Eagle (1980s)

a.k.a.: Eagle and Scream (#128-153), Eagle and Tiger (#159-221), Eagle and Battle (#306-323), Eagle and Mask (#345-366), Eagle and Wildcat (#368-382), New Eagle (#423-505)

Publisher: I.P.C. / Fleetway

Format: Weekly Comic, became monthly in the last couple of years. Photo strips and comic strips, later just comic strips.

First Issue: 27th March 1982

Last Issue: January 1994 (505 issues)

Absorbed: Scream (7th July 1984), Tiger (6th April 1985), Battle (30th January 1988), Mask (29th October 1988), Wildcat (8th April 1989)

Absorbed into: None. Cancelled.

Strips (with first appearance):

• Ernie (#1) - Eagle's official mascot, who enjoyed a regular three panel strip beginning with the first issue.

• Doomlord (#1) - an alien comes to Earth to judge whether mankind should live or die! Initially a photo strip.

• Thunderbolt and Smokey (#1) - the tale of two footballing friends. Initially a photo strip.

• Sergeant Streetwise (#1) - adventures of an undercover cop. Initially a photo strip.

• Dan Dare (#1) - sequel to the original Dan Dare series, featuring the original Dan's grandson. 

• The Tower King (#1) - when technology fails, society collapses into feudalism. Mick Tempest is the Tower King, ruling one group of survivors based out of the Tower of London.

• The Collector (#1) - a mysterious man narrates the horrific tales behind the items in his collection. Initially a photo strip.

• The Adventures of Fred - a "humour" (YMMV) photo strip featurng the misadventures of a man called Fred.

• Joe Soap (#12) - adventures of an inept private investigator. Initially a photo strip.

• Saddle Tramp (#14) - photo strip about a half-Native American bounty hunter in the Wild West

• Manix (#24) - a robotic government agent. Initially a photo strip.

• The House of Daemon (#25) - horror story as several people are trapped within a house possessed by a malevolent spirit.

• The Invisible Boy (#28) - following a lab accident, teenager Tim Talbot gains the power to become invisible. Initially a photo strip.

• Jake's Platoon (#41) - the exploits of a troop of British soldiers on D-Day. Initially a photo strip.

• Gil Hazzard: Codename Scorpio (#49) - a retired British intelligence agent turned stuntman returns to action

• The Fifth Horseman (#49) - adventurer Thaddius Thorn investigates a conspiracy trying to bring about the end of the world

• Crowe Street Comp (#49) - the escapades of the pupils of Crowe Street Comprehensive School.

• House of Correction (#64) - photo strip. Prisoners of the Nazis suffer at the hands of the sadistic Doctor Heinrich Streicher.

• Walk or Die (#65) - initially a photo strip. When a group of school children survive a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness far from civilisation, they have two choices - walk, or die!

• One-Eyed Jack (#68, but a reprint from Valiant) - a NYC cop's initially amicable nature hardens after criminals cost him an eye.

• The Hand (#70) - when Luke Hackett loses his left hand in a car crash, doctors transplant the hand of another victim of the crash onto Luke; unfortunately, that hand belonged to mobster Luca Mancino, and proves to have a mind of its own.

• The Amstor Computer (#79) - a computer recounts some of the million stories it has stored.

• The Fists of Danny Pyke (#80) - the tale of would-be World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Danny Pyke.

• News Team (#100) - a TV crew that specialises in going into conflict zones to get the news

• The Brothers (#100) - a pair of siblings go on the run after one of them is devolved into an ape-creature following exposure to nuclear waste.

• Bloodfang (#116) - the life of a tyrannosaur that rises to lead its pack and then battles hunters from the future come to harvest dinosaur meat.

• A Bullet for the Marathon Man (#123) - LAPD detective Mike Gold poses as a runner during the Olympics in order to catch a sniper targetting the race.

• Monster (transferred in from Scream with #128) - a boy and his monstrously deformed uncle go on the run from the authorities

• Thirteenth Floor (transferred in from Scream with #128) - Maxwell Tower's computer Max oversees the welfare of his residents by secretly trapping those he considers threats in his nightmarish thirteenth floor!

• The Robo-Machines (#138) - tie-in to Bandai's Go-Bot toys, the battle between two rival races of transforming alien robots.

• Gaunt (#144, but a reprint from Battle) - during WWII, cyborg British agent Gaunt operates behind enemy lines

• Billy's Boots (transferred in from Tiger with #159) - Billy Dane becomes a champion football player when he wears the boots belonging to the late Deadshot Keen.

• Death Wish (transferred in from Tiger with #159) - after being hideously scarred in a fire, thrillseeker Blake Edmonds develops a death wish, and then becomes a paranormal investigator

• Star Rider (transferred in from Tiger with #159) - one member of the Pacers' BMX team is secretly an alien.

• The Computer Warrior (#159, initially as "The Ultimate Warrior) - Bobby Paterson discovers a way to enter computer games and play them for real!

• Golden Boy (transferred in from Tiger with #159) - having grown up on the isolated moors, Jamie Speed became a near-superhuman athlete.

• Shadow (#176) - the adventures of a New York police dog

• SOS Special Operations Squad (#186) - a team of crack undercover WWII soldiers.

