Friday Flashback: Tornado

Tornado (IPC)
First issue: 24 March 1979
Last issue: 18 August 1979
Issues: 22
Duration: 4 months, 25 days
Absorbed into: 2000AD

Not to be confused with: Captain Tornado (L. Miller and Son, Ltd., 1952 to 1955, 42 issues), TV Tornado (City Magazines, 14 Jan 1967 to 14 Sep 1968, 88 issues, absorbed into TV Century 21), Hurricane (Fleetway, 29 Feb 1964 to 8 May 1965, 63 issues, absorbed into Tiger), or Hurricanes (DC Thomson, 30 Sep 1993 to 23 Dec 1993, 7 issues).

Noted strips:

• The Angry Planet
• Black Hawk
• Captain Klep
• The Lawless Touch
• The Mind of Wolfie Smith
• Storm
• Tornado’s True Tales
• Victor Drago
• Wagner’s Walk

Tornado was named after the then-recently launched fighter jet (in the tradition of its older stablemates Hurricane, Vulcan, and, well, Jet), and not the terrifying meteorological phenomenon that tears landscapes and lives apart. (Although, that said, military aircraft have been known to do that, too. In fact, that’s kinda their sole reason for existence.)

It was the second of only two comics (to date) to be absorbed by 2000AD (the other was Starlord), although this one wasn’t a particularly obvious match: of the three stories that were carried over, only the psychic teenager strip The Mind of Wolfie Smith and the cartoonish superhero Captain Klep felt like they belonged. The third, Black Hawk — about a former slave turned Roman centurion — had to be radically altered to fit in with 2000AD‘s science fiction theme. That said, I really enjoyed the 2000AD version of Black Hawk, right up to — but not quite including — its rather silly ending.

Of Tornado‘s other major strips, The Angry Planet was a science fiction tale about beleaguered Martian colonists (recently collected as a graphic novel by Hibernia Comics), Wagner’s Walk was a WWII story about a German POW who escapes from a Russian prison camp, Storm was one of those “feral child turns out to be a great athlete” tales so beloved of British adventure comics, Victor Drago was Sexton Blake with the serial numbers filed off, and The Lawless Touch was about a charming con-man/thief who’s captured by The European Specialist Corps and forced to work for the good guys. The Lawless Touch was written by Kelvin Gosnell, who later went on to adapt three of Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat novels for 2000AD. (Coincidentally, maybe, The Stainless Steel Rat is about a charming con-man/thief who’s captured by The Special Corps and forced to work for the good guys.)

Following Battle Picture Weekly in 1975, Action in 1976, 2000AD in 1977 and Starlord in 1978 — all excellent, ground-breaking comics — Tornado always felt as though it was closer in tone to IPC’s action titles of the first half of the seventies, like Valiant, Vulcan, Jet and Thunder.

For me, Tornado‘s stand-out strip was The Mind of Wolfie Smith. It fit so neatly into 2000AD that looking back it’s a little surprising that 2000AD didn’t already have a similar strip. Coming a close second, Captain Klep wasn’t breaking any new ground, but it was the first Superman spoof I encountered and I loved its manic silliness. Wagner’s Walk and Black Hawk were strong stuff, too, and Mike Dorey’s art on Victor Drago was sublime. Mr Dorey wasn’t the only talented creator involved: there was also Carlos Ezquerra, Alan Hebden, Massimo Belardinelli, Tom Tully, Gerry Finley-Day, Steve Moore and Kevin O’Neill — to name but however many that is.

Plus I’m legally obliged by the Charter of Bloggers of British Comics to mention that Tornado‘s super-powered editor Big E was portrayed by top artist Dave Gibbons in a superhero outfit.

And speaking of Dave Gibbons… For me, Tornado‘s biggest impact was that its strips joining 2000AD meant that Dan Dare was shunted aside mid-adventure… and has yet to come back.

It’s been forty-four years, two months and two days, Tharg… and my offer to write the continuation is still on the table!

So with all those talented creators producing some pretty good material, why did Tornado fail to capture the attention of the buying public? One could argue that it was facing some very strong competition against Battle-Action and 2000AD, plus by the end of the 1970s the British comics market was already waning, but that argument doesn’t really stand up: the revived Eagle was launched three years after Tornado and lasted for almost twelve years (and Doctor Who Weekly, which hit the shelves two months after Tornado bit the dust, is still going strong forty-four years later, albeit now in magazine form).

It was many years before I learned that Tornado had partly been created to use up excess material that had already been commissioned for other comics. From that aspect, it didn’t really stand a chance: it is extremely tough for a comic to survive without the support of its publishers.

Whatever the reason(s), Tornado‘s sales weren’t strong enough to sustain it, and in issue #21 we saw this on the editorial page…

I don’t know why Big E is looking so pleased to deliver that dreaded Enfari notice — perhaps it’s only his superhuman constitution that enables him to hold back the tears and put on a brave face?

Despite its comparatively minor impact on the comics scene, Tornado managed to spawn two annuals and a summer special… which sadly were padded with a lot of reprint material, some of it very poor.

In the history of British Comics, Tornado is a bit-part player who only gets a couple of lines and is never called back despite their earnestness and enthusiasm. It might not have been the greatest comic ever created, but it was fun and it certainly deserved a better fate and a longer legacy.

Tornado #1, cover’s actually undated but it would have been 24 March 1979

Tornado #22, cover date 18 August 1979