For me personally, 2023 has been a pretty good year, culminating in the best holiday season yet. So yep, after a couple of tough years things are definitely on the up and looking pretty for the one ahead. I know for some the 1st of January is “just another day” but to many it’s a symbolic moment of newness, a chance to look forward to a whole 12 months of possibilities. That’s certainly true for me this year, I have to say.
As you can see Christmas has been full of friends, fun, laughter, food, cherished traditions and a cat. A cat will always make everything even better. I’ve had a wonderful December, not just in real life away from this MacBook, but also while I’ve been in front of its screen writing the blog. The site has also beaten its previous record for visitors this year (again) and I couldn’t be more thankful to you all for your support and kind words throughout 2023.
There are big plans afoot for both the blog and myself in 2024. In fact, there’s so much happening on the OiNK Blog this coming year that I’ve had to plan pretty much all of it out, working out what’s going to be published when for the entire year. There’s just so much to come and I want to make sure I write it all! There’s also a pet project of mine I’ll announce later in the year when I’ve actual concrete work to show you, something that will spin off from the blog into the world of physical paper.
I’m really excited for the year ahead and I hope you all have aVery, Very Happy New Year and a fun 2024!
Released towards the end of the summer in 1988 and advertised in the final two issues of OiNK, after the comic’s cancellation it felt like a long time coming for The OiNK! Book 1989 to finally fall into my trotters on Christmas Day that year. As I mentioned in the preview post, with a reduction in pages from the previous annual and a thinner paper stock it really does feel a lot smaller this time around. But it’s still 68 pages (including cover) of prime pork. That’s got to be reason enough to celebrate, surely?
The cover by acclaimed OiNK illustrator J.T. Dogg (real name Malcolm Douglas) is equal parts gorgeous and gruesome, with some little icky details for kids to pour over. It’s bold and brash and certainly stood out amongst the other children’s annuals, just like OiNK always had. In fact, it stood out even more than it had in the adverts because they decided to swap the colours of the logo around, possibly because it would work better against that dark brown background. I think it works much better this way (and we still get the pink regardless).
That background gives a hint as to what was on the back cover. I remember seeing it in the shop and half expecting it to be the rear of the butcher’s head, this cover clearly being a riff on the piggy face from The OiNK! Book 1988 and I laughed quite loud when I turned it over that first time. We’ll get to that at the end, we’ve the insides to cover first, beginning with the obligatory welcome page with something you’d only see in OiNK at the time: credits.
Genius scriptwriting from Lew after he was told by co-editor Mark Rodgers only the first two pages would be printed in colour
Uncle Pigg may be relying on more easily managed cards rather than an artist chiselling the names into stone like last year, but this bright and colourful welcome was just what the piggy ordered when I opened it on Christmas morning. Even today it feels like reuniting with old friends. Yes, the comic may have only ended two months ago but Ian Jackson’s contributions were becoming rarer so this is a wonderful return to form. It’s great to see certain names back too, especially Jeremy Banx who had left when the comic went monthly.
Halfway through reading the book it was clear to me what I was going to highlight first and it’s more gorgeousness from J.T. Dogg, this time written by Lew Stringer. That combination can only mean one thing, it’s Ham Dare: Pig of the Future. Last seen in The OiNK! Book 1988 I’d always remembered Ham and Pigby in serialised stories, yet only their first one was published that way. Here they get a three-page tale with a genius piece of scriptwriting from Lew after he was told by co-editor Mark Rodgers that only the first two would be printed in colour.
Normally a comic would just carry on regardless on to the black and white page but if something is “normally” done then we should really know by now that’s not what OiNK would do. Actually having it referred to is genuinely funny and Malcolm’s work is no less lovely. The third and fourth panels of that page in particular had me roaring, between the name of the weapon beam (and the reason for it) and the name of The Weakun’s henchman!
Ham Dare would return in the OiNK! Holiday Special 1989 the following year and make the cover for the only time, with a story originally written as his second serial and I for one can’t wait. There’s another serial of sorts in here, a set of four mini-posters based on Jeremy Banx’s original Butcherwatch idea, however this time each one is drawn by a different artist. Eric ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson, Mike Higgs, Les ‘Lezz’ Barton and Banx himself. What a team! Of course, Jeremy has to have the last word, right at the very end of the book.
We just never knew when Jimmy ‘The Cleaver’ Smith would pop up, did we? While there are still three special editions of OiNK to come between now and April 2025 this book feels like an end to the regular comic. Yes, this was already in the shops and Santa already had it saved for me, but with Jimmy bursting through to threaten pig pals at the end it felt like the perfect way to wrap things up. It was like he was telling us he was always going to be about, even if the comic wasn’t.
