How The Eagle started

Talking of parish magazines I found this rather interesting article about how a Vicar and a Diocesan magazine editor founded the Eagle comic. It is by Marcus Morris, founding editor of the Eagle.

I had long felt that parish magazines (the parson’ s main written method of presenting himself to his followers) were dreary and ineffective. My appointment as vicar of St James’s, Birkdale, Lancashire gave me my first chance to do something about it. I gradually converted a four-page leaflet into a magazine called The Anvil, in which ‘issues’ could be ‘hammered out’. I had always been interested in journalism and had a great desire to ‘edit’ something. At Oxford I had read philosophy, ancient history and theology, not immediately identifiable with journalism, and Anvil liberated those pent-up editorial urges. I didn’t see why a magazine aimed at conveying an intelligent view of Christianity should not try to be as professional as any other magazine.