The British Bat-Men!

 

As most of you will know, this year marks the 75th anniversary of Batman. However, the notion of costumed 'bat-men' didn't originate with Bob Kane's creation. One such earlier character was Batsowl, who starred in a series of prose stories in the British comic Illustrated Chips in 1918. 

I'm not suggesting for a moment that there was any connection of course. Bob Kane was born in 1915, so it's highly unlikely he'd have seen a British comic when he was three years old. However, there are some interesting similarities between the two characters, not least being the costume, as you can see from the header illustration above.

Like Batman, Batsowl's other identity was a wealthy figure. In this case, an Earl, Desmond Devance...

He also had a secret underground laboratory, not dissimilar to the Batcave...

...and his appearance struck terror into people...

    Sadly, like most British comics of the time, Batsowl is uncredited. I don't know how long the serial ran as I only have one episode, which is the one I'm showing here. It's from Illustrated Chips No.1477, dated December 21st 1918. This was one of the comics presented as a facsimile in 1972 in the Six Comics of World War One collection.

It's highly likely that Batman and Batsowl were both partially influenced by The Phantom of the Opera, by French author Gaston Leroux (first published as a serial in Le Gaulois from 23rd September 1909 to 8th January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910), and The Scarlet Pimpernel (the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905 and which was adapted as a very popular London play in 1905).

Flying Justice was the title of a serial in The Boy's Friend in 1927.  The hero is Roger Falcon and in the episodes I have, I don't think he is referred to as "Flying Justice".  Falcon does have the wings, costume - and in some illos. -  the domino mask, which qualify him as a genuine masked mystery man.  Yet another one well before Batman. 

 The Human Bat and The Human Bat  V The Robot Gangster  was also the title character in two novels by Edward R Home-Gall in 1950.  

Home-Gall was a noted writer of boys' stories' The Human Bat, described by at least one person as "a costumed psychotic" , used mechanical batwings to give him the power of flight, and from his fingers he is able to project energy beams.  In fact, I think it fair to dispute the "psychotic" claim. The Human Bat's mission in life was to save young boys from a life of crime. He smashes a criminal mastermind (masquerading as a robot spider) who recruits boy thieves by poisoning their minds with 'kleptotoxin.' ...

In the sequel there is even more spectacular action and more violence as Dr Syntax (no, not THAT Dr Syntax) sends a giant armed robot to commit jewel robberies and the police casualties pile up! There is a bit of an even weirder twist as the robot is accompanied by a somewhat schizophrenic schoolboy who is controlled by the disembodied brain of his twin, who has been dismembered by his mad scientist father. Well, I guess that must have happened back in the day!

Edward Reginald Home-Gall was the son of author William Benjamin Home-Gall. He was a prolific author under many pseudonyms. He was also a man who was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on 4th June, 1917 at the Battle of Messines for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty under heavy shell fire" as the Battalion Signalling Officer. He died in France in 1974.

Initially advertised as Spring Heeled Jack in the end the character was simply named The Human Bat!

John Holloway was based in Fingall, Ireland and his father was the 17th Earl of Fingall. In  Funny Wonder, March, 1899 it is told how a cousin and a Parliamentary rival of his father plot, and succeed in taking the family estate and fortune. To seek revenge and reclaim his inheritance, John dons a caped suit that his father's manservant had handed to him for formal occasions and John added the mask to conceal his identity.

And in 1943 we got The Winged Avenger in The Film Fun Annual....

Let's not forget Harry Banger had his detective Slicksure -then working with the Secret Service confront an evil Bat! in the 1940s

But, oh, there is more. Gerald Swan's Thrill Comics number 1, 1940 presented William A. Ward's The Bat!

Also at Swan in the late 1940s, William McCail brought us...The Bat....are you seeing why this gets confusing? Don't even get me started on the number of Owl Men!

