So glad I just found this channel i couldn’t believe it didn’t have like 500k subscribers when I clicked on it Lol! Keep going man your videos are awesome !
"so this character gets bitten by a radioactive leopard." "And that gives him leopard powers.... Yeah?" "No. It kills him. If the radiation doesn't get him, he's just been bitten by a fucking leopard!!"
I'm old enough to be able to remember the original Leopard from Lime Street run in Buster and I appreciate what you said about the scaling down. Spider-Man had Manhattan, the Leopard had Selbridge. I always liked the idea of a neighbourhood-scale superhero.
All of them were! Western and Bradbury though were absolutely top class. Hookjaw, Darkie's Mob and Invasion! are all great, violent comics filled with action and masterful pace.
As an American, I really love learning about superheroes outside of the U.S. since I get to learn more about cool and interesting superheroes that I am not aware about and how countries can imbue their culture into it's superheroes, including this one. I really feel like the Leopard from Lime St. transcended from being a rip-off or cribbing of Spider-Man and forged it's own identity. I really love the addition of a rogues gallery that heavily pulls from British folklore, since mystical/supernatural rogues gallery are not that common for superheroes. I also feel like the Leopard's supernatural foes contrasts really well with Spider-Man's sci-fi foes. Overall, I really enjoyed this video and I would love to see more videos like this!
Thank you so much! I intend to make more. The UK has decades of its own unique superheroes and comics characters. So many of them would be completely unknown to American audiences and I'd love to help spread even a tiny bit of that knowledge.
What would happen in comics if you were bitten by a radioactive human? Would you get more human powers? TBH, I just missed the boat on these comics growing up, I know of them more from their parodies in Viz. And of course, there's Bananaman.
I believe there was a take on the character in Grant Morrisons Zenith as well. There was a portion of that comic that basically was a dark multiverse take on old british comic book superheroes, slightly altered to avoid copyright issues.
I remember that run :D Jimmy Quick (basically the comic character Billy Whizz, a fun comic figure) managed to run so fast he travelled from one parallel to another to deliver an urgent message and ended up fatally crisped by the friction. As usual though Morrison had taken the idea from Alan Moore's work, his early Captain Britain run in which one parallel world was inhabited by characters from other British comics under thinly veiled names (Marvelman, the Steel Claw, Dan Dare etc).
“….All those pervy skin tight suits….it’s brilliant…” Priceless. Grant Morrison managed to shoe horn Lovecraftian lore into this superb series, very early on.
@@finncullen Nah…..some Lloigor bloke (who is knocking around with another uncannily like Siouxie Sioux) blasted him with an energy bolt and he failed to outrun it. Was a superb disturbing scene.
I find this video strange to listen to due to the fact that Celbridge is a town in Ireland. Hearing about a strange Leopard-man prowling around it and fighting crime is funny.
I read that when my dad was stationed in Belgium. Holy smokes, I never thought I would see the day it would be reviewed on YT. "Ivor Lott & Tony Broke ft. Millie O'Nair & Penny Less," "Deadly Headley", and various other 1 and 2 page comics of various attention grabbage. Thanks for the nostalgia.
Loved the Leopard back in Buster, and only recently learned it had come back - and to discover that Simon Furman was writing it was such a wonderful surprise! Loved his writing on Transformers, the only thing that could be better would be adding in Geoff Senior as an artist. My main memory of the original stories was the one where the villain was a bear dressed in a trenchcoat and a policeman's helmet! Thanks for this video, lovely nostalgia
Check "FELINO" by Salvatore, from Uruguay, it's like The Leopard AMALGAMATED with Black Panther, and of course it was the uruguayan "Spidey Rip off" from the 90s
I used to read The Leopard of Lime Street regularly back in the day. It never, ever occurred to me it was a Spiderman "crib", I just thought it was its own thing. But I never read any of the American comics when I was a kid so I suppose I wouldn't know any better. I liked the idea of a grown up leopard being part of a new team of British Superheroes. The artwork looked like he might've joined the army at some point and he certainly appeared a lot more grizzled and battle hardened. In the original stories he was a young boy, it'd be an interesting take on his character to see what growing up with superpowers would be like. I'm guessing it would be packed with unique problems and dilemmas.
Give The Vigilant a go! There's two trades worth of comics and it's pretty good! Alan and Leah Moore did something similar in the 2000s, a book called Albion. I will definitely be talking about that on the channel in future 😃
I was thinking the same thing when the whole totem stuff really reminded me of J. Micheal Stracynski's run on Spider-Man. Shame Marvel didn't continue that idea after One More Day.
Hi! Thanks for this video and the nice things about my work on LFLS! So sorry I couldn't go on (too much work to do, including my own Leopard rip-off (Fox-Boy!) here in France (I assume : British artists have always influenced me). The Leopard is in the very best hands possible, and I'm humbled I've had the chance to work on "L'Homme-Léopard" (as we used to read it in France, back in the early eighties).
The new Leopard, with the idea of him being a member of this long line of specific animal people and these villains that want to feed on his energy, definitely connects even more with Spiderman. I would be surprised if they hadn't read the Inheritors/Spiderverse comics when coming up with it.
Thanks so much for this! Brilliant stuff. I absolutely adored Leopard from Lime Street as a kid. Had no idea about the more recent iterations. I really must track down the trades of the old strips too.
This was my favourite British strip as a kid, and when Simon breathed new life into him, i was whisked back to those heady days of the 70's. The fictional town of Selbridge was, if i remember, set in the West Midlands, which is where i live, so i was stoked as a kid to think we had our very own Spider-Man swinging around. Im hoping the strip will continue, as it's on a break from Monster Fun at the moment. But the strip appears in the Christmas Annual, where Bolly teams up with the Spider!
As a fan of both Pat Mills and (especially) Kevin O'Neill, I would love to. I will be mentioning him in an upcoming video. But I could only ever cover the comic as a collab with Panels to Pixels. It could be a coming together of great British comicstubers!
I clicked on this straight away as I remember Leopard From Lime Street. I collected Buster specifically because of this as I was/am a Spiderman fan. I always thought that Billy came from Liverpool as that's the most famous Lime Street in England lol.
