Category Archives: Knight Rider

Annuals, Christmas, Knight Rider

KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL #4: OLD TiME FUN

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Okay, let’s deal with the elephant/panther in the room. No, I’ve no idea what the deal is with this cover. The copyright notice inside shows they used a promotional image for David Hasselhoff’s music rather than Knight Rider (with K.I.T.T. in his new season four Super Pursuit Mode copied and pasted over the top). But let’s not get hung up on that, it’s time for our fourth Knight Rider Annual from 1986. I’ve really looked forward to these every year, given how the show is My Favourite Thing in the Universe and the books have been fun so far. It’s the usual 64-page hardback from Grandreams with two comic strips and what first appears to be three text stories.

On further inspection these are actually three parts of the same tale. So, a meatier prose story this time around? Let’s find out. World Stealers begins with Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. surveilling a hi-tech computer lab. As a huge Knight Rider geek I spotted a mention of K.I.T.T. having two monitors on his dashboard. As fellow fans will know the two small screens were replaced with one large display in the third season. The characters’ usual witty back-and-forth that had developed over the course of the series is certainly there, especially when Michael asks K.I.T.T. to scan the building and tell him what’s happening inside.

However, there are things like the monitors, the limited abilities the car has and Devon Miles’ name still being spelt incorrectly that lead me to believe the writer was still working from an earlier series bible. It reads much like a season one book. Yet again. After all the research David Lloyd told me was put into those first books it’s rather disappointing.

The main guest character is Mary-Evangeline Pedroza who runs a computer security company. Her work force is mainly female, because she needed the smartest people and they just happened to end up all being women. (Can you imagine the online snowflakes today?) The codes they’re supplying to clients are instantly hacked, so Michael plans to cut off the next target from the phone lines and force the thieves to physically enter the building. Little clues laid out along the way for the younger readers are blatantly obvious to the adult one. Is this going to be yet another industrial espionage inside job?

The first strip is called KITTnapped and given how an early season four episode was called KITTnap this kind of confirms the writer wasn’t watching the show they were writing about. It’s a silly story involving a disgruntled former F.L.A.G. (Foundation for Law and Government) employee who overrides K.I.T.T.’s systems far too easily to pull off a bank heist. He ends up captured because he’s too lazy to leave his house to park the car in his garage, instead using K.I.T.T.’s unique and easily traceable radio frequency to control it remotely.

The annual contains the usual mix of puzzles and games that aren’t related to the series at all other than a small picture of a character or a title that tangentially links it to the premise. For example, ‘Bonnie’s American States of USA’ and ‘Bonnie’s US Presidents’ word games. At least in the middle of the book the clichéd board game actually relates to the subject, complete with more art by Jim Eldridge who illustrates the whole book.

In part two of World Stealers, Michael and K.I.T.T. find where the thieves’ jet landed and are told by workers at the airport it was flown by women who then took off in a helicopter. It’s not subtle, is it? The best part happens while the pair are tracking the helicopter. They find themselves on a narrow road in a small village, trapped between two lorries. The one in front is a large articulated lorry with a ramp leading up inside it. (Gee, I wonder if that’s important?) It’s when the lorry behind them starts pushing K.I.T.T. towards the ramp that the really fun moment occurs.

Michael quickly asks K.I.T.T. about the composition of the metal in the truck they’re being pushed towards, as well as the dimensions of the trailer and cab. He then takes a big risk, speeding forward and hitting turbo boost just as they go up the ramp, crashing through the front part of the trailer and over the cab. I’m not sure how the show could’ve done this other than with models so it’s a perfect little action scene for a book to fire the imaginations of the young readers.

After being arrested and then freed by K.I.T.T. in a copycat scene from the original pilot movie they hide out under thick trees all night to spot the helicopter, which leads them to a jungle. The text tells of the struggles of trying to get the Trans-Am through the undergrowth but there’s no dialogue! We all know K.I.T.T. would’ve been hilarious throughout this. In the end they do something else the show just couldn’t have afforded. They find a river that’s just a little deeper than the car is tall and they drive down under the surface (unforgivably not illustrated) to a James Bond villain-esque hideout and find Mary beckoning Michael to a table outside the complex where she’s poured him a drink. Again, very Bond-like.

The four-page K.I.T.T. Fact-file pales in comparison to the features from the previous annuals. Gone are the in-depth looks at K.I.T.T.’s developing personality, the stunt work or the interviews with producers and cast. Instead we get a selection of photos and some random pieces of information, not all of which are reliable. For example, there was never any such stunt planned. The “need to ground K.I.T.T.” was actually something they did with season three a couple of years prior, because it was felt K.I.T.T.’s powers were getting too outlandish and the human characters had taken a back seat. Season three corrected this and produced probably my favourite year of the show’s four.

Part three of our prose story reveals the plot was always to capture K.I.T.T. and hack into him. He’s hoisted up by a crane and dangled in mid-air as it’s (unsurprisingly) revealed it was all another inside job, just like in the previous books. This time, Mary’s plan involves being able to control the world’s computers via K.I.T.T.’s systems and hold governments to ransom. She believes men have screwed up the world and it’s time for women to fix everything. Fair enough, to be honest.

