ordering information  contact jeffhawke@williamrudling.co.uk. Skipper Prossitt

Below are the next three  strips from Asset strippers, which appeared in the Scottish Daily Record but were absent from  all subsequent publications, all of which had a shortened introduction.  Skipper Prossitt

 

Below are the next series of strips from the original introduction   to the ASSET STRIPPERS  which appeared in the Scottish Daily record but were  replaced by a truncated introduction  in all subsequent publications. The strips are kindly provided by Duncan Lunan.   Skipper Prossitt

 

 

30 Oct 16

One of the aircraft on show at Tangmere air museum , which club members visited last September, was the   Gloster Meteor, famous as Britain’s first jet fighter, which made its maiden flight in 1943 and which was used in combat from the summer of 1944 onwards. The Gloster Meteor is of special significance to the Jeff Hawke story as it was the first aircraft to appear in the strip at the start of the very first story – SPACERIDER. In strip no. 3 we see Meteors taking off to intercept the UFO

which   has been picked up on RAF radar. In reality the Meteor set the first official air speed record at the end of 1945 achieving a speed of 606 mph, but despite this , the squadron sent to investigate the UFO , although able to  make visual contact, could not maintain the pursuit. Only the XP5 , a fictitious aircraft   invented by Sydney for the strip which he describes as “ an extrapolation of the jet fighters of the Day” was capable of matching speed with the alien craft. Fortunately a certain squadron leader Hawke was on hand to take her up in pursuit – and the rest is history.  Skipper Prossitt

 

The ASSET STRIPPERS, a story recently published in the JHC, has an interesting history, in that when originally published in the Scottish daily record, it was substantially longer to the extent of about thirty strips. Its published form in the JHC and also in the Milano Libri series back in the 80’s has a somewhat truncated introduction. According to Duncan Lunan , Sydney’s one time collaborator on the Hawke strip, a package containing the thirty original strips was lost in transit when being returned to Sydney after its publication in the Daily Record. As a result Sydney had to create new artwork for the beginning of the story in a somewhat shorter form for the Milano Libri edition, and it is this re-done artwork which now exists in the JH archives and which was used for reproduction in the JEFF HAWKE COSMOS . Fortunately Duncan has copies of the Scottish daily record for this period and has kindly sent us some scans to reproduce here on the Blog. Below are the first three strips of the original longer version. We will reproduce all the missing strips here in the next few weeks. Skipper Prossitt

24 September 2016

The Jeff Hawke club held its annual meeting this weekend at the beautiful village of Bosham in Sussex. As well as Sydney Jordan and William Rudling ( the club editor and organiser) twelve members and partners also attended. A club dinner was held at the Swan public house on Friday night and another at the Millstream Hotel on Saturday . The club visited Tangmere air museum on Saturday and also Fishbourne Roman Palace, both only a stone’s throw from the village. A members meeting will take place on Sunday morning to discuss future plans and projects . Skipper Prossitt

18September 2016

Sydney’s Dan Dare story .

Although the Sunday PEOPLE had run a Dan Dare newspaper strip back in 1964, the plan by the PLANET ON SUNDAY to revive the character in a similar way in 1996 was sadly doomed to failure. The prospect had been  an exciting one ; Britain’s most famous sci-fi creation revived by the pen and artwork of Sydney Jordan. Thus the Dan Dare strip appeared in the first issue of the PLANET and started to unfold its story, but  unfortunately  the new paper abruptly ceased publication and the strip was left high and dry  after just beginning to tantalise its readers  with its  mysterious opening  . Sydney had written and drawn the strips for the next two weeks but for the rest only a written outline of the story existed .Looking at the three extant strips we are given some intriguing glimpses of  how things had changed both for Spacefleet and the world.

