1984: EAGLE DOOMLORD CROSSWORD PUZZLE

From 1984: Something for the weekend (or the long commute): a page-filling DOOMLORD CROSSWORD, possibly concocted by the IPC Puzzles Department, from the pages of EAGLE.

Enjoy.

1983: DOOMLORD PHOTO PROFILE IN THE EAGLE

From 1983: DOOMLORD (self-confessed 'Master of life, bringer of death') gets the PERSONALITY PLUS treatment in the EAGLE.

Maybe they were short of celebs... or maybe they just wanted to show off - in colour - the excellent mask (apparently an off-the-shelf shopping trip find) and costume.

This is a really nicely-done pre-Photoshot shoot which manages to look a lot more realistic than many TV and movie monsters of the time.  The pic - or similar ones from the same shoot - were also used on the first of THE BEST OF EAGLE MONTHLY (leading a compilation of comic strip era reprints) and the Hibernia Comics limited print run one-shot

1983: THE EAGLE'S DOOMLORD CHRISTMAS COVER (IPC)

From December 1983: Quite possibly THE most scary Christmas cover ever!  Doomlord spreads festive cheer (not!) on the cover of the EAGLE's 1984 Christmas issue.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

1983: CHRISTMAS WISHES... FROM DOOMLORD! (Eagle)

Festive greetings from... guess who?!? The final panel from the Christmas 1983 issue (cover-dated 24 December 1983) of the EAGLE.

1984: EAGLE COLLECTION: DOOMLORD (IPC)

I've been holding back this next entry in the EAGLE COLLECTION (a series of occasionally scheduled full-page pin-ups featuring assorted Eagle characters) specifically for Halloween.

This DOOMLORD piece appeared in the issue dated 25 February 1984.

A reminder that I've previously posted photographic evidence of DL's entire first attempt to bump off humanity on STARLOGGED, starting way back here.

DOOMLORD COLOUR PHOTO IN THE EAGLE HOLIDAY SPECIAL (Fleetway)

An illusion shattered!

This rare DOOMLORD colour pic appeared in the EAGLE HOLIDAY SPECIAL (frustratingly undated) and shows either the Servant of Nox mid-transformation, or that he was just the EAGLE office junior in a fright mask.  You decide.

This hold-over from the photo-strip era (raising the possibility that a lot more colour photos were taken during the various location shoots) shows how slap-dash this one-shot spin-off is: there isn't even the usual publisher information (and all-important copyright details) buried at the bottom of one of the pages.  Which is why I've struggled to date it.

It includes a Storm Force strip which places it after BATTLE's merger with Eagle in January 1988, and a full-page plug for the weekly which means it appeared before the shift to a monthly frequency in 1990.

Just a reminder... My past posts include Doomlord's first 13-part mission to Earth (beginning here) and a long-running set of cover scans (beginning here). 

1982: EAGLE LAUNCH ADS (IPC)

It's back to the spring of 1982 and IPC's big launch: the revived EAGLE.

Last seen being devoured by LION in 1969 (although, predictably, the spin-off specials and annuals contented to appear well into the next decade), this mix of the old (a more-faithful-than-Tharg's reinterpretation of DAN DARE) and the new (photo-stories, an idea purloined from IPC's teen girls department and intended to counter the distractions of TV and video games) was clearly a bigger priority for the massive publisher than some of its other here-today, gone-tomorrow punts.

The pricy-to-produce photo-strips, along with the better printing required to make them work, didn't last long (the last issue in the original format was cover-dated 17 September 1983) but the comic itself continued (although, towards the end, it dropped to a cancellation-dodging monthly schedule and largely consisted of reprints) until 1994, making it (almost) last-man-standing in IPC/ Fleetway's once booming comics group.

I've covered the first 18-odd months of the Eagle in earlier posts, and I've got provisional plans (IE I acquired a bunch of back issues a while back) to extend that coverage into the newsprint era, but these are a series of house ads that appeared in other IPC weeklies around the time of the relaunch, beginning with this small teaser ad which first appeared in IPC boys comics dated 6 March 1982.

20 March 1982

3 April 1982 

10 April 1982

17 April 1982

1 May 1982

1982: DOOMLORD PART 13 - THE FINAL CHAPTER!

This is it!  The thirteenth and final instalment of the first DOOMLORD adventure, as published in the 13th issue of IPC's EAGLE, from 1982.

Doomlord was, of course, one of the break-out stars (along with Dan Dare) of the new Eagle and the story was continued in DOOMLORD II (14 August 1982 - 25 December 1982), DOOMLORD III (26 February 1983 - 2 July 1983) and as a regular comic strip (24 September 1983 - 14 October 1989) before looping back into (December 1985) reprints from mid-October 1989.

1982: DOOMLORD PART 12

1982: DOOMLORD PART 11

1982: DOOMLORD PART 10

1982: DOOMLORD PART 9

1982: DOOMLORD PART 8

1982: DOOMLORD PART 7

The EAGLE's resident alien continues his plans for Earth...

-TO BE CONTINUED-

1982: DOOMLORD PART 6

Doomlord's convoluted attempts to end mankind continues...

1982: DOOMLORD - PART FIVE

It's Doomlord Day Five...

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1982: DOOMLORD PART FOUR

Doomlord goes to the dogs...

EAGLE's ace actors and cameraman didn't travel far for this episode:  That's IPC's HQ, Kings Reach Tower (also home of Tharg's Nerve Centre).  The bottom-right panel is clearly taken from the roof (that's LWT's, now ITV's, South Bank headquarters and studios in the distance) and the next panel clearly shows KRT itself.

- PART FIVE TOMORROW -

(Apologies for the lack of an EAGLE cover gallery update today, Blogger is reluctant to upload large images files.  With luck, normal service will be resumed tomorrow).