Eagle and Tiger, cover date 7 December 1985

Here’s a rather age-stained Eagle from my collection (art by Carlos Cruz). It had merged with the longer running Tiger comic earlier in the year as IPC’s roster of boys’ comic titles reduced in line with a gradually declining market.

The Mekon thought Dan Dare was seafood in his latest mad scheme. But ‘It was a trick! It … Yeeeaaargh! ‘Fool! Do not state the obvious!’ Dan pulled the old robo-double switcheroo ploy, but was too late to stop the Mekon launch rockets at Earth. ‘Brainless nonentity!’

Eagle’s other top strip at this time was Doomlord, in this week’s issue teaching his son Enok the skills needed to become a Servitor of Nox. The script was by Alan Grant, and typically beautiful artwork by Eric Bradbury.

In both its incarnations (50s/60s and 80s/90s) Eagle always tried to be a comic relevant to the hobbies of kids of the day. Home computer games are oft cited as one of the reasons comics lost sales from the 80s onwards, but Eagle made a point of connecting with this interest.

But it still offered a broad range of comic strips, including Billy’s Boots (script Fred Baker, art John Gillatt), The Thirteenth Floor (Ian Holland, Jose Ortiz), Death Wish (Barrie Tomlinson, Vanyo) and Shadow, an ex-NYPD dog on the run (John Wagner, Mike Western).