Obviously what he says about OiNK was no longer going to be the case, but that’s because this page was created a long time before the book was published, long before the comic even went monthly, back when Jeremy was still contributing. Someone else from back in those mists of time who makes a rather brief return here (courtesy of Ian Jackson again, written by Mark Rodgers) was Hadrian Vile and his diary. It may only be half a page, and the captions aren’t typed out, but boy was I happy to see him again no matter how briefly.
Way back in the preview issue’s review I mentioned how Burp’s story in OiNK would culminate in an epic tale that taught a very young me about puberty. You may have thought I was joking. Well, maybe it was a slight exaggeration. Raging Puberty is a huge eight-page Burp strip from Banx, set in the far future and recounting an ancient rite of passage amongst the alien species, using our pal (their “lost son”) as an example.
I read and enjoyed this strip during Christmas 1988, particularly the daft fight that takes place, the imaginative weaponry and the funny designs. However, skip forward a few years and a young teenage me decided to reread the book for the first time since. I saw this next strip in a completely different light. I thought, “How did they get away with this?” on more than one occasion while outrageously laughing (before taking it to school to show to all my friends, obviously).
Straight away the descriptive captions are classic Banx, reminiscent of some absolutely brilliant Burp strips in the later fortnightlies when he was often given a double-page spread to fill with his unique style of storytelling. Even though this is a comic strip the words alone paint such a picture that the images are barely needed. But what on Earth (or elsewhere) has this got to do with the title and the reason I found it so funny a few years later? The answer is found on the next page.
Not exactly subtle and that’s why I couldn’t believe OiNK, a children’s comic, got away with this. But even beyond The Round Furry Things there’s so much to laugh along with here, such as the grizzled old warrior who was tired of being a boy and Burp’s innocence at what he thought being a grown up was all about. Then there’s the dramatic change in angle with the lone caption, “and Burp had a very sweet tooth.” It reminds me of that famous, “and the dolphin’s name was Keith” moment from Jeremy’s Mr Big Nose in #22.
I’ve really missed his work in the comic.
I’m not sure if it’s just a good gag or if Jeremy was making a bit of a point with the first panel on the fifth page, but I think it’s both funny and poignant that battle cries and fear sound exactly the same. Then the story takes a brief break to detail Gunk’s weapon of choice, the Mauser! Only Jeremy could come up with a gun that feeds electricity to a small rodent’s fear receptors to provoke it to do a literal death stare. The silencer is just the icing on the cake.
Arguably the next page is even funnier. The fight escalates, Burp using his unique bodily functions we’ve all come to know and love and be grossed out by, then as it’s all building to a climax the story casually breaks again to have a closer look at another animal-based weapon. Burp is usually a pacifist but it suits him, doesn’t it? We even get a bit of Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront, although that would definitely have gone over my head in 1988.
It all has to end in an even sillier manner and it does so with aplomb. As a fan it’s fun to see the insides of Burp’s body again and how the little fellas do all their hard work for nothing. On the final page is a message that as a kid I took to mean we should never want to grow up, that adults are just silly, so why would we want to be them? As an adult now and looking around at the world today, I think that message is pretty much on point.
Jeremy Banx was both shocked and dismayed, joking about how concerned he was for my wellbeing
So anyway, a few years later I hit that time when things start to change and life can feel very confusing. It wasn’t something we talked with our friends about, we didn’t realise what was going on after all, but then I happened to read this again. I’m not going to say things suddenly made sense! (Did you read it?!) But it was enough for me to realise I wasn’t alone and it could be something to look back on and have a giggle about, so it couldn’t be all that bad.
I once mentioned to Jeremy how a young and impressionable me viewed this strip in my early teenage years and he was both shock and dismayed, joking about how concerned he was for my wellbeing. Typical Jeremy response. So, having been mentioned in the very first OiNK review on the blog we’ve now finally covered it and finished our regular read through, coming full circle. I’ve loved seeing this again after all these years.
Moving on and yes, the dreaded reprints we saw a handful of in the monthlies have even made their way into the annual, introduced by Uncle Pigg, promoted as a way for readers to check out what they may have missed out on. Even though I’d only started reading OiNK at #14 as a child there were still a few strips here I’d read before. But, even though I hadn’t read the majority I still felt these dampened the book as a whole, especially considering there’d already been a page cut.
As it turns out there are ten pages of reprints, meaning there are actually only 54 interior pages of new content. That’s only six more than the recent monthly issues or a Holiday Special. Even as a child I was very aware of this. These reprint pages are really the only place you’ll find mini-strips too. The rest is made up of much larger fare. There’s even a three-page Psycho Gran and a five-page Spectacles of Doom (which you can see some of in artist Andy Roper’s obituary).
