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Story art and lettering by John Dixon. Dixon is not well known in the U.S., but his long running newspaper strip "Air Hawk & the Flying Doctors" appeared in countries all over the "Free World."
There were only twelve Catman stories, but the Catman title had two nearly back-to-back runs each totaling over twenty issues. This is the second issue of Catman posted to DCM.
This issue is relatively easy to roughly date due to the duel currency pricing. The Australia Dollar (decimal currency) came into use at, or near, the beginning of 1966. I know the Aussie Phantom title carried duel prices in January & February of 1966. The decimal cost increased on the Phantom from ten to twelve cents by April of that year. I believe most, if not all, Aussie titles followed about the same price pattern. |
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Yes, Australia switched from a British-style currency (Pounds, Shillings and Pence) to decimal currency (Dollars and Cents) on 14 February 1966 - I was 6 years old, and remember it well. Locally-printed comics displayed both prices for several months around that time and, as One Shilling (the local price for an imported American 12 cent comic) equalled Ten Cents, the American imports cost only 10 cents for a couple of months. Unfortunately, local distributors soon woke up to this, and we started paying US cover price - and a few years later, more!
And agreed, John Dixon is a damn fine artist - I think he did some US work for Valiant in the 1990s. |
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I enjoyed doing the edits on John Dixon's Catman comic. I think his Air Hawk newspaper strip appeared in a number of reprints in the US... Menominee Falls Gazette??? Or it may have been in a Spainish reprint that I remember the strip from. I do remember how much I enjoyed the clean lines in his art and the nice job he did with the action pacing of the newspaper strip. I do agree that he was a fine artist that I would like to see more of on DCM.
Off subject: While I have contact with fellow collectors in Australia, has anyone read any of the Tom Corbett Space Cadet comics reprinted in Australia? I have had contact through my website with several Tom Corbett fans from Australia who remember the comic but couldn't remember when it was published. Just one of those small history facts that I would like to learn. |
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I've never had the opportunity to read CATMAN, but I loved Dixon's work on AIR HAWK in the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE, and a great article on his career in an early fanzine. If I can find the 'zine I'll upload it. |
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Going by the numbering in the lower right hand panels of the other story pages, page 20 seems to be missing. Nice scan though. |
