This week's issue of Tiger is particularly good, with several of my favourites delivering strong stories, and some of the stories I'm not so fond of also punching above their weight. Roy Of The Rovers is heating up, A Horse Called Ugly is reaching its climax, and The Tigers is startlingly good, all that makes for a blockbuster issue.
Tiger
15th June 1974
Roy Of The Rovers
Roy and Blackie are supposed to be taking a complete break from football, but here they are watching the Spanish village of San Palos playing in a local tournament. Roy just can't help himself and despite his best intentions, he finds himself yelling advice to the players, especially after finding that the team they are playing against t are fielding an elite player that Roy has played against in Europe.
Roy's advice turns the team around in the second half, and San Palos walks away with a three-two victory. But there's more to come, and Roy and Blackie find themselves a couple of days later taking the field as part of the team playing the second game. With a rough pitch, and even rougher opposition, Roy and Blackie begin to express regrets as the game begins.
After several weeks of steadily building up, this story has finally got some action and has begun to move in the direction we expected. We don't have Roy in onfield action just yet, but he was well in his element yelling advice from the sideline throughout this week's issue. The best images of the issue are the close-ups of Roy's face, they always show such intensity and these panels told the story just as well as the free-flowing football action. It's taken a while, but I'm finally won over by this story and can't wait to see how it will develop next week.
Rating: 7.5/10
Best line: "wait a minute...that looks like Manolo! I'm sure he played for one of these top Spanish teams that we met in the European cup, a few seasons ago!"
Johnny Cougar And Splash Gorton
Mighty Man is threatening to end Johnny Cougar's career at a press conference, and Johnny isn't too happy about that. Tearing down the Mighty Man sign, he declares the press conference over.
Mighty Man doesn't accept this lightly, and after delivering a flying headbutt to Johnny, the pair tumble from the platform. It looks like we will get to the fight earlier than promised, but luckily a police officer is near at hand to break them up.
After a brief training montage (insert Rocky music here) Johnny and Mighty Man arrive at the venue, rearing to go. There is one final surprise, Mighty Man cannot climb into the ring unassisted and a forklift is on hand to get him into the ring. As he himself says, Johnny has a weighty problem on his hands as he faces a real heavyweight.
Not a fast-paced story this week, and like a lot of Johnny Cougar stories it takes several weeks of introducing an opponent and building the story before they actually get into the ring and fight. It's understandable, but sometimes these Johnny Cougar stories can feel padded out. This time around, we only met Mighty Man last week and had two weeks of buildup and already that feels like too much. It's not as bad as his previous opponent, but still, I'm keen to see these two get in the ring as soon as possible. Mighty Man looks like a worthy opponent, and it seems a waste for him to be holding press conferences when he could be in the ring and grabbling Johhny.
Rating: 6/10
Best line: "Miserable dog! Take care the Cougar's temper is not aroused!"
Martin's Marvellous Mini
The first panel of this week's story is a doozy, with George about to be shunted over the edge of the cliff and Martin astride the tractor swinging a hook and cable above his head. This plays out how you may expect, with Martin catching the hook through George's back window and bringing both vehicles to a halt right on the cliff edge.
Excitement over, they return to their flattened tent and decide it might be best to sleep in the car. One good sleep and hearty breakfast later, they are off to the start of the treasure hunt.
The first clue is easily dealt with, they drive to Pettsford bay and solve the puzzle. From there it is on to the Bandfield crossroads. This isn't so easy, as Percy and Algy, their rivals from the motor club, have switched the signs and sent Tiny and Martin down a dangerous, rock-strawn, road.
Another strong story from start to end, the highlight for me was the resolution from last week's literal cliffhanger as Martin saved the day with his cable and hook. It looked great on the page and was a genuinely exciting moment. The rest of the story didn't reach these heights but was still interesting on every page, and the clues for the treasure hunt kept me reading closely. With the promise of more shocks for the pals next week, this treasure hunt should keep the story moving forward for the next couple of months.
Rating: 8/10
Best line: "It's the country's version of an alarm clock!"
The Tigers
Cricket takes centre stage for The Tigers as Chunky Clarke wonders what sport he should try his hand at next.
After some high jinx with a ball, Chunky finds himself pursued by an angry Ron Burton. They stumble across a cricket match, and after catching a ball flying at them, and then fending off a ball from Ron Clarke, both Chunky and Ron find themselves invited to join a cricket team, the Digby Eleven.
This is a strong issue, and although it can be described briefly, it contained many entertaining moments. The first page of Chunky mucking around with a ball was fantastic, and not only did we get the usual dose of slapstick, but also some very funny lines from Chunky. Ron was his typical angry self, and again we had some fine panels of his menacing scowl. There is already some humour from the cricket itself, and the characters from the Digby eleven contain stereotypes that can be played for laughs. This story is off to a strong start and I can only hope it maintains this standard throughout the coming weeks.
Rating: 8.5/10
Best line: "I don't know what sport to try next - they all come so easily to me. I only missed catching that ball because I'm so nimble. I baffle myself sometimes!"
Football Family Robinson
The mystery of the jungle is about to be revealed as Titch calls for help at the beginning of the story. The ball has been thrown back to him by something in the jungle, and soon enough the same happens to Pa as his hat is snatched and thrown away.
