Jet-Ace Logan

Jet-Ace Logan from Tiger, 1961, drawn by Brian Lewis

Jet-Ace Logan was a British comic strip that appeared in The Comet (1956-1959) and Tiger (1959-1968),[1] issues of Thriller Picture Library,[2] plus the 1969 and 1972 Tiger Annuals. It was originally drawn by John Gillat, and writers contributing scripts included David Motton,[3] Kenneth Bulmer, and Frank S. Pepper;[4] other artists illustrated the character's adventures, including Brian Lewis,[5] Ron Turner, Francisco Solano López, Kurt Caesar and Geoff Campion.[6]

The hero, Jim "Jet-Ace" Logan, was an ace interplanetary pilot of the RAF; stories were set about 100 years in the future[1] (for example, the story in the 1963 Tiger Annual is set in 2063). In all but the earliest stories, his regular copilot, Plum-Duff (sometimes Plumduff) Charteris, accompanied Jet-Ace.

Many of the insightful scenarios, written in the 1950s, seem applicable more than a half a century later. For example, in one adventure, Jet-Ace was involved in fighting a group of aliens who endeavored to destroy humankind by contaminating the planet's atmosphere.

In later stories, Jet-Ace and Plumduff belonged to various law enforcement agencies, such as the Solar Police, rather than military organizations.

The Finnish cartoonist Petri Hiltunen created a spoof of Jet-Ace, Rocket Reynolds, under a pseudonym "Valentin Kalpa".

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Denis Gifford, Encyclopedia of Comic Characters, Longman, 1987, p. 111
  2. ↑ Thriller Picture Library: Jet-Ace Logan, The Belated Nerd, 7 October 2011
  3. ↑ Norman Wright and David Ashford, Masters of Fun and Thrills: The British Comic Artists Vol 1, Norman Wright (pub.), 2008, pp. 14
  4. ↑ Andrew Darlington, "Captain Condor: Space Hero in Search of an Artist", The Mentor 84, October 1994, pp. 5-8, 11
  5. ↑ Steve Holland, Brian Lewis, Bear Alley, 3 June 2008
  6. ↑ British sci-fi lexicon

Michael Butterworth created Jet-Ace Logan. He scripted the first adventure; it was drawn by Geoff Campion, and published in Comet. All subsequent adventures (20approx) appearing in Comet were scripted by David Motton, and drawn by John Gillat. David Motton also scripted Jet-Ace Logan stories for Thriller Picture Library, namely 'Times Five', 'Seven Went To Sirius' and 'Ten Days To doom'. (Source: David Motton)

Sources