- Lion (comics)
"Lion" was a weekly
comic book published byFleetway from 1952 to 1974Publishing history
"Lion" was first published on the 23rd of February 1952, and was a weekly boys' adventure comic designed to compete with "Eagle", the popular weekly comic that had introduced
Dan Dare . "Lion"'s first issue contained a mix of text stories and comic strips; its flagship story was "Captain Condor - Space Ship Pilot", ascience fiction adventure in the Dan Dare mould. The premiere issue also contained the first adventure ofRobot Archie (called "The Jungle Robot" in early adventures) who would go on to become one of the title's most popular characters.By the 1960s "Lion" had settled into being one of the most popular British weekly titles of the time. It began to feature an increasing number of
anti-hero characters such as The Spider andThe Sludge (who would later battle Robot Archie in his own strip)."Lion" merged with several other comics during its life, including "Eagle" and "Thunder", but by the early 1970s sales were slipping and in 1974 it merged with "Valiant". Several stories continued in "Valiant" but that title merged with "
Battle Picture Weekly " in 1976.In 2005 many of IPC's characters, including several from "Lion", were featured in a mini-series called "Albion" published by the
Wildstorm imprint ofDC Comics .Notable stories
*
Adam Eterno A man who lived forever and could not be killed except by gold. He was transported through time each week.
* Battler Britton - World War Air Ace
* Carson's Cubs
* Captain Condor - Space Ship Pilot
* Karl the Viking
* Maroc the Mighty, about a returning English crusader whose magic armlet "The Hand of Zar" gave superhuman strength.
* Paddy Payne - Fighter Ace.
* Phantom Viking
*Robot Archie
* The Sludge.
*The Spellbinder
* The Spider
* Zip Nolan - Highway Patrol.ee also
*"Albion"
*"Battle Picture Weekly "External links
* [http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/ComicInformationPages/LionPages/LionHomePage.asp?ReturnPage=CIP History of "Lion" at comicsuk]
* [http://www.26pigs.com/index.php3 26pigs.com-British comics website]
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