The new content here is superb, second-to-none and some of the very best OiNK ever produced
This means the book is a rather quick read, especially if you skip the reprints. According to co-editor Patrick Gallagher cost cutting is partly to blame after Fleetway Publications took over from IPC Magazines (who had published the first half of OiNK’s run including the first book) and OiNK had survived the first round of cancellations. There’s a chance all the larger material here was already complete when Fleetway started to see the comic’s fortunes in a more negative light during the latter weeklies/early monthlies, and maybe the plugged was simply pulled on the rest of the book.
When OiNK’s stablemate titles such as Buster and Whizzer and Chips had 112 pages in their annuals for the same price (albeit cut down from 128) you couldn’t help but feel short changed as a pig pal. The new content here is superb, second-to-none and some of the very best OiNK ever produced! But I can’t help but wonder how amazing this book could’ve been! It could even have topped the previous one. With silly pages like this next one, it’s easy to see how.
Only in an OiNK Book could such a simple, cheeky gag like this take up a full page and be illustrated and coloured so gorgeously. However, even with all of these brilliant highlights I think I may have saved the fan favourite for last, at least as far as my memories are concerned. That’s because in 1988 it was so exciting and so funny to see two of Lew Stringer’s creations in the same strip, especially when they’re Pete and his Pimple and…. Pigswilla!
Actually, we even get Tom Thug popping up too (alongside his own snowy, Christmassy strip elsewhere), so that’s two-thirds of the Buster mergers included and it’s nice to see Pete reading OiNK again instead of that other comic. Ignore the heartbreaking caption about OiNK still being a periodical and watch as Pete’s pimple becomes the latest giant monster that only an equally giant robotic pig can save the world from.
I just love that panel showing us the pimple “terrorising the cities”. It may only be a small cameo for Pigswilla’s final appearance but we did get a superb epic strip for him back in #66 so this is a nice little addendum to say goodbye. Not that it would’ve been written as one but it works nicely anyway. When reading children’s stories to my friends’ kids I think I’ll stick to the moon being made of cheese, though. (Also, did you ‘spot’ the slightly obscured dig at W.H. Smith?)
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at just some of the highlights from The OiNK! Book 1989. In more recent years I’ve seen some pig pals online somewhat dismiss it as nothing more than an inferior version of the first one. I hope I’ve been able to enlighten you a little on why some of the changes may have occurred and, most of all, shown you that the content in it is top notch OiNK all the way. Yes, it’s a little frustrating because this could’ve been a classic OiNK Book through and through, but the team still produced some of their very best work for it. If you see it on eBay you should definitely splash out the few quid it’ll cost you for some of the best laughs you’ll ever get from a comic book.
Just like last year the outro concludes what began earlier and, while it’s yet another example of the book publicising the ongoing comic after it was canned, it’s another great page by Ian Jackson. It’s always funny to see Mary Lighthouse get her comeuppance too, isn’t it? With superb script work throughout, plenty of laughs to be had, some stunning artwork and some gorgeous colours, The OiNK! Book 1989 may feel a little unfinished but as a way of ending the regular run of OiNK during the festive season it’s a pretty perfect piggy publication.
Just that back cover to go before I let you get back to that selection box you promised yourself you wouldn’t open again until Boxing Day. That hint on the front I alluded to earlier looked a bit like a wood effect finish behind the butcher’s head, don’t you agree? There’s a good reason for that.
So here it is, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there.
I hope you’re all ready for a day of feasting, gifting, a little morning tipple (followed unironically by Schloer at dinner time) and maybe even a giggle along with The OiNK! Book 1989 here on the blog tomorrow, or the last Transformers Annual as we wrap up the epic seven-year real time read through over on the blog’s Instagram.
Whether it’s a big celebratory day or a quiet one in the comfort of your own home, may your day be merry and bright. May you enjoy your Christmas Day as much as Smudge seems to enjoy my Sonic the Hedgehog Christmas jumper whenever I go to visit him. Have a great one everyone and thank you so much for all of your support all year!
By the time this second Knight Rider Annual was being written the team had had more of a chance to become acquainted with the series and it shows. Don’t get me wrong, the previous book was a fun read with some simply beautiful David Lloyd artwork and writer Steve Moore had nailed the early characterisations of both Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. from the pilot movie. However, this year the stories definitely benefited from the broadcast of more episodes. K.I.T.T.’s capabilities have also been expanded andMichael feels more rounded.
