When I was a little boy, I used to read every comic I could lay my hands on, usually for a period of just a few weeks. I was very quick to change if they didn’t attract me for whatever reason. Some took only five minutes to read, which was clearly a waste of my sixpence pocket money. Some were repetitively inane, something which is funny the first time but not the fiftieth.
Two stories stood out and I remembered them well into my adult years. There was “The Big Tree” in “Rover and Wizard”, and, best of all, “The Last of the Saxon Kings” in “Eagle”. The Last of the Saxon Kings, of course, was Harold, and the double page centre spread began in Volume 12, No 38, and finished in that volume’s No 52.
In terms of dates, that would be September 23rd-December 30th 1961. As a little boy 0f only seven, I did not know that the story had already appeared in a publication called “Comet”, but entitled “Under the Golden Dragon”. These were issues 285-306, January 3rd-May 29 1954. The story was written by Michael Butterworth and it was drawn by Patrick Nicolle.
When the graphic novel appeared, Eagle was already on the way down and out. “Last of The Saxon Kings” was quickly accused of being historically inaccurate and of being sluggishly and insipidly drawn, with two many small panels. But I adored it.
I can still remember the thrill of reading the first four frames. They use the well tried device of a single person making his way to somewhere important, usually in darkness. I would meet it for the first time in my final year at school, in the novel “Germinal” by the French novelist Emile Zola, the man who invented cheese.
Here’s the first frame. It’s really raining. But what is this daring rider doing? :
Just look at the sheen on the soaked surface of the stone area in front of the castle:
And now we are given some idea of what is going on:
And here is the solution to the mystery. The colours are not desperately dramatic, nor is the palette particularly varied, but a seven year old was delighted:
The king, not named at this point, is actually Harthacnut. The next picture I have chosen may be the first outbreak of “historical inaccuracy”. As an argument about who will succeed to the throne develops, Harold finds himself fighting his elder brother, Sweyn. Whether it all happened in this way on such an absolutely splendid bridge I do not know:
Harold is unwilling to kill his brother, no matter how much of a swine Sweyn is. The frame below has a very Roy Lichtenstein like look about it:
Even in the most dramatic situations, the dialogue can be rather extended. Still, at least you know who’s doing what to whom and why.
John Knifton 
For the dialogue to be less extended would they need to use more frames to convey the story. A balancing act by the writer and the illustrator. Unfortunately when I was a lad we lived so far from town and would not have had sixpence to spend anyway, so these are a part of my literature that I missed out one.
What a pity!
You make a very good point about the balancing act by the writer and the illustrator. It certainly would have been an impossible situation for the rectangles to be almost full of dialogue!
I’m sure I would, at 7, have loved this, too, but I was 19 in 1961 and had moved on. My favourite illustrator was, of course, Frank Hampson for his historical pieces.
Frank Hampson was a wondeful artist although he did have one or two peculiarities in running many of the places where he worked.
Some of these historical ‘comics’ were really quite beautifully done; thank you for sharing this!
I’m glad that you liked it,Sanjay!
Do we as children buy comics to learn about history in every accurate detail? After all, how many ‘true’ dramas or films have the caveat that ‘some scenes have been created for dramatic purposes’ etc. comics were a great source of information even if not totally accurate. I loved them.
I’d neve thought of it in that way and you are absolutely right. How much of Errol Flynn’s film career was fiction ? More than was truth, I suspect!
Most probably!
My favourite was always ‘The Victor'[
I’m with you 100% on that one, with a lot of regard for Wizard!.
Sounds like one I would have loved at that age. Sadly I don’t recall this comic in the stores in my home town in California.
No, it was very much an English publication.
So that’s where you learned to tell a good story!
It certainly was!
Fascinating post, John! We also read all kinds of comic books when we were kids. Before reading, I did a quick Google search about the Anglo Saxon Kings for orientation. The first four frames are well executed for grabbing the attention of any young reader. Thanks for the link to King Harthacnut. Look forward to reading the follow-up post (2).
Don’t worry. There is a lot more to come!