'The House of Dolmann' was one of Fleetway's many fantastical adventure strips in the late 1960s. The series ran in Valiant as a weekly feature from 1966 to 1973. It was never really one of the big hitters in the title's roster, and when the cream of Fleetway's adventure material was reprinted in the superb Vulcan title, 'The House of Dolmann' made only intermittent appearances, usually only as a stop-gap (a shame, as it was much more worthy of a place on the hallowed roster than 'Saber, King of the Jungle').

The strip concerned the adventures of crime-fighting inventor Eric Dolmann. He created a roster of robots that looked like puppets, each with special abilities, and used them to combat crime where he found it. Dolmann kept his identity secret from the public, and when not fighting crime had a small business repairing and servicing other mechanical puppets and dolls.

Notable robots included: -

• Togo - modelled on a Sumo Wrestler, Togo provided brute strength. Something of a mainstay, usually getting a run-out.
• Raider - modelled on a British Commando, Raider was used for stealth, and carried a gun.
• Astro - the pilot for Dolmann's unusual flying device, the Dolmobile.Mole - a somewhat manic looking figure with claws for hands, used for digging operation
• Micro - a superhero-styled doll that could fly, and contained a radio transmitter - usually used either for flushing out crooks, or for when Dolmann wanted to contact the authorities without revealing himself.
• Elasto - modelled on a male gymnast, this robot could stretch its' limbs to a large extent.
• Giggler - modelled on a jester, this robot was usually used for disorientating or distracting criminals.
• Trailer - this robot had searchlights for eyes, and was used for tracking villains.
  

The whole premise was rather charming. Unlike 'The Spider', much of the fun came from Dolmann and his inventions fighting rather ordinary criminals in everyday surroundings, creating rather a wonderful clash. The puppets weren't meant to be sentient, but tended to argue and debate with each other anyway - whether this was to depict Dolmann having a sense of humour, to show he was out of his tree or just that the writer thought it would be a nice touch (similarly, 'Robot Archie' was always meant to be remote-controlled, but had a habit of popping neat one-liners and being smarter than his ersatz controllers).

Eric Bradbury drew the majority of 'Dolmann' strips throughout the title's run. I've scanned a few below. Unlike most of the Fleetway titles, which ran in serials that sometimes lasted for six months, 'Dolmann' seems to have mainly ran as a series of stand-alone strips. At least, judging by the ones I've read.

The stories were also printed untitled. Ever-resourceful, I've made some up for these.