Still no chastising lines from K.I.T.T. while in his predicament but the story soon makes up for that. Scanning the building he tells Michael the room he’s locked in is directly below Mary’s (and even that she’s currently taking a shower) and a plan is formed. Michael will burst in on her while K.I.T.T. uses his turbo boost to free himself. Michael can’t see K.I.T.T. from his window but he can see the crane swinging back and forth as his computerised partner times his boosts to swing further and further until it all collapses and he’s freed. This is fun!

As you can see, K.I.T.T. finally finds his voice! From here on the banter back and forth between them is spot on. (Where has it been?) My favourite moment comes when Michael is literally about to kick down Mary’s door to capture the villain when he suddenly stops to ask K.I.T.T. to scan and see if she’s decent first. I did laugh at that! It ends with a physical fight scene between them, something we’d never have seen between a man and woman on TV at the time. In fact, the show does have a scene where Michael jumps out of the driver’s seat window to land on top of a runaway woman, but in the 90s when Knight Rider was repeated ITV cut the stunt out. (It’s always there in repeats today.)

Anyway, while World Stealers may have been rather predictable in its plotting, the action scenes were imaginative and well written. Also, when the writer took the time with the dialogue between man and computer it really worked. So whoever wrote this was obviously capable. (Although, they did have Michael use the word “babe” at one stage, which is not him!)  It’s also felt more like a full episode, rather than the fourth act of previous stories, so there’s definitely good and bad points. If I’d read it at the time I think I’d have been thrilled by it.

We finish off with another simple strip. In Rallying Cry the World Rally Champions are under investigation for cheating. Michael, (regular character and cyber technician) Bonnie Barstow and K.I.T.T. enter the race, with Devon telling them they’re not allowed to win (possibly a nice nod to them accidentally winning during such missions in the show). Once neck-and-neck with the lead car they’re run off the road and over a cliff. Of course the villains didn’t reckon on a Trans-Am capable of jumping back up again. Soon our heroes track them to where they’ve hidden their car and taken a helicopter to an identical car further along the race. Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Michael, Bonnie and K.I.T.T. easily catch up with the helicopter and with all the proof recorded they just need to stop the men from winning again. The strip is really just an excuse to have K.I.T.T. use his most popular physical abilities, such as ski mode to drive on two wheels to overtake someone on a tight stretch of road, and of course the turbo boost! This is used to jump over the cheaters’ before K.I.T.T. comes to a dead stop, the other car crushing up against him. As a nine-year-old I’m sure I would’ve loved this.

Finally for this year’s review, we can’t have a Knight Rider Annual without some 80s pin ups, can we?

Here we have Michael (David Hasselhoff), Bonnie (Patricia McPherson) and Devon (Edward Mulhare) posing with the new convertible version of K.I.T.T., David alongside one of the computerised design images of K.I.T.T.’s new Super Pursuit Mode and on the inside back cover the full season four cast, including new addition Peter Parros as RCIII. Because no stories were written with the newest season (or apparently anything beyond the first season) in mind, this is the only time we see RC in the whole book!

In conclusion then, if I’d collected these in the 80s when I was a child in awe of the show (let’s face it, I still am) I’d have read and read and read this until it was falling apart. Nowadays, after the first three superb annuals it’s lacking in certain areas, while in others it’s just as much fun, so I can forgive it. Get past that front cover and fans will have lots to enjoy here and, if you’re like me, reading it at this time of year will really bring out the kid in you.

I can’t believe we’ve only one more book to go. The time has Super Pursuit Mode’d in! (That really doesn’t work, does it?)

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KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL #3: NEW ART, OLD LOOK

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As I sit down to write this review it strikes me I’ve only watched one Knight Rider this year, and that was my mum’s favourite episode (‘Ring of Fire‘) as a tribute to her memory during the spring. There’ll be one more time with Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. in my yearly viewing of the show’s one Christmas episode (‘Silent Knight’) but first it’s time to get reacquainted with the duo on paper in the third Knight Rider Annual, published in 1985.

There’s a famous (and funny) episode of Babylon 5 in which Security Chief Michael Garibaldi spends a small sub-plot looking for someone to share his “Favourite Thing In The Universe” with, which ends up being an old Daffy Duck ‘Duck Dodgers’ cartoon. Every December I get to do the same and share a book all about my own Favourite Thing In The Universe with you lot. So now that this publication knows the pressure it’s under to deliver, does it?

The first thing I notice is that the legendary David Lloyd is no longer the artist. If this is the first Knight Rider Annual review you’re reading you need to check out the first two books (and the exclusive blog interview) to see his incredible painted work in those. The new artist for this year’s volume is Jim Eldridge (Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, TV Comic) who brings a more traditional comic style. His version of K.I.T.T.’s front end may be a lot more angular than the smooth, customised Trans-Am on the show but all the other little details are correct.

