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Comic Reviews, Wildcat

WiLDCAT WiNTER SPECiAL: GLOSSY GALACTiC GAMES

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With this review we tie up the Wildcat real time read through. Yes, there are two recent graphic novel collections and the merge with Eagle to round up, but for the original comic this marks the end and I can’t help but feel a bit sad about that. The Wildcat Winter Special has a lot to live up to then, it’s been a long time coming after all. The comic finished in March and we’ve had nothing since the Holiday Special in May. So did it satiate the cravings for fans?

Earlier in the year Eagle announced there would be a Wildcat Holiday Special and an annual. While the latter never materialised I think it’s clear the content for it ended up in the Winter Special instead. (Just like the OiNK Winter Special in that regard.) Things kick off inside with a reprint of the preview issue’s cover and strip, a black and white reprint of a former gorgeously coloured Joe Alien pin up by Ron Smith (which results in his eyes looking hauntingly dead) and then two whole pages are taken up with a ‘Spot the Difference’, which boils down to a page from Eagle (I presume, I’ve never seen it before) reprinted twice.

In fact we don’t get anything new until page 16! Not a reassuring start for a special which cost a little less than the thicker, hardback annuals but it does come on lovely glossy paper throughout and a nice, thick (even shinier) cover, hence the price. I suppose we could call it a premium special of sorts (like the Super Naturals Adventure Book from the previous year) and various titles in Fleetway’s range would get one of these over the next few years. It’s strange reading the preview strip again, before the character of Turbo Jones softened and developed in the fortnightly. Here he comes across as a bit of a nonce.

The gorgeous new Ian Kennedy cover portrays the first original strip inside which stars all of our team leaders, the first time this has happened since the preview issue in fact. The Games, drawn by John Gillatt (Jet-Ace Logan, Billy’s Boots, Ring Raiders), is a six pager that is annoyingly split into two-page chunks throughout the first half of the issue. It quite clearly wasn’t written to be read this way, meaning it keeps stopping mid flow. Still, it’s nice to see the whole team together and the first couple of pages do get the blood pumping.

Unfortunately it never really develops beyond this initial excitement. The idea of aliens forcing the humans into a death match against their will isn’t original even for Wildcat. In the Holiday Special Loner was already put through something similar in a quite brilliant prose story and later in this edition the same thing happens to him again(!), so the fact he’s caught up in a similar plot for the third time is damned bad luck on his part.

Pitted against some suitably retro-attired warriors, each member of the Wildcat crew takes it in turn to see off their individual opponents by using the weapons or skills we’ve seen in the regular comic. This and the reprint of the origin story seem to be introducing new readers to Wildcat, which is grand if this were indeed a big, fat annual for an ongoing comic. But by this stage only Loner’s story still continued in the pages of Eagle so it feels strange a lot of this special so far isn’t really aimed at established fans.

At least those fans do get to see more of Loner’s various bullets at last. We knew his modified antique six-shooter Babe had a variety of different futuristic bullets so it’s fun to see the boomerang one here. Of course, we could’ve seen more of these in the pages of Eagle but I haven’t read those stories yet. I’ll explain more about that at the end of the review. In between the tiny chunks of this story are other complete tales.

First up is Turbo Jones who by this point feels like a completely different character to that in the preview’s reprint, such was his character development. Off on another mission illustrated by Vanyo, set some time after his first adventure, he and Robo are plucked from the air and dragged underwater by a mad alien who forces them to help him. One thing that immediately stands out here is the amount of story crammed into the six pages it takes up. It’s like the exact opposite of The Games.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say every couple of pages here could’ve been made into a full chapter in the original comic without feeling too padded out. It does feel a bit rushed as a result but that’s probably only because I was so used to the slow build and ever increasing drama of the fortnightly serials. That’s not an problem unique to Wildcat. I remember when I used to buy 2000AD how I’d sometimes feel a bit underwhelmed by some of the strips in the annuals or specials because I was so used to epic storytelling.

So Turbo and Robo have been captured to help this crazed alien with his insane plan to destroy the off-world mine where the materials to make the planet’s currency come from. Initially I was confused. The comic told us way back in the second issue how a planet-wide lung condition stopped anyone from being able to live above ground level, so how could their currency be mined off world? Well, this is actually only one source of this material.

Anyway, the nefarious plot is right out of Goldfinger, which is not a complaint at all by the way. If the material, and thus the currency, is contaminated the economy tanks and the value of anyone’s own personal stash skyrockets. It’s an insane strip! It suits Wildcat perfectly and I’d have loved seeing this mystery play out over a serial. It’s fun and shows the potential of Wildcat to really tell any story it wanted to. This comic had no limits to its imagination.

