Comics UK - Lion

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First Issue

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With the massive popularity of Hulton Press' Eagle comic, Amalgamated Press felt it was time to mount a challenge to this new publisher, that was producing a comic which was dominating the boys market. Amalgamated Press decided to call their first ever comic for boys, Lion King Of Picture Story Papers, and set about challenging the seemingly unstoppable Eagle.

Click here to read Steve Laming's (a visitor to Comics UK) excellent personal overview of The Lion comic.

The first issue of Lion consisted of 24 pages with just the front page being in colour. The comic contained 7 strip stories and 3 text stories. It was edited by Bernard Smith who, amazingly, is still alive today (21/2/2003) at 100 years old. Readers were invited to join the Lion Birthday Club, where they filled out a form with their name, address and date of birth. Then, if their birth date was selected by the Editor (it had to be the exact date, inclusive of year), they would win one of the birthday presents of a Blow Football game, Replica Pistol, Pocket Telescope, Compass, Penknife, Stamp Album or Conjuring Tricks. If you also sent in one shilling (5 new pence) you would receive the Lion Club Badge , made in gilt. It also allowed members to enter the competions within the comic. Lion's one main advantage over its rival was the cover price of just 3d instead of 4½d. It wasn't as moralistic as Eagle, which in some way led to its popularity, because a lot of boys simply weren't made in the Eagle mould way back in the 1950's.

Lion's cover story was a direct challenger to Dan Dare. It was sub-titled Outlaw In Space and starred the Frank S. Pepper creation Captain Condor - Space Ship Pilot. Frank was to be the creator of Roy Of The Rovers in the Tiger comic a couple of years later. Captain Condor, was drawn by Ronald Forbes and set in the year 3000, the earth was ruled by a ruthless dictator and Captain Condor had been banished to one of Saturn's moons, Titan. It was his mission to escape from Titan and rid the Earth of its new Governor. The inhabitents of Titan were called the Geek's (who weren't very intelligent) and they obeyed the dictators every command. The Captain Condor stories were very similar to Dan Dare and, initially, the publishers seemed to adopt the philosophy of, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". This seemed to work very well. If fact, it worked so well, that 17 years later Lion absorbed The Eagle by way of merger. Sandy Dean was another very popular character who started in the first issue in a story entitled, "Sandy Dean's First Term". Written by Barry Nelson and later by George Forrest, it was set at the Tollgate Boarding School for boys and told the story of how young Master Dean, of the fourth form, would often be the subject of needless bullying and trouble. The stories troublemakers were Bossy Bates and Haughty Hawkins, both of whom led rival factions within the school, and they were always picking on poor old Sandy, who must have spent more of his time thinking of ways to get out of trouble, then he did actually studying. However, it proved very popular, and along with his chums, Jack Hardy and Owl Watson, Sandy would always be triumphant, especially against the disdainful teachers of the latter stories. In the end, the story did have a touch of the Billy Bunter syndrome about it in terms of longevity. Sandy was in the fourth form form 1952 to the early 1960's (see, I told you he didn't have any time to study).

If Lion did have a genuine famous character, it had to be Robot Archie who appeared in the first issue in a story entitled, The Jungle Robot. He was later known as Archie The Robot, before finally becoming, what everybody was calling him, Robot Archie. Written by E. George Cowan and drawn by Ted Kearnon, Archie was a 'super-human' robot built by Professor C. R. Ritchie. His adventures were always with the professors nephew, Ted Richie and Ted's best friend Ken Dale. Although Archie started in the very first issue of Lion, he didn't have a continuous run. Far from it in fact. When this first story, which was set in Africa, ended after 25 weeks,

Archie was not seen again for another four years. He returned in issue 257 (19th January 1957) under the title of Archie The Robot. Most of his early adventures involved the search for treasure, lost cities or fighting some evil wrong-doer or monster. He was also fully remote controlled and couldn't speak a word. But this changed some time between April 1959 and May 1961 when he gained the power of speech (see Archie with his mouth, above). He became fully independent sometime between 7th January 1967 and 2nd November 1968 (let me know if you can narrow down these dates). In issue dated 20th April 1968 the trio discovered a time-machine called 'The Castle', and their adventures continued in the earth of the future. The last Robot Archie story that I have in my collection dates from 8th August 1970, although he did reappear in a reprint story for the final few issues. I can only assume that when Lion merged with the excellent Thunder comic on the 20th March 1971 with the introduction of the Steel Commando character, there was simply no place for our Archie. So was this the last we were to see of the 'super-human' robot? No way! On the 27th September 1975 IPC released a new comic in the shape of Vulcan, and Robot Archie made a welcome return, and this time he was in full colour.

