204 replies to this topic

[911speedster]

Perhaps this is not the right forum to ask , but does anyone know whether Skid Solo is still racing? The last time I checked in about 1974 he was Formula One World Champion and had been since I was introduced to him in about 1968! If I remember correctly he was somewhat like Schumaker in that he won almost every race he entered, including sports car racing etc.

OK. For those who don’t know about him he was comic strip character out of an English sports comic called Tiger, which I bought every fortnight for many of my childhood years.

The new car was always unveiled at the start of the year and was always in keeping with whatever was happening in the real world and the artist drawings gave in-car camera views long before we saw them on TV.

I am interested to find out if it still been produced. I now live in Hong Kong and getting access to those comics is a little restricted.

Many thanks
Tony

[Pedro 917]

Maybe Michel Vaillant will know......

[ian senior]

Versatile chap, young Solo. Didn't he start in F1 with a car of his own construction?

[bretonbanquet]

Tiger is sadly no more, and I don't know whether or not Skid survived in another publication. I always remember my favourite, von Vargen in the yellow #11 - does anyone recall any more of Skid Solo's opponents?

[ensign14]

Some of Skid Solo's opponents:

Jean Corbonne (French)

Al Ledstock (American, also World Champ)

Mike Mason (left Solo's team to drive for some rich Arabs)

Sparrow Smith (who was killed in a crash)

There was a Belgian who did well at Spa, but that's about all I remember.

He certainly went on to 1978, cos they had an Aurora sponsored car at the time of the Aurora F1 series.

Don't think Skid survived Tiger, which ended circa 1983, but in its last issues I heard that Skid started having flashbacks to Smith's death and in turn had a godawful accident, either killing or paralysing him...quite advanced for a kid's comic.

Then again, I was always more a Roy of the Rovers lad...

[bretonbanquet]

Thanks - I have happy memories of reading about him in my brother's comics. Skid Solo and Martin's Marvellous Mini (rallying) were the only pages I used to read - too much football!

[McLarenFormula1]

Didn't Skid see Smith by the side of the road at all the races? Wasn't Skid eventually killed as well in a racing accident?

[Doug Nye]

Didn't Rockfist Rogan fall on him...?

[D-Type]

Slightly OT: I think I remember some joker driving a Formula Ford at Brands with "Skid Solo" signwriting? Or am I mistaken?

[VAR1016]

Skid Solo? Huh I remeber Revs Ransome, a very superior conducteur .

And he wore a bow-tie!

PdeRL

[TFBundy]

... and with the Olympics coming I'm rooting for Alf Tupper - "the tough of the track!" ... though I'm a bit worried about the Nandrolone in Luigi's fish and chips

[Garagiste]

Originally posted by TFBundy
... and with the Olympics coming I'm rooting for Alf Tupper - "the tough of the track!" ... though I'm a bit worried about the Nandrolone in Luigi's fish and chips

So that's how me managed to scale a chimney stack for a spot of emergency welding, and still beat the other team in the race!

[D-Type]

Didn't Alf Tupper work as a welder cum mechanic for a racing team at one stage of his career?

[Macca]

All this reminds me of a couple of other racing comic stories - in Eagle in the late 1960s there was a weekly (non-cartoon) serial about a hero who made James Bond look like a one-trick pony; he had to thwart the world-domination ambitions of a bunch of billionaires by gathering evidence of criminality on each one, so posed as a rich adventurer and ended up challenging a despotic ruler of a small oil-rich Middle Eastern state to a car race. It turned out there was no circuit and they raced round the streets of the city - in a 1966 F1 Ferrari and a Lotus of some type - amongst the peasants and camels!


In another later version of Eagle (Eagle & Lion?) was a story of a bunch of F1 drivers who were kidnapped by another driver who they'd accused of cowardice (a rich European landowner) and forced to race interminably round his private circuit while he contrived ways of making each try to win at the expense of others while he bumped them off - until IIRC they ganged together and he got tired first or something.


And then there was a strip in Victor IIRC where a mysterious aircraft would land at a GP just before the start and unload a black car which would tail onto the grid, win the race, and then drive back onto the 'plane and be whisked away - can't remember why though!


They don't write 'em like that anymore!


Paul M

[ensign14]

The Victor had Ron Hutton, who was involved in a controversial accident with Italian ace Vincenzo Scardi that paralysed the latter - a character that originated in Scoop, which was one of the many mags published by IPC that they merged into the Victor when sales tailed off.

