1987 Castle Comic Book: The Robber Baron

[jamesster]

Jim Spaceborn, the 80s LEGO comic book series, seems fairly well known within the LEGO community. People have built replicas of models featured in the comics, created custom minifigures based on the characters, and the illustrator, Frank Madsen, even got an interview in Brickjournal where he discussed the creation of the series (and the canceled third book and three mini-books). So why has its Castle-themed equivalent, Castle Kids, been almost entirely ignored? All I've been able to find on it online is a listing on Amazon with a very rough plot summary and the cover art, a listing on Bricklink, a stub of an article on Brickipedia, and this topic here on Eurobricks which nobody even replied to. Having purchased the book from Amazon last year, I thought I'd try to get some more information about it on the 'net. So, here's some pictures showing a bit of the book, with the first Jim Spaceborn book along side it to show just how similar they are - it's obvious LEGO intended them to be companion book series (though I have yet to find any evidence that more than the first entry of Castle Kids was ever published):

Front cover

Inside front cover

Comic sample 1

Comic sample 2

Comic sample 3

Ending

Activity pages

Inside back cover

Back cover

If anybody wants better quality scans, I'll see if I can dig out a scanner. As you can see, the formatting is nearly identical to the Jim Spaceborn comic books, and the art style is very similar, despite being drawn by a different artist (Freddy Milton). The hero faction is never identified by name, but uses the Crusaders shield. The villains aren't the Black Falcons as you might expect, instead, they're henchmen of Baron de Mauvais, with their shields simply being solid black with a yellow outline. The basic plot is that the titular robber baron has a band of robbers that attack and destroy farms of peasants, leaving them to get loans from the baron himself (who denies connections with the attacks) with 100% interest. When the peasants inevitably cannot repay the baron, he confiscates their land and adds it to his own. Eventually he ends up aiding in the construction of a new castle for the princess, but uses a jousting match as a distraction once it's completed and takes over the castle. His plans are eventually foiled by - of course - the "castle kids", princess Alma, her squire Ralph, and Will, an inventive peasant kid. Alma is pretty much a tomboy princess who's constantly getting scolded by her over-protective guardian Mistress Prim, Ralph is more trim and proper than her but is constantly getting roped into her exploits, and Will is... Well, a kid inventor, whose father's farm was attacked by the bandits. There's other characters as well; Lord Percevere, Sir John, and Master Barbican, all Crusaders members (Lord Percevere being the commander, Sir John being the egotistical knight and Master Barbican being the master castle builder), and Slybald, the baron's sidekick. For the most part, the character designs are fairly close to existing LEGO pieces, so creating accurate figures of them shouldn't be too hard. Princess Alma's castle is as to Castle Kids as the Spearhead is to Jim Spaceborn: A massive model featured throughout the comic, with a picture of the real life model shown at the end of the book with some facts on how many pieces it contained. We've already seen a real-life Spearhead replica, now who wants to re-build this castle?

Edit: I've uploaded scans of the entire thing here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=522746

Edited February 15, 2013 by jamesster

[Teh Stud]

Never seen these before! I thought I had seen it all...

I would love high quality scans with no background... Would be fun to read to my kids.

[KristofBD]

Great stuff! Never knew they were around.

[Hey Joe]

Great stuff! Never knew they were around.

Same here and I used to devour comic books. My son and I would love some scans of both books if it's not too much trouble.

Cheers, Joe

[Sered]

wow! I've never seen this comic book before!

I would you like to read it.

[TalonCard]

I'd love to see scans of this comic as well--I'm working on a timeline of all the LEGO themes and stories, so it would be really useful. I was able to get a copy of the first Jim Spaceborn, but getting this book has proved more difficult.

BTW, what issue of Brickjournal is that interview in?

TC

[jamesster]

Ok, here's scans of Castle Kids: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=522746 (Since the Brickshelf gallery isn't public yet I've also uploaded a zip of the images to MediaFire: http://www.mediafire...t3pcyaikhi399md)

I'll see if I can get the first Jim Spaceborn book scanned too, if anybody wants it, but that might be a while yet.

And if I remember right, the interview was in Issue 2 of BrickJournal, from June 2008.

Edited February 15, 2013 by jamesster

[Hey Joe]

Many thanks jamesster but, unfortunately, that Mediafire site is blocked here in China.

If it's not too much trouble could you let me/us know when that Brickshelf folder is public?

Cheers, Joe

[jacob_uno]

I've met Frank Madsen on several occasions and he's drawn a Jim & Keko drawing to me plus a Jim drawing in my Jim Spaceborn comic.

I've also met Freddy Milton who does his own comics as well as Donald Duck for Disney. I never knew he made LEGO comics!

Edited February 15, 2013 by jacob_uno

[jacob_uno]

I've just mailed Freddy Milton and he says there were also smaller Castle Kids stories made by him.

[jamesster]

Many thanks jamesster but, unfortunately, that Mediafire site is blocked here in China.

If it's not too much trouble could you let me/us know when that Brickshelf folder is public?