Because Lion was Amalgamated Press' first comic for boys, it still contained its 'safety net' of three text stories. These were in the shape of Rod Of The Trading Post by R. G. Thomas - A cowboy story about the owner of Moose Bend Trading Post, Rod Fleming. Rod seemed to get caught up helping falsely accused friends get out of trouble and rescuing the innocent. Then there was Big Hank - The Soft-Hearted Heavyweight by Duncan Matheson. Hank was a negro heavyweight from Honduras who spoke in the stereo-typical tongue that comics used to think how black people spoke. Here's a sample of Hank's dialogue, "Boss, dere ain't nothin dis chile dislikes so funicularly as fish. And yo' done told me plenty times dat yo' don't need no brains to be a champ". Get the picture. Hank used to work in the side-show business along with young Tich, his manager, doing strong arm acts and acrobatic turns with little success. So Tich Wilson had decided to turn Big Hank into a boxing champion. The only problem was, Hank wasn't very keen on fighting, but he pocessed immense strength and power, and usually used to take a bit of a pounding before he said enough was enough, and proceeded to pummel his opponent into submission. Jingo Jones And His Invisibiliser, written by Tom Stirling, was a pleasant little two-page yarn about a young lad, Jingo Jones, whose Uncle Septimus had invented a gadget which made things invisible when they were zapped by it. Ably assisted by his best friend Bob Day, they would use the invisibliser to even the score a bit when they were set upon by bigger kids or nasty old shopkeepers. The gadget worked by making the field around the object vibrate faster, thus creating the illusion of invisibilty. The effect would remain permanant until Jingo zapped it with the switch in reverse. The story lasted for almost two years. Brett Marlowe written by John Fordice was Lion's Private Detective story. Its style was very much in the same vein as Sexton Blake and Dixon Hawke, in that there would be a very small, innocuous clue that would need to be discovered to solve the whole crime. Brett was always assisted by his chauffeur, Rusty Race, who would drive them both to the crime scene and often force the crooks off the road. In the early days the double-paged stories always started and ended in the same issue so there wasn't much scope to build up a character, but towards the end, some of the cases lasted a few weeks, but we still didn't find out what actually made old Brett tick. We just knew that he was pretty good at solving crime. The typical story format was Brett would get the call for help, Rusty would drive him to the destination, and Brett would have a fist fight with the crooks and the case would be solved. Still, it proved quite popular and ran for three years.

A very popular part of the early issues were the features and articles pages. Sports From The Year Dot, Wild Animals Kept As Pets, The World-Wide Quiz and Before Sport Grew Up, were typical examples of what the readers could enjoy. I've been sifting through them while writing this article and found them damned good. The World-Wide Quiz went on right to the end of the decade. Did you know what football referees used to signal a foul before the whistle? Click here for a full page of facts, 1952 style, and the answer to that question. Other stories from the early days were Frogmen Are Tough! by Edward R. Home-Gall. Set during second world war Italy, Don Drew and Nobby Pounds were two British Frogmen that had volunteered to find the base from which the emeny were thought to be launching secret weapons that had been sinking allied ships with vital supplies. The story was in serial format and was always two pages long. Rebels Of Ancient Rome was another story by E. George Cowan (Robot Archie). This one concerned three brothers, Cardoc, Granus and Edric who were sold as slaves to Mercius, one of Nero's finest officers. And as a reward for saving his life he promised to show them how to earn their freedom. However, Mercius had a deadly rival named Gelda, who tricked the three Britons into going to the help of another slave and then arrested them for mutiny. And so it continued that wherever the three brothers went the evil Gelda was there to thwart them.