Speaking of which, the dashboard gives away just how far in advance these books were created. In America season four had started in the Autumn, just a month after this book would’ve went on sale over here, while on our UK TV screens season three was still being broadcast. However, the dashboard here is clearly that from seasons one and two, before K.I.T.T. had his big makeover. Clearly, Jim’s reference material wasn’t up-to-date.

The first story is called Crash Dive and while on a stakeout Michael and K.I.T.T. end up forced off a seaside cliff by the baddies, from where they catch sight of an underwater entry point to a secret compound and the answer to how a band of thieves’ were going undetected by police. It’s a distracting piece of fun, an excuse to get our heroes underwater and taking down a small submarine instead of yet another car. Not sure why K.I.T.T.’s scanner looks like monstrous teeth though. Maybe he was dressed as Christine for Halloween.

As ever, the prose stories have a bit more depth to their characterisations and a lot more humour between our two leads. Not too far removed from the previous book’s stories, Fire-Bug is another case of industrial espionage by an unknown arsonist. Well, I say unknown but the mystery isn’t very mysterious. But then again, the show dealt with industrial espionage via a company ‘insider’ on a few occasions too. At least here after the unsurprising reveal is made there’s one more piece of misdirection just when you think it’s all over.

The other text story is Rustlers, in which a cattle ranch owner is facing intimidation tactics from a wealthy landowner who wants her out. Again, if you’re a fan this might sound a lot like season one’s brilliant ‘Not A Drop To Drink‘ or season three’s iffy ‘The Rotten Apples‘, and you wouldn’t be wrong. I’d say inspiration has definitely been taken from the former. However, the story does go off on a tangent somewhat (dead cattle mysteriously found on the sides of mountains) and involves lots of stealthy teamwork from Michael and K.I.T.T..

It also ends with a climax I’d loved to have seen on the TV. On the show K.I.T.T. could often be found using his Microwave Jammer to stall a helicopter’s engines, forcing it to land. In Rustlers, he instead uses his grappling hook and the car’s sheer strength to physically pull one out of the sky. At ten pages this is the longest story in the book and with all of these good points it’s a shame the bad guy’s M.O. is essentially the same as the one in Fire-Bug.

While the banter between Michael and K.I.T.T. is funny, especially on the long stakeout where their personalities rub off on each other, their partnership doesn’t feel as developed as last year. Elsewhere in the book Michael and “Deven”’s (Devon’s name is still spelt incorrectly) relationship is quite confrontational, like it was at the beginning of season one when these two very different people were still getting to know each other.

Through certain stories these clashes softened and by the end of the season they were firm friends. This book’s writer seems to be working from earlier series notes compared to last year, leading me to believe it’s no longer Steve Moore from the first two books. Why would he take his characters backwards after all? K.I.T.T.’s abilities in the stories are also restricted to those from the earliest episodes. There are no credits in these annuals (other than Jim’s signature) so I can’t confirm anything but it must’ve been a complete change in editorial team and they haven’t considered these points. I probably wouldn’t cared as a child to be fair, I’d have been too excited about the book in the first place.

“Beneath the ramp is an air compressor. As I hit the ramp at speed, the air pushes the car upwards and provides much more lift than I’d normally be able to achieve.”

Jack Gill, Stunt Co-ordinator

The features this year include a few more interviews, this time with Stunt Coordinator Jack Gill, producer Gino Grimaldi and Patricia McPherson who had returned to her role as Bonnie Barstow in season three (which makes it all the more frustrating the stories don’t acknowledge the show was in its third year). Jack not only met his wife on Knight Rider, he also walked away with multiple injuries from making K.I.T.T. look so incredible on the screen.

Jack talks at one stage about lying on the floor with a hole in front of him so he could see where he was driving at high speeds. However, this was used only sparingly a few times (in one episode we clearly see him lying on the floor). For the vast majority of the high-speed stunts a hollowed out driver’s seat and a special stunt steering wheel were hidden from view. Famously, David Hasselhoff has talked about scenes where he’d have to jump into the self-driving K.I.T.T. and take over, he and “K.I.T.T.” often jokingly wrestling for control as they sped off!

Interestingly, Jack talks about how they made K.I.T.T. swim. In the show it’s a pretty (re: very) poor model but they actually did spend a lot of money on getting the real Trans Am on a floating platform and dragging it through the water. As you watch, when the camera is inside the car with David you can clearly see he’s actually on the water and there’s spray coming in through the open window. Apparently it never looked right, so they switched to models for the exteriors and wrote in April Curtis removing the ability from K.I.T.T. at the end of the episode.

Jack and his team were instrumental to the show’s success and in any interview I’ve read with him over the years he always comes across as a very likeable and modest chap. According to interviews with others that’s exactly the kind of person he was, despite the high stresses and dangers of his job. The interview with Gino is interesting too, covering everything from the writing and rewriting of scripts to how they scored the show and selected the perfect 80s pop songs for each scene.

Unfortunately the interview with Patricia is a very brief chat rather than the full interview Rebecca Holden had last year. In fact, it’s a bit of a fluff piece, which is a shame as it could’ve been a fantastic exclusive, not just given her role on the show and her much celebrated return, but also because of her activism and environmentalism in real life, something that wasn’t as prevalent in the 80s as it is now.