In the Holiday Special there was something called a Robot File, a four-page feature of images from several different Wildcat stories all featuring the various futuristic companions humans are living alongside in their search for a new home, with small panels detailing each one. A fun recap for fans and a way for new readers to see some of the interesting storylines they’d missed out on so far. We get something similar here with the wide variety of friendly and not-so-friendly aliens the crew have met along the way.

It may be reusing panels from Wildcat and Eagle but it doesn’t feel like filler. In fact for me there’s some new material here from after the merge, like the end of the war and the fact The Brain had a body. This really would’ve been perfect in an annual too. I have to say that’s a fantastic selection of allies, friends, creatures and monsters, isn’t it? I’m going to miss this comic.

But let’s cheer up, we’ve got more goodies here and The Wildcat Complete (this time not given its own name) was always something to look forward to. This one even refers back to the stories in #6 and #8. In the second of those tales loveable Gliz sacrificed himself after piloting a shuttle to the far side of the first moon and getting hijacked by pirates. In the first we found out multiple crews had disappeared on the near side when they’d eaten poisonous fruit which mutated them, making them look like threatening aliens and thus killed by rescue teams, who in turn would eat the fruit and continue the cycle.

Due to the horrendous weather pilot Tovey crashes on the surface just like Kurby did in #6. He notices he’s accidentally killed a lizard-type alien and then finds himself inextricably drawn to a distant hill. Everything seems very familiar but he can’t place his finger on it. Captured by aliens who plant a device on his head to speak, it’s soon clear they don’t exactly see him or the Wildcat as friends.

More horrifying is the side effect the translation device has on him. Breaking free, out of desperation Tovey discovers a dimensional portal generator the aliens happen to have nearby and throws himself through it to escape his captors. Flicking between different realities he finally seems to choose the right one to get back to where he belongs. He’s back on the moon and sees a craft approaching. He’s saved! The Wildcat must’ve sent another rescue team. But as it approaches it’s clear it’s also been caught up in the weather conditions, and this isn’t the only bit of de ja vu for Tovey.

He sees it’s his shuttle craft, with him at the controls. The caption points out time is the fourth dimension, and it was on his fourth attempt that he ended up here. Again, the cycle will be never ending as he crash lands, killing himself and then ending up right back in his own path again. It’s similar in some ways to that earlier Wildcat Complete, although it wasn’t time that repeated but rather the actions of the humans. It’s also very similar to the final Scary Cat Challenge in Super Naturals #9 (also from editor Barrie Tomlinson) when a greedy boy wishing on a genie’s lamp ends up in a repeated cycle of time.

It’s a well worn story trope, I know, but to see it in two of my comics so close to each other, and when this was a sequel to a tale with a similar ending, it feels a bit underwhelming, with the twist not really a twist anymore. Such a shame, because I’ve loved Joan Boix’s artwork on all of the Complete tales they’ve illustrated over Wildcat’s short life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad story, it just feels a bit recycled.

The same plot being used for two of Loner’s stories in a row (and also two strips in this issue) is a real disappointment

What’s much more exciting is seeing a brand new Loner strip written by editor Barrie Tomlinson and drawn again by David Pugh! Barrie’s prose story in the Holiday Special was excellent but I missed having new art from David (the illustrations were lifted from previous issues) and by this stage in Eagle he’d moved on to drawing Dan Dare, an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up but which meant Loner, who had been created with David in mind, had to be passed on to another artist.

Ah yes, that does look lovely, doesn’t it? Welcome back Loner! Regular blog readers will know he was my favourite character in Wildcat and his first adventure was absolutely riveting. Unfortunately his second was less so, but here we’ve got a brand new one-off tale of him exploring the planet’s surface and once again he’s fallen into some trouble. I do like the way the sequence of him falling down that wheel mechanism is shown through clever use of a main panel and some smaller ones overlaid on top.

In the Holiday Special he’d found himself the prisoner of an underground group of aliens who captured creatures to force them into a kind of gladiatorial combat. (Similar to The Games, above.) So what brand new adventure do we have here for our former mercenary? The hole he’s fallen into leads him to a group of aliens who sit on a kind of observation gallery, then behind him a trap door opens up and a huge, tentacled beast appears who they want Loner to fight in a kind of gladiatorial combat. Um…

Oh come on now, this is getting a bit ridiculous. While it’s wonderful to see David’s art again and there are some genuinely funny moments, such as Loner cursing the fact his first reaction to new alien beings often lands him in trouble and the quip above about arm to arm combat, the fact the same plot has been used for two of his stories in a row (and now two strips in this special) is a real disappointment. It takes the edge off seeing him back in strip form. But that art is wonderful, especially when the big bad looks this good.

I just can’t quite wrap my head around the decision to basically rerun the same story twice over. As a kid I never had the two specials so I can’t say for certain if I’d have been as disappointment, or even have noticed, what with them being months apart. But as an adult fan the Winter Special isn’t measuring up to the incredibly high bar of the regular comic, not with reprint material and reused plot lines. Damn.