Then in 1952 Cartoon Art published The Bat Magazine in which strips seemed to be redrawn from Western Ghost Rider comics. Ghost Rider having appeared in the comic before The Bat took over.. This Bat did not have bat-wings but he was called "the Bat" so there...oh, and Ward's Bat never had bat-wings either!

However, going bac k to the beginning almost, and proving why the 1890s-1939 was the Golden Age of British comics, on the 9th September, 1899, in Illustrated Chips no. 471, the first Master of Comic Art, Tom Browne introduced us to Spring-Heeled Jack (aka "Mr Bat). 

 And this little run down is not finished yet as there is Zark from 1951 -he's got bat-wings but he is a Martian!  He was also brought to us by Gerald Swan.

Below: slightly from outside the Dark Age we have, from a May, 1955 edition of Radio Fun. The Falcon...with costume and wings!  Artist: George Heath  

 

Guess what? There are probably others and I am looking into those but here I wanted to cover the 1890s to early 1950s. The bat wing types continued into the 1950s -Mr Apollo fought a villain known as The Acro-Bat...

In the 1960s to 1970s the trend continued and I would argue that this fella from 1966 could also be called a bat-winged man!





I post this in the full knowledge that others will steal the work!

Big Mouth Strikes Again and admits "I Got It Wrong!"

 

I defined the various ages of British comics and to be honest I thought 1939-1951 was the British Golden Age period. It appeared in the header for a long time. 

I was wrong.  

As I have delved into older comics or boys papers I have found that the "Golden Age" as defined by Denis Gifford was correct. I have no idea why I doubted that.  

I will be updating things and given dates and reasons as soon as soon as I get over the current eye strain. 

The 'Ultimate' Book of British Comics

  Just a little warning.

I ordered this book from Amazon as I did not recognise the cover.  

What I got was THIS book the cover of which I DID recognise. 

 

I would not recommend it since there is nothing in it that you would not find in an old Denis Gifford or Alan Clark book. Forget the  bullshit claim that the catalogue every comic produced would require a book three times the size of this 296 pager. Denis Gifford accomplished it and even updated later volumes.  

The fact that the Boy's Papers were skipped is acceptable as although they had comic strips in them if you want to on weekly comics  -although the fact that they contained strips needed to be mentioned. Then we come to the biggest exclusion of all. Comics of the 1930s-1950s because this book concentrates on the 1960s-1980s. No mention of Gerald Swan, no mention of Marvelman or any of the significant comics of the three decades he ignores.

Basically, as a comic historian and fan I found the book not that good -but luckily I only paid £3.00 for it. The author does enjoy hyperbole though as in the claim "which is, literally, read by millions" re his work 

If you just want a list of some 60s but mainly 1970s-1980s titles then this is for you...if you can buy it cheap.

Igor...The Beginning

 Igor by Edward Lowe who worked in A. Soloway comics titles no real information on him but this Igor strip is from All Star Comic Vol. 4 no. 4

I have been searching for a long time but part 2 of this series I have never found!

Merry and Bright -Help Needed To ID Year

 

It is an oddity in my collection of old stuff: Merry and Bright Published by John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., London.According to a search result:

"John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., a London-based publisher, produced an annual titled "Merry and Bright". This annual was published in the early 20th century, according to bookselling sites. The annual is a hardcover book, and first editions can be found for sale through secondhand booksellers. "

In fact, after months of searching I have only ever found one copy. First edition and £46 but 

nothing to indicate the year published. I would guess at late 1920s to early 1930s. Anyone know

better?

Cooperation On Gathering British Golden Age Material

 Thrill Comics no. 1, April, 1940. Does it exist? Well, yes but you might not think so if you looked for information.  William A. Ward's character The Bat appeared in that first issue and a later later edition of Extra Fun in 1940 -paper regulations and rationing was causing more than a few problems.

 I do wonder how many copies of annuals/albums saw print since most are basically published issues bound together so...unsold copies?

