Valiant (Comic)

Fleetway published this weekly boys’ adventure comic for 711 issues from October 1962 to October 1976.

During that time, it absorbed Knock-Out (1963), Smash! (1971), TV21 (1972), Lion (1974) and Vulcan (1976), before merging into Battle Picture Weekly in October 1976.

Valiant was a classic example of a sampler comic, designed to include a wide range of genres so as to have a broad appeal: a comic containing a football strip, a war story, some science fiction, a western, and a story set at a boys’ boarding school would have something for everyone.

Popular strips included:

• Adam Eterno – a time traveller who was thousands of years old and could only be slain if he was “struck a fatal blow by a weapon made of gold”. Originally appeared in Lion
• Billy Bunter
• Captain Hurricane – a massive ex-sea skipper who became a Captain in the Royal Marines during WWII, and who could be provoked into berserker rages which gave him great strength. He was accompanied by a diminutive companion called Maggot Malone
• Danny Doom – the assistant of a 13th Century alchemist who was transported to the 1970s after a lab accident
• Death Wish
• The House of Dolmann –  a master puppeteer called Eric Dolmann constructed a small army of remote-controlled puppets to help him in his fight against crime
• Janus Stark – tales of a Victorian-era escapologist, inherited from Smash!
• Jason Hyde – a text-only story about a character whose eyes emitted blue rays that allowed him to see through things and read minds
• Kelly’s Eye – adventurer Tim Kelly wore a jewel called the Eye of Zoltec (obtained from a Mayan idol) around his neck, which protected him from all harm, making him invulnerable
• The Last Boy in the World
• The Lurking Menace
• The Midgets of Migas
• The Mystery of Fulgor
• Mytek the Mighty – a giant solar-powered robot ape who started out as a villain in the hands of a criminal, but eventually became a hero who battled other robots and giant creatures
• One-Eyed Jack – a tough cop story
• Professor Kraken
• Sexton Blake
• Slave of the Screamer
• Soldier Sharp
• Star Trek – inherited from TV21 in 1972
• The Steel Claw – Louis Crandell had the power of invisibility and the capability to electrocute his enemies, due to his steel claw and his body’s ability to store electric current
• Stryker
• Wee Red