I’ve repeatedly written how most British comics were anthology weeklies published by either one of two major publishers, Fleetway or D.C. Thomson, and were sorely lacking in standard issue American style superheroes. And while that’s certainly true there were definitely exceptions to those rules like Super Thriller, a monthly from a publisher called World Distributors featuring Ace Hart the Atom Man, a actual superhero.

Surprisingly there were quite a few American style superheroes from the late 1940′s to the late 1950′s in British comics.

Image via Wikipedia continues to swear up and down they

You’ve no doubt already know about Marvelman (and how Marvel continues to swear up and down they plan on doing more with the character beyond the recent reprints). But there were plenty more and to literally name a few there was Mr. Apollo, Masterman, Captain Might, Captain Crash and Captain Magnet. Then there was Miracle Man who was actually related to Marvelman in an incredibly roundabout way. Supposedly MM creator Mick Anglo ‘created’ the character Super Hombre for the Spanish market by redrawing some of his old Marvelman stories. Then he resold the strips in English to the British market as Miracle Man.

World Distributors had more of a track record publishing Annuals like the one for the weekly comic TV Tornado that featured comic strip versions of American TV shows currently on British TV as well as American comic book and strip characters. Which is how we got a cover scene that had Flash Gordon, The Phantom, The Green Hornet Tarzan charging at the reader with, you’re not hallucinating, Magnus Robot Fighter out in front. Boy, I’d sure like to have that Annual for Christmas.

But in 1948 they published Super Thriller who’s regular cover feature was Ace Hart, a scientist who’s thanks to an atomic elixir could fly and had super strength. And though he usually didn’t need it he also packed heat in the form of his trusty atomic pistol. There wasn’t anything either innately British or original about Ace; he stuck close to the American superhero template and both he and his adventures were both fairly dull. But along with being a cultural curiosity I have to admit at least part of my interest in Ace is due to the fact that I’ve always had an inexplicable fondness for superheroes who were brave enough to go by their proper names (Stormy Foster, The Great Defender, Brad Spencer, Wonderman, etc.).

The character had a fairly lengthy run, lasting until #34 until the publisher jumped on the then current Western bandwagon and the title becameWestern Super Thriller.

But he something of a second life; in the late 50′s he appeared in three Annuals which contained not comics but text adventures with illustrations by artist Edgar Hodges. He also painted the cover to the 1959 Annual which is, I believe we can all agree, just beautiful. Credit where credit is due compels me to inform you I got the above image and information about the Annuals from this website: http://comicbitsonline.multiply.com/tag/acehart

Super Thrillers #12 also had a couple interesting back-ups, well, they’re interesting to me anyway. Like the apparent one-off story Evil Island, about Bob and Jack, a pair of boys who get shipwrecked on a mad scientist’s island. In a mere four pages it manages to squeeze in them being captured by costumed henchmen (who are actually referred to as such), rescue a beautiful girl, escape the island in a futuristic plane then turn back at the last possible second to destroy both the island and the mad scientist’s death ray.

There’s a Western, The Adventures of Stevie Callahan which seems really, really, really influenced by Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon. If the logo isn’t enough to make you suspicious…

…I present into evidence a profile shot of our hero.

And finally The Secret City which in a mere five pages tells the story of Jack and Peter Strong who while minding their own business exploring South America are captured by the Marva, sentient robots and taken to the super science lost city and placed in their zoo. In most respects it’s your standard ‘boys own’ type adventure that’s almost identical to Evil Island (there’s also an extremely convenient beautiful girl to be rescued and an escape to engineer), but the fact that there’s a super science lost city run by robots makes it just interesting enough to get posted here.