Released in the summer of 1984 for that festive season, this annual is set during the second season of the show. In the UK, where programmes would normally begin airing about six months after the US back in the 80s, Knight Rider had proven to be such a phenomenal success for ITV that they broke with that tradition, moving straight on to season two the week after season one finished. So Steve and David had a wealth of episodes to work from and as a result there’s a different feel to this book. Let’s begin and I’ll show you what I mean.
This year’s origins feature focuses on Wilton Knight, the millionaire philanthropist who created Knight Industries and its F.L.A.G. (Foundation for Law and Government) division, who saved Michael from certain death before passing away himself in the pilot movie. Wilton was played so memorably by Richard Basehart (Moby Dick, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, La Strada) his commanding vocals were heard every week in the opening credits. The feature tracks his history back to World War 2 and the origins of that famous “criminals who operate above the law” line.
It’s also the first time it’s confirmed that it was cancer that killed him, though it was implied in the pilot movie. Apart from continuing to misspell Devon Miles’ name as ‘Deven’ this is a flawless introduction to the show and with all of the extra information it’s something fans should hunt out the book for. After Devon’s immigration into the US we find out there were flaws with how F.L.A.G. operated at the beginning. Remaining inside the same rules the criminals flouted was leading nowhere, so from the late 1970s research into a new project began, which would eventually lead to K.I.T.T.
It’s a brilliant start and benefits from extra research into the background of the series’ story. So it’s weird that the first strip, Beware of Imitations, is a rip off of a very popular story from the TV show. In the programme, K.A.R.R. was the prototype for K.I.T.T. However, while K.I.T.T.’s primary directive was the preservation of human life, K.A.R.R.’s was self-preservation (originally thought to be the best way to protect the driver). Here, we’ve got another ‘twin’ for the supercar. There’s a wonderfully atmospheric first page but then it boils down to a new female version of K.I.T.T. being prepared in record time, completely contradicting the introductory feature on the previous pages.
There are mentions made of the shortcuts taken and the fact only the nose of the car is armoured, but seeing it turbo boost etc. makes it seem like K.I.T.T. (and by extension K.A.R.R.) isn’t all that special after all. It’s not even all that fun, other than the solution to stopping the car is K.I.T.T. landing a turbo boost on top of it! Beautiful artwork from David Lloyd again though, with loads of fast action and big, impactful panels of destruction at the hands (tyres?) of the female car.
The first prose story is called Games People Play and involves industrial espionage in the video game industry, something else we’d have seen in the series by this point. However the episode in question, Nobody Does It Better, wouldn’t have aired when this was written so it’s more of a coincidence. Also, back in 1984 the video game explosion was in full force and it was a subject ripe for this hi-tech TV show.
The mission seems simple enough to begin with. Michael needs to protect Dr. Lesley Kelly, a gaming company’s lead engineer until she can complete the first build of their next hit title after some failed kidnap attempts. Michael is instantly attracted to Dr. Kelly but Lesley makes it crystal clear the feeling isn’t reciprocated, but she warms to K.I.T.T., speaking to him on a level footing and adding an enjoyable character dynamic between the three of them.
There are lots of little clues for the reader to pick up on before the big reveal of what’s really going on. It’s just a shame the person behind it all is revealed to be awfully similar to that of the aforementioned episode, an unfortunate coincidence in this case because viewers will see the shock ending coming a mile off. This doesn’t make it any less enjoyable though, with Michael resorting to stealthy tactics to protect someone who doesn’t want his protection, K.I.T.T. delivering some killer lines and it all comes to a climax below a frozen lake! It’s a scene the series simply wouldn’t have had the budget to handle properly and is exactly the kind of story these books are perfect for.
Back in the 1980s we had to rely on magazines to keep us abreast of the latest news about our TV shows or to find out more about our favourite celebrities. One such title was Look-In, the ‘Junior TV Times‘ mentioned in the previous Knight Rider Annual review. Alongside the weekly strip there’d be occasional interviews and features about the show, as well as full-page photographs of its stars, automotive and otherwise, which this second annual has in abundance. That’s right, cue some very 80s pin-ups.
Other such pages include photos of Rebecca Holden (who played K.I.T.T.’s Cyber Technician April Curtis in season two) on a cross trainer in her living room and Michael Knight himself David Hasselhoff in his running gear. Clearly the team behind the annual believed the teen audience wouldn’t appreciate some photos of the superb Edward Mulhare and leaving out K.I.T.T. seems criminal! It feels like the book is trying to appeal both to the readers keen for action stories as well as those who’d buy Look-In for the attractive celebrities inside.
