THE SAINT GOES WEST

Keith Chapman, AKA western writer Chap O'Keefe has a Saint connection all of his own. Tomorrow we will run a complete comic strip written by Mr. Chapman or simply Keith to his friends, and that includes all Archive readers.

And so as a taster here are a few words from Keith Chapman.


THE SUMMONING OF A SAINT GHOST

Gary has asked me for some words about my "take on the Saint."

I hope I can do much better and work around to supplying some of the late Mr Charteris' take on the Saint! But here goes. . . . .

I met the Saint at a tender age, no doubt attracted as many British kids were in the 1950s, by the Jarvis covers for publisher Hodder & Stoughton's two-shilling, Yellow Jacket paperbacks. The red stick-figure featured in otherwise life-like illustrations which might involve, say, a helicopter. Very dramatic, adventurous and fun!

The "Robin Hood of modern crime" -- Leslie Charteris' own description, old notes tell me -- quickly captured my imagination. That the hardcover books were shelved in the adult section of the public library was no hindrance to my determination to read the entire Saint Saga. I soon armed myself with Dad's library ticket.

The privilege of scriptwriting for the Saint comic book came much later, in the early 1960s, when I was a teenager and editing Micron Publications Ltd's chain of monthly novelettes "told in pictures" -- 64-page western, war and detective pocket-books -- and the Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine. Much of the artwork, including all the western material, was commissioned from Spanish artists. One day, a Spanish artists' agent told me he'd been asked to provide the contents for a Saint comic book authorized by Leslie Charteris and to be published by Top Sellers Ltd, a division of magazine importers and distributors Thorpe & Porter, of Leicester. Today, the "Thorpe" name is best known to many here in connection with the Linford Western Library range of large-print books. The agent had no problem with the art, but needed scriptwriters. He also knew I was regularly writing scripts for the various Micron series and had contacts for many of the Sexton Blake and other detective-story writers of the day.

I had enough on my plate with Micron, but I did some Saint writing myself and quickly recruited Vic Hanson, who later became a big contributor of Black Horse Westerns under his own name and Jay Hill Potter.

During the 1960s, Leslie Charteris used ghost writers regularly, not just for original stories for the Saint TV series, but even for novels like Vendetta for the Saint, which it is now common knowledge was written by Harry Harrison, the SF author and creator of the Stainless Steel Rat. Harrison, incidentally, was also a scriptwriter for the British comic Boys' World. I later worked on the hardcover annual editions of that title, writing for the 1968 edition alone five of the nine adventure strips.

One of the contributors to the Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine, veteran crime writer Nigel Morland, told me Charteris had tired of the Saint as far back as the late 1930s and that he, Morland, had ghosted one of the novelettes appearing in Follow the Saint. But that's another story. I learned Charteris was very protective of Simon Templar. The people at Top Sellers provided instructions for the scriptwriting ghosts which included the following, which seemed to indicate that by the '60s Charteris was favouring the earliest Saint material:

"The settings for the Saint's stories should be primarily London . . . .

"Mr Charteris describes the Saint as a poetic pugilisit, which means that although the Saint is unsurpassable in hand to hand combat, he is sufficiently cultured to enjoy poetry and literature.

"Some of the books which will give you an idea of the lines on which these Comics should be created are The Saint Versus Scotland Yard, The Saint and Mr Teal, The Saint in London and Ace of Knaves. All of these books contain novelettes and should give sufficient guidance.

"Another point which Mr Charteris emphasized was the necessity for realism. He did not like the idea of the Saint driving along in a car and finding the brakes had failed on the assumption that they had been tampered with. The reason for this is because it is very difficult to tamper with brakes so that they fail at the right moment. . . . . It might have been practical in a 1905 Vauxhall with a cable brake, but not in a modern car."

You were also expected to use your imagination fully. Today I cringed on looking at one my teenage synopses and finding the handwritten margin note "Ingenious" alongside a paragraph which reads:

"Sara Jane leaves with the boodle, locking Simon in the cabin. But the Saint is unperturbed. He hammers on the door and when a crew member eventually comes and opens it, he knocks the surprised man out."

Ouch! And the embarrassment deepens when I remember Sara Jane was the name of a girl from Hampshire I was crazy about in that distant time!

I'm sure the character of the Saint was an inspiration to many of my generation. I know there's more than a touch of Saintliness in Misfit Lil. For example, Lil's teasing approach to overbearing authority figures, her love of derring-do.

Gary asks me if I can scan some of my Saint comic-book pages. I've hunted out a 16-page adventure called The Saint Settles the Score. No promises on when and whether it can be reproduced, but for the Archive I'll see what can be done. . .



And we're pleased that Keith has done just that and tomorrow you will be able to read his complete story, The Saint settles a Score here on the Archive. Keith's latest western is available on Amazon.