Loner – From The Pages Of Wildcat Thrills, Calamity & Grand Adventures

“In the year 2,500, life on Earth will cease to exist!”
That was the doom-laden premise behind Wildcat comic, one of the less well-known sci-fi comics of the 80s. It followed the spaceship Wildcat, carrying the last few hundred souls from a dying Earth with a mission to explore the universe, seeking out a new home, a new Earth.
Leading the mission is the saviour of Earth, Turbo Jones, whose adventures have already been collected by The Treasury Of British Comics. But the intriguing thing about Wildcat was its structure. Barrie Tomlinson created a comic where the whole comic featured the Wildcat’s exploratory parties, each strip focusing on the adventures of one character, charged with exploring new planets, looking for a new Earth.
One of those was Loner, the ex-mercenary…

(Art by David Pugh)

Armed only with his customised six-shooter, ‘Babe’, and some alien furballs as company, his adventures will see him face off against psychic aliens, underground monsters, and angry shapeshifters. At times, as he’s shrunk, melted, and transformed, it seems everything on this planet wants him dead.
In fact, there’s almost a sense of the continuing calamities of Loner at times here, with every new week bringing some new and more outrageous way of putting Loner into peril. You can almost hear Tomlinson chuckling with glee at each new and ever-increasing nightmare he puts his creation through, things like this…

(Art by David Pugh)

And this…

(Art by David Pugh)

And this…

(Art by David Pugh)

That should give you an idea of the sorts of fun you’re going to have here.
Writer Barrie Tomlinson is joined for this adventure by David Pugh, perhaps better known for his work on Slaine but providing some of his career-best artwork here, and comics legend Eric Bradbury. Pugh was specifically chosen for Loner by series designer Ian Kennedy, his black and white art perfect, with deep texture that would never have worked as well in colour.
Pugh talks in his introduction of being given the challenge of creating a ‘handsome, cool, and tough black guy’ who, through Pugh’s love of West African music became, visually, a cross between Jimi Hendrix and the Senegalese singer Baba Maal. Despite loving the year he spent providing the art for Loner, Pugh left when offered the dream job of drawing Dan Dare.

(Art by Eric Bradbury)

With the legendary Eric Bradbury replacing him for the later Loner strips, the artistic standard definitely stayed high, although it’s a big shift in style, rougher, looser, but fine style none the less.
Loner is great fun, a real old school adventure, full of great art and well worth this rather lovely reprint from the Treasury of British Comics.

(Art by Eric Bradbury)

 
Loner – from the pages of Wildcat. Written by Barrie Tomlinson, art by David Pugh and Eric Bradbury, published by The Treasury Of British Comics. Loner is released on 5 September.
Loner contains the complete Loner strips from Wildcat issues 1-12 (1988-1989) and from the Eagle issues 371-374, 380, 384, 387, 393, 395-422 (1989-1990) along with extra tales from Wildcat Winter Special 1989, Eagle Holiday Special 1990, Eagle Annual 1991, Wildcat Winter Special 1989, and one-off tales from Eagle 372, 380, 384, 387, 393, 395, 420.

Now, sit back and enjoy the first couple of adventures of Loner, fresh from the pages of Wildcat. And, as an added treat, a collection of Loner covers from Eagle comic.