• D.A.D.D. (#201) - Dial a Dawn Destructor, the story of a pop band, Dawn Destruction, who double as night time crimefighters

• Legend of the Linkits (#212) - a toy tie-in, the story of two rival robotic groups on the planet Linkit battling for supremacy

• Ant Wars (#217, reprinted from 2000 A.D.) - a new insecticide transforms ants in Brazil into giant menaces

• Dolebusters (#221) - a trio of unemployed lads form the Dolebusters, offering to do any job to get off the dole.

• MACH 1 (#232, reprinted from 2000 A.D.) - superpowered secret agent

• Timespell (#238) - Simon Studkins is granted wishes by a creature, but it interprets them as malevolently as possible

• The Hard Men (#242) - a secret society frames two probationary police men, Clovis and Chowdhary, getting them thrown off the force so it can then recruit them.

• The Avenger (#259) - school teacher by day, masked crimefighter by night

• Survival (#259) - after a virus transforms most of humanity into monsters, a handful of immune children must find a way to evade them and survive!

• Comrade Bronski (#259) - a disgraced KGB agent, Bronski, is given a reprieve from spending the rest of his life in the gulags, and joins a special anti-corruption law-enforcement directorate

• Manta Force (#285) - toy tie-in. When Earth begins running out of resources, a ship is sent out to search for a new Earth to colonise.

• M.A.C.H. Zero (#285, reprinted from 2000 A.D.) - the story of M.A.C.H. 1's ill-fated predecessor

• Detective Zed (#285) - a prototype robot cop joins the police force

• Storm Force (transferred from Battle with #303) - an elite anti-terrorist group battles larger than life threats

• Ghost Squad (#306) - a team of spectral detectives

• Johnny Red (transferred from Battle with #306) - tale of a British pilot who flies with the Russians during World War II

• Charley's War (reprinted from Battle with #306) - the epic story of a Tommy during World War I

• Roadblasters (#320) - toy tie-in, as two teams battle to win the Great Race on the planet Okreb.

• Kid Cops (#343) - when all the adults have been called up to fight a war on the moon, it is left to the children to solve crimes committed on Earth.

• Mask of Evil (#331) - created by a villainous magician, the Mask of Evil transforms the wearer, bringing out their darker side

• StarCom (#340) - toy tie-in, a space opera

• Mask (transferred from Mask with #345) - toy tie-in. Multiple strips about the crimefighting agency Mask.

• Wildcats (transferred from Wildcat as of #367) - follows the story of the crew of a spaceship designed to find a new homeworld for the survivors of a destroyed Earth

• Kitten Magee (transferred from Wildcat as of #368) - weapon specialist of the Wildcat

• Turbo Jones (transferred from Wildcat as of #368) - the builder of Wildcat

• Loner (transferred from Wildcat as of #371) - former mercenary and member of the Wildcat crew

• Joe Alien (transferred from Wildcat as of #372) - last survivor of an alien race, and Wildcat crew member

• Toys of Doom (#396) - sequel to previous Toys of Doom in Buster. A malicious boy inherits his grandfather's murderous toys.

• Rat Trap (#396, continuing from Cor! though some installments might be reprints) - readers suggest methods for the authorities to capture the master criminal Dr. Ratty Rat.

• The Eagle One-Off (#423) - anthology series featuring done-in-one tales, generally with shock / twist endings

• Ghostworld (#423) - when a new theme park is built on an old marsh, only one person is smart enough to realise the site is haunted

• Dark Angels (#423) - a vigilante skateboarding gang

• My Pet Alien (#436) - a tiny alien possesses children's pets in order to help them solve their problems

• Beast (#442) - young Danny Bishop must stop an evil sorcerer from bringing a powerful demon back to Earth

• Soup Squad (#458) - followed the C.I.D.'s supernatural investigation division

• Mowser (#466, reprinted from Lion)

As of #466, half the title became reprints, with only Dan Dare, Computer Warrior and The Eagle One-Off being new tales. The title became monthly with #473, and dropped down to just two new strips, Dan Dare and Computer Warrior, compared to seven reprints. From there until the series cancelled, bar #475 which had one extra one-off new My Pet Alien episode, the title only had the same two new strips, until the last gasp:

• Z-Knights (#501) - toy tie-in, featuring the battles between two groups of knights.

Comments: An attempt to revive the original and fondly remembered Eagle comic of the 1950s/1960s. Though not as successful, it still managed a good run in excess of a decade. Unusually for a British boys' comic, the new Eagle initially included photo stories, although these were dropped with issue #78.

After Egmont Fleetway and IPC were split into separate companies and similarly split their ownership of their comic characters in the mid-1990s, many of the Eagle (old and new) characters became the property of the Dan Dare Corporation. The exceptions, who belonged to Egmont, were those strips that began in other titles which subsequently merged with Eagle - so, for example, The Thirteenth Floor, which originated in Scream. For a time during the 2010s, small press publisher Hibernia licensed the rights to reprint some strips in collected volumes (which are well worth checking out, while they remain available) - The House of Daemon, Tower King, Thirteenth Floor and Doomlord - on license from DDC and/or Egmont. However, as of August 2016, Egmont sold all their comic rights to Rebellion, who gradually began reprinting various strips as part of their excellent Treasury of British Comics, with Scream / Eagle's Thirteenth Floor Volume 1 announced for release in late 2018.

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