Wiz And Lofty - Speed Specialists was a two-paged text story written by Victor Norman. Wiz Hardy and Lawrence 'Lofty' Duff were in the business of speed-racing, testing and basically undertaking any commission that needed skill and courage. Wiz, as his name suggests. was the daredevil of the partnership, while Lofty, always in his bowler hat, looked after the accounts. At least, that was how Lofty would liked to have kept the partnership. But Wiz tended to act first and think second, which meant that poor old Lofty often ended up being forced into undertaking daredevil acts himself. Usually, the twosome would be approached by an inventor of some 'wonder-product' which would then be tested by our heroes - for a fee. Some of the ideas were zany, like blind folded motor bike riding where the rider was directed by walkie-talkie. Then there was the testing of Zippo - the wonder fuel - where a 350 c.c. motor bike would triumph over 500 c.c. machines. The Wiz And Lofty story only lasted for a year before, I dare say, Victor Norman ran out of ideas. The Adventures Of Mr. X by Edwin Dale was another two-paged text story. Mr X (he couldn't reveal his real name), was something of a private detective who seemed to work in every country other than Britain. He was always contacted by someone from these far off countries to solve mysterious crimes, usually of the 'Precious Jewel' or 'attempted murder' variety. Mr X. was well versed in Ju-Jitsu and gun marksmanship, and was also pretty good at solving the mysteries, even though his first attempts didn't always come off. The story was told by Mr X. himself, which always meant that you knew that he was always going to be successful, which sort of spoilt the excitement really. However, this didn't harm the overall popularity of the story because it continued through to 1959, which even included the unusual event, during the summer of 1958, of becoming a two-paged strip story. Square-Deal Dawson by R.G. Thomas was yet another two-paged text story. Square-Deal was a Canadian Mountie in charge of one of the lonliest districts in Nort-West Canada called Frozen Hills. However, there was always a 'baddie' on the loose who wanted to do nothing more then make trouble. It was then up to square deal to sort it all out with some smart thinking and some well-applied fisticuffs! This story lasted for less than a year. Other short-lived stories were Hunters Of The Tower Of London Traitors by E. George Cowan (Robot Archie) which starred Dirk Selden - a young sword maker - and his apprentice pal Hal Rudd. Set in the reign of Elizabeth I, it told the story of how our two chums had discovered a plot against the throne and their attempts to undo it. The dialogue was somethimes a bit difficult to read because it tried to use the language of the day like, "I know not what you mean, but I'll follow you forsooth". The story lasted for a few months. Issue number 71 (27th June 1953) saw the start of Rex King's, The Secret Tunnellers Of Calitz Camp. Set in a WW2 Prisoner Of War camp in the heart of Germany's Black Forest, Calitz Camp had a proud boast - not one prisoner had ever escaped from within its grim barbed-wire fences. There had been many failed attempts which had been severely punished by the Camp Commandant. However, Sergeant Wilson (no, not THAT Sergeant Wilson) of Hut 13 had decided that Andy 'The Trickster' Ellis' idea of starting the tunnel from the unused bandstand in the middle of the camp was a good one, and so it commenced. Each week, their escape plans would almost be foiled, but some clever actions and trickery by Andy Ellis would see that nothing would come of it. Stowaway On The Sea-Hawk by E. George Cowan (Robot Archie) was a rather tame story about Mark Darrell who had stowed away on the rig ship Sea-Hawk on which his father had served and mysteriously disappeared. In his quest to discover what had happened to him, Mark found a treasure chart in his fathers sea-chest which subsequently got stolen from him by Patch-Eye the villianous Bosun. Mark discovered that it was Patch-Eye that had killed his father and now he was about to do the same to Mark. Lost Pals Of 9 Platoon by Cliff Hooper was set in Italy during WW2 and starred Joe Dale and Shorty Brown who managed to get behind enemy lines and create as much chaos as they could as they tried to return to their own lines. Another story from the pen of Cliff Hooper was Flying Saucer Over Africa (1956) and starred Danny Malloy, a young cameraman, who had gone to the African jungle with his two friends Ted and Mr Zaka to film the rare white rhino. But during their hunt for the rhinos they discovered that the ruins of an ancient jungle city were being used by a scientist named Buloff who, with the aid of flying saucers, had the crazy idea of trying to become ruler of the world. It transpired that Buloff was the assistant to Professor Synton and got anxious to use the professors inventions for his own gains and imprisoned the Prof. The inventions were death-ray guns and flying saucers and although Buloff attempted to conquer the world, he had a bit of trouble with trying to overcome a cameraman and his assistants.