The second half of the issue has a full colour Joe Alien story split up into little two-page pieces just like The Games. While David Robinson‘s story isn’t technically a reused one, it does set itself neatly into the serial from the fortnightly, seeing as how Joe and his team were captured by the alien plant life on more than one occasion. Basically, they get captured again, Joe’s brain becomes disconnected again, then they escape again. But I find it strangely enjoyable.

I think I enjoy it more because it’s honest about the fact it’s not a new story, that it’s an additional chapter to Joe’s main strip. This approach is much preferred over the other strips so far. It also shows a lighter side to the character. He quips and shows proper affection towards the men he’s been fighting alongside. We also see how he eats through the vines when he’s lost his brain pack, making us wonder if there’s still some form of intelligence in there, only for us to realise he was just hungry in his crazed state!

Instead of regular Joe artist Ron Smith we have instead Keith Page and, while I do like his very alien main character, I miss Ron’s sharp lines and exaggerated action. José Ortiz returns for Kitten Magee though, his scratchy visuals once again the perfect fit for the jungle-based action written by James Tomlinson. This time our heroic female team are entering an area apparently guarded by the terrifying Ikarzeytak. But searching for a new home for the human race is more important than local legends, especially when it’s apparently already long dead.

In Kitten’s regular story she and her teammates would come up against a never ending array of imaginative alien creatures, each one displaying some kind of innovative ability that they’d have to outthink on the fly in order to survive. From monsters with heads for hands, to gigantic leviathans with multi-headed pet dogs and beasts with see-through stomachs. The Kitten Magee strip also had strong ongoing stories and mysterious character arcs, however a big part of the fun was seeing what kind of monster would be thought up next.

I never expected a one-off strip in the special to advance any of the ongoing arcs but the Kitten Magee story certainly doesn’t disappoint with its always enjoyable characters and the next in its long line of original beasties to fight. In this case that skeleton was indeed the Ikarzeytak, which can regenerate from nothing but rainwater much to the surprise, and then horror, of the team. It’s ludicrous. But it’s ludicrous fun! That’s what Wildcat was all about and so the Winter Special ends on a high.

Kitten’s friends Cassandra, Bonnie and Aurora also star in the four-page Weapons File which follows the same formula as the alien and robot ones and then that’s it, Wildcat’s real time read through comes to an end. As I’ve previously said I never followed the characters into the pages of Eagle and, with over 50 issues of it to collect before I can read the end of all the stories, I wanted to complete the read through of the main comic first. It felt right to do so.

The Winter Special feels very much like a publication of two halves. Perhaps I’d overhyped it for myself in the intervening months, but there’s a disappointing amount of reprint material or reused story ideas, however even in those the art is superb and the remaining stories are all as excellent as we’ve come to expect. It feels like a premium comic in my hands and I think giving Wildcat this glossy treatment for its final edition was a great idea; the fortnightly was a lot bigger and brighter than its contemporaries after all.

At a future point on the blog I’ll finally be able to see what happened next for Turbo, Loner, Kitten, Joe and the Wildcat, beginning with the Turbo Jones and Loner graphic novel collections, before I focus on those Eagle issues with the remaining Kitten Magee, Joe Alien and Wildcat Complete stories. Plenty to come then. However, it’s still a sad moment to close the final issue that’s 100% Wildcat from cover to cover. A childhood favourite originally aimed at younger readers it holds up incredibly well and I’d highly recommend any adult comics or sci-fi fan to jump on board and take the ride.

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WiLDCAT HOLiDAY SPECiAL: ANOTHER BiTE

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It hasn’t really been that long since the final issue of Wildcat, two months in fact, but it’s great to hold another edition in my hands, especially one I’ve never actually read before. I wasn’t aware of it as a child because I hadn’t followed the characters into Eagle when the comics merged. There’s a rather lengthier wait after this but I’ll get to that at the end of the review. So what we have here is the standard Fleetway Holiday Special format of 48 large, glossy pages full of strips, a prose story and extra features thrown in for good measure.

After a contents page and a recap of the set up from the preview issue Turbo Jones reclaims his position as the lead strip (now drawn by Keith Page) and like all of the stories here it’s a standalone tale and not linked to the ongoing serials that all ended with cliffhangers in the last issue. Of course, by now those stories could have concluded or moved on to goodness knows what in the pages of Eagle. (That’s something I’ll look into in future posts.) Some of these read a little strangely because of this.

For example, as far as I was concerned Turbo was still languishing on his quest through the Valley of Death, but here we’ve skipped forward to the next chapter in his adventure on the new planet. We find him and his robotic friend Robo accidentally stumbling across two aliens out for blood (or whatever runs through their veins. If they have veins). This isn’t a quick summing up of things either, in the end they realise the two creatures have no interest in our heroes, they have literally stumbled upon this fight. But of course if they don’t defend themselves they’ll go the same way as the loser.

