Fact File
- Started:
- 1949
- Finished:
- 1958
'Meet the boy with the Flying Feet!' was the heading on the
first page of this new picture story drawn by Dudley D. Watkins.
Subtitled 'The Flying Boy', Jack Flash was the boy with wings on
his feet who arrived in the Cornish village of Colbay - and in the
pages of The Beano - in February of 1949.
Jack came from Mercury,
his spaceship having touched down in the sea off Cornwall. He soon
became a familiar sight in the skies above the village, frequently
using his flying skills to carry out good deeds and to step in - or
soar in - when danger threatened Colbay's inhabitants.
The ever-busy Watkins
handed over the art baton to Fred Sturrock partway through Jack's
first series of adventures, and Sturrock returned as artist on the
second series in 1950, which saw the visiting Mercurian having to
keep a watchful eye on some children whose parents had been called
away to tend to an ill relative.
These child-minding duties
might have been good practice before the third series of stories,
where Jack's parents, Ma and Pa Flash, came down to earth with the
flying boy's younger brother and sister, Jet and Jane, causing Jack
all sorts of problems. This series of stories was titled 'Jack
Flash and the Terrible Twins', and was drawn by Paddy Brennan.
Further series saw Jack
tackling jungle adventures after his spaceship crashlanded in
Africa with a roupe of schoolkids onboard. Readers were also
treated to Jacks efforts to help a struggling school football team
win a valuable prize, and, in his last outing, drawn by Andy
Hutton, the wing-footed wonder helps to recapture an escaped
lion.
Jack Flash soared out of the Beano's pages in 1958, before
returning for a new series of adventures in 'Nutty' in 1980.
Between these two series, there was even a female version of the
character in girls' comic, 'Mandy' in 1973. Her name - Jackie
Flash!
