Jet | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | IPC/Fleetway Publications, 1971 |
Schedule | Weekly |
Format | Ongoing series |
Genre | |
Publication date | 1 May – 25 September 1971 |
No. of issues | 22 |
Main character(s) | Bala the Briton Paddy McGinty's Goat Sergeants Four The Sludgemouth Sloggers Von Hoffman |
Creative team | |
Written by | Tom Tully |
Artist(s) | Eric Bradbury Fred Holmes Geoff Jones Tom Kerr Francisco Solano López Ken Reid Mike Western |
Jet was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 1 May to 25 September 1971. A boys' adventure comic, the title only lasted for 22 editions before being merged with another Fleetway title, the long-established Buster .
While IPC Magazines' previous attempt to launch a new boys' comic, Thunder , had been short-lived and merged with Lion earlier in 1971 the experiment had not been a complete waste; Thunder's new features had proven popular with readers, and given the post-merger Lion a sales boost. Under group director Jack Le Grand, [1] the decision was taken to try another weekly as a testbed for new stories, which could then be folded into an extant title should the new arrival not find an audience. [2] [3] [4]
The comic was an anthology covering similar areas of adventure and humour as other boys' comics of the period. [5] [6] Fantasy was covered by "Von Hoffman's Invasion", "Bala the Briton", "Paddy McGinty's Goat" and, from the second issue, "The Dwarf"; war by "Sergeants Four" and "Carno's Cadets"; sport by "Adare's Anglians", "Kester Kidd" and "The Sludgemouth Sloggers"; crime by "Partridge's Patch"; and humour by Ken Reid's "Faceache", "The Kids from Stalag 41", Reg Parlett's "Bonehead" and Terry Baye's "Bertie Bumpkin". These were rounded out by text features - factual pages "It's a Weird World" and "The Regiment" (a picture feature on various British military units), and reader-submitted jokes in "Jest a Minute". The first issue included two Trebor Bumper Bars as free gifts; the second featured a 'Monster Wasp' and the third a voucher for free Wall's ice cream. [3]
Priced at 3p and published on Thursdays, [7] to 40-page Jet failed to find an audience, however, and like Thunder was cancelled after 22 weekly issues. [4] Jet was merged into the long-established Buster, where four of the features - "Von Hoffman's Invasion", [8] "The Sludgemouth Sloggers", "Faceache" and "The Kids from Stalag 41", would continue. [9] "Faceache" in particular would have a long run, lasting until 1988 in Buster and becoming a well-remembered strip. Despite the weekly's short life, a Jet Annual would still be published in the autumn for the 1971 Christmas market, while the name Buster and Jet remained in place until 9 June 1974. [3]
Jet was one of several 1970s Fleetway/IPC titles cancelled after 22 issues (as were Thunder , Tornado and Starlord ); long-serving editor Barrie Tomlinson stated that with the technology of the time it took 22 weeks for meaningful sales trends to emerge and for crude market research on the title to be analysed. [10] The method was known within the company as "hatch, match and dispatch", and was instigated by managing editor John Sanders. New titles with fresh strips would be "hatched", features would be "matched" with the audience and then the comic would be cancelled and its popular features would be "dispatched" to another of the company's weeklies. [11] The popularity of features was largely based on readers' letters; across the company's titles children were encouraged to write in with their top three favourite features of each anthology; those that scored well from new titles would be retained and those that did not were dropped. [12] Strips that scored well from new titles continued after the incorporation with another comic, replacing that publication's underperformers. The subsequent merged publication would typically then receive a considerable boost in sales. Sanders has defended this model, citing the cost of around £30,000 to launch a new title as proof they were not designed to fail, pointing to the commercial success of the process and noting staff were never sacked or penalised for a failed title but simply moved to other comics in the company. [11]
In 2016 Jet was among the titles post-1970 IPC/Fleetway titles purchased from Egmont Group by Rebellion Developments. [13] As such several characters from Jet went on to play a prominent role in the 'Rebellion-verse' crossover property The Vigilant , [14] [1] while compilations of material featuring some of the stories from Jet have been published under the Treasury of British Comics imprint.
Due to its short length, Jet had a largely consistent run of strips; only one started after the first issue. [3]
After a freak own goal leaves England out of qualifying for the World Cup, the strange old-fashioned remote dominion of New Anglia offers to qualify on their behalf. Their Edwardian throwback behaviour and manners draw some mockery, but the close-knit team enjoy surprising success on the field.
Ancient British warrior Gods send the valiant Bala to undertake a perilous quest to find his missing father Haral and his crew. He is helped by a small, loyal crew including a mystic known as the Roon.
Friendly yokel Bertie and his friends' country-ways trip up passing city slickers.
At Redburn Military School, Australian Lance-Corporal Fred Carno is given command of an oddball section of cadets - Gus MacGregor, Duffy Lewis, Welshman Taff Morgan, Gurkha Peerak, Mick O'Malley, and Indian heir Sadra Chand - who unwittingly stumble across an alien brain planning to invade Britain.
Four British drivers - Englishman Bulldog Brown, Scotsman Mac MacIntosh, Welshman Dai Williams and Irishman Paddy O'Toole - compete for the Crazy Car Championship and a £100,000 prize, despite the attempted disruption of Eastern European nation Mundavia and their catspaw Colonel Kutch.
Diminutive criminal genius the Dwarf commits audacious crimes to cement his status as the king of the London underworld, while Superintendent Smarmy of Scotland Yard tries to bring him to justice.
Ricky Rubberneck has the ability to "scrunge" his face into a wide variety of strange expressions, which he uses in a variety of scrapes.