Mum, I want Spider-Man We've got Spider-Man at home! Thanks for covering my favourite super-hero! By the way, if you read the first Garth Ennis presents: Battle Classics, the kid the grandpa is telling the HMS Nightshade story to is 100% Billy Farmer. I don't have it to hand right now, but I'm guessing it was Mike Western.
This is one of those moments when you realise how old you are. When I first watched MST3K with Pumaman I kept being reminded of something on the cusp of my mind. Then I saw this and remembered it vividly. Blimey, so THAT'S what it was. Thank you for the kick.
Growing up in the 70's - 80's in Britain was great for comics; Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Monster Fun, Beano, Dandy, Eagle, Victor, Battle, Tornado, Scream, 2000ad, Oink!, Viz etc., along with the DC/Marvel stuff, I loved them all!
That was the real heydey of British comics in my opinion. It was chaotic, but the shelves were filled with new issues every week and there was always something for everyone!
Very informative. I discovered "The Leopard" when I was a child, in France, in the late 70s. "The Leopard from Lime Street" was then published in small booklets of 100 pages or so, in novel format. You refered to Laurent Lefeuvre as "she", but he is a male artist. By the way, a decade ago Laurent Lefeuvre created Fox-Boy, a popular french super hero whose outfit was consciously inspired by Billy Farmer's.
I feel like we don't get nearly enough comícs like the Leopard these days (Which is to say, exciting.), I remember as a child in the 90s we only ever seemed to have the Dandy and the Beano, maybe they just weren't sold in supermarkets and off-licences.
You're right that we don't get enough comics like this today. There were still quite a few comics kicking about in the 90s, Buster was still in print into the 2000s! But The Phoenix and Monster Fun are in the extreme minority of original comics right now. Fingers crossed this improves!
So you were, like, "Gimme a half~bottle of cooking scotch, 20 gaspers and, yeah, lemme have one of those 'Dandy's as well", as a kid in the '90's? Good God! I'm guessing you must've got your booze - and your comics - in one of those offeys where everything (including the clerk) is behind a cage, and where they sell loose --fa-- cigarettes under the counter..? More seriously, it sounds like the new "Monster Fun" has been going a while, now, or is it even still going? Tbh, I haven't given the comics rack in the neighbourhood shops so much as a glance in years, since they haven't seemed to have anything other than 'Peppa Pig'/'Bear in the Big Blue House' - type stuff on offer in decades... Without kids of my own, or nieces 'n' nephews of the right age to buy them for, I won't be purchasing it myself, but I _sooo_ hope it picks up a healthy, ie, commercially viable readership. While pessimistic, I would love to see anthology comics of the kind I remember as a kid, whether the humour type or the more adventure - orientated ones, becoming a 'thing' again, albeit brought up to date; 'rough types' causing diversions in order to steal the trophies at the community sports day being a little passé as a trope! Best yet would be if 'Monster Fun' (et al, one hopes) _were_ available at corner shops, filling stations, etc, so that younger readers in particular would be able to _see_ them, for starters and would be spared the inconvenience of the trip into town to the specialist comic shop, and having to elbow their way through, or worse, endure the snarky put~downs of the older customers!
Awesome, I'm getting the three comics of this guy for my Dad's Birthday now. Thanks for the idea, great video and all the info you have on him. Great work!
Cribbing thats a word I needed to know. Its exactly what Mick Anglo did with Fawcett Captain Marvel when he created Marvel Man (later Miracle Man and made famous by Alan Moore). Honestly, didnt expect this to get the kind if dark revival treatment, i just thought it would get weirder or worse over time. Really, though a good comic is the best scenario. Wonder if Furman will do anything with his Uncle (maybe a kid-friendly way to tackle abuse). Anyways, you are getting a sub, your vids have appeared in my recommended too many times now.
I'm so glad that Daddy Algo was persistent. It's good to know my videos are finding people that are interested in them! I don't really want to be a big channel, I just want a channel with people who like what I make. And I'm glad to have you on board.
I wonder if the art in the early issues was so good was because the artists knew they were competing against Jack Kirby's art, the OG Spiderman artist, so no wonder they went all out. And agreed, Herne the Hunter IS one of the best Monsters In My Pocket 😁
I remember this character. I read a few of the stories in the mid- 70s. In Nigeria, no less. Yeah, Buster and Cor, Hotspur and Crunch, Victor, Valiant; they all made it to West Africa’s shores back then. Good times. Cool video.
I’m not a comic book guy, I don’t know why I clicked on this video. Probably just to quickly look at what the spider man rip off looked like, however I ended up watching the whole thing. A surprisingly engaging video, well done.
tbh Those Transformers Comics were Good! ngl when done right a pretty much Huge Pay as you go Advertisement for Toys can be really good and at times never feels like a Ad for a toy-line and ofc the Art too!
Long line of Leopard heroes. So, Ezekiel from J Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man run. No shame in picking another Spidey element. The artwork and layout is great, too.
I had completely forgotten this character (and even the comic) but recognised the costume creation panels the moment you showed them 😮 I may even have this in the loft, alongside many issues of Eagle 🤔
I think one of the best possible things to come out of making RUclips videos is when folks hint that they're about to go up into their lofts to find something I've made a video about! Eagle is a fascinating book. Reverand Morris is a fascinating character. I'm not sure if I'm going to talk about comics from before the 70s. But Eagle would make for a great _series_ of videos!
I never heard of the term 'cribbing' before I have to say, but maybe I moved in the wrong circles. I never thought of Leopard as a Spidey rip-off but maybe I was too young or just never saw it. Watching this now, I don't think I ever saw his origin. Oh wow! Cool video.
Ha, that's awesome! I felt the same at the beginning. At first it's a funny Spider-Man ripoff and I'm in for the lols. And then I realise it's a really charming, heartfelt comic.
Halfway through my first video and I'm hooked. This takes me right back. I wasn't quite old enough for Buster at this time but did add The Eagle to my comic reading when it was reintroduced in 1983 (my Mum bought it for 7 year old me because she had fond memories of reading Dan Dare in her older brothers' comics back in the 50s). There was so much skill and talent in UK comics that we took for granted as kids; the line about comics lining the budgie cage really hit me. I always enjoyed DC and Marvel at the same time as I read The Eagle and Beano but UK comics really hit differently in a way I couldn't articulate as a kid, something about the familiarity in the scale and scope of the stories (not to mention the healthy and humorous disrespect for authority), even in the scifi stories I'd eventually move onto in 2000AD. Thank you so much for taking me back and reminding me about this forgotten chapter in British comics.
