One of the more unusual British comics was the short live Wildcat launched in late 1988. A glossy fortnightly, Wildcat differed from other titles because the whole issue though segmented was not an anthology as most of us were used to. Wildcat was in fact the name of a spaceship containing the last few hundred members of humanity looking for a new home.
The different "strips" inside were about different landing teams on a newly discovered planet that they hope to make their new home....
Readers of other Fleetway titles had been been introduced to Wildcat through a free preview comic inserted in 2000AD, Buster, Whizzer, Oink, Eagle and even Roy of the Rovers in an attempt to give this title a chance of success.
So after picking up my first issue, I now have the problem of tracking down on of those comics with the preview to catch up with the story, which to be fair is abridged on page two.
The art and stories inside are good quality with plenty of aliens, man eating plants and electrified "Tribbles" to keep one occupied.
Wildcat lasted just 12 issues before merging with Eagle, though a Summer and a Winter Special were published after it's cancellation so collecting isn't too daunting.
This copy wasn't too dear costing £12 and did have the free gift, a poster of an "alien zoo" to which stickers were added from future issues.
wow! forgot about this one, i remember the preview issue - i was just getting into american comics at the time so wasn't interested in picking up the ongoing series. looks like an unusual concept though. those weekly anthologies were struggling at the time, so i suppose they were trying new things.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and track down the preview comic. It was in at least six titles, so not too difficult task I hope!
DeleteHaving not read it before I was quite impressed. It's a pity today's generation don't have the opportunity to read British adventure comics. Only 2000Ad and Commando remain. Not enough choice.