While I wouldn’t have had any interest in cutting these out, this shift in focus from the first annual does bring something else Look-In was great at. In here are two brilliant interviews with none other than The Hoff and Rebecca themselves. Quite the scoop. In A Knight and His Damsel David talks about his relationship with fiancée Catherine Hickland who played Stephanie Mason, the fiancé to Michael Long before he died and was reborn with a new life and identity. She’d appear in a trilogy of episodes across the four seasons, including the episode that would act as the finale. As such it’s strange her guest role isn’t mentioned at all here.
But what is here is fascinating, telling the story of David’s rise to stardom, the tragic loss of his agent, how he and Catherine met and how she kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, especially when Knight Rider took off. There are even some funny anecdotes about Catherine’s reactions to the times David would do some of his own stunts, such as high speed driving or even hanging from a helicopter. Just as an aside, the couple married at the end of season two, their wedding day reproduced for that final episode in season four. They then divorced a few years later and in 1992 Catherine went on to marry an actor by the name of Michael E. Knight!
Anyway, back to the book.
“Cathy gets mad when [female fans] approach me in the street and I can’t blame her. These women tell me they think I’m gorgeous or something like that and invite me home… right in front of her. I tell them that Cathy is my fiancée but it doesn’t put them off.”
David Hasselhoff
This next feature was a very pleasant surprise. I’ve bought quite a few Knight Rider books in my time, mostly fan-written and while some of them are great they’re usually quite light on depth, offering up nuggets of information episode-by-episode gleaned from obviously much longer interviews. I long for a book with plenty of in-depth discussions with the writers, cast and crew which doesn’t feel the need to break it down like that. So you can imagine my joy when I came across five garishly coloured pink pages and a proper, lengthy interview with Rebecca Holden.
Despite having the ever-so-80s and cringeworthy subtitle of ‘The Beauty With Brains’ it’s a great read covering Rebecca’s past, her family life and her career. She talks at length about what it was like to work on Knight Rider, especially coming on to an already established show and replacing a popular character. Most interestingly, or perhaps frustratingly for fans of April, we find out some plans the producers had for the character in later years, but of course this was her only season, with Bonnie returning in season three.
It’s clear Rebecca was incredibly proud of the character she portrayed and was looking forward to developing April more, emphasising how rare it was for a strong female character to feature as a regular in a series like this at the time. Certainly, the show explored April’s character more in one year than in all three seasons with Bonnie and while the latter will forever be a fan favourite, I’ve a soft spot for April. I think that has a lot to do with Rebecca herself and her ability to switch naturally between the technical, the dramatic and genuinely funny moments in an instant.
Talking about what the fans wanted, as I touched upon last year it’s hard to describe to those raised in a world of the internet just how exciting it was for us to see photos of K.I.T.T. It was a huge selling point for any magazines which featured him, such was the pull of the show and of this car. If you didn’t have a VCR you’d see the show once a week and that was it, so you relied on books and magazines to get your fix. I remember at some point during the four years Knight Rider was on we got our first VCR and a year or so later for Christmas Santa Claus brought me my very own 3-hour blank VHS cassette. I was so excited! It meant I could now record and rewatch Michael and K.I.T.T. over and over and over again.
All this made features based around him even more exciting, even if he only got three pages to himself this year. What we do get is a fun little look into how his personality changed over the first and second seasons, a more accurate representation of his capabilities and limitations compared to the previous annual, as well as the physical gadgets of the car in which he resides (such as Turbo Boost etc). Although, it’s a bit of a stretch to say he “is also self-repairing, and rarely has to go into one of F.L.A.G.’s garages for servicing”. While this sounds more in line with the 2008 sequel series, it’s actually a reference to his ability to self-diagnose, a highly advanced feature of high-level computers at the time.
Back to the fiction and prose story Bandit Queen is another standout. The fictional Central American Republic of Havamala has been at war for a while now, the government and guerrillas pretty evenly matched and neither side making headway. The once beautiful country has been devastated by battles and Melanie Black, the ‘Bandit Queen’ has used this as the perfect cover. Originally pretending to be on the side of the guerrillas, they disowned her after discovering she’s wanted in the US for armed robbery, murder and terrorist offences. With no hope of official extraction in the middle of a war, Michael and K.I.T.T. find themselves crossing into this dangerous land to find Black and bring her back to America for trial.
Straight away the dialogue between our two heroes is perfect. The way they speak to each other matches the rhythms of the series in such a way I could hear David’s and William Daniels‘ voices as I read it. The journey to Black’s compound is equal parts action and lovely descriptive moments of the tragedy of war as Michael sees the potential in the country and its people destroyed by the fighting. It’s a surprisingly mature outlook on the consequences of war and completely fitting for the character of Michael. He’s a Vietnam vet and clearly recognises this scenario.