Thank you for that thoughful, high-effort comment. The additional cultural context is something I always try and add to my videos. It's not really enough to talk about the story without talking about the culture is was part of. I hope you stick around, I have many more British comics videos planned!
Love these ols British Superheroes so much that I wrote a tribute book called THE QUIRKS for kindle . Brought them kicking and screaming into a modern age. Brought up on these and Marvel comics . A golden age!
Love the TF Marvel UK shout! Though, much of what you attributed to Simon was also simultaneously being done by Bob Budiansky in the US comic, and he did some pretty radical things himself (US#5-6 and the first Cybertron story with Blaster are my personal faves), so I wouldn't have quite phrased it like as though Simon was solely responsible... even if Simon's writing was probably, ultimately my favorite overall, ahaha. Simon's contributions were more to focusing on a core cast he picked out himself that weren't really a spotlight in the US stories, and adding much FURTHER background, backstory, and mythology to the series, as well as crafting up these huge multi-part epics and swathes of original characters. Meanwhile, Budiansky was writing up all the character profiles and giving episodic stories for several of the toys, and did his best to craft his own drama with an admittedly very tight narrative, but never really got to stop and focus as much on his core cast and narrative as he wanted, which's what tired him out during the midpoint of the book's run and eventually led to Simon overtaking the whole comic 2/3s in.
Wait a minute.... I just realized that "The Cabal" sound almost exactly like "The Inheritors". Both are interdimensional beings that feed on totemic avatars. It sounds like The Leopard... a rip-off of Spiderman, was ripped off in return by Marvel to make villains for Spiderman. Now that is Ironic.
He would work SO WELL in Excalibur! With Marvel UK releasing their own stories around the same time, there's a reality out there where they bought IPC and folded their characters into the Marvel universe.
I got the Buster with the first episode in at the local caravan park shop, and walked back across a rainy campsite field to my nan's house to read it. This took me right back. The thing that I connected with most was his uncle. I had a stepdad that was the same... Loved Buster and this strip.
As I said, it's a shame that a lot of kids could connect with having an abusive man in their lives. It wasn't a rare sight then and was often portrayed in comics. I'm sorry to hear that, it couldn't have been easy for you. But thank you for sharing on this very public platform!
Just stumbled across your channel, mate this is one of the best edited RUclips channels I've come across. Looking forward to new content (also jealous you still have monsters in my pocket, mine were lost to time I've got the Scottish zombie horse still that's it lol)
That's so kind of you to say, it really does mean a lot. And thanks, my MIMPs are some of my most treasured items. I _love_ the Scottish zombie horse! The only reason I know the work Nuckelavee is because of that spooky little rubber sod!
My Mum had a Leopard from Lime Street costume made for me one Christmas! Best present ever! I used to run around outside pretending to save all the kids!
Hmm cribbed? Maybe. How about an artful and creative parody (a term protected in law) when you small scale extraordinary abilities into an ordinary world? Arguably ahead of its time. It literally addresses the question; normal kid , normal life (like all its readers) what happens when they get super. They fix small things….
As someone who reads monster fun every month, I didn’t miss it when the leopard left a few months back, his story was too complex for something that was coming out bi monthly back then (every 2 months). Steel commando suffered from this too, I’d forget what what was going on with by the time I got the next issue 😂, wonder if he’s gonna come back to monster fun, as they love to drop and bring back stuff randomly every month.
Got some fond memories of the Leopard from Lime Street from back in the day, and the fact that the new version is under the auspices of Transformers stalwart Simon Furman means that I'll definitely have to check it out as well, yes...? (Speaking of good British comics reboots, the most recent version of Roy of the Rovers is also well worth checking out too, but I digress...).
I really did enjoy this peering into the alternate universe of UK comics, which it seemed rarely transcended the mantle of kids' entertainment the way they did here in North America. Of course you gave us Alan Moore, who is probably one of the most adult writers of comics ever, but he was always more of an eccentric oddball who had to publish in North America (Miracle Man notwithstanding) to really stretch his literary tendencies. Maybe there's a bunch of artful indie comics I'm unaware of over there. The lovely illustration on the new LoLS stories is certainly up to telling any level of tale... but I will always think of the Beano and Dennis the Menace (the spiky actively hostile one, not our twee blond fellow) when I think of Brit comics
Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano, Dave Gibbons, Andy Diggle, Pat Mills, Simon Furman, Dan Abnett, John Higgins, John Wagner, Kieron Gillen, Barry Windsor-Smith, Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt and that's just off the top of my head mate! Comics were invented in England. And arguably the American comic book was saved by the mass exodus of British creators in the late 1980s and early 1990s to Marvel and DC. Worth looking up!
Yeah completely understood. I wouldn't throw shade on Ditko (or any other illustrator for that matter). But these fellas were absolutely cookin' in the 70s.
The Leopard of lime street was one of the few non humour strips I would read in Buster.. never thought of it at the time as a Spidey rip off but I was only 10
Just bought the Monster fun Leopard, also have a few rebellion graphics . Leopard, Archie, Spider and the Steel Claw. The Johnny Future hardback was a beautiful edition art and story wise.
Marvel and DC stole characters from each other without even trying to change the color scheme. Here is a completely different story about a completely different character. Bravo
Love it! Only vaguely remember the comic, but that costume really brought it back to me.. Nice "cameo" of Frank Sidebottom at 13mins. My recollection of comics from the time was that the uk edition marvel reprints cost much more and couldn't get them where we lived .. that and we used to treat the newsagent as a library.... until getting shouted at...
I have a nice collection of Marvel UK stuff from around this time. And yeah, a UK-format anthology comic was 7 or 8p and the American reprints were 9p. So there was definitely a markup on those American reprints!
@@MattyStoked lol must have been the fact you just never saw them that meant I never read anything.... until a holiday in scotland (about 78?) and picked up a 'thor' a "power man and iron fist" oh and firestorm #1...... long since lost :( .