Anyway, let me tell you a story about cooperation amongst comic 'fans'.  In the late 1990s and early 200s I found my own books and scans supplemented by scans sent by an American who belonged to one of my Yahoo groups. I had two British comic collectors add a couple issues but they insisted that they did not want to be named although I did thank them using their online names later.

That was it. From 2002-2025 not a single person has helped to get old characters and strips back into print so that they are not forgotten. No money involved of course since the books hardly sell and I treat them as labours of love.

I managed to have a late friend scan the special issue of Back From The Dead (appearing in parts in War Comics (1940) and Topical Funnies (1941) before being compiled in whole in Picture Epics (1952).  My friend's scans were not up to much, or so I thought.  

I managed to find two other people who scanned their copies and....they matched up perfectly, ink fades and defects exactly the same as the copies my friend had sent. If each had scanned their own copies of  Back From The Dead then how could that be? As I got to know even more about the period I realised that it was down to rationing and cheap ink and paper and cut price printing.  Some of the defects in Swan comics also appear in the same strip in the annuals and clearly show that Swan was not wasting a penny and bound non selling issues made a good album -new money for old rope so it goes.

Recently I was sent a scan of a Dene Vernon strip -in fact the first Dene Vernon strip from Thrill Comics no.1, April, 1940 (the series ran from 1940-1946) but this one came from Weird Story Magazine no. 1, August, 1940 Dave Brzeski for that!  I thought this would be great as my copy of the strip was not great, however, after looking at the copy from WSM I found that apart from the small differences the quality was the same. This appears to have been another example of Swan needing "filler pages" and adding the Vernon story.

I have searched for...let's say a "very long time"..a copy of the first appearance of Krakos the Egyptian from New Funnies Autumn Special (1940) and then the series from Thrill Comics 1941-1946 but no luck. Denis Gifford would never slap a book on a scanner but he had a copy of the first issue with Krakos in and was selling it for £5 (he sold a lot via his Association of Comic Enthusiasts -ACE). Sadly, he passed away before I could buy. I do know that several ACE members had copies and Denis had sent me their details. Not one was willing to scan or sell when I later asked. 

The same thing happened when I tried to find the first appearance of William A. Ward's The Bat from Thrill Comics no. 1, April, 1940 -he took a quick jump over to Extra Fun!  No one was willing to scan or sell a copy and there were various excuses such as a scan making their comic less valuable (I hate to say it but a scan of a comic is not going to devalue an actual hard copy!).

Having just seen prices being asked by some sellers fro Swan comics -£250, £500 for an eight page comic????- I don't think I could afford  even a later issue currently going for £98 and that for 8 pages. 

I have spent a lot of money to date and I just wish there were people out there that interested in British Golden Age comics but there just are not. Speculators have latched on to Swan simply because they have heard the name and think that there is a burgeoning market for the books.

Cooperation over just the last 25 years has been near absent which is a pity as more and more old comic fans pass on and their collections and memories are lost.

Masked Justice in the Old West -Leatherface!

 

Previously I presented  The Outlaw Sheriff from D C Thomsons Adventure no. 1346  4th November, 1950

https://britishgoldenagecomics.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-outlaw-sheriff.html

Imagine my surprise, having forgotten about it years ago, finding on a disc (yes -an actual disc) another fine example of Western masked justice -Leatherface! This is fromThe Skipper 15th July, 1933

The Man Who Laughs At Scotland Yard: The Red Spider!!

 Our sister site -UK Golden Age Heroes (blog list to right) has had The Chuckling Prowler posted to it....no, that is a character!

Anyway, I thought what we needed here is a glimpse of a very long lost Platinum Age villain...The Red Spider!!! From Adventure 454 published 12th July, 1930

Baby Buster and Spick and Span

Now I am not going to say "effete trendies from art college" or elite cliques but the Platinum Comics people can be narrow  minded, ignorant and just outright rude.  I once pointed out that there were indeed comic strips in old British Boy's Papers as they are called.  The result was that I was mocked and rather rudely by people who it seems had never actually handled or read pre-British Golden Age publications.