Turbo is knocked unconscious by a falling branch and Robo saves the day by knocking coconut-like fruits off the trees onto the heads of the aliens. No, really. It ends with Turbo disbelieving this tale of heroism and Robo talking directly to the reader, asking them to write in and tell Turbo what happened. It’s a fun diversion of an opener but feels very slight in comparison to the fortnightly. However, I do love that alien design. Moving on now to something somewhat darker stalking the corridors of the Wildcat itself in The Wildcat Complete, brought to life by Jesús Redondo.

That’s right, we have an actual vampire onboard. There’s also plenty of well-judged humour here too so it’s unfortunate we don’t know who wrote the script. Here on the first page the casual thoughts of our victim raise a laugh as he catches himself on about the “misty evening” before meeting his end, and later on as another victim is running late in getting home he thinks to himself how he’ll “get it in the neck” from his wife! These are the only people we see die (taking the Wildcat Death Toll up to 40) but mention is made of them being only the latest in a series of disappearances, so our toll is actually unknown.

During the day our vampire goes by the name Dr. Joseph Lugosi, obviously a play on the name of renowned actor Bela Legosi who is probably best remembered for playing the title character in the 1931 film Dracula. It’s not just his name the story pays homage to either, just take a look at the doctor in this close-up frame.

There’s a rather dark moment where we see him dispose of a body by taking it to the food recycling plant, which is basically a bunch of retro-futuristic robots munching down on anything thrown into their pit. We get a little internal monologue of how Lugosi applied to be on Wildcat because there’d be no sunlight in space to stop him feeding, and we see him queued up to get on board, everyone else in casual gear, him in his dark cloak, standing out a mile. Given his appearance and dress sense, when he thinks his plan is foolproof and no one would ever suspect him it seems ridiculous, but it’s actually all explained in the end.

When an attack is disturbed mid-feast he has to leave the body behind and as Wildcat Commander Griffin reviews the tapes he sees Lugosi disappear into thin air. He ends up tricking Lugosi into believing he’s replacing an ill doctor on an expedition to one of the planet’s moons, but before anyone else boards the shuttle craft it’s launched out of the Wildcat on autopilot. The last page of the strip is below and very neatly wraps up the story.

I really like how Griffin had to research what a vampire is (so far into the future are we, their legends appear to have been lost) and that he simply reacts logically to the problem. There’s no disbelief, just a problem to solve and the history tapes give him the answer. While I can only show you a little bit here he’s a cool-as-a-cucumber character and one I wish we’d gotten to know properly in the comic. Check out that final caption too, vampires are now extinct! Another great anthology story, one that’s made me realise just how much I’m missing them every two weeks.

Loner gets a good bit of space in the special but unfortunately there’s not a comic strip in sight. There’s a two-page spread of pictures taken from the early issues and his initial scraps with, and ultimately friendship with, The Fuzzballs. There are also two pin ups, both drawn by David Pugh. One is brand new and the other is a reprint of the cover to #7 which was so good it deserved another outing as a mini-poster without the title and issue details. To this day it’s probably my favourite piece of art from Wildcat. In fact it’s one of my favourite pieces of comic art ever.

On top of all this we get a Loner story written by editor Barrie Tomlinson, however it’s told in prose with images of David’s taken from the regular comic. At five pages and full of text it’s a meatier read than I expected and actually a whole lot better than the strip we’d been reading for the last handful of issues. Falling into a chasm he’s apparently rescued by an alien slug creature who carries him to a large cave full of slugs where he also sees another, two-headed alien. They have to fight to the death for the entertainment of the slugs! (Are they an unfriendly relation of the Dargonlites from the Joe Alien story?)

It’s a struggle. The two-headed creature is relentless but soon Loner is able to escape by causing chaos in the audience (he throws one of the slugs into the crowd as a distraction). Back outside the alien is on Loner’s tail and in what looks like the end of the fight Loner’s gun Babe ends up pressed against the creature’s throat. But Loner backs off, trying to communicate he doesn’t want to kill him, he has no beef with him.

Both heads broke into hideous grins, then it turned and walked away.

Loner prose story

Communicating is difficult however and relies on body language more than anything, which is interesting. However, I’m disappointed he no longer has the headband from previous stories. It’s only given a passing explanation that he’d returned to Wildcat and had it removed before coming back down. This completely contradicts the story where he received it! Such a shame, but perhaps a necessary evil because the images they had to use didn’t include it, rather than it being a story choice.

Anyway, the two-headed creature continues to follow Loner at a distance. When our mercenary gets back to his shuttle it appears to attack, throwing Loner to the side and leaping into the craft. Are they going to steal it? Nope, there was a deadly snake-like predator inside. The alien had saved Loner’s life. But before Loner can try to communicate a thank you, he’s attacked by the alien again! He wins the battle by unhappily having to end its life, or be killed himself.

