[The Australian Panther]

If ever I saw a cover designed to make you buy it to see what the story is about, this is it!
Curiously, I note that, unless I missed it, there is no author's credit.
I love the list of free gifts on [our page] #6:- Ronson Machine guns, Flying-fool planes, Big-Six pistols, Spring=heeled Jacks, Conjuring Outfits etc.
I thought Spring-heeled Jack was a character. So what, exactly, is a Spring-heeled Jack?

Cheers!

Link to the book: The Startler_v1_no10

[Andrew999]

Could it refer to these fabulous spring-heeled platforms that I so wanted as a birthday present in the sixties (but mum bought be a children's encyclopaedia instead):

https://adoxoblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/spring-heeled-jack-and-spring-heel-jacks/

[crashryan]

I have a vague memory of those spring-loaded platform shoes. I guess I saw them in an ad; I never saw a pair in use. I remember them--or misremember them--as having a second plate beneath the springs, so the whole apparatus was like a metal-plate sandwich with springs for the filling. I can envision a kid having a short spurt of giddy fun just before the broken limb / concussion.

[Captain Audio]

I thought Spring-heeled Jack was a character.

The original spring heel jack was a cryptid, believed at first to be a demonic creature only known by the ever wider spacing of its hoof like foot prints in the snow. Later various witness accounts suggested a man in a top hat and cape running about with springs on the heels of his shoes allowing him to run in great strides and leap over walls.
In recent years its been determined that rather than hoof like foot prints the markings were the impressions of the entire body of a unusual rodent that leaps great distances at a time to move about in the snow.

Recently a man invented a power assisted leg brace that allows him to run up to 25 miles per hour with little effort.

[Captain Audio]

I thought Spring-heeled Jack was a character.

The original spring heel jack was a cryptid, believed at first to be a demonic creature only known by the ever wider spacing of its hoof like foot prints in the snow. Later various witness accounts suggested a man in a top hat and cape running about with springs on the heels of his shoes allowing him to run in great strides and leap over walls.
In recent years its been determined that rather than hoof like foot prints the markings were the impressions of the entire body of a unusual rodent that leaps great distances at a time to move about in the snow.

Recently a man invented a leg brace that allows him to run up to 25 miles per hour with little effort.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5V356k-9a8

[Andrew999]

I saw a guy in similar leg braces - one on each leg with a curved blade - much like you see sprinters use in the paralympics.

I was on holiday - he was running along the beachfront at Los Cristianos in the Canaries at about 15mph. This was about ten years ago. I felt sure it would catch on and become as big as skateboards, frisbees etc - but it hasn't happened.

[narfstar]

The next issue of the Startler featured  LORD OF THE LIONS with a jungle boy who road  a lions back. At least that is what the promo said.