Comics
Robin Hood’s first appearance in comics came from Britain:
1920 Robin Hood appeared in a Dreamy Daniel comic strip (drawn by George Davey) in Lot-o’-Fun.
1922 to 1941 In the comic Bubbles in a 20 year run (drawn by Vincent Daniel).
1923 In The Chick’s Own.
1930 In Merry and Bright.
1937 In Sparkler.
The comics of the period still contained serialised fiction: Puck ran a Robin Hood serial in 1912, as did The Rainbow in 1920 and Sunbeam in 1931.
Robin Hood appeared in a number of American comics including DC comics. He first appeared in New Adventure Comics vol. 1 #23 (January 1938). He then shows up in Robin Hood Tales #1 (February 1956) published by Quality Comics; the series was later bought and published by National Comics starting with Robin Hood Tales #7 (Februry 1957). National Comics became a DC Comic. There are a number of comics that include Robin Hood (or a representation of him) which would evolve into or were part of the DC label. Here is a selection of some of them:
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Robin Hood is charactized in issues seven to nine of Green Hornet Comics published by Harvey in 1942. |
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The American ‘Classic Comics’ featuring Robin Hood was published in 1942 (issue #1). Robin Hood was reprinted another five times in that year, but by issue #7 in 1946, the comic had the title Classics Illustrated. Robin Hood was reprinted another two times in 1946, once in 1955, nine times in 1964, and once in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1969. |
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The little known Roger of Sherwood Forest in the Young Heroes anthology, issues thirty five to thirty seven, published by American Comics Group in the 1950s. |
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Thriller Comics was a British comic that first appeared in 1951 coming out twice a month until going to weekly in 1955. The editor was Leonard Matthews, an editor of Amalgamated Press and Knockout comic, which formed the basis on which this comic book series evolved. At first called Thriller Comics, but by the end of it’s run it had been renamed Thriller Picture Library. Starting at 64 pages an issue, it’s interior art, like most comics from that era printed outside the United States, was black & white. At first doing mainly illustrated versions of classic stories such as the Man in the Iron Mask, and Rob Roy, they soon started to feature new original stories based on the 3 Musketeers, Rob Roy, Dick Turpin, Robin Hood and others. During it’s run it also published mysteries, westerns, war stories and tales of the Royal Canadian Mounties. By the time it stopped publication in 1963 at issue 450 it was rotating between a list of modern action heroes, spies and pilots. |
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Dell Comics was the publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was considered the most successful American company in the medium. In 1953 Dell claimed to be the world’s largest comics publisher, selling 26 million copies each month. |
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Magazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children’s comics. There were eight issues of Robin Hood, three featuring Richard Green from the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood. |
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Charlton Comics, was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985. It began with the name T.W.O. Charles Company in 1944. The comic book line was a division of Charlton Publications. Robin Hood and His Merry Men began with issue #28 in 1956. There were a further ten issues up to 1958. |
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The British company Adprint published The Adventures of Robin Hood (as a result of the TV series) apparently in five annuals, beginning with No. 1 in 1956. Number 1 and 2 include photographs from the series, whilst the remaining books have only comic strip style illustrations. |
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The British company Amalgamated Press, which earlier had published Robin Hood boys weeklies, also published Robin Hood annuals from 1957 to 1960. These contained colour and black and white comic adventures. The 1959 annual has a story that was inspired by the Robin Hood movie starring Errol Flynn. His image seems to appear on the cover of the annuals, and the other actors in the movie are illustrated in the 1959 annual as well. Amalgamated Press changed to Fleetway Publications in 1959. |
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I.W. Publications was an American company that started publishing in 1958, and stopped in 1963/64. The company was part of I.W. Enterprises, and named for the company’s owner, Israel Waldman. It was notable for publishing unauthorized reprints of other company’s properties, especially Quality Comics. The company later published comics under the ‘Super Comics’ name. There were five issues of Robin Hood all apparently published in 1958. |
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Walt Disney Productions ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ is a Gold Key Comic series, a seven issue tie-in with the Disney animated movie of 1973, which has animals as the characters.
Issue# 1, March, 1974, The Mystery of Sherwood Forest Issue# 2, May, 1974, In King Richard’s Service Issue# 3, July, 1974, The Wizard’s Ring Issue# 4, August, 1974, The Lucky Hat Issue# 5, September 1974, The Golden Arrow Issue# 6, November, 1974, The King’s Ransom Issue# 7, January 1975, The Bad Baron of Bottomly |
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Issue one of BBC magazines Robin Hood Adventures (2007), based on the TV series starring Jonas Armstrong, sold in plastic wrapping with free gifts. |
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In 2007, award winning Canadian cartoonist Steve LeCouilliard began a comedy web-comic called ‘Much the Miller’s Son’ telling the story of Robin Hood from the point of view of one of the Merry Men. It has since been collected in two volumes with a third projected for summer 2011. |
The above section on comics contains information found in comicvine.com; mycomicshop.com; bookpalace.com; comicartfans.com; robinhood-tv.co.uk; ask.com; comicsuk.co.uk; wikipedia.org; boldoutlaw.com; blogspot.com.