Gerry Finley-Day (born 1947, Broughty Ferry,

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

) is a Scottish comics writer, prolific from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of "

Rogue Trooper ''Rogue Trooper'' is a science fiction strip in the British comic '' 2000 AD'', created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons in 1981. It portrays the adventures of a " Genetic Infantryman" named Rogue and three uploaded minds mounted on his ...

Career

He began his career at D.C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the editor of

IPC Media TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...

's girls' title '' Tammy'' in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as ''Ella on Easy Street'' and ''The Camp on Candy Island''. Tammy's stories were full of cruelty and adversity, based on research showing that girls wanted stories that made them cry. Finley-Day rose to become deputy managing editor of IPC's girls' comics department, but quit to become a freelance writer. In 1974 he was drafted in by

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfather ...

to help develop characters for ''

Battle Picture Weekly ''Battle Picture Weekly'', at various times also known as ''Battle Action'', ''Battle Action Force'', ''Battle'' and ''Battle with Storm Force'', was a British war comic book magazine published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 197 ...

'', launched the following year,David Bishop, ''Blazing Battle Action part 1'', ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #209, 26 August 2003 for which he wrote ''Rat Pack'', ''The Sarge'', ''The Bootneck Boy'', ''D-Day Dawson'', ''Return of the Eagle'', ''Sergeant Without Stripes'', ''Cold Steele'', ''Skreamer of the Stukas'',David Bishop, ''Blazing Battle Action part 2'', ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #210, 23 September 2003 ''Glory Rider'',David Bishop, ''Blazing Battle Action part 3'', ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #211, 21 October 2003 ''Cooley's Gun'', ''Action Force'',David Bishop, ''Blazing Battle Action part 4'', ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #212, 18 November 2003 ''

One-Eyed Jack This list of playing card nicknames shows the nicknames of playing cards in a standard 52-card pack. Some are generic, some are specific to certain card games; others to specific patterns, for example, the courts of French playing cards often bear t ...

'' and many others. He had a penchant for creating honourable German heroes, including ''Fighter from the Sky'', ''Panzer G-Man'', ''Commando King'', ''Sea Wolf'', and perhaps the best known, ''Hellman of Hammer Force'', which started out in ''

Action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

'' and transferred to ''Battle'' after ''Action'' was merged into it. Other strips he wrote for ''Action'' include ''Green's Grudge War'' and ''Dredger''. Finley-Day was one of the mainstays of early '' 2000 AD'', writing '' Invasion!'', '' Dan Dare'', '' Fiends of the Eastern Front'', and a couple of early episodes of ''

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology Comic book, comic. He is the ...

'', and became their specialist in future war stories, first with '' The V.C.s'', and then his most enduring character, ''Rogue Trooper'', which still features occasionally, written by other writers — although Finley-Day returned to the character for a one-off story in 2010. He also wrote ''

Blackhawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus uru ...

'' for ''

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

'', and several strips for the revived ''

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'', including ''Saddle Tramp'', ''

Sergeant Streetwise ''Eagle'' was a British children's British comics, comics periodical, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris (publisher), Marcus Morris, an Anglicanism, Anglican vicar ...

'', ''Jake's Platoon'', ''The Hand'', and episodes of ''

The Collector ''The Collector'' is a 1963 thriller novel by English author John Fowles, in his literary debut. Its plot follows a lonely, psychotic young man who kidnaps a female art student in London and holds her captive in the cellar of his rural farmhous ...

''.Gerry Finley-Day profile
2000ad.org; accessed 18 September 2015. In August 2022, Rebellion published ''The Best of Gerry Finley-Day'' with a short UK booking signing tour at Forbidden Planet shops. The book includes the full ''Harry 20 on the High Rock'' as well as excerpts from ''Dan Dare'' and the ''V.C.s''

Bibliography

Comics work includes: * ''Slaves of 'War Orphan Farm (in ''Tammy'' 6 February 1971 to 17 July 1971) * ''The Camp on Candy Island'' (in Tammy 28 October 1972 to 19 May 1973) * ''Serfs of the Swamps'' (in Tammy 13 September 1975 to 22 November 1975) * '' Invasion!'' (in ''2000 AD'' #1-6, 8-35, 37-38, 40 & 42-51, 1977–78) * ''

'': "The Solar Sniper" (with Ron Turner, in ''2000 AD'' #19, 1977) * '' Dan Dare'' (in ''2000 AD'' #28-51 & 64-66, 1977–78) * ''Ant Wars'' (in ''2000 AD'' #71-85, 1978) * ''

'' (in ''Tornado'' #4-22, 1979) * ''Disaster 1990'' (in ''2000 AD'' # 119-139, 1979) * '' The V.C.s'' (in ''2000 AD'' 140-143, 145-165, 168-169 & 171-175, 1979–1980) * '' Fiends of the Eastern Front'' (in ''2000 AD'' # 152-161, 1980) * ''

'' (in ''2000 AD'' #228-232, 234-243 & 246-258, 1981–82) * ''Father's Footsteps'' (in Tammy 1982) * ''Cross on Court'' (in Tammy 1982) * ''Rae Rules OK'' (in Tammy 1982) * ''Jaws Three'' (in Tammy 21 May 1983 to 25 June 1983) * ''

Sgt. Streetwise ''Eagle'' was a British children's comics periodical, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a Southport parish ma ...

'' (in ''Eagle'' #1-11, 1982) * ''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #260-62, 1982 Sci-Fi Special & #265-301, 1982–83) * ''Saddle Tramp'' (in ''Eagle'' #14-26, 1982) * ''Sgt. Streetwise'' (in ''Eagle'' #27-31, 1982) * ''Harry Twenty on the High Rock'' (in ''2000 AD'' #287-307, 1982–83) * ''Sgt. Streetwise'' (in ''Eagle'' #32-38, 1982) *''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #303-355, 1983–84) *''Jake's Platoon'' (in ''Eagle'' #41-57, 1983) *''Sgt. Streetwise'' (in ''Eagle'' #41-43 & 46-48, 1983) *''The Hand'' (in ''Eagle'' from #70-93 and continuing, 1983–84) *''Sgt. Streetwise'' (in ''Eagle'' #76-78, 1983) *''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #358-364, 366-392, 1983–84) *''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #401-406, 410-419, 422-426 & 428-432, 1985) *''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #444-449, 1985) *''Rogue Trooper'' (in ''2000 AD'' #2011, 2010)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Finley-Day, Gerry Living people 1947 births Scottish comics writers People from Broughty Ferry Date of birth missing (living people) Writers from Dundee