BIRNEY
Birney was created as a hero for young boys.
Part of Hampson’s skill is he makes Birney
hard to put an age to. It is unlikely he is a
teenager since he owns a travel agency. Let us
say that he (and his sister) are in their early
twenties; they still look young enough for
the boys to identify with.
The first episode is drawn as a full page, meant for a comic.
But in subsequent episodes Hampson changes tack, and starts
to draw Birney as a strip for a national newspaper, to appeal
to grown-ups. Instead of whole pages, the strip appears as three
or four frames a day, with a ‘curtain’ (cliff-hanger situation)
at the end of each episode.
There's no written story but part of the plot can be surmised
from frames that still exist. Birney is persuaded to go to Russia;
as a travel agent he can apply for a visa on the pretext of
researching holidays (remember it's 1961).
But the real purpose is to find, and return to Gulbenassis,
a precious ring.
Trouble is, he’s not the only one looking for it, and the rival searchers are on his tail. Birney and Sam pass through Russia’s biggest cities. He is chased along the roof of the Moscow/Kiev express, clubbed in the catacombs, and all the time we wonder whether this sly millionaire who hired him can really be trusted.