Harlem Heroes, Part 4

NAME
Harlem Heroes, Part 4 (according to Wikipedia, this is the third part of a strip also known as The Baltimore Bulls)

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 4

DATELINE
19 Mar 77

PAGE COUNT
4

REPRINTS
2000AD Annual 1983, Robo-Hunter 1, Sam Slade Robo-Hunter (Volume 2, Issue 12), 2000AD Extreme Edition 13, The Best Of 2000AD and The Complete Harlem Heroes.

SYNOPSIS
Zack nearly loses his life and the game.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First line of dialogue spoken by Chico.

INFORMATION
A holophone is a visual communications device.

Aeroball Rule 16: Either squad can call for a two-minute 'time-out' if two or more of his players have withdrawn from the thrillbowl because of injury. Also, sandwich tackles are illegal, but mid-air half nelsons are fine. The umpire can award a free throw.

The Harlem Heroes wear fire-proof body sheaths.

The Baltimore Bulls score during Zack's fall. Named players: Lannigan is a Baltimore Bull.

The half-time score in the Harlem Heroes versus Baltimore Bulls game is 1:1.

GIANT
He is the Harlem Heroes Squad-leader. Giant scores an airstrike, with the assistance of a Baltimore Bull.

SLIM
He is sarcastic about Louis' assertion that someone is trying to kill the Harlem Heroes.

HAIRY
He is the centre-Blocker for the Harlem Heroes.

CONRAD KING
He is presumably released from the penalty pen after Zack's fall, but before his return to the game (we don't see him at all in this strip, but he was only in for three minutes and the umpire says the team is one player short rather than two)

ZACK HARPER
Giant and Hairy save him from his fall.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CHICO TRAVIS
He is sandwich tackled by the Baltimore Bulls.

LOUIS MAYER
He has remembered that someone sabotaged the road liner's controls.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Giant: "You're er...lookin' better, Louis!"
Louis: "Listen, Giant...Stuck here in hospital, I've been doing a lot of thinking..."

Well, a disembodied brain couldn't really have been doing much else.

WORST LINES
Giant: "A little gutter hound like you will never make a hero--Not in a thousand years! So why don't you clean up and bug off--Before I'm sick to my stomach!"

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES
Unknown.

MISTAKES
"They didn't allow tackles like that in soccer...and the same applies to aeroball!" says the umpire of the sandwich tackle. It's true mid-air collisions involving three people fifty feet off the ground are expressly forbidden in football.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
There are no credits printed in the strip itself and so the following are taken from Barney.

Script: Tom Tully
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Letters: Dave Gibbons

REVIEW
Dave Gibbons' art continues to impress as we see the first half of a game of aeroball played out and the highlight for me has to be Giant scoring with a rebound from a Baltimore Bulls player's face. Does that count as an own goal? Louis has realised that the crash was an attempt on their lives and decides the best time to tell them is at half time during an aeroball game. It seems an odd thing to do. Maybe that brain isn't as big as it looks?

HERE COME THE HEROES + + + FIGHTERS TO THE LAST
DON'T MISS OUR NEXT PROG + + + THE FLYIN'S HARD 'N' FAST
DON'T MISS OUR NEXT PROG + + + THE FLYIN'S HARD 'N' FAST