After all they were perfectly correct in that there were no masked or costumed adventurers or crime-fighters pre-1939 (if I ignore all of such said characters.

f

Here is something from my feeble imagination, or, as I like to call it Adventure published on the 12th July, 1930

 

Streamline no. 3 Moved So Fast From My Collection -I Never Knew It Was Gone!

 You see, at one time I was a complete trusting moron. My home was an open house for comickers and while we worked and talked they would also delve into my collection. 

A good few books 'vanished'.

Amongst those comics was Streamline no. 2 which I picked up for £1 at a Bath Comic mart in the 1980s.  

 I understand why Denis Gifford let NO ONE near his home and collection.  

I am posting this in case anyone has a scan (at least) of this issue? If so please let me know!!

NEVER Be Afraid To Ask Me A Question About Old/Obscure British Characters

 

 2013  is a long time ago now but I had no idea that I was the subject of a LOT of discussion on the Comic Book Plus forum. I won't name names for obvious reasons but I do recall someone was hitting me with question after question about obscure British comic heroes on Brit Comics.  There was no explanation and then the person vanished.

Last week I found out what was going on (hey, I don't visit comic forums and I'm old!!):

"I am currently playing Stump the Hooper over @ Britishcomics @ Yahoo. I need to come up with some really obscure British super hero or heroine types from the 1930's or 40's or earlier. Got any suggestions out there guys?"

The response he got was:

"if that's Terry Hooper, and it is, you've no chance.  He's close to encyclopaedic in his knowledge of British comics characters.  But, and remember, he could be reading this, you might want to try some from British storypapers.  We call them storypapers nowadays but when I was a wee boy, they were all "comics", whether it was illustrated stories or text strips or balloon strips."

Well, I never read forums as when I ask questions I rarely get a response or if I do it's "Well, if you don't know how would we?"

Anyway, the original poster followed up:

"Well that didn't work out too well. Seems I sort of teed Mr. Terry off. Big mistake on my part and a big embarrassment of myself. So much so that I resigned from his group in utter shame! My bad."

I have no recollection of how this person thinks he teed me off.  The thing is IF he had said "are you up for a challenge?" then yes. If he hit me with  question after question with no explanation I would wonder what was going on as I always answer any questions or mails and research can take a while. He should certainly NOT have resigned but just explained.

Finding old characters and informing people about them is what I try to do to keep the memories of the characters and creators alive (if very dusty with slight foxing).  I think the original poster stated that he showed me an image of a character and I then sent him an image of how the character looked originally rather than how he thought the character looked.

I do tend to be brief and to the point -the same as with work: get a job do it quickly then finish BUT I would never get angry at someone unless they were seeming to be trying to annoy me.   If it had just been mentioned what his intention was I would have been open to  a challenge.

The Outlaw Sheriff

 From D C Thmsons Adventure no. 1346  4th November, 1950.  There is absolutely no information online or anywhere else about this character so even artist is "anon"

or is it?

Looking at the style and there is almost the look of Dudley Watkins in the art. It might bhe possible since he did a lot for Thomson and thee were short one pagers.

Another interesting fact is that in the 1985 edition of Denis Gifford's The Complete Catalogue of British Comics... Thomson's Adventure is not mention but a dozen other "adventures" are!

He Was The Father of Garth -Forgotten Golden Age Creator Steve Dowling

 

Back in 2011, because it seems that everyone had forgotten him, and the legendary character he created,Garth, I re-posted an interview the late Denis Gifford conducted with Steve Dowling.

My Britcomics group and British Golden Age Comics sites were the only places where anyone could find photographs of Steve.  Since that time, as is always the way, the photographs have been pilfered repeatedly and writers 'anecdotes' have been stolen from this interview.  I know this because Dowling only ever got interviewed once as no one thought him important because he was not Asbury, Allard or Bellamy -most people seem to think Bellamy created Garth!

