The Archive's Sunday Comics - Any Ol' Iron!

This week's Sunday Comics comes from one of the most iconic British comics ever, or at least the 1967 annual of the said publication.

This particular Iron Man story was written by Keith Chapman, whom Archive readers will know best as western writer, Chap O'Keefe.

AS ALWAYS CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR A LARGER, READABLE VERSION.

The Iron Man who appeared in British comics 

in the 1960s bore little relation to Marvel’s Iron Man. 

For a start, he looked human and only Tim Branton,

 the nephew of his creator, the late Professor 

Wentworth Farrad, knew he was a robot stronger than 

a hundred men and with a wonderful brain that 

could take in and process complex information. 

He was nothing like Lion comic’s long-running Robot Archie

 either,who was charmingly clunky in a 1950s 

way.

The Iron Man made his debut in the short-lived Boys’ World 

weekly in 1963. When that comic was incorporated with its

 more famous stablemate, Eagle, in 1964, the Iron Man became a

 fixture there till Eagle itself was absorbed into Lion in the IPC  

rationalizations of 1969.

 The stories in Boys’ World and Eagle were of the British serial

 pattern typical of the times—an episode every week 

culminating in a cliffhanger.

 But for complete stories we can look to the annuals, where we

 find this four-page item from Eagle Annual 1967, drawn by

 the Iron Man’s usual artist, Martin Salvador, 

and published in late 1966. 

 Salvador’s early work had been for Chicos, a famous comic in 

his home country, Spain. 

His best-known achievement in that publication
 was a western, Mendoza Colt. In 1956,
when barely out of his teens,

 he began drawing for British comics, working through 

SI Artists, a Barcelona-headquartered agency. 

His work appeared in Amalgamated Press
 (Fleetway) comics like Sun Comic, 

Cowboy Picture Library (Buck Jones), and

 Thriller Picture Library (Robin Hood and Dick Daring).
 After his stint on the Iron Man, Salvador’s work 

popped up in the United States, in the 

Warren black-and-white horror comics, Creepy
(standalones) and Eerie (Curse of the Werewolf).
Later, he drew for European Saint and
James Bond comic-books published
in Sweden by Semic Press.

His style is recognized internationally

 by comics collectors whether the story 

is in the western, historical, war,

 horror, or techno-thriller genres.