A
long time ago, far away from my home here in Spain, I used to buy comics.
Unfortunately, in those days there was no guarantee that each weekly issue
would be available. I wasn’t savvy enough to order them through the local
newsagent; I had no guarantee of a fixed income (pocket money!)
One
such comic was Tarzan Adventures. The
first issue I obtained was dated 28 April, 1956 (Vol 6 no.4). It was
hit-and-miss, alas. Most of the copies I have are not in particularly good
shape.
At
the time, little did I appreciate that a new editor for these comics would
become an internationally famous author.
Michael
Moorcock announced taking over editorship in the 21 September 1957 issue (Vol 7
no.25); he was seventeen.
The
comic had featured some of his fantasy stories about Sojan the Swordsman,
and continued to do so while he was editor.
When he was nineteen, he also
edited the Sexton Blake Library
(which first saw publication in 1915, ending its run in 1968.)
Tarzan Adventures reprinted
American comic strips in black and white, often chopping up the illustrations
to fit the page format, as can be seen in this example (Vol 7 no.43), art by Burne
Hogarth.
Moorcock
started writing at school in 1950 and still continues, aged 76. His output is
prolific and prodigious. At one time he could produce a fantasy novel (about
50,000 words) virtually over a weekend. He has said he could write 15,000 words
a day, and asserts that his Hawkmoon books were written in that manner
(1967-69).
His
bibliography can be found here:
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