In the end, the creature had been a warrior and it was always going to be a fight to the death, but Loner had saved him from the underground slug beings and he’d had to repay that debt first. This would’ve made for a great multipart strip in the regular comic, it’s full of character and paints a wonderful, exciting picture. Such a shame it’s only illustrated by images from unrelated stories.

There’s one more special to come and I’m very excited by it

Alongside the double-page spread of Loner’s furry friends there’s a four-page feature about some of the robots that reside aboard the Wildcat and which have featured in previous stories, most notably the Wildcat Complete series. Features like these act as a nice way for new readers to catch up and get an idea of what Wildcat is all about, but unlike some of the Super Naturals Holiday Special features which felt like filler, these are nicely put together and are still enjoyable for regulars.

Alongside more reprinted pin ups there’s another new one which hadn’t made its way into the fortnightly and it’s of one of my favourite characters from the Kitten Magee story, Bonnie. As regular readers of the comic (or even these reviews) will attest, Kitten’s team were just starting to get fleshed out some more, even going on their own adventure without their leader in the final issue. I look forward to reading the ongoing tales in Eagle and Wildcat at a later date, mainly for them.

Their story is up next in fact, as always (and just like the pin ups) drawn by José Ortiz and written by James Tomlinson. Stalked by a three-headed giant cat-like predator it ends up capturing Kitten’s robotic pet, Crud. Tracking the beast down they find a ginormous cyclops, but as they try to save Crud the cat-like creature attacks and is shot and killed. The previously monstrous cyclops bursts into tears and the team realise they’ve made a horrible mistake, they’ve killed the giant’s pet. Not only that, but upon discovering a giant spacecraft overgrown with weeds they piece together a fascinating backstory.

It’s important for me to note here that at the beginning of the strip the team had captured a docile kind-of-giraffe animal for study by Doc. You’ll see below how that comes back right at the end. This story contains hints at the world building Wildcat could have achieved if it had carried on for years to come. We had some in the twelve regular issues but of course everything was still in its early stages of development. We can only imagine the epic, overarching stories editor Barrie Tomlinson and his team could’ve concocted over time.

Four pages within this special are made up of a Tiger comic reprint called Jet-Ace Logan, a pilot who works for the futuristic interplanetary C.I.D. approximately 100 years in the future. Two stories are included here, two pages apiece and the one I wanted to show is called Haywire House. A modern home exhibition is about to be robbed and Logan stops the burglars in their tracks in a suitably ingenious way. I particularly like the art by Brian Lewis (Eagle, TV Action, Countdown), with so much of it crammed on to the page and jam-packed with details, all without losing any of its clarity.

In his book Comic Book Hero, Barrie explains how he was the editor of Tiger from 1969, after these strips appeared originally. He turned the comic into one with exclusively sports-related strips but he always had a fondness for Logan. Back to the special and perhaps the couple of reprinted pin ups and the Logan pages were marked for something else but after the cancellation of the comic plans changed. A very real possibility.

Before a very special ending to the issue there’s one more strip to read. Wildcat fans will know that must mean it’s time for David Robinson‘s Joe Alien, although not in his usual full-colour format which is a shame (in fact apart from the pin ups and a readers’ drawing spread the whole issue is black and white) but Ron Smith’s artwork still shines. The strip itself finally gives us some background information on the interesting character and how he ended up as the last of his race. In fact, for fans of his this was a hugely important strip!

Tracking a massive meteoroid heading towards their planet, his people soon discovered it was being pushed from the other side by a fleet of Kargroz ships. Joe’s race had long before abandoned space travel, keeping only one small shuttle and so he was sent up to negotiate, but the Kargroz kill for fun and for honour and couldn’t be bargained with. Almost blasting Joe out of existence they hurled the meteoroid into his planet, destroying it and all who lived there.

Fuelled by revenge Joe hijacked one of the enemy ships and crashed it into the side of one of the others, all of which were in a straight line formation, side-by-side with each other. Where Joe had crashed, his ship now faced down the long line of enemy ships. Firing one huge laser blast it tore through them all, killing everyone and leaving him the only survivor of the battle and of his race. This next page of Ron’s reminded me he drew for Marvel UK‘s Transformers. It has that feel about it. Looking into that however, I was surprised to see he only ever drew one strip (#82)! Such was the impact he must’ve made on me I thought he’d been a semi-regular artist on it.

Joe’s men console him and try to tell him they agree with his seeking revenge, but the strip ends with our hero rejecting this. “Revenge? How can any revenge balance the millions who were killed? I am only pleased that my external brain pack allows me to switch off such memories… forever!” That is about as heartbreaking an ending as you can get as he switches off all memories of his loved ones.

