John M. Burns (born 1938) is an English comics artist, with a career stretching back to the mid-1960s.
His initial work was as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend. During the 1960s, Burns worked on TV Century 21 and its sister magazines, including the Space Family Robinson series in Lady Penelope.
For a while he drew daily comics strips for newspapers The Daily Sketch, The Daily Mirror and The Sun, including The Seekers, Danielle and, for a period succeeding Enrique Romero during 1978–79, Modesty Blaise.
He moved on to illustrate TV tie-in strips for Look-in, always scripted by Angus Allan. He also worked on the title story for Countdown.
A big discovery has been made by Doctor Joseph Brant, and he is refusing to reveal it even with the highest levels of security at Moonbase. For the first time, Straker sees a microscopic live animal that is smaller than dust in his laboratory.
Mobile units have been alerted once the SHADO defences have been compromised. Colonel Alec Freeman has also arrived in the area and is on his way to the designated landing area.Two drivers from a haulage truck, on the other hand, come across the UFO and are seriously injured when it self-destructs.
On his trimaran Ariel, Robin Jackman leads the ‘Round-The-World’ sailboat race somewhere in the South Pacific, but he loses radio contact with Melbourne 206 days out. When Jackman witnesses a wrecked UFO descending into the sea, he mistakenly believes it is a plane, so he prepares to save the pilot.
In an isolated valley high in the Austrian Alps, a single bell chimes a sombre anthem of mourning.Since his son has been kidnapped by “the horrible spirits” of the Hexberg mountain, Herr Ahnsen pays a visit to the monastery’s Father Abbot.
A new improved space fighter craft, the Vanguards, are on display at Moonbase. Pilot John Franks will be the first to fly one, and he will be assigned to intercept a drone UFO target shot from a Moon Ferry.
A SHADO Moonmobile departs Moonbase and moves to the lunar surface to observe a launch from the United Earth Space Exploration Centre. Straker convenes a meeting of the International Astrophysical Commission to express his displeasure after SID’s instruments are rendered useless for twenty minutes after launch.
SHADO Moon Mobile pilots Paul Foster and Captain Swann approach crater Plotinus. Researchers from SHADO have discovered an enormous empty space beneath the surface of the moon, which they refer to as a “nothing”. Suddenly, a UFO is struck by an Interceptor missile and smashes into an enormous crater.
For his investigation into the supposedly lethargic South American activities of Brazil, Straker visits San Paulo. At the airport, Lieutenant Gomez meets Straker, but he is fatally wounded by a blowpipe dart fired by an Indian impersonator and falls to the ground.