British Update: It’s A Boys’ Boys’ Boys’ Boy’s World!
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1963, Odhams, the publishers of Eagle, decided to expand their line with a new adventure comic, Boys’ World, with a classy line-up of creators including acclaimed novelist Harry Harrison (who created Merlo the Magician for the series) and Ron Embleton, whose illustrations on the mythological fantasy Wrath of the Gods are still well-remembered. Harrison’s own novel ‘Death World’ was adapted into ‘The Angry Planet’, by excising all female characters (well, this was a boys’ comic…), and other notable strips included Dr. Who parody ‘Doctor What’, ‘Ghost World’, ‘Billy Binns’, whose magic spectacles conferred temporary amazing abilities) and ‘Iron Man’ – no relation to the Marvel character, but a story of a humanoid robot finding his way in the world. Both Billy Binns and Iron Man went on to longer careers when the title merged with Eagle after 89 issues. This new influx takes in the end of 1963’s Volume One, and #1 – 32 of 1964’s Volume Two, including Christmas, New Year, and the First Birthday issue with ‘Planes of Tomorrow’ pull-out. Averaging VG/FN, these are mostly attractive copies of a short-lived quality publication.