One final feature rounds off this edition and it’s a special Back to the Drawing Board spread of Ian Kennedy’s original design sketches for the Wildcat itself and some of its characters. At the time of writing this Ian has only recently passed, so seeing these drawings and his superb cover (which is on the back as well) is tinged with sadness. I’ve always loved his Wildcat design and his originality, not only with its shape but also its bright colours. I think we can all agree he also did a superb job of realising Barrie’s desire for a truly diverse cast of exciting heroes, which was rare.

Thus ends our look at the Wildcat Holiday Special from 1989. As I’ve said before I do own the graphic novel collections for two of the characters so I’ll be covering them at a future date, and I’m going to be tracking down the others through the individual issues of Eagle and Wildcat. But in the meantime we haven’t quite finished with Wildcat in its own form just yet.

There’s one more special to come and I’m very excited by it. Once again it’s an issue I’ve never read before. It’s even bigger than the Holiday Special and comes with a simply gorgeous high gloss, high quality cover. The Wildcat Winter Special was released several months later so look out for its review on Thursday 17th November 2022. Now that’s going to take some will power on my behalf, it’s sitting on that shelf right over there looking at me! I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait though.

iSSUE 12 < > WiNTER SPECiAL

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WiLDCAT #12: JOURNEY’S END

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This Vanyo cover with lead character Turbo Jones is an exciting mystery, begging the question of how he ended up in this predicament after the conclusion last issue. The ever-changing colours of the Wildcat logo bring us this variant, almost matching the creature below it. It’s a great start and I’m sure it thrilled me at the time, not knowing of the sad news within. There’s no clue here, and there isn’t until the end of our first strip, so let’s start there and see how things pan out, shall we?

Brought in front of the Burroids‘ leader, The Brain, Turbo faces a trial for supposedly defecting to the other side, the Arglons. Of course, he was actually captured and forced to work for them, but he escaped and made it back to help his friends. However The Brain, for all of its apparent knowledge (it is a big floating brain in a glass sphere after all) isn’t too hot when it comes to assessing the situation, or indeed holding a fair trial. Simply deciding not to believe Turbo, he’s sentenced to walk the Valley of Death.

The first of these obstacles is the creature from the cover, who Turbo eventually dispatches by decapitating two of its heads and strangling the third. It’s a great, action-packed sequence and begs the question, if this is the first obstacle what are the rest like? He ends up trapped in the deadly vines of a fruit tree as he tries to take some food but thankfully Robo finally catches up with his master. (Oh sorry, I mean friend!) There’s a nice moment between the two when Robo apologises for having emotions and worrying about Turbo, and Turbo telling him he’ll never complain about that!

A complete shock, especially at only 12 issues in

Their friendship has always been an interesting one and at times surprisingly sweet among all the action and excitement. As they make their way deeper into the valley Turbo plunges into a trap, crashing through branches laid out on the ground over a hole, so clearly there’s someone else here. It’s a great action episode while still maintaining the characterisation we’ve come to love. The Turbo Jones story has always achieved this perfect balance, testament to its writer (and the comic’s creator and editor) Barrie Tomlinson. However, in the corner of the final panel are the words, “This story continues in the first issue of Eagle & Wildcat – on Sale April 1st.”

As a child I was devastated. Not again! I obtained my free Wildcat Preview issue with the final edition of OiNK which had crushed me because I’d never had a comic cancelled on me before. As I’ve mentioned previously it had felt like OiNK was passing the baton to Wildcat and so this was a complete shock, especially at only 12 issues in. As usual the news was promoted in as positive a light as possible and on the next page was this advert for the first of the combined issues.

As much as these ‘Great News For All Readers’ kind of messages tried, it was always sad for those collecting the cancelled comic. There would be an attempt to make it sound like both titles were merging into one awesome comic, but in reality it was always clear one was getting the chop and a little bit of it was going to appear in the other. So, just like when three of OiNK’s characters joined Buster, I didn’t follow Wildcat into the pages of Eagle. However, I’ve some news on that front which I’ll get to below.

For now, let’s continue with the final colour episode for David Robinson‘s Joe Alien (in Eagle he would be in black and white). Facing down the oncoming storm of murderous vegetation and seeing the roots encircle his men, our peace-loving alien has no choice but to do the one thing he hates the most, he resorts to violence and picks up a laser to free his team. They retreat into a cave that has walls covered with eggs belonging to the Dargonlites, the giant slugs from previous issues. Happily for me (because I think they’re a brilliant creation) there’s one left guarding the eggs and they take to the trees with fervour in defence of the unborn young.

This one slug takes care of the advancing hordes and just as Joe and his men leave we see one of the hatchlings burst out of its egg with the promise of survival after their devastating loses last time. But this is Wildcat, we can’t be having too much of a happy ending, so as they continue their search for the missing shuttle the mossy floor itself comes alive like an evil turf, rolling up to engulf them. It’s certainly an imaginative cliffhanger, I’ll give you that.