The story , according to Sydney, is set shortly after Dan’s last Eagle appearance .Peace reigns now between Earthmen and Treens  as shown in the very first panels. The Mekon has made no return after his mysterious disappearance at the end of the MOONSLEEPERS (Eagle vo.16 no.29) and the inner planets are at peace .We see Dan , dishevelled and seemingly a shadow of his former self, visiting the grave of Sir Hubert Guest. He is approached by a strange woman, a government official , whose chauffeur is none other than Digby,  who Dan seems not to recognise. In the third strip we see the car, containing the official, Dan and Digby  careering off the road after being hit by a waiting sniper – and the rest is silence. The strip ceased at that point and we  are left wondering how this strange set of events would have turned out .  I interviewed Sydney about this story and he explained  to me just how it would  have developed and how the mysteries set up in the first three panels would have been resolved . The story involved a threat to the entire Solar system , a threat so great that all the planets would have to put their former differences behind them and unite against  this new menace , before which even the Mekon would be cowed. We will be revealing the full Planet on Sunday story in future posts beginning next month.   Skipper Prossitt

11 September 2016

This week saw the publication of “ The elements of time”, a collection of science fiction stories by writer and Astronomer Duncan Lunan. Duncan will be well known to readers of the JHC for his “Hawke’s notes” , which provide both insight and a scientific viewpoint on each of the HAWKE stories.   He has had an intimate connection with JEFF HAWKE for many years and wrote or collaborated in the writing of ten of the later Hawke stories.

“The elements of time” brings together   seven short stories written over the last thirty years, all of which deal with the theme of time-travel. Some have appeared in such prestigious publications   as ANALOG and the Isaac Asimov Sci-fi magazine. As a bonus each of the stories is accompanied by full page illustrations by Sydney Jordan , as well as the colour cover. The stories themselves, although all very different , all contain a technical and scientific detail which makes the worlds they create, seem credible and believable.   One deals with a sort of futuristic re-run of the ’45 rebellion and another with an air accident investigator who has the perplexing problem of dealing with the wreckage of a plane which has not yet had its maiden flight! My own personal favorite is “ Riding the fire”   which has an Earth colony on a distant volcanically active planet ; their means of transport are a series of hang-glider capsules whose pilots  ride the thermals created by the volcanic vents.

Thought provoking and original the book is well worth the modest £10 price tag at Amazon.  Skipper Prossit

3 September 2016

A pencil thin , but broad winged glider   soars gracefully against the butterscotch sky of the red planet and swoops to land in one of the deep canyons of the Valles Marineris. A simulation created by NASA   perhaps, in anticipation of its forthcoming program to test the viability of making gliders that will fly on Mars ?

No- in fact as Cosmos readers will know, it is the opening sequence from “Home is the sailor” recently published in vol9 no2. in which a newly married couple from Marsbase take a very unusual honeymoon. The story is yet another example of how the JH strip anticipated future space technology , in this case in 1982 when the story was first published.

 

Just a few weeks ago NASA announced that it was beginning a series of tests using specially constructed gliders in Earth’s upper atmosphere , initially at 100,000 feet and later reaching 450,000 in order to simulate the Martian atmosphere and the challenges it will present to constructing an aerodynamically sound machine that could glide across the Martian terrain , and be able to take close-up photos of selected areas of the planet.

If all goes well the glider with be part of the next Rover mission in 2022 and will be ejected from the spacecraft at a selected altitude , open up and glide for about 20 miles before landing on the planetary surface.

Lets hope it doesn’t meet the same sad fate as the “Lovebird” in the JH story!   Skipper Prossit

 

It was pointed out to me recently by one of our readers, Sjaak Bakker, that I gave the impression in my post of 18^th May 2016 that the JHC publication of “Earthspace” was the first time that these particular strips have ever been reprinted.   He was correct to point out that the Earthspace series had indeed been printed under the title “Lance McLane “ by the Italian publisher “Comics in avventura” in a well produced hardback book in 1978. It contains all five Earthspace stories, and the strips are very clearly printed, faithfully retaining all the half-tones and shading   with the strips at their original size .

However t he JHC publication is certainly the first English printing of the series.     Skipper Prossit