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
