Jump to content

Eagle (British comics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Vodex (talk | contribs) at 08:42, 27 February 2005 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Eagle was a British weekly comic, which ran in two main volumes over the period of 1950 to 1994 (with accompanying annuals). It is strongly associated with its flagship character, Dan Dare.


First Volume

File:Eagle volume 1 logo.gif
Logo of Eagle Volume One

The Eagle was the creation of the Reverend Marcus Morris, who intended it as a Christian antidote to what he saw as the bad influence of American comics during the post-war period. He strove to produce high quality, inspirational literature unlike any existing at the time, involving the work of teams of graphic artists such as Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy - even creating mockups of spaceships to use as reference for Dan Dare.

This first volume ran from 14 April 1950 to April 1969, when it merged with Lion.


Strips during this volume included:

As well as strips, there was heavy factual content ranging from cutaways of battleships to how to do magic tricks.

Second Volume

File:Eagle volume two cover issue 1.jpg
Cover of Eagle volume two, issue 1

The Eagle was re-launched by IPC (later Fleetway) in 1982, aiming for the same quality end of the market. The comic-reading market had changed by this time, with numerous "boy's comics" such as Tiger and Hotspur replacing American superheroes in competing for market share, so the relaunched Eagle's unique selling point was to have the majority of strips produced in photo form, similar to other comics such as Jackie, but by pushing the medium to include story types such as science fiction and Westerns.

The second volume ran from March 1982 until January 1994, however the comic had become a monthly anthology by this point with little new material.

Incarnations

Due to the increased commercial pressure, the second volume of Eagle underwent several relaunches during its history.


Photo-strip

As stated above, originally many strips were produced in photographic format. This had the double-edged effect of increasing a strip's believability, but budget limitations often led to unrealistic-looking strips which would have been much more convincing if drawn. Strips during this period included:


Revert to drawn format

Around 1983, Eagle reverted to a more traditional drawn-strip format, which also allowed the strips more creative freedom. Many existing strips were moved to this format. Strips during this period included:

Stable period

Slowly, Eagle became more strip-based with factual elements removed. It stabilised in this apparently highly successful format for several years, during which it absorbed several other comics and started to include reprints from the back catalogue Eagle's sister title, 2000 AD. Strips during this period included:

Strips absorbed from Tiger included:

Strips absorbed from Scream included:


Strips absorbed from M.A.S.K. included:

Strips absorbed from Wildcat included:


Glossy relaunch

Around 1991, Eagle relaunched yet again due to falling sales caused by the changing market. The relaunched comic contained fewer strips, all in colour, with large amounts of celebrity and music-related content. Oddly, strips seemed to either be aimed at primary school chldren, involving slapstick and simplistic humour, or mature adolescents similar to 2000 AD's Crisis (comic) involving homelessness, sex, and profanity Strips during this period included:


Monthly Anthology

Around 1992, Eagle moved to a monthly anthology format after being unable to shore up sales. There was very little new content, consisting mostly of strips from Eagle's heyday.

Unknown strips


WikiProject iconComics Unassessed
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Comics, a collaborative effort to build an encyclopedic guide to comics on Wikipedia. Get involved! If you would like to participate, you can help with the current tasks, visit the notice board, edit the attached article or discuss it at the project's talk page.ComicsWikipedia:WikiProject ComicsTemplate:WikiProject ComicsComics articles
???This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eagle_(British_comics)&oldid=10610329"