Scardi vowed revenge and created a robot called Vic Tobor with the sole aim of getting him into F1 and killing Hutton...the robot would be remote controlled by Scardi's actions, and there was the odd wry comment of who had taught Tobor to drive...

After that plot failed Scardi created doppelgangers of drivers that he kidnapped and anaesthetized for the same aim.

One thing I remember about Solo...he always had the number 7...did he keep the same number race to race before 1974? Could have been a trend-setter.

[Lec CRP1]

IIRC, Tiger was cancelled in 1985, and merged with Eagle (a somewhat lame resurrection of the 1950s version). Skid Solo was not among the line-up of strips at the time, though he was still in Tiger in 1980 (I know this from an old issue of Tiger I bought from a jumble sale in the 80s). The motorsport strip in Tiger when it ended was someone called Eddie Topps (sponsored by the bubblegum company), who'd switched over from bikes.

More info here.

(A chance to use my childhood comic reading past. Finally, I get to have some nostalgia...)

[QuickVic]

Originally posted by Lec CRP1
when it ended was someone called Eddie Topps (sponsored by the bubblegum company), who'd switched over from bikes.

That's right, he was based of course on Eddie Kidd.

[VAR1016]

As far as I remember, Revs Ransome was in Tiger.

PdeRL

[ensign14]

And Eddie Topps came from short-lived mag Speed, which AFAIK only had 1 motor racing character - a cap called Blake Edmunds, who wore a leather mask (ooer) to cover up burns he received in a plane crash. And who therefore considered his life as nought and tried to end it with the most suicidal driving (and other stunts). Got merged into Tiger fairly quickly.

Jeez, I cannot believe I remember all this...

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by ensign14


Jeez, I cannot believe I remember all this...

This stuff must seem realistic if you spend your Saturdays watching Robbie Savage...

[David Beard]

I obviously missed something in my childhood.
I have never been more baffled by a TNF thread.

[dbltop]

Me too. But, I do remember Tom Slick and Penelope Pitstop.

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Roger Clark

This stuff must seem realistic if you spend your Saturdays watching Robbie Savage...

Is said Mr Savage related to Hot-Shot Hamish per chance ??

[flat 12]

as I remember in the final issue Skid Solo did have a paralysing accident, last image was him standing looking into a sunset with his mechanic (what was he called?)

think it was the first time he'd run either a turbo engined car so must have been 1982 or thereabouts, again pretty tapping into the general F1 picture circa the time re turbos coming in and serios accidents of the time.

I think Stirling Moss also appeared in the column for a while regarding running Audi's in a team with Skid in the British touring car championship (1980?)

[ensign14]

Originally posted by flat 12
as I remember in the final issue Skid Solo did have a paralysing accident, last image was him standing looking into a sunset with his mechanic (what was he called?)

Sandy something...MacLaren?

Is said Mr Savage related to Hot-Shot Hamish per chance ??

More like Dennis the Menace.

[BRG]

Originally posted by David Beard
I obviously missed something in my childhood.
I have never been more baffled by a TNF thread.

I'm with you, David! Maybe we're too old or something?

From the thread title, I assumed that Skid Solo must have been a veteran NASCAR driver - the name sort of resounds with real ones like Lake Speed, Sterling Marlin or Dick Trickle....

[911speedster]

Poor Skid! Thanks for your replies, I know it's bit of an odd one but have come across boxes of my old comics and it jogged my memory. I just wondered whether they were still producing them in the UK. Not sure what I should do with them, maybe my son will be interested in about 6 years time. I doubt it though, he will probably want the new Playstation (as will Dad).

[ensign14]

Teach him to read with 'em, I practically learnt off Racey's Rocket and Johnny Dexter et al.

[Henrik B]

Originally posted by flat 12

I think Stirling Moss also appeared in the column for a while regarding running Audi's in a team with Skid in the British touring car championship (1980?)

Correct. Ah, the memories. It also ran in a Swedish sport comics magazine called "Buster", along with Super-Mac, Roy of the Rovers and all of those classic footy comics.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I remember Skid as well - although I was a "Valiant" man myself.

I also still have a motor racing annual from 1967 which features a comic strip story called "Tom Pilgrim's Progress" in which he ends up coming second in his debut F1 race - driving a turbine powered car.

