The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

I’ve read a ton of British comics over the years; heck, like most folks of a certain age I grew up devouring them. But I can honestly say I’ve never heard of Michael Jay’s The Purple Hood. Who was he? Terry Hooper explains: “It was the Swinging Sixties! Britain was hip as hip could be -The Beatles ruled Pop! And everyone was looking toward a bright future…if there wasn’t a nuclear war! Middle Eastern threats, Eastern European fascists, flying saucer flown by megalomaniacs and super mole machines and others threatened our little island. But we had the ultimate answer to these:The Purple Hood -International crime-smasher!” Terry adds he’s got a new version with the artwork cleaned up and original errors sorted out for a POD version available through Lulu.

Fortunately for those like me who have never heard of the Purple Hood or Michael Jay Terry also points us to an earlier blog post by the excellent Lew Stringer who recalls first buying it when he spotted it on childhood holidays in breezy Blackpool and wondering what it was. He does describe Jay’s artwork as “quite crude and derivative, yet it had a simplicity and energy that propelled the story along”, but has a fondness for this 60s British comic and the artist who he doesn’t recall seeing elsewhere. There you go, I’ve just learned something about a comic I’d never come across before.