Tiger 27th July 1974

 It's been sunny all week, yet the weekend finally rolls around and it rains solidly for two days. Such is life. Still, I can't complain too much. I can take an hour to read my comics, guilt-free, and not have to worry about those outside chores that whisper my name. The sun always shines in Tiger comic, and that's where I intend to be for the next hour while the weather can do whatever it wants outside my window.  

Tiger

27th July 1974

Roy Of The Rovers 

The football game between Sao Palos and Camplona may be the key storyline in Roy Of The Rovers, but it is the girlfriends that catch my eye on the cover. Penny looks stunning in full colour as she revives Roy after his exhausting escape with a bucket of ice-cold water. 

Revived, Blackie and Roy quickly change into their football gear and take to the field, desperate to pull back the one-goal deficit. From here on in it is truly Roy Of The Rovers stuff as they bang in two quick goals, before the rest of the youthful team comes to the party and the opposition is annihilated. 

Blackie and Roy miss the final whistle, they have fallen asleep, but they awake later in the evening as the village party continues on long into the night. We finish with Roy and Blackie dancing the night away and looking forward to their return to Melchester. 

This has been a lot of fun, but I too look forward to their return to Melchester. I have enjoyed Roy's Spanish holiday, the story took plenty of twists and turns, and not all of them on the football field. In particular, I also enjoyed seeing their girlfriends take a stronger lead in the storyline, and Penny was very strong throughout. A lovely Spanish holiday, next week we will be back to Melchester and the endless grind of first-division football. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "You can keep the champagne...we only want the iced water!" 

Johnny Cougar and Splash Gorton 

Johnny is down for the count, and he is off to a bad start this week as he fails to get to his feet in time, leaving Staff Sergeant Martin with a surprise victory. 

It's a surprise for all, and Staff Sergeant Martin apologises to Johhny, offering to fight him again in another match, once they have finished with their tag-team match. 

Meanwhile, the K.O. Kid has arrived in Dortmund, seeking revenge on Johnny for his previous loss. He looks like he may get his revenge sooner than expected as on the last page we see Johnny and Splash about to be run down by a driverless truck. 

I expected more from this story. We left Johnny last week down for the count, and the outcome of that was dealt with in the first panels of this story. The rest of the story showed the K.O. Kid arriving in town before we again got action in the final two panels. It felt like a lot of padding between the key events in a story that was already struggling to hold my attention. I have always enjoyed a good Johnny Cougar story, unfortunately, this doesn't feel like one. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line: "Here comes Cougar and that beatnik idiot. They can both be part of my revenge!"

Martin's Marvellous Mini

They're off in the London to Sydney race, and already I have a good feeling about this story. My positive mood is made even better on the first page with a humourous aspect arising from the story early on. 

Calton Cars are Martin and Tiny's primary rivals in the race, and one of their cars suffers an accident on the way to the start line, leaving only their reserve car, and their reserve drivers. These reserve drivers bring a grin to my face, they look a lot like Laurel and Hardy and are obviously incompetent from the start. 

With names like Peter Perch and Gary Grimble, we know we are in for a good time, and although they are asked to sabotage Martin and Tiny, they make it quite clear in the chat between the two of them that sabotage is something they are not very good at. 

They get their first chance to scupper Martin and Tiny soon after the channel crossing to France. In rainy conditions, they get ahead of our two pals, and pushing a hay cart into the centre of the road they intend to slow them down. 

Martin is too fast though, and swerving around the cart they continue to race into the night, only to find themselves racing headlong towards a large lorry on a narrow twisty road in the mountains. 

An excellent story, I could have easily read another dozen pages in the same vein. The humour was great, the characters warm and believable, and the final images of George in the mountains were heart-stopping. This race to Sydney promised a lot, and already it is delivering in the very first issue, and we're still only in France. A long way to go, but I have nothing but good things to say about this story so far. 

Rating: 9/10

Best line: "Hey Pete...what did old man Carlton mean by sabotage? That's sort of cheating! I'm no good at that stuff!" 

The Tigers

With Chunky Clark and Ron Burton both at the crease anything could happen in this issue of the Tigers. 

There is another wrinkle in the plot, with Ron's crony doing his best to distract Chunky by shining a mirror on his face. Despite this, Chunky still manages to come out on top, riding his luck throughout. This drives Ron to further heights trying to outdo Chunky, but all that he succeeds in doing is to push them both to score quick runs which eventually leads to Digby's eleven winning. 

We are promised more cricket next week from Chunky Clark, and that may not be a bad thing given how much I enjoyed this story. There was slapstick, but it remained lowkey, and the real action of Ron Burton trying to outplay Chunky was the highlight. There was plenty of cricket action, Burton's gang remained ineffectual, and at the end of the day, both Chunky and Ron came out on top. I can't imagine where we might go next with this cricket story, but I have enjoyed it thus far, and we have moved beyond the silliness of some of the earlier The Tiger's stories.   

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Anything Clark can do, I can do better!" 

Football Family Robinson

A dynamic start to this strip with two speedboats colliding while a capsized Ma and Viv look on. 