[nmansellfan]

I was a little too young for Skid Solo (i would have been 4 in 1982 if that was his last year).
On rainy days at my middle school we had to stay inside at breaktimes. If we weren't causing havoc in the corridors - you could slide for miles on those polished concrete floors - then we would read the old comics kept in the cupboard of one classroom. There were plenty of Tigers in there, most from '80-'83. I did try and read them in order if i could find them, and a do remember a late issue with Skid trying out his new turbo charged Grand Prix car. Something i clearly remember was that he was thinking to himself as he drove that it had so much power he had to brake much earlier than normal because he was arriving at the corners so quickly. I dont remember if this car was the cause if his demise though. Maybe it had brightened up outside by then...

[Lotus23]

The things one learns here...

All of this Skid Solo stuff is news to me. Generationally, geographically -- or both -- I missed out on all of this!

I remember my kids watching Speed Racer on the tube -- that's as close as I can get.

[Eric McLoughlin]

Had a chat with my brother last night - who's something of a comic buff - and he reminded me that Solo started out in the "Hurricane" comic. "Hurricane" was merged with "Tiger" around 1968 and Solo ended up with the latter.

These IPC/Fleetway and DC Thompson adventure comics were a confirmed part of any childhood of the 50s and 60s. Off the top of my head, the brands I can easily remember were:

IPC/Fleetway -

Lion
Tiger
Hurricane
Jag
Valiant
Buster
Action
Battle
2000 AD
Score and Roar

DC Thompson -

Victor
Hotspur
Champion

ALL these names have disappeared with the exception of 2000 AD which survives as a well regarded "adult" science fiction "art" comic.

[Macca]

Just come up with another comic strip on racing - two brothers called Brand - was it something like 'The Burning Brands' or 'The Blazing Brands' or something like that?

'Tom Pilgrim's Progress' was in The Grand Prix Gift Book, a source of many 'Grand Prix' (the film) photos and also photos of the Shannon being tested.

There was also (on page 108 IIRC) a photo of Graham Hill's BRM P83 H16 at Brands Hatch at the same pre-GP test, wearing those experimental tyres with no continuous tread, just a pattern of X-shaped cuts.



Paul M

[Eric McLoughlin]

I still have that book - a bit battered but perfectly readable. When I read it originally (Christmas 1967 aged 9), I had an immediate ambition to drive the Brands Hatch circuit (there's an article entitled "A Lap of Brands Hatch" by Graham Hill near the fron of the book). Well, last Tuesday, I finally achieved that ambition (37 years on) and did a track day at Brands in my Caterham.

Patience is a virtue.

[TFBundy]

I can just picture you steering with one hand while holding the battered book with the other!

LOOK OUT! They've changed the severity of Bottom Bend!!

[VAR1016]

Can no-one remember Revs Ransome - or did I make it up?


PdeRL

[Eric McLoughlin]

Jenson Button does it with one hand

[D-Type]

I see that Motorbooks are selling this gem .

I wonder if "The Shape of things to come" was someone we know's literary debut.

And DC Thompson also produced Wizard as well as Dandy, Beano, Beezer, Topper, Knockout(?), and Oor Wullie and The Broons who merited there own annuals although they appeared in the Sunday Pest

[Vitesse2]

They go for quite a bit less than that on eBay! Or rather they don't - I've seen two or three go though unsold recently ....

I was always a Hornet man myself - I even got a ten bob postal order from them when they printed a letter from me! That was when ten bob was worth ten bob ....

[dmj]

Originally posted by Macca
In another later version of Eagle (Eagle & Lion?) was a story of a bunch of F1 drivers who were kidnapped by another driver who they'd accused of cowardice (a rich European landowner) and forced to race interminably round his private circuit while he contrived ways of making each try to win at the expense of others while he bumped them off - until IIRC they ganged together and he got tired first or something.

I remember it! Even have it somewhere among thousands of old comics at home... Hero and his friend were kidnapped from a rally, IIRC, contested with an Opel GT. It was published in a small format Serbian magazine. As a kid I also used to read Skid Solo, Michel Vaillant... everything seemed to be translated and published somewhere in ex-Yugoslavia.

The best one by far was a comic called (in free translation) "Rally across five continents", with hero, Steve, driving a Sigma Segura prototype (in real life Secura, IIRC)...

