EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

27 than a passing resemblance to Errol Flynn, especially in the latter’s title role in the 1935 film, ‘Captain Blood’. Other series appearing in Buccaneers included ‘The Spanish Main’, ‘Eric Falcon, Soldier of Fortune’ (another Errol Flynn look- alike except for his curly hair), and a masked pirate called ‘Black Roger’. This comic book was one of the most interesting of the 1950’s American pirate comics thanks to the artwork of Reed Crandall in some of the stories featuring ‘Captain Daring’. The comic would later be reprinted with new covers in 1958 under the title, confusingly, of ‘Buccaneer’. In 1950, Hillman published four issues of Pirates , a giant 52-page comic book that featured mostly unrelated stories about real pirates (it also, for good value, included some stories about Vikings and pirate stories set in different ages, such as the Roman Empire). Another comic book from the fifties was Mutiny , pub‐ lished from 1954-55 by Stanley Morse (Key), which lasted for just three issues and also carriedmany other series inside. The main series told the adventures of Captain Mutiny and his first mate, Redbeard, but was set in the modern day. Although the last two issues featured pirates on the covers, there were, in fact, no actual pirate stores inside! The artwork tried to imitate Milton Caniff ’s style, but failed miserably. EC comics’ Piracy series was their first foray into pirate territory. There were four stories in each issue of Piracy, mostly but not all dealing with pirates, but drawn by some of the top American comic artists of the day, such as Reed Cran‐ dall, Wally Wood and Jack Davis. The covers were striking, particularly Cran‐ dall’s version of a pirate fight on the beach for Piracy No. 2, in which one can see more than a passing homage to Howard Pyle. The Piracy series only lasted for seven issues but this cannot be laid at the door of the contributors or, indeed, the readership. The very year when Piracy was published, 1954, EC Comics as a whole came to an end, a victim to the public outcry against horror comics gen‐ erated by the U.S. Senate hearing on juvenile delinquency. Finally we get to Charlton who brought out Long John Silver and the Pirates between 1956 and 1957, another short-run series, lasting for just three issues. Most of the stories tell the further adventures of Stevenson’s immortal character. The artwork, which has a few good features, was mostly done byMauriceWhit‐ man and Bill Monlo with inks by Sal Trapani. Pirates would resurface in America in later decades but mainly as some su‐ perhero’s villainous antagonist, dressed in pirate garb. However, in 1972, DC’s Adventure Comics began to feature the series, ‘Captain Fear’, written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Filipino artist, Alex Niño. ‘Captain Fear’ was a Carib‐ bean pirate from the 18th century who, unlike the other pirates who came from THESE PAGES: Buccaneers was perhaps one of the best pirate comics published in the early 1950s. The comics usually had four different series with fictional and good-natured pirates who fought to protect some colony against other evil pirates. The four main series were: ‘Captain Daring’ the scourge of the freebooting sea-raiders who threaten the seashore colonies; ‘The Spanish Main’ about a man wrongly accused and later becoming a pirate; ‘Eric Falcon’, a soldier of fortune; and ‘Black Roger’ who wears a mask and, along with his crew of reckless rovers, challenges every sea dog from Moslem corsairs to Barbary pirates, and drives them away from the shores and waters they plan to plunder. All the main characters looked physically like Errol Flynn. The comic book benefitted from the extraordinary talent of Reed Crandall who drew the main series, ‘Captain Daring’, and did all the covers as well. Among all the early pirate comics done in America, this was the best, although the stories are pretty daft and the main characters don’t behave like actual pirates.