The story would continue in Eagle but readers would have to wait, the little box at the end promising the story will continue in a future issue. As you saw in the promo only Turbo and Kitten would be in the comic to begin with, what with limited space available for the merge. This was another reason I didn’t carry over my comic order. Yes, there’s only so much room for the Wildcat strips and nothing could be done about that, but for young me I only wanted to read about these characters and didn’t like the fact I’d only get a small portion of Wildcat every week.

Joe does go out on a high though. His plight on the planet has been huge fun. Originally drawn with the fervent imagination of Massimo Belardinelli it wasn’t long before the incredible Ron Smith took over and I’ve loved every single panel he’s produced. Even when the plot slipped a little (just for an issue or two) his art still made this one of the best strips every single time. Joe remains very much an enigma and it’s such a shame we won’t get to see him develop and find out about his mysterious past.

James Tomlinson‘s Kitten Magee strip is full of twists, turns and surprises this issue, making the cancellation all the more frustrating. With Kitten knocked out we see Aurora take command of the team and soon they’ve lured one of the large Hoboans on his floating platform to within reach, commandeering his vehicle. In the process he falls off and through a glass window, which kills him. This makes our team an even higher priority target, to be terminated on sight. We return to them for the cliffhanger but first we catch up with their leader and her pet.

Crud calling Hobos “mate” raised a chuckle. At first I thought these fishy creatures might turn on their owners like the ones out in the public pools (and that might still happen of course) but for now we’re left not knowing what’s happened to the little metal fella. We catch up on the rest of the team for the final two pages, hiding in a food storage unit full of rotting, stinking meat. We get an interesting nugget of info on the Hoboans here as Doc postulates that given the shape their bodies are in, this may be the only way they can consume food, when it’s already broken down by rot and decay. I really enjoy little details like this, it makes the fantastical feel more grounded.

This is the first time the story has focussed on the team without Kitten and it works so well. They’ve each had a little bit of time in the spotlight in individual scenarios before, enough so that when they’re interacting with one other they feel like well developed individuals and not just cannon fodder. The story ends with the discovery of a hidden doorway and an ancient city, destroyed by the Hoboans a long time ago. The stench, the dust of remains, a whole civilisation wiped out of existence, this is such a surprising twist and these final pages ooze atmosphere.

Damn it, why did more people not buy into this superb comic? It should’ve carried on for many more years! The letters page reassures readers a few times that the stories and characters are going to continue, still trying to sell it as a 50/50 Eagle/Wildcat merger. Unlike Super Naturals the address is still here as readers’ contributions would continue and there’s even a guest appearance from Max, Eagle‘s fictional editor.

Loner, written by editor Barrrie Tomlinson is our final serial and just like Joe it would be a while before he’d appear again. This is extra annoying because, even though the plot recently hasn’t been all that hot, the cliffhanger asks so many questions. Anyway, you’ll remember from #11’s review how our mercenary friend was plummeting back to the forest fire below. He has a messy save as he lands on and smashes the eggs in the nest he flew away from. I’ll admit his next thought as the fire races up the tree towards him made me laugh.

If you’ve been following along with these reviews you’ll know this second tale in Loner’s epic quest has felt a bit too loose, a bit too made-up-as-it-goes-along for my liking. I was prepared for more outlandishness this issue and awaited whatever random event would befall our hero. I could never have predicted what transpires here!

It begins with the wind picking up and spreading the fire even quicker across the forest floor. Of course to Loner in his miniaturised state it feels like a hurricane is trying to pluck him up off his feet and in fact that’s exactly what happens. Clutching desperately on to a leaf to stay put, it’s blown away with him still clinging on as the wind whips up the fire below. This is all good stuff so far, for once it’s something you could see happening in this far-fetched scenario, but what if I told you that very same wind somehow blows him so far up he leaves the atmosphere of the planet? Yes, really.

Frozen in the upper atmosphere, Loner’s unconscious body floats out into space and apparently passes relatively close by the Wildcat itself (the second character to do so in as many issues) before he starts making his descent. The comic has always been a far out there, wild and fantastical ride and I’ve loved it for that as well as for its originality. But this is a step too far even for the far-fetched. I can’t remember my reaction to this when I was in the age range of the target audience but this (much) older version of me didn’t like this one bit.

I’m not going to go into detail about logistics or the science, this is a fun children’s comic after all and I’m not about to start taking it all too seriously. But even from a story perspective it just doesn’t make sense and is yet another seemingly random event plucked out of thin air (in this case very thin air) just to be bigger and more exciting than the previous one. Maybe I loved it back in 1989 but I review these classic comics as I find them now, with no rose-tinted glasses and I just want another well constructed plot for one of my favourite comics characters, like we had for the first half dozen issues. But back to that cliffhanger I mentioned, when I suddenly found my interest piqued again.

