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| New Garth? Read on! |
There were many printing strikes in the 1970s. I remember it well when my regular weekly comic didn't turn up! This article will make you think I'm obsessive but bear with me and I'll show you some newly discovered Frank Bellamy artwork! And for fans of 'Garth' the daily newspaper strip, stick around! And if you were a Scottish reader of the Daily Record, well, you'll learn a few things too. And if you're not interested in industrial relations in the 1970s, well....
REVIEW of what's gone before
Firstly I have written about the numbering system on the Jim Edgar authored, Frank Bellamy drawn and John Allard lettered 'Garth' strip before. It was in 2019 I discovered a previously undiscovered Bellamy 'Garth' strip in the Scottish Daily Record. I then did further research and listed all the Christmas Daily Record differences to what was published in the Daily Mirror in England.
Well, I was just checking facts on when the 'Garth' strips were published in England and had so many days where printing strikes and public holidays occurred, it made me dig deeper. I've added all the data to the main page listing all Bellamy's 'Garth' strips but discovered, in comparing Daily Record strips with these gaps, that Bellamy drew some more 'Garth' strips not seen by me - and I suspect a lot of you, before!
Let's take each story by story and add notes
GARTH STRIP ANOMALIES
SUNDANCE
E221 was published in England and Scotland on Saturday 18 September 1971 and then from Monday 20 - Thursday 23 September there was no Daily Mirror printed in England and because of this, none of the usual 'imported' strips appeared in Scotland's Daily Record. A notice appeared under the Scottish strip "Angus Og" by Ewen Bain on 20 September:
Due to the industrial dispute in Fleet Street, we are unable to bring you the adventures of Garth and The Perishers. Both strips will be continued as soon as possible.
Variations of this appeared each day until the 23 September when it was announced Garth would "return tomorrow" - and it did, continuing the numbering with no gaps.
CLOUD OF BALTHUS
Over Christmas and New Year things deviated, but caught up, with Scotland, there was a fill-in strip but drawn by John Allard - see this post - and as it's not numbered I called it "E300.5". And the Scots saw F301 before England - published on 27 December - Boxing day in England!
THE ORB OF TRIMANDIAS
Nothing was published on Good Friday (31 March 1972) in England....BUT... and I really need a drum roll....there was a Garth strip illustrated by Bellamy in the Daily Record!
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| **NEW** 'Garth' DR. GF. 72 or F77.5 |
If you are following the English numbering it should be placed after F77 and before F78. The Scots named it DRGF72 =
Daily Record Good Friday 1972. Imagine my excitement! Now it's shared.
THE WOLFMAN of AUSENSEE
Between Tuesday 25 July - Thursday 27 July 1972 there were no Daily Mirror published in England and the Daily Record stated on 27 July:
SORRY
As most readers know, production of the Daily Record was stopped on Monday and Tuesday nights by industrial action in support of the dockers. Sorry you missed your favourite paper. It's nice to be back.
This doesn't explain the lack of Wednesday's Scottish paper and I couldn't find a reason! On 29 July Garth was missing from the Daily Record with an announcement that he would return next week, thus allowing the Scots to catch up and in the Mirror of Friday 28 July, F175 was reprinted together with the new episode F176 with the explanation
"As southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear last Monday, two editions of the strip cartoons appear today."
PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS
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| **NEW** F303.5 or DR.CH.72 |
There were no discrepancies in this story's run. However, in Scotland, as stated previously on this blog, we see an extra episode - "F303.5" which I suppose should be called DR.CH.72 but it is not numbered in any way and just rounds off the story before the Scots began the next story on 26 December 1972.
On the 19 December 1972, there were two of all the cartoon strips printed:
"As southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday double helping of your favourite strip cartoons is printed today."
WOMEN OF GALBA
So Scotland saw the start of this story on 26 December when England was not publishing on Boxing Day and after a week, caught up and was back in sync. There were no other discrepancies except on Thursday 22 March 1973, two strips were printed G70 (+G69) - the latter being a reprint with the following:
"Southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday because of industrial action. Here's a double ration of strips."
