The Christmas VALIANT AND TV21 (1973)

No snow on the logo, but Mike Western's Christmassy cover art gives the comic plenty of festive cheer. If you don't know the answer to "Who Is It?" you need to brush up on your pop culture history. 

Inside, Captain Hurricane was doing his bit to wipe out Nazis before indulding himself in Christmas dinner. art by Charles Roylance...

Janus Stark had been going for nearly five years at this point and the stories could be somewhat trite but he remained a popular character. Art by the Solano Lopez studio...

Although Valiant was mainly an adventure comic, it also featured quite a few humour strips during this period. The Swots and the Blots had joined Valiant in 1971 when Smash! had merged into it. A great strip that deserves to be collected. Originally by other hands, Leo Baxendale took over the strip and made it his own in 1969, and was still going strong by this 1973 episode...

The centre pages featured Star Trek, with all new strips exclusive to Valiant drawn by John Stokes. It had been in Valiant since the merger with TV21 in 1971. Although this was the final episode, the TV21 logo continued to be on the comic's masthead for several more months, even though no strips from TV21 remained, and the comic had no strips based on TV shows at all. A shame that the once mighty TV21 should fizzle out in such a way.

Valiant contained reprints at times to save on budget, and Micky the Mimic was a reprint from an early Sixties Buster.

The famous Billy Bunter had joined Valiant in 1963 when Knockout merged into it, and continued to run until the final issue. Art by Reg Parlett...

On the back page, the long running Nutts continued to amuse, with art by Angel Nadal. This strip began in Valiant No.1 in 1962 and lasted until the final issue in 1976, although some were reprint in later years.

Christmas is getting closer! Another festive flashback tomorrow! Which year will we visit next?

Looking back at VALIANT No.2 (1962) - updated

I showed a few pages from Valiant No.1 in my previous post so I thought you might like to see some pages from issue 2 today. 

It kicked off with another striking cover by Geoff Campion, with Captain Hurricane about to lob a terrified Nazi. Good for him! Inside, R.Charles Roylance illustrated the three and a half page Captain Hurricane strip. As you can see, this was before Roylance exaggerated Hurricane's physique and "Ragin' Furies" to more cartoonish levels.

The second episode of The Steel Claw by Ken Bulmer (writer) and Jesus Blasco (artist) saw Louis Crandell embark on his life of crime...

Although it was a new comic, Valiant contained a few reprint pages from the outset. One of which was Paladin the Fearless, a British translation of the French strip Belloy, drawn by Albert Uderzo. (More info: 
https://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/paladin-fearless.html )

Another reprint was from a source closer to home. Jack O'Justice was a renamed Dick Turpin strip that had appeared in Sun comic in 1953. Art by the very versatile Hugh McNeill.  Valiant would continue to reprint more renamed Dick Turpin strips like this for a while, before commissioning brand new Jack O'Justice strips at a later date. Towards the end of the Sixties, the strip was brought into the present day with the character's descendant, Jack Justice. 

The back page of Valiant No.2 featured another Famous Fighters article illustrated by Geoff Campion.

I hope you've enjoyed these brief glimpses at the early issues of one of Fleetway's leading comics. 


UPDATE 5/9/17: My thanks to 'matrix' of the Comics UK Forum for these photographs of the free booklet from Valiant No.2. 

Front cover.

Back cover.

Interior pages.

A look back at VALIANT No.1 (1962)

Fleetway Publications launched Valiant No.1 on Saturday 29th September 1962 (cover dated 6th October). Like Buster, launched two years earlier, Valiant was part of Fleetway's determination to modernise the comics line for a new era, with a bolder, cleaner look than the dated (and long-dead) comics such as Comic Cuts and Chips that had been produced by their predecessors The Amalgamated Press. Valiant actually replaced Film Fun on the schedule when that long-running comic merged into Buster a month before Valiant debuted. There was no doubt that Fleetway intended to clear the decks for their new style comics. 

The cover of Valiant No.1 was bold and effective; a single image of Captain Hurricane welcoming the readers, set against primary colours. I've already shown the first episode of Captain Hurricane in an earlier post (see here) so I won't show that again, but I was lucky to recently win Valiant No.1 on eBay so I thought I'd show a few of the other pages today. 

Valiant's 32 pages featured adventure strips with a few humour pages added to balance things out. One of those funnies was The Nutts, drawn by Angel Nadal, that would prove so popular it would remain in the comic until the final issue in 1976. 

One of the most memorable series that appeared in the comic was The Steel Claw, written by Ken Bulmer and illustrated by Jesus Blasco. This atmospheric first episode reveals how Louis Crandell gained the power of invisibility. In these early tales, Crandall was a villain! When the strip proved popular, it was decided he should become a hero, and his evil ways were explained away as the result of the lab explosion. However, as can be seen in this first episode, Crandall was resentful and greedy before the accident...

