- The Collector (comic strip)
"The Collector" was a
comic strip published in the Britishcomic book "Eagle", from issue 1 (datedMarch 27 1982 ) to issue 48 (datedFebruary 19 1983 ), and occasionally thereafter in annuals orsummer special s.The strip was a series of one-off
morality tale s with occasional horror andsupernatural undertones, underpinned by the literary device of The Collector, who had an extensive array of macabre items. Each issue he would narrate a tale to the reader relating to an item in his collection.Many of the early strips in Eagle were
photographic rather than hand-drawn; The Collector himself, featuring at the beginning and end of each strip, would be drawn, while the tale he related would be photographed. Occasionally aspecial effect would be drawn directly onto the photograph in an attempt to overcome the limitations of photography. Such hand-drawn effects would certainly be considered crude by today's standards, but enabled the strip to extend the scope of the tales.The strip had a rotating series of writers, including
Roy Preston ,Brian Burrell ,Alan Moore , andGerry Finley-Day ; photographers, includingGary Compton ,Sven Arnstein ,Carin Simon , andHenry Arden amongst others; and withPat Wright as regular artist.Typical plots included:
* Two highly competitive
chess players named Marvin Knight and Peter King, who have never met as they play over the telephone (Knight lives in theUSA , and King in theUK ), eventually pay the price for their excessive playing; Knight loses his job,house andmarriage --- and finally suffers a fatal heart attack. Obsessed with winning this final game, King contacts a medium, only to have Knight'sghost possess the medium and suck him into theafterlife to continue playing, leaving only a singlepawn behind for The Collector.* Two fraudulent gardeners are delivered a rare plant, growing into an extremely large plant with
tendril s and amouth . One of them becomes obsessive about nurturing the plant, feeding it rawmeat , leading the plant to becomecarnivorous and eat the two men, and then --- with no-one left to tend it --- withering and dying of hunger.* A
tramp who gives avideo game console to children who are addicted tocomputer game s. The console plays a video game involving defending a house from missiles; damage to the house in the game causes the child's own house to be damaged --- and ultimately obliterated --- in real life. After each house is destroyed, the tramp retrieves the seemingly-indestructible console from the rubble and moves on, in order to "find someone else who thinks he cannot be beaten!".
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