When the Junior Express weekly  began in September 1954, its readers , in addition to enjoying  the weekly Jeff Hawke adventure could also

collect Jeff Hawke Space gen cards with each issue of the comic. In the fifties, collecting cards of all kinds was still very popular and although cigarette cards had already had their  heyday in the twenties and thirties, cards of the same shape and size continued to be a popular item in packets of tea, toothpowder and numerous other  household items.  The Jeff Hawke – Space gen  series comprised 25 cards in all and showed their young readers what space travel might be like in the not too distant future of Jeff Hawke’s world. Some cards involved imagined spacecraft and technology while others presented astronomical and science facts, somewhat like the “Out into Space” series presented at the same time by Brooke Bond tea. In some upcoming posts we will be presenting images ( both front and back)  of all 25 cards from the Jeff Hawke series.     Skipper Prossit

 

Here is an outline of the second Jeff Hawke story from the pages of Junior Express weekly , entitled THE

PLANET OF FIRE. After establishing a peace between the robots and the humans on Rea, Jeff and co are once more whisked away in the Shining ones’ saucer for another mission to bring justice and peace to a far flung part of the galaxy. They are told by the Shining ones   that they are to act as their agents and are placed in suspended animation until their new destination is reached. When they are at last awoken by the Shining Ones’ robots they see through the viewing panels, a planet riven by earthquakes and violent volcanic activity. They are told however that it is not intended that they should land there but rather on one of the fire planet’s moons. They are given spacesuits and oxygen by the robots and instructed to explore the caves on the cold, airless moon, where they will encounter the people that they have to help. Jeff, Bill and Dick are set down on the moon whereupon the saucer disappears.

Exploring the cave systems they discover a large vaulted gallery in which rests a gleaming spacecraft. Shortly after this

they are captured by a group of hostile humanoids wearing strange spacesuits. They are taken to the groups’ headquarters which are sealed of from the rest of the cave system and with breathable air inside. Jeff is taken to their leader Zirk who, as I mentioned in a previous post, looks almost identical to the New Martians in Sydney’s MARTIAN INVASION. Zirk soon comes to realise that Jeff and his friends have been sent by the Shining ones to help them. He explains to Jeff that his people come from the planet of Fire, which has become increasingly unstable for the past 200 years, with increasing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. He plans to build a fleet of spaceship to evacuate his people from the fiery planet to a safer world and he and a group of his engineers have made an expedition to this particular moon in order to mine a special metal , needed for the construction of the spaceship engines. The mining complete, Zirk and his team, together with Jeff and co, head back to the planet of Fire   to complete the evacuation fleet. Jeff supervises the completion of the ships though not nearly enough will be ready before the planet becomes uninhabitable. So Jeff devises a plan whereby the few completed ships will ferry Zirk’s people in relays

 

 

up to a series of giant space rafts that have been placed in orbit. Jeff and the crew that he has trained take off repeatedly in the teeth of seismic quakes and volcanoes until the whole population has been lifted off the planet’s surface and ferried to one of the stable moons. Just as the last batch are set down in their new home, the planet of fire destroys itself in a cataclysmic explosion. Zirk explains that from this

 

 

moon his people can set out to find a new home planet.

Skipper Prossit

We are pleased to announce that the  Jeff Hawke club will hold its annual get-together in Bristol from Friday 18th September until Sunday 20th September. If you are a club member you are welcome to come along to meet Sydney and other kindred spirits. If you are not already a member , join now and get to meet the creator of Jeff Hawke in Bristol.

The Jeff Hawke club has had a presence in Bristol in the past few years as we have been regular visitors to  the Bristol comic-expo  to promote the club. Over  those years we have discovered that there are many interesting places to visit and many great restaurants.

You can visit Brunel’s SS Great Britain, the first iron-built  ocean-going steamer and its accompanying museum; also there is a full sized replica  of the caravel in which John Cabot sailed to Newfoundland  in 1497, the first English vessel to visit the new world.

Our recommended hotel is the Double tree  – Hilton, which is centrally situated and convenient for all the venues that we want to visit.  We also have some excellent restaurants lined up for the weekend – all previously tried and tested by our

discerning club sectretary.

Programme

Friday evening  – Dinner at the Mud dock restaurant

 

Saturday AM  Visit to SS Great Britain

PM Visit to the Mshed ( a museum of Bristol’s artistic, cultural and technological history)

 

Members are advised to make their own hotel bookings.

Double tree  – Hilton

Redcliffe way, Bristol , BS1 6NJ    tel: 0117926 0041

We hope to see you there.

Skipper Prosset

 

It is early 1968 at the Cape Kennedy launch site. Three astronauts: Shaw, Stokes and Jordan sit atop the mighty Saturn V rocket awaiting final checks from mission control before they are blasted into the Florida sky on what will be mans’ first successful lunar landing on the flat lava plain called the sea of Serenity. – well , not quite.

“Seven steps to Serenity”, a project devised by Sydney Jordan, was conceived as an animated film to be broadcast on TV which would show to the viewing public exactly how NASA proposed to land a man on the Moon in the following year. Sydney suggested the idea to Mike Wooller ,a producer and director for Granada television, responsible for such ground breaking series as “Searchlight” and “ World in action” . Wooller was enthusiastic and Sydney began a series of paintings which would serve as the backdrop to the animations. He produced a “ship’s eye” view of the Lunar landing area ( thought then to be Mare Serenitatis) so that the final animation could show how the LEM (Lunar lander) would be seen from the command module as it made its descent to the Lunar surface. For the astronauts themselves he painted detailed studies of the spacesuits from various angles and super-imposed photographs of three real faces upon them for a more realistic effect. The first of his volunteer “crew” for these photoshoots was his good friend George Stokes, illustrator and writer of the beautifully drawn Wes Slade strip in the Sunday express. The second was actor Richard Shaw , who had appeared as the character Sladden in the TV series “Quatermass and the pit” in 1958 and was to make three appearances in Doctor Who over the coming years. Shaw’s rugged and determined features made him ideal as an astronaut with “The right stuff”. And of course the third crewman was Sydney himself. Sydney completed some very detailed studies for the project showing the different stages of the mission’s progress, but unfortunately the powers that be at Grenada TV began to wax cold after a few months and like many real NASA launches in the 1960’s this animation was cancelled at the last minute. Not much artwork survives now from “Seven steps to Serenity” but the three Astronaut studies included in this post show the meticulous detail with which it was undertaken , and will give us just a little flavour of what might have been.     Skipper Prossit