David Pugh‘s artwork shines as always but that penultimate panel with Loner’s understated shock is simply superb. Our unflappable hero, always ready with his quick wit, actually looks speechless here. It’s not overplayed, his facial expressions not exaggerated for effect. David’s style is so good he doesn’t need to do that. The subtlety and realism in his drawings of Loner while the character is surrounded by fantasy sci-fi elements of psychic alien lizards, cute furballs and giant monsters perfectly captured this particular hero and why I loved him so much.

I imagine my face was somewhat similar to Loner’s when I originally read this, the final cliffhanger of the comic’s run. Has he travelled in time? Is that giant the real Loner? Is this shrunken Loner actually a copy? This is the kind of cliffhanger ending I’ve been craving for the last half-dozen issues or so and it just so happens to be in the final issue. It’s not the end of his story for me, as I’ll get to in a little bit, but before we move on to the final strip there are a couple of ads I thought might interest you.

It’s Holiday Specials time and alongside Mask (which had already folded and finished its merge with Eagle), Roy of the Rovers and Battle was something called the Spinechillers. The top corner of the cover has a tiny little Scream logo but in reality there were no characters or strips within that had featured in the short-lived weekly. It was even presented by a new character called Ghoul (instead of the usual Ghastly McNasty) who had presented a strip the year before in Eagle. There was also news of a free gift in Buster but for me at the time the big news was below that.

Finally, just as Uncle Pigg had promised in the last issue of OiNK there was a new edition of my favourite comic! That final OiNK had introduced me to Wildcat and now here was the final Wildcat telling me of the return of OiNK. Everything had come full circle. Although claiming it hadn’t had the chop is a bit of a stretch. Still, it was exciting and a mood booster after the cancellation of the comic in my hands. Speaking of which, time to read the final strip, this issue’s Wildcat Complete and it’s drawn by Carlos Pino (TV Century 21, Starlord, Ring Raiders).

I really have my doubts about Turbo’s selection process. We’ve seen horrible xenophobes, serial killers, robot slave drivers and now bullying bosses in these anthology stories. With only several hundred people on board from our whole race, who was left behind to make room for these idiots? Zak‘s bosses are all of this type, shouting and screaming at him just because he gets sick easily, and they certainly don’t care that he currently has a cold. To punish him they force him outside to clean the hull of Wildcat and it’s there the above happens.

We can tell where this is headed, War of the Worlds-style

Yuggoth, Master of Chaos looks very much like a man in a rubber suit, 80s Doctor Who-style alien which suits the retro futuristic nature of this read through perfectly. He inhabits poor Zak’s body and straight away we can tell where this is headed, War of the Worlds-style. Of course, Zak isn’t believed by anybody and only he can see Yuggoth’s reflection in the mirror, so he gets scolded some more by his bosses before one of them sets him up with a psychiatrist-droid which is clearly programmed to get the results his boss wants. (Again, how did Turbo pick these people?!) It’s only a matter of time though before our visitor has seen enough to make his move.

In the control centre of Wildcat’s computerised systems the two head operators are female, which is refreshing for an 80s comic. However, they also regularly belittled Zak like his bosses and so I felt no sympathy when they’re the first to die at the hands of this alien foe (bringing the Wildcat Death Toll to 38 in its final issue). Seemingly unstoppable, Yuggoth’s victory seems certain when suddenly he begins clutching at his throat and keels over, dead. Later, a scientist concludes the creature caught a virus its body had no defence against. It was Zak’s cold.

In the end Zak becomes a hero but in today’s post-Covid (almost) world that final panel is just plain scary! It adds to the overall thriller feel to the story, with these humans just opening themselves up to pain and misery thinking it’s their salvation, but clearly that wasn’t the intention of the ending at the time. It just goes to show how these strips not only aged well over the decades, they could even improve.

That’s your lot. With this story Wildcat comes to an end. At the time I had no interest in buying Eagle (sorry, I mean Eagle and Wildcat) so this was where these stories finished for me. Only over these past couple of years, over three decades later, have we finally got Rebellion‘s new graphic novel collections of Turbo Jones and Loner so that I can find out what happened. Even though I purchased the books over a year ago now, I’ve been waiting for the read through to finish before I devour them. Unfortunately though, it’s looking increasingly unlikely the other characters will be getting similar treatment.

I’m currently collecting the remaining Kitten Magee, Joe Alien and Wildcat Complete stories in the Eagle comics released over the twelve months after Wildcat finished, but that’s going to take a while. First, I’ll be completing my original 80s collection with the Wildcat Holiday Special and Wildcat Winter Special, neither of which I’ve read before, so look out for them in May and November of this year. Then after that I’ll go back to read the adventures I didn’t as a kid to see how it all ended (not a real time trek through them all though, I’ll be summing up the Wildcat content).

So I’m not done with Barrie Tomlinson‘s Wildcat just yet, just taking a breather. The Wildcat Holiday Special review will be here from Friday 27th May 2022.

iSSUE 11 < > HOLiDAY SPECiAL

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