Cool video. I've never really seen many UK comics (other than back in tge 70s an issue of colored reprints of Dr. Who and mention of Planet of the Apes mergedwith War of the Worlds , and some online scans of afew General Jumbo, I thinkhe was called-kid with remote control toy army), so this is all news to me. I think I'd have !oved the Leopard's original comic run as a kid, since, despite it being black & white, is still eyecatching from what you've shown. I dont think the newest look appeals to me but I think its a needed change to survive with the times. And who minds when there's 3 graphic novels of the original run, plus another 5 years worth of the strip still out there tofind and enjoy.
Until the late 80s, nearly all UK comics had black and white internal art. On newsprint paper, too. Those were hard times lol! It took until the mid-late 90s for all colour art to be the norm. The comics I read growing up still had partial B&M internal art. Something I still love to this day.
I loved the leopard of lime street. The thing she did though were pretty toned down. I remember him going after a guy for illegally cutting trees to sell at Christmas.
I'm now going to put serious effort into trying to find some of these in the US, or have some mailed. This was very cool. Also, at 9:48 "Blow for Tony" would be an amazing band name.
I _think_ Rebellion / Treasury of British comics will ship to the US. They do sell all of these books digitally, too. So can you get .CBZs for your e-reader or tablet.
For the love of God, would you please also do a critique of the infinitely dire ‘Billy The Cat’. It made the T. L.F.L.S. look like Citizen Kane. Even an impressionable seven year old me could spot that which could not be polished. It took decades for this steaming turd to seem worthwhile, until Viz parodied it in an excellent strip called ‘Barry The Cat’. I still laugh about it now.
You're ahead of me there. This was always intended to be the first in a little series of British Spider-Man ripoff videos. So stay tuned because both Billy and Barry are getting a mention in an upcoming video haha
I would not mind seeing this live, on Netflix or Amazon. But not dark, rather campy, warmth, humor with small town mysteries. None of that super dark stuff… it’s getting old now
Oh, definitely. It could only work if it carried that jaunty, campy energy. I, like you, am over the dark and gritty superhero stuff. I was over it before they started making the films TBH. But with comics, films and now TV it feels like dark, broody antiheroes have been in the majority for the last 30 years...
PS: Any chance that you could do a video/s specifically on the Marvel UK Transformers comic and/or Death's Head, please...? (Other classic British adventure comics strips of the 80s like Charley's War or Johnny Red would also be cool topics to cover if possible to boot...)
![DC's Failed Spider-Man Ripoff [Sideways]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3FtrCcznFsM/mqdefault.jpg)
So glad I just found this channel i couldn’t believe it didn’t have like 500k subscribers when I clicked on it Lol!
Keep going man your videos are awesome !
Thanks so much mate. It's not an easy game, but I'm definitely keeping going. More British comics videos on the way :D
@@TheOnceMoreGaming what the hell are you Yapping about
"so this character gets bitten by a radioactive leopard."
"And that gives him leopard powers.... Yeah?"
"No. It kills him. If the radiation doesn't get him, he's just been bitten by a fucking leopard!!"
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Will Smith's character in the film: "What are we, some sort of, cheetah men?"
I'm old enough to be able to remember the original Leopard from Lime Street run in Buster and I appreciate what you said about the scaling down. Spider-Man had Manhattan, the Leopard had Selbridge. I always liked the idea of a neighbourhood-scale superhero.
Me too, it was so much closer to the reality of a British kid.
What I find amusing, is that in Japan, Spider-Man actually has a giant robot called 'Leopardon'. >_
@@minicle426 coincidence? I think NOT!
The artist was killing it..
All of them were! Western and Bradbury though were absolutely top class. Hookjaw, Darkie's Mob and Invasion! are all great, violent comics filled with action and masterful pace.
As an American, I really love learning about superheroes outside of the U.S. since I get to learn more about cool and interesting superheroes that I am not aware about and how countries can imbue their culture into it's superheroes, including this one.
I really feel like the Leopard from Lime St. transcended from being a rip-off or cribbing of Spider-Man and forged it's own identity. I really love the addition of a rogues gallery that heavily pulls from British folklore, since mystical/supernatural rogues gallery are not that common for superheroes. I also feel like the Leopard's supernatural foes contrasts really well with Spider-Man's sci-fi foes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this video and I would love to see more videos like this!
Thank you so much! I intend to make more. The UK has decades of its own unique superheroes and comics characters. So many of them would be completely unknown to American audiences and I'd love to help spread even a tiny bit of that knowledge.
But do you know what a panto is?
What would happen in comics if you were bitten by a radioactive human? Would you get more human powers?
TBH, I just missed the boat on these comics growing up, I know of them more from their parodies in Viz. And of course, there's Bananaman.
well....hello there you Larry, how are you doing? and its nice to see you here.
@@Larry well hello you. Where have you been? Haven't seen you pop up in my algorithm in months.
@@Larry hey dude, good to see you.
Your hypothetical heroic human-human hybrid would be... Man-Man! With the amazing powers of the average of two men!
I used to work with a guy that I swear was Wolverine bitten by a radioactive nerd.
I believe there was a take on the character in Grant Morrisons Zenith as well. There was a portion of that comic that basically was a dark multiverse take on old british comic book superheroes, slightly altered to avoid copyright issues.
I've gotta look that up now
Yep that is indeed true! I think that version get cruelly murdered though (a very Grant Morrison thing to do) haha!
I remember that run :D Jimmy Quick (basically the comic character Billy Whizz, a fun comic figure) managed to run so fast he travelled from one parallel to another to deliver an urgent message and ended up fatally crisped by the friction. As usual though Morrison had taken the idea from Alan Moore's work, his early Captain Britain run in which one parallel world was inhabited by characters from other British comics under thinly veiled names (Marvelman, the Steel Claw, Dan Dare etc).
“….All those pervy skin tight suits….it’s brilliant…”
Priceless. Grant Morrison managed to shoe horn Lovecraftian lore into this superb series, very early on.
@@finncullen
Nah…..some Lloigor bloke (who is knocking around with another uncannily like Siouxie Sioux) blasted him with an energy bolt and he failed to outrun it. Was a superb disturbing scene.
