The
10-weeks period between two Eagle Eye stories (Shiver and Shake issues 32 – 41 (13
October, 1973 – 15 December, 1973)) was filled with another suspense serial Malice
in Wonderland, this one illustrated by Ron Turner. The secret-agent
yarn was different from other SHIVER AND SHAKE adventure stories so far because
it didn’t offer readers a chance to win cash prizes.
Sammy
Hunter and his father John Hunter travel to New York but Sammy’s long-awaited
trip turns into a baffling and perilous adventure. Upon arrival in New
York City Sammy soon finds out that his father is a British secret service
agent rather than a carpet salesman as he has always thought, and that their holiday
trip to America is in fact a ‘cover’. His father’s true mission is to deliver
some top-secret vital information to American government. Armed enemy agents derail
the original plan in the very first episode by killing John Hunter’s contact. As he breathes his last breath, the poor man tells John Hunter he should go to Wonderland
– the biggest amusement park in the World, and deliver the information to a new
contact but fails to identify him by name:
Chased by
hostile agents, John Hunter wastes no time in getting to Wonderland. We soon
find out that John Hunter’s pursuers are followers of Octopus – a weird mutant and
string-puller whose sinister organisation is secretly headquartered in Wonderland…
I will skip
a number of perilous situations from which the Hunters make a narrow escape. As
the story develops, the minions of Octopus capture John Hunter’s new contact.
Octopus threatens to kill him unless John Hunter surrenders himself with the
secret information. Being an experienced secret service agent, John Hunter quickly
finds out where his colleague Brett Richards is being held prisoner and takes
action:
Differently
from Eagle
Eye, in this story it is not the boy but the father who is sharp-eyed
and observant. Ron Turner’s Sammy Hunter looks a bit too old to carry the
plastic gun or be so excited about the rides in the amusement park, don’t you
think?
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