The second Knight Rider Annual is a perfect example of the genre and offers depth and interest beyond what you’d probably expect
So, under the cover of night, and with Black’s compound shrouded in darkness with no lights to give away its position to enemy aircraft, we’ve the perfect set up for this unique partnership to strut their stuff. Using K.I.T.T.’s sensors to sneak up on the gate, Michael disabling the guards while K.I.T.T. disables the electronic alarms, scanning for their target, deducing possible routes through the buildings, analysing their tactics together, it all feels just right. It’d make a hell of a great episode too, especially when, just like the best TV stories, it doesn’t go as expected.
A last minute upset means the carefully worked out plan is thrown out and they have to act by the seat of their pants, or the treads of their tyres. It’s great fun and rockets towards the end without sacrificing any of the earlier depth or characterisation. By contrast the final strip, Crime-Buster K.I.T.T. is a fun little distraction, even if it is another idea taken direct from the television, as two criminals con their way past Michael to steal his car.
We can’t say this is a coincidence this time because right back in the pilot movie Jackson and Browne (hilariously played by Michael D. Roberts and Bert Rosario) tried a few times to steal the shiny new Pontiac Trans Am and eventually succeeded. What K.I.T.T. put them through, and how he got rid of them in the end by driving to a police station and literally ejecting them into the hands of the law, is exactly what happens here, albeit with different characters. This similarity makes the strip rather forgettable, it would’ve been better as a fun reenactment of a favourite scene for younger viewers. But hey, any excuse to get such lovely David Lloydartwork is fine by me.
The second Knight Rider Annual is a great book for fans and curiosity seekers of 80s retro goodies. This is a perfect example of the genre of 80s TV tie-ins and offers depth and interest beyond what you’d probably expect. It feels like a proper progression of what came before, despite the lack of K.I.T.T.-based features, but we did get plenty of them last year. What will the rest of the series contain? As Knight Rider is my favourite thing in the universe I can’t wait to find out, and you’ll find out right along with me during Christmas 2024.
Don’t forget there’s also a special interview with David Lloyd already up on the blog, in which he reminisces about working on these first two books and shared some of his original design sketches.
The almighty trinity of 80s TV shows for me were Knight Rider, Airwolf and The A-Team. A finer trilogy of series would be hard to find. With Michael and K.I.T.T. already enjoying their own yearly real time read through it’s time to move on to Stringfellow Hawke, Dominic Santini, Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III aka Archangel and their supersonic hi-tech helicopter, Airwolf. Unfortunately there was only ever one Airwolf Annual, released for Christmas 1985. Is it a goodie?
Unlike the majority of licenced annuals I read as a kid this one wasn’t produced by Grandreams or Marvel and instead was published by World International Publishing. I recognise the logo but am unaware if I ever owned any of their annuals to gleam what this might be like in comparison to Grandreams’ Knight Rider books for example, so the only way to find out is to nose dive right in.
The opening spread is a good start, with a rare behind-the-scenes photograph from the series. Airwolf itself (or “herself” as the characters would have said) was a gorgeous piece of production design. Underneath it all is a standard Bell 222A chopper, not that you could tell! A few years before Airwolf the writer of the Blue Thunder movie, Dan O’Bannon, described that film’s helicopter as a “fast, black wasp” in his script, then described what appeared on the screen as a standard helicopter with a whole bunch of crap hanging off it.
Airwolf definitely fitted his original idea much better. The idea behind it was a wolf in sheep’s clothing (hence the uniform patch you can see on the cover). It was meant to look like an executive helicopter until battle commenced, when guns and missile launchers would slide out, and inside was a control centre full of technology for use on covert operations that made us 80s kids drool.
The book kicks off with a quick two-page fact-file feature. It’s not brilliantly designed but does include the introduction used as part of the opening credits in season one and a word-for-word recreation of Marella’s (Archangel’s top assistant from The Firm) description of Airwolf from the pilot movie. Well, it’s almost word-for-word. Apparently the original ending of “Airwolf is a Mach 1+ chopper that can kick butt” was too much for the annual. Really?
Unlike the Knight Rider annuals which had a pretty even mix of gorgeous comic strips and prose stories, pin-ups, interviews and behind-the-scenes features, Airwolf’s annual is more basic in its list of contents. One lone strip is accompanied by no less than seven text stories. There are a small handful of pin-ups, a basic board game, a helicopter name wordsearch and a two-page look at some other helicopters from the real world (not exactly ‘exclusive’ content).