I find this video strange to listen to due to the fact that Celbridge is a town in Ireland. Hearing about a strange Leopard-man prowling around it and fighting crime is funny.
🤣😆 Great fun aye? hahaha
Does whatever a leopard can 🐆
his track record has been rather spotty.
Appreciate using “James Somerton” as the new “plagiarize”
I intend to make that a verb!
In the late 70's I made myself a grappling hook and playing as The Leopard. Happy memories.
Brilliant!
That's so good x
I read that when my dad was stationed in Belgium. Holy smokes, I never thought I would see the day it would be reviewed on YT. "Ivor Lott & Tony Broke ft. Millie O'Nair & Penny Less," "Deadly Headley", and various other 1 and 2 page comics of various attention grabbage.
Thanks for the nostalgia.
Loved the Leopard back in Buster, and only recently learned it had come back - and to discover that Simon Furman was writing it was such a wonderful surprise! Loved his writing on Transformers, the only thing that could be better would be adding in Geoff Senior as an artist. My main memory of the original stories was the one where the villain was a bear dressed in a trenchcoat and a policeman's helmet! Thanks for this video, lovely nostalgia
Was also amused by the fictional setting, because Celbridge is a suburb of Dublin
I had heard of the Leopard of Limestreet, but didn't know his origin, so didn't know he was a Spiderman rip off
Check "FELINO" by Salvatore, from Uruguay, it's like The Leopard AMALGAMATED with Black Panther, and of course it was the uruguayan "Spidey Rip off" from the 90s
Oh, that's amazing. I will try and find out more about that 😃
I used to read The Leopard of Lime Street regularly back in the day. It never, ever occurred to me it was a Spiderman "crib", I just thought it was its own thing. But I never read any of the American comics when I was a kid so I suppose I wouldn't know any better.
I liked the idea of a grown up leopard being part of a new team of British Superheroes. The artwork looked like he might've joined the army at some point and he certainly appeared a lot more grizzled and battle hardened. In the original stories he was a young boy, it'd be an interesting take on his character to see what growing up with superpowers would be like. I'm guessing it would be packed with unique problems and dilemmas.
Give The Vigilant a go! There's two trades worth of comics and it's pretty good! Alan and Leah Moore did something similar in the 2000s, a book called Albion. I will definitely be talking about that on the channel in future 😃
School Panto, or Pantomime, is a musical comedy stage production.
13:00 I wonder if this a take on the Morlun stuff from Spider-Man or The Leopard did it first.
Yeah I mentioned there was a Morlun / Madame Web vibe to Simon's take in the script, but it didn't make it into the video. Good spot!
I was thinking the same thing when the whole totem stuff really reminded me of J. Micheal Stracynski's run on Spider-Man. Shame Marvel didn't continue that idea after One More Day.
What caught me off guard is how amazing the art is in these strips 😅
Right? These lads understood the assignment!
The Leopard of Lime Street... I always preferred Billy the Cat 😁
Hi!
Thanks for this video and the nice things about my work on LFLS!
So sorry I couldn't go on (too much work to do, including my own Leopard rip-off (Fox-Boy!) here in France (I assume : British artists have always influenced me).
The Leopard is in the very best hands possible, and I'm humbled I've had the chance to work on "L'Homme-Léopard" (as we used to read it in France, back in the early eighties).
Hi Laurent! Thanks so much for your comment. I already loved Fox Boy, and finding out you were drawing this was super exciting.
There's also the spider queen. Except she came.... Oh.
The new Leopard, with the idea of him being a member of this long line of specific animal people and these villains that want to feed on his energy, definitely connects even more with Spiderman. I would be surprised if they hadn't read the Inheritors/Spiderverse comics when coming up with it.
The original run feels influenced by 'Billy the Cat' too.
Great shout!
Thanks so much for this! Brilliant stuff. I absolutely adored Leopard from Lime Street as a kid. Had no idea about the more recent iterations. I really must track down the trades of the old strips too.
There are links in the video description to places where you can buy physical and digital copies of The Leopard!
This was my favourite British strip as a kid, and when Simon breathed new life into him, i was whisked back to those heady days of the 70's.
The fictional town of Selbridge was, if i remember, set in the West Midlands, which is where i live, so i was stoked as a kid to think we had our very own Spider-Man swinging around. Im hoping the strip will continue, as it's on a break from Monster Fun at the moment. But the strip appears in the Christmas Annual, where Bolly teams up with the Spider!
There was a radioactive leopard at the zoo? I feel like the most interesting part of this was just glossed over.
Haha yeah they were giving her radiation therapy. For something 😂
I loved "The Leopard From Lime Street". Can we call it a Spidey "homage"? 😁
You should cover marshal law
As a fan of both Pat Mills and (especially) Kevin O'Neill, I would love to. I will be mentioning him in an upcoming video. But I could only ever cover the comic as a collab with Panels to Pixels. It could be a coming together of great British comicstubers!
@@MattyStoked yeah that would be fun
I clicked on this straight away as I remember Leopard From Lime Street. I collected Buster specifically because of this as I was/am a Spiderman fan. I always thought that Billy came from Liverpool as that's the most famous Lime Street in England lol.
Same! I thought he was a Scouser too. Liverpool's favourite son?
Finally a mildly interesting thumbnail been scrolling for half an hour
Mum, I want Spider-Man
We've got Spider-Man at home!
Thanks for covering my favourite super-hero! By the way, if you read the first Garth Ennis presents: Battle Classics, the kid the grandpa is telling the HMS Nightshade story to is 100% Billy Farmer. I don't have it to hand right now, but I'm guessing it was Mike Western.
I love the art of Leopard Man. It's verry similar with the art of Captain America.
This is one of those moments when you realise how old you are. When I first watched MST3K with Pumaman I kept being reminded of something on the cusp of my mind. Then I saw this and remembered it vividly. Blimey, so THAT'S what it was. Thank you for the kick.
Growing up in the 70's - 80's in Britain was great for comics; Buster, Whizzer and Chips, Monster Fun, Beano, Dandy, Eagle, Victor, Battle, Tornado, Scream, 2000ad, Oink!, Viz etc., along with the DC/Marvel stuff, I loved them all!