Valiant No.1 featured a high standard of talent, including the great Roy Wilson illustrating Percy the Problem Child. Wilson was considered the main humourist of the old A.P. comics, with the "house style" that others were encouraged to emulate. By 1962 he was sadly nearing the end of his life (he passed away in 1965) and his style was no longer flavour of the day of the fickle comics industry but he could still draw as well as anyone in the business. 

The centre pages of Valiant's first issue were taken up with episode one of To Glory we Steer, distinctively illustrated by Eric Parker. I must confess I found his style too 'heavy' for my liking as a child, but now I can appreciate what a skilled and unique artist he was.

The editor's letter welcomed the readers on It's All Yours, a page inviting kids to send in their jokes and anecdotes. But how did they get submissions for the first issue? It was hardly a trade secret; they were simply made up as an example to show they type of material they wanted readers to submit.

The struggles of working class heroes were always a good theme for British comics, and in Valiant No.1 we had Kid Gloves, the story of a boxer from the rough end of town. Superb artwork by Geoff Campion, one of Fleetway's finest artists.

Campion also drew the back cover feature, Famous Fighters, that would graduate to the front cover after the first few issues. 

Valiant got off to a great start with this issue, with a strong line-up by the top talent in the business. It's no wonder the comic lasted as long as it did, running for 14 years in total before merging into Battle Picture Weekly. 

...and if you'd like to see a few pages from the second issue of Valiant, you'll find them here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/looking-back-at-valiant-no2-1962.html

ONE-EYED JACK ready to pre-order

Here's the cover to Rebellion's first book in their Treasury of British Comics series. One-Eyed Jack will be published on 15th June but you can pre-order it now from the 2000AD shop. 

As well as the standard £14.99 edition there's also a limited bookplate edition for £19.99 which is signed by the strip's creator/writer John Wagner. To order your copy, visit this link:
https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCA-B0019

The book will collect all of the One-Eyed Jack strips that originally appeared in Valiant weekly in the 1970s. There's also a new introduction by John Wagner and a colour gallery of the covers that featured One-Eyed Jack. 

Here's more info, courtesy of Rebellion...

• CREATIVE TEAM: John Wagner, Gerry Finley-Day (w) John Cooper (a) 
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 15 June 2017
• PAPERBACK - 156 pages
• PRICE: £14.99 (UK)
• ISBN: 9781781085721
• DIAMOND: APR171922


John Wagner's take-no-prisoners-cop and the forerunner to Judge Dredd is collected for the very first time! Part Dirty Harry, part Judge Dredd, all badass! Police Detective Jack McBane is the toughest, meanest law enforcer in 1970's New York City. Having lost his left eye in the line of duty, McBane will stop at nothing to rid the crime-infested streets of scumbags and villains - even if it means having to occasionally break the rules! This is the first collection from Rebellion's dedicated Treasury of British Comics line, collecting lost comics from the golden age of British comics.

The book will be available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Promoting VALIANT in 1962

Here's how the first issue of Valiant was advertised to readers, in a full page ad in Knockout dated 6th October 1962. This was definitely a case of Fleetway bringing in new comics to replace the old, as Knockout merged into Valiant the following year. 

Valiant enjoyed a long, healthy run, absorbing Smash!, TV21, and Lion along the way until it eventually merged into Battle in 1976. By then, the "NEW, EXCTING, DIFFERENT" Valiant had itself become old fashioned (despite a valiant attempt at a revamp, pardon the pun) and it was time for the grittier new comics such as Action and 2000AD to take over.

Related blog posts:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/captain-hurricane-arrives.html

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/this-week-in-1976-final-valant.html

VALIANT celebrates the New Year (in 1965)

For my final post for this year, here are a few pages from the New Year issue of Valiant for 1965. Cover by the excellent Mike Western.

Valiant was mainly an adventure comic but it featured a healthy amount of humour strips too, and they were all celebrating the New Year. Here's Sporty by Reg Wooton (the only cartoonist at Fleetway back then to have a credit in the title box)...

The Nutts, drawn by Angel Nadal...

Billy Bunter, with art by Reg Parlett...

The Crows, also by Reg Parlett, next to one of the many ads back then trying to encourage readers to join the armed forces when they left school. Thankfully such adverts were phased out as British comics became increasingly aimed at a younger audience...

The adventure strips in this issue didn't bother shoehorning New Year into the ongoing storylines but it wouldn't be right blogging about Valiant without showing a taste of the dramatic strips. Here's that week's episode of The Steel Claw, drawn by Jesus Blasco...

Mytek the Mighty, drawn by Eric Bradbury...

Finally, the back page featured It's A Dog's Life, a European reprint of the Boulle and Bill series by Roba. You can read more about this strip in an older article I did here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/boule-bill-billy-buddy-or-pete-larry.html

All that's left to say is to wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year, and to thank you for following this blog. Here's to good things for 2017!