''Garth'' was a
comic strip in the British newspaper ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'' that ran from 24 July 1943 – 22 March 1997. It belonged to the
action-adventure
The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.
Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...
genre and followed the exploits of the title character, an immensely strong hero who battled various villains throughout the world and in different eras.
Maurice Horn
Maurice Horn (born 1931) is a French-American comics historian, author, and editor, considered to be one of the first serious academics to study comics. He is the editor of ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'', ''The World Encyclopedia of Cartoon ...
, ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics''. New York: Chelsea House,1976. (p.274-5). It was widely
syndicated in English-speaking countries. 1960s Australian fast bowler
Garth McKenzie
Graham Douglas McKenzie (born 24 June 1941) – commonly known as "Garth", after the comic strip hero – is an Australian cricketer who played for Western Australia (1960–74), Leicestershire (1969–75), Transvaal (1979–80) and Austral ...
was nicknamed after its hero. Book collections of the strip were first published in 2011.
Publication history
Steve Dowling and
Gordon Boshell were the originators of the Garth character. Dowling wanted to create a British adventure comic strip and took inspiration from the American comic strips ''
Superman'', ''
Flash Gordon'' and ''
Terry and the Pirates''.
[Franco Fossati, "Garth", in ''I Grandi Eroi del Fumetto''. Rome : Gremese Editore, 1990 ] Dowling and Boshell hired 15-year-old John Allard to work on ''Garth'', who stayed with the strip for its entire run. After 69 adventures, Dowling retired and handed ''Garth'' over to Allard, which he carried on until 1971, when
Eagle comics
Eagle Comics was a short lived comic book publishing company that existed to reprint comic stories from the UK's '' 2000 A.D.'' magazine for distribution in North America. They existed from 1983 to 1986 and were based in London, England with pro ...
'
Dan Dare artist,
Frank Bellamy
Frank Bellamy (21 May 1917Khoury, George. ''True Brit: Celebrating The Comic Book Artists Of England'' (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2004). – 5 July 1976) was a People of the United Kingdom, British comics artist, best known for his work on the ...
, took over the art with Allard writing.
''Garth's'' longevity had been established by Don Freeman, who created almost every basic ''Garth'' plot on which it was built.
Peter O'Donnell
Peter O'Donnell (11 April 1920 – 3 May 2010) was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of ''Modesty Blaise'', an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also an award-winning gothic h ...
, Jim Edgar, and
Angus Allan
Angus Peter Allan (22 July 1936 – 16 July 2007) was a British comic strip writer and magazine editor who worked on ''TV Century 21'' in the 1960s and ''Look-in'' magazine during the 1970s. Most commonly known as Angus Allan and sometimes credit ...
also wrote extensively for the strip during its decades-long existence. Philip Harbottle, a leading ''Garth'' expert and collector of the strips, wrote several of the stories during the 1990s.
Martin Asbury became ''Garth's'' artist after Frank Bellamy's death in 1976, drawing the strip and writing many of the stories until its final episode in 1997.
In 1993, Bill Storrie produced a dozen or so 60-page photocopied magazines titled ''The Gopherville Argus Special Edition No. 1 featuring Garth'' as a tribute to the writers and artists who had been involved with the strip. Most (if not all) ''Garth'' strips are now owned by ''Mirror''.
As of 13 August 2008, "Garth" has reappeared on the website of the ''Daily Mirror'', drawn by the artist Huw J. Davies.
Having successfully worked in the Media Entertainment industry and Printed Media for over three decades (including periods at Disney, Warner, and Fox), Davies believed that the re-imagined version could easily cross from the digital, back to the printed medium, and ultimately licensing to other media. This was discussed and the future of the character in print was agreed upon with a new ongoing daily strip in print being planned to run at the end of the second online story arc, King of New York. However, due to an untimely accident involving long-standing cartoon editor Ken Layson, with whom the agreement had been made, things became muddied and internal politics with the Mirrorpix licensing arm of the newspaper created issues that delayed and inevitably halted this decision.
Davies decided to honour the characters history and under the terms of his licence re-branded the character. Davies, tipping the hat to Don Freeman, longtime writer of the strip, gave Garth a surname in the graphic novel ''Captain Garth Freeman of the Armed Services''. In 2010 this was launched under British publisher Markosia and was a success, selling out at comic stores and conventions as well as online. It was re-published in 2013 By Pummie Productions Ink, at first with its usual format and later with a new cover by Spider-Man artist and Stan Lee collaborator Andy Tong. It was repackaged with the Garth title in honour of the 70th anniversary of the character with all proceeds going to Help for Heroes.
In 2015, it was published again by Pummie Productions Ink, where the character starred alongside Sexton Blake, in the first of what was promised to be a series of comic books, under the Captain Garth Freeman of the Armed Services title. This again sold out.
Davies believes that the online revamp of the character was the catalyst for longtime fans of the character to push for a return of the hero and what ultimately led the newspaper and its licensing arm to re-colour the old strips and relaunch them in the paper.
Garth started a run of reprints in the ''Daily Mirror'', coloured by Martin Baines, in the issue dated 21 February 2011.
Characters and story
''Garth's''
time-travelling adventures lasted for over 54 years and covered 165 stories (plus two additional stories published in the ''Daily Mirror Book for Boys'', 1970–71). In the backstory, Garth washed ashore in
Shetland and was adopted by an elderly couple.
Garth developed almost superhuman strength and eventually became a naval captain and all-round military genius.
Garth travelled through many eras and confronted villains such as Madame Voss and Apollo. His true love was the ancient goddess-like figure, Astra. Garth's sidekick and mentor were French Professor Jules Lumiere, who
psychoanalyzed the hero and recovered memories of his previous experiences.
Episode list
Collected editions
''Garth'' strips were reprinted as
trade paperbacks
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...
on several occasions:
*''Garth in "The Last Goddess" and "Romeo Brown"'', Daily Mirror, c.1960
*''The Daily Mirror Book of Garth 1975'',
Fleetway Publications, 1975,
*''The Daily Mirror Book of Garth 1976'', Fleetway Publications, 1976
*''Garth Book One: "The Cloud of Balthus"'',
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of Titan Entertainment Group, which was established in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and c ...
, 1984,
*''Garth Book Two: "The Women of Galba"'', Titan Books, 1985,
*Garth ( Captain Garth freeman of the Armed Services ) 1st printing Markosia 2010 / 2nd Printing Pummie Productions 2013
''Garth'' has only been reprinted sporadically in the UK, but in recent years the All Devon Comic Collectors Club was allowed to reprint episodes on a strictly for members only basis.
It was announced that Penguin Books India was to issue the Complete Garth in a collectible 5-volume hardback graphic novel box set. This would comprise all 16,000 strips covering the 165 stories published in the Daily Mirror on 3,000 plus pages. The Penguin India reprint would be an Indian subcontinent-only production and the tentative release date was set for September 2009. However, Penguin Books India has now confirmed that the publication of the set has been postponed indefinitely.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Garthat the International Catalog of Superheroes
Garthat Downthetubes.net
Action-adventure comics
British comic strips
British comics characters
Drama comics
Adventure comics
Action comics
Comics about time travel
Nautical comics
1943 comics debuts
Comics characters introduced in 1943
1997 comics endings
Comics characters with superhuman strength
Fictional sea captains
Fictional castaways
Male characters in comics
Daily Mirror