The rest of the family joins the action, and over the page, we see Ma's hat seemingly moving by itself through the grass. As Digger is hit in the face by a piece of fruit, we finally see the cause of all this mayhem - monkeys.
The monkeys are a lively bunch and soon take to kicking the football around with the family, before Bluey intercedes and scares them back to the jungle. There is little the family can do, and they decide the next course of action is to build a fence around the camp to keep them out. It is too late though for the latest round of damage as Digger finds that the monkeys have been at the radio again and now it is beyond repair and there is no chance of calling for help.
I haven't enjoyed this story for some weeks now, but now that the monkeys have been exposed I feel a little better about it. The mystery of the forest never appealed to me beyond the first week, and I am disappointed that it took so long to be resolved. With this behind us and the radio out of action, we are back to a stranded in the jungle storyline, and all the possibilities that come with this. I'm thinking of it as a new beginning, and I hope the monkeys aren't an ongoing part of the storyline.
Rating: 6/10
Best line: "Now I've seen everything! Thatchem United playing against a team of monkeys!"
Tallon Of The Track
"Oh no! Jo has just been hit by that box of recording equipment!"
And so we begin Tallon Of The Track. Jo is out cold and is bundled off to the hospital while a furious Dave Trent lays the blame squarely on Caxton and his documentary.
Caxton is defended by Basil Oldfield, who agrees that it is nothing more than bad luck. This conversation is the keystone to the strip and covers half a page as Dave and Basil go back and forth.
The final half of the issue is dedicated to the on-track racing, as the Ospreys do their best to win the meeting for Jo. It delivers as far as the reader is concerned, each panel a self-contained moment that is worth digesting, but overall the Ospreys can't quite snatch the win, and must depend on a strong second leg.
We finish as we started, with attention turning back to Jo in the final panel as the doctor at the hospital tells us that he has some very bad news.
Tallon Of The Track consistently delivers, and this week is no different. Split into three parts, each part was crucial and I couldn't look away for a moment. Jo's accident kick-started the episode, but it was the confrontation between Dave and the documentary makers that really drove the story. The racing action was a nice little bonus, and just as important for what will come next. I don't know what more I could ask for, perhaps Jo a little more in the story, but overall this was strong in every panel.
Rating: 8.5/10
Best line: "She's deeply unconscious! She'll have to go to hospital!"
Skid Solo
It's hard to follow up on the Tallon Of The Track story, but Skid Solo does an admirable job. It stays away from the track and instead tosses Skid and Sandy and Sparrow into a charity rugby game against pop stars.
Sandy is confident from the start and lets the others know that he considers pop stars to be weaklings. While Skid goes for a test drive Sandy meets one of these pop stars, and he lets him know that he thinks pop stars need toughing up, He reiterates this several times, and by the end of the drive, the pop star is well aware of how weak Sandy considers him.
Sandy may be looking forward to the rugby game, but he finds it tougher than he expected. The game sees him take several hard knocks and by the end of it, both he and Skid express how tough it was.
It is then that they met the pop star from the track again. Sandy is surprised to hear he was playing, and Sparroiw points out that he did score three tries against them. It is a revelation for Sandy and at the pop show later he is reminded that you can't judge by appearances.
I'm sure we've had a similar storyline about not judging by appearances a few months ago. This version of it is well told, and it is a lesson well taken. The absolute highlight for me was seeing Skid on the rugby field, and seeing Sandy being buried by a heavy tackle, very satisfying indeed. I normally prefer to see Skid racing, but this was a nice turn and I appreciated the change of pace and scenery. Sandy didn't come across well, I don't think I would have much time for his views in real life. Normally he is one of my favourite characters and this story added another wrinkle to his personality, making for a more fully formed character. A good diversion, and a nice little filler episode between the grand prix races.
Rating: 7.5/10
Best line: "Aye, I feel like a good hard game of rugger! We'll show these young pop-stars what the game's about!"
It has been a hard-fought race, but the end is in sight for Joe and Lord Humphrey and their respective horses. Joe is riding Ugly as hard as he can, desperate to make up for the time he has lost due to Mungro's devious plan.
Meanwhile, Lord Humphrey is cruising, satisfied that he has the race won with a ten-minute lead. This leads to a careless moment as he whips his horse, Zorro, startling him into jumping too soon and throwing Lord Humprey from the saddle.
With time lost as he tries to catch his horse, both riders are in the panel for the final gallop to the finish line. It is still anyone's race, and we will know the winner in the first panel of next week's edition, I'm sure.
My interest had waned in this story, but this issue had me once again hooked. The scenes with Lord Humphrey being tossed from his horse were satisfying, especially the reactions of the spectators around him. He took some stick for his use of the whip, and the spectators were very outspoken about this. Joe and Ugly weren't as interesting on the page, it was mostly Joe pushing Ugly to go faster, but in the final panels the climax brought both racers head to head and ended the story in style. An excellent end to the race, and this issue, this is A Horse Called Ugly excelling at horse driven action.
Rating: 8.5/10
Best line: "Begging yer pardon, yer Lordship...if you 'it that 'orse, it will 'it you- very 'ard!"
Issue final ratings:
Overall: 8/10
Best Story: The Tigers
Best Line: "Och, ye'll enjoy it, mon! An' these pop-stars won't gi' us any trouble! Those long-haired banjo-players cannae be fit!"
Best Panel:
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Roy's Sports Quiz:
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