That was the real heydey of British comics in my opinion. It was chaotic, but the shelves were filled with new issues every week and there was always something for everyone!
@@MattyStoked Yes there certainly was!
Yeah. I loved reading comics then
Lubbly jubbly this is a bit of alright innit?
I can't decide if you're the worst or the best
It's always interesting to get a look into the British Comic Industry and see what American ideas they do differently.
You just wait, I'm cooking a few more interesting videos on British comics. And if you liked this, you'll get a kick out of them.
Very informative.
I discovered "The Leopard" when I was a child, in France, in the late 70s. "The Leopard from Lime Street" was then published in small booklets of 100 pages or so, in novel format.
You refered to Laurent Lefeuvre as "she", but he is a male artist. By the way, a decade ago Laurent Lefeuvre created Fox-Boy, a popular french super hero whose outfit was consciously inspired by Billy Farmer's.
I feel like we don't get nearly enough comícs like the Leopard these days (Which is to say, exciting.), I remember as a child in the 90s we only ever seemed to have the Dandy and the Beano, maybe they just weren't sold in supermarkets and off-licences.
You're right that we don't get enough comics like this today. There were still quite a few comics kicking about in the 90s, Buster was still in print into the 2000s! But The Phoenix and Monster Fun are in the extreme minority of original comics right now. Fingers crossed this improves!
What was that, Duane and Brando? Best Game Ever?
So you were, like, "Gimme a half~bottle of cooking scotch, 20 gaspers and, yeah, lemme have one of those 'Dandy's as well", as a kid in the '90's? Good God! I'm guessing you must've got your booze - and your comics - in one of those offeys where everything (including the clerk) is behind a cage, and where they sell loose --fa-- cigarettes under the counter..?
More seriously, it sounds like the new "Monster Fun" has been going a while, now, or is it even still going? Tbh, I haven't given the comics rack in the neighbourhood shops so much as a glance in years, since they haven't seemed to have anything other than 'Peppa Pig'/'Bear in the Big Blue House' - type stuff on offer in decades... Without kids of my own, or nieces 'n' nephews of the right age to buy them for, I won't be purchasing it myself, but I _sooo_ hope it picks up a healthy, ie, commercially viable readership. While pessimistic, I would love to see anthology comics of the kind I remember as a kid, whether the humour type or the more adventure - orientated ones, becoming a 'thing' again, albeit brought up to date; 'rough types' causing diversions in order to steal the trophies at the community sports day being a little passé as a trope! Best yet would be if 'Monster Fun' (et al, one hopes) _were_ available at corner shops, filling stations, etc, so that younger readers in particular would be able to _see_ them, for starters and would be spared the inconvenience of the trip into town to the specialist comic shop, and having to elbow their way through, or worse, endure the snarky put~downs of the older customers!
Awesome, I'm getting the three comics of this guy for my Dad's Birthday now. Thanks for the idea, great video and all the info you have on him. Great work!
Thank you, that's great to hear! Hopefully Rebellion will put me on comission 😁
It was published in France too 🙂👍
It would be cool if they do a Leopard movie .
Cribbing thats a word I needed to know. Its exactly what Mick Anglo did with Fawcett Captain Marvel when he created Marvel Man (later Miracle Man and made famous by Alan Moore). Honestly, didnt expect this to get the kind if dark revival treatment, i just thought it would get weirder or worse over time. Really, though a good comic is the best scenario. Wonder if Furman will do anything with his Uncle (maybe a kid-friendly way to tackle abuse). Anyways, you are getting a sub, your vids have appeared in my recommended too many times now.
I'm so glad that Daddy Algo was persistent. It's good to know my videos are finding people that are interested in them! I don't really want to be a big channel, I just want a channel with people who like what I make. And I'm glad to have you on board.
Saw the thumbnail.. Why does that suit look so familiar..!?
1:36 The Leopard from Lime Street!! Wow..
I wonder if the art in the early issues was so good was because the artists knew they were competing against Jack Kirby's art, the OG Spiderman artist, so no wonder they went all out.
And agreed, Herne the Hunter IS one of the best Monsters In My Pocket 😁
They weren't competing against Jack Kirby. They were competing against dozens of British comics illustrators!
I remember this character. I read a few of the stories in the mid- 70s. In Nigeria, no less. Yeah, Buster and Cor, Hotspur and Crunch, Victor, Valiant; they all made it to West Africa’s shores back then. Good times.
Cool video.
That's really cool to know. Where they imported? Sounds very expensive! I wonder if the French-language prints of The Leopard made it there too?
@@MattyStoked Probably imported. It was a different time back then.
with the thumbnail blurring the face, all i thought was "CHEESE MAN" lol
🧀👍🤣
Haha, the hunt continues for the vigilante known as CHEESE MAN
I’m not a comic book guy, I don’t know why I clicked on this video. Probably just to quickly look at what the spider man rip off looked like, however I ended up watching the whole thing. A surprisingly engaging video, well done.
Thank you, not comic book guy! If I managed to get you to enjoy it, then that makes me very happy :)
tbh Those Transformers Comics were Good! ngl when done right a pretty much Huge Pay as you go Advertisement for Toys can be really good and at times never feels like a Ad for a toy-line and ofc the Art too!
They were really good. In sharp comparison to the animated series which was, I'm gonna say it, pretty bad lol
Long line of Leopard heroes. So, Ezekiel from J Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man run. No shame in picking another Spidey element. The artwork and layout is great, too.
Leopard even got his own Morlun - a whole gang of them.
I had completely forgotten this character (and even the comic) but recognised the costume creation panels the moment you showed them 😮
I may even have this in the loft, alongside many issues of Eagle 🤔
I think one of the best possible things to come out of making RUclips videos is when folks hint that they're about to go up into their lofts to find something I've made a video about!
Eagle is a fascinating book. Reverand Morris is a fascinating character. I'm not sure if I'm going to talk about comics from before the 70s. But Eagle would make for a great _series_ of videos!
