{"id":27151,"date":"2022-12-25T09:05:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T09:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=27151"},"modified":"2022-12-01T18:20:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T18:20:59","slug":"lion-annual-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/12\/25\/lion-annual-1954\/","title":{"rendered":"Lion Annual 1954"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Frank S. Pepper<\/strong>, Ron Forbes<\/strong>, Edwin Dale<\/strong>, Ted Cowan<\/strong>, Vernon Crick<\/strong>, & many & various (Amalgamated Press)
\nNo ISBN: Digital edition<\/p>\n

The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies and when The Eagle<\/strong> launched from the Hulton Press in April 1950, the very idea of what weeklies could be altered forever. That kind of oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive however, and when London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated with their own equivalent, it was an understandably more economical affair.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m assuming they only waited so long before the first issue of Lion<\/strong> launched (cover-dated February 23rd<\/sup> 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion<\/strong> – just like The Eagle<\/strong> – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran for 1156 weekly issues until 18th<\/sup> May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant<\/strong>. Along the way, in the approved manner of British comics which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going, Lion<\/strong> absorbed Sun<\/strong> (in 1959) and Champion<\/strong> (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle<\/strong> in April 1969 before merging with Thunder<\/strong> in 1971. In its capacity as one of the country\u2019s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion<\/strong> finally vanished in 1976 when Valiant<\/strong> was amalgamated with Battle Picture Weekly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Despite its demise in the mid-70s, there were 30 Lion Annuals<\/strong> between 1953 and 1982, all targeting the lucrative Christmas market, combining a broad variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science and general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly in the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC\/Fleetway\u2019s vast back catalogue.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly not the case with this particular item. Forward-dated 1954, but actually published in late 1953, it\u2019s the first counterstrike from AP in the war to own Christmas: a delicious – but occasionally ethno-socially and culturally dated and dubious – dose of traditional comics entertainment. Big on variety, sturdily produced in a starkly potent monochrome, it offers a wide mixed bag of treats to beguile boisterous boys in a rapidly-changing world. What\u2019s especially satisfying is that, current sensibilities notwithstanding, this volume has been digitised and can be bought and read electronically by kids of all vintages today\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t need to remind you that these entertainments were produced in good faith with the best of intentions by creators in a culture and at a time very different from ours. Very frequently attitudes and expressions are employed which we now find a little upsetting, but this book is actually one of the better examples of racial, gender and cultural tolerance. Still, even so\u2026<\/p>\n

The cornucopia of prose, puzzles, strips and features (all illustrated by artists as photography was too expensive) opens with a rather disturbing but truly lovely painted frontispiece \u2018The Redskin Accepts the Challenge\u2019<\/em> before a contents page promises astounding wonders to come.<\/p>\n

We then rocket into adventure in the future where freedom fighter Captain Condor <\/em>– by Frank S. Pepper and probably illustrated by original artist Ron Forbes – continues his war against despots running the solar system by solving \u2018The Mystery of the Vanished Space-Ship!\u2019<\/em> Edwin Dale then provides a prose thriller starring troubleshooter Mr. X<\/em>, who discovers \u2018The Tree that Stopped a Rebellion\u2019<\/em> as he traverses the fabled African Veldt\u2026<\/p>\n

Presumably scripted by Ted Cowan & illustrated by Barry (R. G. Thomas) Nelson, \u2018Sandy Dean\u2019s Prize Guy\u2019<\/em> is a comic strip wherein the schoolboy paragon and his chums deal with cheating classmates sabotaging and stealing effigies built to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. It\u2019s followed by Nigel Dawn\u2019s prose thriller \u2018Too Smart for the Atom Spy!\u2019<\/em> wherein a schoolboy pigeon fancier foils a cunning espionage plot, after which we segue into a historical action strip credited to George Forrest (Cowan again).<\/p>\n

\u2018The Slaves who Saved the Emperor\u2019<\/em> follows two recently escaped British warriors who foil an imperial Roman assassination and is counterbalanced by Tom Stirling\u2019s (E. L. Rosman) humorous text tale \u2018Only a Press-Button Champ!\u2019<\/em> This sees inventor\u2019s nephew Jingo Jones <\/em>stir up tons of trouble using his \u201cInvisibliser\u201d to save himself from a bully. Sadly, it also gives his headmaster and a boxing promoter the idea that the skinny runt is a fighting marvel\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018The Weird Ways of Witch-Doctors Beat the Bush-Rangers\u2019<\/em> (possibly by John Donnelly Jr.) shares amazing \u201cfacts\u201d about jobbing mages in the post-war world after which John Barnes -AKA Peter O\u2019Donnell – tells prose tale of \u2018Chalu the Elephant Boy\u2019 <\/em>who clears his beloved four-legged co-worker Tooska<\/em> when the big beast is framed as a murderous rogue animal\u2026<\/p>\n

