turnerround comic

Smash Comic

Inside: Cursitor Doom and the case of Kalak The Dwarf!

Fantastic comic had finished and I was a little sad because it was being incorporated with Smash comic....but I wasn't sad for long, because there was some great new characters to read like...King Of The Ring - Sergeant Rock - Sammy Shrink - Bad Penny - The Nervs and many more. It was 1968 and Smash had been running since 1966.

Then just a few months later Smash comic was re-launched again. And it was even better. The reason it had changed was because, I.P.C. Magazines took over publishing rights from Oldham Press.

Gone was the super-heroes from across the waters of the Atlantic. In it's place was a new breed of comic characters - Master Of The Marsh - The World Wide Wanderers - His Sporting Lordship - Cursitor Doom and Janus Stark. The last two, my personal favourites.

Cursitor Doom, master investigator of the strange and mystic was advertising for a new assistant. Angus McCraggan takes on the role, and is soon thrown into a new world of strange and puzzling cases for his new master. Brilliant stories, so well written.

It's Victorian London and young orphan Jonus Clarke is constantly bullied by his brutal owner Simon Tragg. He is beginning to realise his special gift of manipulating his bones which are like rubber and decides to escape through the bars of the cellar window. It is hard on the streets of London, but Jonus is befriended by a blind-man named Largo, who teaches him lock-picking and light fingered trickery. As he grows he learns more and decides to become an escapologist and master of illusion and with his powers fight injustice and evil. His new name is Janus Stark. Great stories!

Altogether in it's different roles Smash comic ran for 5 years before being incorporated with Valiant comic in 1971. A sad day for a great comic. The Annuals and Summer Specials ran on for some years and were still of high quality....get one if you can!