Garth Story 004: The Seven Ages of Garth

Writer: Don Freeman

Artist: Stephen Dowling & John Allard

Published: 8th September 1944 - 20th January 1946 (C23 - E17)

Number of Episodes: 413

In this epic story, Garth is regressed back into seven former lives. He adventures variously as a British slave during the Roman occupation of Britain, a 12th century Crusader, a participant in the Wars of the Roses, an Elizabethan sea captain, a Cavalier fighting the Roundheads, and in a climactic final previous life he is an Englishman caught up in the French Revolution. In each segment, Garth lives the last weeks of an earlier life as a man of that period in time and he finally comes to a bloody and heroic death.

Thanks to Lumiere’s foresight, Garth is conditioned to visualise the word ‘KARMA’ at the moment of death, enabling him to jump to his next life. Throughout the tales, Karen and Dawn (avariciousness and virtue respectively) share Garth’s lives in their own earlier incarnations.

Written during the exigencies of wartime, these fascinating stories are both frank and brutal.

Synopsis by Philip Harbottle

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