So yes, the prose stories are the main (turbo) thrust of this book and in general they’re very good, each one reading like the final act of a really enjoyable episode. There is a big caveat with that though, which we’ll get to in a bit. Unfortunately there’s no indication inside the book of who wrote these. Whoever it was seems to have had a good handle on the show, at least the first season which was probably all that had been shown in the UK when this was written well in advance of its publication date.
The best stories are A Hostage to the Storm and Border Incident. The former is the first in the book so we’re off to a great start. It has an interesting setup in which the cargo ship Galveston Star makes its way through a buffeting storm, described as a vessel procured by a mysterious man called Robert Hughes, who paid off the shipping company’s $10 million loan in return for registering his ship with them. Apparently used to shift tractor spares around the world no one has ever been able to confirm this.
In reality Robert Hughes is Archangel and the Galveston Star is used to ferry Airwolf to far off countries, kind of like how the semi-trailer truck transported K.I.T.T. in Knight Rider. I love this idea and wish the series itself had implemented it. The Firm has lost contact with a weapons satellite and are taking its creator, Professor Viljoen to Angola where he’ll go up in Airwolf to try to reestablish contact before it falls into enemy hands. Except, it’s all a ruse.
The Professor’s son has been missing since Vietnam and he’s exhausted all his options to find him. Even the government seems to have given up. He thought once The Firm was in Angola where he’d safely landed the satellite (after finding out his son had been taken there) and he told them his story, they’d have no choice but to help a desperate father. Of course Archangel fumes about the betrayal but String and Dom think they can help.
The scene is something the show just wouldn’t have been able to reproduce, so it’s exactly the kind of thing fans would love to read
With Angola, Cuba and Russia all involved in the plot the writer is very familiar with the Cold War stories of the show’s first year. There are also plenty of great character interactions, everyone acting just as they would on TV, especially our Airwolf crew’s patter and the way they’re able to manipulate Archangel into doing the right thing. There’s also a thrilling take off from the cargo bay of the ship in the middle of the storm, the ship swaying wildly while Hawke expertly counters the movements as they hover inside the ship and finally take Airwolf out into the safety of the sky.
The only real problem here is the choice of images to illustrate the story. The scene I’ve just described in particular is something the show just wouldn’t have been able to reproduce, so it’s exactly the kind of thing fans would love to read. However, it’s illustrated with a rather bland image of Airwolf moving away from the ship with Archangel and Marella apparently watching. I say apparently, because we only see them from the back.
This leads me on to the main problem with the annual: the art illustrating the prose stories. Any images of the characters or of Airwolf itself are copied straight from stills of the show, as if they’ve been traced from a television screen. With every single image I could point you towards the episode and scene in question (I’m a huge fan if you hadn’t guessed) that has been passed off as original art. It’s like an 80s version of all that terrible A.I. art.
It means very few of the illustrations relate to the plots of the stories. Any that are original are pretty poor and have as little detail in them as possible, such as above with characters facing the other way. In another drawing in the book String, Archangel and Marella are recoiling from an explosion and they all just happen to have their hands covering their faces so the artist doesn’t have to draw them. Although, you can see enough of Marella to see she’s been portrayed as a white woman! This is just laziness (and offensive).
Then we get to the villains. Obviously these are original characters so surely they have to be drawn properly? Have a look at these three examples. No, I didn’t realise Donald Pleasance‘s Blofeld, Gert Frobe‘s Goldfinger or Peter Cushing were all Airwolf characters either. (Thanks to OiNK‘s David Leach for helping me name Peter here – he was on the tip of my tongue!)
For a show that was so visual, that had such incredible aerial photography, the annual falls drastically short in this regard. The artist chosen to illustrate the vast majority of a book based on such a TV show seems to be completely out of their depth. Thankfully renowned IPC/Fleetway artist Sandy James steps in for the six-page comic strip tucked away in the middle of the book, called Snow to Eskimos. However, it appears even one of my favourite Ring Raiders artists isn’t that familiar with the source material either.
This first image brought me a lot of hope. Despite Airwolf being completely the wrong colour at least it looks like itself and Sandy hasn’t resorted to copying images from the show. However, as fans will see below, it all goes downhill from there. What is that interior all about when the missiles are actually launched from the flight stick? Since when did Airwolf have DeLorean doors? Where is Archangel’s eye patch?
That last panel in particular makes me think Sandy had never seen the show, which is fair enough, but after David Lloyd told me all about the research he did in order to draw the Knight Rider annuals it’s very disappointing. If Sandy was only working from a script then it was clearly written by someone unfamiliar with the show and not our prose stories author. It’s a truly terrible script, with dull, robotic dialogue and little of consequence happening.
However, the annual’s main writer definitely knew their stuff! Let’s have a quick run through of the other stories before I tell you more about my second favourite.
