[Reg]

I have only just joined the site and wonder if anybody can help me trace two old comic stories that I read as a kid (1950s and 1960s)?

Story 1 (a comic strip story in a sci-fi collection probably printed for a Christmas market)
This concerns the staff of an observatory in USA. They receive a Mayday call from an alien spacecraft and assist it to land safely. Although they go to it's landing site they cannot see it although the pilot is communicating with them via his RT. He then says he can see them, but it transpires that he has crossed the time barrier and landed 100 years earlier. The result is that the is shot full of arrows by what look like Hurons. A landmark used to guide him was a pointed rock formation and when the observatory staff dig beneath this they find a space helmet. Haven't a clue what this story was called.

Story 2 (a text story - pretty sure it was in an Annual)
This relates to a marooned space pilot whose ship has malfunctioned and he has managed to land on a seemingly deserted planet. He discovers he is not alone as a robot is also stranded there and has been for many years. The robot helps him repair his ship but in doing so sacrifices it's own existence. I thought the story was called something on the lines of 'My Man Friday' as it clearly has Robinson Crusoe connotations but I've never been able to track it down.

Any help or correspondence welcomed.

Reg

[paw broon]

Hi Reg.  That first one is familiar.  My first thought was that it was Charlton story then I wondered about DC comics Strange Adventures.
I noticed you commented on the Boardman book and I'm now wondering if you read your 2 stories in a British title/annual.  As you know, Alan Class reprinted umpteen stories from American comics.
I could be havering, so, hopefully, the more knowledgable on here can help a lot more than me.

[Reg]

Hello Paw

I much appreciate your reply. You are probably dead right when you say it was a British publication. I recall getting it one Christmas, and it was with a number of other stories in a soft cover book roughly A4 sized. Plain line drawings - no colour.

I've recently managed to get hold of some of the Boardman weekly comics featuring Blackhawk and Swift Morgan that were produced here in the UK in the 1940s and 1950s. I will have a crack at uploading them over the next week or so.

Regards

Reg

[paw broon]

I suppose that narrows it down a wee bit but A4 is a too big for Alan Class comics. Is there any chance this was a Swan album?  It seems unlikely that those sort of stories would be in a DC Thomson annual and they were hardbacks anyway. There were a lot of b&w 64 page comics with both British stories and American reprints, including stuff like Fantastic Tales and the John Spencer titles.
Do you fancy submitting your question to
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/
There are a few members who might be able to help.  You'll have to join but it's free and doesn't take long to be clicked in.
Apart from that, your Boardman comics would be excellent additions to CB+.  Curious to know if the Blackhawk issues are Quality reprints or McLoughlin originals.

[Reg]

Thank you Paw, I will follow that up.

The Boardman comics are UK originals - the Photogravure printings

Reg