As previously noted I don’t know a lot about British publisher DC Thomson, their comics or their characters. For instance, I barely even knew there had been one crimefighter named Red Star let alone two. The “Golden Age” version of the character was Red Star Roberts. He started life in prose stories in the weekly Wizard as a suited, mask wearing vigilante who fought crime in Paragon City USA who earned his name by leaving a red star on criminals foreheads (and not because he was a Communist). He eventually graduated to comics:

The 70′s version, Red Star Robinson was Tommy Robinson, a regular seventeen year who fought crime under the guidance of the mysterious Watcher who provided him with an android gentleman’s gentlemen named Syrius Thrice and a vintage flying car. Unlike The Iron Teacher, who starred in a sprawling serial that seemed to go on forever, this Red Star’s adventures were generally limited to two-parters that were to the point as they were silly and strangely appealing.

For the record I wouldn’t have known about the original Red Star if not for an article on the always excellent British comics website Down The Tubes titled “A Different Type of Star — Rejuvenating DC Thomson’s Red Star for a New Era”(http://downthetubes.net/?p=14809). It goes on to say that The Glasgow League of Writers has partnered with the publisher to create new versions of some of their classic characters for the digital magazine Comic Review. This version of Red Star has been re-named the Scarlet Star (so as to avoid confusion with DC’s Russian sometimes Teen Titan, though frankly, I can’t imagine even one out of three people currently reading DC Comics would have any idea who that is). From what I’ve read online the new version, which will be written by Sam Read and drawn by Leonie Moore, pretty much splits the difference between the two version (though one assumes they’ll be no flying car in this one). Naturally, I am keen to see it.