If it wasn't for Mike Higgs' creation The Cloak, there'd be no Brickman, no Combat Colin, and possibly no comics career for me. Simple as that. The Cloak was the most influential comic strip of my childhood, where I learned that humour comics didn't need to be formularised stories about naughty schoolkids, but that they could contain action adventure plots including monsters, aliens, mad robots and even demons, all with a good dollop of daftness!
Now, The Collected Cloak is to be published, a large size hardback including all of Mike Higgs' Cloak serials from Pow! and Smash! from 1967 to 1969, plus those he did that followed for other publications such as the 1986 Brickman special and Crikey magazine. Running to over 230 pages, the book also includes a new introduction written by Alan Moore, enthusing over his genuine affection for the character and its creator. There's also an interview with Mike Higgs about his career, conducted by the book's publisher Nat Karmichael, showing how The Cloak developed from the character's original incarnation as The Shudder in early 1960s fanzines.
Although The Cloak wasn't the first humourous spy strip serial (preceded by Leo Baxendale's Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy and others for example) there was something fresh and modern, and very much in tune with Sixties pop culture about the mysterious black garbed bulgy-eyed hero. I think it also helped that The Cloak and his co-stars (including the unforgettable Lady Shady) were adult characters, not kids plunged into the situations like Eagle-Eye. Readers didn't need to "relate" to the character; we wanted to look up to The Cloak because he was so cool.
Anyway, the main point of this rambling but affectionate post is to say that The Collected Cloak is now available to order from your nearest comic speciality shop. Give them the order code AUG262180 as it's being solicited by Diamond UK. You'll need to order it this month (August) so that the shops can place their orders with the distributors. (I think it'll be published in October / November but you need to order it in advance because comic shops are less likely to stock humour books unless they know there's demand for them.) I believe the price is £29.95 which is very reasonable for a book like this. I ordered mine yesterday with no problems.
This isn't a book that you'll find in TG Jones or Asda. It's a limited print run for a niché audience, so comic shops are the place to order it from.
The Collected Cloak is published by Australian publisher Comic OZ, via an official licence with Rebellion. I know some of you have chosen to order it directly from Australia, although that will be very expensive due to postage. However, here's the link should you wish to do that:
https://www.comicoz.com/store/p61/The_Collected_Cloak.html
Once again, to order The Collected Cloak from a comic shop, give them the code AUG262180 which will now be on their system.