It was at about this time that the Amalgamated Press had a printers dispute and issue 212 (dated 10th March 1956) was followed by an issue numbered 213/217 and dated 17th March to 14th April 1956. Click here for more details. Secret Mission To Norway by Hal Wilton was another story set in WW2 and concerned two Royal Marines, named Lofty Baker and Tub Cook, who were on a perilous mission in recently occupied Norway to locate and return an inventor named Larsen. Each week, just as we thought they were achieving their objective, the Germans would spy and attack them. Our heroes were always outnumbered so quick-thinking was always called for. E. George Cowan the creator of Robot Archie and the sea-faring Stowaway On The Sea-Hawk, gave us another nautical yarn in the shape of Voyage On The Hoodoo Whaler. It starred Kirk Branston who joined the Polar Fox whaling vessel which set sail to the Arctic. He soon discovered that Matt Judley, the first mate, had been bribed to ruin the expedition. Judley soon went over to a rival ship called the Sea Wolf which was subsequently damaged by a monster whale. Judley then persuaded the villianous crew to join him in a bid tho capture the Polar Fox. Which they almost succeeded in doing, but Kirk saw to it that his plans were twarted. Fleetfoot Fights The Redskin Rebels by R.G. Thomas, his first strip story, was set in the America west. Fleetfoot was the Chief of a tribe of Redskins known as the Cawlees, who wished to make peace with the Palefaces. But one of his braves, Blank Panther, savagely declared that war against the white man must continue and he persuaded some of the Cawlees to join him. So poor old Fleetfoot not only had the white man to contend with, he also had to resolve a rebellion from within. In 1957, and after a run of 5 years, Captain Condor was replaced on the front cover by second world war fighter pilot Paddy Payne. Written by Mark Ross and drawn, from 1959, by Joe Colquhorn (who also drew the original Roy Of The Rovers in Tiger and the excellent Charley's War in Battle Picture Weekly). Squadron Leader Payne and his combat partner, Dick Smith were involved in some excellently scripted stories that certainly had the reader baying for next weeks copy due to the way they had been left on tender-hooks in the current issue. Paddy was always going that one step further then was necessary in order to complete his mission, which usually left him at the mercy of the enemy. The language used was still very much in the vein of "Gosh!" and "Darn it!" but I think we all knew what they really meant. The good thing about Paddy Payne was that instead of the usual two-page strip of most action stories his one had three pages, one of which took the only colour page in the comic. Paddy stayed on the front cover until the early 1960's when his was ousted by Robot Archie. However, this didn't stop the stories from flowing and his adventures continued until 1966 and the merger with the short-lived Champion comic. Paddy then had a gap for a year or so and returned in 1968 and even survived the merger with the Eagle comic in 1970 before eventually being phased out. His second world war exploits lasted for 13 years - the war itself only lasted for 6!

Meanwhile, back in 1957, Jungle Jef started. Written by Rex King (The Secret Tunnellers Of Calitz Camp), it told the story of how, as a child, Jef got lost in the Jungle and had grown up amongst the wild animals. It was very much in the vein of Tarzan, he even had a chimpanzee friend called Cheeko, an elephant friend named Tusker and a parrot named Boko. The arch-enemy was a lion called Yellowfang who was often seen prowling around, ready to make a snack of our jungle hero. Later stories had Jef befriending a native boy, and fending off tribal warriors and petty thieves. Poor old Cheeko was often held as hostage by many of the baddies and Boko the parrot would often squawk things like, "Awk! Clever Tusker! Clever Tusker!". Jef managed to last for a couple of years. Another interesting story, was Bruce Kent Invites You To Spot The Clue. This was a one-page strip which always had a crime going on, but you saw all the clues that Bruce and his assistant Jim saw. It was up to you to spot the clue that gave the game away and work out why it was so decisive. Why not have a go yourself - click here and 'Spot The Clue'. For a little bit of light relief, we were introduced to Leo The Lion, who had a four-framed strip where he often started something with an advantage but would invariably lose it and come unstuck and during the 1960's the jokes page of the Lion was called Leo's Corner. Larry West - Cowboy Outlaw by Cliff Hooper (Flying Saucers Over Africa), was set in America's wild west, a subject which had gained popularity during the 1950's, and told the story of Larry West, a fearless young cowpuncher, who was forced to lead the life of a hunted outlaw after being framed for a stage-coach robbery committed by the ruthless Red Diamond gang. Larry, ably assisted by his trusty Mexican trail-partner Pablo, battled to prove his innocence. He came up against many obstacles, like townsfolk ganging up on him and being double-crossed by the treacherous Sheriff of Sunset City. The story was nicely drawn and the script didn't allow our hero an easy ride. A nice little yarn, as they used to say. The Lion still continued with its text stories and in 1958 we had three of them. Max Malone Of The Secret Service by Trevor Hugh was set in the second world war and pitted ace Secret Service agent Max, and his pal Hutch Hall, against the Japanese enemy. Marooned Shipmates Of Shark Island by Ray Marr told the story of Conner O'Conner, the burly Irish stoker, Bingo, the young Australian aborigine and Jerry Morgan, the leader of the three. They had been castaway, along with other members of their ship on the aptly named Shark Island. This story told of their survival antics and how they overcame the aggressive animal inhabitants. It also gave interesting little survival and object-making tips within the story. Knuckles Nixon - The Boxing Trapper by Ray Marr, was just that, a trapper who also happened to be a pretty good boxer. As always our hero needed a pal and in Knuckles' case it was a Red Indian by the name of Night Owl. The story basically centred around the backwards settlement of Lone Pine and visiting bad guys would come along and annoy our Knuckles. Eventually, Knuckles would clobber them and they would leave with their tails between their legs.