Rex King (A.W. Henderson) delivers comic strip cowboy thrills as cavalry scout exposes a traitor and battles \u2018Peril on the Tomahawk Trail\u2019<\/em> before \u2018Wiz and Lofty – Rescuers of the Kidnapped King\u2019 <\/em>(by E.L. Rosman as Victor Norman) delivers text thrills and spills as the globetrotting speed merchants stumble into a deadly plot to usurp a kingdom\u2026<\/p>\n

Harry Hollinson D.F.C. details and depicts some soon to be commonplace future wonders in speculative feature \u2018Scientists Land on the Moon\u2019 <\/em>after which we pop back to WWII where Edward R. Home-Gall (AKA Edwin Dale) reveals in cartoon form how \u2018The Lone Commandos\u2019<\/em> scupper hidden Nazi artillery and save British soldiers in \u2018Operation Gunfire\u2019<\/em> before Vernon Crick shows in prose that \u2018Rust\u2019s the Boy for Stunts\u2019<\/em>: a rousing tale of motorcycle mayhem and skulduggery at a circus\u2019 Wall of Death ride\u2026<\/p>\n

A pictorial \u2018World-Wide Quiz\u2019 <\/em>tests your general knowledge before Peter O\u2019Donnell – as Derek Knight – delivers a chilling prose vignette of Arctic endeavour as \u2018Tulak Hunts the Polar Terror\u2019<\/em>, saving lost scientists, capturing murderous outlaws and stalking a killer bear\u2026<\/p>\n

A sea strip by A. W. Henderson as Roy Leighton sees schooner skipper Don Watson<\/em> save pearl divers and solve \u2018The Secret of Ju-Ju Island\u2019 <\/em>whilst Michael Fox\u2019s prose story \u2018Mike Merlin – Master of Magic\u2019 <\/em>details the greatest trick of a schoolboy conjuror before we meet one of British comics\u2019 most enduring stars.<\/p>\n

Robot Archie<\/strong> began life as \u2018The Jungle Robot\u2019 <\/em>and his comic strip (by E. George Cowan & Ted\/Jim Kearon) reveals how the mechanical marvel becomes the \u2018Pal o\u2019 the Pigmies\u2019<\/em> before another prose piece by R. G. Thomas sees a western trader and his Native American pal stave off bandits and a hidden tribe of renegades in \u2018Rod and the Red Arrow Raiders\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

A \u2018Picture Parade of Facts from Near and Far\u2019<\/em> precedes a text thriller by Hedley Scott (AKA Hedley O\u2019Mant) wherein \u2018The Schoolboy Treasure Hunters\u2019<\/em> do a bit of digging and uncover presumed pirate gold with a far more modern and sinister provenance, before John Fordice (Colin Robertson) employs the comic strip form to catch \u2018The Smash-and-Grab Speedster\u2019<\/em>, courtesy of consulting crimebuster Brett Marlowe, Detective<\/em> as he explores the contemporary sporting phenomenon of motorcycle speedway\u2026<\/p>\n

Donald Dane\u2019s prose yarn \u2018Kurdo of the Strong Arm\u2019<\/em> details the fascinating, action-packed saga of a Viking teenager – from ancient Scotland – stranded in North America hundreds of years before Columbus and leads to all those puzzle answers and final cartoon fact file \u2018Fishy Tales – But They\u2019re True!\u2019 <\/em>before a House Ad for weekly Lion<\/strong> – \u201cThe King of Picture Story Papers!\u2019 brings us to the back cover and a sponsored treat: early infotainment treat \u2018Cadbury\u2019s Car Race puzzle\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sadly, many of the creators remain unknown and uncredited, especially the exceptional artists whose efforts adorn the prose stories, but this remains a solid box of delights for any \u201cbloke of a certain age\u201d seeking to recapture his so-happily uncomplicated youth. It also has the added advantage of being far less likely than other (usually unsavoury) endeavours which, although designed to rekindle the dead past, generally lead to divorce\u2026<\/p>\n

Before I go, let\u2019s thank Steve Holland at Bear Alley (link please) and all the other dedicated diligent bods researching and excavating the names and other facts for everyone like me to cite and pretend we\u2019re so clever\u2026<\/p>\n

A true taste of days gone by, this is a chance for the curious to test bygone tomes and times and I thoroughly recommend it to your house\u2026
\n\u00a9 1955 the Amalgamated Press and latterly IPC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Frank S. Pepper, Ron Forbes, Edwin Dale, Ted Cowan, Vernon Crick, & many & various (Amalgamated Press) No ISBN: Digital edition The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies and when The Eagle launched from … <\/p>\n

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