Having grown up as a boy shepherd in a rural area, Kester Kidd has supreme speed and endurance. He is spotted by trainer Barney Grumshott, who hopes to turn the boy into a world class sportsman. However, sports director Doktor Mutter of the Republic of Spotzania hope to thwart the pair's plans.
Kommandant of Stalag 41 should be an easy job for Kolonel Klaus Schtink, as the camp consists only of captured British boys. However, a gang of his inmates - Winston, Muscles Miller, Nipper Long, Judge Jenkins and Danger Bell - make his life a living hell.
A shape-shifting alien from the planet Ven arrives in the Irish town of Boggymorra and befriends schoolboy Paddy McGinty. When not required to be something different he generally defaults to a goat and is nicknamed such by Paddy, and the pair get involved in numerous antics.
PC Tom Partridge transfers from the quiet backwater of Barnleigh to London, where his rural ways - particularly his use of loyal dog Patch - are initially treated as a joke, but their unconventional ways soon bring results.
A quartet of resourceful British Army Sergeants - Englishman Alf Higgs, Irishman Paddy O'Boyle, Scotsman Jock McGill and Welshman Taffy Jones - carry out vital missions behind German lines in World War II.
In order to promote the moribund holiday resort of Sludgemouth, a group of unusual fellows take part in various national sporting events.
Imprisoned since the end of World War II, former Nazi scientist Doktor Von Hoffman is released from prison. Returning to his experiments, he is able to use his skills to enlarge insects and animals, unleashing the resulting giant creatures on present-day England in revenge for his fatherland's defeat. His first target is the village of Little Upton, where local boys Barry and Joey form the first line of defence against his monsters.
Buster was a British comic which began publication in 1960, originally published by IPC Magazines Ltd under the company's comics division Fleetway, then by Egmont UK Ltd under the same imprint until its closure in 2000. Despite missing issues due to industrial action during its run, the comic published 1,902 issues in total. The comic carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips, featuring the title character Buster and a host of other characters.
Ken Reid (1919–1987) was a British comic artist and writer, best known as the co-creator of Roger the Dodger and Jonah for The Beano and Faceache for Jet.
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Tiger was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press, Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines from 11 September 1954 to 30 March 1985. The title was initially launched in a large tabloid size to mimic newspapers; while it featured some action-adventure stories Tiger contained a large number of sport strips. The most famous of these was "Roy of the Rovers", which debuted in the first issue and was the comic's most popular feature, eventually transferring to its own comic in 1975. Tiger would go on to become one of the company's longest-running titles, notching 1573 issues before being merged with Eagle in 1985. Over the course of its run, Tiger featured columns by numerous famous sports figures, including Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Trevor Francis, and Charlie Nicholas.
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Lion was a weekly British comics periodical published by Amalgamated Press from 23 February 1952 to 18 May 1974. A boys' adventure comic, Lion was originally designed to compete with Eagle, the popular weekly comic published by Hulton Press that had introduced Dan Dare. It debuted numerous memorable characters, including Captain Condor, Robot Archie, Paddy Payne and the Spider. Lion lasted for 1,156 issues before being merged with stablemate Valiant.
Valiant was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications and later IPC Magazines from 4 October 1962 to 16 October 1976. A boys' adventure comic, it debuted numerous memorable characters, including Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw and Mytek the Mighty. Valiant lasted for 712 issues before being merged with stablemate Battle Picture Weekly.
Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies that merged into the IPC group in 1963, and the Fleetway banner continued to be used until 1968 when all IPC's publications were reorganised into the unitary IPC Magazines.
"The House of Dolmann" is a British comic strip published by Fleetway Publications and later IPC Magazines in the boys' comic anthology title Valiant between 29 October 1966 to 11 April 1970, with a brief revival from 7 September to 26 October 1974. Written by Tom Tully and primarily illustrated by Eric Bradbury, the strip centred on the exploits of genius inventor Eric Dolmann and his army of crime-fighting robot 'puppets'.
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Wildcat was a fortnightly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 22 October 1988 to 25 March 1989. A science fiction adventure comic, the title only lasted for 12 editions before being merged with another Fleetway title, Eagle.
Battler Britton is a British comics character created by Mike Butterworth and Geoff Campion. He first appeared in Amalgamated Press' Sun in 1956, and later was featured in Knockout, and the long-running digest titles Thriller Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, and War Picture Library.
The Vigilant are a British superhero team who appear in comics published by Rebellion Developments. The team is mainly made up of updated versions of extant IPC/Fleetway Publications characters that are now owned by Rebellion, mixed with some original characters.
Adam Eterno is a fictional British comic book superhero who has appeared in comics published by Fleetway Publications and, since 2018, Rebellion Developments. The character was created by Jack Le Grand and Tom Tully, debuting in the first issue of Thunder in October 1970.
Thunder was a weekly British comics periodical published by Fleetway Publications from 17 October 1970 to 13 March 1971. A boys' adventure comic, the title only lasted for 22 editions before being merged with another Fleetway title, the long-established Lion.
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"The Astounding Adventures of Charlie Peace" is a British comic strip published in the weekly anthology Buster from 27 June 1964 to 15 June 1971, published by Fleetway Publications and later IPC Magazines. It was previewed by a single instalment in Valiant on 20 June 1964. The strip featured fictionalised adventures of the real-life Victorian era criminal Charles Peace.
The Dwarf is a British comic character who has appeared in eponymous strips published by IPC Magazines. The character, a criminal genius who operated an army of highly realistic robots, first appeared in the anthology title Jet on 8 May 1971. The strip mixed adventure and comedy elements, with the Dwarf frequently breaking the fourth wall to address readers directly.
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