Shotgun Doublecross starts with all of the key Airwolf visuals. The cabin. The lake. The eagle. The cello. Tet the dog. Hawke’s insanely good hearing. He’s kidnapped from his home and told he must use Airwolf to help traffic some planes across Mexican airspace for a cartel because his long-lost brother Sinjin is also on board. He goes up against The Firm for this one and there’s some great dialogue between the key players. You can almost hear the actors saying their lines.
Desert Death Trap is a basic rescue mission story but is imaginatively portrayed, the action playing out just like one of the show’s thrilling dogfights, painting exciting pictures in the readers’ heads (to make up for the ones on the page). Flames Over the Water revisits the death of Hawke’s family on the lake, something only touched upon in the pilot movie. The opening page in particular is surprisingly beautifully written for an annual.
The so-called villain of the piece is seeking revenge on the US because of the death of his one true love by indiscriminate American bombing campaigns, placing the Airwolf crew in a more sympathetic position. Then In the Shadow of the Wolverine involves a covert op for The Firm gone wrong, a Cold War prisoner swap in a blizzard and a brilliantly written character whose allegiances kept me guessing to the very end.
It paints a wonderful picture of serenity when the cabin didn’t feel like an isolated place but was instead full of warmth and love
Then there’s Day of the Hunter which is a very silly story right at the back of the book, so unfortunately the whole thing ends on a low note. Believe it or not it involves Airwolf, a train and another helicopter all inside a railway tunnel. No, really! If the rest of the prose stories feel like grittier season one fare, this is straight out of the still enjoyable but much lighter third and fourth seasons.
But back to that other story I’d listed as a favourite. Border Incident kicks off with Dom reminiscing about happier times, when all of the Hawke family were alive, happy and at home. It paints a wonderful picture of serenity when the cabin didn’t feel like an isolated place but was instead full of warmth and love, and the portrayals of String and Sinjin as children are both funny and feel completely accurate even though we never saw their younger selves on the show.
String has taken Airwolf on a mission alone. Now, fans will instantly think this isn’t possible because Airwolf needs at least a two-person crew. Unfortunately there’s no explanation of how that’s achievable, and some of the ‘copters abilities used here would be impossible without Dom being in the rear cabin. But we’ll forget about that and put it down to a simple misunderstanding on the part of the writer because the rest of the story is fantastic.
It’s an uncharacteristic but deliberate decision by String, setting the reader on edge right from the off. As it turns out this particular mission once again involves the possibility of Sinjin being found. But String was doubtful about the source of the information and wanted Dom to work the case from the outside, where the villain character wouldn’t be watching. Dom could go undercover and find out the truth, while being ready just in case they needed to fight their way back out.
Knowing Dom would never have allowed him to go alone he took Airwolf and then cheekily got Archangel and Marella to pick up Dom and tell him. There’s a very funny scene where Dom is ranting and raving to the two Firm operatives, not listening to a word of their explanation about the mission, until they tell him String knew he wouldn’t have allowed him to go alone. To which Dom suddenly calms down, basically says, “Yep, that’s right” and heads off on the mission!
There’s an exciting climax involving Airwolf down a booby-trapped mine shaft which again would never have been seen on TV, at least not without those very unconvincing models some of our action shows used back then. Again, there are no images to go with it, the closest being the one above which is basically the annual’s opening spread image of Airwolf with some poorly drawn cliff faces around it.
After all these years I never thought I’d get to discover any new Airwolf material
In conclusion, for fans this is really a book of two halves: the writing and the art. While it’s nice to see any artwork of Airwolf these days it’s instantly forgettable, however that shouldn’t put anyone off buying it. There are no introductions for those unfamiliar with the plot of the show but for those up to speed there are six great stories here (and the other two are easily forgotten). After all these years I never thought I’d get to discover any new Airwolf material so that in and of itself has been a joy.
For most fans season one is the best of Airwolf and the closest to creator Donald P. Bellisario’s vision (before the studio started interfering from season two onwards). The annual keeps to the Cold War theme of that season and the humour of the interactions between the main characters is present, cutting through the drama and intrigue perfectly. On the one hand it’s a shame there isn’t more variety to its contents, but now that I’ve finished it I wouldn’t want to sacrifice any of those six great stories to fit other things in.
The book is easily found on eBay for a few quid, so if you’re an Airwolf nut like me you really shouldn’t miss out on this. Reading it can be bittersweet at times when we remember we’ve lost all three of the main actors in recent years, but the memory of their characters lives on. For me that’s through the BluRay set on my shelf, now proudly accompanied by some superb writing in the Airwolf Annual 1986.
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