[Macca]

That's the image from the 'Eagle' serial "The Croesus Conspiracy", Part 3, for 9th April 1966. The hero, Nick Hazard, is challenged to a race by an oil-sheikh round the roads and markets of his country.

If Hazard loses he faces death by firing-squad.......................I don't know what the prize for winning was, because I'm missing a couple of issues; but he lost.

The interesting thing, bearing in mind the date of publication, is that the sheikh is driving a new 3-litre F1 Ferrari, and Hazard is given a Lotus with a 2.7-litre Climax................. in reality the new F1 Ferrari had only just been announced and had raced for the first time on April 1st, and Paul Hawkins had driven a Parnell Lotus-25-Climax (R3?) in the non-championship South African GP on Jan 1st 1966.

Quite a good drawing though...................


Paul M

[Garagiste]

Can't remember which comic it was from, but wasn't there a Minicross strip in one of them?
I recall reading it in a comic borrowed from a mate - hang on, was it "Martin's Marvelous Mini?"

[Chris Bloom]

I bought Speed comic from the second issue in about ummmm... February 1980?? Blake Edmunds was the character from the story called 'Death Wish'. Speed joined up with Tiger to become 'Tiger & Speed' with the speed bit becoming smaller and smaller on the front page from what I recall! Skid Solo was a great read, I remember one issue where he played cricket and complained that he wore more protective clothing for cricket than for motor racing. He did indeed have a bad accident that stopped him from driving, a sad day:( I seem to also remember a story called 'Martins MArvelous Mini' which I seem to think was from one of those publications? It was of course about a mini with Herbie like powers!

[Mark A]

Martin Marvelous Mini was also in Tiger. This is from the 1980 Annual which also had Skid Solo (on the cover), and an article on the DFV and it's 100th GP win (3 years earlier??).

[Mallory Dan]

I well recall Martin's Marv Mini. At the time, mid-70s there was a regular Mallory Mini racer called Martin Sellicks. My little bro' always rooted for him, against the Imps. Surprisingly he didn't always do as well as the Martin Baker Mini did, I guess the cartoon writers weren't aware of the superior handling of the Imps, and hadn't heard of Jeff Ward, Basil Dagge, John Holmwood etc etc ...

[LB]

Finally a TNF topic I can actually answer.

Skid Solo did indeed end in 1982, with him ending up in a wheelchair after an accident. He was replaced by a character called Sintek..... i believe Skid Solo actually started in the 50's

Tiger ran another Motor racing story very briefly about a guy that wanted revenge for being left trapped in an accident by his peers. He went on track an instigated crashes but lost concentration and was killed himself. His crashing efforts having harmed no one. This was in the last few weeks of Tiger (in 85?) and was pricipally the reason i didn't continue with the comic. I went onto Autosport I believe... (man I just realised this is my 20th year of buying autosport every week...)

That Martins marvellous Mini pic brings back so many memories!

Tiger of course was the original home for Roy of the Rovers..

[ensign14]

Originally posted by LB
Tiger ran another Motor racing story very briefly about a guy that wanted revenge for being left trapped in an accident by his peers. He went on track an instigated crashes but lost concentration and was killed himself. His crashing efforts having harmed no one.

Modelled on Andrea de Cesaris?

[ensign14]

Originally posted by LB
Skid Solo did indeed end in 1982, with him ending up in a wheelchair after an accident. He was replaced by a character called Sintek..... i believe Skid Solo actually started in the 50's.

Thanks to the miracle of ebay, I now have a copy of the last ever Skid Solo...I've PDFd it if anyone wants one.

The whole thing seemed to have been a bit rushed. For such a long-lived character one should have thought that his gruesome finale (problematic new turbo exploding at Imola, pitching Solo into a wall, him surviving in a wheelchair but presumably with facial injuries as you never see his face post-crash) would have been dragged out over a few issues. Instead it was all done and dusted in one fell swoop.

I guess someone made a snap decision to go with Sintek because such an ending was not hinted at over previous issues; the whole thing was about turbo v aspro and whether he should race a new car. Nothing out of the ordinary. And then voom. Replaced by a 6 Million Dollar Man ripoff that I guess was not particularly successful.

[Collombin]

Originally posted by ensign14
Modelled on Andrea de Cesaris?

I don't recall the guy's exact name, but it was very close to Mario Andretti, and I think his car looked like a Lotus 78 or 79.

I almost thought at the time that Mario should sue if he ever got to see it.