@@MattyStoked I’m going to be looking for Doomlord and Mekon videos 😉
Well i mean we ended up getting Tom holland and Andrew garfield as spider-man and they're British actors(well Andrew Garfield is sort of atleast)😂
I never heard of the term 'cribbing' before I have to say, but maybe I moved in the wrong circles. I never thought of Leopard as a Spidey rip-off but maybe I was too young or just never saw it. Watching this now, I don't think I ever saw his origin. Oh wow! Cool video.
I loved this strip back in the 70s. It would make a great tv show.
At the beginning of the video i was laughing about the cheezy Spider Man ripoff. By the end i was like "holy shit,these are going in my amazon cart"
Ha, that's awesome! I felt the same at the beginning. At first it's a funny Spider-Man ripoff and I'm in for the lols. And then I realise it's a really charming, heartfelt comic.
Halfway through my first video and I'm hooked. This takes me right back. I wasn't quite old enough for Buster at this time but did add The Eagle to my comic reading when it was reintroduced in 1983 (my Mum bought it for 7 year old me because she had fond memories of reading Dan Dare in her older brothers' comics back in the 50s).
There was so much skill and talent in UK comics that we took for granted as kids; the line about comics lining the budgie cage really hit me. I always enjoyed DC and Marvel at the same time as I read The Eagle and Beano but UK comics really hit differently in a way I couldn't articulate as a kid, something about the familiarity in the scale and scope of the stories (not to mention the healthy and humorous disrespect for authority), even in the scifi stories I'd eventually move onto in 2000AD.
Thank you so much for taking me back and reminding me about this forgotten chapter in British comics.
Thank you for that thoughful, high-effort comment. The additional cultural context is something I always try and add to my videos. It's not really enough to talk about the story without talking about the culture is was part of. I hope you stick around, I have many more British comics videos planned!
Love these ols British Superheroes so much that I wrote a tribute book called THE QUIRKS for kindle . Brought them kicking and screaming into a modern age. Brought up on these and Marvel comics . A golden age!
Uncle Charlie: With great power comes a great ass-whoopin' boy!
Love the TF Marvel UK shout! Though, much of what you attributed to Simon was also simultaneously being done by Bob Budiansky in the US comic, and he did some pretty radical things himself (US#5-6 and the first Cybertron story with Blaster are my personal faves), so I wouldn't have quite phrased it like as though Simon was solely responsible... even if Simon's writing was probably, ultimately my favorite overall, ahaha.
Simon's contributions were more to focusing on a core cast he picked out himself that weren't really a spotlight in the US stories, and adding much FURTHER background, backstory, and mythology to the series, as well as crafting up these huge multi-part epics and swathes of original characters. Meanwhile, Budiansky was writing up all the character profiles and giving episodic stories for several of the toys, and did his best to craft his own drama with an admittedly very tight narrative, but never really got to stop and focus as much on his core cast and narrative as he wanted, which's what tired him out during the midpoint of the book's run and eventually led to Simon overtaking the whole comic 2/3s in.
Sure, but that wasn't the point of the video so I didn't want to tangent off too much about Transformers
Wait a minute.... I just realized that "The Cabal" sound almost exactly like "The Inheritors". Both are interdimensional beings that feed on totemic avatars. It sounds like The Leopard... a rip-off of Spiderman, was ripped off in return by Marvel to make villains for Spiderman.
Now that is Ironic.
Nice take on this, I agree!
Wish this guy was in Excalibur or the Avengers.
He would work SO WELL in Excalibur! With Marvel UK releasing their own stories around the same time, there's a reality out there where they bought IPC and folded their characters into the Marvel universe.
I got the Buster with the first episode in at the local caravan park shop, and walked back across a rainy campsite field to my nan's house to read it. This took me right back. The thing that I connected with most was his uncle. I had a stepdad that was the same... Loved Buster and this strip.
As I said, it's a shame that a lot of kids could connect with having an abusive man in their lives. It wasn't a rare sight then and was often portrayed in comics. I'm sorry to hear that, it couldn't have been easy for you. But thank you for sharing on this very public platform!
I'd love to see a live-action movie with these British superheroes.
But only if it was super low budget.
Omg I loved Buster and the Leopard - I still have all my comics in the attic somewhere. Thanks for this! ❤
Incredible! They've not appreciated in value all that much, but I bet you'd get a kick out of reading them 😁
The miraculous ladybug of the UK lol
Haha that's great!
Just stumbled across your channel, mate this is one of the best edited RUclips channels I've come across. Looking forward to new content (also jealous you still have monsters in my pocket, mine were lost to time I've got the Scottish zombie horse still that's it lol)
That's so kind of you to say, it really does mean a lot. And thanks, my MIMPs are some of my most treasured items. I _love_ the Scottish zombie horse! The only reason I know the work Nuckelavee is because of that spooky little rubber sod!
My Mum had a Leopard from Lime Street costume made for me one Christmas! Best present ever! I used to run around outside pretending to save all the kids!
No way! That's so cool! I hope you have pics because that's just too adorable
Oh my goodness, I loved this video. Thank you so much for making this!!!
You are so welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it 🥰
This bought back some wonderful memories. I was a friend of Buster and wore my t shirt til it literally fell apart 😂
Hmm cribbed? Maybe. How about an artful and creative parody (a term protected in law) when you small scale extraordinary abilities into an ordinary world? Arguably ahead of its time. It literally addresses the question; normal kid , normal life (like all its readers) what happens when they get super. They fix small things….
As someone who reads monster fun every month, I didn’t miss it when the leopard left a few months back, his story was too complex for something that was coming out bi monthly back then (every 2 months). Steel commando suffered from this too, I’d forget what what was going on with by the time I got the next issue 😂, wonder if he’s gonna come back to monster fun, as they love to drop and bring back stuff randomly every month.
Got some fond memories of the Leopard from Lime Street from back in the day, and the fact that the new version is under the auspices of Transformers stalwart Simon Furman means that I'll definitely have to check it out as well, yes...? (Speaking of good British comics reboots, the most recent version of Roy of the Rovers is also well worth checking out too, but I digress...).
Read Simon's comics and stay healthy, yes?
I remember TheLeopard. Classic.
I really did enjoy this peering into the alternate universe of UK comics, which it seemed rarely transcended the mantle of kids' entertainment the way they did here in North America. Of course you gave us Alan Moore, who is probably one of the most adult writers of comics ever, but he was always more of an eccentric oddball who had to publish in North America (Miracle Man notwithstanding) to really stretch his literary tendencies.