According to a family member, Steve had very little money after he was forced to retire (obligatory under company law -supposedly since it never stopped Giles from continuing on) and his younger family members had no idea he had been a working artist.  In fact, after his death, apart from one or two drawing he had made for youngsters,the family had no samples of his newspaper work.  Piers Morgan at the Daily Mirror, that had published Garth, made no secret that he detested newspaper comic strips.  When I spoke to him on behalf of the Dowling family (whom the Daily Mirror had already refused a request from) it ended with him saying "Why are you bothering me with this rubbish?" and he put the phone down.

So called British comic 'experts' also refused to get involved or track work down -it was one of the reasons that I set up the Yahoo Britcomics and British comic Book Archives groups.  No creator should be forgotten or treated as though their original work had no value when compared to the later 'stars'.

Before I get too angry -here is the interview!

Steve Dowling -Father Of GARTH!

Around 1999, I had an email from the grandson of Steve Dowling who was living in Canada.  I learnt that Steve had been bumped out of his job simply because he had reached 65 years of age (only in the UK!).  He then spent many years living off a poor pension.  Steve had no original art from his newspaper strip days to show his family -it’s why I was contacted because of my British Comic Books Archive project.


Apparently the family had asked the Daily Mirror newspaper if it could just get some photocopies of the pages for themselves.  No.  They asked then editor Piers Morgan (can I spit?) who basically responded that he had no time to waste of dumb comic strips (his hatred of them is well recorded).

I lost the email from the family when my old computer blew. IF Steve’s family in Canada read this then I have Garth strips I can offer on share file.


Published in ‘Ally Sloper’ #1, 1976, and reprinted in ‘Comic Bits’ #1, 2001. Denis Gifford conducts an on-stage interview at ‘Comics 101′ on 20 March 1976 with Garth creator Steve Dowling, who died in 1986.

STEVE: I might say that it’s been more than worthwhile to come all this way, because I thought nobody knew me any more, let alone thought me worthy of an award! Everybody’s been so kind to me and said so many nice things that I’ve really been rather overwhelmed by it all. Thank you very much, everyone.

DENIS: Well, we’ll get on to the British newspaper strip, which you were almost solely responsible for. You worked under several different names and different styles. How did it all start?

STEVE: It started by my going riding with a friend who did a strip called ‘Tich’ in the Daily Mirror, the ideas for which were supplied by my brother, Frank. Coming back from this event, rather full of liquor, unfortunately there was a car accident and the artist, Martin, died. And so I had to step into his shoes and was plummeted into the strip business in a rather shaky condition, having gone through the roof of a car! ‘Tich’ ran for some years. [from 1931 - DG]


DENIS: But you were an artist before this?

 Steve Dowling receiving an Ally Sloper award from Denis Gifford and Bob Monkhouse at Comics 101

STEVE: I was in advertising. As a matter of fact, I was at the time Assistant Art Director for Dorland Advertising at the age of 24. I gave up my job at Dorland’s because I could do ‘Tich’ in one day a week – there were very few lines in the thing, very slick little drawings – and then I could go down by the seaside and put my feet up for the rest of the week, which was very nice indeed!

DENIS: There were strips in the Mirror before ‘Tich’, ‘Dud’ and ‘Jinks’ and so on – but after ‘Tich’ strips seem to blossom.



STEVE: Well, old Guy Bartholomew who was chairman of the Mirror was mad hot about strips. Having been an artist himself he regarded the strips as the main part of the paper. His opinion was that most people couldn’t read, anyway, and liked looking at pictures!

DENIS: What was the genesis of ‘Ruggles’, your first real strip?

STEVE: I think having seen American continuity strips. I got the idea for this character ‘John Ruggles’, an ordinary chap, and my brother who had quite a gift for humorous writing,wrote the words. In point of fact I think ‘Ruggles’ was the first continuity strip to appear in a national daily. The others were all daily incidents. The idea of having a serial story run in picture form was new in this country, although, of course, it had been done in America. I remember Cecil King, who was rather small-fry then, always wanted me to make ‘Ruggles’ build a shed in his garden, because his 14 year-old son had suggested the idea! If I had taken King’s advice ‘Ruggles’ garden would have been so stiff with sheds that he wouldn’t have been able to move!