Cheers, Joe

Ok, will do. Oh - I just realized you should be able to view the images directly if you know the URL. Here's the front cover:

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/01.jpg

Simply change the number 01 to 02, 03, etc to view each page - there's 52 images total. For example:

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/05.jpg (Start of the actual comic)

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/21.jpg (A page nearly half way through the story)

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/52.jpg (Back cover, final image)

I've met Frank Madsen on several occasions and he's drawn a Jim & Keko drawing to me plus a Jim drawing in my Jim Spaceborn comic.

I've also met Freddy Milton who does his own comics as well as Donald Duck for Disney. I never knew he made LEGO comics!

I've just mailed Freddy Milton and he says there were also smaller Castle Kids stories made by him.

Wow, cool! Any indication as to whether or not those smaller comics were ever released? Or were they canceled like the other Jim Spaceborn comics?

Edited February 15, 2013 by jamesster

[Hey Joe]

Ok great, thanks a lot.

I got all the jpegs and made them into a single PDF (I have Acrobat Pro) and uploaded it to my Brickshelf so I could share it back to you and others. It seemed to take awhile (as the file was nearly 30MB) but then when it finished the folder shows empty. This is the first time I've tried to use Brickshelf, is this normal? Does it need to be checked by a mod before it shows in the folder or are PDFs not allowed?

Cheers, Joe

[jamesster]

As far as I know, Brickshelf doesn't accept PDF files anymore (though it used to a few years back). I think Google Docs works with PDF files, but having never tried it myself, I have no idea how.

[Hey Joe]

As far as I know, Brickshelf doesn't accept PDF files anymore (though it used to a few years back). I think Google Docs works with PDF files, but having never tried it myself, I have no idea how.

Google Docs doesn't work here either. I really should spring for a VPN but it's normally not a problem.

I'll poke around for another solution. If nothing else I can always upload it to Google Docs next time I visit the US.

If you (or anyone else) would like to post some more comics I'd be happy to PDF them as well.

Thanks again, Joe

[jamesster]

Ok, sounds good, thanks! I'll see if I can get the first Jim Spaceborn book scanned sometime soon.

Also, the Brickshelf folder for Castle Kids is public now.

[jacob_uno]

Ok, will do. Oh - I just realized you should be able to view the images directly if you know the URL. Here's the front cover:

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/01.jpg

Simply change the number 01 to 02, 03, etc to view each page - there's 52 images total. For example:

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/05.jpg (Start of the actual comic)

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/21.jpg (A page nearly half way through the story)

http://www.brickshel...stleKids/52.jpg (Back cover, final image)

Wow, cool! Any indication as to whether or not those smaller comics were ever released? Or were they canceled like the other Jim Spaceborn comics?

He said that they were cancelled as far as he knew.

[jacob_uno]

I've contacted Per Sanderhage who wrote the Castle Kids stories. He said there were two Castle Kids books published and one more that never came out. He also wrote Pirate stories that were drawn by a Spanish guy named Vano. He said the reason LEGO dropped making comics was because of poor sale compared to bricks!

[jamesster]

Oooh, now things are certainly getting interesting. So there actually is a second Castle Kids book out there, and a third that was never released? Wow, this sounds exactly like Jim Spaceborn... Any info on what the second book is called, or maybe an image of the cover? I can't seem to find anything about it.

As for the Pirates comic, I own that as well (there's already scans of it here) and it does indeed credit the artist as Vano - I think some other Pirates stories in that style were released in book form, though I don't own any of those, just the initial comic.

Edited February 17, 2013 by jamesster

[TalonCard]

I can confirm that--I have all four books in the series. The artists for the Pirate books were Sara Silcock and John Davis, though...is it possible that, like Castle Kids and Jim Spaceborn, there were more Pirate comics that were never released?!

jacob_uno, would it be possible to get a list of all the Castle Kids and Pirate stories, published and unpublished?

jamesster, thank you so much for posting the scans! I've been wanting to read this for ages. :)

Now if only the second Spaceborn and Castle Kids books would resurface...

TC

[jacob_uno]

@TalonCard

The two artist I've mailed with simply can't remember any more than I've written here. It was after all some years ago!

But as a fun fact, I can tell that Frank Madsen who did Jim Spaceborn had a long discussion with LEGO about the possibility of the minifigures in the comic. It ended, as we all know, with the minifigs being able do things they can't do in real life.

[TalonCard]

Thanks. Jacob. Oh, if only we could peek into the LEGO archives...

I've finally had time to read the whole comic, and I think I like it better than the Unknown Galaxy. The gags are funnier, starting on the very first page, and the villain is better developed. The kid characters are likable, but flawed. One of the best parts is how well building is integrated into the story--it's neat to see the castle take shape.

That said, the LEGO people aren't translated to cartoon form as well as in the Spaceborn comic; sometimes they even look more like muppets than minifigures. Having the Baron's men be involved in the construction of the castle so they can take it over later is clever, but since they just walk through the front door I don't see how their knowledge of its construction really helped.

But otherwise it's so good that it's a real shame we only have handful of decent LEGO comic books. :(

TC

Edited February 20, 2013 by TalonCard