A fictional universe the likes of which you've never seen before - the greatest heroes in British history, led by immortal wizard Dr. Magus and pilot-turned superhero Captain James Watt, band together to combat threats to the nation, before bringing together a powerful force to combat a greater threat, the evil wizard, Saruman the White!
Before you read the following stories, I shall give you a little history lesson.
Way back in the dark and distance 1970’s, yours truly fancied himself as a comic book artist. Inspired by the likes of Marvel and DC Comics, I created my own super-heroes, and drew (or rather scribbled) my own comics. I later pinched a couple of characters that my brother Michael had created, and the original Power Men, consisting of the likes of Jetson Man, Mr. X and more were born.
A couple of years later I began to collect action figures. Like many children I began by collecting Star Wars action figures, before eventually adding figures from numerous others to my collection.
But as I began to act out scenes for my collection, I also, along with my brother Paul, began to write stories for them. So, long before Flash Gordon met Mandrake the Magician, the Defenders of the Earth were born. As my collection grew they later became the Defenders of the Galaxy, and among their number were the likes of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Mr. Spock, He-Man, and numerous members of my own family, with yours truly acting as Commander-in-Chief, and Paul as an ageing wizard.. They battled a force led by the evil Supreme One and his ally Skeletor, before moving on to face the likes of the Warzoon and the Monstrons.
As I moved into my teenage years, I discarded these stories, and once again, along with Paul, moved into the super-hero genre. The wizard “Professor Paul” morphed into Doctor Magus, while “Commander Radbourne” became Captain James Watt, a name suggested by my late father. Some of the original members of the Power Men were added, and the first incarnation of Anglo-Force was born.
I can’t remember how many stories we wrote back then, but I do remember that their main villain was established Tolkien evil-doer Saruman the White. Eventually I just got fed up with doing them, and the stories were thrown away. Although I can reveal a little known fact - these stories were almost adapted into comic book form. My cousin Jayne Ellis, a very talented artist, had some contacts who were interested in the stories, and if everything had gone to plan, they would have been published - in Nigeria. Nothing actually came of this though.
A couple of years later, Captain Watt and Doctor Magus were rebooted, moved forward a couple of years, and given their own starship in the form of the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie Chronicles featuring some characters based on those who had appeared in Anglo-Force. But like their predecessors, I got bored, and threw the stories away.
Forward now to 1990. I wanted to write these stories again, but I wanted to do something different. Before I had always thought that I couldn’t write two on-going series at the same time. I soon found out that I could.
What you about to read are the first few stories of the second incarnation of Anglo-Force, once again written by me and my big brother Paul. At first I had originally intended for it to be a self-contained universe, but then I thought that as I was just doing this for fun why not use characters from other fictional universes. So this volume contains not only original characters (and those created by big brother Michael), but also the likes of Saruman the White, Doctor Who, Q, Davros, and a few others. As I’m not actually asking you to pay money to read this I can use these or any other character I want, and the end of this book helps launch the second series me and Paul re-booted, The Valkyrie Chronicles.
This is the first time these stories have been available, in their entirety, to the public, almost twenty years after they were first written on a battered old typewriter. I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed writing them.
Interested in reading these stories? Well, you can, for FREE! You can download it in PDF form at
www.lulu.com/twosheds316
Download Anglo-Force: The Formation & The Return of Saruman for FREE!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 08:41 PM EST
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