Another excellent volume from Steve Holland covering the popular "boy's paper" Lion which started life way back before my time in the fifties to try and compete with The Eagle which was changing the face of British comics. Lion even had it's own less well remembered space hero Captain Condor.
I didn't come across Lion until the mid-sixties and although did read the comic occasionally, had a couple of Annuals (as Christmas presents) and Summer Specials there was so much demand on my limited pocket money that it tended to take a back seat though I fondly recall a strip where the world drowned and long to see that reprinted!
I didn't come across Lion until the mid-sixties and although did read the comic occasionally, had a couple of Annuals (as Christmas presents) and Summer Specials there was so much demand on my limited pocket money that it tended to take a back seat though I fondly recall a strip where the world drowned and long to see that reprinted!
Lion started life in February 1952 with the publisher Amalgamated Press transferring to the IPC stable in 1959 where it was to stay for the rest of it's publication. Along the way Lion absorbed four other other comics. Mergers as they were called, heralded as "great news for all readers" by their editorial staff. Sometimes it was a good idea.
This began in 1959 with Sun, a comic I have never seen or read (I'd have been two years old at the time) followed by Champion in 1966 which I do vaguely remember. The merger that took readers by surprise was Lion taking over the Flagship of British comics The Eagle with only Dan Dare surviving and then not for long.
The final run and one I started to collect for a while was with the Short lived Thunder comic. One of the more famous strips from that period was Black Max currently being reprinted by Rebellion and appearing in 2000AD. Splendid.
For fans of Lion and British comics in general this well researched volume is full of reprints of various strips from the "King of Picture Story Papers" as it began life. So much I would like to have read, some I remember and others I plain forgot about.
Since this includes info on the Annuals (which outlived the comic) and summer specials there's everything you need to know but were afraid to ask about in this fabulous volume. Not a new publication but still in print.
Since this includes info on the Annuals (which outlived the comic) and summer specials there's everything you need to know but were afraid to ask about in this fabulous volume. Not a new publication but still in print.
Get your copy from: bearalleybooks.blogspot.com
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