Sunday, June 6, 2010

Buried Treasure: The Seekers


Premiering in the Daily Sketch on May 2, 1966, The Seekers was a thrilling strip cast in the image of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise, and trying to capitalize on its tremendous success. Writer Les Lilly and artist John Burns created a missing persons bureau called Seekers, run by Una Frost. The two main players for the stories was the lovely brunette Susanne Dove and the dashing blond Jacob Benedick, who were often assisted in their exploits by Duffy, for his needed underworld contacts. Drawn in a similar style to the late Jim Holdaway, Burns' always delivered solid and exciting visual images to complement Lilly's well written scripts that lead our heroes on numerous adventures over its five year run. With no formal art training Burns became a fine illustrator, starting out as children's features before picking up the strips, developing his more edgy adult style and eventually drawing the story's inspiration, Modesty Blaise, years later.

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