What would an 80s annual be without some pin ups to fill out the contents? I never knew of anyone who went to the bother of actually pinning up pages from any of our annuals, but publishers persisted. Other space fillers here aren’t as good as in previous books, in fact some of the puzzles seem to have been knocked together in minutes. For example, a simple maze page doesn’t even have any pictures of the characters, just a few lines of text asking the reader to help K.I.T.T. escape.

The book does have a second strip that’s fun though. Wise Guys sees Michael and K.I.T.T. stumble upon two bank-robbing rednecks in a souped-up car making light work of a police chase. There’s nothing original here, it could’ve been written straight after the pilot movie, but it’s light-hearted fun with K.I.T.T. at the centre of things saving the day. For the kids who could only see such things when the show was broadcast this would’ve been great fun and that’s who these book were for, after all.

Michael catches up with the bad guys in his car and one use of the oil slick later the men have careened off the road, their car damaged beyond repair. But they take a woman hostage in a nearby house and demand a clean getaway. Of course, they want the Pontiac Trans-Am that can outrun the police, and the rest writes itself. It’s the only colour strip and despite K.I.T.T.’s boxy configuration there’s a lovely retro Christmas Annual feel about the whole thing.

The following year, Marvel UK would release a special Transformers softcover book for Christmas which reprinted stories and features from the previous year’s annual and it appears Grandreams had the same idea. The year after this annual they’d strip it of the pin ups and the awful filler material and rerelease it as the Knight Rider Special, a 52-page softback with a glossy card cover (minus the annoying ‘Knight 2000’ branding superimposed on K.I.T.T.). Keeping all the best parts and getting rid of the rest it reads better than the annual itself, although it doesn’t have that hardback, childhood Christmassy feel to it.

Back to the book and with some tweaks this could’ve been the perfect third Knight Rider Annual. As it stands the stories are great fun, there’s some interesting behind-the-scenes nuggets and at a time when we couldn’t search the internet the photography from the show was always keenly perused over and over. It’s still a great nostalgia trip and, speaking of which, here’s an old photo I found last month from around the same time with a present from Santa that was my pride and joy!

Michael and K.I.T.T. (and me) will be back next year.

(Special thanks to my friend Vicki who gave me the Super Pursuit Mode K.I.T.T. featured in the book photos in my Christmas stocking last year!)

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KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL #2: KRiSTMAS K.I.T.T.

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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 and Michael 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 Lloyd artwork 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.

ANNUAL 1 < > ANNUAL 3

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Creating Comics, Interviews, Knight Rider

DRAWiNG THE KNiGHT RiDER: DAViD LLOYD iNTERViEW

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I was elated to discover how well the first Knight Rider Annual held up today when I reviewed it a few days ago. Any fears I had of a cheap cash-in were quickly dispensed with when I saw the comic strips inside. They were simply gorgeous. Coupled with fun prose tales and backed up with interesting articles featuring photographs which enthralled me as a kid, it was a superb package and one I felt proud of as an absolutely massive fan of the show.

I was thrilled to find out none other than David Lloyd (V for Vendetta, Wasteland, Hellblazer) was responsible for all of the art, both the strips and the illustrations for the prose stories. David is the editor of Aces Weekly, the superb digital anthology comic which has featured on the blog before. I thought I’d reach out and ask David if he’d be willing to answer some questions about his time working on the Knight Rider books. He said yes!

Not only was David very forthcoming with some fascinating information he also sent over scans of some of his early sketches, drawn while watching a recording of the series. These show his initial designs for K.I.T.T. and Michael, including a study of David Hasselhoff. I’m thrilled to include this post on the blog and I’m sure it’ll be as interesting to comics and Knight Rider fans alike.

OiNK Blog: I was (and I’ll admit still am) rather obsessed with Knight Rider. The show was a massive hit with families and kids of all ages. How familiar were you with it before working on the strips?

David Lloyd: I liked Knight Rider at the time too, though not quite as much you, obviously!

OB: I just love the finish of the drawings you did for the first two annuals, especially on the strips, they seemed to capture the darker atmosphere of the pilot movie in particular.

DL: I have particularly good memories about the first annual because I was very happy with the work I’d done on the wash drawing. Loved using wash and there were few places you could use it in regular comics art at the time. I had fun with the illos (illustrations in the prose stories – Phil), too.

OB: The show couldn’t have been on for very long when you started work on this, did that hamper you in any way?

DL: No problem with it not being long-running [yet] and no one’s going to wait for you to become familiar with it all before you can draw an adaptation of it. You do your job and get on with it as a professional! And anyway, annuals were usually planned during a first season of a new series in expectation of some success, enough to justify the publishing of them, and also as part of some package of various launch/promotional agreements that might have been made, so you’d normally be drawing one for a new series before it had become massive, if it was going to.

OB: The show’s newness may not have hampered David but he did have to get creative in gathering references.

