A western strip from The Hornet. Animal trainer, clown, conjurer - Barnstorm Nelson, the one-man circus was all of those - and more, as the desperadoes of the Old West found out the hard way.
See The Hornet issues 584-591.
Writer:- The Hornet editorial team. Artist:- Josep Marti.
Main cast:- Barnstorm Nelson; Ben and Bella, elephants.
Time period:- mid 19th century, the old west, America.
This is a comedy western drama featuring a one man circus and his two elephants, Ben and Bella. Their mission is to entertain people and where necessary help those in destress, usually for no fee. It's no wonder Nelson's known as, 'That Man's a Marvel.'
The series may have been inspired by the real life showman Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5th 1810 to 7th April 1891). At one time his main attraction was an African elephant named Jumbo. The animal was bought from the London Zoo in 1882.
There is no continuing thread through this short series of eight episodes. Rather they can be read as eight individual, engaging, well told short stories. And there isn't much more to say about this strip.
The following adventures of Barnstorm Nelson are from issues 587, 589 and 590. My apologies for the quality of some of the scans. As I don't have the actual comics they are photocopies from the British Library.
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