The British Are Coming!

"The British are coming! The British are coming!" Most American learn that in grade school in their earliest lessons about the American Revolution. We listen to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and that cements the myth. Most likely Revere didn't say that, but what the heck, it's a good story. (At least from the Amercian perspective.) And good stories are what's up here at the Dojo this January, and they all are either created by Brits or are set in Britain in some way. I know several of my regular readers are British and I expect to be taken to task for getting some things wrong. Help a meager colonial out fellows when you can. This first month of 2023 the British are here. 

Below are some of the wonders I hope to cover during this frosty month. 

Miracleman is the recreation which was launched (like V for Vendetta) in the pages of Dez Skinn's Warrior magazine in the early 80'a. This is Moore's quite vivid and compelling reimagining of the characters Marvel Man and his extended family which was itself a British take on the classic Fawcett Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family developed when the latter ceased to be published but the British audience wanted more. These comics come with "Mature Content" labels for good reason. This features the artwork of great talents like Garry Leach and Alan Davis among others. 

British comics don't come much tougher than Judge Dredd, the breakout star of 2000AD. I'm reading Dredd's earliest yarns, and I hope to rewatch the two Dredd movies. They are very different as most already know.  One is really good, and one is really not. 

Another dark character is Night Raven. Created by Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd, this enemy of organized crime serves quite well as a precursor of sorts to the later V for Vendetta. I not only have the collected comic vignettes, but here are copious text stories featuring this pulp-inspired enemy of evil. 

Marvel had a unit in Britian knocking out comics on a weekly basis, and in an attempt to add some specific new British content to the mix the word went down to create Captain Britain. I've always had a soft spot for the vintage, red-costumed Britian and the stories written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Herb Trimpe have a zest which is undeniable. 

The original British hero from Marvel was the Black Knight by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely. I adore these stories, gems of 50's storytelling from those halcyon Atlas days before the Marvel Age descended upon us all. The Black Knight is a part of the Marvel mythos and has even shown up in recent movies. I hope to see much more of him there. 

Supermarionation is a mouthful, but it describes the exceedingly strange but exceedingly entertaining work of Gerry Anderson and his team who take puppets and make heroes out of them. There's a delightful goofiness to these 60's and 70's efforts which give them charm which exceeds their narrative limitations. I hope to review all five of the core series in order and a few movies besides. 

And I want to close out the month of January with a look at Night Raven, a British pulp hero. Night Raven had some dandy comic adventures drawn by David Lloyd and later by John Bolton. But the majority of Night Raven adventures, grim and dark are actually pulp stories by the likes of Jamie Delano and even Alan Moore. 

All this and whatever else I can shove in is coming in January. Hang on to your MopTops amigos as it's British Invasion month at the Dojo! 

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The Most Special Agent!

As far as I can tell I've wrapped up my multi-year exploration of the Gerry Anderson TV shows. It's been a weird and wonderful trip for the most part, as I've moved beyond my boyhood fascination with Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Stingray to examine not only Space:1999 and UFO (two shows I also watched on the tube) but also Thunderbirds, Fireball XL-5, and Supecar. There was one pure "Supermarionation" show left and despite it looking decidedly sleepy I rolled the dice and picked up Joe 90. Overall I'm glad I did.

(Joe 90 in BIG RAT)

This is show which has some significant flaws but there's enough of the Anderson studio magic to make it worthwhile. Joe 90 is in fact a nine-year old boy named Joe McClaine who becomes the subject of his scientist Dad's experiments in brain manipulation. Sounds pretty gruesome put that way, but in some significant ways this is a gruesome show. The setting is the early 21st Century and the world is united under a single sprawling government and policed to some extent by W.I.N. (World Intelligence Network) who are represented in the series by Agent Sam Loover and Commander Shane Weston. Using a trippy device dubbed BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer) to transfer the brain patterns of one human into the brain of another Doctor Ian McClaine attempts to move science ahead. Instead his son gets fixed for the affair and after that becomes a double agent, often called a "Most Special Agent" because who would believe a nine year old was a deadly secret agent. Lots of high tech hijinks ensue and we have a show.

(Sam Loover, Dr. McClaine and Joe)

But it's a pretty sleepy show and after the first several episodes the special nature of Joe gets lost a lot. Why he's called "Joe 90" is open to debate but it's a name Gerry Anderson cottoned to. Joe saves people from deadly scenarios (Thunderbirds) fights deadly foreign agents (Captain Scarlet) and jets around in a nifty futuristic car of his Dad's design which looks like nothing else on the road and flies to boot (Supercar). In fact of all the shows this late 60's show resembles to me was Supercar, though seeming to add more sophisticated characterization with more human-like puppets. Sadly they end up having less character than the zany cartoonish Supercar characters and prove in the end to be less compelling.