DL: By the way, to add some detail, I did that first KR annual before I had a video recorder, so I asked the help of a friend who did have one, and went round to sit and sketch some details from one of the shows I’d asked him to tape for me – pausing to sketch dashboard detail, etc. If you’re interested I can scan some of those scribbles, and some Hasselhoff studies I did before starting the job. I think you’d probably like to see them.

OB: What did a study entail?

DL: Just trying to study the likeness and get his face right enough. You’ll see these were hanging around for a while on my drawing board, which is why they have all kinds of notes and stuff on them!

OB: There were no credits in the Grandreams annuals but David has let us in on who wrote the strips and prose stories.

DL: The comic scripts and the shorts were all written by the brilliant Steve Moore. In fact, he wrote everything I ever drew on all the annuals I did for Grandreams. He was so good he could write any character to be exact to their personalities in any TV show he had to write stories for. And in some of the annuals, I think his stories were better than the TV scripts.

OB: I haven’t heard of the name Steve Moore before but you’re right, his stories in these were fantastic, especially the text stories. One in particular involving an art heist would’ve made a fantastic episode and I completely agree, some of his stories were better than some of the TV scripts! He definitely got the funny partnership between man and machine perfect.

DL: I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of Steve as I’d imagined you knew a lot about Brit comics as someone running a blog named after OiNK. Everyone who was around at the period of that particular comic were mostly aware of the general scene in Brit comics at the time and its denizens. If you have heard of Alan Moore, though, then you should know that Steve – no relation but a long-time friend – taught Alan how to write comics. Steve was a great writer but never busted through into making a great international profile for himself as some including Alan were lucky enough to do. He was just a fabulous craftsman in a specialist field of writing. And he wrote a book on the I Ching called the Trigrams of Han. No ordinary guy.

OB: David went on to name some of the other titles Steve wrote for, many of which were published before I started collecting comics as a young child with OiNK (and so haven’t been covered on the blog). These titles are classics through and through.

DL: On Steve Moore – he did most of the backup strips in Doctor Who magazine that I did, he created Laser Eraser and Pressbutton for Warrior, amongst other things, and Abslom Daak Dalek Killer and Hercules comics. Check them out if you can sometime.

OB: As far as choosing which parts of those wonderfully written prose stories to illustrate…

DL: The brief on the short stories in Knight Rider, and on all the other annuals I did, was to do a bunch of scenes that you could pick yourself, so it was very freeing creatively to do those. And I had particular fun using coloured inks on the KR stuff.

OB: Can I just ask about your drawings of K.I.T.T. himself? After the first two annuals another artist took over and (I’m not just saying this) the artwork was nowhere near as good or as detailed as yours. How difficult (or indeed, fun) did you find drawing the Trans-Am in these action strips, especially that complicated dashboard?

DL: Not difficult, though I’m no great fan of drawing cars. If you have a good story to tell and enough reference to do it well and you can enjoy yourself with good characters and settings, it’s fine. I sketched enough of what I needed to sketch and used what I could from elsewhere. I don’t know who did the following KR books but annuals publishers generally used talents of varying quality – some straight out of art school, some who were just jobbing illustrators who had no real feeling for comics art, and sometimes guys who knew exactly what they were doing : ) I did a Knight Rider colouring book, too, so if you’re a completist and want to seek that out from somewhere! (I’ll add that to my eBay searches then – Phil)

OB: Of course it wasn’t just K.I.T.T., the character of Michael was just as important and thankfully you and Steve realised this too. Can I just ask you about your process for drawing the strips? They’re unlike anything else from the time that I read. Most used more standard line work, whereas yours was completely different. How did you achieve the finished look?

DL: I can’t say much about the process it would take too long. It still begins with some degree of line drawing to start with except the shading that might be done in line drawing only – with cross-hatching, etc – is substituted with black watercolour washes of varying strengths. As I said, there wasn’t much wash drawing used in most comics at the time, as you attest, so it was good for me to be able to take the opportunity I could with KR. 

OB: Just one more question, all of the images of K.I.T.T. (drawings and photos) have “Knight 2000” on his bodywork somewhere, no matter the angle. This was never the case on the show, he was meant to blend in, but I remember all of my toys as a kid had the same thing. I’m guessing it was to differentiate between Knight Rider and Pontiac Trans-Am merchandise in licensing, can you remember this being something you had to add and why?

DL: The car branding, I don’t remember any instruction about that and there are drawings of mine in the strips and illos where it isn’t added – so I forgot about it if I had been – but I think it must have been a requested requirement from the licensor because on the second page of Crime Buster K.I.T.T. in the second annual the car has the branding, but badly done, so it wasn’t done by me.  Yes, so, perhaps a contractual need from Trans-Am.

I just want to say thanks so much to David for his time, I can’t begin to describe how appreciative I am to have the chance to chat to him about Knight Rider and a book which brought so much joy to not only six-year-old me, but also to the 44-year-old who now writes about these childhood comics and books. To see more of David’s work from the first Knight Rider Annual you can check out the full review and then wait (patiently or impatiently) for the next one in twelve months’ time.