DENIS: Did you sit down and create ‘Ruggles’ as the average man with an average family?

STEVE: Very average! In fact we were trying to write down to the readers, a thing one should not do! Trying to make the strip as like the family life as we could. After a time my brother gave it up – he became the editor of the Picture Post instead – and I took it over. I tried to strengthen the storyline and some of the humour went out of it.


DENIS: Why did you sign it with a pseudonym: ‘Ruggles – by Blik’?

STEVE: Oh, that was just a short name like: ‘Tich – by Dart’.

DENIS: And: ‘Belinda Blue Eyes – by Gloria’?

STEVE: Oh, I was just one of a long line of Glorias! That was actually written in the first place by Bill Connor, who later became Sir William, ‘Cassandra’. He wrote it to order for Bartholomew the chairman. Everybody took a hand in those days. Basil Nicholson, the editor, who was the man who re-modelled the Mirror, his idea of having a comic strip was to have a different person every day slipping on a banana skin. One day a clergyman, the next day a policeman; he thought that was the level of public understanding.

Warrior World (1961) Full strip uploaded to the Face Book page


DENIS: Later ‘Ruggles’ featured the public actually in the strip. How did that unique series come about?

STEVE: They thought the strip was flagging a bit and Philip Zec, who was then the strip editor, asked me to come up with a twist. Well, Wilfred Pickles on the radio was then ‘Meeting the People’ and I thought I would try this in strip form. I took some roughs into Zec, who didn’t think much of the idea. He took it to the chairman, and next day I got a telegram from Zec: “Please draw some more along the lines I suggested.” Well, I did, and Zec got into trouble for claiming it was his idea – it became the chairman’s idea! But I must say that the idea eventually reverted to me – when they found that the series didn’t go down very well!!

DENIS: Why did ‘Ruggles’ come to an end?

STEVE: Well, they felt it wasn’t pulling. They asked for letters and, of course, more people will write and say they don’t like a thing than those who do, so ‘Ruggles’ went.

DENIS: And so, we come, at last to Garth. How and why did he begin?

STEVE: I had been writing and drawing ‘Belinda . . .’ and not enjoying it very much. Then they found another artist, Tony Royle, to take it on, so they asked me to produce another strip in order to justify my salary. It took me about three months to think up Garth and draw the first three weeks’ strips. The chairman thought that was rather too long – so he docked my pay!

DENIS: Did you set out to create a British equivalent to ‘Superman’?

STEVE: No, ‘Terry and the Pirates’ was my great influence, if anything. I was rather interested in Tibet, and the Forbidden City, and the magic that was there. For instance, in the beginning Garth was resuscitated by the ‘kiss of life’ from a rather attractive young woman called Gala. Well, the ‘kiss of life’ was not known here then, but I had read about it in a book on Tibet.

DENIS: Garth was a man of mystery. Did you have a solution in mind from the start?

STEVE: Oh, no. I had no solution at all. I had no more idea who Garth was than the reader!

DENIS: One mystery was that Garth drifted in from the sea, and there is no sea around Tibet!

STEVE: Artistic licence!

DENIS: Another striking feature was the constantly bared bosom of one of Garth’s girlfriends.

STEVE: One had to fight to show a little in those days.

DENIS: A “little”? I’d call it a lot! I suppose the exposure was very calculated?

STEVE: Oh yes. I certainly enjoyed drawing it.

DENIS: Why did you stop drawing Garth?

STEVE: I had to. I was freelance up to 1949. Then I joined the staff to get a pension, and when I reached the age of 65 I had to go. That was the rule, so I went.

Self drawn illo for Ally Sloper Magazine

And that, my friends, is how it ends.  Sad, but at least Steve realised how much his work was loved by fans and he deserved even more than that Ally Sloper but....