Adapting Comic Art
Examples of how comic strip art originally published
in weekly titles such as Warlord was converted for use in Red Dagger
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How the Sniper cover from Warlord #155 was adapted for a cover for
Red Dagger #4 |
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THE SNIPER - RED DAGGER #4
The Sniper story reprinted in Red Dagger was drawn by Spanish artist Carlos Cruz. To turn the weekly strip, which was originally published in Warlord in late 1977, into a single Red Dagger strip the Sniper logo and initial text box had to be removed from each weekly title page. This was typical of the changes required for Red Dagger.
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How the first
page of the Sniper strip from Warlord #171 was adapted for Red
Dagger #4. This kind of work would usually be done in house,
not by the original artist. |
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The first page featured above is from Warlord issue 171 dated 31 December 1977 and the second is page 61 of Red Dagger issue four. With the logo removed there is a gap of about a quarter of the page that needed to be filled. This has been done by expanding the art work. In the splash panel the Greek house loses its corrugated roof and gains an extra storey, the ground gains a weed and we see more of Colonel Ahlers’ holster and his subordinate’s boots. In the bottom left panel Kelly, who appears to originally have had his left hand on his belt gains his sniper rifle, albeit held in a very unbalanced position, whilst the final panel simply expands the roadway that the telephone pole is beside.
RED DAGGER #20: BLACK SAPPER
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The Black Sapper
cover from Hotspur was adapted into a black and white page for Red
Dagger. |
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The Black Sapper proved a different challenge as the strip drawn by British artist Terry Patrick in 1971 had been used on the front cover of Hotspur. The cover splash pages from Black Sapper are unique amongst the stories reprinted in Red Dagger and make it much more obvious throughout the issue were each week’s episode started.
The first page is the cover to The Hotspur no. 622 from 18 September 1971 and the second picture is Page 59 of issue 20 of Red Dagger. Britain has been invaded by the oriental Khansus and the Black Sapper stands beside "his amazing, atomic-powered machine, the Worm" with General Mac Challenger of the British Resistance, discussing the fleet of Khansu military aircraft bringing reinforcements to a battle-scarred London. Here the art is extended in the foreground of the scene by simply adding more rubble whilst the two main aircraft are moved upwards and extra planes are added in the gaps that have been left. The colour was not an problem as Patrick’s original art was in black and white and the page only coloured during production work on Hotspur.
While the additional art for Red Dagger as a whole was no doubt done in-house at D C Thomson, it rarely detracts from the plot. Without knowing the history of the story, the revised art would have passed by all but the most discerning reader.