From this opening image, the story moves quickly on, and a lot happens in this issue. Viv and Ma are rescued, as are all the other bodies in the water, by a luxury boat. This luxury boat is owned by an investor who is looking at investing in one of the resorts, the very reason they are trying to outdo each other. The investor decides that whoever wins the football game will win his investment - perhaps a future idea that Lord Sugar might look at for The Apprentice?

Ma and Viv check on the team that Titch is assembling. They have five new players, but they all want to play striker. Ma once again comes with some firm decisions, dishing out the positions based on their body size.  

We have one final plot point as once again Fred appears on the shore, wanting to warn Ma about the other team. It seems that they are about to fly in five professional players to make up their numbers, leaving little chance of a victory for Ma's team. 

A strong issue, the very first panel was all the hook I needed to keep me rapidly turning the pages. Although the thought of the match doesn't enthuse me, I do like the context that surrounds it. It was nice to see the face of the investor, Julius Richafeller, and his name alone was enough to make me grin. The primary driver of the storyline, now he is named and on the page, and the story feels a lot more well-rounded. The stocks continue to rise for Football Family Robinson, let's hope the bubble doesn't burst anytime.

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "If they go on at this rate, Ma, there'll be no-one left to play in the football match!

Tallon Of The Track

Ugh, the fuel-addictive storyline. Fingers crossed it will improve this week. 

The good news - it does improve as most of the action takes place on the track. Although Jo is still concerned about the Hunsford team using fuel additives, for most of the strip they don't and the racing is all about who is fastest on the track. In this case, it is the Ospreys, and they manage to close the gap to just a few points after several hard races. 

The fuel addictive comes to the fore again in the crucial race, and the Hunsford Hawks jump out to a fast start, obviously using the doctored fuel again. On the track, Dave senses what is happening and decides to take matters into his own hands. As they corner, Dave pushes his bike sideways, forcing the Hunsford rider towards the safety fence. The inevitable happens, and Jo can only watch on as Dave seemingly causes a nasty crash on purpose. 

This is more like it, and not just because of the dramatic crash on the final panel. The story moved a lot quicker than previously and stayed tightly focused. Jo was not as hysterical as previously, and seeing Dave getting a bigger part helped to balance out the story. This crash could be the first part of the story winding up, and for all the lows I have had with it, I am finally excited and curious to see what happens next. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "You forget that I'm riding in this one, sweetheart! Just sit back and watch me go!" 

Skid Solo

A typical Skid Solo story this time out as he is given a new car to test drive. This one is extra safe, with every dial, switch and pedal in the car duplicated. Should one fail, there is a backup, and with Sparrow Smith seated beside him this should be a cakewalk for Skid. 

However, before they can put the car through its paces, a wheel needs replacing, so Skid and Sparrow take an hour to lie in the sun and relax.

Before he knows it, Skids is back in the car with Sparrow and they're off. The car runs like a dream, and soon enough they are at two hundred and fifty miles an hour. It is then that Skid's troubles start, with the brake pedal failing. As if that's not bad enough, the accelerator too fails. Skid has no option but to switch off the car, but the ignition key breaks, leaving them still travelling at one hundred and ninety miles an hour, and heading towards a cliff face. 

Skid tries to swerve, but the steering doesn't respond, and all they can do is brace themselves for the crash that will surely follow. It doesn't, as Skid suddenly awakes - it has all been a dream. 

Although a dream, Skid asks Sandy to check over the brakes, steering, and accelerator before they drive and also asks if he could be supplied with a spare car. It is an unusual request, but the team oblige. 

The team wonders what goes through drivers' heads sometimes as Skid drives off, and we are informed in one final line that the drive went without incident and Skid returned unharmed ten minutes later. 

All the action here occurred in Skid's dream, and although it looked impressive, at the end of the day nothing happened in this strip. I did think that it was rather odd for everything to fail so spectacularly in a car, but it all made sense with the reveal. Apart from the strange dream aspect of the story, most of it left me cold. We have seen Skid test drive countless cars over the years, and the final panels didn't give us a twist or different perspective on anything we've seen before. As always, lovely to look at, but for me, it lacked some originality and as much as I wanted to like it, I found it empty.

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Ignition off...heck, no it's not! The darned key's broken in half!" 

A Horse Called Ugly

Joe and Ugly are riding well, and determined to beat the Italian rider, Ferrani. Things are looking good for Joe, but Ferrani takes matters into his own hands, popping some balloons in the crowd and startling Ugly into making a mistake. This forces Joe and Ferrani into a jump-off, but unknown to Joe much larger problems loom on the horizon as two villains watch on. 

In the final jump-off, Joe and Ugly ride well, and carry off the victory. Job done, they prepare to fly back to Britain, unwittingly carrying a mystery that will make the two villains of the piece millionaires. 

I have no idea what this mystery is that Joe and Ugly have upon them, but this makes the story even better. The first half of the story was straightforward with a typical horse jumping scene we have seen played out before. All the fish hooks of the story are in the final third as Joe and Ugly prepared to return, and the motives of mysterious villains about to be revealed. The showjumping portion was strong, the mystery portion stronger, and overall this is an adventure that is becoming more intriguing by the page. 

Rating: 7/10

Best line: "Larcombe little realises that he is going to help us become millionaires!" 

Issue final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Martin's Marvellous Mini 

Best Line: "Martin! We're over the edge!"

Best Panel:

Roy's Sports Quiz: