I don't own very many Tiger comics as I'm more interested in humour strips than I am adventure ones, but I did pick up a cheap bundle in a secondhand shop the other day to see what it was like. There were five issues, numbered #146, #153, #154, #155 and #159, all from 1957. Subtitled 'The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly' and having incorporated The Champion, Tiger does have a nice header, but the real star of the cover is of course Roy of the Rovers, having being there since the very first issue in September 1954. Issue #155 features the first episode in a new adventure in which Roy investigates the football career of Andy McDonald, who will be retiring at the end of the season. Apologies if the images look a little weird, but the comics are a little too big for my scanner so I'm stitching two scans together as best as I can.
I noticed in the title box that it always says "by Stewart Colwyn". Stewart was Roy's scriptwriter; Tiger is good in the way that it credits the writers of the strips which is something I wish comics had done more often.
Tiger had its very own Winker Watson type character on the inside of the back cover. His name was Dodger Caine - The Lad With A Wheeze Up His Sleeve! Of course, this strip beat Winker Watson by several years, as the first adventure of Eric Roberts' creation wouldn't appear until 1961. Ted Cowan writes this strip and the name is, of course, a pun - Dodger Caine - dodge a cane - geddit?
Adverts in old comics are always interesting but these two stood out for me, a couple of adverts for the second Tiger annual and the very first Roy of the Rovers annual.
To wrap up this post I'll show one more strip, and it'll be an episode of Spike and Dusty - Frogman Daredevils. I don't know who the artist is but it has some stunning artwork - that last panel is just jaw dropping. The author is John Chester.
3 comments:
I think I lettered something for Tiger just before it bit the dust, although it could've been for an Annual. It's not a comic I ever remember buying as a boy, because I was never too interested in sports, but it had a nice long run. When comics were mostly 'story papers' they did credit the writer, although it was usually a pseudonym. I suspect that Tiger crediting the writers of the strips was a remnant of that, but it's a practice that faded over time.
It's always good when the credit writers - I like the way 2000AD credits everybody involved in the production of the strip.
This was ggreat to read
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