The Seekers (comics)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
drawn by John M. Burns, written by Les Lilley, succeeded by Phillip Douglas and Dick O'Neil. The strip ran from 1966 to 1971 in The Daily Sketch
Daily Sketch
The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers but in 1925 Rothermere offloaded it to William and Gomer Berry The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper,...
.
Synopsis
The main characters, Susanne Dove and Jacob Benedick, are two preferred secret agents employed by Una Frost, director of "The Seekers", an elite agency of missing personMissing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
s retrieval
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
. Their investigations frequently lead to adventures connected to the sex industry
Sex industry
The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...
, exploiting the attractiveness of both detectives, and usually leading to the downfall of sexual predators and oppressors.
Publication history
The Seekers began publication on May 2, 1966 in The Daily Sketch. The concept of the strip bears some resemblance to another strip Burns later drew for a brief period, Modesty BlaiseModesty Blaise
Modesty Blaise is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin...
, although the female characters were consistently drawn in an enticing manner, indicating Burns' evident intent to challenge the limits of the daily British newspaper strip conventions of the times. The initial writer Les Lilley was succeeded by Phillip Douglas starting with episode 14, The Missing Golfers, occasionally aided by Dick O'Neil, who wrote one story, The Curse of the One-Eyed Sailor.
The strip ended on May 10, 1971, abandoned due to its lack of lasting success. It enjoyed some popularity in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
where it was known as I Segugi, and the Scandinavian countries
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, serialised as Spårhundarna in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Sporhundene in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
Story list
| n° | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Boneyard Club | Les Lilley |
| 2 | The Missing Groom | Les Lilley |
| 3 | Red Elibank | Les Lilley |
| 4 | The Bookman Vanishes | Les Lilley |
| 5 | The Collection | Les Lilley |
| 6 | The Irish Caper | Les Lilley |
| 7 | Title missing | Les Lilley |
| 8 | John Silver | Les Lilley |
| 9 | The Highest Bidder | Les Lilley |
| 10 | The Missing Star | Les Lilley |
| 11 | Lost Monastery | Les Lilley |
| 12 | The Off-Beat Case | Les Lilley |
| 13 | Art Theft | Les Lilley |
| 14 | The Missing Golfers | Phillip Douglas |
| 15 | A Matter of Life and Death | Phillip Douglas |
| 16 | Where’s Una? | Phillip Douglas |
| 17 | The Man Who Died Twice | Phillip Douglas |
| 18 | The Boy With the Golden Boots | Phillip Douglas |
| 19 | Hoop of Fire | Phillip Douglas |
| 20 | The Day the Birds Dropped Dead | Phillip Douglas |
| 21 | The Curse of the One-Eyed Sailor | Dick O'Neil |
| 22 | Title missing | Phillip Douglas |
| 23 | Wheels of Fate | Phillip Douglas |
| 24 | The Tracy Madison Affair | Phillip Douglas |
| 25 | Goddess of the Seven Moons | Phillip Douglas |
| 26 | Legs on Broadway | Phillip Douglas |
| 27 | Dead Girls Tell | Phillip Douglas |
Sources
Footnotes
External links
- The Seekers archives on Thrilling Adventures!