In Review: The Collected Cloak
Copies of The Collected Cloak, a superb collection of the strip by Mike Higgs, first published in the weekly comics POW! and SMASH! from 1967 to 1969, introduced by Alan Moore, are now available for preorder from your Local Comic Shop. Peter Duncan got a sneak peek at this new ComicOz collection…
POW!launched in January 1967 as part of the Odhams Power Comics line, was a very special comic. The third in a trio of titles with sound-effect names, it continued the policy established by its sister comics, WHAM! and SMASH!, of mixing recent Marvel superhero reprints with British adventure and humour strips.
From the very first issue, the main attractions were Spider-Man and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., each presented in a bizarre format in which the original pages were cut into individual panels and re-edited. In that debut issue, for example, a fourteen-page story from The Amazing Spider-Man #1 was compressed into just seven pages of POW!
If I’m honest, the initial line-up of British adventure strips was rather uninspiring and, apart from “Dare-a-Day Davy” by Ken Reid, there was little that really stood out on the humour front. Aside from Spider-Man, POW! was the weakest title in the Power Comics line.
That all changed with issue 16.
Jammed into the final three interior pages was a new strip: “The Cloak v Dr Zero”. Even at first glance, the seven-year-old version of me knew it was something different. The artwork somehow managed to look both simpler and more detailed than anything else in the comic. It was difficult to explain. As a child trying to describe it to my friends, I think I called it “bad art that’s really good.”
The main character, The Cloak, dressed entirely in black with a wide-brimmed hat and a high-collared cloak, had a head shaped like a bean, huge eyes, no nose and, like his two assistants in “The Special Squad”, who would have to wait a few issues before getting names, no sign of a chin.
The strip announced its intentions in the second panel. As The Cloak was being briefed by his boss at Scotland Yard, a strange man in a bowler hat, who would never be mentioned again, peered in from behind the panel border, while a periscope appeared from below.
Every few panels, fresh visual gags appeared in the background, most having absolutely nothing to do with the already thin, though wonderfully spooky, plot involving a mad scientist and “strange goings-on” at Humpdown Manor. In any one panel a bizarre creature might be sliding down the banisters while eyes watched from the darkness and a tiny Spider-Man hung from the ceiling. None of which would ever be referred to again. You didn’t simply read “The Cloak”; you studied it, never expecting it to make complete sense.
The Cloak’s solution to the first story’s greatest menace – a giant man-eating spider – was wonderfully straightforward. He and his companions simply dressed as women. In the logic of The Cloak, that was enough for the spider to lose interest and simply wander away.
The tone was established. In the world of The Cloak, absolutely anything could happen.
That continued even after POW!delivered the “Great News for Our Readers” that every child dreaded, that it was merging with the last surviving Power Comic, SMASH!.
The Cloak survived for less than six months in SMASH!, disappearing when the comic dropped its Power Comics branding and underwent a major revamp. The strip was swept away along with the Marvel reprints and the work of Ken Reid. I was so disappointed that, at the age of eight, I virtually gave up on British comics, until Marvel UK appeared a few years later.
I can trace my fascination with the medium directly back to WHAM!, SMASH! and POW!when I was seven years old and long before I knew their names, I could recognise the work of Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and I loved every one of them.
But above all, I was captivated by “The Cloak”. Looking back, I think it was the first strip that taught me comics didn’t have to follow rules. They could be surreal, unpredictable and gloriously nonsensical. You never knew what was going to happen next, or what strange little joke might be lurking in the background waiting to be discovered. And I don’t think I was alone, as Alan Moore’s introduction makes clear.
“The Cloak” was the creation of Mike Higgs, a young cartoonist with a huge enthusiasm for comics. He had been involved in early fandom, creating a mascot for a fanzine called The Shudder, itself loosely based on the pulp hero The Shadow. “The Cloak” was Mike’s first professionally published strip, and part of a relatively small output in comics. His first love was newspaper strips with his greatest successes probably coming with the daily “Moonbird” strip and “Boz and Co.” for The Daily Mirror.
“The Cloak” was one of many strips in WHAM!, SMASH!and POW!that reflected the spy craze of the mid-1960s. James Bond was huge, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.was probably the most talked-about television programme in the school playground. While others competed to devise ever more elaborate acronyms for their spy organisations, Mike Higgs took a more direct approach. The Cloak worked for the “Special Squad”, and there wasn’t much chance of anyone using the acronym of that name.
Reading these strips again has been a joy. The Power Comics era was a strange and remarkable one, when the creators of humour strips seemed to have been given enormous freedom to be different and to push ideas just a little further. There are jokes I only noticed years later. They were probably there for Mike and his friends as much as for his young readers, but even at the age of seven I could tell that “The Cloak” was unlike almost anything else in comics.
The influence of the Power Comics can be seen in the humour comics of the 1970s and beyond, but I’m not sure anything quite recaptured the same sense of glorious oddness found in the work of Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid and Mike Higgs until the arrival of Oink!, many years later.
There has been talk of a collected edition of The Cloak for years. Somehow the copyright situation ended up with Mike owning the character while Rebellion kept the rights to the Odhams strips. Finally, Nat Kamichael, a fan from Australia, took the initiative and has brought this book together under his ComicOz imprint.
It’s a wonderful package, containing every appearance of “The Cloak” from POW!and SMASH!, along with the small number of new “Cloak” strips Mike has produced since. And here I should declare an interest. One of those newer strips first appeared in the debut issue of my own comic, Splank!, thanks to the good offices of cartoonist Lew Stringer, and features me in my Grumpy Penguin persona. Another is a delightful three-panel strip created for Whapp!, a charity book I edited in aid of NHS Charities Together.
Some strips you enjoy. Some you remember with affection. And some are so special that they allow you to remember exactly what it felt like to be seven years old, discovering the wonderful medium of comics for the first time.
For me, “The Cloak” is that strip.
Distributed in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and parts of Europe by Diamond UK, the best way for you to grab a copy of The Collected Cloak will be by putting in an advance order from your Local Comic Shop using the PREVIEWS Order code AUG262180.
Orders need to be placed now, and the book should be out in October / November, priced just £29.95 – a very reasonable price for a limited edition hardback.
Be aware that some LCS may not be carrying this brilliant collection, so you may have to ask around, or encourage your favourite to do so. We’re really surprised Forbidden Planet isn’t (yet) stocking this, for example.
Pre-orders should ideally be made to your Local Comic Shop by Thursday 27th August 2026
- About the Author
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Peter Duncan is editor of Sector 13, Belfast’s 2000AD fanzine and Splank! – an anthology of strips inspired by the Odhams titles, Wham!, Smash! and Pow! He’s also writer of Cthulhu Kids. Full details of his comics activities can be found at www.boxofrainmag.co.uk
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