(The Jet-Air Car)

Captain Scarlet looked similar but was driven by a heavy dark atmosphere and a high-tech continued threat which gave it an epic quality. Joe 90 is more episodic and the danger while often lethal feels less robust. Joe does in fact shoot and kill a few folks along the way, something I imagine would raise some hackles these days. Some have suggested this is a boy's fantasy and I'm good with that as a general premise, but it doesn't make the show any better for being correctly identified. This one falls into the near-miss category for me, full of some interesting spectacle from time to time, but laboring under some rather dull lead characters.

Still and all it was diverting and even a weaker Anderson show is still a cut above many others.

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We Are The Mysterons!

Just spent a few wonderful days before and after Christmas enjoying the classic Gerry Anderson "Supermarionation" adventure show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. This is one from my childhood, a classic TV entertainment which seared a spot in my noggin and never left. The classic opening has reverberated in my imagination for decades. 

The show followed quickly upon the success of Thunderbirds, but offered up puppets with more lifelike proportions and a storyline with a darker, sometimes even adult tone. It's this latter aspect which I think made this show stick with me. This was grim stuff at times. The premise is that in 2068 an Earth expedition led by Captain Black of the Spectrum organization happens across the alien Mysteron base on Mars and wrongfully attacks it. The Mysterons though have technology which can recuperate from destruction and death itself and do so, pledging at the same time to wage an unending "war of nerves" on the Earth in general and Spectrum in specific.

What makes their attacks so grim is that they use revived humans and equipment to wage their war. The invisible Mysterons first kill you (usually with vehicular homicide), then revive you and have you serve them slavishly. That's rough stuff. I was reminded this time of the ludicrous movie Plan 9 From Outer Space which sought to revive the dead to wage war on the Earth, and thought to myself how Captain Scarlet sort of actually follows through with this plan.

The first Mysteron agent is Captain Black himself, who looks zombie enough most of the time, a pale grim figure shown weekly lurking in a graveyard. He plots, then Spectrum blocks or not. The good guys don't always win on this show, and that's rugged territory for what is supposed to be a kid's show.

Captain Scarlet himself is something of a rogue Mysteron agent. In the first episode he is killed and revived, but circumstances cause him to revert to his heroic pose but armored with an indestructible nature. He dies more than a few times during the series, but always returns to fight another day. He is assisted by Captain Blue and the other agents of Spectrum, all led by Colonel White. Beautiful women called Angels are a constant flying circus protecting Cloud Base, a giant airborne aircraft carrier. From this high-tech location the unending Mysteron war is waged.

It's a tight premise, and the half-hour episodes are told with skill and supreme craftsmanship. The editing on a show like this is crucial and the story is rarely muddled and a great deal is jammed into a small space. This makes for brisk and enjoyable entertainment. I will admit that in certain moments the show does resemble Ken and Barbie playing spy, but most of the time, the creators are able to avoid that pitfall. This is a smart snappy show with more than a gram of wit.

It's a precursor of sorts to the later Anderson live-action show UFO which also has Earth engaged in a battle with mysterious aliens, this time led by the secret SHADO organization. There are more than a few similarities between these shows, almost making you think UFO is Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons done in the live-action format.

If you haven't seen Captain Scarlet, I heartily recommend it. It's pure entertainment.

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The End Of Captain Scarlet!

Ron Embleton
One of the most beautiful parts of the Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons television show were the lush paintings which set off the end titles. These were done by Ron Embleton, who was at the time also supplying the artwork for the Stingray comic strip. Embleton went on to also do some Captain Scarlet comics.


Embleton apparently preferred to work on expansive historical pieces like Wulf the Briton. Here's a link to an outstanding gallery of his work.


Eventually Embleton became the artist for Penthouse magazine on the exceedingly well crafted but exceedingly raunchy Oh,Wicked Wanda!. That's where I first discovered his name, and knew nothing of his connection to my boyhood favorite show Captain Scarlet.

Here are those lovely and exciting pieces of artwork which graced the end of every Captain Scarlet episode. All are by Embleton.










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British Invasions!

Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons is one of those boyhood favorites I've always wanted to get hold of on VHS or DVD or something. When I've looked for it in the past it always was unavailable or prohibitively expensive. But when I checked just a few months ago, I discovered that it was now out and at a nice price. So when my daughters asked what I wanted for the Christmas holiday, I told them Captain Scarlet (and sent a link to the Amazon location for good measure).

I'm doing some research now on Captain Scarlet and I find there's much more to this vintage entertainment than I knew or could know as a kid. The Mysterons are more complex than I recollect, and Scarlet's reincarnation is very intriguing. More on this later.


Just to be greedy, I also threw out the name of UFO (pronounced "U-foe" by some on the show), another Gerry Anderson project which I've been seeing available for years and always was curious about. I saw a few episodes here and there about the mysterious UFOs and their quiet inhabitants, and always wanted to see the rest. My affection for Space:1999 and the solid production values there, sold me on UFO unseen for the most part. I've been sampling episodes and they are very entertaining. (I've since learned that UFO might well be seen as a live action rendition of Scarlet, so it's neat to have both for comparison.)

So it's been a great holiday for me, as I'm loaded to the hilt with vintage British television to watch. My wife says she's happy to be free of me for many hours to come. So we're all winners!

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