Set Description
"THE ADVENTURES OF CATMAN" by Lloyd Piper 1950 - 52 & John DIXON 1957 - 71
The Australian "CATMAN" originally appeared in the Frew Publishing series of comics commissioned by Ron Forsyth (co-founder of Frew Publishing), but drawn by Lloyd Piper, in the Australian comic series called "SUPER YANK COMICS" alongside the Phantom 1950-52. There were 19 issues in this series but from #10 - #17, the main title changed to "SUPER YANK COMICS - CATMAN".
5 years later, in 1957, Ron Forsyth decided to revive CATMAN under the pen of John Dixon. Thus, the Australian "THE ADVENTURES OF CATMAN" series (with some issues only having CATMAN as the title) was created. From 1957 to 1971 CATMAN was produced by 4 different publishers.
The Australian "CATMAN" comics are NOT connected with the American version.
John Dixon's CATMAN stories (Frew #1 -12) were unique and not connected to Lloyd Pipers' CATMAN stories. John Dixon gave CATMAN and Kit a makeover - he streamlined CATMAN'S costume, gave the duo their own supersonic Cat Jet and a mist-shrouded mountain hideaway dubbed 'Cat Rock'. The Australian CATMAN's offsider is a young boy called Kit together with CATMAN's fiancée Terry West (who works for the United Nations Press) and her father Professor West, (as opposed to a female person called Kitten in the US version). CATMAN has no super powers, but is armed with a Luger pistol and a pair of Night Vision Goggles which can temporarily blind foes with a light emanating from the goggles. He also wears a utility belt.
THE ADVENTURES OF CATMAN:
Publisher - Frew: Issues #1 - #12 1957-58 Priced 1/- (1 shilling)
Publisher - Tricho: Issues #14 - #22 1961-63 Priced 1/- (#13 was never printed)
Publisher - Photo-Type: Issues #12 - #15 1965 Priced 1/- (#13 was never printed & #14 has colours Green and Red reversed on the cover)
Publisher - Page: Issues #16 - #26 1966-71 Priced from 1/- 10c ; 10c 1/- ; 12c & 15c . Australia changed to Decimal currency in 1966.
Last four issues #23 - #26 have the same cover image and the exact same story!
Issue #26 was mainly found in State Agricultural Show (Sample) Bags and not sold in Newsagents, even though it has a 15c price. Many cover images were often repeated over the complete series!
Interestingly, only Issues #1 (Frew) 1957, and #14 (Tricho) 1961, have the CATMAN title in Blue. CATMAN #14 (Photo-Type Pub.) 1965, (same story as #1 (Frew) and #14 (Tricho)) but, has the cover image colours reversed. It is the only issue that has CATMAN wearing a Red outfit, instead of the usual Green. It would the seem that the new Publishers thought all the CATMAN titles should be in Red and subsequently reversed the colours on the cover page. The story "The Sky Bandits" in #1 (Frew) 1957, #14 (Tricho) 1961 and #14 (Photo-Type) 1965 were all the same.
All other issues have the title in shades of Red, from all 4 publishers, but CATMAN's outfit remained Green. Although, in CATMAN #25 (Page Pub.) the title, CATMAN's cape, gun belt and holster appear as a shade of orange, but outfit remains green.
Also of note: The stories in the original Frew Publications for Issue #2 - The Crooked Satellite and #3 - The Women Warriors were never repeated in subsequent publications!
Printed in 1950's - 60's on cheap newsprint paper and B/W inside, not a lot of good copies have survived the past 60+ years.
My BEST GRADED copy is "The Adventures of CATMAN" No. 20 CGC 9.8 NM/M (Page Publications) March1967
Set Goals
To complete the CATMAN set including FREW and Tricho Publishers
I will soon have 30 out of the possible 35 issues of CATMAN graded and encapsulated by CGC.
CATMAN #14, 16, 18, 19, 21 (Tricho Pub.) have been sent for grading 2024. This will complete all issues published by Tricho Publications.
I am still looking to collect and grade the original FREW issues #4,5,7,9,11
See also CATMAN - Lesser Grades for duplicate CATMAN issues
See also Super Yank Comics CATMAN - CGC graded.