Don’t forget to subscribe to David’s Aces Weekly too, the digital anthology comic. Each volume is made up of seven weekly issues for only £7, that’s just £1 each! The entire back catalogue is also available on the website and even features work by OiNK cartoonists David Leach and Lew Stringer. So don’t miss out, click on the title below and off you go!

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Annuals, Christmas, Knight Rider

KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL #1: MAKiNG A DiFFERENCE

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“No matter what’s going on in the world or in my life, putting an episode on can bring a huge smile to my face. Don’t we all have something in our lives that does that? This is mine.”

My late grandad Ted came to my house one Sunday morning when I was a child and asked my parents if I’d seen the film on TV the night before about the fantastic car that was filled with computers, could talk, drive itself and even jump in the air. My mum hadn’t heard about it but luckily enough my grandad knew it was going to be a TV series starting the next week and he thought I might like it. He wasn’t wrong. Thus began a lifelong obsession with Knight Rider.

I may have grown out of it temporarily by the late 80s but when repeats began airing in the mid-90s my love for Michael and K.I.T.T. returned and has never gone away. Every decade since may have brought its own obsession, from Babylon 5 to Stargate SG-1, from Doctor Who to NCIS, but Knight Rider has a special place in my heart and, no matter what’s going on in the world or in my life, putting an episode on can bring a huge smile to my face. Don’t we all have something in our lives that does that? This is mine.

There wasn’t a Knight Rider comic because the trend at that time was to feature popular series in strip format inside our magazines such as Look-In, a young person’s TV guide which featured the series alongside the likes of The A-Team and Airwolf. But between 1983 and 1987 Grandreams released five Knight Rider annuals filled with strips, prose stories, puzzles, pin-ups and behind-the-scenes features and interviews. I think I only ever owned this one from 1983 though.

The series debuted this side of the Atlantic in February 1983, with the first annual released at the end of the summer and my eager young hands got a hold of it that Christmas, hence why I’m reviewing it now as part of the blog’s festivities. I remember reading the two-page Look-In strips in my sister’s magazine, with their weekly cliffhangers similar to the 60s Thunderbirds comics. However they were line drawings, not the gorgeous greyscale wash we get here.

Upon picking this annual up for the blog I wasn’t sure what to expect. I really hoped for something entertaining but over the years I’ve seen some horrible annuals quickly thrown together in order to cash in, without much love nor care for the property. As long as this wasn’t like that I’d be happy. What I didn’t expect was something of such high calibre, with an excellent creative team behind great stories illustrated with gorgeous art, alongside some fun articles. I couldn’t be happier Knight Rider received this treatment.

When I opened the book and saw the two-page introductory strip above which recaps the set up for the series not only was I in awe of the art, I was instantly transported back to that Christmas. Quickly telling the tale of Michael Knight’s original identify, being double-crossed, shot in the face and left to die, and the reconstructive surgery which resulted in his new identity and new life, we’re instantly up to speed and ready to get stuck in to what promises to be a much better book than I thought it was going to be.

The intro strip is followed by a feature explaining the background to the characters, the Foundation for Law and Government (F.L.A.G.) and the story behind the series. Some of the details here didn’t even make it into the show and were pulled from the series bible, put together by Glen A. Larson when the show was created. For the uninitiated, Wilton Knight’s Knight Industries set up F.L.A.G. as a non-profit arm of his company to help ordinary citizens fight those untouchable criminals who operate above the law.

Court battles and legal wrangling made up the majority of their work (though for obvious reasons we only heard about these happening off camera) but sometimes “direct intervention” was called for and that’s where the Knight 2000 project came in; one man in one car, that car offering him all the funding and resources of the Foundation to make a real difference in the lives of people the justice system had let down. Sounds like a good set up for a show, doesn’t it? Well, it sure was.

Of course, that one car was K.I.T.T., or rather the Knight Industries Two Thousand artificial intelligence inside the Knight 2000 car. That’s something the show (and I’m glad to say this annual) made perfectly clear; K.I.T.T. wasn’t the car, he was the A.I. inside the car; a car that could jump, drive on two wheels, create fog and oil slicks and so much more, all inside the near-indestructible molecular bonded shell capable of 300+ kph. Add in K.I.T.T. who could control all of this, drive it, remotely hack computers (a big deal back then) and give Michael computerised, forensic and scientific resources that’d make NCIS envious.

There’s even information which was new to me today. It’s full of wonderful little details fans will lap up

Knight Rider was that rare thing, a television show my whole family gathered around to watch together. It was unlike anything anyone had seen before. My sisters may have had David Hasselhoff posters on their walls, but mine were adorned with K.I.T.T., shelves packed with models of the car, books, electric toys… you name it, I had it. I remember when ITV repeated the show in the 90s and my mum, dad and a then-teenage me would still watch it together. Today, the remastered HD Blu-Ray collection takes pride of place in my own home. My love for this show will never wane.