GHOST TOWN
Good Friday fell on 20 April in 1973 so there was no Garth strip as the Mirror didn't used to publish on that key Christian date. But....here 's the next drum roll....the Daily Record was published and had a single panel Garth strip
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| **NEW** Garth: Ghost Town G94a |
Helpfully someone at the
Record used the same numbering sequence and called this (instead of my 94.5) 94a. A brand new Garth to most of Britain! And of course there is no interruption to the story as Garth merely stares out at the town!
A strike predicted on 26 April took place on May Day which meant neither the
Record or the
Mirror were published on 1 May 1973 so Garth merely carried on the next day in both papers.
The MASK OF ATACAMA
There were no discrepancies in this story's run.
THE WRECKERS
I have no idea why on Tuesday 6 November 1973 an announcement was made at the top of the day's cartoon strips "Here's a double ration of your favourite strips" - no explanation why, as there was no industrial action! Monday 5 November 1973 had the Garth strip G263 and on Tuesday 6 November 1973 G263 with G264 appeared (along with "The Fosdyke Saga" and "The Larks" doubled up)!
But more excitedly and as previously mentioned on this blog, the fact the Scots published a Daily Record on 26 December 1973, meant they got a new Bellamy Garth which I've shown before, but to make sure we are clear I've included it here as 'new'.
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| Garth: The Wreckers - G305.5 or DR.CH.73 |
Neither the Mirror nor the Record published on New Year's Day 1974
THE BEAST OF ULTOR
I'm not sure you can contain your excitement...but here's the drum roll again....on Friday 12 April 1974, Good Friday, the Daily Mirror did not publish. But the Daily Record did!
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| **NEW** Garth: The Beast of Ultor H86.5 or DR.GF.74 |
We have another new Garth which inserted in the arena scene fits perfectly. But the story doesn't need it! Clever. Finally Wednesday 8 May 1974 there was no Daily Mirror but there was a Daily Record and they merely moved an episode ahead of England.
The other interesting thing is that H120 (23 May 1974) has a caption printed above the Garth strip which says "What kind of music relaxes Garth when he's not whizzing around Space? See this week's Disc, on sale now!" which I've written about before.
FREAK OUT TO FEAR!
Interestingly this story was completely omitted in the Daily Record - perhaps as it deals with drugs? - and John Burns 'Danielle' strip (from the Evening News) was used instead.
In the Daily Mirror, H144 appeared twice - once on the scheduled date Thursday 20 June 1974, and as Friday wasn't published at all, the Saturday edition reprinted H144 before the Monday resuming normal service.
THE BRIDE OF JENGHIZ KHAN
The Daily Record carried on using John Burns 'Danielle' rather than Frank Bellamy's 'Garth' and after that ended, there was no replacement strip for a long time- leaving 'Angus Og' alone to carry the torch for cartoon strips.. The following public holidays in England meant the Daily Mirror wasn't published - Wednesday 25 December 1974 and the next day, plus New Year's Day 1975 - and obviously there was no Garth in the Daily Record. Interestingly a caption appeared above the episode of 3 December 1974 (H284) stating "Garth has discovered a well of pitch, and has had pitch spread over the courtyard". Effectively the first time I've seen an introduction to an episode (and there's one for 'The Fosdyke Saga' too!). This does happen again - see below ("Angels of Hell's Gap")
ANGELS OF HELL'S GAP
J12 and J13 were published as usual. But here's where I'm having difficulties. The British Newspaper Archive does not have issues of the Daily Mirror for Friday 17 January 1975, or Saturday 18 or Monday 20 January and episode J15 appears on Tuesday 21 January 1975. So I can't tell when J14 was published. The paper of the Thursday 16 mentions that there's a possibility of strike action closing down all national newspapers on Friday 17, and there's no resumé on Tuesday, so I wondered if J14 was published on the Monday. But an article on Monday 20th in the Daily Record states: "The Daily Mirror was again not published last night" - obviously meaning the early hours of Monday. So it looks as if J14 was never published. So in case it's missing from your collection here it is - but then again, Scotland, this might be your first glimpse of any later 'Garth' strips!
