The Eagle is probably Britain's most famous all round boys comic notable for the very British science fiction strip Dan Dare.
The original series was published from 1950 to 1969 when it was merged with the Lion. The second series of which this Holiday Special is from, began publishing in 1982 and ran weekly until May 1991 when it was turned into a monthly and ended in 1994, as British comics started disappearing into the ether of history.
The special opens with a cosmic adventure with Doomlord, an exiled alien who had made his home on Earth. Noting that a large number of stars were going supernova he goes off to investigate. Turns out his own people on the planet Nox are responsible as are their mirror equivalents in the Anti-Matter Universe they have been trying to reach.
To save creation he must kill himself or a least a version of himself.
Russian cop Comrade Bronski also appears in a very odd story about crime, corruption and the KGB set in what was then still a very communist Russia.
Dan Dare outwits computers and saves universal piece in an untitled adventure which features the Kloprehtans , half lizard, half machine. Throw in a few space pirates and some fancy flying and a treaty is duly signed..
The other character M.A.C.H.1 (a sort of British "Bionic Man") gets two features, the first in which he fights an "Eastern dictator" from an unknown country and in the second faces the Tibetan Army (no idea, maybe the publishers didn't want to upset the Chinese) who want to melt the Himalayan glaciers and flood India. Nope no idea why they'd want to do that either.
Add a few text stories and some features and this 64 page special was actually worth seeking out. Not too pricey at just a fiver!
Well it is summer after all!
M.A.C.H.1...I believe went on to appear in 2000AD progs?
ReplyDeleteMach 1 was in the first issue of 2000ad in 1977 and ran for most of the first year before Mach Zero took over and the series ended at the end of zero
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