So, intros out of the way and my obsession detailed, I can happily declare this opening feature is anything but a basic round up. Michael’s boss Devon Miles (played by the excellent Edward Mulhare) may be misspelled ‘Deven’ but there are details here from the series bible the show didn’t elaborate on until later seasons, so it must’ve been fascinating reading it in 1983. There’s even information which was new to me today. I never knew Devon originally met Wilton on a mission in France for the British S.O.E., or that his parents were killed in the blitz. Technician Bonnie Barstow’s father was a pilot who worked for Wilton and she has a Masters in Computer Science and a Doctorate in Robotics. It’s full of wonderful little details fans will lap up.

This image is taken from the first strip, Break-Out. There are two strips in the book, both of which act like the final part of an episode, so all of the detective work and build-up is out of the way and the strips can concentrate on some fun action. For example, here we see the results of the supposed damsel in distress trying to double-cross Michael only for K.I.T.T. to quite literally eject that plan. So who was behind these exciting, fun stories and the simply gorgeous, atmospheric art?

I was thrilled to find out my favourite thing in the universe was handed over to none other than David Lloyd, he of V for Vendetta fame (as well as Wasteland, The Territory and Hellblazer). Yes, that David Lloyd! His unmistakable style and that lovely wash suit Knight Rider perfectly. The original pilot movie was rather dark with a lovely atmosphere and David’s art is reminiscent of the direction of that particular episode. With Marvel UK’s Transformers letterer Annie Halfacree bringing her talents to the page the only question left to ask was who wrote these?

While speaking with David recently (more on that at the end of this review) I was finally able to find out it was Steve Moore (Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, Hercules, Warrior) who wrote many of the stories for Grandreams tie-in annuals at the time. Steve nails the characters of Michael and K.I.T.T. and, best of all, their dynamic interplay. This evolved as the series progressed and at this early stage could still be quite antagonistic at times, Michael’s patience sometimes wearing thin with the analytical and logical computer. I’m very happy to say that’s here in spades.

The prose stories, beautifully drawn and coloured by David, are lengthier than any in Marvel UK’s annuals, giving Steve the scope to give us a more detailed adventure for our heroes. Although, I must note Bonnie is conspicuously absent outside of the features. This could be because the stories had to be written so far in advance that the pilot movie was all Steve had to really go on (Bonnie didn’t appear until the first regular episode). But then again the stories take place out on the road already, so by this stage in the episodes it would be all about Michael and K.I.T.T. anyway.

Reign of Terror uses that old 80s staple of the bad motorcycle gang, one the show itself used in its first season. In fact, the episode Good Day at White Rock would’ve been broadcast months before this annual hit the shops. Also, K.I.T.T.’s functions are limited to those shown in the pilot movie, so again I think these were written before much of the series was broadcast. Given this, it’s nothing short of incredible how well Steve nails everything from the characterisations to the tone.

The distinction between K.I.T.T. and the car are particularly enjoyable, especially since this was something the series would only really begin to highlight in season two (after it was set up in the pilot). For example, in one paragraph here, “K.I.T.T. brought the car round the buildings and came up behind them.” It’s enthusiastically written and I get the impression Steve was having fun with this. Michael and K.I.T.T. throw everything at the bikers and it’s not just a checklist of the car’s functions, there’s a proper plan here, perfectly thought out and executed with panache, a plan that could only be achieved by this unique partnership.

Reign of Terror’s plot may not have been all that original but it paints an entertaining picture. The other prose story, The Long Chase is a more original idea. The US Customs Department asks F.L.A.G. for help in an art forgery case, where they believe a legit art business is also smuggling stolen works. They’ve tried tracking their trucks but are always met with car accidents, traffic jams, road blocks etc., too many to be a coincidence. Enter Michael and K.I.T.T.

In the end it boils down to a situation where they have a choice of two trucks to follow, each going separate ways on the highway. They deduce which one to tail and are met with the same impediments, but they’re no match for these two and we get a wonderfully written sequence of them barging their way through everything thrown at them, much to the terror of Marshall, the Customs Agent along for the ride.

These images have a lovely retro feel to them that many would pay good money to have painted and framed today

When it’s clear they’ve followed the truck with the legitimate art (sent on a wild goose chase with the diversions) Marshall is about to quit, what with the other truck now hundreds of miles away. But this is a challenge our pair relish. There are some really nice scenes involving Michael and K.I.T.T.’s burgeoning partnership. It’s intriguing, well-paced and all round a thoroughly entertaining little tale. There are also some brilliant night scenes drawn by David, my favourite being a double-page spread of K.I.T.T. coming head on towards the reader, scanner and headlights cutting through the night. These images have a lovely retro feel to them that many would pay good money to have painted and framed today.

Alongside a brief bio of The Hoff there are two features centred around our other main character. K.I.T.T. – The Car and the Stunts is pretty self explanatory and is apparently based around an interview with one of the producers, although they go unnamed and give inaccurate information, which is odd. I wonder if the book did speak to someone involved with the show or if they got these details from elsewhere and reprinted them.

There’s a reference to turbo boosting on to the back of a truck being done for real, but the scene in question was actually achieved through clever editing and effects.  The ‘producer’ also says the only thing that isn’t done for real is the ejector seat, but in reality this was really installed into one of the cars used on the show. Indeed, since this book there have been numerous interviews with the stunt people on the show which have been very funny, especially the story about when they were trying to calibrate the ejector seat for the first time and the stuntman went flying into the air higher than a palm tree next to the car! Unfortunately, this isn’t referenced here.

