The Seekers is a British comic strip drawn by John M. Burns, written by Les Lilley, succeeded by Phillip Douglas and Dick O'Neil. The strip ran from 1966 to 1971 in The Daily Sketch.
The main characters, Susanne Dove and Jacob Benedick, are two preferred secret agents employed by Una Frost, director of "The Seekers", an elite agency of missing persons retrieval. Their investigations frequently lead to adventures connected to the sex industry, exploiting the attractiveness of both detectives, and usually leading to the downfall of sexual predators and oppressors.
The Seekers began publication on 2 May 1966 in The Daily Sketch.[1] [2] The concept of the strip bears some resemblance to another strip Burns later drew for a brief period, Modesty Blaise. The female characters were consistently drawn in an enticing manner, indicating Burns' evident intent to challenge the limits of the daily British newspaper strip conventions of the times.[1] The initial writer Les Lilley was succeeded by Phillip Douglas starting with episode 14, The Missing Golfers, occasionally aided by Dick O'Neil, who wrote one story, The Curse of the One-Eyed Sailor.
The strip ended on 10 May 1971, abandoned due to its lack of lasting success.[1] It enjoyed some popularity in Italy where it was known as I Segugi, and the Scandinavian countries, serialised as in Sweden, in Norway and Denmark, and in Finland, and as it was serialized in Yugoslavia in at least three different magazines during the 1970s and 1980s. The name, Seekers, translates to Bloodhounds in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish publications of the strip.
| № | Title | Author | Strips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Boneyard Club | Les Lilley | M103–M180 |
| 2 | The Missing Groom | M181–M252 | |
| 3 | Red Elibank | M253–N12 | |
| 4 | The Bookman Vanishes | N13–N84 | |
| 5 | The Collection | N85–N155 | |
| 6 | The Irish Caper | N156–N233 | |
| 7 | Jamaican Joyride | N234–N309,P1-P2 | |
| 8 | John Silver | P3–P83 | |
| 9 | The Highest Bidder | P84–P169 | |
| 10 | The Missing Star | P170–P254 | |
| 11 | Lost Monastery | P255–P278,Q1-Q60 | |
| 12 | The Off-Beat Case | Q61–Q120 | |
| 13 | Art Theft | Q121–Q198 | |
| 14 | The Missing Golfers | Phillip Douglas | Q199–Q276 |
| 15 | A Matter of Life and Death | Q277–Q309,R1-R45 | |
| 16 | Where’s Una? | R46–R117 | |
| 17 | The Man Who Died Twice | R118–R178 | |
| 18 | The Boy With the Golden Boots | R179–R239 | |
| 19 | Hoop of Fire | R240–R305,T1-T8 | |
| 20 | The Day the Birds Dropped Dead | T9–T68 | |
| 21 | The Curse of the One-Eyed Sailor | Dick O'Neil | T69–T107 |
| 22 | Title missing | Phillip Douglas | T109–T125 |
| 23 | Wheels of Fate | T126–T185 | |
| 24 | The Tracy Madison Affair | T186–T245 | |
| 25 | Goddess of the Seven Moons | T246–T317 | |
| 26 | Legs on Broadway | T318–T365 | |
| 27 | Dead Girls Tell | T366–T413 |