It's ' I SPY' week on Polarized Opinions
MORE ITEMS DUSTED DOWN from now-distant and dusky 1989, the next servings represent my dabbling and delving into the D C Thomson comic character from SPARKY, namely I SPY : which continues to be, and always has been, my favorite-ever comics-character, by a wide, wide margin.
I SPY started modestly enough in issue 211, the copy dated Feb 1, 1969: it's first run of 60-odd weekly adventures running until May 23, 1970. The first incarnation was brilliantly drawn by LES BARTON, and the sheer energy and spirit evident in all of his work has been a powerful inspiration to me as an artist since I first laid eyes upon this character: I never forgot his sterling work on I SPY during an agonizing, especially long fallow period when I was unable to revisit the comic-pages for well over 30 years.
Today, I have all the known published work that Lezz done on this character, including the two SPARKY ANNUAL stories from 1970 and 1971: The Case of the Disappearing Rocket, followed by Call I Spy...Someones' Eating the Moon. [For the compleatist, three double-page I Spy spreads by Mr Barton happily surfaced in the weekly SPARKY comic in Dec 1973]: however, the period of 1969-1971, almost Universally regarded by most loyal fans of this character still out there, has never been reprinted at all since the original weekly appearences, bar a meagre four pages by Lezz which surfaced in D C T's CLASSICS From the COMICS, two pages apiece in CFTC issues 66 and 123.
For the uninitiated, the strip recounted the hazardous escapades encountered by the never-facially-seen I Spy, for his features were wholly obscured by his oversized black trilby and trenchcoat. Underneath his black suit and hat, lay a never-ending cornucopia of extendable/retractable gadgetry, which took the James Bond 'gadget' obsession to the ultimate imaginitive degree: I Spy could fly like a rocket or plane. drill deep into the Earth, unleash a seemingly unlimited aresenal of bullets and weaponry against any oncoming threat, to name a mere three options he had.
The character and concept was very untypical for a D C Thomson character, and perhaps because of this, went on to become a major comics success story.
More on the phenomenon that was I SPY coming up on here shortly.......
I SPY/ BOSS SPY/ MR. X characters all Copyright of D C THOMSON and Co. Ltd, 2015
I SPY started modestly enough in issue 211, the copy dated Feb 1, 1969: it's first run of 60-odd weekly adventures running until May 23, 1970. The first incarnation was brilliantly drawn by LES BARTON, and the sheer energy and spirit evident in all of his work has been a powerful inspiration to me as an artist since I first laid eyes upon this character: I never forgot his sterling work on I SPY during an agonizing, especially long fallow period when I was unable to revisit the comic-pages for well over 30 years.
Today, I have all the known published work that Lezz done on this character, including the two SPARKY ANNUAL stories from 1970 and 1971: The Case of the Disappearing Rocket, followed by Call I Spy...Someones' Eating the Moon. [For the compleatist, three double-page I Spy spreads by Mr Barton happily surfaced in the weekly SPARKY comic in Dec 1973]: however, the period of 1969-1971, almost Universally regarded by most loyal fans of this character still out there, has never been reprinted at all since the original weekly appearences, bar a meagre four pages by Lezz which surfaced in D C T's CLASSICS From the COMICS, two pages apiece in CFTC issues 66 and 123.
For the uninitiated, the strip recounted the hazardous escapades encountered by the never-facially-seen I Spy, for his features were wholly obscured by his oversized black trilby and trenchcoat. Underneath his black suit and hat, lay a never-ending cornucopia of extendable/retractable gadgetry, which took the James Bond 'gadget' obsession to the ultimate imaginitive degree: I Spy could fly like a rocket or plane. drill deep into the Earth, unleash a seemingly unlimited aresenal of bullets and weaponry against any oncoming threat, to name a mere three options he had.
The character and concept was very untypical for a D C Thomson character, and perhaps because of this, went on to become a major comics success story.
More on the phenomenon that was I SPY coming up on here shortly.......
I SPY/ BOSS SPY/ MR. X characters all Copyright of D C THOMSON and Co. Ltd, 2015
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