Tornado issue 8, 1979
Tornado was a short-lived weekly comic published by IPC from March to August 1979. It was created to use up material commissioned for other titles like Action and Starlord, and was a mixture of genres. Originated by Kelvin Gosnell with a working title of Heroes, it was edited by Richard Burton, with some supervision by David Hunt. It's figurehead "editor" was Big E, represented by posed photos of artist Dave Gibbons in a superhero costume.
Strips included:
- "The Mind of Wolfie Smith", by Tom Tully and Eduard Vaño, about a runaway teenage boy with pyschic powers
- "The Angry Planet", by Alan Hebden and Massimo Belardinelli, a science fiction story about 21st century colonists on Mars fighting for independence from Earth
- "Wagner's Walk", by Pat Mills (as R. E. Wright) and Lozano, a World War II story about a German POW fleeing the Red Army
- "Blackhawk", by Gerry Finley-Day and Alfonso Azpiri, about a Nubian former slave who becomes a centurion in the Roman army
- "Victor Drago", by Chris Lowder (as Bill Henry) and Mike Dorey, a revival of the long-running detective Sexton Blake, retitled for copyright reasons
- "Captain Klep", written by Dave Angus and drawn by Kevin O'Neill and Paul Ailey, a one-page parody superhero strip
- "Tornado's True Tales", occasional stories of real-life heroism
- "Storm", writen by Scott Goodall and drawn by Musquera and S. Kennedy, about a wild boy from the Scottish Highlands
- "The Lawless Touch", written by Kelvin Gosnell and drawn by Barrie Mitchell and John Cooper, about a gentleman thief
After 22 issues, it was merged into 2000 AD. The strips that carried over were "Wolfie Smith", "Blackhawk" (who, to make the strip more acceptable for a science fiction comic, was abducted by aliens and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena) and "Captain Klep".
