This weekly Fleetway comic (described as a “story paper” or “picture paper”) was first published on 23 February 1952 as a response to the huge success of Eagleand contained five comic strips and three text stories covering a variety of genres
The five comic series included a traditional boys’ boarding school story (‘Sandy Dean’s First Term’), a war story (‘The Lone Commandos’), a fast-paced mystery story (‘Brett Marlowe – Detective’) and two science fiction serials: ‘The Jungle Robot’ (the robot of the title, Robot Archie, would go on to have a long-running series in the comic and beyond) and ‘Outlaw of Space’ starring Captain Condor (clearly designed as a rival for Dan Dare) – the original cover strip which was replaced in 1957 by ‘Paddy Payne’.
The text serial ‘Jingo Jones and his Invisibiliser’ was a fun SF gadget story. The other text stories were a Canadian-set western (‘Rod of the Trading Post’) and a boxing yarn ‘Big Hank – the Soft-Hearted Heavyweight’, wherein the black boxer spoke such lines as “But, Massa Tich, dis chile don’t know nothin’ about fightin’”
Lots of Westerns and war stories were featured, often with over-explanatory titles such as ‘Redskin Raiders of the Railroad’ or ‘Secret Tunnellers of Calitz Camp’.
In October 1959 a merger of Lion and Sun comics occurred, with only ‘Billy the Kid’ continued from Sun into Lion.
The comic merged with its biggest rival, Eagle, in 1969. For years Eagle had outsold Lion but comic sales were down across the board in the late-60s and Eagle was hit more than most.
After a succession of buyouts, Eagle found itself being published by the same company that had once launched Lion as a rival.
Lion finally merged with Valiantin May 1974 having also swallowed up Champion (1966) and Thunder (1971) along the way. With Valiant now the main title, the Lion brand continued with holiday specials until 1980 and annuals until 1983.
Regular strips and text stories included:
The 10,000 Disasters of Dort
Adam Eterno – a time travel adventure originally from Thunder
Big Hank – the Soft-Hearted Heavyweight
Billy The Kid – originally from Sun
Black Max – a mix of the supernatural and WWI air combat, originally from Thunder
Brett Marlowe – Detective
Britain AD 2170 – featured a deserted London overtaken by jungle vegetation
The five comic series included a traditional boys’ boarding school story (‘Sandy Dean’s First Term’), a war story (‘The Lone Commandos’), a fast-paced mystery story (‘Brett Marlowe – Detective’) and two science fiction serials: ‘The Jungle Robot’ (the robot of the title, Robot Archie, would go on to have a long-running series in the comic and beyond) and ‘Outlaw of Space’ starring Captain Condor (clearly designed as a rival for Dan Dare) – the original cover strip which was replaced in 1957 by ‘Paddy Payne’.
The comic merged with its biggest rival, Eagle, in 1969. For years Eagle had outsold Lion but comic sales were down across the board in the late-60s and Eagle was hit more than most.
