Publisher's Synopsis
THE LONG-LOST AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE COMIC STRIP CLASSIC IS NOW AVAILABLE IN A FULL-COLOR GRAPHIC NOVEL EDITION! The newspaper comics are in rapid decline... comics are very much a sub-culture - no big deal - but in my boyhood, before TV, newspapers were the main entertainment. Two papers every day, even on Sunday, and the comics... Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Red Ryder, Superman... a lot of great Aussie strips. Jolliffe did a few, Carl Lyon did some good ones, Syd Nicholls did Middy Malone and The Phantom Pirate. But the American stuff dominated. Syd Miller's Rod Craig was no threat to Dick Tracy... The best newspaper adventure strips are long gone. The Phantom still appears but the rest are lacklustre gag strips. The comics, adventure wise are finished. Why...? Once everybody bought newspapers to find the news, the real news. Newspapers now reflect the media bosses' views and are slanted. Although the population increases newspaper sales fall... people who want to know the truth are shrinking in number... and there is no more interest in adventure strips. Anyway I never gave it away. The desire to write and draw comic strips, something I have loved all my life, drives me, it's only the newspapers have gotten smaller... An era passes - TV, videos, computers, Internet? So be it - but the basic skill of drawing, understanding structure, anatomy, to be able to draw trees, buildings, human beings, well... if its gone so be it... my age passes, the printed media passes, fine art passes to be replaced probably by something better. Will it involve passion and art or will it all be crud...? "I was never fortunate enough to meet Barrie Earl. As a comic retailer I became involved in dispersing his estate and therein I discovered the abundance of original comic art which Barrie had produced over many years. I became fascinated with the effort and detail Barrie had put into his work whilst never living to see it published. I thank the Earl family for trusting me to finally bring some of Barrie's work into print." (Michael Baulderstone, Dynamic Duo Comics)