Lucky Guffy - The Lad Who Always Laughs Last was a one page story about a young lad who did a different job each week and always started by making mistakes. But these mistakes always led to a bit of good fortune and Guffy would often get rewarded by the end of the page. Because the story occupied the back page, it was a nice way to conclude the comic. The Toughest Team In The League was a two-paged text story written by John Marshall. It starred Billy Keen, the youthful player-manager of struggling fourth division side Redhaven Rangers. He was still an excellent player but also had a very smart managerial head on his shoulders. Struggling in the fourth division meant that Billy had to utilise all his resources, including the youth team. This meant that on some matches 16 and 17 year olds were playing in the first team and it was up to manager Keen to see to it that the youngsters weren't over-awed. Billy also had to contend with Bolshie first-team players that had to play in different positions simply because he had run out of players for that position. One issue even ran the story of Redhaven's first match under their new floodlights. As a football fan myself, I really enjoyed this story, if you weren't, it may have been one of the stories that you skipped. The Rancher From The Circus Ring by Cliff Hooper was set in the wild west and followed the tales of a circus trick-rider named Tex Radley. Tex had inherited the Bar Circle Ranch, but a crooked neighbour by the name of Spencer Duke schemed to ruin him and gain pocession of it. The story was well written and nicely drawn and often had poor old Tex suffering at the hands of Spencer and his sidekick, Jud Clegg, before he would turn the tables on his foes. Rory MacDuff - Danger Wanted was a US stunt man investigator who, because of his athletic and fighting prowess, came to the attention of the many allied secret service agencies and carried out missions for them. He was a bit of an all-action chappie who lasted for three years up until 1962. He later reappeared in 1968, but I'm not too sure if these were reprints or not..

On the 24th October 1959, Lion incorporated its first of four comics, in the shape of Sun, a comic that was a revival of a pre-war health magazine. It was also one of the more successful independant publications after it was first released back in 1947 by J.B. Allen (Amalgamated Press took it over in May 1950). It had a run of 558 issues which spanned just under 12 years. Its sub-titled name lasted up until the 26th March 1960. This leads us nicely into the 1960's and Lion's Golden Era. Paddy Payne was still on the front cover, Robot Archie now had a mouth, even though he didn't use it that often at this stage. Bruce Kent was still inviting us to Spot The Clue and the three text stories had become just one. In 1960 the artist, Don Lawrence, gave us the Viking setting Sword Of Eingar which starred Karl - son of Manslayer and his rival Skurl. The two of them had pledged to recover the 'sword' that had been stolen by the Saxon Earl Gyrth of Eastumbria. The story proved extremely popular and Karl returned in a sequeal called Karl The Viking. Karl went much against the pre-conceived idea of what we thought all Vikings did, which was rape and pillage. Karl didn't like needless killing and thieving and the stories usually had Karl and his army fighting for good causes. Like fighting the battles of under-armed tribes against savage tribesmen. Karl's adventures continued until 1964, then Don started preparing a strip for the new boys magazine Ranger. The story was called The Trigan Empire - you may have heard of it. As an aside, in 1969 the comic Smash ran a story called Erik The Viking, which was a blatent re-print of Karl The Viking with just the name changed. IPC enjoyed this recycling technique. By 1961, Sandy Dean was spending his 'ninth' year in the fourth form at Tollgate school in a story now titled Tales Of Tollgate School. Sky-High Bannion was a round-the-world airman who told a tale from his past. The picture story was called Sky-High Bannion and the format of the stories would have our Mr Bannion (I don't know his first name) flying around the country somewhere, or be with his old Air Force chums and something 'peculiar' would unravel. This would prompt "Sky-High" to investigate it and scheme of a way to catch the crook, which he always did. It was a nicely drawn strip and usually lasted for 2½ pages. As a way of light relief we had Roy Davis' half-page humour strip Drake, Ahoy!. Click here for a little chuckle with Sirs Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh.

					First Issue:	23/2/1952
					Last Issue:	18/5/1974
					Copyright:	Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC
					Genre:	Boys Action and Adventure
					Incorporated Titles:	Sun (24/10/1959) Champion (11/6/1966) Eagle (3/5/1969) Thunder (20/3/1971)
					Incorporated By:	Valiant (25/5/1974)