I'm starting this post with a look at the cover of the original Eagle number 1 from 1950. This is my own personal copy, acquired many years ago at a very reasonable price. I never bought Eagle when I was a boy, but when the new version was launched in March 1982 I got it every week until it eventually morphed into a monthly publication, whereupon I only bought it intermittently as it contained mostly reprint material. In the photo below, we can see Dave Hunt (editor), Barrie Tomlinson (group editor), and the late Gil Page (managing editor), looking at art for the first issue in its preparation stages. Well that's what the posed picture is meant to suggest, but it may well have been taken afterwards for a feature in the first Eagle annual, released at the end of 1982 for the subsequent year.
The new Eagle resembled a comic for girls as, a couple of exceptions aside, it contained mostly photo-stories, but a little over a year later, it changed format to a more traditional illustrated strip comic on cheaper newsprint paper. What I intend to do is show the covers of all the weekly issues of the then-modern incarnation of this famous periodical, starting with the first twelve and - if there's enough interest - working my way through to the final weekly issue. I'll also throw in the covers of the monthly issues I own, which will include the very last one. It lasted for around 12 years, seven less than the original, which wasn't bad going considering that comics were in general decline back in the 1980s, a trend that continues to the present day. Anyway, let's take a look at those covers I promised you.
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