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| Garth: Angels of Hell's Gap J14 |
The 28 March 1975 was Good Friday - but the Scottish paper was still running 'Danielle' so no Garths to be found there. Interestingly the issue of the
Daily Mirror 5 April, under a headline of "It's great to be back" mentions that
DM "did not appear" for last 10 days in the Midlands and the South. Thankfully the Archive has copies of all but one of these. I presume this means the plant in Manchester did go ahead with publication but distribution elsewhere was a problem?
That introductory caption (see above "The Bride of Jenghiz Khan") occurs again in 21 January 1975 paper: "Garth, temporary film extra, has donned the uniform of a Confederate Army major." In J78 (5 April 1975) we get another: "Loomis with most of his men captured is on the run from Garth and the miners" Were the editors thinking with all the disruption, a resumé of the story was worthwhile?
THE DOOMSMEN
From May to August 1975, there are no discrepancies in the publication of Garth except on 4 July 1975 when 2 strips were published (J154 + J155)! The reason appears to be explained earlier in the paper:
The Daily Mirror regrets that readers in some areas of England and Wales were unable to obtain copies of the newspaper yesterday. This was due to a dispute with journalists. The Daily Mirror apologises for this inconvenience to readers, wholesale newsagents, retailers and advertisers.
THE BUBBLE MAN
"The Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday, in common with other national newspapers" is the statement on Saturday 15 November 1975. So in case you need this episode J269 to complete the story, here it is.
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| Garth: The Bubble Man J269 |
Also another introductory caption appears on J270 (15 November 1975):
"Garth learns from a Nomad of sabotage by Ledra"
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
On 8 December 1975, the Mirror brought all its strips together on one page - meaning Andy Capp was no longer on a 2 x 2 grid but a single strip like Garth. The Daily Mirror didn't publish on the holiday dates of 25 and 26 December 1975 or 1 January 1976 and there are no other surprises here.
THE SPANISH LADY
Good Friday fell on 16 April in 1976 and there were no gaps as a result of the non-publication of the Daily Mirror (and the Record had only the 'Angus Og' strip).
GHOST TOWN - REPRINTED
Unfortunately Frank Bellamy passed away on 5 July 1976 when the third-to-last episode of 'The Spanish Lady' appeared as K158 on Monday 5 July 1976. The Mirror ran the last two episodes and began on Thursday 8 July to re-run 'Ghost Town' with the original numbering on the artwork. So while 'Andy Capp', 'The Perishers', 'The Fosdyke Saga', 'The Larks' and 'Little Joe' were numbered K161, 'Ghost Town retained the number G87. Notice the header above the strip.
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| Garth: Ghost Town - reprinted |
What would have been nice, would be to see G94a from the
Daily Record included, but that didn't happen.
The publication of these 78 episodes gave the Mirror time to try-out and appoint a successor and that was Martin Asbury, as we know. However Bellamy had drawn 16 more episodes of Garth.
THE MANHUNT
The first episode (K239) was published Thursday 7 October 1976 and the last credited episode was K253. However K254 (published Monday 25 October 1976) despite being credited to Martin Asbury is signed and clearly drawn by Frank Bellamy
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| Garth: The Manhunt K254 drawn by FB |
And in case anyone is wondering, the
Daily Record of the same date had Angus Og and was now also publishing 'Lance McLane' by the brilliant Sydney Jordan (M148).
SUMMARY
I've studied all episodes of Garth drawn by Bellamy and noted published dates in a spreadsheet with discrepancies due to strikes, and public holidays. I've looked at the Daily Record for these dates and around them a bit and justified why things were different. This led to the discovery of these new strips. Anyone reprinting Garth would do all collectors a favour by including them.
I hope you enjoyed seeing them and if you followed the text too, go and grab a cup of tea or something stronger! You deserve it.
Norman