Maybe there's a bunch of artful indie comics I'm unaware of over there. The lovely illustration on the new LoLS stories is certainly up to telling any level of tale... but I will always think of the Beano and Dennis the Menace (the spiky actively hostile one, not our twee blond fellow) when I think of Brit comics
Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano, Dave Gibbons, Andy Diggle, Pat Mills, Simon Furman, Dan Abnett, John Higgins, John Wagner, Kieron Gillen, Barry Windsor-Smith, Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt and that's just off the top of my head mate!
Comics were invented in England. And arguably the American comic book was saved by the mass exodus of British creators in the late 1980s and early 1990s to Marvel and DC. Worth looking up!
No shade to mr.ditko, but I'd love to see this artstyle on the first spidey issues, looks beautiful.
Yeah completely understood. I wouldn't throw shade on Ditko (or any other illustrator for that matter). But these fellas were absolutely cookin' in the 70s.
The Leopard of lime street was one of the few non humour strips I would read in Buster.. never thought of it at the time as a Spidey rip off but I was only 10
Just bought the Monster fun Leopard, also have a few rebellion graphics . Leopard, Archie, Spider and the Steel Claw. The Johnny Future hardback was a beautiful edition art and story wise.
The Steel Claw is an absolute classic. I think that and Janus Stark are two incredibly original and quirky stories that need to be spoken about more!
Hey don't forget Billy the Cat from the Beano, I read Buster but have no memory of the Leopard.
Marvel and DC stole characters from each other without even trying to change the color scheme. Here is a completely different story about a completely different character. Bravo
The leopard of lime street and barry and boing blew my tiny mind when i was eight and just not ready for mean old 2000ad..
This brought back memories. It also reminded me of ‘Billy the Cat’ which I also thought was cool 😂
I know how did they come up with leopard. They got black and white comics, so no color theme, just puttern
Panto as in Pantomime? Yeah we (should) know what that is.
Love it! Only vaguely remember the comic, but that costume really brought it back to me.. Nice "cameo" of Frank Sidebottom at 13mins.
My recollection of comics from the time was that the uk edition marvel reprints cost much more and couldn't get them where we lived .. that and we used to treat the newsagent as a library.... until getting shouted at...
I have a nice collection of Marvel UK stuff from around this time. And yeah, a UK-format anthology comic was 7 or 8p and the American reprints were 9p. So there was definitely a markup on those American reprints!
@@MattyStoked lol must have been the fact you just never saw them that meant I never read anything.... until a holiday in scotland (about 78?) and picked up a 'thor' a "power man and iron fist" oh and firestorm #1...... long since lost :( .
Cool video. I've never really seen many UK comics (other than back in tge 70s an issue of colored reprints of Dr. Who and mention of Planet of the Apes mergedwith War of the Worlds , and some online scans of afew General Jumbo, I thinkhe was called-kid with remote control toy army), so this is all news to me. I think I'd have !oved the Leopard's original comic run as a kid, since, despite it being black & white, is still eyecatching from what you've shown. I dont think the newest look appeals to me but I think its a needed change to survive with the times. And who minds when there's 3 graphic novels of the original run, plus another 5 years worth of the strip still out there tofind and enjoy.
Until the late 80s, nearly all UK comics had black and white internal art. On newsprint paper, too. Those were hard times lol! It took until the mid-late 90s for all colour art to be the norm. The comics I read growing up still had partial B&M internal art. Something I still love to this day.
The Spiderman also a copy too(the fly, black spider and Tarantula).
Man, this brings back some memories! Fleetway Comics were great.
The best!
who did it first...Leopard man and the totems and a group that feeds on them or Spiderman and the inheritors and morlun who feeds on spider totems?
Definitely Spider-Man lol
I loved the leopard of lime street. The thing she did though were pretty toned down. I remember him going after a guy for illegally cutting trees to sell at Christmas.
Hope you make more videos about British comics.
I've done a few now and NOTHING is going to stop this train from rollin! I've got some bangers planned, no fear.
I just found this channel and wish I could buy this comic!
You can! Links in the description 😃
Wow. Never heard of this. Sounds cool. I like British comics. Got several Beano and Dandy.
Hell yeah, I was a Beano kid through and through!
Used to read this back in the day
I loved this comic strip, I tried to make his grappling hook, with not much success.
That's incredible lol!
I'm now going to put serious effort into trying to find some of these in the US, or have some mailed. This was very cool.
Also, at 9:48 "Blow for Tony" would be an amazing band name.
I _think_ Rebellion / Treasury of British comics will ship to the US. They do sell all of these books digitally, too. So can you get .CBZs for your e-reader or tablet.
its sad that priniting of comics here has been stopped :(
For the love of God, would you please also do a critique of the infinitely dire ‘Billy The Cat’. It made the T. L.F.L.S. look like Citizen Kane. Even an impressionable seven year old me could spot that which could not be polished.
It took decades for this steaming turd to seem worthwhile, until Viz parodied it in an excellent strip called ‘Barry The Cat’. I still laugh about it now.
You're ahead of me there. This was always intended to be the first in a little series of British Spider-Man ripoff videos. So stay tuned because both Billy and Barry are getting a mention in an upcoming video haha
@@MattyStoked
Look forward to laughing once again, reading about young Barrington Granger.
I would not mind seeing this live, on Netflix or Amazon. But not dark, rather campy, warmth, humor with small town mysteries. None of that super dark stuff… it’s getting old now
Oh, definitely. It could only work if it carried that jaunty, campy energy. I, like you, am over the dark and gritty superhero stuff. I was over it before they started making the films TBH. But with comics, films and now TV it feels like dark, broody antiheroes have been in the majority for the last 30 years...
PS: Any chance that you could do a video/s specifically on the Marvel UK Transformers comic and/or Death's Head, please...? (Other classic British adventure comics strips of the 80s like Charley's War or Johnny Red would also be cool topics to cover if possible to boot...)
Oh, stick around! I have LOTS of plans for more British comics. Definitely Death's Head, definitely Transformers, definitely more Marvel UK.