Tornado #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTornado #4 (cover-dated April 14, 1979) is an early-run entry in one of the more revealing editorial experiments of the British Bronze Age — a title IPC built almost entirely from inventory strips that had been commissioned for cancelled or genre-locked stablemates like Action and Starlord. By issue four, all of the anthology's core serials were in full swing across their multi-genre canvas, from Roman gladiatorial adventure to psychic-teenager thriller to Siberian war-escape yarn, demonstrating how deliberately IPC tried to fill the vacuum left after the cancellations of Valiant and Action stripped the publisher of a standard multi-genre weekly. The Tornado run as a whole — and issue four as a representative specimen — also carries a curious piece of comics history: future Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons appeared throughout every issue in photo-strips as the fictional superhero editor 'Big E,' a creative device borrowed from 2000 AD's alien editor Tharg and applied here with a Clark Kent/Superman conceit that gave the comic a tongue-in-cheek personality unusual for boys' weeklies of the era.
In "The Terror of Troll Island Part 4," Black Hawk, a black former gladiator now serving as a Roman centurion, faces his first trial in Britannia as he leads a campaign against a defiant druid rebellion. On his first night in the misty, foreboding land, he is ambushed by fanatical followers who carry out a chilling ritual, sacrificing one of their own to a demonic entity. Written by G. Finley-Day and illustrated by Alfonso Azpiri, this gripping installment blends ancient warfare with supernatural dread, with cover by Alfonso Azpiri.
In the shadowed forests of Britannia, Centurion Crassus—once a gladiator, now a Roman officer—leads a campaign against a defiant druid uprising. On his first night in the wilds, Black Hawk is ambushed by fanatical rebels, witnessing one of them make a horrifying sacrifice to a dark, ancient force. As the mist swallows the last echoes of the ritual, he realizes this rebellion is no mere revolt—it’s something far older, and far more dangerous.
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Tornado was originated by Kelvin Gosnell — who had earlier steered the launch of Starlord — but Gosnell quit before the first issue reached stands following a deteriorating relationship with IPC managing editor Bob Bartholomew, leaving the inexperienced Richard Burton to edit under the supervision of Battle's Dave Hunt. The comic launched on 24 March 1979 explicitly as a vehicle for paid-for material that did not fit the increasingly genre-specific slots of 2000 AD (science fiction), Battle (war), or Tiger (sport), making it institutionally reactive rather than editorially proactive almost from its inception. The production difficulties were compounded by at least one significant rights dispute: the Victor Drago detective strip had been conceived as a revival of Sexton Blake, but was renamed either because IPC believed the character was outdated or because the company no longer held the rights — a point on which sources differ — leaving the strip's original writer, Chris Lowder, so dissatisfied that he departed after only a few scripts. Alan Grant, who reportedly predicted a short run for the title, would later oversee the comic's absorption into 2000 AD at prog 127 in August 1979.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by IPC Magazines, cover-dated 14 April 1979; the fourth weekly instalment of a 22-issue run that lasted from 24 March to 18 August 1979.
- The issue features continuing episodes of all the anthology's core strips: Black Hawk (Gerry Finley-Day / Alfonso Azpiri), The Mind of Wolfie Smith (Tom Tully / Vicente Vaño), The Angry Planet (Alan Hebden / Massimo Belardinelli), Wagner's Walk (Pat Mills, credited as R. E. Wright / Lozano), Victor Drago (credited to 'Bill Henry' / Mike Dorey), and Captain Klep.
- Black Hawk — the story of a Nubian former slave granted a centurion's commission in the Roman army — was written by Gerry Finley-Day and drawn by Alfonso Azpiri; the lead character was inspired by Woody Strode's performance in the film Spartacus.
- Wagner's Walk was written by Pat Mills under the IPC staff pseudonym R. E. Wright; the strip had originally been conceived around the character Hellman from the cancelled Action comic before being reworked.
- Victor Drago, drawn by Mike Dorey and credited to the pen name 'Bill Henry,' was a thinly disguised revival of Sexton Blake; original writer Chris Lowder abandoned the strip after a handful of scripts when the character was renamed, reportedly due either to rights issues or editorial repositioning.
- The fictional 'superhero editor' Big E — who appeared in photo-strips throughout the run — was portrayed by artist Dave Gibbons, years before Gibbons co-created Watchmen with Alan Moore; Gibbons played both Big E and his mild-mannered alter ego Percy Pilbeam across all 22 issues.
- The format matched 2000 AD's newsprint production values: predominantly black-and-white, approximately 28 pages, with five serialised strips of five to six pages each per issue.
- Of the series' full cast of strips, only Black Hawk, Wolfie Smith, and Captain Klep survived the merger into 2000 AD prog 127; both Black Hawk and Wolfie Smith required significant narrative retooling to fit 2000 AD's science-fiction identity, and all three characters had concluded their 2000 AD runs by September 1980.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Ben Bolt #9/1980 (1980), Dare the Impossible #14 (1992), Wagner's Walk #[nn] (2017), The Fleetway Files #1 (2020), 666 #2
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