But at the time of this book it was just exciting to see photos of K.I.T.T. in action. You have to remember this was way before the internet. Even VHS video recorders were only starting to be installed across the UK. That meant the only way to see your favourite TV show was when it was broadcast or repeated, and the only chance to see photos was in printed publications. There may not have been any photos of him turbo boosting over anything which I remember being disappointed with, but there are explosions, a ski mode (up on two wheels) and a very memorable chase where the stunt performer jumped from a flying helicopter right down into the driver’s seat of the speeding, self-driving (on the screen at least) K.I.T.T., all without wires!

What’s interesting is how the book credits actor William Daniels as K.I.T.T.’s voice when the show didn’t. In fact, Daniels insisted he not be credited so as not to ruin the illusion for the kids, so given who the target audience is for this book it’s strange to include his name. The second car feature, K.I.T.T. – Equipment and Functions deals specifically with the fictional side of the car, meaning its artificial intelligence and futuristic abilities.

There’s a particularly well written introduction to this part of the annual, especially when discussing the different ways he interacts with the human characters.

“Michael and K.I.T.T. are true partners: they bicker, they rib one another, but they are fiercely loyal to each other. K.I.T.T. is a little bit of a know-it-all. He’s pragmatic, sometimes arrogant, often fussy and peevish. And since he’s (yes, he is described as a “he”) completely logical, he has a difficult time understanding this most illogical of humans, Michael Knight.”

Of course he’d soften as his character developed over the series, as he learned from his human companion and their missions together.

“K.I.T.T. has a great sense of humour and he is incessantly interested in human emotions and feelings, things he seems to pick up on as time goes on.”

It’s clear these details were taken from the series bible because when this was written they were the future plans for the character, rather than anything seen yet. Also, maybe an early draft of that document was used because even here there are some inaccuracies, such as claiming K.I.T.T. can’t have independent thought unless put into surveillance mode. This mode is for scanning the area, K.I.T.T. always had independent thought. (Elsewhere in the same article this mode is described correctly.)

It’s rather strange that the publishers obviously had access to information from the show itself yet these errors still slipped in. Could it be the series bible was further refined as the pilot was created but after it was handed out to licensees? Or perhaps the book elaborated where they thought they could, not thinking they were contradicting anything. Most glaringly are the two oft-cited errors that peeve fans off: no, turbo boost does not enable K.I.T.T. to fly and no, he does not have offensive weapons.

Saying all that, as a child I really didn’t care. We were much more forgiving back then. Books such as this were the only way we could see photos of the super cool car and enjoy new stories away from Saturday evenings in front of the family telly. My own copy of this annual disappeared many, many years ago and I remember it falling apart from being read that many times. It rarely left my side for months after Christmas 1983. I’d even clutch it tightly while watching the latest episode.

To finish this childhood favourite is Devil’s Valley, our second gorgeous strip and it’s even better than the first. It may have been a family show but Knight Rider never shied away from dealing with issues you’d see in more adult dramas, such as murder, kidnap, drug dealing and terrorism. All defeated by one person making a difference of course. Another topic it would touch upon more than once, which this strip also does, was racism.

A variation of the Ku Klux Klan seem to have kidnapped a young lady to make some sort of religious sacrifice. She escapes and runs out in front of a self-piloting K.I.T.T. (Michael is having a doze). Once again, it plays out like the final scenes of an episode and all of the car’s capabilities are the same as the movie but it’s huge fun. The spread above is an exciting collection of panels and shows the potential a regular Knight Rider strip could have had when coupled with a deeper story.

One thing I have noticed throughout the book is the incessant need to have ‘Knight 2000’ plastered all over the car. It looks like it’s been added later and David confirmed he can’t remember any instruction to do so. (It’s particularly jarring on the cover.) I remember any toy K.I.T.T.s I owned as a kid had stickers of this all over them and I’d always remove them. After all, K.I.T.T. was meant to blend in. It could be a licensing thing, to separate merchandise for Knight Rider from that of car manufacturer Pontiac, but adding it to the strips feels unnecessary.

As you can see this is only the first of five Knight Rider Annuals and if this one is anything to go by I’m glad I’ve finally been able to track them all down (those later ones seem to be somewhat rare) and I’m really looking forward to the next one. When will that be? Why, next Christmas of course! This blog is in real time after all. It’ll be an agonising wait but nope, I won’t be reading ahead, it’ll make the experience all the better for it.

For this year however, I have a very special treat in store for both Knight Rider and comics fans in general. Artist David Lloyd very kindly agreed to answer questions about working on the annuals and not only did he supply some fascinating insights, he also sent me some of his original sketches for K.I.T.T. and a Hasselhoff study! You’ll be able to check all of these out in just a couple of days on Saturday 17th December 2022. For now, I’m off to have my yearly viewing of the show’s sole Christmas episode, appropriately enough titled ‘Silent Knight’.

“Straight ahead.”

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